Arkansas Travelers

This past week I had my final performance as principal harpist of the Ft. Smith (Arkansas) Symphony. I have been playing with the symphony for the past three seasons. It's a really sweet gig and I'm going to miss it quite a bit. The local support for the symphony is fantastic and they always treat us musicians really well. Kenta and I always looked forward to spending the weekend in Ft. Smith. It's a three hour drive (one way) but they put us up in a nice Holiday Inn for two nights (free) and feed us tasty food and snacks. I got to play some really great repertoire (Mahler 5, Ein Heldenleben, The Nutcracker to name a few) and met some really nice people. This season was especially fun because I grew increasingly larger as the season progressed. I played a concert about 2 1/2 weeks before Thomas was born and then had a 2 1/2 month break before the next concert (which also happened to be the last). We were excited to introduce Thomas to the orchestra and take him on his first "real" vacation. I guess it's worth mentioning that Ft. Smith is barely inside the Arkansas border.

We gave him a bath the night before we left so he would be squeaky clean when he met all the musicians.

Kenta stayed with Thomas and put him to bed on Friday night while I was in rehearsal. There was a bad thunderstorm that night and none of us slept very well. I was super-paranoid that Thomas would wake up our hotel neighbors. Surprisingly, he was in a great mood when he woke up the next morning (the video is two minutes long, but I promise it is worth watching):


On Saturday, I had another rehearsal in the morning. Kenta and Thomas hung out in the hotel room. Thomas took a nap and Kenta tried (unsuccessfully) to study in the dark. When I came back from rehearsal, we had some time to kill before Saturday night's performance. The weather was pretty rainy and yucky, so we took Thomas on a tour of the sixth floor.

The ice machine. We tried to teach him how to press the button, but.....

.....he was way more interested in the Coke machine.


Things were (obviously) kinda slow on the sixth floor, so I introduced Thomas to some hotel shenanigans that I learned as a youngster while traveling to swim meets across Oklahoma.

Elevator riding:

Stealing from the cleaning lady's cart (she actually almost did catch us)

After a fun day in the hotel, it was back to the concert hall. We took Thomas out on stage so he could see a few different instruments.

Will he play drums like his daddy did?

Or harp like his mommy?

I actually am grooming him to be a violist. I always thought the viola was cool - I just didn't have the talent (and still don't) to read alto clef. Living vicariously through my son? Perhaps. But I don't see anything wrong with wanting my son to play the viola. Violists have very easy temperaments....and violas aren't nearly as expensive or difficult to transport as a harp.

Thomas had a lot of fun meeting the musicians. The entire flute section was absolutely smitten with him. I am so lucky that I have a husband that supports me and lets me continue to develop my talents even now that I am a mommy. I'm so grateful that I still have opportunities to play. I can't play every job I would like to now, but having a baby and being a mommy/wife is the best job I could ever have. Playing the harp is just a bonus. What a great weekend! It was a Pops concert - I played music from Schindler's List and Raider's of the Lost Ark (both written by John Williams). Not every piece the orchestra played needed harp, so I was done by intermission. We decided to pack the car up and head home late Saturday night. Thomas was a good little traveler. He slept all the way to Ft. Smith and all the way home. The only trouble we came across was on our way home. We saw a car on eastbound I-40 (we were headed west) near Weleetka that was COMPLETELY engulfed in flames. Kenta called 911, but the dispatcher sounded really unalarmed that there was a flaming car on the interstate. We eventually saw two highway patrolmen speeding towards the car, but no fire engines or ambulances. Note to self: avoid car trouble in rural Oklahoma at all costs.

So that's that. Our Arkansas travels have come to an end. What new adventures await us? Only time will tell...stay tuned......