Biking

I REALLY hate it when bicyclists insist on riding their bikes in the middle of the road. While I understand that there is a law against riding your bicycle on the sidewalk, I feel like it is a law that will NEVER EVER be enforced.
Think about it this way: In a fight between a bike and a car, the car will ALWAYS win.
Always.

And don't park your bike in the middle of the road in the dark, because that's just ASKING for someone to hit you.
Like I almost did.

Dumb.

Hiring an Accompanist for Dummies

For some reason, people don’t understand how to interact with accompanists. To assist people with this problem, I have decided to write the following guide.

Give your accompanist music AS SOON AS YOU CAN, preferably within a few days of the date at which you ask them to play for you.

Understand that if an accompanist cannot play for you, it (probably) has nothing to do with whether or not they like you as a person, and probably has something to do with that schedule.

If an accompanist has waited TWO WEEKS for your music and you haven’t discussed payment at all, then don’t get pissed off and take it personally.

The fact that I’m not playing for you does not make me a dick, so grow up.
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I HATE being shushed.
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I moved a fortepiano the other day. That was possibly the scariest moment of my life… That thing is worth more than the lives of all the people who moved it put together.

And I get to play on it on Friday. Whohoo!

An open letter

Dear L,
Being a senior does not give you the right to be a bitch to someone who has been placed in authority over you, just because you're older than she is.
Being a senior does not mean that you can do whatever you feel like doing.
Being a senior certainly does impart certain privileges to you, but you need to learn what they are. And hopefully, by learning what they are, you will also learn what they are not. Because you seem to be quite misguided in that respect.
You wonder why people don't respect you sometimes... perhaps it has something to do with the MASSIVE amount of negativity that radiates from your person. Perhaps it has something to do with the fact that you don't respect others. Perhaps it has something to do with the fact that you complain about things that don't matter.
Perhaps you should grow up and realize that this is not the way to get the attention that you seem to want so desperately.
Also... when you regularly don't attend rehearsal, others tend to resent when you correct them. Because it might occur to them that they could possibly know more about what they're talking about than you do.
You know, because they showed up and learned what they were supposed to.
You're not as awesome as you think you are, so please deflate your ego. It's gotten rather unwieldy, and others are having difficulty maneuvering around it.

Sincerely,
Robert

Closure

So, I liked this boy for awhile, and the thing that drove me crazy was not knowing whether or not he liked me back. And I finally had both the courage and the opportunity to tell him how I feel.
And although he isn't interested in a relationship, I'm very happy that I have an answer and can move on with my life instead of playing the "What if?" game.

So there's the perfect authentic cadence for that phrase of my life.

Masterclass

I just found out that my professor wants me to play in a masterclass on September 24th. My choir is doing a concert with the OU Accademia Filharmonica, in which we will be performing Beethoven's Choral Fantasy with guest pianist Christoph Hammer. The day before the concert, he will be giving a masterclass, in which he instructs students on the proper way to play classical-era music (Mozart, Haydn, etc.) on the fortepiano, which is the most immediate predecessor to the modern piano.

I'm going to perform the first movement of the Haydn sonata I'm learning.

AAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH
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For serious. I just want 5 minutes. Is that so hard?

I have no idea what I'm looking for.

Homework

I'm not taking as many hours this semester as I was last semester, and as such, I keep thinking that I'm forgetting something that I should be doing.
So far, this hasn't actually happened, but the feeling is still there. It's rather frustrating, to be quite honest.
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I made almond chicken and rice last night. I was supposed to use instant rice instead of regular rice, but I still think it turned out alright. Just a bit crunchier than I think the original recipe intended it to be.
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A recurring problem: Our dryer doesn't actually finish drying things. A possible solution: buying a miniature clothes rack to hang things up on.
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In the flute section of the Pride of Oklahoma, we have a tradition where the individual members pair up into "flute buddies." At specific games during the season, these buddies exchange gifts with each other. I have the best flute buddy in the entire world, because my flute buddy made me oreo truffles. As in, she crafted them with her own hands and created them for me.

And they're delicious. Like you wouldn't believe.
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Yesterday at Hideaway Pizza, a random group of strangers covered my bill. It made me very happy, but I don't have a clue who they were, so I can't thank them... THANK YOU!

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I think that aural skills might actually be unteachable. Either you get it or you don't.

There's "no such thing as stupid questions"

The other day in class, one of my classmates asked a question.
Let me give you a little bit of background on the classmate in question: this person is VERY socially awkward. They often ask questions in class that are irrelevant, misguided, and/or simply inane. It's like what might happen if you gave a monkey big words to play with. Needless to say, there are many people in class who are less than fond of this person. Some have actually fantasized about putting this person in a cardboard box and mailing him somewhere very far away.

I may or may not have been one of those people.

However, the other day this person asked a question of the professor, and true to form, it was obnoxious and not useful in terms of discovering practical information that had not already been discussed. It led to a sort of back and forth between the teacher and this person, which got the class-flow sidetracked and somewhat off-topic.

And then the professor said, "And now, I'm going to take your annoying comment and make it relevant..."

The immediate reaction was one of awkward laughter, slightly shocked 'did-he-really-just-say-that' looks between students, and (at least for myself) a sort of satisfaction that this person had FINALLY been called out for their irritating behavior.

However, later on, I was discussing the event with my dear friend M, who was sitting much closer to the person, and she told me that right after that, this person muttered under their breath, "I hate you."

I have seen versions of the above exchange several times over in my classes: the annoying kid in freshman english, the annoying kid in band, the annoying kid in pre-calculus, the annoying kid in algebra II... I'm sure we've all seen it somewhere, where the REALLY SUPER-OBNOXIOUS kid that makes you want to throw things gets shut down by a teacher.

However, I've been thinking ever since this latest event, because the day before, in one of my education classes the professor was discussing metaphors for schools, particularly the metaphor that a school is a factory, and particularly the part of the metaphor where sub-standard products (students) tend to get "thrown out."

As a teacher-to-be, I don't know what I will do in those situations. I know there are going to be times when I want to call a student out for being irritating, and distracting from the learning environment for other students... But I don't think that the best way to go about those situations is the way that I have seen from various teachers through the years. Some of the people I've seen do this are people who I consider to be excellent teachers, so if they can't think of a good way to go about those situations... what the hell am I going to do?

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In the Vienna airport on the way back from my trip to Austria, I am fairly certain that I saw the Vienna Boy's Choir.

I like D's boyfriend a lot, and I'm glad they're together. They match well.

If a recipe calls for instant rice, make sure you get instant rice at the grocery store, and not regular rice. Because it won't work as well.

Recital

I really want to give a recital this year, and I'm thinking I would like to do so at the beginning of the spring semester.

Program as of right now, in chronological but not performance order:

Bach Prelude and Fugue in F# minor, WTC Book I

Haydn Sonata in D major, Hob. XVI-33

Rachmaninoff Prelude in B minor, Op. 32, no. 10

Daughtrey- that piece. But maybe not, because I'm not sure what I did with the sheet music.

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So, I went to the meeting today for people interested in giving a recital this year. Guess how much it costs to give a non-degree recital?

Seventy Five dollars.

That's so dumb.

Also, the thunderstorm was spectacular. The yellow sky freaked me out a bit, though.

I'm just glad it didn't show up 'til after volleyball with my brothers :)