what i have been up to

what i have been up to

On Tuesday, Nancy Zeltsman (one of the best marimba players in the world) honored us with a concert. It was amazing. She is so animated and expressive. The highlight for me was probably hearing her play Jenkins' "Hymn", which I played on my recital last year. After the concert, we (percussion majors, Nancy, Dr. C + wife) went out to El Patio for dinner and margaritas. It was great spending time with Nancy. This is so cliche, but she is really down to earth. I really wish I'd had more time to talk with her, but she was on a tight schedule while she was here. I hope she'll be at PASIC (big percussion geek convention) later this year. After watching her, I've become inspired to play marimba again. I haven't really touched it since my recital last year. I ordered the music for one of the pieces she played on the recital (Lansky's "Three Moves", if you're familiar) so I'm excited to pick at it.

The other day Andrea, Liz and I sat in the band office and talked for a long time. Of course we spent some time talking about the accident. It may seem like I should be "talked out" about the accident, but I'm not. I feel like I could talk to a different person every day for the rest of my life about it and never have the same conversation twice. So many people were affected in so many different ways. I think Andrea and I are going through some of the same stuff right now. Our situations are different, but what's similar is that most people don't have to go through these situations - at least not at our age. When your world has been turned upside-down, it's easy to get lost. I'm finally starting to ease into "normalcy" but I still feel like I'm distanced from everything. Hopefully that will get better as time goes on.

Lately I've heard from a lot of people that they're having trouble "moving on", and that they feel like they shouldn't be having so much trouble. I think our society places too much pressure on us to be mentally "normal" and get over things quickly. The accident was so sudden and unexpected, and as I said earlier, so many people were affected. It's only been four and a half months. And I don't think people should feel like they're not allowed to grieve for Branden or the others because they didn't know them well. I didn't know Branden very well, but now it's sad for me because I'm finding out who he was and learning what I missed.

Random thought: Gillingham's "Heroes, Lost and Fallen" is probably the most beautiful piece ever (I'm listening to it right now).

I got a random call from the student newspaper today because they wanted to interview me for a story on plastic surgery. Um, I've never had any plastic surgery. I might need it on my ankle, but it seems to be healing up slowly but surely, so I don't think I'll need it. I told the reporter to talk to Jessie. Later I called Jessie and asked her about it, and she said she kind of blew the reporter off, which I was hoping she would do. It would be weird to interview her for an article on surgeries that are normally elective, asthetic operations done for reasons of vanity. All the surgeries that we've had were so profoundly different from typical plastic surgeries. I don't think the reporter understood that. I'm kind of weirded out by the whole situation, especially since the newspaper did not give two shits about me following the accident. They can't think of any stories for which to interview me, other than something on extreme makeover bullshit procedures (which I haven't had)? Please.
Today I was sick. My exhaustion finally got the best of me, and I barely had the energy to go to class. I went out to lunch with my mom afterwards and she said I looked really sick. Then we went to Walgreens so she could buy me some gauze, and she also bought me some Ensure drink things, which I'm pretty sure are for old people, but they're not half bad. I suppose I could use some more nutrients in my life. After that my mom took me home and I spent the rest of the day in bed. Later, Raji was sweet enough to bring me soup, crackers, and Sprite. It was pretty much all I've eaten all day (I picked at my food during lunch). I feel like a failure because I was going to spend the day doing homework (some of which is already late), but that didn't happen. I have to email Dr. Don for the second week in a row to tell him I didn't get anything done on my research project. Oops.

In sad news, Raji's grandpa passed away last night. He was an integral part of Raji's and his brother's childhood. He was 80, and was suffering from Alzheimer's/dementia. Raji and his brother will be flying down to FL for the funeral. If you see Raji in the near future, give him a hug.

In happier news, I'm planning on having a party soon to celebrate everything there is to celebrate. If you want to know details, just call me or send a message. I'll probably send out an email soon.

P.S. this post was not written at 1:23 pm. I hate you Blogger.