Everynote.com

Yesterday we flew home from Kansas. We got to LaGuardia before noon, but our bags didn't run as fast as we did for our tight connection, so my suitcase didn't make it home til 9:30.

Today we flew to Memphis, so the turnaround was quick. I got the dirty clothes out, the clean in. I got the finished novel (Life of Pi, Yann Martel) out, and the new one (Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World, Haruki Murakami) in. I got the toothbrush, music stand, and cell phone charger both out and in. And I took the music from our Sunday program out and put most of the music for our tomorrow program in. Everything except my Arensky Trio part. Not sure how I managed to forget that, but it happens.

For me, twice that I can remember. The first time I was 14 and in Brazil, and my lifesaving mother faxed it to me. The other time was a Claremont Trio concert where I realized 2 hours before the show that I had brought Volume I of the Beethoven Trios instead of Volume II. That time I was saved by a xerox machine. I copied Donna's score, cut out hundreds of strips of violin line, and taped them together, with minutes to spare before curtain.

Well, technology is advancing, and while my mother can always be counted on to bail me out in truly extreme circumstances, I have found a new source of replacement sheet music on tour. Everynote.com claims to be the world's biggest digital music library, and, from my first experience, I would say it is easy to use and an excellent value. I was able to download the violin part from the Arensky Op. 32 Trio in 8 seconds for $2.19.

I then made use of my hotel's business center to print and front desk to tape (hotel front desks are a neverending source of Scotch tape and free xeroxes). Within 15 minutes, I had a brand new part. Phew :-)

A Flat Tire

When we performed in Gettysburg, PA, one of our loyal fans drove 290 miles (each way) to see us perform. He has seen us develop from our very early stages as a trio and I'm sure he can tell all sorts of interesting stories about us! Often, we don't get much of a chance to visit with our friends and family after concerts but we luckily found some time to grab some dinner and good beer with our friend, Steven Hegarty.


The day after our performance in Gettysburg, we drove to Harrisburg for an in-studio performance and interview with John Clare at WITF. Well, what we had neglected to mention before was that the drive to Harrisburg was not entirely uneventful -- Claremont Trio's first flat tire on the road. We were lucky to get it all fixed and even make it to the WITF studio with time to spare! I was going along, happily driving the rental car and stopped in traffic. A good samaritan pulled up on the right side of our car and motioned wildly for us to roll down our windows. Julie did so very quizzically and looked at the man. He said, "Your right rear tire is very nearly flat! You need to get to a gas station!"

Ooooh. I hadn't noticed anything different about the handling of the car. Is one supposed to notice something? In typical Claremont fashion, we said, "Uhhhh...what next?" I drove the car slowly to the next exit, which thankfully had a full service station. The very helpful guy there helped us out in no time at all, pulled a rather large nail out of the damaged tire, patched up the hole with something that he reassured us would outlast the tire itself, and sent us along our merry way.



We were so lucky to have so many people look out for us! This situation could have been so disastrous, yet it turned out to be so painless! Thanks to those guys who were so kind to help us out!