I didn’t get to sleep unti well after midnight. In my younger days (that was last year … oh … wait … longer …) and I slept until 8:00. Lazy me! And I’m still tired.

I didn’t realize how tiring playing the FanimeCon concert would be. It certainly wasn’t difficult. Lots of notes (and the one big tune did have some nearly unplayable stuff), but really it was not a big deal and I was almost unnecessary. I hate being unnecessary. I had a double, and yet the English horn wasn’t used for much of anything important. Weird.

It was a kick watching the big screen above us. We saw things from the back, so everything was backwards which meant the principal flute (she got a good amount of play time) looked like she was doing everything backwards. It was especially fun when the video games kicked in. I don’t really see much difference between most of them. Maybe that’s why most of the music sounds much the same too.

Much of the music is “sounds like” music, if you know what I mean. One work was odd, in that it gave no key signature through the entire thing. It was IN keys, mind you, but the composers (there were two of them—it was the “big new work” of the evening) just put in accidentals throughout. I’m not sure I’ve ever seen that before. Is this the new way of writing music? Kind of like all the younger writers I’ve seen online who leave out capital letters and type “the” as “teh”? I don’t see that it’s a time saver in the long run; it seems much easier on the brain to have key signatures than to read accidental after accidental.

Anyway, I wouldn’t call it the big high of the season, but I still find it a kick to see these kids and grown, even grey-haired people getting jazzed over the concert. We never get as much cheering in the real world of symphony music! Besides, the costumes were fun. (I only wish I’d managed to give some of the people my card so they could see themselves here; they might have had fun with that. Or not.)

And now I’m nearly unemployed; the schools end soon and of course the opera and symphony seasons are over. If I didn’t teach privately, I’d be eligible for unemployment. Not that I’d file for it. (Seems to me it’s for those who really are desperately unemployed and if I had to get a job I’m sure I could.) I’m so thankful for my students, though!
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