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Tuesday, February 22, 2011

Puppy! (Warning: huge blog)



Well, I figure I haven't blogged in forever so I probably should. At any rate, THAT'S MY PUPPY! Her name is Clara (after Clara Schumann, one of the best and far most unappreciated female composers ever). She is so cute and I love her. I have had her for 3 weeks now and she is making lots of progress, though as I write this, she is staring at me while chewing on crap she isn't supposed to chew on (ie her crate). But she's not going to hurt anything by chewing on that.

I got her from this place called SAAP, Stray Animal Adoption Program in Newport, KY right across the river. Her mom was a shelter beagle and she was fostered with her bros and sisters. She got really lucky because every pup in her litter got parvovirus (kills puppies, basically) except for her and she's perfectly healthy! Though I am taking her to the vet tomorrow because I think she has an infection around where she got spayed. Oh well. Potty training her has been the hardest part, but she now knows to go to the door when she has to go, which is a huge improvement from having like 4 or 5 accidents in the house every day. Now she has 0-1 or 2 accidents every day, which is much less stress for her mommy. She is half beagle half dachsund (wiener dog). Beagles are super smart but dachsunds are dumbasses so I think she is just average. But I'd like to think she's pretty smart for being practically housebroken in 3 weeks :)

I love her...it's made my time in Cincy a lot less lonely since I don't have much of a social life. This quarter has been NUTS. I played for the opera (Marriage of Figaro) which was stressful because even at CCM, the violins suck. I mean, the singers were better than the violinists. How messed up is that? But actually the singers at CCM are freaking amazing because it's a great opera school. Well the violinists are actually really good but they don't practice their damn music. It made me miss you, Amanda! We actually have a concert this Friday night (playing Firebird and Sensemaya, remember that orchestra kids???!!) and our director threatened to have (GASP) graded excerpt tests for JUST the violins! Which is cray cray because we NEVER do graded excerpt tests here. Weird.

Patrick isn't going to DePauw anymore. Without getting into too many details, he's basically just taking a break and is hoping to transfer into IUPUI to get a music technology degree in the next couple of years. He is actually far happier to be away from DPU and I'm happy for him as well. Just a warning...he and I will hopefully be engaged within the next 2-4 months.!!!!!!!!!! Crazy.

School is going pretty well, though like I said, this quarter is nuts. I finally nailed down a recital program for the fall: Brahms Eb Sonata, Hindemith Op. 11 No. 4 Sonata, and Stravinsky Elegie. We have to give 2 recitals as MM students and most of us violists do 2 in our second year, one in the fall and one in the spring. That's basically because our teachers spend the whole first year changing our entire technique and way of playing (which is totally happening, though it's for the best). Now my dog is biting my feet. OUCH. And now back to biting the crate.

Rachel and I were talking the other day about how much we miss people from DePauw and the SOM. I told her that all I asked was to be able to play drinking games vs. the violins, but considering there are 39 violists in my studio here and like 3 times that in the violin studio, we'd be a little outnumbered. We'd probably win anyway, though. I'm pretty good friends with like 5 violists in my studio, but that's about it. I don't even know everyone's name still, how messed up is that?

Anyway, I think that's all I can think of. But I miss you all and hopefully it won't take me this long to update again!!!!! Peace.

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