Be True to Your School

First day of class. My goodness. How can I possibly find a way to describe the gloriousness.


Yesterday was my first music course - Repertory A, or just plain old music history. It is taught by a variety of professors - no really, close to eight people - and one of them happens to be my advisor; Dr. Aiden Thomson. he is what everyone imagines a music professor to look like. He has an air of pompous dignity to him, which is thrown off by the fact that he is dressed like a disgruntled school boy forced to wear the clothes picked out by his mother. He walks in, one side of his button down shirt untucked, and immediately starts to pass out our syllabus. The thing is huge and in very explicit detail. But that does not stop him from going into even more detail. He is the kind of professor who uses far too many words in his sentences and rambles occasionally, giving sarcastic anecdotes that only a handful of students will understand anyway. He pauses a lot to look at his notes, while mentioning that he has a terrible memory and sometimes clucks under his breath, steepling his fingers together in thought as he paces from one side of the room to the other. The sight of him almost makes you giggle, but you don't dare because he is so endearingly awkward that you can't help but love him.


The class itself seems very intense and I am starting to realize how amazing this year is going to be. I am completely surrounded my music. I will not be taking any other classes and I will have no time to engage in any other subjects. Heaven. I am now a member of the Music Society at Queen's. And later today I am auditioning for the Chamber Choir. Oh, did I mention that I am in the Jazz Band? I am so very happy. People look a little worried as they see me walk down the street, my smile is so big it tends to give people the wrong idea. I feel like the cat who has finally caught the canary. And yesterday I had the most wonderful practice I have had in a long time. I was on a music high after my class and strolled down to the practice rooms for some inspiration. I went through almost everything I know, or remember, or have sung at one time. I haven't had such fun in a long time. And then, with five minutes left in my lesson, I rediscovered a piece that has everything in it that one dreams of singing. I must credit Mrs. Whitney for introducing me to this piece, thank you so much. It is by Berlioz - L'Absence. I love it. It fills my voice so beautifully that I am usually left breathless at the end of the piece. Yesterday was a good day for my voice, I was on top of my game and the music was soaring out of me. It was the perfect end to a perfect day. I left their floating on musical clouds and went home - to finish icing a cake.


Let me explain, today is Chris' birthday, one of my housemates. And we thought it would be a wonderful thing to celebrate into his birthday. So I baked a cake and iced it and put the German equivalent of "Happy Birthday!" on it, which by the way is a huge phrase. It barely fit on the cake and I had to work to make sure the exclamation point didn't fall off the cake. But it was worth it. A beautiful cake was made and there was a banner and even some party hats. At midnight we all got together and sang to him. Of course, due to large number of very sensitive fire alarms in our house, we only lit one candle and moved the cake and guests outside while we sang to him. It was quite a bonding moment for the whole house - all of us standing outside in the cold singing Happy Birthday and thoroughly confusing the drunkards walking by the house. Then we rushed back in for the cake. It was quite good, if I do say so myself. But the Happy Birthday banner kept falling down every five minutes because it is very hard to attach to the wall, even after we used an entire roll of tape and this blue tack stuff. I don't know who enjoyed the "party" more, the birthday boy or the party planners. All the Germans tried to teach me the German birthday song. It is not what you think. It is long - there are seriously four verses. It goes on forever! Regardless, it was a wonderful day. I only hope that enthusiasm for birthdays remains constant through the entire year. I can see everyone on the final birthday - which I believe is my own - wishing they never agreed to this birthday nonsense.


Performance 2 class today!

Kelsey
P.S. What the devil is wrong with this font thingy - I can't figure it out!!!