Such is the Life of a Musician...

Rover is over, we made out ok-ish, but I think Noah Hebert now hates my guts. School is winding down and I'm getting really excited for CAMP! Also, I'm running for President of the school, in NHS, and starting to do a bunch of college stuff.
What I'd like to comment on, though, is all the band stuff I've been doing lately.
I had 3 gigs in 5 days, from Saturday to Wednesday.
First was Melody Miles with Jazz Combo. We had to be at the O'Neil's house at 9:30. I came home with a fever the day before but drank a ton and managed to sleep it off, though I still wasn't feeling great. It was overcast and kind of cold. We played for like an hour (including like 25 minutes of Listen Here), as runners awkwardly passed us. The parents stood around and watched us. Peter kept tackling Justin, calling it a citizen's arrest. Both Mrs. Thomas and Mr. Pacione brought us donuts accidentally, so we had 2 dozen. The guys were freaking out over the donuts and were wicked excited. Peter made Swizzy play a 10-minute solo so he could eat a donut. I got like 3 donuts, but my feet were cold and my air wasn't great.
Next, that annual bane of our existence, the Memorial Day Parades. This time with Mr. Fecke on crutches and painkillers. Sloane did a great job. I had to pee during the Hamilton parade and it was very sunny for both. No one had the music for Amazing Grace so Mr Fecke just said "Peter, can you knock out a round of Amazing Grace?" then started solfegeing it. He did and it sounded great. Jake Namaroff was hacking up a lung in the Hamilton Cemetery. The cookout at Henry's was fun, they threw Declan into the pool. The Wenham parade was hot and sunny, they made us march all the way back to Buker, and they song they played was really long.
I was sore and exhausted and mildly dehydrated when I got home, and what did we get for our miles of work? The usual "Hey, thanks Erik" for Mr. Fecke as the parade marshals drive away. An article in the Chronicle that in the part about Hamilton specifically mentioned the PA system mounted on the back of the police golf cart and didn't talk about us, and maybe five lines in the part about Wenham.
Then Wednesday was the EdFund golf tournament at Myopia. We didn't get info until the night before, via facebook from Mr. Fecke. We left school semi-illegally, had to load up cars in the rain, and Henry had to break into the Luddy's house to get a part for Swizzy's piano that Peter had left there. So Henry got lost on the way, and when we got there they made us unload around back in the rain and mud. We were put on a back porch away from the real dining room, and the guy in charge dropped not-so-subtle hints about us being too loud last year. Well, you put us in a slate tile and glass walled room, what do you expect? And then, when we're getting ready to start, he comes over, says "Remember kids, it's background music, so don't get too crazy" and shuts the door behind us and pulls the curtain. We play for an hour and at the end I'm starving and my lips hurt. We are sent up a hill in the rain to the drafty shed behind the pro shop where they give us food. We meet a few kids who were caddying, and are thankful we were indoors. I feel like we bonded as a group, and we had some fun at that meal, and playing. Peter gave me a harmony part for the head of Freddie Freeloader, which was a first. Its our last gig of the year and our last with Nick ever, so its a little sentimental. Peter threatens to citizen's arrest Justin. Anyway, we then load up in the mud and rain, go back to school (its now after the end of the day) we unload into the practice room because the teachers are having a very serious meeting.
We get a mention on the morning announcements that I don't hear, and supposedly some ice cream after school next week.
So for alternately freezing, frying, and getting soaked, going in back doors, lugging drums all over the place, fighting off a nasty virus, getting up early on a Saturday, missing a physics lab and spending my entire day off serving the community, I got: some awkward waves and a honk from Mrs. Frost, a few lines in the Chronicle, a morning announcement, donuts, a cheeseburger, and some ice cream, chapped lips and sore legs.
Yeah, being a musician is awesome....

I Did It!

Well, since I last wrote, science fair went ok, but Greta and I got Mahika Pradan's dad as a judge and he kind of tore our whole project apart. The other judge we had was nice though, and we were done with all our judges by 3:45, which was amazing. The last couple weeks of school have been crazy busy, but this week has been low homework, which has been really nice. I made some plans to reduce the craziness and my stress and they are working out, which is good. I'm at a pretty good place with Rover, not having panic attacks over it anymore, even though check #1 was a disaster, I think we're going to learn from it and be better. I'm still really enjoying my research paper on the 1918 influenza pandemic, which is a little weird, I know, but I'm ok with that. I'm signed up for four AP classes next year, but I'm actually excited about all of them. Even spanish, which I was on the fence about seems like its going to be fun. I'm doing well in my classes and it feels like summer is just around the corner. Things are pretty good with Peter, and I'm starting to think about prom (more on that to come, I'm sure :P).
So I'm feeling pretty good right now, ans especially amazing because I just got home from the Prism Concert. Since I'm in Jazz Combo, we of course had to play. We did Blue Bossa, and because of time constraints, only Dave and I soloed. I was freaking out at the idea of soloing in front of a big crowd, when I was the second of two soloists in the last act of the night. I was so terrified. Corey helped me work through the song, which gave me a little more confidence. Still, I was shaking before we went up there.
But somehow, I made it through the entire thing and I was fine! I sounded good with the whole group, and my solo was actually pretty good. I wrapped it up in the right places, it had a little bit of rhythmic variety, and I went for some notes that were a little more "out there" than normal, and it sounded good! I was amazed at myself. I didn't lose my breath or get freaked out when a note didn't quite work. We only took two choruses (well Dave actually took three, not exactly on purpose, but I heard it, and it worked out fine), and that almost felt like not enough to "say" what I wanted to. It's amazing- if you had told me at the beginning of the year to solo for 32 bars I would have freaked outl, but now I want more. It was so great, and I'm so proud of myself. People told me I did a nice job, (not Peter, but I'm only a little disappointed :P) and I got over the hump of playing in front of people. I feel like I've actually come a long way, and I have that super-excited about music feeling where I'm just itching to play. I'm so glad there is music in my life, and that I can connect to it and experience it like this. It was an awesome night.

One Year Later

Well, in the interest of bringing things full circle, I thought I'd write another post to match the one that started this blog. It's the last day of February vacation. This has been a good vacation, with lots of reading and sleeping, and fun. I explored with Grace again this year, and we marveled at the fact that our trip to Ipswich was a whole year ago. This year we discovered the expansive Appleton Farm trails, which were so cool. The family went to Buffs again, and the Museum of Bad Art, which was a lot of fun. Youth Group bowling turned out well, and we got a Rover meeting in. Shamrock for HAWC happened again this year. I played that same clarinet I bought a year ago, I should have had a birthday party for it.
Saturday there was an aritcle in the Globe about a new research buling going up at Dana-Farber; they're painting the Jimmy Fund Kids' names on the steel beams again. They made reference to the 1996 building on which they spray painted names too. One of those is mine. It made me smile to see how nice those people still are, sad that there are still kids there with names to be painted.
Today at church they did Mardi Gras Sunday and we had pancakes with toppings after church. The free-lance clarinetist they brought in to play with the choir on "When the Saints Go Marching In" turned out to be Corey, which was funny and it was nice to see him.
I finally started with a therapist, and I am amazed at how good it feels just to TALK. I think it's really going to help and I'm actually looking forward to it. I'm pretty excited for science fair, too, and about my history research paper on the 1918 flu pandemic. I'm not super excited for how crazy busy and homework filled my week is going to be, but the end of the week promises the potential for fun and the start of NHS.
Lately, I've been having weird moments of anxiety about Rover, but I think once we start moving towards working it will get better. We picked a name and logo: OPTIMISM PRIME, a picture of a robot. That's happy and exciting. Returning to band and school will be fun, and I'm really happy about the wheeled cart I built for walking to school. Can't wait to test it out.
Not happy about the physics lab which is confusing, or the stupid Lit reading we have to do for Spanish. I'm glad to be able to get to serve at Crombie tomorrow. Camp informed me my application is complete, I will potentially be spending TWO full weeks there this summer; that's a MAJOR happy :).
So I think there are a lot of 'happys' for me right now, and I need to keep my mind on them and avoid thinking about the 'bads' and the 'anxiouses' any more than necessary.
I'm doing fine, and I intend to continue that way. Spring will arrive soon, then summer and pretty soon I'll be a senior. Sometimes its crazy how fast time flies.
All in all, looking back on the year I've had and forward to what's coming, I can still say: It's all good.

A Day in the Life

Well, I don't really want to go to bed, and I thought today about how it's been a while since I last posted here. I am still hopelessly in love with Peter, but he came to a snowball fight party I had, and having Sally to talk to about him really helps.
I was really glad for first semester to be over, and this semester is feeling a little bit better. I don;t really know why.
But since it generally ends up being mildly interesting: here's a little chronicle of my day today.

I roll out of bed at the usual time, like ten of seven, but still manage to make the bus.
A Block: Gym Mrs Hoar quotes me for the school newsletter about the "Choice Day" we have in gym on Thursdays, where we get to pick our activities. We watch a lame self-defense movie from the 80s and laugh at some of the unrealistic scenarios. Mrs. Pilkanis says a Hamilton cop will come to talk to us about self defense soon, and Henry and Peter spend the rest of the class creating questions slanted towards humiliating the cop over the first aid certification scandal. Mrs. Pilkanis tells them they have to be respectful, and I have a vague flashback to "Alright, when I say 'all ducks fly together' everyone get into a flying V and tackle him".

E Block: History We get our Midterms back, I got a 96, and see quarter and semester grades. Due to a less-than-stellar WWI test and History Fair, I have a B/B+ for quarter 2, but pull off and A- for the semester. That'll take some explaining for mom, and I'm a little upset myself. We talk about the Great Depression, and Henry and Mr. Knets rapsodize about an economist named Paul Krugman who looks kind of like George Clooney (at least to me).

F Block: Spanish We talk about the new Constitution in Bolivia. I feel like my speaking is getting better the more I practice. I did really well on my midterm, so I feel much better about that class.

D Block: Band More Bernstein. I really love the piece, but I need to put in a lot more rehearsal time to make it even passable. I'm having trouble fitting practicing in, and practicing in a focused enough way to make progress. However, I love band, and I wore my BA/ND shirt today, so its sweet.

Lunch: I eat Baked Potato Bar, which is awesome, and stare at Peter. A lot. I feel like he notices sometimes, but I don't know. It's a little bright spot in my day to see him talking excitedly with lots of other guys in our grade.

G Block: Math I got an 89.6 on my midterm, which is way more than I hoped for, and will do great things for my semester grade. We talk about rotational motion, I space a bit. Peter says hi to me on my way out of class.

H Block: Physics Charges and the math with them involve lots of REALLY annoying numbers and I struggle with the in-class problem. But I get some help for the Webassign.

Work: I don't do much, Jeni cleans shelves, we have a couple really busy clusters and Jeni cleans shelves. I am tired and eat a Three Musketeers, probably against my better judgement.

I come home and work on homework, interspersed with dinner and a long Peter-talk session with Sally. We love him. Homework is a drag, and I don't get time for too much fun stuff. If only I had done more homework earlier, but oh well. Thursdays are always like this because of my schedule. I just have to get through school tomorrow then I can relax.
So not a very interestin day really, but I felt like I just needed to write SOMETHING since I've had very little time for doing so lately.
Hopefully this semester will continue to be good, I'll stay on top of homework and make time for other things, and I'll find time to keep writing.