1. Earlier today, I was sitting in the audience for this afternoon's concert (Candide overture, Barber's Adagio for Strings, Gershwin Piano Concerto in F and Copland Symphony no. 3) when, during intermission, somebody taps me on the shoulder and says, "Ysabel?" I turned around and saw Amy, a bassoonist I played with eons (five years) ago with the Missouri Chamber Orchestra and hadn't seen since. It was so awesome to see her! She is on faculty at Furman University in Greenville, SC now which is about an hour away, and just happened to see that there was a concert here in Brevard this afternoon and decided to check it out. I think we have all said this at least a dozen times already this summer but, what a small world this music businesses really is! Anyway, it was great to see an old music friend and catch up.
2. As you know, part of my job here is to make sure that the College Division kids don't get into too crazy of shenanigans at French Quarter and that usually entails hanging out there into the wee hours of the night. In order to keep my sanity at bay during the one minute walk from FQ to my cabin in the darkness, I always make sure I've turned my porch light on earlier that evening so I can watch out for psychotic hillbillies or Asian-meat-craving bears waiting for me in the trees. This strategy has worked well so far. Unfortunately, this also means that I have a swarm of moths and other assorted flying insects waiting for me at my door; usually, two or three of them will make their way inside with me as I step inside and my nightly bedtime ritual will include walking around my wee little cabin locating and killing (eep!) these critters before I go to sleep.
Last night, a particularly large moth flew inside with me. I went with my usual plan of attack with insect killing, which is to spray it with ant spray or disinfectant spray or Lysol or whatever other chemical I can find nearby and hope that it dies a quick and relatively painless death. Also, squishing it with a shoe or anything else is a last resort because I always think that I can hear and/or feel the actual *SMOOSH* which is really disgusting.
Anyway, so last night I grabbed my one and only can of chemical in my cabin - which happens to be spider and roach killer - and sprayed the moth. It flew around frantically and bounced off walls for about ten seconds then nosedived down to the floor. I thought it was over. Until it started fluttering its wings again and then flew back up. So I ran around like a little girl and squealed. Then I grabbed the can and sprayed it with more chemicals. Again, it flew frantically and landed on the floor. I sat on my bed and watched with terror and remorse as it just crawled around the floor for like five minutes. Part of me wanted to just squish it with my shoe. And then the other part of me was completely disgusted at the thought of feeling the body of that poor moth pop and squish. So finally I grabbed the spray and sprayed it with some more spray. AND THIS HAPPENED FOR LIKE THIRTY MINUTES. The poor bastard just wouldn't die! And I felt like a cruel murderer sitting on my bed watching this poor creature die a slow and probably painful death at my hand.
I mean, why do I hate the idea of going to sleep with a moth flitting about my head in the middle of the night so much? Moths are just freaking butterflies with less colorful wings, right? Bleah. I felt terrible. I mean, remember the episode "The Moth" in LOST? A freaking moth SAVED JACK AND CHARLIE FROM SUFFOCATING TO DEATH IN THE CAVES WHEN IT CAVED IN. And I murdered one last night FOR THIRTY MINUTES. Boo me. I should have just squished it.
Anyway, more picture time!
Do you know what happens when you are forced to sit at a table during High School division registration day for nine hours repeating the same spiel over and over and over and over AND OVER AND OVER again? You put googly eyes on your phone, that's what happens. And then an hour later you will put a Post-it on it and draw a mouth saying "AAAUGH."
I played RISK for the first time a couple of nights ago at French Quarter. It was fun even though I didn't last very long (not because I died or anything, I just went to sleep) and I'm not sure that I fully understood the rules. I was yellow (because I'm Asian, duh). I had a pretty good presence in Asia and Western United States, except for the fact that I only had like one or two troops on each territory by the time I left.
Here is the lake in front of my cabin again. Down on the bottom right corner you can see the roof of the Pavilion which is also right next to the brass studios. Hence, you can also see a trombone player practicing there in front of the water. Pretty good view for a practice session.
So here's that double decker bus that has been turned into a coffee shop in Asheville. Mmm...coffee. Boo... bladder infections that prevent me from enjoying coffee. The name of this place is "Double D's" and I told Dan that I was going to buy a mug for Schmoobs as a gift and say, "Well, it's the best I could do." HA! Get it? Because I have little bubbies.
Here's Dan and Elif on the second level of Double D's. If you remember, Elif was the fifteen year old cellist from Turkey that I picked up from the airport last week. Remember how her cello got sent on its merry way down the luggage chute at the airport in Asheville? That, combined with the fact that Turkey is waaay dry and Brevard is waaay humid, resulted in Elif opening her cello case when she arrived in Brevard and seeing that the fingerboard had broken. So Dan was tasked with driving her and her cello back to Asheville to get it emergency-repaired. He found the two hour round-trip journey in the van with Elif to be awkward and silent and uncomfortable. So I offered to accompany them on the trip to go pick up her cello a few days later. For some reason, I have skillz at speaking with fifteen year old cellists from Turkey who have a limited grasp of the English language. Anyway, the trip ended up being really fun, in large part because of the detour to Double D's AND TARGET!! Elif had never been to a Target before, although she had heard of them. Also she needed to buy a towel, some bedsheets and some Ben Gay for her arm and the closest Target is in Asheville. So, duh, Target run! Related: Did you know that a simple cup of Star*ucks coffee in Turkey costs the equivalent of like $5 to $7 dollars? Cah-razy!
Here's Cale, the bossman, on his porch practicing his euphonium. He's got the swankiest cabin BY FAR our of everyone on the Dean staff. I guess that makes sense since he's the boss...
And here are three members of the College Division clarinet studio. Aren't they cutie patooties? Sam on the bottom left actually lives in Denton, which is not terribly far from Rockwall, so I have every intention of forcing him to be my official Second Friend when this summer is over and we get back to Texas.
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