the dreaming tree

this past weekend i went to st. louis for an ultimate frisbee tournament (glory days). as far as the tourney went, well, it was pretty miserable. we lost all 5 of the games we played, and none of them were even close. our best one we went up 3-0, only to lose 13-4. also in the last game i nearly broke my ankle…in fact, i might still get it checked out, cause it’s swelling up quite nicely and turning all kinds of nice colors. anyway, it wasn’t a pleasant weekend for ultimate, but it was my first collegiate tournament and i learned some things playing against other teams. i just hope our next experience will be a little nicer. however, the weekend wasn’t all a wash. saturday night joan was gracious enough to drive to st. louis from peoria, il so we could hang out for a couple of hours saturday night. it was really great to see her again after 2 years, and we had a good time eating and roaming around a couple of record stores. here’s a picture of us that i stole from her:

and on monday night was the university orchestra’s concert, where we played beethoven’s fifth (along with “royal hunt and storm” by berlioz and the hummel trumpet concerto). i’ve never been so emotional during a single piece as i was during the beethoven. i seriously almost lost it a couple of times throughout, and especially at the beginning of the fourth mvt. and then the audience gave us the most enthusiastic response any ensemble i’ve been in has received…our conductor was called back four times. it was really an amazing experience.