Bump in the road...

I've hit a little bump in the road- I've been dealing with a difficult housemate since I arrived and things finally boiled over this past week. Even though he's moving out this week, I think this was the push I needed to show me what I've been feeling for some time now- that coming here was not the right move for me. I still want to pursue pre-med and then medical school, but I feel it will be better for me to do it in Los Angeles for the time being.

I underestimated how much I need the support of having my friends and family close by. I've felt very alone here and I don't really know very many people. In light of all this I'm moving back to LA and going back to work for a while. After I get settled again, I'm going to start taking pre-med classes again.  

I'll be taking Amtrak back (once again because of my bass), so I have a 3 day train ride to look forward to. In one sense it will be nice to see the country by train, but on the other hand I'm not super exited about being stuck on a train for 72 hours.

I'm so thankful I have such amazing family and friends who have all supported me through this difficult time. 

See you all back in LA in three days! 

International Society of Bassists

Yesterday I went to class and then headed up to the Eastman school to check out the isb convention. One of my classmates who is a double major in trombone performance/computer science showed me around the school and pointed out all the major halls I was looking for. I've never seen so many bass players- an army of bow case wielding bass nerds. 

This is a sketch a random guy at a coffee shop drew of me... not sure what it says.

The first performance I went to was a great bass player from Israel named Adam Ben Ezra. He plays a lot of complicated solo pieces often using a loop machine. He played a lot of great music, including a flamenco piece where he not only used the bass for percussion, but also his feet. So at one point he was playing a bass line while tapping the bass and tapping his feet- all at once, it was amazing! He played a very cool version of  "Come Together" as well as an original piece called "Elohima" (which translates to goddess). He dedicated it to his mother, wife, and daughter. It was a beautiful piece. 

I met up with a friend of mine from high school who came here with a bass vendor to work in the booth. It was fun catching up and I got to try out a bunch of basses and bows. It made me miss my bass a lot. I didn't realize how much I missed playing. There were so many bass vendors, with every range of instrument. 

Next I saw a new music presentation by Hagai Bilitzky on Middle Eastern music for solo bass. It was interesting, he explained different tones used and played transcriptions of traditional oud music. 

After that there was a presentation on using looping techniques with bass. Garth Stevenson gave a great talk about the tricks he uses and demonstrated how each one worked. It was cool to see how he was able to get so many layers going at once. He handed out a sheet with everything he was doing in one of his pieces written out- then he played it so we could follow along. It was really interesting because you don't always realize what the performer is doing with the loops so seeing it written out helped to explain what each foot tap and layer was doing. One of his pieces was inspired by a trip he took to Antarctica to write the score for a film on location. He took his bass along and one day he played on the deck of the ship as they were passing between icebergs. At the time he had been experimenting with using whale songs in his music and after he played, whales surrounded the ship and swam along. It was a powerful image and the piece he played about it was very cool.

 It also made me think a lot about the complaints I've heard (and occasionally voiced) about electronic music. While it's true that some aspects of electronic music might hinder the creativity and unique aspects of music, this presentation (along with Adam Ben Ezra's performance) showed me that there is so much room for electronics to expand music. This seems especially true for bass because of how versatile the instrument is in its own right. Using a loop, you can set up a bass line or a drone and then play a melody on top of it. There are also many sound effects that can be played on the bass. It was fun to see this genre really starting to become more popular. Garth did say that when playing with other musicians he rarely uses loops, he feels it can take away from the connection due to people having to keep in time with the loop. 

Next I saw an amazing group called Sybarite 5, which is a string quintet. They play some modern covers (mostly Radiohead) as well as original compositions written for them. All the music they played was fantastic, from the version of Radiohead's Paranoid Android, to the arrangement of a traditional Turkish folk song. Everything they played had so much energy, it was a lot of fun to watch them play.


That evening I went to the Eastman Theater to see two concerts- the first was a program of solo bass music composed and performed by the up and coming Argentinian bass player, Andres Martin. He is very talented and his passionate performance was very well received. My favorite piece of his was an Elegy that he wrote about many emotions that can be felt at once.

To close out the night, I saw a powerhouse bass group- Martin Wind, John Clayton, Rufus Reid, and Lynn Seaton. They were great- of course there were a few moments of muddiness, which happens whenever you have multiple basses playing pizz at once. They are all amazing musicians, it was fun to see them interact with each other.

Wandering...

I woke up this morning to two more rejection emails for jobs I applied for. I'm getting tired of seeing "after careful consideration, you have not been selected for this position, we encourage you to apply in the future". I'm working on transferring my EMT license here to NY state so hopefully that will open up more opportunities. Okay, I'm done complaining.

After studying, I decided to travel north and check out more of the city. I walked to campus and caught a campus bus up to the Eastman area. One nice thing about the bus (besides being clean and free) is that it's air conditioned! The weather here has been crazy the past couple weeks, and it's on a hot swing at the moment. 

I got off the bus two stops before I had planned... Because I wasn't paying attention, then walked to the Rochester Greek Festival. It was a small festival in a church parking lot, with good food, a stage for performances, and a few vendors. There weren't very many people there but I imagine that it picks up at night. I had calamari and a gyro, both of which were great.

Then I walked to the Eastman School of Music and wandered around that area. The area I live in is mostly residential and lots of hospital employees. The area around Eastman is much more like a college town- bars with clever names, coffee shops full of people studying, and organic sandwich shops are abundant. I took full advantage and sat in an air conditioned coffee shop drinking iced tea and alternating between studying and browsing on my ipad for a few hours.

To round the day off I went to the Geva Theater and saw a production of Midsummer Night's Dream. It was fun and the talent of the actors had a very wide range. There were a couple actors, the Bottom and Helena, that were great- very funny. It was a fun night and I got to talking with the couple sitting next to me. They have two sons around my age and were nice enough to offer me a ride home. I was really grateful because it cut my trip back from an hour to about ten minutes. 

Back in my apartment (yes mom, I got a ride from strangers and lived to tell the tale!), I've been thinking about the first time I was exposed to Shakespeare- or at least the first time I remember. I was in middle school... 5th or 6th grade and I attended a Shakespeare camp at Mt Washington Elementary school. We did Midsummer Night's Dream and I played Bottom. It was a lot of fun and seeing it tonight brought back memories of working on the play and doing workshops. I remember my favorite coach was a big guy with a bright red beard who taught improv. It was great to see all these kids (even the "cool" kids) really get into theater. 

More From Rochester

As I end my second week of classes, I am thinking a lot about home... Puck (my cat) has gone missing and we're worried that he was caught by coyotes. I guess there is a chance he's pulling a "Homeward Bound" trick and he'll show up here in a week or so (such a great movie...), but it seems doubtful. 

Before I left, my best friend Stephen made me a going away cake- I never got a chance to post it before, but I have an awesome best friend! 

I've started to figure out the bus system here a bit, and last weekend I went to the mall and then saw the new Star Trek movie, which I really enjoyed. The picture above is from the parking lot of the theater after the movie. It was good to get out and see a little bit of the city. This weekend I think I'll go up to the Eastman campus and visit downtown- someone in class told me there is a Greek festival going on so I might check that out. 

While at the mall I finally got an electric kettle! Yay for tea!! 

Today I came home to find an awesome care package from Lauren! It was perfect timing because I just ran out of food... She also sent me pencils, because in my excellent planning I only brought 1. The yellow car is an ambulance- the doors open and everything! 

I can't believe I have my first midterm next week, it seems like this class is flying by! I guess that's a good thing since I really can't stand math. I registered for fall classes yesterday, which is exciting, but I'm going to be busy. I've been applying for jobs and internships, but no luck so far. There are a lot of resources for post-bacc students that I'm learning about- during the year we get free tutoring and extra review sessions. 

Settling In

I've been in Rochester for a few days now and I'm still getting settled in. My place is nice and I met the landlord the other day and he is very pleasant. Yesterday I spent most of the day exploring the campus and taking care of some business there. I got my student ID, turned in my health forms, bought my calculus book, and then spoke with the career counselor about jobs. Here are some pictures from my walk: 

The university library 

Inside the library

The river (the "River Campus" is right along side the river)

The sign leading into my neighborhood

I made it!!

After Lauren flew back to LA I had a few days in Chicago to relax and explore. Sunday I went to a Mother's Day brunch which was great, then went downtown to the museum campus and saw the Field Museum. There were a few really interesting exhibits- there was a recreation of cave paintings from 20,000yrs ago, a whole exhibit devoted to bioluminescent insects and sea creatures, and a forensic reconstruction of several mummies from 3D CT scans.... Cool stuff. That night I had dinner with my friend Tiana and then went to bed early. 

Monday I went to the planetarium and saw some cool stuff there. Again, I went back to the apartment early to get some sleep and catch up on some Netflix. That night Riva and Gabe came back from their trip to Costa Rica- they were gracious enough to let me crash at their apartment while I was in Chicago. Something had happened with their flight so I wasn't sure when to expect them back. It was a nice surprise! We caught up and traded crazy travel stories from our respective trips. 

The next morning I went to brunch with Riva and Tiana, then we all went and saw Iron Man 3 which was a lot of fun- mainly action, but it was funny and we all enjoyed it. Later that day I took a cab to the train station for my last leg of the trip. My cab driver turned out to have a master's degree in biology from Ethiopia.... But he couldn't get a job with it here in the states. He said his son was his hope for a better future. Crazy.... Anyway, I got to the train station and as I've come to expect from this whole trip I hit a small snag. Amtrak has a 50lb weight limit on all checked bags.... And both my suitcases were over that. Lucky for me the lady at the counter gave me a moving box for free and didn't charge me for the third checked piece of luggage. 

A mere 12hrs later and I'm here in my new home... Not my room, but I'm in the house at least. The cool electronic keypad lock on my door is out of battery so I'm waiting for my landlord to come by with the key and replace the battery.... At least I'm here!! 

Update- the long road to Chicago

When we last left our heros, they were sitting in the Toyota dealership in Tulsa, OK waiting for the sketchy mechanic to come buy the car.....


Long story short, the guy bailed on us... We tried calling him and sending him repeated texts, but no answer. At this point I was starting to worry because the rest of our plans hinged on getting rid of the car. We went back to the used dealership and asked of they knew of anyone who might want to buy even for parts or something... The guy there told us to try Carmax which was right down the street- why he didn't tell us this the first time I asked him hours before is anyones guess.

After all the trouble we had encountered up to this point, the representative at Carmax who helped us was a breath of fresh air- we had been hearing "well I really don't know..." from most people all day, but when I told him I really needed to sell my car, he replied "well we really want to buy it!". It turned out that he was telling the truth- he went out of his way to explain our situation to his manager so that we could work something out (the title is in my dad's name so there were some issues...). We eventually sorted everything out and caught a cab to the airport to pick up our rental car.

I think the rental guy could tell I was at the end of my rope because he gave me a big discount and upgraded us for free. The car we got was a Ford Edge and I'm not sure whether I liked it so much because it's a nice car, or because it was simply a car and we were on the road again. Either way, we were back on our way.... we drove all night, stopping a few times for food and naps.

We arrived in Chicago around 9:45 am, giving Lauren  roughly six hours before she needed to be back at the airport. I wanted her to be able to at least see some of the city, so we rushed to make the architecture boat tour. We made it just in time, the tour went down the three branches of the Chicago river and the docent explained all the different types of architecture used in the city. Lauren took tons of pictures (this is true of the whole trip- I'm sure she will post them soon) and we had a great time. After having lunch we walked around Millennium Park and got to take some pictures with the Bean.

At this point I have to admit that sometimes I tend to run a little late.... this may have been one of those times. I did not anticipate there being traffic (like 2mph, bumper-to-bumper traffic) on a Saturday night going OUT of the city. Needless to say, we were running late to catch Lauren's flight home... I got her to the terminal at 5:40pm for a 6pm flight. Luckily she make the flight!

Exhausted, I got gas for the rental car and returned it before taking the train back to my friend's apartment where I'm staying. When I got there, I planned on sleeping for a little while and then getting a late dinner. I woke up this morning having slept through my alarm and all night. I'm so grateful for all the people here in Chicago who have helped us by putting me and all my stuff up for a few nights.

We had a crazy trip... to say the least! Now that I have a couple days before I take a train to Rochester, I plan on relaxing and trying to prepare myself for the next crazy part- actually starting school again!

Goodbye to my little car....

So the news about the check engine light was the worst case scenario- meaning they suggested that I replace the transmission, which would have cost me more than the car is worth at this point.... Lucky for me there was one of the mechanics at the Toyota dealership who was willing to buy it from me for parts. After checking with the Toyota used car dealership across the parking lot (and the dealer telling me they were not interested in buying my car for any price) I decided to sell the car to the mechanic and we set about trying to figure out how to get to Chicago in time for Lauren's flight back to LA. 

Lauren had the idea that we rent a car and drive to Chicago, then I could take the train the rest of the way to Rochester. After checking with the rental car companies this seemed to be the most cost efficient option. Through out today (and the whole trip really) Lauren has been really supportive and always helps me stay calm when I start to worry about....well everything! 

One of the benefits of moving via car was that not everything needed to be in suitcases. I have 4 vacuum bags of clothes that I was using as padding for the bass. In order to get ready to leave my car we had to repack everything so that it could potentially be transported on a train or bus. I bought two giant suitcases and packed everything that was loose and we tried to consolidate anything we could. It was quite a sight- all the car doors open in the "Super Target" parking lot (for those that have never seen one, a Super Target is like 5 regular targets and a Walmart put together...), with suitcases, pillows, clothes, and my bass all strewn about around it. We got some great looks. There was a really sweet couple with a baby that stopped to ask if everything was okay and if there was anything they could do for us... I guess it was obvious we were having a little bit of a rough day. 

Now we're just waiting for the mechanic to get off work so we can sell him the car, and then we'll take a cab to the airport to pick up our rental car. Hopefully it won't be too long until we're back on the road!! 

Stuck in Oklahoma

Our second day started out great, we started driving right when we planned and made good time. We drove about 680 miles before the check engine light flashed on as I pulled out of a rest stop. We got off the freeway and looked for somewhere that was open to check out the car. Unfortunately, since it was after 6, there were no repair shops open. We stopped at an auto parts store to have them check the code. 

As we walked in, the guy at the counter was saying something along the lines of "yup, this is the calm before a tornado...." through a giant wad of chewing tobacco. As if we needed anything more to stress about. After checking the code, we found out that either way- if it was an easy fix or the more involved fix- the dealer would be the only place around that carried the parts which meant we had to backtrack 40 minutes south to Tulsa. 

We're trying to stay positive, the service department opens at 7 and hopefully it'll be a quick fix and we can get back on the road. 

If there was going to be a picture for this post it would have been me standing with the hood up staring at the engine pretending that I know something about cars (the few words I could understand from the auto store clerk through his dip might have well been in another language)... Lucky for me, Lauren did not take any pictures of my confused pondering on where to find the transmission or any of the random things the auto store clerk suggested I could try to fix on my own... Ha! 

Santa Fe, NM

We drove all night and arrived in Santa Fe early this morning. The drive was a little tiring, but overall not too bad. One of the great things about driving at night was once we crossed into Arizona there were so many stars, it was beautiful!  We were able to check into our hotel early and then we headed out to find some breakfast. We ended up eating at a little family owned cafe and had some great breakfast burritos.

 

There were two main reasons we decided to stop in Santa Fe- Lauren wanted to visit the Georgia O'Keeffe museum and I wanted to take a tour of the Santa Fe opera. When we arrived, I looked online to find the tour times, but it turns out that this week there are no tours.... Quite a bummer. So after breakfast we walked to the museum only to find that they were in the middle of preparing for the summer show and they were closed...but we were able to go on a tour of the Georgia O'Keeffe research center which had a lot of her supplies, color samples, and sketches. There was one of her paintings there so it wasn't a total bust, and it was interesting to see some of the details of her process. We were also the youngest people on the tour by about 20yrs...

Before the tour we wandered around and walked through the St. Francis Cathedral which was built 400 years ago. Lauren has been taking tons of photos, this is what most of our walk consisted of...

After the research center tour we came back to the hotel and planned on taking a short nap and then heading back out to see some more of the museums and other city sights. Three hours later we woke up having slept through all the alarms we set. We both really needed to catch up on sleep after the drive, especially considering tomorrow is our longest drive of the trip.

We went to dinner at a place my friend Jessica (who used to live in Santa Fe) suggested. It was amazing- we had "sopapillas" which are light, melt-in-your-mouth thin pastries kind of like tortillas which are served with butter and honey as a starter (we both agreed that we could have just eaten those for dinner). For our main course we had stuffed sopapillas, which were also great.

We're getting ready for our big drive tomorrow, the adventure continues! 

Road Trip!!

Well the time is here for me to embark on another adventure, this time the destination is Rochester, NY! For those that don't know, I will be attending the post-bacc pre-med program at University of Rochester, which is a 14 month program that prepares students to apply to med school. This past month has been a crazy blur, I finished my online math class and started packing and clearing out my room all while working full time. Last week I resigned from my job as an EMT and became unemployed for the first time in two years. It's been a stressful month, but the time is finally here to start the road trip!

My car is packed to the brim and our route is (loosely) set- I will keep this updated with some pics and stories from the road, and then continue while I'm in school. Lauren and I are leaving tonight on a crazy fast trip across the country- our major stops will be Santa Fe, St. Louis, and then Chicago for two days before she flies back to LA. After that I will be visiting Iowa City, Madison, and Lebanon OH before moving into my new place in Rochester. I'm excited and nervous about moving across the country and studying subjects that have been tough for me in the past. This is a huge change for me and I'm really hoping I can succeed! 

Changes all around...

Many, many changes happening at the moment... First thing is that I'll be moving to Rochester, NY in a few months to attend a post-bacc premed course. I'm terrified and excited about the prospect of goodng back to school. One of the things that I had to get used to when I graduated was that I didn't have thing I HAD to do on my days off. I was able to go to work, do my job, and then go home. In my line of work, I don't take work home and besides keeping up with my continuing education, my days off are completely mine. Now I'm having to switch gears back into that academic mode with my least favorite subject- math. I'm taking an online math course in preparation for the post-bacc program. I'm still trying to get into the swing of doing school work again. Hopefully this will begin to prepare me for the insane amount of school I'll be doing for the next few years.

I'm currently in Chicago on vacation, which has been great! I really REALLY needed a break from work. I'm looking forward to not stepping foot into a hospital for the next couple days. The main reason I'm here is that my little sister Iris is auditioning for musical theater programs here. Today she had her first one and she was confident and energetic despite being really sick. I was so frustrated because I know what an amazing performer she is and I wanted the panel to see what she can do at full steam. After the audition I told her that if they didn't accept her she should tell them who her brother is and let them talk to me! I realized a little while later that this is (almost word for word- just replace "brother" with "grandpa") what our grandpa used to say to us before and after every audition. He was fiercely proud of us and was never afraid to express it- he did so every chance he got. Iris is such an amazing performer and I am just as proud of her as our gramps was- I'm glad I can carry on the support he always gave us!

When I get back to LA I will be starting a new shift, working a 24hr 911 car in LA county. My old shift, a Critical Care Transport shift, was too much for me. We were running for 22 out of our 24hr shifts, going without sleep and food for hours on end.. it was intense and exhausting. Occasionally we would have a truly critical patient (stroke, aneurysm, trauma), but the majority of our calls were for insurance reasons. I really enjoyed working with everyone in the program, but the call volume was just too high and I was really feeling run down. I'm excited to get back into running 911 calls regularly. Even though we get a lot of bs calls, we get to meet a ton of people. Also, since I'll be working in the same area every shift I can get to know the paramedics and ER staff better.

All this change has inspired me to set some new goals to work towards this month. There isn't anything that says I can't start my New Years resolutions in February right? I've been playing bass a lot more recently, which has been great. By the time I graduated from college playing and practicing felt like a chore- something I came to dread. Now I practice to relieve stress, it has become a way to escape in a focused way. It feels great now to practice a passage and work it up, it feels like I accomplished something. It also gives me a chance to focus on something in order to clear my head. My work makes it difficult to eat healthy, there have been a few shifts where dinner was eaten standing at the 7-11 counter at 3am. I would like to try and change that- make meals to take to work, cut out all fast food again, and start exercising regularly. There, now it's in writing so I have to do it, right?

This afternoon has been relaxing, I'm sitting on the couch watching the snow fall while listening to Tchaikovsky's symphony #6.... I thought it was a good time to reflect.