high strung

 It's hard to believe we are in the final weekend of Symphony on the Prairie!  The Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra musicians have been on a 3 week vacation, which began after the Tribute to Michael Jackson.  Conner Prairie has still been a busy place without us, presenting the music of Duke Ellington, The Beatles, Buddy Holly and now River City Brass Band.  Every September one of the assignments I was always given in school was to write a paper on what I did over vacation.  It's been decades since I've been in school, but nostalgia drove me to write a short summary of my time off.  

The first week saw Jerry (my husband and 3rd horn with the ISO) and I helping my son and his wife move to a new home.  Thankfully, the old and new homes are only a couple of miles apart.  In any case, moving a washer, dryer, refrigerator, computer desk, a king sized bed and a dining room table for starters, is heavy, back breaking work no matter how far you're moving.  I'm a wiener and don't do that kind of work, though.  I leave that stuff for Jerry and the boys.  I take care of the odds and ends like brooms, empty waste baskets and the dogs' leashes and bowls.  I want to think I was helpful.

After that ordeal, it was time for a real break, so Jerry and I flew to Phoenix, AZ for 6 days to visit our daughter who started her new job as a pediatric physical therapist there.  We had a blast!  We went to Sedona, saw a Diamondbacks baseball game, walked through the Botanical Gardens, Jerry golfed and I shopped - it was wonderful!  Phoenix was experiencing several days of unseasonably cool weather - it only got up into the 90's and there is very low humidity.  Monsoon season brought 5 minute rainstorms followed by glorious rainbows.  This first trip to Arizona together left a very beautiful first impression and we look forward to many more visits to see our Tori!

This past week has been spent opening massive amounts of mail, doing laundry, watering the desert that was our yard and practicing.  My violin technic starts deteriorating the day I stop practicing, and the deterioration accelerates as the time goes on, at a rate at least double the time it takes me to work it back up. My fingers feel like popsicle sticks and my vibrato sounds like a French police siren.  I guess I better stop blogging and get back to the violin.  It's going to be a great season and I promise to be ready!  I'll see you at the Symphony!