Tuesday, June 22, 2010

A Long Hiatus

I assumed that nobody really reads this blog, but having taken a long hiatus from writing in it, I kept getting asked by some people as to "what happened" to my writing!

Life has been BUSY leaving me little time for "creative" writing. Since I last wrote, I began taking a course at Memorial University in playwriting. And being required to write about 3 pages of dialogue and scenes every week has taken its toll on any other writing. Thus, the paucity of entries lately.

That's not to say that work hasn't seen its fair share of "odd cases" - I simpy haven't had the time or wherewithal to document them for anyone's reading pleasure! It still amazes me how much variety I see in my line of work. Scattered among the bread-and-butter is always something weird and wonderful. In the herd of horses that come my way, there is often a zebra hidden somewhere.

Outside of work, I recently played at my first-ever cello recital. It was an awful affair. First, I arrived late. (The Starbucks line was unusually long, I was sleep-deprived and needed one desperately, and the venue for the recital was someone's house in an area of town I had never been to). I was third on the program, and had a terrible case of the nerves. All the other cellists seemed to acquit themselves marvellously, but I have an unfortunate habit of making faces when something is out of tune. This habit also manifests itself in choir practices and even performances so the recital was no different. My terrible playing was thus accompanied by (potentially more) terrible faces. Thank God for my teacher's wife who gamely accompanied me on the piano. Her lovely playing at least offered some redemption.

Oddly, I got numerous gracious compliments from the people at the recital. I think it is probably because I out-age the other cellists by a decade or so. Adult beginners, apparently, get cut more slack. People admire us for our guts in picking up an instrument about 25yrs later than most - and then playing horribly in front of guests. The other thing I learned from my cello recital was that I shall still be making "noise" in 10yrs time. It really struck me that some of the students, despite having played for 10yrs, still don't have as fluid or wonderfl a tone on the cello as, say, my teacher. Of course, he is a professional cellist (and the principal cellist of the orchestra, no less) - but still... after 10yrs of playing piano one can play some pretty impressive pieces, no? Not so for the cello.

In any case, I guess - to use a rather grotesque term - I "popped my cherry" in the world of recitals. Amazing that I did so with the cello. I'd never played at a recital, not even the piano which was what I was originally trained in. It's always hardest the first time around, so maybe next year will see me pulling off a maestro-like performance. Ha.

Anyway. Back to the original purpose of this blog. Because I'm sure you all can't wait to hear more tales from the land of the ER. No promises for regular updates, though!

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All anecdotes have had parts fictionalised and potential identifiers altered in order to protect patient confidentiality.