SassyBlonde

Ahhh. It's good to be comfortable.

Today is the two-week mark before the Adams concerto, and it's probably the first time in my life I've ever been this comfortable this early in the game. I started my repetitive run-throughs today with an easy couple of cruises through the piece, the ran it a couple of times with the recording I have, and I have to say, I was totally startled at how well it went. Now, that's not to say I'm going to sit on my ass for the next two weeks-- there are still a lot of things to perfect and build on. It just means I can dampen down the anxiety a bit, thank goodness. I really thought I was going to have a heart attack last Tuesday.

In other news, I now have a dress for the performance. To be clear, I had a dress before, but I wasn't really feeling it for this concert and I wanted something a little more sassy. Well, as usual, Filene's Basement to the rescue. It never fails: every once in a while I just have this feeling that I need to go and check out what's on the racks there, and every time I have that feeling they seem to provide exactly what I need for something or another I have coming up. Well, this time I found a gorgeous Calvin Klein dress all in silk and lace, and now I just have to accessorize. Yay!! I'm still trying to decide what to do about my jacked up toe and my shoes, but I guess I'll cross that bridge when I get to it next week.

That's one of those nutty things you have to do when you're female and performing in front of an orchestra or some other group: you do rehearsals in your shoes so you're not flying blind on performance night. The last thing you want to do is become runway roadkill on the way out on stage, and you certainly don't want to fall off your shoes while you're playing, so even your shoes get a rehearsal. And picking out shoes is no easy task for a solo performance: not only do they have to match your dress and the occasion, they have to be stabile on the floor. No Manolos here, folks, because those kicks have to be as well-grounded as your bare feet, especially if you move around while you play or sing like I tend to. The Bibas fit the bill, because even though the heels are bodacious, they're wide, and they'll help keep me from busting my ass on stage. (Frankenberry would tell you that nothing is foolproof though, since he watched me almost take a dive in my fairly safe "big girl shoes" in Maggiano's today.)

Speaking of nothing being predictable, I'm getting my clarinet back Monday from the repair shop-- that's right, the good luck just keeps on coming. I managed to break a connector pin in one of my lever keys (for those of you who don't play the clarinet, the posts are what connect those long keys to the cups they open, uncovering the holes) and my lovely repair guy managed a three-hour turnaround on the horn once he got to it, complete with an up-to-par adjustment to make sure it's working just-so. He's good, man. (Haha-- I actually just typed "He's god", and that's still right.) The unfortunate thing is that I can't get over to get it until Monday, so it's the backup horn all the way until then. Oh well. It's still good, just not stellar.

Off to bed for me now, since in the course of writing this post Alabama has squeaked by Arkansas to win the game, and I was still up when David got up this morning.