(no subject)

My birthday party this afternoon was wonderful -- thanks so much to everyone who came either in body or in spirit. It was preceded by having to respond to a 2 car MVA, but a bunch of people surprised me upon my return from the call. Thanks so much to js20 for the bike light, and to ibisinashes for the wittiest birthday card ever. And thanks to everyone who helped with the cleanup.

We sang Messiah again in Chester this evening, to a much smaller audience in a church. The environment was somewhat more intimate than Lang, and I think I enjoyed that. No, the performance was not flawless, but it was basically solid, and I enjoyed myself immensely. One enjoys performing much better when one does not rate how well a performance went by counting the number of mistakes that one made. I used to do that sort of thing and would end up beating myself up after concerts. Not that I don't try to be as precise of a musician as I can, but it's really better not to dwell on mistakes. Even if I missed an entrance or two, there were also probably a few places where I was among the few basses who came in.

And perhaps it is better not to traumatize small children musically (I remember writing once about how much better of a person I would have been had I had a certain piano teacher in my area who was famous for the following: make 3 or more mistakes during your lesson, and you were guaranteed to leave in tears). Thank goodness Tony Barone, the music theory piano teacher, is more patient than that with me...

On to finishing up geometry, and then bed. Studying for 115 and grad school stuff awaits in the morning.