Thoughts After A Boule of Soup

Early this morning... sometime around 4:30
ALARM RiNgS!

I drowsily look over at my iHome which is beeping furiously, groan, and press the snooze button.

4:35

The same thing happens again, only this time it's harder to fall back asleep.

4:40

Same old.

4:45

I decide that I'm a big girl and that I can wake up on my own and that i don't need any help from any stupid alarm clock so I furiously press the off button, slap my face into my pillow, and cuddle up in my furry blanket, determined to fall back asleep. (I'm kind of grumpy in the mornings...)

5:10

The extra twenty minutes of sleep did help to improve my mood, so I gracefully slide out of bed and waddle over to the bathroom. The automatic lights blind me and the sky blue paint sure doesn't help. I turn the shower on, and just about when it's hot it hits me... today is regional auditions... I freeze, groan to myself, and assure myself that I'll do great... after all, I practiced my ghetto booty off this week trying to prepare myself!

Oh man, it was a doosy. We got there at 7:10-ish, signed in, andstarted practicing in the practice room. I had never auditioned for Regionals before so I was pretty nervous as it was. I started running through my etudes, and I was doing REALLY well! ...until that girl walked in. :(

She was dressed in her Sunday best so I could tell that she was also auditioning for Solo and Ensemble, her hair was blonde and flawless, as was her skin. She was tall and her high heels were obviously very expensive. She was carrying a clarinet case, saw me warming up, smirked, and set her clarinet up at the table next to me. I didn't think anything of her, just a little competition, that's all she was... I was going through my scales... and hten I heard her. A beautiful rich woodwind sound filled the entire cafeteria, and I looked over, and all she was playing was scales! She was running up and down them all like they were nothing at all! She played her etudes memorized, and without mistakes, and when she noticed that I had stoped practicing she smiled. She was trying to scare me, I knew it... and it was working. I was embarassed to play now. I tried to play the way I had played before she had walked in, but I couldn't. My hands shook, and I could feel her cold blue eyeballs burning into my soul!

Before I knew it, my time was up, it was time to go.

Needless to say, the audition was a complete mess.

I was the first to go since the girl who should have gone before me never showed up, so I had nobody to help me and tell me what scales I had to do.

I got in there shaking, the judges were behind a black screen so I couldn't see them and they couldn't see me (they had to be unbiased... because, really, if htey had seen how cute I looked they would have put me through hands down!).

There was a white sheet of paper taped to a black music stand that had my instructions, and I froze. Those darn judges picked two of the HARDEST scales for me to play!

I mean, look at them! Cb (7 flats) and F# (six sharps)! I fumbled through what I thought was my Cb scale (sadly, it was acutlaly Db), and then played a pretty good next scale... which, again, was the wrong one. I realized this at the tope of the scale, and fumbled for notes panically all the way down.

After this akward display I was determined to proved to those judges that I really wasn't a bad clarinetist. I played through my chromatic scale (a scale that shows your entire range on the instrument) flawlessly and beautifully with lovely tone and richness, and I filled the ntire room jus the way that miss long tall and blonde did in the cafeteria warm up room.
This was, unfortunatley, the higlight of my audition. I did OK, but there were a few spots in my etudes that I was sloppy (curse my sweaty shaky hands), or I didn't back the note up with enough air so it had bad tone, or didn't come out at all, and one spot in particular that I just froze up. All of these spots are the ones circled in red. :(

I went home sad and defeated, but hey, you never know. There are like 30 slots, so there's always hope... right?

P.S. I just have to say, though, I DID look pretty darn cute today. If only those judges could have come and said hello. I could have made the best first impression. :) P.P.S. Sydnee got a puppy! I'm anxiously awaiting the day that I get to meet Cooper, he's a boxer. :) I'm declaring him my "subsitute nephew" until Sydnee has any actual children.P.P.P.S. I love comments, just sayin'.

P.P.P.P.S. Life is good after a hot bread boule of Paradise Bakery potato soup... 'nuf said.