the preconcert jitters got heightened when i listened to a recording of what i was playing for the first time and didn't agree with what they had to say in their interpretation (the very reason i stopped listening to recordings a few years ago)

the kind of pre-concert pep talk i would give is not the kind of pep talk i was sorry to hear today: (not directed at me) "you guys sound terrible, so when people tell you after the concert how nice it sounded, remember, the room is flattering and that you need to prepare your music next time"

Coffee at 6pm backfired yesterday (though I usually don't have much effect from caffeine) and had me practicing at 2am this morning and writing in all kinds of markings in my music, all of which made a lot of sense at the time and some of which i erased in confusion when i awoke.

back in civilization with all kinds of Thanksgiving leftovers and none of the usual clean-up - what a joy!

Slept in a sleeping bag or two last night and proceeded this morning with upstate New York Thanksgiving mostly out-of-doors (minus running water and electricity), with Turkey-on-a-spit and gravy over the fire and pies in a reflector oven and everything turned out great and my father even wore a Thai tie for the occasion.

I was the queen of one-armed cooking all day today.

I was preparing a short statement about a Telemann Fantasia that I'll be playing soon, and completely made up a fact, looked to find the truth, and found that my made up fact was in fact fact.

after a hard day of being double booked twice and scheduling myself to the brim for the rest of it, contra dance was the perfect thing to bring my spirits up, and then drew's spontaneous songs brought my spirits even higher.

Yesterday tapas for dinner (YAY bri steve joe ivy & ben!) and today snacks for dinner (YAY concert, amanda & ben) so maybe tomorrow i should eat real food between my teaching schedule and two back to back rehearsals.

Banana bread and banana bread beer for lunch - for real...... and we've been planning this for months.

I know this is America, the land of patriotism, but we are also the land of having random holidays and months, like Pizza month, and Talk-Like-a-Pirate day, so I designate today as National AUSTRIA month - pumpkin seed oil for all!

In my hazy not-really-awake stage at 3am, I truly asked Brian "why did you put Theo down standing up?" instead of thinking maybe the kid has finally learned to pull himself up on his own.

had a conductor with negative competence today; in fact, he took a perfectly wonderful group of players who were playing a piece of music that everyone already knew and had played before, and created a beat pattern so difficult to follow that we couldn't even get all the way through it in rehearsal.

Today i tried to use the word "fortuitous" as many times as i could - it's an SAT word my sister looked up - and it got stuck in my head.

one of my students today was so cute when i told her she did something "just right" and promptly told me the entire story of goldilocks and the three bears, and then followed that with her own version where the bears visit goldilocks' home and find that nothing is really right for them and where goldilocks scares them all away when she finds them there.

"helping" amanda (as much as pregnant baby with child can) move into her new apartment (JP!!) made me realize how much of my own stuff i want to just get rid of and while i hold such irrational sentimental attachment to these random things i don't want to ever have to move them.

When i drive even short distances at night I stay in the car when I arrive at home and sleep and it feels so good but the awakening is sooo sad.

it's all backwards when you leave for a dance too tired, become energetic during the dance, energetic enough to go to a sleepover (traditional spontaneous moving-amanda-into-her-new-apartment sleepover), from which you emerge the next day tired.

i read 5 little monkeys jumping on the bed and theo got excited and started bouncing around and when i said "one fell off and bumped his head" he fell down and bumped his head, so i started laughing and he gave me a really confused look and then started laughing hysterically.

I'm trying to grow out my toenails so I can cut them off straight (also i'm obsessed with cutting nails too short) but they keep chipping and breaking oh noes!