Midwest Princess: light

It's amazing what can happen when you start to take action. In the two business days since I quit temping (ok, was "let go"), I have accomplished so much, and lots of things are starting to fall into place. The music store in Palatine where I was subbing this summer is hiring me for a permanent position. I'm not sure yet how many hours they are going to give me, but the woman who is in charge said she'd start building up my student base and have me work as much as possible. It's a good time to start teaching, since the school year is just starting and kids are signing up for music lessons. The money at this place is really good, twice what I was making temping, and I get paid even if the students don't show up -- win, win, win situation. In addition to that, through some hefty networking, I found a job teaching private lessons at a high school in Waukegan one day a week. I'm going in next week to make a "presentation" to the choir classes about private lessons, and the teacher (whom I spoke with today, and is extremely nice) said there were four or five kids who definitely wanted lessons already. This career makeover is making me feel fabulous -- I'm sleeping better, more relaxed, cheerful, and confident than I've been in ages. It feels so light to be doing what I WANT, doing what I've been trained for so many years to do. It helps that I have the time now to go to the gym every day, do yoga a few times a week, practice, and get audition stuff together. The icing on the cake was the first rehearsal tonight for the concert gig I'm doing. It was a sectional, just the eight sopranos, and I was very impressed with the musicianship and amount of work we accomplished at the rehearsal -- nearly read through the entire oratorio!

So, the summer has almost come to an end. It was rather trying, most of it, but there were some good times. And I learned some important lessons about what sort of work I will and will not accept in the future -- performing and otherwise. I didn't reach any of my financial goals, but I'm still working on it and doing a pretty decent job. I did manage to obtain a fabulous new apartment in a fantastic neighborhood with my wonderful boyfriend, so that's a plus!

Here are some pics of the show to close out. The costumes were tremendously grand, as well as the wigs. I met some great people...and that's that!

me and Alicia, the amazing woman I understudied