Phone ettiquette and pet peeves. . .

Is it hypocritical of me to on the one hand, be annoyed at people who I call 3 times, but never call back, but then to also be annoyed to be the recipient of 3 calls that I don't have the energy to return?

In the case of case 1, there are several guilty people. I don't mean to sound high maintenance, but if I call you 3 times over the course of a few months, at some point, if our friendship is more than a token friendship, then I expect you to call me back, or at least email me and say, "Sorry I haven't called you back." Or have an infant. :)
It's not the act of not calling me back that bugs me so much as your earnest "promises" that you'll "definitely" call back, etc., and then you never do.

Don't make promises that you can't keep. Or if this is a hint for me to stop calling, that's fine too, but then I get mixed signals from some of you, b/c then you tell me in gushy tones to come visit.

As for case 2, this is Mr. Venn diagram, who I "broke up" with after sort of seeing him for 2 weeks. Since our venn diagrams don't overlap at all, I often don't have much to say to him. Yet, he calls, which is perfectly fine, if it were once a month or less. After all, I see him regularly. So really, between running into him almost daily and our unshared interests, I don't have a whole lot to talk to him about. So when he calls multiple times in a week, although as a rule, I try to call back everyone that calls so I don't become like case #1, it becomes really trying when you are busy as hell, don't have time to eat or breathe much, and this person who doesn't really excite you much keeps calling you. A few times a week.

So perhaps I'm like the kettle that calls the teapot black or however that expression goes, but damnit people. If you call me 4 times (in one week. Not over the course of several months or a year as in my case.) and I don't return your calls, then perhaps it's time to pace your calling.

How about you wait till I call you back? Then roughly count how many days it took for me to return your call (to gauge exactly how interested and excited I am to talk to you), and then leave that much space between the next call?

Media bubble

Wow. I really must make it a point to read the news. I just happened to look at the NYT yesterday, after a several-day hiatus, and in the course of a few hours (while I was watching a movie), the former PM of Pakistan was assassinated. I'm sure if I had a TV, this would be blaring all over the news, but since I don't have a TV, and since I don't subscribe to actual hard copy papers, it's really easy to live in a sort of bubble and not be aware of the goings-on in the world for this week that I am off. Can you imagine if I hadn't checked the news? How could I be aware of the latest movie releases but not of Bhutto's death?

I am still in shock over her sudden death and the fact that I might've missed that minor tidbit, had I not checked the NYT.

Slightly neurotic, but we love him anyway.

My caper-chord-loving, congan drum instructor is an absolute nutcase, but we still love him. Please observe exhibit A--extensive notes for practicing our music:

"Procession I'VE GOT NEWS: The sound is really gorgeous. Go to www.metronomeonline.com, click on the A 440 (starting pitch) and keep a pulse of eighth note = 138. Duration of notes before breaths (in # of eighth notes): est 3, it 2, e (of hodie) 1!, li 2, li, 3, ti 2, ia, 3, 3 & 3. PRACTICE BREATHING RHYTHMICALLY

Ave Maria Kodály HAIL MOTHER OF GOD: altos keep on checking your G naturals for a headier tone. The Tempo I of m. 59 tends to settle in flat.

In Terra Pax JOYOUS PEACE. Sunday was better rhythmically but it still rushed on letter C sopranos. From m. 25 to the end (with the exception of letter E) I'm at quarter = 100 (practice speaking on www.metronomeonline.com). The last fugato entrance of the middle part was off on Sunday (pick up to m. 83) caught some off guard? Singing more sound throughout solidifies the harmonic transitions. Very effective ending and the spirit was there. "
etc. etc.

Note the instructions to go to such-and-such site and click on such-and-such a tempo marking and practice. Even though this is probably a perfectly reasonable expectation (if it weren't for the potlucks, work functions, final papers and everything else going on during the 2 busiest weeks of the year, that is. . .. Right now, anyone that wants me to do anything besides sleep, eat, go to work and practice is being extremely unreasonable), I can't help but find this absurd.

And yet, he wouldn't have taken the trouble to type all this out if he weren't serious. And this is why we love him to silly pieces. . .. Because he tells us to go to metronome.com and tick out eighth=138 and practice to this online metronome thingie and he is 100 percent serious.

As much as we laugh and at times, groan about his unreasonable demands, it is such an honor to sing and make music with someone who is so exacting and demands perfection and 120 percent out of all of us, as well as with my fellow drummer/choristers who live up to this expectation, all the while being full-time moms, working full-time, taking care of family, taking classes, volunteering on 200 committees, singing or playing in other groups, ice skateing, doing martial arts, training for a marathon, and reading a book a week, etc. etc.

On that note, I better stop blogging and get on that site and practice my eighth=138 timing.

I want a classical music version of Chowhound

After extolling the virtues of Chowhound on my not-as-clandestine food blog, I've decided that what this area really needs is a classical music equivalent of Chowhound. A board where I can find out about latest performances (grouped by region). A board where I can find out about which version of a score is better--the Henle-Verlag or Barenreiter. A board where I can play "name that tune" or "name that conductor" (e.g. does anyone know the name of a composer whose name begins with R and wrote a double trumpet concerto in E minor? It turns out that google is quite useless for such queries. . .). A board where I can ask people whether such-and-such an opera is worth going to or where I can post my own opinions about whether said opera is worth seeing. A board where I can ask about diminished chords in a certain piece. A board where I can ask people what their favorite recording of the Mahler 3rd Symphony is. A board where I can ask for suggestions for picking music for a memorial service for someone who likes Schuman.

Why doesn't such a board exist?!?!?!??!?

I can't spell backwards

I thought I was being clever by coming up with a username for my Stanford alumni account that was the backwards spelling of my name. After all, I have a yahoo account in which I spell a word backwards, and I get no spam in this mailbox whatsoever. So after getting about 100 pieces of spam per month (I only check it once or twice a month, so deleting 70 to 100 messages every time I logged on got old), I requested to have my email username changed to my first and last name spelled backwards. I had planned on using it as my official email address someday.

Well, no more. It turns out that I can't spell backwards. Thus I switched 2 of the letters in my last name. Instead of telling people that this email address is "simply my name spelled backwards", I now must tell them that it's a combination of my first name spelled backwards, plus my last name spelled in pig latin.

How cleverly idiotic. . ..