I didn't even think it was possible to have a good week and be in highschool

October 10, 2005 at 10:07 PM

Well, i haven't written for a while, with good reason.
After two brothers, I finally have a sister! My mom had a baby, Tatiana Sophie Marsalli last Thursday and came home on Saturday.
Lemme see if I can get the photo working...
[img] http://photos.toast.net/ImageResizeCache/Baby%20Tatiana-25_t2005_10_6_20_19_49_q75_f8_600x450.jpg[/img]

She's a beautiful baby, with nice, long fingers for violin playing. We have a tenth-size sitting in the closet, waiting for her. But for obvious reasons, my writing has been curtailed.

My teacher was so impressed with my work that he gave me another few pages to the Kabalevsky. I'm doing a really nice job on it; not a quick job, but slow, very accurate, and terribly expressive. i LOVE working on pieces like that! Some people like to rush through the books, just to see how many pieces they can stick under their belt before college, but me? I like to spend lots and lots of time perfecting a piece, from the intonation to the expression.

Mr. Neal was further impressed by my perfect arpeggios in D flat major. His jaw actually dropped. He was astonsihed with my weekly progress on just about everything, from my etudes to my shifting exercises to my pieces.

Even school is going well. With my violin teacher's help, I was able to plan and schedule and stick to it so that I'm not behind in anything (albeit hanging on by the skin of my teeth) and I still have time for two hours of practice a day. With eight hour long classes (some with up to three essays each due), it's rough, but I can do it!

Yesterday, we had sectionals for orchestra, which went well. Our sectionalist ROCKS! He always brings his first violinists treats; this time it was a massive jar of jelly beans. Then, the hour I had been dreading approached; String ensemble. But to my surprise, we sounded not only good, but TERRIFIC! Everyone had practiced the music, was paying attention, taking notes, and yet joking and having a good time. I was astonished! This was so different from the "just get it over with" attitude of last week, and certainly a drastic change from the "why am I here?" attitude of last year. I swear we sounded like a professional chamber group! I think we're really coming together as a team as well. We all know and respect each other, help each other out, and joke around like collegues should.
Heck, if you go to a highschool, chances are, the guy in front of you will bang the door in your face, with not so much as a glance back, even if you're carrying eighty pounds of musical paraphernalia. For some reason, guy musicians are so much more gentlemanly. I wonder why...

All in all, it has been one fabulous day after another. Hopefully you all will have a nice day too!

From Sydney Menees
Posted on October 10, 2005 at 10:43 PM

Fairy-tale lifey!!! With THAT blog entry, I don't even know why I'm on the computer right now! I am weighing my backpack right now...24 pounds!!!

From Natasha Marsalli
Posted on October 11, 2005 at 1:52 AM

Yeah, well mine's 38 lb. and I have to walk around a college campus....but I do have a fairy tale life. ;-)

From Sydney Menees
Posted on October 11, 2005 at 3:51 AM

With my violin and lunch box and other binders that won't fit...I'm probably closer to 40 lbs. I had to bring home my whole locker (except for 2 books). It drives me crazy because teachers are like "make sure you get lots of sleep before the PSAT." But how can you if they all assign an hour of homework???

From Carley Anderson
Posted on October 11, 2005 at 11:55 AM

Yay! You're baby sister is so cute! (I just copied the link...she's really beautiful, Natasha!)

From Pauline Lerner
Posted on October 12, 2005 at 6:13 AM

I'm so glad that I'm not in school any more.

From Julia S
Posted on October 13, 2005 at 5:30 PM

Is high school really that hard? I'm in 8th grade, and except for my geometry homework (well I guess it is a highschool class after all) I finish most of my homework in school. I guess I'll have to say goodbye to that next year because the school is huge, and I'll finally get the advanced English I've wanted (no honors courses in my school except for math). That's cool that you like your orchestra, because my orchestra in school is really bad. I wish I was a sophomore!

From Natasha Marsalli
Posted on October 13, 2005 at 8:38 PM

Honey, enjoy your freedom while it lasts...;-)
On the other hand, it depends which highschool you go to. I myself do a college prep correspondance school, so it's faster paced than a public highschool.

Glad you like my sister! She was one hour old when that photo was taken!

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I didn't even think it was possible to have a good week and be in highschool

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