That One Time I Choked While Playing the Organ for Convocation

The first semester I played organ for devotional I was also asked to play the organ for convocation. The reason they asked was because they held the convocation in a stake center- a church building- but they had it in the chapel, which means you're supposed to be super reverent. (I don't know why they picked the chapel.) So to keep people from whooping and hollering they asked for an organist to play quiet hymns or whatever on the organ. And I was the lucky one chosen.

This means that I play prelude, postlude, and I also played while they read names. This means that except for when they read a name, I was the only thing they were hearing. Me. Playing the organ. Nothing else.

I was sorely unaware of this fact when I went in there.

So I panicked a little, but told myself, Ashy, you'll be all right, just stay calm, you're a pro, you've played devo...

Despite pep-talking myself, I realised I was still shaking and nervous. I made one mistake. You're fine, just keep going like it didn't happen, no one probably even noticed it... I made a second mistake, and a third right on the second's heels. Seriously, you'll be fine, just stay calm...

Then I remembered the advice the organ professor gave when I played my devo hymns in masterclass the day before devotional. Just take a deep breath. Just breathe.

So I took a deep breath.

And I choked on my spit.

If you've ever done that, it's largely embarrassing in and of itself. But here I am, sitting in front of an organ, in front of hundreds of people in a silent chapel except for the guy reading a name every thirty seconds and my organ playing, and I choke on my spit. My eyes watered up, I couldn't breathe, I needed to cough but if I did I would have stopped playing and then everyone would have noticed for sure, but I didn't want to just cough all over the organ...

I don't know how badly I messed up. I don't want to know how badly I messed up. I just kept on playing, even though I couldn't breathe, letting myself cough a little when I felt like I could. Finally I regained control of myself, and it got a lot easier to play all of a sudden. I'm not sure if that was because I could finally relax after trying not to cough, or if it was knowing that no matter what mistake I made after point it didn't matter because I'd already messed up really badly anyways. Either way, the rest of it went pretty well after that, in my mind.

Except for the end, where I finished all of my predetermined pieces for the reading of names part and then there were still a dozen people to go through, so when I finished my last piece I was frantically scrambling for my hymnal to get it open and start playing with as little silence as possible between pieces. That was fun.

And to make matters worse, the guy who was doing all the announcing and who was kind of running the whole convocation got up after they finished reading names and said, "And special thanks to our organist for her wonderful job."

I couldn't decide if he was serious or just trying to make me feel better.

Perhaps I didn't completely blow it when I choked. I honestly don't remember- I was kind of trying not to die at the time. Maybe my fingers just magically kept on going. I kind of doubt that, but maybe...

So yeah. That's my story. You can laugh, that's why I posted it. I laugh about it too!

Really quickly, in other news my delphinium died. And my calibrachoa got bugs on it. A friend picked out a bug spray, and so I hope it works. And I think I'm slowly killing my friend's orchid that I'm babysitting.
Oh, and the opera! I'm in the pit for a production of The Mikado. It's SO funny!! There are so many jokes and silly things (from what I can hear under the stage, anyways- and the audience laughed a lot too.) I hope I get to see it on a night that I don't have to be in the pit.
And there's only three weeks left of school. That makes me feel better too.

The Experibass

This is the opening theme to "Sherlock Holmes".

There's kind of a strange, sort of Eastern-sounding instrument in it. For some reason people assume that since I'm a music major that I automatically know what it is... and while I like to think I know everything, let's face it- I don't.

But I do know what instrument this is now!

Ladies and gentleman, Just when you thought the tromboon was the height of instrument experimentation... I present to you... the experibass.

My music literature teacher showed this to us today in class while we were talking about film score music. After I got over my initial shock of this guy sawing up a bass, I thought it was really, really cool. I've mentioned film score music before and how I never would have considered putting together a full orchestra with organ AND with electric guitar. Film score composers nowadays compose with anything and everything that strikes their fancy... including the experibass.

Here's the guy who invented it, Diego Stocco, talking with Hans Zimmer (who is one of my most favorite soundtrack composers) about the experibass. I don't don't know why they start off talking about spaghetti sauce, just keep watching it.

I think the things that they come up with for movie soundtracks are crazy amazing. These guys don't get the entire time the movie is being made to create the soundtrack- in fact, music is one of the last things to be added. The composer has a super-tight deadline, has specific down-to-the-second clips of the movie that s/he has to score for... the only place for freedom is the main title, the very beginning. And yet, despite all these limitations, there are some composers that make everything sound SO AWESOME.

Someday I'll try my hand at this. No, not at creating an experibass- at composing. You sillies.

Husband Man

 I've collected a few photos of Husband Man, and he's such a goober that I need to post them. I love him so much!!

 I forget exactly when I took this picture- it's at least a couple months ago- I was up a little late finishing a homework assignment and he went to to read a book in bed. I found him like this, and while I know guys don't like being called cute, you have to admit- he's pretty cute in this picture.

 This was the last haircut I gave him. (Or half of it, rather.) I fought with him for over a week about getting it- "I don't need one! I don't need one!" he would cry, and finally when I got him to sit in the tub for the haircut I had to snap this picture because I thought it was so funny! His hair grows so fast, and poor silly Husband Man doesn't like haircuts.

 A friend of mine went to Alaska this summer, and her boyfriend doesn't know what to with himself except work and come over to our house. Husband Man doesn't mind because they play games together (they're playing Smash Brothers in this picture) and I don't mind because they let me play with them (when I'm not doing homework) and because he'll help cook in the evenings. (He taught me how to make friend rice the other evening!)

 Their latest thing is that they're trying to set up a server to run Minecraft on. Husband Man runs one off of his laptop, but it gets wonky sometimes and he can't leave it running all the time. They bought an old pc from DI to gut and use some of its parts for their server, and inside they found a prize!

(And for anyone that missed it, I got a haircut. As in, they removed another six inches from my head.)

When the Fam Came to Visit

I love my parents! They came to visit a week ago, with my two little brothers. They made it just in time for my concert last Wednesday (we played Schubert's Unfinished Symphony, and the Walton Viola Concerto with a faculty member) and then they stayed all day Thursday and left Friday morning. I'm so happy they came! I miss my parents SO MUCH!!

We had a lazy day. I went to classes Thursday morning and then Husband Man and I swapped and I came home and he went to class. When I came home my mom was going to help me re-pot the China Doll (picture of that in this post). So my mom and I went to Walmart...

I should say right now that my mom LOVES plants, so me going to the store with her was probably not a good idea. I mentioned that I was thinking about potting snapdragons (since last year's plant never came back) because I wanted a plant and they seemed pretty easy to take care of. Next thing I know I'm asking her "What kind of plant is this? What about this one? And this one?" and she's telling me about annuals and perennials and trying to decide if a perennial would even come back next spring since we're in Idaho, etc.... We didn't pick up any plants for me until we found a corner with clearance plants, ones that had been damaged a little. There we found some snappies, and my mom found some lupine, and then I said "Oh this one's cute" and next thing I know we have a cart full of plants and we still haven't gotten dirt to re-pot the Doll!

So we ask a worker where the dirt is, and he says, "Oh, it's out in the parking lot next to the greenhouse. There's more plants out there, by the way." So my mom goes out to get dirt and I walk through the greenhouse to see what they have out there.......

We went through the checkout with two carts of plants and dirt. (And a gallon of milk that wasn't as cold as it used to be.)  The total? $80 worth of plants, dirt, and pots.

I turned to my mom and said, "Dad's not going to be upset that you're getting plants to take home, is he?"

"Nope. He's used to it. I was just going to ask you, is Husband Man going to be ok with this?"

"I think so. We're pretty laid back."

But this comment made that mean spot in my brain question that- I was positive that Husband Man wouldn't care, but that mean spot kept saying What if he is? What will you do then??

 Some seed geraniums, some snappies.... some other plants that I don't remember the names of... (And the irises came back again this year! Woohoo!)

 I think the orange fuzzy-looking one is so cool. I think there's some verbana or something in there. (I'm too lazy to go back out right now and look at what they are.....)

 This is my delphinium. We pruned the roots (we removed an inch of root coil) and the next day it got battered by the wind and now she's not looking too happy. I'm starting to feel like she won't pull through.... and the Del was one of my favorites....

 The hanging pot is one of my favorites too. I love the little flowers! (And you can see all cars that are by the park, which is pretty jam-packed- the norm for a Saturday.)

Husband Man wasn't mad at all, by the way. In fact, he was rather happy that I spent a little money (or a lot) on something that makes me so excited. I really am excited about the plants, they make me so happy! My mom taught me how to put them in the pots and how to pack the dirt down a little so that there aren't gaps, and the root pruning, and she taught me about the Doll's super-growth (we ended up pruning her a little too). We hemmed and hawed over the orchid, and determined that I shouldn't have put her in the window to get direct sunlight and the orchid's leaves got burned. I will feel so badly if that plant dies, but she's trying to put out a bloom so maybe she's ok.

I'd better stop before I bore everyone with plant jabber. I'm just so excited! I learned so much! I'm so glad my parents came. I wish I'd gotten a picture of my brothers, they played Smash Brothers on the Nintendo 64 over half the time they were here. And I learned how to make chicken pot pie for dinner too! And pie crust! (And my poor dad got so bored that he fixed our toilet, so now it doesn't wobble anymore.) I wish I lived closer to my parents. I miss them.

I love you, Mommy and Daddy!

It's Monday, Monday...

Oh yes. Monday. We meet again.

I have a sectional today (which means I'll be in school from 7:45AM-6:30PM straight), a science test tomorrow, a paper due Wednesday morning and a concert Wednesday night, and a project and another paper due on Friday.

There's a little over a month left of this semester and my brain started summer vacation this morning. (Husband Man wouldn't let me go with it.)

A week ago I registered for the second-to-last semester of my college career. After pitching a momentary hissy fit when I realised that two classes I wanted to take were offered at the same time and I couldn't push one back to the last semester, I decided that I didn't care about percussion methods and now my earliest class this fall is at 10:15AM (which has NEVER HAPPENED) and I'm only registered for 14 credits (which has also NEVER HAPPENED).

A couple of days ago I learned that any ice cream that has a peanut butter swirl is NOT worth getting. (At least not the store brands. Blech.)

Yesterday I learned that Husband Man is head of the IT department over the summer break in August (or something like that, he's in charge of stuff). That's right. My husband is awesome.

But you know what's not awesome? Monday.

Not an Organist

You might remember this post where I played the organ in devotional for the first time, right? And that went really well, right? Well, I knew that after that performance I would probably get asked to play devo for the rest of the time I was here, once a semester. Sure enough, (sooner than I thought,) I was asked to play. The hymns weren't too difficult, but I didn't know any of them at all and I had just one week to prepare them.

Oh boy.

I paced myself, didn't overplay them, didn't let myself get frustrated, but when I played them for my organ teacher last Friday, they were horrible. We both panicked. I didn't know what to do. I knew I could play these hymns, but I kept messing up left and right (and foot). We agreed that the weekend should be enough time to tidy up the hymns.

Come masterclass on Monday, I played for the other organists and... it didn't go so well. I was embarrassed, but I was trying so hard to play them as well as I knew I could. They weren't perfect, sure, but I kept messing up passages that I knew I could play. It became a consistency issue- I knew I could play the hymns but I couldn't play it well even twice in a row, and each hymn has 3-4 verses. (And the one, "I Believe in Christ", was the same three lines repeated twice for one verse!) The organ teacher still seemed optimistic, and asked me to review them and try to pick up the speed a little before devo on Tuesday.

So on Tuesday I go to the building that devo is in, and meet both teachers so that I can review the hymns one last time before I debuted them. They weren't any better. It was still frustrating and upsetting, but strangely by this point I was calm. After I played them the organ teacher came over to me, and I knew that what I had been able to prepare wasn't enough.

I looked right at him and said, "If you want someone else to play today I'm not offended. I completely understand." He nodded, and said, "I think if you had another week then they would be great. But... we only have an hour..."

So my organ teacher had to play the hymns, and I only did prelude and postlude. I felt so horrible because she had to play impromptu and it's all my fault... but I feel like I did my best...

So, these things happen. I know I'm not the greatest organist to ever walk the earth- I'm nowhere close to that! But I felt like I was being honest with myself, and that is what is important to me. I did what I could, and just wasn't at the skill level required for the situation. Husband Man told me later that he was proud of me because I didn't insist on playing them even when I knew I couldn't.

It was a good learning experience, however, as I did pick up a few practice techniques that can help me in the future. The organ instructor told me that I would probably be asked later in the semester, when I would have more time to prepare, but honestly I feel kind of crappy about playing the hymns. I'm focusing on my other pieces for my lesson right now, and maybe I'll try the hymns again after Memorial Day weekend.

[Sorry about the depressing post! Would knowing about impending posts make things better? Of course it would! I have a really funny story about me playing organ at last semester's convocation that involves me literally choking over the organ. Also, this weekend is Memorial Day weekend, AND my birthday! And Husband Man says he has lots of things planned, since my family was going to come and then couldn't because of work and my cousin's graduation.

That's not enough to counter my depressing post? Here, have a picture of a kitty.

This is a good interpretation of Husband Man after school is over for the day and I make him wait while I make him dinner.]

Grandpa's Baptism, a Family Sealing, and Why I Didn't Get a Plant For Mother's Day at Church This Year

We've got a few things to cover in this post. I have so many things I want to share!! (Because apparently I'm too lame to keep up with this blog!) So this might be long, but bear with me because it's all really good stuff. You can also go here to see what's happening on the writing side of life.

The first weekend in May Husband Man and I drove down to Utah for my grandfather's baptism. (My mom's dad.) I honestly never thought I'd ever see this happen, but ever since my grandmother passed away when I was a freshman in high school my grandfather has had a roller-coaster of attempts to be baptised and get his life in order so he can be sealed to my grandmother. It was a wonderful blessing to be a part of this huge step in Grandpa's life, and it was the most beautiful thing to see my mother cry with joy and the Spirit because of this decision my grandpa has made. I love my grandpa so much, and I can't wait until next year when I get to be in the temple with my family! (Hopefully I can be there, anyways.)

Today the coolest couple on the planet took their adopted son to the temple to be sealed for time and all eternity. I love these people! I call them my big brother and big sister, because they pretty much were older siblings for me when I first went away from college. Their home was our home. We watched movies there, played games, had dollar birthdays, played guitar hero (or was it rock band? I don't know. It was fun!), we laughed there, we cried there (ok, I cried there.... a lot), I got a priesthood blessing there when I got an abscess in my mouth and almost went to the hospital for dehydration, we stayed there over a weekend when the entire college town got drunk over football (there was a lot of alcohol around, no joke), and so much more. I'm so glad that they finally have a little boy that is theirs for eternity, and I can't wait for more to be adopted! Congrats! (You can visit them here)

Finally... Mother's Day. The ward gift was pretty hilarious- So about mid-April I go to a council meeting thingy with our bishopric members in place of the Relief Society president, and at one point the men talked about the upcoming Mother's day and what gift they should get. Then they turned to me and said, "You should ask the sisters in Relief Society what they want. We have no clue what to get them. Do they want a plant like last year? Or something different? Chocolate? What?"
So I agreed to ask, and a couple weeks later the question was brought up in Relief Society. When asked whether the sisters would appreciate chocolate or a plant like last year, the general consensus was a plant and that most sisters had enjoyed receiving that as a gift. That lasted for about two minutes, however, until a sister raised her hand and said,
"Can I change my answer? I voted for flowers, but I killed my plant last year."
This caused a murmur among the sisters, and calls of "Oh yeah, I did too..." and "Now that you mention it, I think I'd rather have chocolate."
So this last Sunday, as we left the chapel, we had a selection of candy bars that most of us shared with our husbands. That's probably the real reason why they asked the women to pick- it occurred to them that they could just default with flowers again, but if we happened to choose chocolate then they could have some too....
Oh, you want to know what Husband Man got me? He didn't get me anything, and I told him he couldn't. I'm not a mother! So I told him he couldn't get me anything. I'm not sad, so you shouldn't be either!