It’s a beautiful morning here in Portland, Oregon, by the Willamette river. A bit of sun here, a little clouds there… Spots of sunlight streaming through the budding trees… Surprisingly, we have very early bloomers this year. Flowers are all over the place! Its so beautiful that when I go outside I even end up smiling all over the place like an idiot. Right now, there is this weird contagious disease of cheerfulness. Symptoms include skipping through the yard, picking flowers, smiling nonstop, humming, singing as loud as you possibly can the most random song ever sung, and looking like a lunatic to people around you. Be careful, do not get this disease… Although its not bad… I am quite enjoying this bacteria. Hmm… No sun anymore. Clouds! Spring break next week, have fun everyone! Go out and enjoy the beauty of spring. <3

I have been gone for a good while… Many things have taken place during my leave. Many failures, disappointments, regrets… Also many good times, usually brought by friends.  I hope you all have not been too bored, waiting around for my wonderful posts… ahh, just joking.  ANYWAYS, I thought I could share some things with you this lovely day.

Notice, this blog is called the “Secret Wishing Well”.  Oh, but of course, of course I have many wishes of my own. And of course, I cannot share these wishes because they are extremely absurd.  But I do know for a fact that these wishes are things in our souls that help us go through what we must endure, setting our minds on one shining star upon the dark horizon and never glancing to the side.

Woah. Deep wording there.

AnYwAyS……

Today I happened to cross the path of 3 wishing wells lined up in a row. And, alas, they were filled with water. How nice! I just had to take the chance and make a stereotypical set of three wishes. The first wish was, in fact, that I wish for my family to live happily, with no drama, and have peace between each other. The second wish is for myself, wishing that I will motivate myself more to work harder and harder in my musical and school studies.  Third wish was another for myself. Let’s just say… its a “mi mi”. You figure out what that is. Watch some dramas. ;]

I once came across a saying…

“Life is like a game of gambling. As long as you have a chip in your hand, you have hope.”

This is, indeed, very true. But what does your chip hold?

When my dad was walking to pick Vilija up from school today, he saw some mushrooms growing… right by her school! Here are a few photos…

mm... its pretty, but dangerous...

baravykas!!!!

yummy...

hm... someone was hungry...

I hope you enjoyed the pictures!

And tomorrow, I am looking forward to yoga class! Its very calming…

(sorry, that was really random!)

<3

The whole “conference” was in a Hilton hotel in Phoenix. They had a couple of small ballrooms and a huge ballroom in the hotel, where the pianos stood. The smaller ballrooms were meant as practice rooms and lecture rooms. It was such a struggle to snatch a practice room! Everyone wanted to practice…. The largest ballroom was where all of the most important lectures and master classes took place. (Its also where my competition took place.)

While I’m at it, I will say that the Fazioli piano in the big ballroom was absolutely amazingly stunningly GORGEOUS. As you may well know, Fazioli pianos are the finest instruments on the course of this earth. They produce an incredibly beautiful sound, and are the most handmade of any piano there is. I got the pleasure to practice and perform on these incredible pianos, and I had the privilege to meet Fazioli himself. He was a very… stern, but kind man… as you might say… Before leaving on Saturday night he congratulated me on winning the finals and gave me a DVD about how his pianos are made. I was delighted.

I met some very interesting people, face to face. You might have heard of Robert Levin, Phillip Kawin, or John Perry. John Perry was my piano teacher’s teacher… and they are very close friends. Jean-David refers to him as “my master”. And I also should tell you this story…

When I was playing in the “Fazioli room” which contained two marvelous Fazioli grand pianos, I was playing through my 3rd movement of the Chopin concerto no. 2.  AT that moment, John Perry walked into the room with my teacher Jean-David and Fazioli and Robert Levin… ya know. John started to sing the orchestra part, and I laughed, in shock, because I’ve never seen him in real life. Turns out that when they were talking in that room (my teacher told me this later on) , John Perry had said, “Man, that girl plays beautifully,” without knowing that I was Jean-David’s student. When he found out, he was shocked, and later after I won the competition he came up to me and sincerely congratulated me and said I really deserved it. He said he really loved my interpretation… you can imagine how much that meant to me! And Robert Levin (look him up on google) told me that my playing was very “beautiful and natural”. I was overjoyed to hear such compliments from such famous people!!!! (and they shook my hand, too! hehe. )

So that was why I was gone.

Hoped you enjoyed my incredibly boring story and boring summary of the competition.

-ruuuttaaaa. <3

Autumn is a magical season of the year… I hope you agree.

Enjoy the pictures!

River view…

beautiful “weeping maple” trees….

Look! A boat!

what I have to sweep…

my favorite!

done raking! but it was much more beautiful before, yes?

picture taken by Vilija.

The gentle breeze

blew her  golden hair

across the shimmering sky.

Her satin gown

flowed like the sea

across the gentle

sand.

She silently placed herself

upon the swing

hung from an aged oak tree

at whom she smiled

longingly.

She faced the sky

and embraced it

Her arms stretched

open wide.

She felt her body

pull towards the stars

and leave this world behind.

“Oh, to fly, to fly

would be such bliss,

such bliss!”

said she

to the old oak tree.

She swung until

the little droplets of light

in the sky

fell

to form dew

on the sugary grass.

“It is the break

of day,”

she spoke,

startled by the light.

“I must go,

my dear dear tree

I will come back

tonight.”

She gracefully stood

and whispered a lonely

goodbye

to her only friend.

“I shall  come back,

my fellow,

but do not feel alone.

The stars will shine forever

as will our bosom souls.”

and she kissed

her friend

goodnight.

]]> http://rutakuda.wordpress.com/2009/10/21/a-poem/feed/ 2 rutakuda girlonaswing http://rutakuda.wordpress.com/2009/10/20/a-sweet-day/ http://rutakuda.wordpress.com/2009/10/20/a-sweet-day/#comments Tue, 20 Oct 2009 03:25:24 +0000 rutakuda http://rutakuda.wordpress.com/?p=5 ]]> Hey! Today was fun! In the morning, I practiced piano… the usual.  Then at about 1:00 pm we left for a Halloween party. There were so many sweets! (and you know how much I love sweets… mmm…. ) Delicious. There was so much great food! We also carved pumpkins. Mine was a failure, of course, because… guess what? ( this is what comes of being blonde) I finished carving my design in the pumpkin, and I looked at all the stencils. they all had what seemed to me was a circle around it. So then I decided to carve a circle. And GUESS WHAT???? I carved out my whole design!!!! There was a huge hole in the poor pumpkin. *Sigh…* I cant believe I’m such an airhead….

Tomorrow we eat HEALTHY foods! I am filled to the brim with sweets. <3

And tomorrow we PRACTICE lots! XD

good night.

sleep tight.

and…

sweet… aw man! I wanted to say sweet dreams… I’ve had enough sweets… *sigh.*

well then… healthy dreams to you. <3