On My Birthday

This past week has been filled with friends, firsts, and some incredibly great experiences, all leading up to today, my 24th birthday!

You may be asking yourself, "Why would you spend your birthday blogging?"

Well, inquisitive reader, this is pretty much what I've seen since 10 a.m.:

Yesterday and today have comprised the 16-hour drive from the Baltimore area to Troy, AL.  So when I finally got tired of reading an hour or so ago, I decided I may as well do something productive for the last few hours of today's drive.  Plus, a lot has happened since my last entry!

[Quick plug: yesterday in the car I finished reading David Mitchell's Cloud Atlas.  It's easily among the best books I've ever read.  I don't understand why this book isn't more well-known...it's simply brilliant.  My friend who recommended it put it best when she said, however, that while the investment in the story is difficult, the pay-off is huge.]

Last week we found ourselves near Washington, D.C., one of my favorite places in the country, performing at The Barns at Wolftrap, one of my favorite venues in the country.  It's also great to visit D.C. because, coincidentally, I have quite a few friends who moved there after graduation!

The Barns at Wolftrap.

With family friends Sassan and Jessie!

Running with Shannon somewhere near Vienna, VA.

With college friends Shannon, John, Emma, Matt, Alan, Blake, Kim, and Andrew!

On Saturday, we were staying in a hotel just south of Baltimore, so some of my friends drove up from D.C. and we grabbed lunch at Mama's on the Half Shell.  I originally planned to have chicken, because I'm just not a big fan of seafood, but since I was in Baltimore with seafood-savvy friends, and since I know I like crab, I decided to be adventurous!  I've written about my picky ways pre-Barrage, so this meal was notable because it was my first crab cake, and, moreover, it was the first time I'd ordered only seafood for an entire meal!

With Blake, Matt, Kim, and Alan.

Little did I know, though, the day's excitement was just beginning.

That afternoon, we were back at Patterson Mill High School in Bel Air, MD, where we'd previously played my first year in the group.  We were enjoying our dinner in the faculty lounge when, seemingly out of nowhere, the room began to fill with orchestra students singing "Happy Birthday."  Before I knew it, I was holding a giant card signed by the orchestra students, enjoying a bunch of balloons, and marveling at a box of two dozen, incredible cupcakes.

Please notice the incredible cupcake toppers.  Some say "Happy Birthday Taylor" and some have the Barrage logo!

My mom had struck again!  In typical fashion, she had contacted the orchestra teacher ahead of time and had arranged for a pre-birthday surprise.  And even though she did the same thing last year, I had no expectation it would happen again -- truthfully, it hadn't even crossed my mind!

I must give a shout-out to Shelley Stannard, a student's mom and owner of the Flavor Cupcakery in Bel Air.  Not only did she generously donate all of the cupcakes, but I also think the Oreo cupcake I had may just have been the best cupcake I've ever eaten.  It was that good.

Also, the birthday card, made by the school's art teacher, Sandra, was easily the most creative birthday card I've received. The finer points of her creativity included: writing my name in the Barrage font, turning the violin scroll into a cupcake, making the tuning pegs candles, making the f holes into 2 and 4, and cleverly writing "happy birthday" in the strings.  Ingenious!

And, finally, a special thank you to Shane Jensen, the orchestra teacher at Patterson Mill who orchestrated the whole thing!  (Pun very much intended.)

After the show, I had to figure out a way to keep the balloons even though they wouldn't fit in our van.  So, naturally, I put them in the back of our gear truck! 
(Tonight, I moved them into my hotel room.) 

It was truly a wonderful surprise and a great night!

This morning, on our way out of Charlotte, we planned for a birthday breakfast at a neat place called Terrace Café.  Breakfast already being a strong contender for my favorite meal of the day, it's even more awesome having it double as my celebratory birthday meal!

Blowing out the candle on my free birthday dessert!

All things considered, I had a great week and an incredible birthday.  Thank you to my parents, Barrage, and all those at Patterson Mill HS for making my on-the-road birthday as normal as possible.

And while I don't feel wiser or more mature, 24 is already off to a good start! 

Back on the Road: Bugs, Bows, and Benevolence

For the first time since coming back on the road 10 days ago, I'm feeling something akin to relaxation.  It's a combination of the unusually nice room in which I'm staying, the music to which I'm listening, the hotel tea I'm drinking, and--most importantly--today being a day off.

One of the most tiring things about Barrage is not the performing...it's the traveling.  Each of the four non-show days we've had has included an long drive (3-7 hours), and a few of the show days have had long drives as well.  [Yesterday, for example, we drove 5 hours from Elizabethtown, KY, to Bartlett, TN, and then played a show.]

Frequently, I'm successful in finding productive things to do during those long drives.  Standard car activities include: reading a book (currently, my mind is being blown by David Mitchell's Cloud Atlas), listening to my favorite podcasts or music, working on a blog post, napping, or enjoying the company.

Yesterday, though, was a complete waste of a drive!  I basically sat in a comatose state looking out the window the whole time.  I napped for a tiny bit, but it wasn't even beneficial because I was too tired to properly nap!

And as proof of just how much time we've spent on interstates, I submit this photo of the bug-speckled van bumper from a few days ago...

In conclusion, sitting in cars can sometimes kill any desire to be remotely productive.

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But, with all of the fatigue off these past 10 days, there have been a handful of very awesome occurrences.

Firstly, 3 of the 4 shows this past week were sold out!

Secondly, at an educational program the other day, some student left his or her bass bow on the stage after the workshop.  So, naturally, we picked it up and tried to play violin with it... 

And, finally, I had an unexpected visitor at one of the shows in Jupiter, FL.  

Back in November, I had an absurd trip home from tour involving delayed flights and three nosebleeds.  On the final flight, my neighbor on the plane offered me a clean handkerchief to fight the nosebleeds, a genuine and generous random act of kindness from a stranger.  When we left, he said he'd keep an eye out for our performances in Florida.  But, just being passing neighbors on a plane, I doubted he actually would.

You can imagine my surprise, then, when I received an e-mail from Mitchell a few days before the performance in Jupiter, telling me that he'd be attending with his wife and good friends!

How incredible is that?!

And, not only did he come and bring friends, but he also brought me a hilarious gift of handkerchiefs for future nosebleeds!

A planned act of kindness.

Fortunately, I haven't needed any of them yet, but now I'm definitely equipped.  Thank you, Mitchell!

Here's to showing kindness to strangers and making the world a better place, one more stopped nosebleed at a time!

Cloudy, with a chance of power trips.

These past two weeks have been quite the blur...in a good way!

On the Barrage "Vagabond Tales" DVD, there's an hour-long documentary about the band.  At one point, violinist Carly Frey wonders about whether or not Barrage actually exists to conduct sleep deprivation experiments.  The final night of our tour in the Netherlands was, undoubtedly, one of these.

We finished our last performance in Goes, Netherlands (pronounced hoos, but with that phlegmy, guttural growl at the beginning) and hopped on a coach bus to a hotel in Dusseldorf, Germany, where we would fly out early the next morning.  We went to bed sometime around 3 a.m., took a two-hour nap, and then caught a shuttle to the Dusseldorf Airport.  While the short flight to Berlin was bearable, the 11-hour flight to Miami was much more challenging...I didn't just have any middle seat, I had the much-dreaded middle seat with the entertainment console in the foot space:

Notice the silver box in front of my left foot.

After spending the night in Miami and stretching our legs, we caught flights home the next morning for a short break from tour.  

Normally, I don't have issues traveling by myself on planes, even carrying around a larger-than-normal case with two violins.  Lately, however, I've been having a string of unfortunate interactions with flight attendants on a certain airline.  [A clue: its name starts with a "C" and ends with an "ontinental"...]  On this flight from Houston to Phoenix, I was assessing the overhead space in the back of the plane, where I was sitting.  A flustered, stressed attendant approached and determined that I was taking too long re-arranging luggage to create space for my case.  Taking the matter into his own hands, he began frustratedly shuffling around bags.  I encouraged, gingerly, "We should be able to make my violin fit!"  To which he snipped, "Well, sir, you're not the only person on this plane with luggage."

After a quick night at home in my own bed, I took a six-day vacation to Seattle with my older brother, Scott.  It was our first time to Seattle, our first trip together, and the most time we have spent together since he moved out for college back in 2000.  Originally, I was worried we wouldn't be able to find enough things to do, given our varying interests; but, it turned out that we didn't have enough time to do everything we wanted!  In spite of the cold, cloudy weather, Seattle provided some amazing experiences.  Here are some pictures from our time there!

Eating incredible sandwiches from Salumi in the Waterfall Garden.

Olympic Sculpture Park.

Pike Place Market.

We heard Vadim Repin with the Seattle Symphony at Benaroya Hall.

Touching anemone at the Seattle Aquarium.

Coolest jellyfish display ever.

(This photo was not doctored.  Crazy colors, eh?)

Up close and personal with the gorillas at the incredible Woodland Park Zoo.

With my awesome friend, Bonnie, who is an instructor at IslandWood on Bainbridge Island.

Bainbridge Island.

On a suspension bridge at the IslandWood campus.

Fire lookout tower.

From the Space Needle.

As my hair and his hood indicate, it was incredibly windy!

My brother captured this great photo of the sunset from the Space Needle...this was basically the most sun we saw the whole time we were there.

A few other places/things that I'd recommend should you visit Seattle:
- Invest in the Seattle CityPass.
- Eat at FareStart.  The food is incredible, and the mission is even better.
- A friend recommended breakfast at Le Panier in the Pike Place Market, which was delicious.  Try to grab the window seats for good people-watching!
- If you like coffee, take the Coffee Crawl.  (Our favorite coffee places out of the many we visited were Espresso Vivace and Stumptown.)

When we came back on the road last Thursday, I had yet another incident (!) on that certain airline.

Flight attendant (standing in a row): Is that an instrument?
Me: Yeah, it's a violin.
FA: Ahhh, they must have not seen it when they took your ticket to board.  We normally check instruments.
Me:  I've never had to check it before...?
FA (posturing himself): Well, with larger cases like yours, we normally check them.  They don't fit in the overheads very well because they're oddly shaped, so we always check them so other bags can fit.  And this is a full flight.
Me (somewhat defensively): I travel 42 weeks a year with this case...I've never had problems making it fit, and I've never had to check it.
FA (more defensively): Well, I've worked in this business for 30 years and I can tell you we always check instruments.
Me: Can I just try putting it up?
FA: I'm telling you, we always check instruments.
Me (dumbfounded): ...I can't' even try putting it up?!
FA (quite begrudgingly): You can take it back there, but if I have a problem fitting luggage in the overhead, your instrument is the first thing I'm checking.

...in retrospect, the most annoying thing about how this went down was not that he wanted to check my violin, but that he wasn't being remotely helpful.  Yes, the flight was full, and yes, my case is irregularly sized, but probably only 20% of the plane had boarded.  Instead of immediately jumping to the conclusion that it wouldn't fit under any circumstance, why couldn't he try to help me find space?  Isn't the job of the flight attendant to help passengers on flights?  Why would he make his job more difficult?  

Sometimes when flight attendants see that we have instruments, they will kindly take time to make sure that our instruments are not checked, helping to rearrange luggage or offering to put the cases in coat closets. 

This obstinate guy, though, opted to prevent a win-win situation from the start, ultimately irritating both of us.

Fortunately, however, the Overhead Luggage Gods were overwhelmingly on my side.  When I arrived by my seat, I had no problem getting my case in the overhead: it was in front of smaller bags, and only ended up using space that wouldn't have otherwise been filled! 

Take that, flight attendant!