Since my exams two weeks ago, I have been enjoying the life outside of school. I have forced myself to reckon with a life without homework, research, and exams. My schedule seems to fill itself somehow, except for on the two days where I dedicated the entire day to school…. Wednesday and Thursday. I feel like a kid on summer break… absolute bliss. Enjoy this while it lasts, Nancy Cho….. enjoy it while it lasts.

So, to fill up some time I decided to work on a Cho Family Album project. B went diving yesterday with his friend, the Aquaman, so I decided to go on to My Publisher to start a book to give to the family. There was a snag though. I did not have pictures of the whole family in a picture together. There were some, but hardly any. We have wedding photos of the family together, but nothing else. It was saddening to see that the cover and first page were empty because I could not find a family photo.

Our family is the essence of working class. Even though my parents live in a well-to-do neighborhood now and they don’t have to work as hard anymore, I think the old mind set of being “working class” is permanently stored in their brain. The idea of a “family trip” is just not within their vocabulary. It’s always - work first. I can recall one camping trip when I was nine, one trip to Los Angeles when I was thirteen and two movie nights. If I were an outsider looking in, I would think that we just don’t like each other. This isn’t the case at all. Interestingly and ironically enough, we pride ourselves on being a close family.

Anyway, here’s a picture of me and my mom. One would think that I would pick a picture where I was smiling, but that’s the funny part. There are hardly ANY photos of me smiling in photos when I was a kid. This is probably why I am not photogenic. Me smiling, is like Mr. Burns trying to get a photo of himself smiling with a happy child for the scavenger hunt.

Will pricks and needles break my bones?
Oh the stupid dilemmas of the health impaired.

In the past month, I’ve been listening to a lot of 20th century music. Today, I found myself going a ways back in time to J.S. Bach and listening to his cantatas. Is it weird that I love sight reading Bach chorales, preludes, and fugues? Well, Bach or not, I love the thrill of learning a new piece and hearing the pieces come together. Then I love seeing how fast I can learn it so that I can really hear what’s going on. I mean, who wouldn’t? Well, I know a bunch of my students hate sight reading, so I guess there is an argument for that. To those who hate sight reading, I say it plain and simply, “It’s because you can’t read.” OOOhhhh… BOOOOUUUURRNSSS… wink,wink. ooh, I’m being a brat. Well, I’m half kidding and half being fo’ real.

This is my first week as a graduate, (yay, I’m a master!).  I am so relieved, happy, and thankful.  Now, what do I do?  Taking a break.  But, I do have ideas for a new piece, so I’ll probably pick up the pencil again and head on over to the piano in a few days.  I know myself…. I know that the old feelings will start creeping in, and I will want to go on with my education.  However, it is very competitive to go on to your doctorate, so we’ll just have to see what happens.  
 

So, I got tossed on Saturday night at D’s cocktail party.  At first, I didn’t drink anything because I was too tired to.  I helped my friend at the Modern Economy from 7:45am-4pm, and was exhausted afterward. I bought a pillow from Salvor Fauna at the event and she’s become Nigel’s new friend.  He used to love our silk pillows, but now he loves Madeline.  Getting tossed at the party was not part of the grand master plan, but it just happened naturally after the exit exams.  Man, I talk a lot when I drink.  Anyway, I bought two pillows at the sale to add to my ridiculous pillow collection.  It’s a problem, but no one’s complaining except for B.

Since we came home so late on Saturday night, (and I was too drunk to notice at the time), I woke
up on Sunday and realized that our house smelled like cereal.  Like, a big ol’ cereal factory.  B couldn’t tell, but as little as my nose is, it can smell everything.  Anyway, B picked up a new hobby.  I believe the influence came from Chris and Jack, (thanks guys), but at least I wasn’t here to be all “control freaky” over the whole process.  The kitchen was still clean, so I had nothing to complain about.  (Except for the malted barley that was stinking up our trash can.)  I hope the first batch is good, and that it doesn’t give B diarrhea.  

Oral defense today.  Nervous.  By late afternoon, I’ll either be laughing or crying…. maybe both?  

Well, it’ll either be “WOO HOO’S!!” or “boo hoo’s…”  

UPDATE:

6:03pm: arrived at home.  WOO HOO!

I took my written exit exams today.  Started at 9am and I finished at 5pm.  Well, didn’t finish really.  I had to finish by 5pm.  Oh, and what an eventful day it was.  After getting ready at 6:30am, my stomach just wasn’t ready to take in any food. So, I took my meds and grabbed my breakfast to go for the road.  Since I didn’t eat anything before I took the meds, nausea kicked in while I was driving to school.  So, I quickly forced myself to eat something and hold it down so that I wouldn’t pass out, (I could literally feel my blood sugar drop).  I picked up my exam and read over the three questions.  Two dealt with the subject of music of the past 100 years, and the last was a formal analysis.  Since my piano teacher was not available to be on my committee, it was weird to not see any questions that related to piano.  Even though I am getting my master’s in composition, I have only been a composition student for 2 1/2 years.  The last 25 years was all about the piano.  So yeah, it was definitely weird to end this journey on that note.  

9:00AM: picked up test, found quiet space in library with outlets for laptop.

9:10AM: plugged in my laptop and tried to log on to the internet so that I could be sure that I could email the exam back to the professor.  Well, technical difficulties arose.

10:00AM: started the exam.  Stupid technical problems.

12:00PM: three morons plopped their behinds across from me and talked out loud.  I didn’t want to pack up my stuff and leave because I was pressed for time, and just gave them dirty looks instead.  

3:00PM: realized I hadn’t eaten anything.  Hands a little shaky… blood sugar problems again.

5:00PM: emailed exam to professor

6:00PM: arrived at home and laid on couch.  B made awesome dinner and I pigged out.

10:30PM: noticed weird red spots all over my hands.  Broken blood vessels?  huh? oh well.

11:05PM: time for bed…. goodbye.

My exams are scheduled next week! The written is on Wednesday, the 9th, and the oral is on Friday. A little freaked, but also excited to hopefully pass and get it over with. Unfortunately, I have trouble retaining information… ie: names, titles, dates, terms… well, lots of stuff. My grandma on my mom’s side remembers everything. It’s pretty incredible, actually. She’s in her mid 80’s, and not only can she remember specific dates of when things happened, she remembers the exact DAY of the week and TIME. She remembers everyone she’s ever met and their names. She remembers all of our birthdays, of course, but she also remembers birthdays of friends and my cousins (from my father’s side), who barely know her. She remembers people’s Solar birth date, and she can recite what day their birthday would be (by calculating in her head), according to the Lunar calendar.

Alas, I did not inherit this remarkable talent, for I forget most things I learn. But it’s pretty hard to compete with an angel like our grandma.

I uploaded some audio under the WORKS page. The first one, Ave Maria, was composed in 2005. This was performed at CSUH’s Musica delle Donne concert in 2006. The second file, is the 3rd movement from the trio, Constancy. Unfortunately, this file is recorded from Finale, and is not live. But hopefully, you’ll get the point. The 3rd movement was performed at the Musica delle Donne concert this past March, but I haven’t had a chance to get the live version yet. A live version will be coming soon!

+n.s.cho

So thrilled to finally have a website up and running. Thanks to B’s friend, JS, this website is alive and kickin’ today. WordPress is the platform that we are using, and so far, it seems to be N.S.Cho friendly. I have to learn how to condense stuff so that I can post pictures and music up here. Stay Tuned!!