Saturday, 28th of April, 2001
I drove Hannah, Amie, and Eric out to Columbia for the State Solo-Ensemble festival this afternoon. We played our quartet, Eric played his solo, and I played my solo, Bach's Violin Concerto in E Major. We played in lecture halls that were very echoey, which was nice for baroque music. Makes it feel like a big baroque church with lots of sound travel.
Then we went home and made quick prom preparations. I took Beth to Prom, and Eric and Amie went together; the 4 of us traveled together. It was at tht Marriott downtown this year. I happened to rendezvous with a lost Spencer in his Integra in downtown St. Louis, and so we decided to bomb it down a block. That was really fun! Now I know for sure that the Outback Sport is in the Integra GS-R league. I led him down the wrong way on a one-way street though, that was hilarious. I realized it was the wrong way as soon as I turned in, so I darted into a parking garage for a turnaround. He just turned off on the next block, lol. Valet parking took forever, we were in line for it for literally 1 hour. But we didn't miss much, really, we got there in time for dinner and then there was some dancing. So that was lots of fun.
Friday, 27th of April, 2001
I went to Six Flags today during school for the annual "Math-Science-Physics" day (Physics IS part of Science... that doens't make any sense). We rode The Boss, and I guess I've been on too many air-time rides lately and that one wasn't that much of a thriller today. Then we rode the Batman, and one of the people in our group strapped a Lab-Pro with a Force Probe on herself, and we were able to collect data. That's so cool! Then we hit the Mr. Freeze, and I rode it in the very front for the first time. Wow! I've definitely been missing out, no wonder I thought the ride sucked. It's definitely not worth it unless it's at the front.
We didn't stay long, we went back to school at 14:00, where I ran through some final pre-state-solo-ensemble preparations, like rehearsing with my quartet for 15 minutes, running through my solo with my pianist at her house, all before 16:00, when I started to head out to Tower Grove Park to set up sound for the stroll tonight.
The setup went the usual, and I had lots of helping hands... Hannah, Kevin, and Paige. While Mrs. P went back to the High School to ride the bus with all the strollers, we went to Pho Grand for dinner. It was actually pretty good, and I educated the others on how to eat with chopsticks, hehe. Paige even took up the challenge and ate the entire dinner with them! I couldn't resist the opportunity, they gave nice ceramic chopsticks and stuff.
The stroll itself got to a late start, it was a very chatty group that refused to move from cocktail to dinner. And they were ridiculously loud in the pavilion where they had dinner. There were lots of familiar faces though, people that have seen us before, and even Peyton's parents! After the stroll we loaded equipment in the Cavalier wagon and the others went on the bus. We hung out at Andrea's for a little bit afterwards, but considering how State solo-ensemble is tomorrow, we decided not to stay TOO late...
Thursday, 26th of April, 2001
It was a big strolling day today, I went out to the Sheldon to set up sound at 18:00, and we played and then waited around for the program to end to tear down, but it was taking forever. Finally, at 22:00, we had to just leave, and Mrs. P and Hannah tore down (cause Hannah doesn't have to go to school tomorrow) So that's how today went, it was fun! We played at the Sheldon Ballroom, which is so nice! The interior has a nice wood decor, with a small stage that looked awesome with the grand piano and cello/basses on it! The room had skylights, nice intimate lighting, a very nice place to have a performance. This was also some new people's first strolls, Rebecca and Hilary, so it must have been an event for them. The audience was very receptive, they loved it a lot.
Wednesday, 25th of April, 2001
There was another school non-teaching staff appreciation luncheon today, and Ms. Fleming lined us up to play for it. So I played with Stephanie, Eric, Daniel, and Michael in a string quintet. We played basically just orchestra music we're playing now. It was fun.
Tuesday, 24th of April, 2001
Today is another happy day, violin lesson and strolling rehearsal, and all the works. Strolling is so much fun. I really need to start working on my solo piece for Saturday though. I'm playing Bach's Concerto in E Major, first movement. Nothing too stunning, it was a last resort cause my original piece wasn't on the list of pieces I could play... but it's tons of fun, nothing to complain about.
Something came loose on the left blinker of my car over the last couple of days. I thought it might be the left back bulb, but I didn't have the exact bulb I needed with me, so I used something similar that kinda fit. Well, the results was interesting. Whenever I hit the brakes, the interior lights - dashboard, radio, everything would turn on. When I turned on the blinker, it blinked really fast and all the interior lights blinked too. Kinda cool, actually! But now, I eventually found it was a lose connection and I kinda pushed it in better. So that solves that.
Monday, 23rd of April, 2001
An update on my state of happiness... things haven't changed! I'm looking forward to this week, 2 strolls, Six Flags Friday, State Solo-Ensemble, and Prom. Wow. It'll be so much fun!
Sunday, 22nd of April, 2001
We set out relatively early for St. Louis this morning, and basically went without too much delay. We got back 2 hours early, even, at 18:00. But we didn't fail to make up for that by hanging around after we got back. Apparantly, trees have started to pollinate this weekend, and I found my car covered with green pollen. I sent it through a car wash, and I forgot to check to see if the rear windows were rolled up, and I got quite a surprise shower from the left rear window, which was not completely closed. Oops.
Well, I'd say the trip as a whole was very nice, a nice way to do it senior year I think. I had fun hanging out with people I love to be around, and it was full of events.