this was my second year as the seattle flute society's horsfall competition coordinator, and it sure has kept me busy the past couple of months! it's a ton of work to process all of the applications (upwards of 60 this year), coordinate preliminary judges, mail the CDs, get them back, tally the scores, inform the kids, make the schedule, send a bajillion e-mails, change the schedule about 12 times, and then show up on the competition day and hope that everything actually works out. barring a few hiccups this year, it was successful! 43 students competed throughout the day on saturday, and what i could hear through the door sounded good. crazy good. i don’t envy the tough decisions our judges had to make!
SNOW made the weekend a little bit challenging. saturday was fine, really - we had some wintery downfall in the morning, but nothing stuck. i woke up to some accumulation on sunday morning... and... these hills in seattle, i tell you. this city is not made for snow and ice. i had a slightly nerve-wracking trip downtown to pick up nicole molumby, our lower division adjudicator (who is an absolute doll. love her!). all was well until i got closer to downtown and the snowflakes got bigger/more abundant and the traffic was at a stand still. i made it to pike place market, picked her up, and STRUG-GLED to get back up the hills to i5. we made it, after a few skids and “holy $#%#!”s, and were on our way to greenlake united methodist church for linda chesis' recital. she played a lovely program and then i announced the winners - a rather nervous position to be in because these kids are SO competitive. they work so hard and are so talented and the level of these flute players is so far and beyond where i was at their age! it's pretty inspiring.
masochistic as it is, i'll probably sign on to do it for another two-year term. massages that muscle that needs to organize and be in control of details.
inspired by this on my blog feed earlier this week, i created the following for a quick, simple, and extremely satisfying dinner as soon as i got home from the recital, ravenous, probably from burning so many extra calories due to stress (at least that's my theory):
bird food? and veggies
(title inspired by seth, who once saw my bag of TJ harvest grain blend and asked if it was bird food)
(i intended to take a picture. however, i was so hungry that i ate it and forgot...)
1 3/4 cup vegetable broth
1 1/4 cup TJ harvest grain blend (1/2 bag)
couple glugs olive oil
1 med onion, small dice
1 container sliced crimini mushrooms
1 bag baby spinach
salt, pepper, thyme, and cayenne pepper to taste
zest of one lemon + a couple squeezes lemon juice
bring veg broth to boil, add grains, reduce to simmer and cook for 10 minutes. stir in lemon zest and juice.
meanwhile, heat the olive oil in a large saute pan, add onion and cook until soft. add mushrooms, cook until they release their moisture and get soft. add entire bag of spinach, put a lid on it, and let the spinach wilt, about 3 minutes. add herbs and spices to taste. serve a big scoop of the veggies on top of a mound of the grain blend and you've got yourself a meal.
seeing allen stone at the neptune was an amazing way to cap off this busy, exhausting weekend. his energy, enthusiasm, and positive spirit are absolutely infectious. i just want to give this guy a big hug. i think he'd probably be okay with that. huge props to the seattle rock orchestra, who backed him up on many songs and sounded fantastic!
the weather forecast for the next few days is stressin’ me out a little bit, but today is for relaxing and happy times.
stay warm, seattle!
maggie
oh and ps
favorite links of the week:
the 27 rules of going to the gym (favorite: “A successful gym membership is like a marriage: If it's good, you show up committed and ready for hard work. If it's not good, you show up in sweatpants and watch a lot of bad TV.”)
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