Concert and Suspension

Life, for me, is still a paralyzed thing. I'm waiting to hear back about a summer job. I'm waiting to have some clue about when the US-2 training will be.

But, in the waiting, there are moments of sheer awesome.

I.E. today I drove down to Burlington to visit a friend I haven't seen in over a year and go to a Decemberists concert. It was fantastic. Spending time with Amanda was great--she's one of those people who when you're around her you just remember that there are beautiful things and people in the world. I also got to hang out with Erin, who I knew only vaguely from my few times at the Wesley Foundation, and meet a few other people who all seemed really cool as well.

The concert: it was great, but a little disappointing. For the first hour/hour and a half, they played THE HAZARDS OF LOVE. The whole album. In its entirety.

That is a LOT of the same kind of thing over and over. And what I love about the Decemberists is their subtlety, the tounge-in-cheek folk tales and clever lyrics.

The subtlety of THoL was basically getting slammed in the temple with a hammer as someone yells,"I'm artistic! I'm different! I'm artistic!"

YES! We know! We're all very impressed with your artsy-ness, complete with a woman who seems to think she has angel wings trying to fly onstage.

I just want to hear the Mariner's Revenge, dammit.

The second half of the concert was spectacular--it was great fun, even if the only real "old" song they played was "Eli the Barrow Boy," which I love. There just wasn't enough of it.

But I still LOVE the Decemberists, and I can't wait to go to a show where they're not pushing an album so hard.

Not exactly the plan, but OK...

Here's the pre-recital scene:

Somehow, because God likes to pick on Amanda when she's freaking out, the water main on River Street burst Sunday morning. There's no water in the music building at three. OK. No problem. I just hope no one who comes to my recital has to pee.

Three thirty.

We're all in our places with bright shining faces. Cheesecake has been brought in. Tracy and I are dressed, warmed up, and ready to go. I'm sounding really good. Parentals are all present and accounted for. The first wave of friends have begun to arrive. I'm standing in the hallway near the recital hall, chatting with Blake, Derek, and various company. All there is to do is wait for four PM to arrive.

BLAAAAAARRRRRREEEE.

The door I'm leaning against begins to close on me. Strobe lights are flashing.

Me: What the FUCK?

Yes. Twenty minutes before my recital, the freakin' FIRE ALARM GOES OFF.

We spend a solid three minutes not going outside, all kind of glancing at each other with stupid looks on our faces. Finally we all meander outside, standing just outside the doors, all forgetting our Elementary School Fire Drill Safety. (Fifty feet from the building, everyone!)

After awhile, we hear the sounds of the Fire Brigade coming to rescue us from the flaming (and when I say flaming I mean, "completely not on fire at ALL") music building. So they wander around in there for a few minutes, basically scratching their butts and mumbling into walkie-talkies. Finally one of them steps outside and says, "Does anyone know where room 119 A is?"

So here's the problem with having a boyfriend who is in the employ of the music building and is not an asshole. He says "Of course I do! Here, let me continue to freak out Amanda and go inside to find it for you!"

I would like to take this opportunity to summarize: It is now ten minutes before my recital is supposed to happen. It's freezing cold outside and my lips are slowly but surely drying out. The music building might be on fire, which would put our awesome cheesecake buffet in serious danger. To top that off, my boyfriend is going into the music building TOWARDS THE FIRE.

All in all, not one of Amanda's more calm, cool and collected moments.

Well, in the end, the water had cut back on, which for some reason made the music building shit itself and set off the fire alarm. So we went back inside and the recital went as planned.

But more importantly, the cheesecake was safe.

I fail at this game.

Amanda's Brain: It was cold yesterday! I will prepare for today.

Amanda's Wardrobe: Sweater, Courderoy Jacket

Amanda's Marching Band Tempurature: 78 degrees.

FAIL.

In other news, I have been insanely busy of late. But I passed my recital jury, and didn't completely suck at the Wind Ensemble concert, so that's all going well.

Life is pretty fantastic right now, even if my internet time is currently "Check CNN...check BBC...go to class." So that kinda sucks, but the Parkway is amazing on clear early-autumn nights.

Um...wait...recital?

It has come to my attention that my recital is six weeks away.

This is unfortunate, since I have no accompanist or repitoire.

HOWEVER, once I'm done with it I don't have to think about it anymore, which will be splendid.

I'm now looking up music, which has a delivery time of TWO WEEKS.

SHIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIT.

Geez, can't I just count Concerto-Aria? Who wants to come to my effing recital anyway?

CONCERT!!!

OK, I'm going to say it quick--I rocked that shit OUT.

I flubbed a couple spots, but you know what? I jumped right back on like nobody's business. And I kept a good sound and it was fairly musical...yeah. I am OK with a couple flubs, because it still went really, really well.

And most importantly, IT'S OVER!!!

In other news, I have nine papers to write by Wednesday.

I might do one or two today...you know. Don't want to stress myself out, here. :).

Besides, yesterday John, Mike and I went wandering and engaged in our usual deep discussions (when/if the world will end, what would happen if we ran out of oil tomorrow, whether X sin is really a sin or not, the place of religion in goverment, the nature of evil...you know. Usual college conversations.) and another novel has been born in my mind. Doesn't that sound much more interesting than Psychology research write-ups?

COUNTDOWN

T minus 2 hours and 16 minutes!!!

Holy crap, I'm excited. I'm like, can't-sit-still, peeing-my-pants-a-little excited.

(For those of you totally lost right now, I'm performing a concerto with the wind ensemble this evening. In--checks watch--2 hours and 15 minutes.)

(Well, actually more like 2 hours and 30 minutes, since I'm the second piece.)

For those of you who are halfway across the country or just don't like me enough to drive an hour, if you click here: www.music.appstate.edu there is a yellow button that says Rosen Hall Broadcast. If you click on that, you can get a live feed of the concert!

OK, I'm going to go start to get ready a little...send lots of prayers around 8:15!!!