There's a first time for everything!

This post doesn't have much to do with clarinet, I'll be perfectly honest.  But I experienced a couple major "firsts" that I feel I must share.  The one that I'm most proud is from Saturday.  I completed my first 5k race!  It was never a goal for me to do a race when I started to run at the beginning of the summer, but it seemed like something fun to do and something motivating to keep me in shape since I have to wait so long before I ship out.

The race itself was not a true 5k, only 2.9 miles, so just short of a full 5k.  It took place on the UR river campus and the course was really nice, most of it was along the Genesee river (which if you don't know, is the river that runs through downtown Rochester).  I told myself I was going to go all out because I wanted to get it under 30 minutes, which I had yet to do in my 5k workouts.  Usually I don't run 100% during my workouts, mostly because I don't want to overdo it, but there is a little bit of laziness there too!!  I figured I had no excuse not to go 100% here.

I set a pretty fast pace from the beginning, I think because I was so excited and there were about 100 people around me!  I had to remind myself several times that I had to hold back my pace a little if I wanted to make it through the entire race!  But I was still booking - I got to the first mile marker and I looked down at my watch at it said just over 8 minutes!  Woo!  Personal record for a mile for me!  I've been struggling to get my miles under 9 minutes, so I felt awesome.  What was really inspiring was a group of Marines who were running next to me in their uniforms with 60lb packs on (oh and boots, no running shoes!!).  Yes, I'll be in the military soon too, but I'll probably never be like that.  I'm only doing it to play my silly instrument!  They were very inspiring and motivating!  Totally awesome.

At this point I had a good pace going, and I felt really good.  About half way through the 2nd mile, that's when I started to pass a lot of people.  I think other people were blasting through the beginning and then they ran out of gas.  I got to the 2 mile marker and I was at about 16 minutes...holy cow!  Even if I had walked from this point I probably would have been under 30 minutes!  I kept pushing on, though, cuz that's how I roll.  The last mile was the toughest, because it had a lot of up and down hills.  I felt like I was going to run out of gas at the end, but then I saw the finish line, and I decided to really push it and sprint the last 100 feet or so.  I saw the official clock as I was approaching the finish line, and it said 24:05!!!!  I was so proud of myself and happy.  I don't know what my official time was, because I saw the clock several seconds out from the finish line, but I don't really care because it was so much faster than I had even anticipated! 

So after a great weekend, I had a lovely meeting with my recruiter.  This is where the second "first" comes in...I'm much less proud of this one.  I had to give a military salute for the first time yesterday!  Haha and it sucked ass.  Now since I'm in DEP I have to do a salute routine before I can enter the recruiter's office.  Basically it goes like this: I march in, flank left on this Navy rug, do a salute to the American flag in the corner, turn to anyone in the office, hold up my DEP ID card and salute and say, "Future Sailor Herrera requesting permission to board", and then wait for someone to say, "permission granted".  And when I leave, I have to salute my recruiter (and hold up my DEP ID card) and say "Future Sailor Herrera requesting permission to go ashore", wait for them to say "permission granted", and then turn and salute the flag, and march out of the office.  Ugh, it did not go that smoothly.  I won't go into details, but it was pretty!  And I was super nervous, which didn't help at all. 

Last week my recruiter said that the reason that they make us do this is because this is what is expected in basic training, and they are trying to get us used to doing it.  So i guess I'm glad I'm making these mistakes now instead of later!  My recruiters are a little more forgiving than the people at RTC!!!  Ugh, but I was still embarrassed...mostly because Ben witnessed the whole thing!!  LOL!  I'll get used to it I'm sure...and I'm sure I will be embarrassed several more times before this journey ends!

237 days!!!!

Recital!

So it’s set!  I am officially giving a recital in CO in October!  This is thanks to my awesome sister, who has graciously put in the time and effort to raise funds for the trip and recital related expenses!  I am so excited for it.  It will take place on October 22 at 7:30pm at Magnolia Music Studio in Fort Collins.  Also thanks to Cynthia Vaughan for the performance space!  The program is still subject to change (and it has changed once already!), but for right now it is as follows in no particular order…

Sutermeister – Capriccio

Bolcom – Little Suite of four dances

Finzi – Five bagatelles

Poulenc – Sonata for two clarinets

aaaaaand possibly an arrangement of Debussy’s Syrinx for solo flute that I am currently working on.

Originally, I wanted to put Muczinski Time Pieces on the program….but after the date was set I kinda figured that it was a going to be hard to prepare it in a month (!!), even though I’ve played it before.  It’s a pretty challenging piece – I played it for my jury at ESM.  I might save it for a potential spring recital.  In its place I wanted to try to do the Brahms Eb sonata…but after going through 3 pianists I’ve decided that it’s not worth the effort.  I needed a pianist that had played it before (semi-recently) and that was also available.  Easier said than done!  I can possibly also save that one for a spring recital. 

And if you have read my past blog entries, you might be wondering why I didn’t include the Poulenc Sonata (for clarinet/piano).  I really wanted to play the Poulenc duo…and I couldn’t really justify putting two Poulenc pieces on the same program!!  It basically came down to which one I wanted to do more.

So now I had to figure out something easy enough to prepare in a month and that was easy on the pianist (or involved no pianist).  So on Friday I opened up my itunes and shuffled all of my recordings of clarinet music.  The first one to pop up was the Sutermeister (played by Robert Dilutis).  That’s it!  I’m going to play that.  I’ve never played it before, but I know it’s relatively easy because I taught it to one of my river campus students my last semester at ESM.  Plus, it doesn’t involve any piano, which is probably a good thing considering the whole time situation!  

Unfortunately, the piece is much shorter than the Brahms/Muczinski, so I explored other options to fill in the gaps.  I have always had a love for this flute piece by Debussy – but I was never good enough at flute to play it!  So I thought…what would happen if I arranged it for clarinet??  Turns out…it works pretty OK for the A clarinet.  So depending on how I feel about the arrangement I think I will try it out!  It’s my first arrangement (well besides arranging 16^th century polyphony into duets for my students – which they love by the way!) so I’m a little self conscious about right now!  I will post it once I’ve made some tweaks….

I’ve noticed that my program has an unintended theme – pieces that I could never get away with playing in school!  With the exception of the Poulenc, all of these pieces would be too easy to study for a degree recital or a jury (at least at a graduate level).  But it doesn’t mean that they are lacking musically – they are all very enjoyable for the audience!  Which I guess is what I’m going for...

Anyway I better stop blogging and get practicing!  T-minus 30 days…

And while we're on the subject of countdowns...243 days.....

An interesting article that caught my eye...

Makes me understand why my husband is so crazy about brushing his teeth before he plays his tuba:

http://www.vpr.net/npr/129725678/

Kind of gross, right? 

Now, I am not exactly an angel when it comes to eating and playing...in fact I've been known to teach or practice while drinking coffee (tee hee...).  But I think us woodwinders have an advantage over brass players - we actually get to swab out our instruments all the time.  Now, I'm not sure all the crud gets out, but it helps.  Honestly, I don't think the inside of my instrument is dirty at all...I have had my instrument for 6 years and it is clean as a whistle inside - I would feel comfortable eat off it if that were possible.

Now it sounds gross, but I usually try to "swish" out the chunks of whatever I have just eaten with water or whatever I've got on hand (celery sticks are great for "cleaning out" your mouth!) before I blow on my instrument.  But I never ever brush my teeth...I don't see a real need for it.

I do try to refrain from snacks during rehearsal breaks...I usually give string/piano players the evil eye to make sure they leave me and my woodwind friends some for after rehearsal is over.  The only reason I do this is because I don't want crumbs getting stuck in my reed/mouthpiece!  Not because I'm concerned of the potential germs, haha.

 So call me a bad girl, but I don't care!

Plans for the future

Each day I feel more accepting of how long I have to wait for my new job.  I suppose that is a good thing, right?  Although I still feel somewhat crappy about it, but I’m coming to terms that it is what it is.  

I emailed my main contact over at the Navy Music office to let her know what happened and to see if they had any pull to get the date changed.  Unfortunately, they don’t, but I found out a little more about what’s going on.  Basically, I’m not the only MU who got the short end of the stick, which made me feel a little bit better.  But I found out that I had another strike against me – I’m female.  Apparently, they’ve hired *too many* females over the last year and there are only so many female MU spots (I guess it makes a difference…or something), so basically us ladies got screwed (apparently I’m not the only girl who has requested an earlier date!)

This has also completely screwed up my husband’s plans.  He was hoping to move out to CA  while I was in boot camp/”A” school to study with the tuba teacher at UCLA – which will give him a better chance of getting into the DMA program there in the fall, and also he’ll have CA residency so he will only have to pay in-state tuition.  But now things are different – he’s going to talk to the teacher to see if something can be done where he can learn his teaching style while still living in NY (at least until May).  We have decided that a move to CA before I go to BT could be an option, but only if we both have jobs and have the cash to move our crap across the country (probably a couple grand….yikes!!).  So no more spending for the both of us!  We need to save as much money as possible.

 

But in the meantime, I am planning on going forward with a recital in CO.  My AWESOME sister is trying to get people to donate funds to help me with a plane ticket and other expenses, since I really cannot afford it right now.  Here is the link to her facebook note if you are interested:

http://www.facebook.com/#!/notes/kristi-siedow-thompson/a-clarinet-recital/431708827815

I literally started to cry when I saw what she was doing for me!  I did not ask her to do this, and I am so grateful that she is committed to helping me play for all my friends in CO!  Most people haven’t heard me play for almost 5 years…I want to show them the mad skeellz I’ve acquired since then.  It will probably take place sometime between October 21-24, but we have yet to find a venue (hoping for Magnolia Music Studio in Fort Collins) and I need a pianist!  Right now the program will go something like this (in no particular order): Muczinski Time Pieces, Finzi Five Bagatelles, a wind duo of some sort (either Beethoven clarinet/bassoon or Poulenc Bb/A clarinet – depending on who I can get to play with me!), and an Eb piece (still thinking about that one…).  I have a little over a month to prepare so I’d better get crackin!  

Finally...a date

So I went back to MEPS today to finalize my enlistment paperwork.  Yay!  So I have good news and bad news.

The good news: I got sworn in and I'm officially in DEP (delayed enlistment program).  


The bad news: my ship out date is not until May 23, 2011.  WTF?!!

When the guy there told me this I thought he was joking.  In fact, I kept expecting him to say, "nahhh!  just kidding your shipping out in October", but he never did.  I couldn't believe it.  At one point, there were about twelve people (including several higher ups) fighting for me to get an earlier date, but to no avail.  I asked, why? I was so confused because the Navy Music people had told me that they have spots every month reserved for musicians, and they gave me the impression that it would be no more than a couple months before I got to ship out.  And plus, I had never heard of musician in the military having to wait that long (unless they wanted to).

Are there really that many MUs?  No, there is not, actually.  Here is why I can't ship out until May: Apparently, the admiral who is in charge of everything has decided (due to budget constraints) that NOBODY will be shipping out anymore from October through December.  The first slot available to MU's is in February and they are all filled up, and the next available date is May 23.

Luckily, if a musician drops out that is shipping out in February, I will most likely get their spot.  But unfortunately that is not likely to happen.  I actually cried in the Navy processing office...not proud of that.  Aren't I supposed to be tough or something to be in the military?  Ha.  I actually considered not signing my contract.  But luckily the recruiter (never met him before this morning) that drove me to the station was really supportive and he got me to remember why I was enlisting.  I also made a quick call to my sister who made me feel more at ease about the whole thing.

So now Ben and I have to figure out what we're going to do - he was wanting to move to CA in the next few months (while I was at boot camp), but obviously things have changed a little bit so we'll see what we decide.

I've accepted the fact that it may be 8 months before I leave - I have to because there's nothing I can do, and nothing that anyone can do.  I just have adapt to the new situation.  The good thing about this is that now I have plenty of time to prepare a recital!

YES!!!

Right after I posted my last entry I got THE phone call!  My waiver has been approved!!  I go to Buffalo on Friday to sign my contract and then they will give me a ship date, yooooooooohooooooooooooooooooo!!!!!!!

This made my week.  Actually it made my f-ing month.

waiver waiting

Still waiting to hear about my waiver...bleh this is horrible!  I feel like I'm in purgatory or something.  Hopefully it will be approved soon.

Meanwhile, I've been getting motivated again to practice.  I really would like to do a recital before I leave, in Colorado and in Rochester if possible.  The logistics are quite daunting...2 recitals in 2 different states - that means that I will have to get 2 different pianists...and if I do a couple wind duos I'll have to find separate players for that!  It might be a good challenge though, I've never organized anything like this before.  For the potential recital, I'm working on Muczinski Time Pieces (its a lot harder than I remember!) and Finzi Five Bagatelles at the moment.  I'm also trying to look for a good Eb piece to play, either with piano or unaccompanied -- if anyone has any suggestions, shoot them my way!  I've also got one of the Beethoven Duos for clarinet and bassoon on my stand...I would love to play it if I can find a good bassoonist to play with (two, if I decide to do both Rochester and Colorado)  Also want to do the Poulenc duo.  Got some clarinetists in mind for that one in both states!  But we'll see how everything comes together.