www.megumikanda.com

My dad made Megumi a website. Go check it out, its pretty cool. :)

I've really been freaking myself out about these incoming freshman. Its like I worked so hard this year, and now I'm afraid that some kid whos been taking lessons all his life is just going to waltz in and take over. Its hard to think about...but i'm trying to get past the fact that chair placement still matters. (to me it still does) I know its not supposed to. People have told me that. But I still see chair placement as a way of measuring 'how good you are.'

So I decided today that no matter who is coming in and no matter how good they are, i'm going to play the best audition of my life this September, and I'm going to feel damn good about it. :) So thats all I really care about right now...this summer will be a test of how hard I can push myself without being around studio people.

If anyone has suggestions, i'd love to hear them right about now. Thanks for reading.

Love,
Rachel

waiting...

last night i hung out with Ryan and Colin. Strangely, it was really great to see them both again, even though it had been a long time. Watched a movie and talked about college for a few hours. It was a great evening.

Today i woke up really late, (its almost noon) and am going to play a routine, maybe get some coffee w/Andy, and then work at Griffin. I'll probably have a shitload of phone calls to make, since its after their big Memorial Day sale. Not really looking forward to it, but hey, its cash.

Its storming outside, and I love it! :) Only 2 more weeks until I'm back in the EC. :D (YESSSSS!)

Love,
Rachel

stick it to the man...

Today was the day where all alumni of MYSO (Milwaukee Youth Symphony Orchestra) came back to form a huge MYSO Alumni Orchestra, so my dad and I went downtown to Milwaukee to play in the group. Overall it was REALLY good....a whole lot better than I expected. I think lots of the people who graduated from the MYSO program went on to become professionals.

The trombone section consisted of me, Don Bilger, Kelsey Eisenmann, and Stuart someone (bass trb). They were all rediculously good...I kind of felt like the weak link, even though I played fairly well once I got comfortable there. :) We're playing some Dvorak, Puccini, Hansen and Rimsky-Korsakov. Should be a good concert tomorrow. :)

Had a lesson with Megumi today. I felt I did very poorly...in comparison to how I can play but she said I "sounded terrific!" so I suppose I should relax and take the compliment seriously. We sightread Saint-Saens Symphony No.3 excerpt, and worked a bit on the Serocki. I think I should have that piece down fairly quickly, so that makes me really happy. :) Next it'll be on to the Bozza Ballade and possibly the Larsson Concertino again.

Enough trombone talk for one day....time to just relax and enjoy the humid, allergy ridden air and the lovely gray sky outside. :P


Love,
Rachel

p.s- Keep my dad in your prayers, he's not doing well....too much stress and some frustrating circumstances have been occuring lately, and hes having a hard time. Please keep him in your prayers.

blargh.

I'm sick. And it sucks majorly. However, I'm still hanging out with Tim tonight and then working another 12 hour day tomorrow. Money is money.

I dont' know how I'm going to do my phone calls at Griffin Ford w/o a voice though...that should pose an interesting situation.

Love,
Rachel

i love thunderstorms....

so I just got my hair cut. Its really short. I thought I'd like it....but it turns out I suck at styling it, so I just always look like a boy with shaggy hair. UGH. Oh well, at least it'll grow out by the time school starts again and I won't have to embarrass myself.

awesome thunderstorm tonight...tornado watch, but unfortunately no actual tornado to go with it all. That would have been totally sweet though! :D I'm sitting in my room just missing everyone in EC and wishing I was back there....but at least I have the awesome lightning and equally sweet thunder to fall asleep too.

Went out with Carl today, that was fun. It was kind of weird after not seeing him in like 5 years, but whatev. Both of us have changed lots, but then again, haven't we all?

Time for bed before my 9 am - 9 pm work shift tomorrow!!! (yesss!)

Love,
Rachel

sleepless nights...

It's 3:22 am and I'm awake. I've just been thinking about all the things that have been happening...more specifically my grandparents.

None of them are doing particularily well, and its so hard to see them going downhill so fast. My grandpa especially...the Pulmonary Fibrosis is really settling in now, and it doesn't look like he has a whole lot of time left with us. Both grandmothers are getting crabby and losing their memory. Its just hard to watch.

So as I was sitting here in my room at 1:00 am, I decided the following. I was going to write an arrangement of Amazing Grace in dedication of my Grandfather.

So thats just what I did...it took about 2 hours, but I feel I really got to speak my heart through the music. I hope to present him with a copy someday soon, as soon as I can get the final touches on it.

Thats about it...thanks for listening...I'm sleepy. Bedtime.

Goodnight.

Rachel

Space...the final frontier.

I'm home. It's grand. Well, I'm sure it'll be great for a little while anyways, but then I'll be ready to head back up to the EC for a night and then to live in Minnesota for the rest of summer!!! (*excitementtttttttt!)

Since I got home I've been just bummin around a bit...trombone here and there, then movies with the siblings and a little Star Trek w/the parental units. That was really fun. :P


Went to my brothers concert today, had coffee w/Val, did a little shopping (necessary stuff like shampoo etc) and now I'm about to enjoy a delicious dinner w/the family. Mom made roast tonight in honor of my Dad's birthday tomorrow. (Happy Birthday Daddy! :D) So I'm definately looking forward to that. Otherwise, I'm doing the healthy eating thing so I can get back down to a normal weight before I wear a swimsuit again. :P Only 10 more pounds to go...


Not a whole lot else, played some trombone...I really love my new one, its great.

Miss all you EC people (not a whole lot yet...but I'm sure I'll start feelin it soon)

Love,
Rachel

so long, farewell, auf Wiedersehen goodbye...

so today was it...had to do the whole goodbye thing. Which I don't really do well, but made it through the day pretty decently. I mean, I had an amazing freshman year, and I can't wait for next year already, so there isn't much to be sad about. However, some of those few special people who really helped make this year so great are leaving, and I probably won't see them again in a very very long time. So to you guys, thanks for everything...can't wait to see you again someday. To everyone else, thanks for everything, can't wait to see you next year!

Thats about all I have for now...the dorms are really empty, my internet is still down there, so I'm wasting some time at Davies. Looks like they're about to close now, so its time to go spend a very lonely night in the dorms.

Miss you Heather, Bri, Mon and Kailyn!!!!

Thanks for reading.

Love,
Rachel

baseball uniforms...how adorable.

long day at work here in the library. 9 hours of work in 2 days...at least the paycheck will be good. :) Another long day tomorrow...but exam week is almost half done.

I just bought that beautiful new trombone case online. It'll be home when I get there, I couldn't be more excited.

Just saying hello to everyone, and I hope you're enjoying the beautifullness of outside. :D (I know I am!!!!!!)

I'll miss you all this summer...but you should come visit me at Valleyfair. I'll be wearing (you guessed it) a DARLING (*Note: the dripping sarcasm in my voice IS real) little baseball uniform in which I will prance around the park and entertain the people. (*I "didn't make the team, but I'll make your day!") Can hardly wait... :P I do hope I have housing though...I've been emailing the guy almost every day, and haven't gotten a response. That concerns me. :-
Oh well, time to go enjoy life. :D

See ya around.

Love,
Rachel

p.s - Cookout at PAO's tomorrow should be great fun...can't wait to see Colin with hula hoops. (if you dont' know, don't ask)

fuck piano

pretty sure I just went in and completely embarrassed myself in piano proficiency. Out of all the stuff we had to do, I only passed 2 sections. So essentially I really really sucked. I couldn't even play a freaking D major scale correctly. Its like the easiest scale in the book. I haven't been this embarrassed in a long time.

I guess I shouldn't be too upset though, I played a GREAT jury, and did well on my aural theory exam. Its just stuff like this that can ruin your day. Oh well, I guess next year I'll go back and pass everything else. In a week I'll be home and can practice piano as much as I want for 3 full weeks.

Last night was fun...the boyfriend came over and watched a 'chick flick' with me. I did bribe him however...I said if he'd watch this one with me I would NEVER ask him to watch another one ever again. So it was fun...and I really don't think it was as awful as he expected. (it was even funny at times)

Ok, time to get to work in the music library.

Thanks for listening, sometimes ya just gotta fent.

Love,
Rachel

Officer K.Rodger

the policeman who pulled me over while I was driving Vernie's car was the most beautiful man I've ever seen!!! Heather and I will track him down sometime this week and date him. A lot. haha. Well, at least he was nice and stuff. And did I mention he was cute? haha ok I'm done.

Went to the Chip Valley Symphony concert to see Baca play the Artunian. He was spectacular. So was the low brass and trumpet section. Yeah, thats pretty much it. Overall entertaining concert. (Note: I didn't say GOOD concert)

The Chi-Hi concert went really well, fairly emotional for lots of people, but not too awful overall. Its so hard for me to watch guys cry...I can't deal with that. So that was the one tough thing about it.

Now it Heathertime. So I'm gonna go.

Goodnight, sweet dreams! (trust me, i WILL have them tonight!) haha just playin.

goodnight all

Love,
Rachel

The House...

so pretty sure this week has been incredibly crazy. Exams start Monday, although apparently my Polysci teacher believes that TODAY was the start of exams. I think I aced it anyways, so that's pretty sweet.

Hangin out here at The House, listening to the sounds of DDR in the other room and enjoying a Leines' Creamy Dark. I just need to kick back and relax. Once I get through Monday I think the rest of exams will be great. (Jury - 9:15 am, Piano Proficiency - 10:30 am, Aural Theory - 11:00 am) Should be a killer.

Well, I suppose I should go join in the festivities, and then drive my drunken boyfriend home tomorrow. now THAT should be funny. :D

Goodnight all.

Love,
Rachel

r-aaaaaandy!

here in the compy lab at Haas since the idiots who run this university took my internet away. (apparently my computer is not registered...and they won't let me register it." Screw them.

Good news, I got the new trombone Sunday. Its pretty, and besides having a hell of a time adjusting the tuning its really great.

Last night it was raining pretty hard, so Heather and I decided "Hey, lets go outside!" So we go all the way down 4 flights of stairs at Putnam, and the rain stops by the time we get outside. Bummer. Since we walked all that way...we decided to make it worthwhile somehow. Then I got the great idea to go outside KT and try to get Randy to come talk to us from his 3rd floor room window. We stood outside yelling for awhile, and when he didn't come by the window, we started chucking our sandals at it while making obnoxious goat noises. :P The things us girls do for fun. haha. Well, for the record Randy wasn't even in his room, but pretty much everyone in KT heard us.

Thats it for now...life is good, I play at studio class in a few hours. I think I'm actually ready for a change.

Enjoy the pretty weather everyone!

Love,
Rachel

orange legs?

Are my legs orange? I didn't think so, but Brad had a different opinion...

Sixlets?!?

Studio class last night went well. After a few people played, we sightread some orchestral excerpts. (Berlioz I think) That was fun. Throughout the course of the evening many helpful comments were passed along to the players. Corey really summed it all up by complimenting Dave Hopkins' use of the "sixlets" at the beginning of the piece. :P

"Is that a type of musical Chicklet?" -PAO

Thats about it...time to go register and get some trombone time in before piano class. :)

Only 5 more days...

Love,
Rachel