For half a month, I stayed in Vegas because my parents were remodeling two homes there.
Now let's see what goals I have previously given myself and actually fulfilled:
"1) At least 5-6 hrs of music daily
a. 5 hrs of violin, 1 of piano
b. I shall allow myself a day of no practice each week."
Phail for a. because I didn't have a chair or television where I lived, not to mention a piano.
Phail for b. because all I could do in my free time was to practice violin, and practice I did.
"2) Memorize 1,000 words."
Phail, partially because I did not have a whole lot of time at first, because I was placing ads and sifting through ads for used kichen appliances for my parent's properties and therefore did not have a lot of patience or time...
"3) Physical training"
Refer to my previous phail statement.
Now that I'm back in LA, hopefully I can get back on my feet and get things going...
I AM SICK OF VEGAS
(I ate buffets like every night because they're really cheap in LV. This is what happens when I get bored in them. Those are m&m's btw.)
One thing that really pissed me off for a week in Vegas were the mosquitos.
I left my bedroom window open one night (it was 80 degrees and the AC broke) and woke up in the morning covered in masses of bug bites. Like 40 of them.
And they weren't those small, easily forgotten ones. I had red welts about the size of quarters and half-dollars all over my arms and legs. My first night was practically sleepless due to the itching. Thanks to Randy who recommended me to make a concoction of salt and lemon (I added mouthwash too) to apply to the bites, but it was this Chinese medicine that helped. It was called something like Pho chang asdfasdjkf or whatever. Anyways I owe my life to that thing.
My July fourth was watching a meek show of fireworks on the Strip, and missing out on a huge magic trick on the streets due to a huge crowd (a guy apparantly went into a helicopter and appeared in a box. David Blair anyone).
One memorable thing that came out of this Vegas trip, was when I played on the streets (again), I think.
The first time, I played in front of a mall for 20 mins, and got $20 in tips.
2nd time, 20 mins, about $20 in tips. An official of the mall property had to shoo me away because I didn't know I was on private property. Woups.
3rd time, was on Fourth of July. I added "Star Spangled Banner" and "America the Beautiful" to my noobish repertoire of Mendelssohn, Schubert, and Bach. $66 in tips in 40 mins. But that's because someone gave me a $20.
Am I doing this for the money?
No, I'll try to donate the funds to cancer research behind my parent's back. Or maybe I'll use it for a year's worth of milk money.
The unmemorable parts of playing on the streets, is when stupid people drop gambling chips into your instrument case. And when money blows out of the case when it's windy. A $5 blew out of my case one time, and one of the stripper card dudes retrieved it for me. Lesson here: Use a pail for the tips. Ware mah bukkit?
But I find it somewhat encouraging when people stop by and listen, with the occasional remark of approbation, even the security guards and the Mexicans handing out stripper cards. It shows that classical music is still being appreciated...
Maybe I'm not so sick of Vegas.
3 comments:
Welcome back, Kathleen (for the second time)
I never liked Vegas to begin with, if I wanted to walk down some flashy streets with horribly dense air and sweat half my weight in water, I'd go to Hong Kong.
Also, I thought you learned your "Add music people relate to" lesson the first time you did that :P
Then again, there wasn't really much you could play on the second time. You could've skipped ahead to July Fourth songs and milk it for all it's worth like stores do, but that wouldnt've been very fun.
I don't get your last sentence :P.
The first time I saw those stripper cards in Vegas was when I was five. My brother told me to look towards the sky instead of at the ground, since people were throwing them everywhere. I saw such pretty gray smoke pollution clouds.
The freaky thing is that I used to go to Vegas alot because of my mom's company holding functions there o.o Three times a year anyone? Not so much anymore.
Question: Why didn't you have TV or Internet and why do you have the worst timing ever? (:D)
Vegas is full of tourists. I like that because then a variety of people get to hear my music (and ignore).
I was living in one of the properties that my parents were remodeling (because they're Asian and too cheap to stay in a hotel). That meant it was just a big, empty, unfurnished house. We had to improvise a lot, but at least we all got our own rooms to sleep in.
I don't have the worst timing; YOU DO.
Lol on a side note I was walking down the st and heard a tourist say "Why is there so much porn on the street?"
Post a Comment