Classic

This has been an awesomely busy week for my big girl - and because I am insanely attached to the big girl in every way - an awesomely busy week for me. And because I am also insanely attached to the big boy, the medium-sized boy, the little girl, and the little boy - awesomely big doesn't quite represent just how gigantic my week has been. And it ain't over, folks. Not by a long shot.

I have miles to go before I sleep.

My big girl is an exponential firstborn. That means she is an over-achieving perfectionist super-driven maniac to the nth degree. Living with her is like living with a tornado. Luckily, her brothers are at the opposite end of the spectrum. Recently, they had a friend over. I had left the house for something and had returned to find the friend not with the boys.

"Where's Harlan?" I asked.

"He left," the boys replied while staring slack-faced at the screen on their television.

This was alarming. Nobody was supposed to pick Harlan up until the next day.

"What do you mean he left? Where did he go?"

Silence.....it takes awhile for the words to make their way through the hair, to the ears, and then way down deep into the language processing core of the brain (where it is momentarily hung up) before one of them said, "He went to the bathroom."

What a relief.

"Why did you say he had left if he's only in the bathroom?"

And then Ellie says, "Mom - to the boys he might as well have gone to the moon. When's the last time they left their room?"

So, yeah. Thank God for that. Because Ellie is always leaving her room and going places and it keeps me busy.

So let me tell you what she did when she left her room this week. First of all, this is the week of the San Antonio International Piano Competition. Really cool. The competitors come from all over the world, the judges are world class, and it is a fantastic week of music. Ellie was chosen to be a junior juror - which means she is judging the competition (although the junior judges don't actually pick the real winner - which I'm sure is a huge relief to the pianists).

So she's at Trinity University pretty much all week. In addition to that, she had to take her PSAT (without studying....dang) and she also had some activism work where she had to video people making statements about genocide....and she was scheduled for one audience-attended Master Class with Gustavo Romero.

Initially, when she auditioned for the Master Class, she had hoped for Santiago Rodriguez because she has his recording of Alberto Ginastera's Sonata No. 2, which she is currently playing. But she was told he was only doing a class with a semi-finalist in the competition (ellie isn't in the competition). But then, Wednesday night at 10:30 they called her and asked if she could do a Master Class with Rodriguez, after all! So yesterday, she had a Master Class with Rodriguez at 2:00.....and then another Master Class with Romero at 7:30. It was just a delicious day for her all the way around and that makes it a delicious day for me although everyone knows I'd rather be listening to the Red Hot Chili Peppers.

Here she is with Gustavo Romero. Even after the class - he kept teaching! I have sat through a few Master Classes....and I have never seen someone give so much energy throughout the entire time. Ellie played last, and often the masters are a little bit tired by the last performer.....but Romero was like the Energizer Bunny.

Here she is with Santiago Rodriguez, who she was thrilled to death to meet, much less spend one on one time at the piano with!

Tonight she'll be at the Finals with her other junior jurors....tomorrow is the Awards Ceremony and Reception.

As for next week? I haven't the energy to think about it. Maybe we'll just take it easy. Or let me re-phrase that....maybe all of us but Ellie will take it easy. Whew!

Signing off as The Classically Tuned Sardine Mama.