In the last couple of weeks, I have played gigs at a city market, on a farm, in a pecan grove. The city market is just for fun-a distraction from teaching twinkle all week. The farm and pecan grove were both Google-defying locations in the country. The farm event was a dinner to raise money for my orchestra. I played background music (altenating with a flute/oboe duo) and got eaten by mosquitoes. The pecan grove was the setting for a wedding. It had been threatening to rain all day, but the wedding would have been completed before the rain if they hadn't decided to delay it by 40 minutes. So I was playing prelude music as accompanied by thunder in the distance. It was getting darker, so I placed my case so I could put my violin away as fast as possible. The wind picked up suddenly, which was the signal for everyone to head to the reception tent. My violin got put away in the nick of time, and we all waited for the thunderstorm to pass. It began to stop after 10 minutes, so after chairs were dried off, I switched to my "outside" violin and began to play again. I had to reposition myself between trees (not easy in a pecan grove) so as to avoid drips. I began the music for the bridal party and had paper towels ready just in case. Word to the wise: park the horse drawn carriage as far away as possible. This particular horse decided to add to the charm by taking a leak. A very loud long one. During the vows.
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More entries: April 2009
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