Well, today was stress day. I had to play my scholarship audition today for UW. Basically, I'm in, but I still had to play for some faculty (there was no trumpet faculty present). But I need to start from the beginning; Friday night.
So, after eating a fine meal of sushi at Blue C (with Sam and my sister & Ellen standing by), we drove all the way back to W. Seattle and picked up my trumpets. A short jaunt up 99 brought us to campus, where we found a nice close parking spot.
After finding a practice room, I proceeded to warm-up while Ailisa went to try and find a big room for me to play in. There was none to be found, so she stuck around and listened for awhile. After helping me with some breathing stuff (singers DO know what they're talking about...), she ask me a simple question. "Are you playing balls to the wall?"
Uhhh.....
Jeebus I was not expecting that. Al Vizzutti said I needed to do that. Now Ailisa says it. So, I give it a go.
The difference in my sound was incredible. I all of a sudden had a surge of confidence and adrenaline that I haven't had in a long time. I proceeded to physically write in my part "BALLS TO THE WALL!" (Serena and Scott found it funny when they came and supported me for the audition.)
So I get tired, we go home. Get in bed around 11:30 so I can be sure to be up for my 11:50 audition. Remember that surge of adrenaline? Not so good when you need to sleep. Remember the audition tomorrow morning? Also not a sleep aid. I watched TV till about 1:00am and finally gave up when all there was to watch wer infomercials and ads for phone sex lines (Yay E! Channel).
Around 6am I woke up and couldn't really get back to sleep cuz of the hurricane force winds outside. I did manage to doze and get to that weird dream phase though. You know the one right before your asleep, but where you are still enough awake that everything in your immediate vicinity contributes to the contents of your dreams? Weird stuff.
Anyways, I finally actually rolled out of bed around 8:30, tired and groggy and not well rested. Cue nerves. I got dressed in slacks and button down...standard audition/jury attire. No need to fuss about with my clothes. Ailisa had made me Cheddary-goodness hashbrowns and coffee....oh man what a wife. Right after the food was fixed, we lost power. What amazing timing my wife has....she's incredible in so many ways.
Okay...enough back story, onto the audition itself. Traffic was not as bad as the TV guy had predicted (before power went out), so I found myself with Ailisa, Serena and Scott on the UW campus way too early for the audtion. So I warmed up, played through my pieces, scared some incoming freshman with my immense talent, and fruck out for a few minutes. Serena and Scott performed some energy ceremony to help ground me and get all of my anxiety out. I didn't notice a difference at first, but it sure was apparent when I went in front of the judges.
For those of you who care, I played the second mvmt of William Presser's "Suite for Trumpet" and Neruda's "Concerto in Eb". I started with the Neruda and as my nerves started to go crazy, and the breathing got quick and shallow I read "BALLS TO THE WALL". No sense in holding back now. BAM! All of a sudden it was over and I was joking with one of the faculty members about power outages.
After that I went and played for another trumpet player here who does a lot of hiring...he hired me for a great Easter gig. On top of that, my sister passed her big 'test' today also. Big shout out to you sis! Congrats! (Mom, Dad....it's not a pregnancy test.) :) LOL.
So now what awaits is still as of yet unknown. If Ailisa gets a job, maybe I'll enroll Fall 06, if not, maybe '07. But that doesn't matter right now. Right now, I'm riding the high of playing better than I have in a long time. And the winds died down and I can blog because I have power. (brute strength and electricity) Thanks for reading the novel. :) Flip
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