Chillaxin' in California

Okay, so I'm about a month and a half late giving an update on my trip to California but better late than never, right? Thanks to Hurricane Ike, I actually have a chance to update my blog. So let's travel back in time to July 8. After my amazing time in Evanston, IL at Northwestern University I headed home to Davidsville, PA to hang out with my awesome family for about 2 1/2 weeks. We ate, we went to Idlewild (a really awesome little amusement park in western PA), and enjoyed each other's company. I love visiting my family in the summer but it's always makes me feel sad that I'm not with them all the time. Anywho, so I flew to San Jose, CA on July 8 and of course my flights got delayed etc. and then nobody would pick me up at the airport lol. So I had this interesting minivan cab driving take me to the hotel. I ended up sleeping with a stranger that I spoke to for about 2 minutes for the first night lol. She turned out to be a very nice girl. But then the fun stuff started. So I got up the next morning and there was nothing to do but practice so practice I did for a few hours in a conference room. See the institute/festival was housed on the campus of this ridiculously expensive private high school called the Menlo School. So we had some pretty cool classrooms to practice in including the french classroom and some random math and spanish rooms. The first day I met the coolest people that I would spend the most time with. Dan, a Canadian tuba player, became my hangout buddy for a good portion of the trip. And Anna, a sweet french horn player, was my roommate at the hotel. We got a pretty amazing deal for the festival. She and I shared a king size bed and didn't have to share the room with anyone else :) We were pretty excited. Highlights of the trip:

~San Francisco Symphony concert with Chevy's Mexican prior to it with Dan and Anna

~trumpet lesson with Chris Martin, principal trumpet of Chicago Symphony Orchestra

~going to see "Dark Night" with some of the fellow friends towards the end of the trip

~talking to anyone who would listen about my dream of grad school for performance

~hearing Chris Martin play

~the amazing chocolate chip cookies in the dining hall

~going to the arts festival with Anna on Saturday, eating lots of lemonade and ice cream and then getting microwaveable quiche from Trader Joe's

~meeting and performing with some incredibly talented brass players

~being coached by Donna Parkes, currently principal trombone with the Louisville Symphony Orchestra because she was direct and helpful and just made me love playing in a brass quintet

~my brass quintet playing "Dance" and just loving every minute of it

~going for mexican down the road and having the best margarita I've had in a long time.

~laying on the fake grass at Menlo School and sunbathing

~learning more about how to be a better musician

~committing myself to practicing my tail off even when i had rehearsals all day long

If you want to know more just ask!!!!!