I made it back from Virginia yesterday, it’s definitely a trip that I will never forget.  My preparation for this audition had been the best that I had ever had and I had phenomenal reeds, then everything went completely wrong!  A three hours flight delay, two hours on the tarmac, another five hour flight delay on the connecting flight, and finally a cancelled flight at 9:30pm in New Jersey with an audition at 8am the next morning in Virginia.

Can we say worst case scenario?

Never one to be beaten, I rented a car and started to make the drive through the night in the rain.  Because I had not had any sleep due to the turbulence on the first flight, I finally had to pull off of the road at 1:30am and grab a hotel.  The orchestra’s personnel manager was extremely understanding and we managed to reschedule the audition for later in the day, so I got up early and started driving again.  Made it to the audition, felt ready to rock, then didn’t play to my potential.

C’est la vie.

An understandable outcome after all of that but I was still extremely disappointed.  After some sleep, I still had a really great time in Virginia.  I have always wanted to go to Colonial Williamsburg so I drove up there to explore the sights.  They happened to have a really great 18th century piano exhibit going on.

 

Also a lone clarinet, an unusual victrola, and some unique string instruments. 

I also explored the beautiful coastline.  After a full day, I met up with a friend from high school that I had not seen in 10 years at a really cool coffee house called Cafe Stella.  The journey home was a lot less eventful thankfully. 

Today, we’re enjoying the day off and found a great new place in Denton called Seven Mile Cafe.  Cinnamon roll and red velvet pancakes, oh my!  

Next week I’ll be journeying to Tucson, Oklahoma Clarinet Symposium the following week, and Galveston Beach for fun next month!