Elgan speaks
...and her words thunder across the land

Ouch my jaw! Ouch my neck!

Tuesday, Apr. 7, 2009
12:23 p.m.
I am so incredibly stressed right now that I’m having actual physical symptoms. My jaw is clenched, my throat is tight, and my stomach has classic butterflies. I don’t think I have ever felt quite this way before. I could itemize what is doing this to me. Maybe that would help.

1) Tonight the student composers put on their concert. That’s not really stressful, at least not for me. But Hubby has invited them all back to our house to party afterwards. That’s going to be stressful.

2) Tomorrow is my Spanish oral exam. I have been working away sporadically on preparing three topics for conversation (there will also be a short essay question on the final, so this is not wasted work), but I feel as though I am woefully unable to speak Spanish since we learned the imperfect tense.

3) On Thursday five of my students have their final juries. I know this shouldn’t be stressful for me, but it is.

4) Immediately following the juries, Hubby and I are driving to Montreal to hear a piece of his being played that night and to meet with a violinist who is learning some of his music. This means missing choir, something I hate to do, but I had promised Hubby I would go with him and there was domestic strife related to my breaking of a promise. So I got Herr Doktor Professor to excuse me from this rehearsal (which is an important one, being so close to the concert) to keep sanity and my soul in one piece.

5) On Friday we drive to Toronto for the weekend to celebrate my mother’s 90th birthday. I have prepared this event, and just got off the phone with the caterer at the home, in fact, and all is in readiness. I really don’t have to do a damn thing except show up. Hubby and I bought a small CD player/AM-FM radio for my mother to put in her room (hopefully it’s simple enough that she will be able to operate it with a minimum of fuss) to replace her lousy radio and so that she can finally play CDs. I also bought her several jazz recordings (she loves Louis Armstrong) and Hubby will donate some of his own to the cause.

We’ll be staying at Little Princess’ on the air mattress in her spare room (Hubby found the pump last night) and it’ll be really nice to see her and her BF and Buddy Boy. Buddy Boy’s 20th birthday is later this month, but because we won’t be with him for it, we’re bringing his presents with us.

6) On Sunday we drive back to L’ville. The next week is full of choir practices, dress rehearsals for the concerts on the Friday and Saturday, as well as finishing up teaching my other students (some of whom are way behind in their lessons), putting together grades, and studying for my Spanish final. I also have to get my taxes done at some point before Hubby takes off for the west coast, where he will be spending the last week of April at opera workshops. Originally I was supposed to go with him, but once he got the workshop schedule, we realized I would be spending all my evenings twiddling my thumbs, so we decided the extra expense wasn’t worth it.

7) Once April is over, I have to worry about May, which is shaping up to be only slightly less stressful. I am looking forward to June.



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