Well, it certainly has been an eventful two months away from the blog! So....well, let's just say this post is going to be long. First I'll get the audition stuff out of the way:
I took my first professional audition in mid-October, and I was pleasantly surprised at how well I handled it. I didn't advance, but I was happy with how I played - musically, just not perfectly. But most importantly I learned I can keep my head in a BIG audition (there must have been over a hundred oboists there which is a really big number for us - I think average is around 50 or 60, according to my friends who HAVE taken auditions regularly), and I knew immediately what I needed to fix for future auditions. And as long as I'm happy with my performance and I've learned something from the audition, that's a good day in my book.
Unfortunately the same can't be said of my second audition. It was a particularly stressful audition for me for a large number of reasons, but when it came down to it, none of those reasons were ones why it was bad. I just played REALLY poorly like...astronomically embarrassing levels of bad playing. And I couldn't tell you why - I didn't think I was THAT nervous, and it started out really well, and it wasn't that I wasn't prepared well enough, it just....happened. And well....that happens sometimes too. But I did take something out of it, even if I couldn't walk away feeling proud of how I played.
Most important in all of this though, is that I am actually happy and even, dare I say, proud of myself for these auditions. I've had a lot of customers come in and ask how the auditions went and gotten a lot of sympathetic noise about not making it, and comments on being glad that I'm so positive about it. But here's the thing - I'm not just saying this to try and put a happy face on not making it - I am actually, legitimately happy. I'm twenty-five and taking my first auditions - I'd let myself come up with endless excuses why I didn't have time/couldn't do auditions before, and this is the first time I have really put myself out there. And beyond that, do you know how rare it is to win your first audition? Or second? Or any audition for that matter? I'm pretty realistic about my chances here. And I do feel good - the first audition for how well I played under stress for my first BIG audition, and the second for going and auditioning even though I only had two weeks to learn completely new rep. I'm really not just pretending that I'm ok - I mean, yeah winning one of those jobs would have been incredible, and yeah I'm sure not advancing in an audition is going to get REAL old pretty soon, but for now? I'm happy.
My past week free of audition prep has been just as eventful in the one week as my past two months have been (probably because of the fact that when you're in audition prep and working three jobs you pretty much only work and practice. What is this eating or sleeping or having friends you speak of?) Here's what's happened:
1. I made a pact with myself to go hiking every Wednesday since I only work in the evening and there's a great place to go hiking near work.
2. I made this pact after I discovered last minute that I didn't have any work this past Wednesday and so decided to go hiking because WHY NOT?
3. This pact was rather short lived because it ended in this:
The short version is that I lost a really good hiking sock and I'm going to need a new pair of hiking boots.
And then there's the long version:
I knew when I had to super glue the sides of my hiking boots down that I was probably going to have to get new hiking boots soonish. I probably should have known that when you have to superglue parts of your shoes, they probably aren't going to be water proof anymore. So when I unpleasantly discovered this while trying to careful wade ford across the shallow part of a river, I just said fuck it and tromped across the whole bloody stream, which of course soaked my shoes and socks. You see, I had seen the PERFECT reading place up in a tree on the other side of the river (what, you mean you DON'T carry books with you while hiking and look for perfect reading nooks?). In a moment of pure genius (note the sarcasm) I removed my boots and socks to let them dry on the branches of the tree (...because that matters when you're just going to have to cross the river again and soak them all over again?). Of course you can see where that's going - I promptly knocked my sock into the water. And guys...good hiking socks are expensive. For some reason I'd thought I'd be able to get my stuff if I knocked them into the river because the tree was over a slow moving bit, but I forgot that in the process I'd likely knock everything else into the water too. Also I forgot that reading in trees isn't actually that comfortable. But hey at least it was a nice view?
(At least as much as winter in the woods ever is)
So I cross back, re-soaking my shoes (again...things you should think about when you super glued your boots together), and about two minutes later my entire sole comes off. At this point I'm maybe half-way through the hike which means I had to hike another two or three miles, and due to the heavy rain for the past couple days, it meant hiking up freaking MUD MOUNTAINS. Do you know how hard that is with no sole on your shoe?!? I didn't fall though, which is actually really impressive if I do say so myself.
So I won't be hiking anytime soon unless it hasn't been raining and is an easy enough hike for running shoes. Also no water crossings for me as those CERTAINLY aren't waterproof :(. And the likelihood of me affording new hiking boots anytime soon is pretty slim, so it looks like I'll have to wait until spring when it's warm enough to go play in the river with my Tivas.
Oh wait. Those broke too, I forgot.
DAMN IT.
But on the upside I've decided to use Instagram for pictures of my hiking book nooks? Because I WILL get back into the wilderness if it bloody well kills me! It's the only form of exercise I enjoy AND it's free (minus the cost of hiking boots. UGGHHHHH).
Anyway, this post is entirely too long, so I'm going to link up the few posts I saved up on my hiatus...while I go and sob because my Bloglovin feed I have to go through is literally 1001 posts long.
Fun Things
Texts from Edgar Allen Poe - Guys if you read anything read this because it's probably the funniest thing I've encountered in the past two months.
Dan Van Winkle tells us An Animorphs Movie Is Supposedly Happening!
Rebecca says All Your Faves are Hufflepuffs (PREACH IT GIRL!)
Christina recommends Adult Fiction for YA Readers.
Cait created a quiz: Guess the Book From Food Quotes
Serious Things
Kerry talks about The Villification of the Teenage Girl.
How 9/11 Was Displayed In Non-American Countries.
Suzanne talks about Hurricane Katrina: Dystopia, in Real Time
No comments:
Post a Comment
Thanks for leaving a comment! You've totally made my day :D
I love talking to you guys, so I always respond to comments. Be sure to check back!