Sunday, March 29, 2009

Mish-Mash

Not a great weekend. Nothing bad really, other than the 6-8" of new wet snow that fell all day Sunday. Or the temps that aren't supposed to see 45° all week. We did have a family gathering (two, actually) to celebrate my youngest niece's 16th birthday. That was pretty good.
I didn't mention last week that we had another performance on Friday. We put on a free children's concert for the district's 4th/5th graders. I'm all for putting on these concerts, as it very well may be the only time they'll ever hear a symphony orchestra. And many kids are inspired to play a musical instrument. In my mind, I know it's a good thing. BUT... I had to take a day off from work (no sort of personal leave or vacation), as well as leave early on Thursday to set the stage. Actually, I don't mind that. It's the programming that left me pretty uninspired.

These things are designed to introduce instruments, orchestral music, and the kids like to see their music teachers playing in the orchestra. The conductor and the music teachers work up lesson plans and play recordings of the pieces we're playing, so they've got a clue going in of what they're going to hear. Over the past two years, we've rented a pre-written production that's part drama, part music. While I can appreciate the use of actors, this piece of garbage that we did last week has soured me on doing any more in the future. No details about it, but during a 3 1/2 hour rehearsal Thursday night, a 90-minute run-through on Friday morning and the 75-minute performance, I played a TOTAL of perhaps 15 minutes. The tuba played minimally more than I did. A considerable waste of my time. Yes, we were paid a little bit of money (didn't make up for the lost day of work), and it's for a good cause, but it certainly put me in a lousy frame of mind for the weekend.
Not all was bad. I got to spend some time receiving some lovely drunk texts. That was fun!
Also had a nice long chat with a new-ish friend. That was fun, too!
Big news...OHNT will be celebrating its 3rd anniversary this week. Not going to make a big deal out of it like I did with HNT's celebration last year, but if any of you are interested in sending in something, I'm hoping to get a zillion people this week! Or close to it, anyway.
Did you know that if you use a hard boiled egg instead of a raw egg in a brownie recipe, they don't turn out quite right? Or...so I've heard...

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