this week in a nutshell

Does not include anything more interesting than a couple of potential-job-related phone calls and a lot of studying, so let's not bore ourselves with that.

On Monday night, I joined a new orchestra for the remainder of the summer schedule. Kenwood Symphony, a rather nice civic orchestra. I was told by the lovely violinist who invited me to join that it wouldn't be that difficult and had the potential for lots of fun. (She is my section leader for Minnetonka, so I play with her regularly and trust her.) Well, upon my arrival to rehearsal on Monday night, there she was, arm in sling. She'd had a bit of surgery on her shoulder again, and it hadn't gone well. I think it was planned because she left immediately thereafter to let all of us violinists rot in a very hot and steamy room with an amount of not-insignificant music (e.g., Carmen's Bizet, First and Second Suites, Copland's Rodeo, a movement from Mahler's First Symphony, a movement from Tchaikovsky's Fifth, etc.) The only fluffy pop pieces traditional to summer concerts is a suite of The Wizard of Oz music and a suite of The Empire Strikes Back. However, I do love a challenge, and I enjoy playing new music (I've only played one of the pieces before, a Strauss waltz, which unfortunately I've played in both first and second violin sections in the last two months, so I'm kind of tired of that one...), so it should be a somewhat enjoyable experience. Plus, we get to play all three concerts outdoors. In August. But they're at bandshells by lakes. yay!

Tuesday night played tennis. It's amazing. (no, I'm not saying I am.) When I play singles, I have so much more energy. Probably because if I don't hit the ball, no one else will, and then I'll *still* have to go round them up at some point. If I play doubles, I don't go after anything. [think Mojo the monkey from The Simposons]: "nye [waves paw], she can get it." I'm sure not in a hurry to hit them. When I'm on my own, though...I seem to have a lot of aggression; or maybe I just don't do anything in half measures. Either way, you'd think I was trying to beat the stuffing out of the ball. It makes such a nice sound when you hit the tennis ball just so.

and now we're up to Wednesday (studying), today (studying) and tomorrow (studying). Oh, and have I mentioned Saturday? Oil change! (and then studying.)