Highlights from the rest of the Oregon Trip:

• Getting the hang of public transport = magic.
• Ended up practicing in the classrooms at Portland State University, using the chalkboard for a stand.
  

Audition Highlights:

• What a well run audition! They had no uber room, only individual warmup rooms - which was nice. Of course, you still had to put up with the jerk in the room next to you who was intentionally playing everything you played - only louder and faster. Guys - seriously!
• Turns out I was the only girl at the audition. There were probably 75 or so folks there. I found this out immediately when I walked in, didn't say a word, and the guy said - "OH - YOU must be Jennifer!".
  
• When the gal (my age or younger) came to get me from my audition room, she said to me:

"Oh!! You're the girl! I'm so excited that you came. There was supposed to be one other girl yesterday, but she called and cancelled! It must suck being the only girl in a whole audition - I mean, I felt like it was stressful on me to win a job and I just play horn!"

I mumbled something incoherent, because I was pretty nervous already (I was about to go on stage) and then she continues, saying:

"Yeah, there sure aren't many girls in brass sections in the world, espcially not in low brass - I hope you win!!"

Then the proctor came to get me and she said:

"Good luck - win this one for the girls!"

Yeah, thanks - HELPFUL.

We walked to the stage, where the proctor pulled me aside and said:

"It is VERY important that you MAKE SURE to stay on that carpet. You are the only girl in this audition, and you aren't going to clomp as much as the big guys who have been playing here today. We put that carpet down just for you to make sure that they couldn't tell who you were"

I mean, realize that if I was a real professional who was in control of my emotions and their effect on my product that this wouldn't have mattered at all - but for the love of God, this was my first audition! Are they all going to be like this?

• Needless to say, I did not pass the prelims. I mean, I managed to make it through without missing any notes (although I had a little nervous vibrato on my quiet excerpt and the tone in general was a little special) I did get to play all but one excerpt, which as I hear was more than most got to play. So maybe that's a good sign . . . it's really kinda hard to know since apparently no one from the whole day advanced. (This is what I've been told - certainly no one in my group, Sean's group or Brett's group did)

Highlights from after Audition Madness:

• Sake bombs.
• Soap fight.
• Guy and girl got arrested in the hotel room next to us. We have no idea why.
• Met a hypnotist/illusionist from London on the plane - weird!
• And some guy was getting arrested at the Indy airport or something when we were leaving. He was standing there, and the cops kept on increasing. Which was weird, because they were just calmly talking it seemed - but they kept calling for backup. Unfortunately (fortunately?) our bus came before we could see the thrilling conclusion.
  

So now I'm back home again. My cats missed me, which is uber cute. And in other news, today I bought a fishing license. Which will be happy as soon as I find someone to go fishing with! More on that later. . .