so today I died.

Social wasn't bad, all the democracy/communism/fascism/Stalin stuff was pretty simple. But I probably slipped into "stupid rissa" mode and made careless mistakes...like colour in the wrong bubble on the scantron sheet- which i have done multiple times before.

But the only challenging part of the exam was the economics stuff. And trying to get through the densest 75 mc exam I've ever sat through. I was so mentally exhausted by the time I got to the economics section...kind of gave up right there.

Anyways, I think it went ok...darn that Key...no fairs.

Then I went for violin exam. I got utterly pwned. And it's mainly my fault. I KNEW all my pieces, the orchestral excerpts, and my study. I knew how to play them all. But I don't know what it was, the strange intense spotlight that was pointed in my direction onstage, the stone pokerface the adjudicator had on, me being mentally exhausted from socialing...

Anywhos...I made mistakes in all my repertoire. SO ANNOYING. I didn't blank out, I didn't forget what I was supposed to do...I just made little mistakes which were really dumb. And I played half of the Overture from The Magic Flute in the wrong key because I stretched my fourth finger too high and played E-natural rather than E-flat. STUPID.

I don't even wanna talk about the technique. I got asked the two hardest scales in the syllabus. F# minor harmonic in three octaves, and E-flat major fingered octaves. Gross. And I wasn't asked any of the chromatic scales...which is one of the only sections I knew how to do perfectly.

But it's very frustrating. There used to be this "Small Hand Exemption" clause in the syllabus where if you have really tiny hands (LIKE ME) and physically could not do certain scales cuz your fingers are not long enough, then you didn't have to do those scales. Yah well they took out that exemption. So i had to struggle through fingered octaves when my fourth finger is actually really physically not long enough to do so. Even my teacher was like "umm...you have really short fingers...can you even stretch that far?"

So did I pass? Who knows. I'm just so glad it's over. I really hope I pass...going through that one hour exam again? I wouldn't be able to do it. At least I did really well on my Beethoven sonata (because I actually enjoy playing that one...) and my ear tests (because I play by ear rather than by sight reading...which also means my sight reading fails)

It's over y'alls. I'm done. It seems like I'm in heaven right now...just knowing that I'm done, after 10 years of practicing hard, finishing that stupidly high standard exam (apparently it's equivalent to university level exams for violin...RETARDED)- this huge burden has been lifted off my shoulders. Both figuratively and literally.

lol. Literally cuz I no longer have to hold up a violin on my shoulder for at least an hour a day...my posture while playing is so bad...slouch...

Guess what? My A-string broke right before the exam. Fortunately I had an old A-string in my case that I quickly replaced. Problem was...I didn't string it too well...violin kept going out of tune- had to retune after every single piece...so bad.

darn. I forgot to return the violin mute to my teacher...and I'm not going for lesson for a looong time...oops




btw, Oilers won last night
Come-from-behind victory- 4-3 over Columbus. Hemsky- MAGIC- 2 goals and 2 assists...wow...
HUGE WIN- now we're tied for FIFTH in the Western Conference. SO HAPPY
The downside? Gagner (and Penner, Brodziak, Strudwick...) has to keep his 'stache until their next loss. which i'm hoping isn't for a long time...but eww he shouldn't have facial hair.