OMG Kittens!!!
• I applied to grad school. Eight Masters programs in Piano Performance or Performance/Pedagogy. The hard part was making my prescreening audition recording, which I posted just a bit about here. It got very tiring and intense. The actual app part was comparatively easy. These days, all applications pretty much are done online, so of course that was the logical time for my computer to completely and utterly die. I've never had hardware up and die on me like that before, so that was exciting. Or maybe it would have been if I hadn't been just starting my grad school apps, all of which were due to be submitted in roughly eight hours. Using Candy's computer, I managed to get almost all of them in before 11:59:59 EST. Thus began my month of life without a computer. Now I understand how the Jews must have felt before they had a homeland. Wait a sec! I'm Jewish...
• Dec. 12: My birthday! I'm now a quarter-centurian. That's 25 for you lay-people. I had a nice little party with friends followed by going out to hear Dahlia and Kid Beyond. Since when does the headliner actually open the concert and start on time? It was supposed to start at 9:00. We got there at 10:00, and Dahlia was just finishing. Lame. But Kid Beyond was great. He had this crazy Ring of Power, as he called it. It was connected wirelessly to his laptop. As he waved his hand around, he could control distortion and effects to the sound. Pretty awesome.
• Dec. 25: I bet you can even guess what happened on this day. ChannuChristmaSolstiKwanzika! It was nice to have the whole family together for a few days. I was particularly happy that Candy was able to join us. I got schwag, including a digital camera, so now I can be a cam whore!
The computer wasn't really a Christmas present, but I got it about the same time. Neither was the phone, but it was also new because I finally got the fuck away from Verizon. Now I'm on T-Moblie. Actual Schwag included: camera, external hard drive enclosure (for the working hard drive from my old dead computer), Puerto Rico (which sadly still hasn't been played), a bread knife, a tea mug with the character for love, and sweat pants that I'm told make my ass look absolutely amazing. Not that it takes much, of course.
One of the best parts of the holiday was the dinner Candy and I cooked. The PRIME RIB ROAST was particularly noteworthy. And by noteworthy I mean HOLY FUCK AMAZING WITH HERB BUTTER CRUST AND BACON! And thanks to the magic of technology you can see it!
Prior to cooking:
Holy bacon amazingness, Batman!
Ready to be eated! Seriously, you non cow eaters were missing out.
And here's the fam plus Candy and Adam's girlfriend Marie. Notice fireninja looking fierce as always. One must always be prepared to fend off those would steal one's precious meat. The ambulances will have to wait their turn.
I would be remiss not to include this shot of my mom and Candy by the tree.
• Jan 1: New Years! Highlights included dinner and dorkery with various friends followed by jumping in a giant inflatable castle inside an art loft. We even managed not to vomit on each other!
• Grad school auditions cemented. Here is my travel schedule. If I'm coming to a city near you, perhaps we can meet up?
Mannes: rejected. Sadness! This was my top choice.
Yale: rejected. Probably my second choice.
UW: Sat, Jan. 26
University of Colorado at Boulder: Sat, Feb. 2
University of Minnesota: Fri, Feb. 8
Arizona State University: Sat, Feb. 9
Cincinnati Conservatory: Sat, Feb 23
Manhattan School of Music: sometime in the first week of March.
I'm in the home stretch for my practicing. Well, not so much home stretch as final crunch. I'm planning on having a practice run-through/recital this weekend in preparation for my first recital the following week. This will be at my parents' place in Newberg. If you're interested in going let me know and I can provide details. Actually, I may even do invitations. I'm also considering doing another performance here in Portland if I can find a suitable venue. Maybe at Reed? Anybody got connections or suggestions?
I've gone to Walla Walla a handful of times now to work with Dr. Thompson, my old piano teacher at Whitman. He really is wonderful. As for my progress, I've waffled back and forth regularly between feeling pretty good about things and feeling pretty depressed and like I'm sure to fail. At the moment, I'm feeling rather optimistic. I think it's going to stick, too.
Well, by now I imagine you think the subject line for this post is nothing more than extraneous jibber jabber. But you'd be wrong! That's right, I Can Haz Kittenz! And now, thanks to my new digicam, I can become a genuine, bona fide, totally for reals citizen of teh internets!
BEHOLD:
That's right folks, I have now posted pictures of my cat for all the world to see. BUT WAIT, what's that you say gentle reader? I'm ALLERGIC to cats? Fie to that, I say! misshepeshu was so kind as to inform me about Siberian cats, who are supposedly hypoallergenic. She has a friend who is allergic to cats who now happily lives with a Siberian. I visited a Siberian cattery and only had a very mild reaction. Each cat varies in the amount of allergen it produces, and you can actually do a lab test to determine how much based on a saliva sample. The breeder is willing to get the tests done for her kittens. At the moment, I have a loaner kitty. She suggested I do a test and live with her cat Blaze for a week to see if it's at all feasible. I brought Blaze home today. So far so good! I'm trying not to get my hopes up too high, but this could actually work. Siberians are so soft! Their fur is really long, so they look very wide. It's kind of funny. Double wide trailer kitty! Long hair also = dust mop, and Blaze of course likes to crawl through every crevice and nook my small apartment affords. So I need to clean. Otherwise I won't know if I'm allergic to her or the dust she bathed in. But seriously, so exciting. I CAN HAZ KITTENZ!
I know these pics are all pretty bad, but you know what? Now that I'm a cam whore you'll just have to put up with it. Ha! This is just the first day with Blaze though, so I'll try to take some better ones. Stay tuned: more exciting kitten news sure to follow!