funk

I've been in a bit of a funk for the past couple of weeks. I'm frustrated with my teaching jobs and the amount of commuting I'm doing; basically, the music schools where I'm working are not filling up my schedule enough to make the commute worthwhile. I keep hearing promises that it will get better and then...nothing. With my private students, I have a little more control, and I'm planning to raise my rates after the New Year. I'm not being compensated for all the driving around and...it's starting to drive me insane (pun intended). On the audition/singing front, I had a frustrating voice lesson on Friday, and I just haven't been myself singing-wise, so I'm going to try to step it up this week and do lots of practicing. I've got less than two months to memorize Pamina for Opera for the Young. I know the aria and one of the duets already, but it's a somewhat absurd translation, so I've got to get on that. AND I've got to get Rejoice Greatly up and running. I'm doing an audition this morning for another Messiah gig, and I'm afriad Rejoice is not quite up to par. Atleast it's a wakeup call that it's not something I can just pull out at the last minute and expect to be good. No, siree it is not.

I'm attending the dress rehearsal for Die Frau ohne Schatten at Lyric this afternoon, so hopefully I will be inspired. Sometimes when I go long periods without seeing a show, and my "performing life" consists of auditions and church, I tend to forget how wonderful live stage productions can be.

The weekend was fairly uneventful. Friday night we went out to Aurora to check out Allison and Ryan's new house, which is fabulous and gorgeous, and I ended up drinking waaaay too much, so most of Saturday was spent on the couch. Yesterday we got a little eager about Thanksgiving, so we went to Sam's (beverage outlet SUPERSTORE) to buy a few bottles to take to my parents' house for turkey day. Sam's overwhelms me, but it's always amusing to go with Nick because he is like a child in a toy store in that place. Nick loves his wines and is fairly educated about them, and when it comes time to decide which to purchase, he has a VERY difficult time deciding. It's funny and adorable. We made it out for under $50, which is a successful trip by our standards. Then we went to the Greek grocery store to buy some ingredients to make Nick's mother's Christmas dessert recipes. I can't read any of the recipes (they are in Greek), so I'm off the hook for most of the cooking. But I participate heartily in the eating!

It's time to go attempt Rejoice Greatly a few times before the audish. Let's hope this voice feels like moving today. Sometimes, I swear, my voice is like a bratty child. Good luck trying to convince it to do something it doesn't feel like doing.