Onward

May 17, 2006 at 9:11 AM

I've been so tired lately. I don't sleep. But I'm tired. I tried eating instead, today, and I ate until I wasn't tired anymore. You can substitute the two sometimes, you know.

I guess here's the update in the world of Emily:

Next week is the last week of lessons with my students. In the summers, I cook with my husband for the camp where I live. However, this year, half of my students want to stay on for the summer, so I will work four days in the camp kitchen, baking sweets and breads, and take Fridays off for teaching lessons. Right now, kitchen work begins to gradually pick up, and I cook a few hours in the morning and on weekends to help George out.

The new restaurant in town has been asking me to play piano for a few hours in the evenings, a couple of times a week. Between this and my trio, I've got 9 gigs booked so far this month. (Good thing, because I have a bow to pay for!)

On the evenings I don't play, I have been training for the race up Mount Marathon that happens every Fourth of July. My training partners and I hike up mountains every other day. (Great fun!) Yesterday we hiked up 3,000 feet along Bird Ridge, which overlooks Cook Inlet.

Yesterday's hike was preceded by a trip to Anchorage to meet Walter Olivares, a teacher at the University of Anchorage, to discuss lessons for the fall. I have plans to audition for the Anchorage Symphony in August, as well. The meeting went well, and I'm very excited about aggressively planning toward real progress. It feels good to keep moving forward and up, even if it's hard.

You may not see as much of me around the discussion boards in the next few months, because when I'm not teaching or cooking or training or playing gigs, I'll be hitting the river in my annual pursuit of salmon.

It's very difficult to practice when the outdoors beckon. We have many long winter months for practicing. I hope to be disciplined enough over the summer to take my daily Yost vitamin and chip away at orchestra excerpts. Honestly, if I can manage that, it'll be a first. I have to do it though, if I'm to stand before a committee, or panel--or whoever it is that decides the outcome of orchestra auditions--and play Schumann's 2nd. Not too excited about that...

Mount Marathon