Orchestra and a clean house


Today was our first visit from Katie, our new cleaning lady! She cleaned our house last month, but we were away and so didn’t meet her. Today we got to meet her and she is very very nice! She really liked the dogs, and they (especially Ollie!) loved her! When she started cleaning, I leashed the dogs so that they wouldn’t go bother her, and so they wouldn’t accidentally stick their noses in any cleaning stuff!

Ollie just lay on the floor or on the couch, chilling out. Hestia, on the other hand, was VERY interested in what Katie was doing! She watched her like a hawk. When Katie was in the kitchen, Hestia got up on her hind legs and peered through the cut-through– it was super cute! When Katie left, Hestia was surprisingly quite upset and she barked! I guess she was mad that Katie didn’t say goodbye to her specifically or something!

Later on tonight, I had orchestra rehearsal. I was dreading going because I had only practiced once this week, and because practice is sooooo late. It is 7:30-9:30 PM! I was really stressing out, worrying that I had overcommitted myself, and almost didn’t go. But Brad helped me plan out how I could leave graciously if the anxiety got too bad.

Hestia was very very good in rehearsal tonight! She tried to wander twice, but when I put my foot out to stop her, she got right back on her mat. I shared a music stand with Bethany again—she is super nice! This time we used my music, which was nice because I have fingerings marked in my music which is very helpful to me. To my left at the next stand over was a man named Chris, who has been in the orchestra a while. He was super nice, and always helped me figure out which song we were playing next, and which measure the conductor said to start at.

I also met another violinist named Wade, and a cellist named Nancy. Everyone there was really really nice to me, and very welcoming. No one asked any inappropriate questions about Hestia, or said anything negative. It was so awesome to feel so accepted! And everyone told me to be sure I kept coming back. One person as we were leaving asked which musical instrument Hestia played, and I chose Fred’s suggested response of Tympani (giant kettle drums). I can just picture her jumping back and forth between the drums!

I am home now, and happy that I went but exhausted. I am thinking I might try to go to the Ft. Mill NAMI meeting tomorrow to get some guidance on if this orchestra thing is too much for me, or if it is a good reach. I enjoy playing, I enjoy being there, but it is so late at night. I spend the whole day worrying about rehearsal that night and it takes a lot out of me.

I did snap one picture of Hestia while the conductor was going over the start of Ashokan Farewell with the cellos and basses. She is sitting on her pink Diva mat wearing her purple vest and looking up at me. At the side of the picture you can see my turquoise flamingo dress and my chocolate violin scroll.

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