I thought I would post a little something since I haven’t in awhile.  Things have been a little slow on the clarinet front, although I’ve been practicing a lot for the ICA Orchestral Audition competition.  Unfortunately, because things have been really busy at work, I might not have time to make an decent recording before the deadline.  Its ok though, because I feel like I improved my Eb clarinet skills by a lot, which is great!

We’ve formed a clarinet trio at work for gigs this summer while half of the band is on deployment.  Its been really fun!  Chamber music is definitely my element.  The head of the Navy Music Program came to visit the band a couple weeks ago and we performed for him.  Thankfully, he loved what we did!  Hopefully we can work this summer and keep busy.

I’ve also been assigned the lovely duty of being head librarian at the band.  What does that mean?  A lot of work, unfortunately.  *sigh*  So I’m basically going to be working full work days for the next year, LOL.  I know, I know, welcome to the normal world of having a job.

I did my very first open water swim race about a month ago.  It was a “biathlon”, so it involved running and swimming.  Unfortunately, I had come down with a nice head cold that morning, so the race was tough to get through.  I did the 5k run very slow (about 28 minutes) because I felt like my lungs were going to burn through my chest, but my 1k swim was pretty decent, around 23 minutes which ended up being in the top tier of swim times.  I guess I’m fast?  Here are some pictures that Ben was nice enough to capture:

At the end of the run. I was dying!

Coming out of the water after the 1000 meter swim.

Running to the finish line on the beach. See that smile, that’s a ‘thank goodness this is over!’ smile.

My sister came to visit a couple weeks back, and we had a great time.  We did some snorkeling, some hiking, and some beaching.  I felt like I was on vacation too!  It was wonderful.

Drinking coconut water at a fruit stand on the North Shore

Hanauma bay. We saw fishies, turtles, a couple squid, and an eel!

So that’s it for now.  I’ll update if I manage to make a recording for the competition.  Two weeks is enough time, right?  Haha.

Aloha!