deepgreen18

My apologies, good readers, I didn't intend to leave and return a full week later. Things got rather busy. It was the last week at EMF, and social activity picked up correspondingly. I am pleased to write that my last week here was a good one. I practiced more than previous weeks, socialized more, and got to explore the town a bit thanks to Mom and Dad. My parents arrived Wednesday night, and we went to dinner at this really nice restaurant called Tripps. The food was excellent, and I actually tried a wine that wasn't too objectionable. Mind you, my experience with all things alcohol is still quite limited, and wine is no exception.
The next day Mom and I went shopping, and I found a pair of cute blue flats, and new comfortable black gig shoes. I also went to a Michael's and bought some sale yarn (technically, this makes it souvenir yarn, hmm..). That night was the first of my last three concerts. It didn't go as well as I'd hoped, but it was still very fun.
Friday was a sort-of repeat, except we went to a museum about Greensboro in the 1800's. Rather excellent places, historical museums. (We also went to a winery. This is a first for me, and it was really fun. The people there were really interesting, and I found wine I unreservedly liked. [This is in parenthesis because Dad's embarrassed about me writing this.]) The Friday night concert rocked, to put it simply. I haven't had that much fun since the second week here.
Finally, Saturday dawned. I got up unnecessarily early, but I had time for everything. My chamber group rehearsed, and I got a (really necessary) box filled with clothing and such off to UPS. That thing was heavy, I'm sore from having to carry it around. Lunch happened, and then I went to the operations center and found out when my group was playing. I'd been trying to find this out for three days, and nobody knew anything. At last someone told me the program was at operations. I had a difficult time locating it, but then I did my good deed for the month, and brought a copy of it over to the main hall. Then, because I was very tired (late nights do that, go figure), I tried to take a nap. Getting there felt like an obstacle course, Mom and Dad had arrived, so I met them at my dorm. Then they needed to use the computer, so I laid down and let them, and then they went and watched TV while I napped. My parents are cool that way.
My quartet played around 2:30pm, and we did well. Our violist said it was the best chamber performance that she's been involved in. Mom and Dad left after that to drive to Florida, and are there safe and sound, according to the message I got last night.
After that I went to dinner (at Elizabeth's Pizza!) and the last EMF concert with my roommate and some friends. The faculty played Don Quixote by Strauss. It was a wonderful thing to hear. I finished the first Harry Potter book during intermission, and managed to return that to the library here after the concert. Unlike many others, I managed to get a full night's sleep. I woke up earlier than I planned today, but that turned out to be a good thing (after all, I get to write this). I have a few regrets about what I missed here due to laziness, stubbornness, and fanfiction, but overall it's been a good experience. Music is a wonderful thing, and I'm glad to have been immersed in it for five weeks.

Now, back to reality.
Greeny

P.S. The knitting is bigger.

I have no time! I only have four days in which to fit my normal five and a half before my family and I go off(!) to Florida for spring break.
It's okay, though, almost everything is worked out. I just need to reschedule my lovely violin students.
Small recap for last week: My thumb joint on my left hand started hurting, just like my finger did last semester. I can't stop playing violin, though, there was a band gig Saturday (which went extremely well, by the bye) and I have an orchestra concert tonight. I'll have a chance to rest on vacation, I guess. I got some anti-inflammatory medication from the campus doctors, and that definitely helped. I've also stopped knitting, because it wasn't helping at all, though I did start some socks (yay!) before I quit.
Hopefully my teacher will let me off the hook for not practicing for my lesson because I'm trying to rest and avoid serious injury, plus the concert takes up plenty of practice time.

Gotta go!
Greeny (goes zoom :))