Tuesday, May 03, 2005

Successful OTD meeting

Many years ago when I first started working here a colleague would occasionally mark down "OTD Meeting" on his calendar. Eventually we found out that it meant "out the door". He would simply leave the premises and go run errands or do other non work related activities. He said these meetings were necessary for his mental health. His manager never questioned them and assumed they had to do with one of his projects.

I had an OTD meeting today from 12:45 to 2:00. I got my car's oil changed, got some cash from the bank, and picked up a lunch special from the local Chinese restaurant. I even managed to do about 5 Chemistry problems while waiting for the car. And I got all of them right.

So slowly I'm screwing my head back on today. I sometimes seem to lose it. I have to stay focused. I will do well in this course. I will have a wonderful time playing and making reeds this summer. I will go back to school full-time for 9 months and do well in all those courses too. I will figure out what to do with my career once the courses are over. And I *will* get good enough to reach my goal of playing in a local orchestra. That's really what my dream is about. Playing. In a big group. I don't need fame and prestige. I don't need to make money off it. I don't need solos. I just want to play with an ensemble. I want to get as good as I can considering the circumstances.

This musical fossils site is pretty cool. I find myself agreeing with everything and it's giving me nice ideas about how to practice. I've definitely been committing some of the mistakes he highlights. So I need to try to lose myself in the music more.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi Hilda!

I just found your blog after searching the internet for other adult oboe students. I'm 30 and started learning the oboe a month ago, and have had three lessons so far. I played the recorder before this so that's really helped me to pick up some of the basic fingerings. I'm just as excited about the oboe as you are, I love it! I've wanted to play it for years but could never afford an instrument, and then I've had a lot of surgery on my back and my ribs which meant I didn't have the lungpower to get a note out of one. I do suffer a lot with lack of breath as my lungs only function at 47% anyway, but I'm hoping that playing the oboe will really help me keep them working to their full potential!

Have fun playing :)

Toni in the UK xxxx

Hilda said...

Welcome to the blog, Toni. Sorry that it's been kind of slow this week. I have a final in another 7 hours but once that's done I am going to enjoy a summer full of oboe fun!

I think I saw you post on the oboe bboard, right? I post there as Halcyon440.

Congratulations on starting your lessons. I think that playing oboe will definitely help you with your lungpower. Best wishes to you with your playing and I hope to hear from you again.

Hilda

Anonymous said...

Hi Hilda,

That's right!!! I've been scouring the internet for oboe forums, and was a bit disappointed to find the OboeBBoard so slow. Still, it's good to be able to read all the old posts there :)

Toni xxx