Whew

All I can say is what a week. Last night, after I left the 3rd concert I played in out of 4 days, I counted up exactly how many songs I performed in front of an audience (accompanying various choirs) this week: 43. 43! That has to be some kind of record. The reason? About 3 months ago I agreed to play for District III Large Group Jr. High Choral festival for the choir director at West. I really was thinking it would be for like, one choir. Then about a month ago, at the BSU Jazz Festival, I agreed to play for the same festival for Fairmont. Still thinking it was only for like, one or two choirs. Well, when I finally got the music from those directors about 2 weeks ago, it turned out that it was for every single one of their choirs, (4 choirs each school) and 3 songs per choir. And of course I had already been accompanying for 3 of Centennial's choirs for their totally separate D III Choir Festival which was 2 weeks ago, but their post-festival concert was last night.

. . . To make a long story short, I spent all my spare time last week sight-reading and learning over 35 new songs-- and they weren't easy! These directors really pulled out all the stops in doing more difficult festival music, for both the choir and piano parts!! Then this week went like this:
Monday:
8:00-9:30 rehearse with 2 choirs at West
9:30-10:30 Drive out to St. Luke's Meridian to pick up medical records for new dr. appt. next week
10:45-11:45 Practice for own piano lesson with Del (only practice for that in 2 weeks! Oops!)
12:00-12:45 Lesson with Del
1:00-2:30 Rehearse with 2 more choirs at West
3:00-6:30 Teach
6:45-8:00 Pre-Festival Concert at West.
Now you see why I had to have all that music learned perfectly before the actual day of rehearsal! No time to fix any mistakes! Good thing my sight reading is getting so good after the infamous Christmas-Choral-Massacre I brought on myself.

But it gets better--
Tuesday:
8:30-9:30 Rehearse at Fairmont
10:20-12:00 More rehearsing at Fairmont
Break! ahh!
1:00-2:30 More rehearsing at Fairmong
3:00-7:00 Teach
7:30-9:00 CCFA Support Group Meeting (Yes I am still in charge of these. Anyone want to co-facilitate with me??)
Then after that, I spent another hour going over all the music I had to perform the next day.

So on to Wednesday, when it poured rain all afternoon, I had to run to my car twice for forgotten music in my 3-inch heels, both times in which one of my shoes fell off right as I stepped nylon-footed into a huge puddle:
8:30-12:00 Play for 6 choirs at Festival! (seriously performances back to back to back to back.)
break! ahh!
1:00-4:00 Play for 3 more choirs and watch some choirs. Oh, and during one of the songs I was accompanying an 8th grade girl locked her knees until she stumbled off the risers, lurched forward into the director, knocked over the director's music stand, and fell, not even kidding, face first onto the stage, out cold. So scary! And of course there were 40 other 8th and 9th grade girls in the risers freaking out about it. You know that age. The story gets worse... after they got her to come around (she was okay thankfully, just incredibly embarrassed and bawling her eyes out), they restarted the song, and half way through 3 other girls "had to sit down" because they felt faint, and the sickenss kept spreading until they all lost their pitches (acappella) and had to do yet another re-start. Poor, poor Pennie. (the director) but we did have a good laugh (away from the kids) once we were off stage. Wow.
4:30-8:00 Teach

And then yesterday...
Free morning! Yeah! I slept until 9 then worked out! fabulous!
Then....
12:00-1:00 rehearse at Centennial
1:30-2:00 Teach
3:30-6:00 Teach
6:30-8:30 Centennial Choir Concert
8:30-9:30 Clogging


** Don't forget I had laundry, cooking, and general cleaning and practicing to fit into this! That's what went on during the "Breaks."


. . . so as you can see I have had my fill of going from place to place to place to place. I don't mind and I kind of think it helps keep my on my toes and from getting too lazy, I guess. That's what I tell myself anyway. And I figure since we haven't been able to have kids yet I might as well keep working hard and try to improve my piano skills and make the most of my time. I don't want to look back on this time and say "I shouldn't have spent so much time watching TV." (which I think might be too late to change already . . . we'll see." But you see what I mean? Still, I am glad to finally have an evening to myself! Collin isn't home from Vegas until like 4 am (and you see, I didn't even hardly have time to miss him, since I was completely swamped each day and then practically fell into bed each night exhausted. BUT I got paid pretty darn well for it, and it (hopefully) improved my pianistic skills a little more... plus if nothing else it is good publicity to hopefully some potential students out there.
Enough said. I'm pulling out the scrapbooking, buying some chocolate, and renting a chick flick! :)