So today I had my TMC audition. Left at 11:30 for a 2:50 audition. Mapquest put the driving time at 2:30, so I figured even if I hit a traffic snag near Chicago, I'd be in plenty of time for the audition. Ha. Hahaha. Because, and I hadn't noticed it because I hadn't really looked outside yet, it had been snowing for a while. So I thought to myself, a little bit of snow, no biggie. It's too cold to need to worry about slush or ice, right? Ha. Yes, in a perfect world perhaps. But somehow, physics and chemistry somehow conspired together to create a thin, almost completely invisible ice sheet over pretty much the entire highway, from here well into Illinois. The first 60 miles took 2 hours of driving time, since there were at least two large pileups and numerous groups of two and three cars spun off the road. I was fortunate enough to avoid being involved with or even seeing any of these mishaps, but they certainly made the drive interesting. Knowing I would in no way be able to make it in time for my audition, I called the TMC office (I had printed out an E-Mail with their number on it), hoping they might be able to put me in touch with someone in Chicago. No luck, answering machine. Knowing that offices NEVER get back to you the day you leave them a message, I pondered my next course of action. Next on my list was Gerstein, since he studies with Fischer. Again, answering machine. So I call my dad at work, hoping there might be an emergency contact number on the TMC website. Still no luck. But then my phone rings, and it's David, who manages to save the day, by personally getting in touch with Fischer and then getting me the number of some audition coordinator. So yeah, I managed to get an audition at 4:30 instead of 2:50, and all was ok with the world. Of course, I wasn't in great shape to play after over 4 hours in the car, but SOMEhow I managed a respectable audition. The two fast Shostakovich excerpts were crap . . . but everything else was pretty solid. So we'll see if it was good enough. All I know is, I had to play EVERYTHING. A whole movment of Bach, 3 minutes of my concerto, every excerpt AND the prepared piece. Which is good. If I'm gonna drive 7+ hours round trip, I may as well show them what I worked on. So yeah. Now's time to wait. I hope it works out, David's been talking it up, now I actually kinda want to go . . .