Catch up in Trichotomy

Catching up

We have been doing “stuff” in the past month and yet I feel that nothing is new. Let’s see…

Last weekend the Ex-Chamber Music Group Organiser and the Violist invited us to a hike in the Palisades. It was not as physically exhausting as we’d imagined. We walked down to the river and back up. It was less than an hour.

The weekend before that we were supposed to go up to the Berkshires with the Treasurer, the two Japanese pianists, Violist’s violin friend, and the Taiwanese Pianist, however, the Treasurer - who organizes everything - couldn’t make it due to family emergency, and La Professeure caught a cold. So it was just the five of us who went to the Berkshires. We stayed for two nights, but I didn’t go up with them (I took a bus in the afternoon and got there at night), so I didn’t actually spend much time sight-seeing. It was pretty up there, we spent 3/4 of the first day rehearsing and doing a nursing home gig (I almost sight-read a Handle violin sonata with an ACMP member there that Treasurer set us up with; I think she’s annoyed with my wrong notes), and then went to the Harvest festival. There was drama on the second night because the Violinist lost the key, and we had to contact the AirBNB’s owner to find the replacement, which we realized later was taken by the cleaning lady, and we ended up asking his neighbor to help us break into the house, and in the end the Violinist figured out how to use a credit card to pick the lock. And then later in the night the Japanese pianists talked about their insecurities, and we had to comfort them. They bought a lot of food before I got there, and I was surprised that we managed to eat all of it - there was pasta with meatball and guacamole sauce with mozzarella cheese, there was cold cut, omelette, pumpkin smoothie, salad… I don’t think we ate out even once in the 2 days. The best part, however, was the company. It was nice to hang out with music friends and not talk about music.

The weekend before that, we performed Les Miz with a troupe that the Treasurer put together. I knew only two people in the main cast - Shepherdess, who played Cosette, and Schnookie, who played little Cosette. Me, one of the Japanese pianists, and the Taiwanese pianist split up the accompanying duties. I rehearsed twice with the choir and some of the principals the week before and knew it was going to be a very uneven performance - some singers are professional level, while others… I could probably sing better than them. (Alas, I was recovering from a cold that week, so my throat was all jammed up). The Treasurer wisely cut some of the weaker numbers, got the choir a third rehearsal, and in the end it came together pretty nicely. La Professeure came to be the videographer and photographer and we got some nice pictures and recordings. Treasurer was going to put it in Opera America, but the response was so good that she had to find a bigger venue. So that was nice. We hung out with Wise Young Friend afterwards, as a post-performance celebration for Schnookie. It was fun. Though I feel like Little booboo doesn’t get as much attention anymore.

The week before that I was sick, so there wasn’t much I could do. I think I got sick because I went out after the amateur musician group recital the weekend prior. It is noticeable how much fewer people are coming to the recitals, and in fact they are going to cancel next spring’s recitals and the Ex-Chamber music group organizer is looking for an alternate performance venue. The quality is uneven, as usual, but this time there was a ‘coloratura’ who sang Jubilate Exsultate almost exclusively with glissando. Yes, imagine that. She was off key the whole piece; I kept thinking, by the laws of probability, she would eventually by chance hit one note right at some point. But nope, no such luck.

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Suburbanite

I am wasting a lot more time now, I find. By the time I come home I am so tired that I didn’t even want to play the piano. Instead I just veg in front of the TV. I’m now following so many TV shows… Gotham, Agents of Shield, Once upon a Time, Match of the Day, and La Professeure and I would watch Doctor Who and Homeland together. That’s 7 hours each week.

And I have less energy too. Half of the days I wake up tired and stay tired for the whole day until midnight, at which point I would be wide awake. Most days I just muddle through work.

Until this week, we do not have a TV in the ‘man cave’. La Professeure insisted, however, that we get one. So we did - I didn’t object, much - and now I am figuring out how to get chrome cast to work on it, and I am using it more than La Professeure. Because I watch more TV.

I am definitely turning into a suburbanite. And it does not suit me.

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Money, and Time

There are some people who would spend a lot of time to save a little money, and there are people who would spend a lot of money to save a little time. I find that, now that I have a well-paying job (meaning I have more money), and older (meaning I have less time to live), my priority shifts. More often than not I would err on paying money to save myself time.

Except I don’t even know what the time I save up is good for. There is nothing I want to do that really sparks my interest. I suppose it’s a function of having little attention and energy (remember, I am tired most of the time these days), and the wearing off of the novelty aspect of experiences (after having done the stuff I’ve done, there are fewer and fewer things that would impress me) unless I expend a large chunk of the little energy I have left. So, most of these days, I opted to just not do anything.

So, that’s how you become fat, dumb, and lazy.

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