An Interesting Week

Well, it's one week into July. Yay! We're nearly halfway through summer break. Boo... It's been nice to have some time to relax, but sometimes, I want to be back at the school, because there is so much to do. (Must resist!)

This last week was a wild ride. It's crazy that it's already been a week since we got home from IDRS. While we were driving through Vegas last week, the car thermometer registered at 120° F. It was hot in California and all the way home. We had over 100° here in Cedar, which is not typical for the end of June. Usually, it's the end of July before we get that hot.

On Monday, I toured a couple of housed. I'm looking at buying a house! I walked through a couple of nice places, but then I have found a house that I'm pretty stoked about. It's a one-story two-bed, two-bath cottage, with a sweet shed and landscaping. Next week, I'm going to talk to the realtor about putting in an offer! :) Exciting? I think so! Rent is more than what I'll be paying on mortgage at this place, so I'm checking things out.

What else happened this week? I sang in the Interfaith Choir this week. Our concert was called "Seven Miracles that Saved America." The turnout was great, and we really had a nice concert. I sang first tenor, and I tell you what... I couldn't hit the A above middle C if my life depended on it that night. Oh well. It was good, anyway.

Gone to a Conference

Last week, I did something super fun. Don't laugh! It's nerd-con for double reed players! :-) (For anyone who reads this and doesn't know what nerd-con is or what double reed players are, Google can tell you.) It turned into quite an investment, but I feel a lot better about life after rubbing shoulders with some of the most amazing bassoon and oboe players in the world.

So, about a year ago, I talked to my friend, Ben, about going to the International Double Reed Society convention in southern California. It takes that long to get organized enough to go! We saved up our money, then we drove to Redlands to go to the conference. The thing is, with these conferences, it's a lot of money, a lot of travel, but the payoff is getting to listen to some amazing players, meet really cool people, and attend masterclasses and workshops that help you be a better DR player.

Ben and I went to a lot of recitals, concerts, and masterclasses this last week. Sometimes, it felt like being back in college! We stayed in the dorms, went to classes, and played in quite a few sight reading sessions. It makes me remember just how fun it is to play the bassoon. Our local orchestra does a pretty good job of playing quality repertoire, holding regular rehearsals, and performing a lot. But, it is a small-town community orchestra. So, getting to play in sessions like these with other college-and-beyond-level players is a real treat!

My favorite are sight-reading sessions. A group of IDRS members collects music, and three times nearly every day, anyone who wants to perform, does. We get together and play with whomever shows up. During the conference, we played in duets, trios, quartets, octets, and mixed large groups (with ...oboists... and English horn players). (the triple-dotted "oboists" is a joke. please laugh.)

All in all, it was a great conference, and only once did I want to kill Ben. I'm sure there was once or twice he wanted to kill me too. However, neither of us killed the other (obviously), and we are still friends now.

Now that we're back in Utah, though, I'm trying to sort out what I need to do here at the house... It's a little overwhelming. I managed to finish the laundry. Check! Now for all that other stuff I don't want to do. Things like cleaning the fish tank, tidying up the basement, going through all my stuff so when I find a place to move I don't go crazy packing up all the junk that I don't need... You know that kind of thing. The last nine months (during school), I was only home like twice a week, so my living spaces are kind of disastrous. I made a half-effort a few weeks ago to tidy up, but then I took all my things out of the living space in the basement and made a new mess on the floor in my bedroom... *sigh*

The garden is looking really good right now. I've got some very healthy-looking tomato plants, squash and corn. The beans and peppers are kind of limping along (I think I've got to decrease the watering for those particular plants), and the rhubarb is just kind of there... Something is eating the leaves and it's not looking to happy right now! Stinking bugs!!

What else? I think that's it for now. Just the usual day to day! OH! By the way, I lost somewhere around 17 pounds! :-D Some of my clothes are too big to fit. I went to help some friends move from their apartment and forgot my belt. I had a hard time keeping my pants up! A minor inconvenience -- and proud of my weight loss!