7 posts tagged “stress”
I am Joie's Raging Inability to Sleep. (And Joie, apparently, is still reading or at least thinking about reading Fight Club.)
For the past several weeks, I've been mostly unable to go back to sleep if I'm woken up after about 8 in the morning. (Okay, I realize lots of people need to be up before that time--I do, too, some days--but I'm a college student, and damn it all, I reserve my right to sleep until 3 in the afternoon whenever I feel like it.) It's... exceptionally annoying. But as soon as I wake up inadvertently or am woken up by someone/thing, my head starts going, making a list of what needs to be done, and any hope of remaining blissfully asleep is gone.
Apparently in the days leading up to my recital, this time has been pushed back to 5 in the freaking morning. No less, on a Sunday. I give you the big DOUBLE-YOU TEE EFF, brain. Brian (...a surprising juxtaposition of two words only a letter swap apart [holy shit I know how to use "juxtaposition" at 5 in the morning?!]) called me after returning home from his very late gig, and as soon as I got off the phone my brain started thinking, "You're really not comfortable enough with that Beethoven sonata yet. You should practice."
Ok, Brain, I thought back, we'll practice today. A lot.
"We should probably go through it, I dunno, a lot of times in a row," nagged Brain.
Yes, I agree. We'll get right on that today and do it every day until my recital, Brain. I proceeded to go back to sleep.
"...Joie?" pestered Brain. "I think Brian called you before this last time and you said something really stupid out of sleepiness. I can't remember what it was. What was it?"
~ a call to Brian to confirm I in fact, did not answer the first time he called and did not say anything stupid related to the dream I was having about Coda, Heather's new baby bunny ~
There, Brain. Nothing said. No bunnies mentioned. Good-night.
"You have to wear a dress and heels today."
Irrelevant information, Brain. Good-night.
"...You still have to name those three movements of the flute and marimba piece, you know. I wonder if anyone's at the practice rooms now?"
...Okay, I'm up.
This is the part where I assure you I'm not insane. But I think it was Nick who noted his affinity for my I-woke-up-ridiculously-early-and-can't-go-back-to-sleep-posts, and this one goes out to him.
Off I go to the music building. At 5:25. In the morning. On a Sunday.
Edited to Add: Ah, and if you didn't figure it out, I passed my piano jury. Much drama was involved, including my almost failing it after the first piece I played--a Bach prelude and fugue, bless the man--but after agreeing to drop that piece and recovering pretty well considering how upset I was, they passed me! I'm glad to be rid of it, honestly.
Edit #2: The only thing more annoying than waking up at 5 in the morning with an urge to practice is going to the music building at 5:30 in the morning and discovering one's security card apparently won't let you in that early. And that Captain McResponsible on the University Police has decided that maybe he'll go ahead and do his job this time and lock every door in the building. A grrr on everyone!!!
In doing research for this group project in my communications class, I came across this article in American Music Teacher, Jun/Jul 2005:
"Playing a Musical Instrument Found to Reverse Stress
A groundbreaking study recently published in the Medical Science Monitor shows for the first time that playing a musical instrument can reverse multiple components of the human stress response on the genetic level.
The study's principal investigator, Barry Bittman, M.D., of the Mind-Body Wellness Center in Meadville, Pennsylvania, says these finding shed new light on the value of active music participation and extend an understanding of individualized human biological stress responses on an unprecedented level.
The research team led by Bittman included researchers from Loma Linda University School of Medicine and Applied Biosystems, the developer of the original technology that led to the successful mapping of the human genome, announced in June 2000.
The research shows that the stress-reduction impact was far greater for individuals participating in their first group keyboard lesson than for subjects who simply relaxed and read newspapers and magazines.
Our preliminary findings demonstrate that active participation in a group keyboard program was far more effective at reversing stress signatures than simply relaxing and reading newspapers and magazines," says Bittman. "This is intriguing from an integrative lifestyle perspective. With ongoing research, recreational music making could potentially serve as a rational stress-reduction activity, along with other lifestyle strategies that include healthy nutrition and exercise."
The study was supported by Yamaha Corporation of American and Applied Biosystems."
Cool stuff, yes?
Surviving this semester will be nothing short of a miracle.
I woke up early this morning to try and get some work done before my first class. You can see how that's turned out. ~sips coffee in spite of a mysteriously upset stomach~
11 days until Spring Break, and I'm pretty certain that all of my professors have combined their powers to make the next week-and-a-half as difficult to bear as possible. I will defeat them!!!
Ok, the only real impossibility of the next two weeks is the "first draft" of a 10-12-page research paper that's due Friday. Now I've always worked under the assumption that "first drafts" are so called because they are incomplete, and I haven't been too concerned about this. Unfortunately, I've recently learned that it MUST be finished (...why call it a draft, then, I wonder?); furthermore, anytime we miss a draft deadline, our paper grade drops a full letter grade. Maybe I should've started reading any of these nine books I have before Saturday, yes?
Aside from that, life is just a mess of midterms, piano practice (that isn't happening), and composition (that isn't happening much, either). I feel like after this semester is over, the rest of my undergraduate days will be smooth-sailing; I will have completed all my required music classes save private lessons, I will mostly likely NOT be an English double-major anymore (so that's about 10,000 less papers per semester), and I'll just have a few basic general education requirements to complete. August 8th, 2008, my friends (that's right--my prospective graduation date is 8|8|08). I shall hopefully be a free woman. (Until starting grad school some 3-5 weeks later.)
And now, perhaps I'll consider getting some work done.
What's your favorite heartbreak song?
Submitted by esta86.
I'm not sure that I necessarily classify it as a "heartbreak" song, but Ben Folds Five's "Selfless, Cold, and Composed" is, in my opinion, the best break-up-related song I've ever heard. (Harvey Danger's cover of "Underground," a song originally by "This Busy Monster," is one of the best angry-break-up songs I've ever heard.) Now that I'm thinking more in-depth, Billy Joel's "And So It Goes" is a pretty amazing "heartbreak" song. Oh geez, and let's not forget Billy Vera and the Beaters, with "At This Moment." Amazing stuff. Alison Krauss's "New Favorite" is the only one by a woman I can think of right now, but that's just because I'm determined not to think too much into this question right now.
And now, to attempt to knock out the last stress of my week: a 6-7 page paper that I haven't even really begun to think about, which I will have to turn in around 9:30 tomorrow morning.
Listening test over and done with (and sufficiently DESTROYED I might add... go me!), and I'm back to working on my research paper. One of these books I've checked out from my library was published in 1890-something, and the earliest check-out date on the first check-out slip (which warns that for each day you keep the book past the fourteen-day limit, a fine of 2 CENTS will be incurred... CALM DOWN! I don't have that kind of cash!) is February 6, 1934. 1934! It's so fascinating to me to think about someone reading this book 72 years ago--probably stressing out just as much as if not more than I am. I would love to know who had this book; I feel somehow connected to them.
The binding is of course totally cracked (although considering its age, it's still in pretty good shape); every time I open it I get that waft of old-school library smell; and the pages are spotted with what I assume is oil from page-turning fingers, left to build up for well over half a century. Maybe it's just a weird book fetish, but I'm loving this thing. =)
Before becoming the co-ed University of Montevallo which I have come to know and love, my school was known as "Alabama College" and was a ladiez-only institution.
Ok, C.P.E Bach was born in 1714 and died in 1788, his half-brother J.C. Bach was born when J.S. Bach was 50, so that means... 1735? And he died before C.P.E., I think in 1782. Domenico Scarlatti (born 1685, same year as J.S. Bach, died 1757, seven years after Bach and two before Handel), Sonata in D Major, Kirkpatrick #119; C.P.E. Bach Sonata in A Major, can't remember the number on that... J.C. Bach, Concerto for Piano or Harpsichord in E-Flat. Ok. Haydn born the same year John Gay died, and Pergolesi was born in 1710 and died at the age of 26, meaning... 1736. Right. ...What was the name of that recitative? "Son imbrogliato io," but what was the aria? "Ah, quanto something male..." Crap.
Listening tests (obviously involving knowledge of the composers' birth and death dates) are the worst.
