jaala

I did get my flute fixed, but not without a lot of fuss. Through a number of phone calls, internet sites, and conversations, I discovered a repairperson in Moncton (40 minute drive away). Another flute player was generous enough to lend me her old flute for the rehearsal with my accompanist, K, which was strange but better than nothing.

The trip to Moncton took up the rest of Tuesday afternoon:
-walking to the bus stop (20 min.)
- taking the bus (40 min.)
- walking through and out of Moncton following directions (at least 30 min.)
- giving up finding the street and taking a cab (2 min.)
- waiting at the person's home for the repair (nearly an hour)
- and taking a cab back (40 min.) here and directly to Choral Society without dinner.

It wasn't entirely unpleasant. There were some kittens in a shop window in Moncton -- downtown Moncton was pretty nice in general -- , and the repairperson was pleasant. And I had a rather interesting conversation with the cab driver on the ride home about possible avenues for his nephew's musical education; somehow our conversation also meandered to classical music and Jethro Tull.

The first vocal jazz ensemble rehearsal was on Thursday. I enjoyed it thoroughly. I was disappointed to find some familiar faces (who I know did not graduate) missing, but we look to have a very promising group this year. (And man, am I going to miss Dr. E when he retires.)

Today (Friday), I rehearsed with K again, this time in front of my flute professor. Some of it went swimmingly, and some was a disaster. I've practiced enough to be able to play the notes, so when I relax (which is incredibly difficult) I'm fine. I'm also unpracticed at getting through entire pieces without breaks (or retrying a phrase) without freezing up or running out of breath. I need to use my housemates as a practice audience some time. My jury is next Friday.

I was reunited with two different people on ICQ this past week. The first was a friend from last year, the former music computer lab admin assistant. He included me in a group email a couple months ago informing us about his current situation (studying music at McGill), but I hadn't heard from him since. We had a nice chat.

A bigger surprise was had when I discovered that a friend from Grade 12 English had come online -- the first time I've seen her since her first year of university when I was still in high school. We talked for nearly an hour, catching up on the details of each other's lives about which we were uninformed. She graduated with a degree in business last year! (Quite the shock to my system.) But she didn't seem shocked that I'm only in my second year, which was reassuring, and implied that she wishes she were still in school instead of dealing with her senior contract work colleagues.

My big news: I have a job! Unless the university decides not to grant the same funding to the music department as it did last year, I am going to be the new music [computer] lab administrative assistant! This is the first job I've ever held during the school year. I hope I can manage it. I work about three hours a week for (if I recall correctly) $8.25 (Can.) helping students with the Mac platform, managing user accounts, collecting MacGamut stats, cleaning mouses (mice?), and possibly fiddling about a bit with the server computer. (Geeky tendencies coming in handy? I hope so.) I meet with the professor (the real music lab administrator) on Tuesday to begin my "training". Wish me luck.