Abe is working out right now, and I am so jealous. Maybe I’ll try to work out Saturday and see if that doesn’t land me in the hospital. In the meantime, I have spent hours of today in bed. It snowed today. I took one look out the window, put the girls down for their afternoon quiet time as fast as possible, and crawled under my covers. Half of our house doesn’t have heat, so I have to use a space heater next to the bed. It makes for such delicious toastiness that it was only with the greatest reluctance that I responded to Lydia’s cries of “Mama, I pooped in my paaww-ttyyyy!”
Since I spent so much of the day in bed, I got a lot of reading done. I’m still going at Harvard Square, although I have mixed emotions about it. Mainly I’m reading it because the characters are so different than I am that I appreciate a glimpse into their minds. I also sneaked in a couple of stories from Black Folktales here and there, and I’m enjoying those quite a bit.
I got in a couple more hours of practice after Abe got home, and after the girls went to bed, he helped me figure out what I’m doing for each round of the competition. I keep revising what I’m playing because the competition guidelines say you should not play pieces that are similar to each other or play pieces from the same era. Well, that’s a trick, especially if you’re a Chopin fanatic. Here’s what we think so far:
Audition tape: Mozart sonata, K. 331
Round 1: Italian Concerto, mov. 1 (Bach), Traumerai (Schumann), La Campanella (Liszt)
Round 2: Scherzo in b flat minor (Chopin), Sonata no. 1 (Ginestera)–movement 1 or 3 because Abe and I are in some disagreement here. He thinks, with the exception of Traumerai, this line-up is exceptionally lacking in lyricism. He’s right. But the only way to fix that, in my opinion, would be to play a Chopin nocturne, and I really don’t want to trade in my beloved scherzo for a nocturne… so anyway, I’m considering doing the slow movement of the Ginestera, even though I’d rather just relearn the first movement. I have to decide soon, so hopefully I can figure it out before the deadline passes me up.
Did anyone see that poetry slam by Lily Myers on women’s body image? I watched it weeks ago when it went viral, and one phrase keeps coming back to me: “…calories to which she does not feel entitled.” Especially since I can’t work out right now, I walk around with this cloud of guilt that I have eaten food today. When I review what I actually ate, I didn’t really binge on anything–or even eat chocolate (yet!)–but it is a little strange that I feel guilty for eating at all. Maybe all women feel this way? Or maybe just us lucky ones who have serious self-image issues?
Abe and I took a TON of pictures today. Here they are:
