Washing machine broke

My washing machine made a horrifying sound last night. The agitator is no longer agitating. (The cords of a jacket got wrapped around it, and are still in the bowels of my machine.) Thinking of calling a service repairman but I may just buy a new one. The good news: I have the money to do it. The bad news: it cuts into my trip budget.

And now the exciting news... I'm going to China! My orchestra is going on tour, and I just saw the itinerary... OMG it's awesome.

-Day 1: Tienamin Square, Imperial Palace, Temple of Heaven, traditional pediman ride through town, and dinner with a host family

- Day 2: Summer Palace, Beiking Zoo, and rehearsals with the Beijing Youth Orchestra

- Day 3: all day rehearsals and then concert with BYO

- Day 4: Badaling section of the Great Wall of China, Olympic Park- Brids' Nest and Water Cube, then get on a bus for a 25 HOUR journey to Tibet. We're visiting Chengde, the mountain resort of the Qing Dynasty Emporers

- Day 5: sightseeing at Chengde mountain resort, then the Zogcheng temple

- Day 6: take a train to visit Mount Tai, a UNESCO Wolrd Heritage Site (one of the "sacred mountains"), and Dai Temple

- Day 7: Visit the hometown of Confucius, temple and cemetary where he is, then a "Banquet of Kong" at the Kong Family Mansion, then a train back to Beijing.

- Day 8: fly home

OMG this sounds so amazing! Since I'm going with a rather large group (maybe 100 people) we're gettign wonderful discounts on things, and this is probably the only time I'll ever get to go to China surrounded by Chinese people who will make sure I 1) stay alive and 2) don't get lost, or 3) eat something that will make me sick. (I'm still bringing a lot of pepto tabs.)

So I've saving my pennies like crazy for this trip. New furniture and TV are out (for now), however the washing machine may become necessary. Still thinking about moving, but I'm just lazy enough that I don't want to go through the hassle of it if I really don't have to. Definitely sticking close to my school though.

My parents used to live here, but retired 8 or 9 years ago and now live full time in Colorado. They came in last week, and SURPRISE! Bought a house. They're not moving back, they just want a place they can stay (with their cats) when they're here. My brother and sister and I are now charged with visiting the house once a month (each) to make sure everything is OK. I'm gettign really nervous about all their purchasing.... they have now two main homes, and a handful of properties and time shares in Colorado and Arizona. When they die, I'm going to have to pay taxes on all that stuff and there's just now way that I can do that, even if my brother and I split it. My sister can't take on any extra bills for sure, so we won't burden her with that. I just worry that we'll have to sell off everything they worked hard to get. I haven't even been to most of their places! Anyway, I guess I have about ten years before I really have to get panicked about that.

Contest at school: the ratings were OK, that was actually the least stressful part. The bus driver however... OMG. Ok, so I requested that the bus be there to pick us up at 12:00. At 11:55 I have 20 kids lined up outside waiting. At 12:10 I'm irritated there's no bus. At 12:15 I call the bus barn and they told me to "keep my shirt on", the bus is on the way. At 12:30 I call the contest office and say that we are supposed to be arriving now but haven't even been picked up yet, can they hold the contest? The answer is yes, but only ten minutes. Any more time than that will have to come out of my warm up time. (In my mind I'm screaming HOLY SHIT I NEED EVERY LAST SECOND!) At 12:40, the time we were schedule to step into the warm up room, there is still no bus and I'm about to cry. At 12:41 the bus rolls up and the kids bolt for seats. I have never seen that many instruments and kids loaded so fast! :) I love them. I step onto the bus and ask the driver "Where have you BEEN?!" She smiles and kinda laughs it off saying she didn't realize that the road changed names and was just driving around for the last half hour trying to find us. ...... !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!....... CALL SOMEONE! USE A GPS! It's her ONE job- get where she's going on time. JESUS H CHRIST ON A CRUTCH! I told her (as politely as I could muster, which came out kinda like a snarl) to get there as fast as she could without getting arrested or killing us. To her credit, she did. We made it with 8 minutes left for our warm up (out of our original 30 minutes), which was just enough time to tune, hit a few key spots in the music, and run onstage.

After that group performed I was talking with some of my colleagues who were sharing their bus horror stories. One lady went to the wrong school and was waiting there for half an hour before she thought to check the ticket and actually read it. My friend stepped on her bus (when it finally arrived) and asked where have you been?! We have to be there NOW! The driver told her what happened and my friend jumped her case hard. The driver then asked how to get to the contest site. Angela snapped at her to call someone, it's her job to know before she drives the bus! The driver got on her phone and called for directions and said "Hurry up! This lady is PISSED!" lol.

Another friend of mine was having issues with the driver who wanted to go a different way, but would take like an extra 10 minutes because she doesn't like making left turns! If she had been early, it wouldn't have been an issue but that bus was late, and this would cut into their warm up time. So my friend argues with her and the bus driver gets all snappy, so my friend's boss, who was with her, said "Lady, if I did my job as poorly as you're doing yours, I'd be fired!"

This isn't to bag on bus drivers. I've had some great ones too! And I know kids can leave an ungodly mess behind, too. However, I just can't believe that someone whose job it is to get there on time and maybe even know how to get there, can be so idiotic and still remain employed when they cock up so badly.

Game news: Civ Rev and I are friends again and I'm kicking ass. 25 achievements done I think. Yay! I tried Toy Soldiers, wasn't impressed. Just got through a few more levels of Super Meat Boy- they released two more levels on Teh Internets. (I LOVE that it's misspelled! I always type "teh" and have to backspace. LOL). One of the levels is freakishly difficuly, the other is challenging but not blow-your-brains-out hard.

Now a self congratulatory note: I cooked the BEST seafood meal I've ever had in my life two nights ago! It was braised tuna, sea scallops and shallots in a white wine saffron sauce, miced with sauteed vegetables: shiitake mushrooms, shaved celery root (my new favorite veggie), anise, shallots, and wafer thin carrots. Good grief it was good! Loved every bite, and amd going to try to replicate it tonight. I made a nice polenta too, using Cotija cheese instead of farmer cheese, and am very pleased with the result. Something that was gross though: the recipe called for Mace... I put the recommended amount in there (1/4 tsp.) and it is just disgusting. I hate mace, but thought maybe I've just never used it properly before. Yeah, I threw out the whole bottle after I tasted the polenta. If I drown it in enough tomato sauce, the mace flavor kinda disappears. It didn't ruin the whole thing but it would be a heck of a lot better without it. 

I think this qualifies for "novella" length, so I better stop typing, although there's tons more to say. Maybe next week.