So today I attended the Young Musicians Festival at Fairfield University. The YMF is just a once a year event where students are judged and given points (but aren't really competing against anyone). Reach a certain amount and you get a pretty cup with your name on the plaque.

 Feeling pretty confident with three months of practice on my back, my ma and I waited quietly in the hallway to hear other people play their pieces. Some of them were flawless, some I could hear mistakes but I was trying my best not to freak myself out.

3pm came and I was practicing my pieces in the empty room. First time, good. Second time, I tripped. For some reason, my left hand just couldn't get the chords right and I had to continually look at the music. I sat down and tried to play it in my head but then other students came in and started playing their pieces, making it hard for me connect my brain with the notes.

3:15pm came and the judges were sitting in front of me. All they had to do was see how I played and circle one of the numbers one through five on the sheet of paper. Oh and if they have comments, they write it down in their imposssible to read script.

Anyways, there were five other people playing and I think everyone tripped except this one guy. But what I hated the most was the reaction of one of the judges when she heard a mistake: a raise of the eyebrows, a stare at the clock, a careful inspection of her fingernails. She had to listen and circle a number while we had ONE chance to show what three months of practicing two songs could do.

So my turn came up and I thought I started off well in my first song, Rhapsodie. Good first page...but the end of the second page was ..bad. After that, I thought I did pretty well. ( though when I tried to hit an octave, I might've hit an extra note...that happened a few times ) The next song, L'orage (The Storm), was good. I don't think I made any mistakes <oI__Io> I'll have to check the video Baba made while I was playing.

My results come in three weeks, about a month and I'll be waiting nervously.

Waking up with the thought of no school for the whole day is probably the best feeling you could get on a Monday. The day started off well, with some toast, strawberries and soymilk. I had a nice Bible reading in Joshua/Judges that was about a man who was taken back by the same people who threw him away. Then, as my dad started to go off to work, I practiced piano; Clearly, this was going to be a full of acheivments day. I was wrong. Soon after, my day was going to turn into a watch-the-sun-go-over-your-head day. 

After I finished my breakfast, my mom woke up and immediately cooked a feast for me to eat. While yelling through mouthfuls of rice and other asian delicacies, I argued that I was full. No matter how much I tried, she kept sending me food every 5 min or so. With a bloated stomach, I slouched and damaged my eyes at the computer. (two days after my eye check up) Ahh, the magic of computer.

I had originally planned to go to the movies with a friend, so I mad sure my facebook, aim, and phone was right next to me. Knowing that my butt would be stuck in this soft metal chair, I had no worries as to losing my sources of communication. But as I waited, I played GravityMaster, a dumb and addicting game I was introduced to by my new 14 year old violin teacher, and watched Marley & Me online. So much for going to the movies. Oh yeah, somestimes, my mom would scream, "Ruth! come here!" at 3 second intervals, not stopping at my screams of "Hold on!", until I came running down the hallway. Then after 5 min of watching Chinese New Year dances, I would slouch back into my soft metal chair and eat food.

Not once today did I hear word from my movie buddy, but instead someone else who greeted me with a "Are you still mad at me?" Of course, two days before, I had told her that I wish she would stay and talk to me when I walked up to her and said, "Hi." She couldn't understand why her reaction of walking away two seconds after my hi's would upset me. Very lawyerishly, she said that I was stupid to be mad at her and that she can't please everybody by talking to everybody. She left with me with a mmhm after I asked if everything was clear.

Sighh, forgive and forget, forgive and forget.

The most recent part of day, the chapter of the day that was the only one not sitting in a chair, was making a snowman. I sketched what kind of snowman I wanted to make, and thought of a Mickey Mouse without the 3D nose and ears. I finally prepared myself with lacrosse gloves, a bottle of water, and a smoothing-out-kinks- mechanism for the snow. After a half hour or so squatting, I bent my back over and comtemplated the result of my creature as I waited for the cracking to stop. Nope. Just a heap of snow. The least I accomplished was arms and legs, but the rest? Nada. In fact, as I attempted to smooth out the head, I chopped off about half of it and ended up with a half smooth head and a mound that looked like an array of snowballs stuck together to fill in the gap.

It's 5:08 and since I have no school tomorrow, perhaps I will acheive something more when I wake up tomorrow. Or perhaps I'll accomplish more in the remaining hours of today than I have this whole day. After all, I haven't done much at all. And I'll never get that time back. Martin Luther King Jr. certainly did more than I did. After all, today is his day of honor, and he was one of the brave souls who stood up against segregation. What have I done? Well, I certainly don't think sitting around in front of the computer for a whole day will help, will it?