Sunday, March 16, 2008

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

I started to write this yesterday, as you can probably deduce, but it's not too late to wish you all a happy St. Patrick's Day (or happy Irish Day, as I accidentally said at one point yesterday). I have absolutely nothing of real import to ramble about today. Even less so than normal. But I haven't posted much this month, and I really just feel like rambling on and on right now*. I'll keep my wanderings somewhat concise. And yes, I think that was an oxymoron. Feel free to give up at any point.

Yesterday was St. Patrick's day. Hopefully you already knew that, if for no other reason than the fact that I just wrote it a few sentences ago. I wore green, but that was the extent of my celebration. On this day in seventh grade, one of my friends put a sign on my back that read "kick me I'm Irish" and eventually someone did. I kicked the guilty friend back because I had some anger issues in seventh grade. I liked to cause my friends pain. I don't do that anymore. In biology, we played a game as a method of covering two chapters in one day (I'll cover biology insanity at some other point), and my team had a St. Patrick related name, but I forget what it was. We vanquished our foes, for the topic was biomes, and biomes are near and dear to my heart.

In orchestra, my teacher finally called it quits on our improvisation unit (if you could even call it that) and gave us new music for the next concert. One possibility is a selection of snippets from Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake, and I would completely geek out if we got to play it. Two out of the three scenes are deeply interwoven into my childhood memories, and Tchaikovsky is just fantastic in general. One year we played a watered down version of "Waltz of the Flowers" from The Nutcracker, and it was great fun even in its watered down form. I inevitably move with the music, but during that song I pretty much subconsciously waltzed in my seat.

Wow, I just discovered a forum dedicated to freshwater crayfish while doing some taxonomy research for biology in conjunction with rambling (hurrah for quasi-multi-tasking). I had no idea they had such a following. There are 318 members of the crayfish forum. I thought about joining it, but then I reconsidered after realizing how incredibly ignorant I am about freshwater crayfish.

Anyway, I think I'm done rambling about yesterday like an ADD five-year old after his/her first day in preschool (you can only stand it for so long, I've tried). Just a few notes about today.

I'm now part of a select septet of band and orchestra members that will be performing a song at the final orchestra concert... that is if we can pull it off. We're playing "Introduction et Allegro" by Ravel. It's freaking insane, but it sounds neato. I'll probably end up having to simplify parts of it. We practiced today, and the second violin quite frankly admitted that there was no way he could play part of the beginning until he dedicated a lot of practice to it, and he's quite the talented individual. Of course we'll get something to work, and it will sound nice. However, we probably won't be quite up to tempo for the Allegro portion, and most of us will end up having to simplify our parts in a few places.

In English, we started reading The Crucible. Nobody wanted the part of Abigail Williams since she's kind of a harlot, so I took the role. I typically end up taking the part that nobody else wants, and the part normally fits me worse than it could fit anyone else. That's the fun of it. Last year I was Mama in A Raisin in the Sun, and I'm not exactly a big black grandmother. This year I'm Abigail, but I'm not exactly a seductress. I love playing the roles that nobody would expect out of me. And I pull them off pretty well too. I'm proof that type casting isn't always necessary.

I think that's just about it for now. I have an obscene amount of homework to do, thanks to the fact that I lost my USB drive today. It had a math project on it... and that project is supposed to be due tomorrow... and I haven't restarted it yet. Plus, I have to finish my biology outline, biology worksheets, and French packet, and it would be nice to work on the art project, physics lab, physics homework, and additional biology homework that are due on Thursday. For consolation I get to remind myself that I have only two more days until spring "break"! Hip, hip, hurrah for sleep!

3 comments:

Thorvald Erikson said...

Ravel=freaking insane but neato. I will remember this. Introduction and Allegro of what, I wonder?

Oh, and happy my Spring break. I am sorry the Man has you down with the schoolwork.

maria said...

I have no idea. My friend the harpist who started all this burned me a copy the CD that he found it on, but the CD was just called "Music for the Harp." The music itself just says Introduction et Allegro pour Harpe avec acct de quatuor à cordes, flûte, et clarinette. It's ten minutes long, written in the key of G flat, and focuses on the harp, if that helps any.

Thorvald Erikson said...

It seems that the introduction is the introduction of the Allegro, and that the work stands alone. I do not know it, and that is really what I wanted to know.