(wish i was) back home again...in indiana

Happy Memorial Day weekend everybody! I hope that you are enjoying it, wherever you may be. The news stations cannot stop talking about how the high gas prices are causing everyone to stay home this year, but walking down my usually-hopping-but- strangely-deserted street at 11:30 pm last night led me to believe otherwise. We, on the other hand, are spending this holiday weekend at home, mostly because we will be traveling to Kalamazoo for the nuptials of my cousin Katy next weekend. I am more than happy to chill at home this weekend. There's really only one place I'd rather be, and that is here:



Ever since I was born (and long before), my family has gathered every Memorial Day weekend at my maternal grandparents house in Speedway, Indiana, to celebrate the running of the Indianapolis 500. When we were kids, we would run around with our cousins, hold our own mini-500 on big wheels in my grandparents' driveway, eat way too much sugar and fried foods (courtesy of our grandmother), and watch all the crazy drunk people camping out in the streets. My father has attended nearly every running of the race since 1973 (with the exception of last year when he had to attend my cousin's graduation in Kansas). As my cousins and my siblings and myself got older, we started bringing friends and boyfriends/girlfriends to the festivities until the house was bursting with people. I myself have attended three races (maybe four?), but church jobs, singing gigs, etc., have kept me away for several years. I'm hoping to take Nick next year--the race is about as American as it gets, and it's something you really just have to experience at least once in your lifetime.

In other news, I'm feeling back to my old self again after a great voice lesson yesterday, several good hard workouts this week, and giving the house a severe cleaning. I'm getting my mind back where it needs to be in order to make this a productive summer and take my career to the next level. But for now, I'm going to relax and enjoy the weekend -- maybe (finally) some warm weather?

Cheers to the holiday weekend!

back

Don't worry everyone, I'm fine. It was a pretty stressful and emotional twelve days of company, but I got through it. Maybe not as gracefully as I had hoped, but I think all the visitors had a decent time, and I think I learned a few important lessons.

The recent goings on around here were stressful and emotional for many reasons that I can't go into here on the ol' blog. Until now, I hadn't had to attend too many of Nick's family functions, so I learned a little something about compromise. The wedding was beautiful, the reception was a good time. And that's really all I can say about that. Elusive, I know.

And now I'm trying to get my life back in order. I can hardly believe that 2008 is practically half over. It's kind of scary, really. On one hand, I'm very happy with everything I've accomplished so far this year, but on the other hand, I feel like I have so much to do now. I worked very hard this year to make my living singing and teaching, and now most of the gigs are finished, and it's time to get back out on the audition circuit and try to get new gigs. Many things will start up again in the fall, like teaching and Music of the Baroque and church gigs, but I need to make a step forward in my career, I need to one-up myself if I want to get ahead. And that means I have to spend the summer working very hard to prepare for audition season. Summer is not typically a time when I've done my best work. The past two summers were pretty dreadful as far as getting ready for the audition season -- two summers ago I was suffering major panic and anxiety attacks, and last summer I was involved with a terrible production that ate up all of my time. I'm not sure what I need to do to make it better this year, but I'm going to figure it out.

And now I must get to the task of putting my life back in order--literally. There is a mountain of laundry that needs tackling, and an apartment that needs a good cleaning, and I told Nick I would cook dinner tonight since I'm not working today. And I should try to go the the gym at some point. I've got a bridesmaids dress to fit into in just over a month, and I'm having flashbacks of how tight the last 'maids dress was, plus I've eaten like a pig since the company was here. Eegads.

Here's a few pics:




I'll post more later, the pic uploader stopped working, per usual.

losing, losing....lost it

redacted post

mayhem (Greek style)

It's mayhem here right now, so forgive me if the posts become rather few and far between. If I've learned anything from the past few days it's this: I am not ready to have a child. I treasure my alone time, tidy apartment with nice things, dinners out, and peace and quiet far too much at this point to have to put an end to it all. I'll let you know when the motherhood twangs kick in again. It may be a very long time.

The situation here is rather sitcom-esque. There are four people living in this house, two of whom are bilingual, two of whom are not. I'll leave it to you to figure out which is which. I have learned the key phrases "What are you doing?" and "Stop it!", and I'm quickly adding more to my Greek vocabulary. Angelo is warming up to me, despite my not being able to say much of anything that he understands. He calls me something that sounds like "Memily" or "Mamily". It's pretty cute.

I managed to keep my OCD at bay for about three days, but when I woke up this morning and found Rice Krispies smashed into every available surface of my house, I had to clean it up immediately. I told Nick's sister, it's not that I'm irritated that it's there, I just can't NOT clean it up. It's just who I am. I'll never be the Mommy who can just ignore messes and be unphased by it all. I admire those people, I do. But I accept the fact that I'll never be one of them.

I'm enjoying some quiet time in the house now while Nick is at work and Chrysanthe and Angelo are at the Lincoln Park zoo. Then I'll be heading out to Plainfield to teach lessons. Things are so out of the ordinary here that I've nearly forgotten I still must do my work. Luckily there isn't too much of it this week. Because things are about to get even crazier with the arrival of Nick's best friend on Wednesday.

God help me. Allow me to be patient and not so OCD. Love, E

sunny day!

It's a beauuuutiful day here in Chicago. Makes me wish I had a dog to take on a walk by the lake or a baby to push around in a stroller. Yesterday I took my first "lake walk" of the season. I headed down Foster with my sweatshirt and shorts on, and by the time I got to the beach I was hot and stripped down to just my tank top and shorts! It felt like summer! Today feels equally like summer, which is great fun except for the fact that my allergies are raging a battle against my body. Luckily I don't have a lot of singing to do right now, but I would like to be able to practice, and when I've got this much phlegm I don't even want to deal with it. Time to hit the neti pot and the steam, I suppose. Sigh.

Things are slowing down here, approaching a grinding halt actually. On one hand, I'm thankful for the upcoming break, and on the other hand, I'm fearful of the time off. Most of my students have informed me they don't plan to take lessons during the summer, which causes a major hit to the finances, and with no church job or chorus gigs, things are looking to be very slow indeed for the summer. If I get too bored, I might consider (and I'm shuddering even typing this) temping, but I've got several projects in mind, not least making a new audition recording and getting my shit together for fall auditions. Now that it looks like we're staying in this apartment for at least another year, I want to paint the dining room and stain a dresser and do a few more home-improvement projects. Just call me Sally Homemaker. With all that plus the summer wedding season, I should have plenty to keep me busy. Keep me out of the poorhouse? Maybe not. But I've done alright so far this year, and I think I have enough nuts stored for the "winter" to get me though. We shall see.

Two days until Nick's sister and nephew arrive! We went a little nuts at Target on Friday night buying toys for the little guy and ended up with the following:


One Sponge Bob folding table, one Mr. Potato Head, one Dora soccer kit, one Plah-Doh kit, Dora toothpaste and toothbrush, plastic cups, kiddie shampoo. We are ready!

And here is our new living room. We recently acquired this lovely shelf and chair and ottoman. The room is now complete! I haven't gotten everything I want onto the shelf yet; it's somewhat of a work in progress. I really want a plant and some cool bookends. But I think it really ties the room together!


I'm going to go enjoy this summery week while it lasts!

whirlwind

So, I'm finally back home and life is returning to normal after that insane month on the road. On Sunday night, the PPS hit me pretty hard. Wait, what is PPS, you ask? Oh my friends. PPS is a very serious condition afflicting performers of all kinds. Its symptoms are not unlike those of depression: sleeping inordinate amounts, feelings of worthlessness and sadness, seeking comfort in food and booze. POST PERFORMANCE SYNDROME. In her groundbreaking 1998 book, Power Performance for Singers, Ms. Shirlee Emmons warns of the disasters of post-performance syndrome. It was upon reading this book in college that I realized just how insane singers really are. Although much of the book is downright nuts, the post-performance syndrome is very real. And by Monday morning, I was feeling it. I was thrilled to be home, elated to be with Nick again and not have to stay in another Super 8 or teach another child choreography. But I was feeling...low. OFY was my biggest, best gig thus far and it was over (until fall). I was faced with the idea of returning to the audition world, to my teaching jobs, and to normal, non-tour life. The thrill of performing a role was over for the time being.

I stayed in bed Monday morning until eleven. Then I headed to the gym in an attempt to get some positive energy going (and to work off those five pounds I most likely gained on the road). It felt good to be out on my street, that strip of Andersonville that I love so much. I went to the grocery and got excited to actually cook food again. You see, this is not the first time I've been afflicted with PPS, so I know what steps to take to overcome it. By Tuesday I had no time to even consider feeling bad -- I had to sing two outreach concerts for Music of the Baroque, then race to Palatine to teach lessons, then race back downtown to sing for the big deal MOB conductor. It was an insane day, but I made it through, and I sang a damn good audition (moonlight audition at 9:20 pm, Robert!). The MOB chorus director asked me to do a solo in the outreach concerts, which I nailed and got tons of positive feedback from fellow members and the director. So I've turned things around since Monday morning and I'm feeling like myself again. I've been a bit worried about how much I've been using my voice as opposed to how little I've been resting it lately. Things feel ok, but I know that it's time for a rest. One thing I learned from my previous vocal health crisis is to LISTEN to what my body is telling me. My voice is telling me it's time to shut up for awhile. Luckily I have the ability to do that this month. When you're a freelance musician, it's awfully hard to say no to any gigs, but I'm starting to realize why they tell young singers that sometimes the best thing you can do is say no. I have a very light singing summer, which I think is just what I need right now.

On a non-singing note, we are very busy here in chez Nick/Emily with preparations for "Greece Invades Our Apartment 2008". Nick's brother is getting married here in Chicago in two weeks, so we are housing his sister and her little boy (age three) and his best friend for several days. Chrysanthe (his sister) and her son arrive next Thursday, and Aki (Nick's best friend) arrives on the 14th. It's going to be a bit wild and crazy. Chrysanthe hasn't been to the States in eight years, and her son has never been here. He hardly speaks his own language, let alone English, so I'm a bit concerned about how I'm going to communicate with him. I'm hoping my Greek improves to the level of a three year old in the next month! Aki has never been to the States either, so Nick is really excited to show him around. It should be a really great time, but it will be a little stressful having all these people in my apartment. This weekend is going to be spent cleaning, buying things (like toddler food) and general errand running to prepare for their visit.

This has been an extremely long post, so I will sum it up: Life is crazy here. It never stops. And I love it.

The Land of Cheese

en route to Platteville, WI


Brian, looking very official with his clipboard


the set goes up for our public show at the Overture Center for the Arts in Madison


tying on the sun planet drop


et voila! Magic Flute set!


corralling children, per usual


Pamina aria


i summon the dragon!

And...blogger decided it didn't want to upload any more pics tonight. More later! I'm having a rather splendid time in Oshkosh this week. It has been A-MA-ZING to stay in the same place for three nights, as opposed to the past two weeks where we've had to drive nearly three hours every day to a different hotel every night. Yesterday we went jogging by beautiful Lake Winnebago, and today we went to the YMCA for a workout and then did some outlet mall shopping and had dinner at a fantastic Korean restaurant in Appleton. Tomorrow we head to Madison, where we get to stay at our director's house for the night--which means a free meal and hot tub time! Our director is totally awesome and hospitable.

That's all from the land of cheese!

blogneglect

Tour is eating me alive you guys. Thankfully, only four more days and then I'm home for good. I've stayed in nearly every Super 8 in the state of Wisconsin and several in Illinois, some nice and some definitely awful. I could easily do the show in my sleep (and at 9:30 am it sometimes seems that way) and I could probably put up our set in five minutes flat.


me putting up our set in five minutes flat

I will seriously post some more pics later, but I just fell asleep on my keyboard typing this, so I'm going to have sleepies now. I'm in Oshkosh right now. I type that more to remind myself than anything else.

Muffins!

From the genius that brought us "OMG Shoes" comes....MUFFINS! This has been putting us in hysterics all week, so I needed to share it on the blog.



Tour is going well, exhausting, but fun. We're currently in Platteville, WI, which is almost to Dubuque, Iowa. It's actually kind of pretty here, so I'll try to take a few shots tomorrow. And there is a whirpool in this Super 8, which made it an uber wonderful day. We ordered pizza in to the hotel tonight instead of going out, and I got to watch the new Office episode, which I wouldn't normally get to do at home on a Thursday -- I'd be at church! Now I am super tired so I must get to sleepies -- for some reason I can't shake this respiratory stuff. Not enough sleep, eating poorly, bad air in hotels, interacting with a bajillion children every day -- it's certainly a recipe for illness. I need to try to work on that next week if I ever want to actually feel good during a show. On the plus side, I can probably sing Ach ich fuhls half-dead at this point, and sing it pretty damn well. I'm thinking that means I should add it to my list? Can't decide.

And I will leave you with my favorite quote of the week: My Papageno for this week, Brian Hotchkin said of being on tour: "We're living on the fringes of society, like crack whores". Yes, after five Super 8 hotels in five nights, I do indeed feel this way....

More later from the fringes!

the tour continues

Greetings from Champaign-Urbana, home of the University of Illinois! The Super 8 here is a breath of fresh air compared to the one we were at in a southern suburb of Chicago last night. It looked like a bombed out building in post Cold War Russia, the hallways reeked of smoke, and there were lots of shady characters hanging out in the lobby. There was a large sign at the front entrance that said "NO GUESTS AFTER 9:30 pm" -- ????. I imagine to keep the prostitutes away? Luckily Nick came to stay with me so he could take my car back to the city. It was a long day yesterday, what with our 1:30 show in Palatine, my regular Monday teaching in Plainfield, then to the south suburbs to the hotel. Today's shows in Olympia Fields were fun, especially since we got to do two shows at one school (it's SO nice not to have to re-load the set and head to a different school in the afternoon) and -- my mom came! She really wanted to see the shows, and these were the closest ones to her, so she drove up to see me. She's such a supportive mommy.

Tonight we are going to find a cute dinner spot near the University and chill at the hotel. No whirlpool, unfortunately. :( I am feeling much better now and my voice is pretty much back to normal, thank goodness. It's nice to finally be well for a day of shows! Tomorrow our shows are around here but then it is back to Wisconsin for the remainder of the week. We have a public show in Madison on Saturday morning, and Nick is coming up to spend the weekend with me. I won't be going home until Friday the 18th which feels like a really long time at this point, but I'm sure it will fly. It's really nice to have a break from the usual daily grind, although I think moving from hotel to hotel will get wearing pretty fast. I have my camera and cable so hopefully I'll have some pics to share soon!

More later!

tour blog update

The shows today went well, despite feeling as though my head was in a thick fog. Unexpectedly, our artistic director and development director attended the first show this morning -- my first show in two months-- so the pressure was on. But she seemed really happy about the performance and only had a couple of notes for me. I only forgot a couple of things, and everybody thought I sounded great even though it sounded weird in my head. I seem to have lots of sinus pressure in my head right now which is making my voice not sound or feel right to me. I've literally been taking Tylonel or Nyquil every 4 to 6 hours so I have no idea if my fever is gone yet, but I'm guessing it is. It's nice to be in an actual real city and not a weird mountain town like my last tour week. We've had lots of delightful meals in local cafes and restaurants, and this Super 8 has got to be one of the nicest I've seen. It has a whirpool, so after our shows today we hit the jacuzzi for an hour, then napped in our rooms til dinner. Tour can be lots of fun when you have the right people, no snow storms, and no major illness involved. :) I'm looking forward to the next three weeks. However, the costumes smell like poo by now and the van has seen better days. It is basically a filthy mess. I think I'm going to take a few of the shared costume pieces home and wash them this weekend since I have to wear them for the next three weeks. Gross.

Tomorrow we have to get up ungodly early to drive an hour north to Algoma for a 9:30 am show, then I have to drive like a bat out of hell back to Chicago and pray that I get there on time to teach. It's going to be an exhausting day, but at the end of it will be my Nick and hopefully a couple of drinks. We start tour in Chicago next week, so I don't have to go anywhere over the weekend! Sweet deal! More later from tour central...

the land of cheese

Well, in a strange turn of events I now find myself in Green Bay, WI for OFY. One of the other Paminas fell ill this week and the director called me this morning, pleading with me to drive up and do the remaining shows this week. I'm not feeling so hot myself (seem to be coming down with a bit of a cold), but I can still sing, so I told her I would do it. I made a billion phone calls, canceling and rescheduling various things for the next several days, then got on the road by 12:30 for the two hundred mile trip up to Green Bay. It actually went very quickly, as there was little to no traffic, so now here I am at the Green Bay Super 8, getting ready to go have dinner with the gang. We've got two shows tomorrow and one Friday morning, then I will dash back to Chicago to make my teaching in Palatine in the afternoon. It's going to be a crazy couple of days, but hopefully I've now endeared myself to OFY that they will hire me back next year. :)

Other than crazy car trips, the week has been fairly uneventful. The St. Matthew Passion concerts went swimmingly, both were nearly sold out, which made for very exciting performances. Despite it's EXTREME length, the audience seemed to really love it. I'm completely smitten with the music of J.S. Bach. It's just so enthralling. I'm hoping to work up some oratorio arias this summer and coach them with a colleague from MOB.

So that's about all the news from the midwest. I was feeling very midwestern today as I drove through the nothing-ness of Wisconsin. As I drove through Sheboygan, I just had to call Skafish (my bf who lives in NYC) to leave her a message about livin' the dream. You see, we always used to joke that we'd end up singing at Sheboygan light opera (who knows why we chose that city) and here I am, not so far from it. But a gig's a gig, as you come to realize in this biz, and I'm pretty fond of this one. So here we go, tour blog part deux....

bo-ring post

Sorry no Easter pics to post yet...I'm waiting on my Mom to send them to me, but since she's helping my Grandma with her chemo this week and her uncle died, I think we'll have to forgive her. Yes, my grandma has cancer (again), for those that did not know. I don't usually talk about stuff like that on here, mostly because I don't like to see in writing that it's actually happening, but she is going to be just fine. She beat it once before and she'll beat it again. The End.

My week has been pretty busy, what with the St. Matthew Passion (SMP) rehearsals, teaching, and chaperoning a field trip to the opera. If I didn't feel old enough already, being a "chaperone" really drove it home. Today, however, was pleasantly unbusy, and I actually had time to go to the gym, bake some brownies for a choir party tonight (our choir is always having parties, it's awesome), and meet Nick for lunch downtown. Since he's been back from Greece, we have spent very little time together besides sleeping, so it was nice to sit down for a meal and talk, even if only for an hour.

Our rehearsals for the SMP with the conductor this week have been fantastic. This woman is just the most amazing conductor. It is so inspiring to sing with her, and I've found myself getting very choked up in rehearsals. I'm going to have to reign it in for the concerts though, because I can't be blubbering up there while trying to sing a pianissimo chorale. But I tell you what, if you want to hear the most incredible setting of the passion story and some of the most beautiful music on earth, get yourself to a performance of Bach's SMP. If you're in Chicago, come on down to the Harris theater in Millenium Park on Monday night at 7:30. You won't be sorry (unless you're like my friend Amanda's mom and just can't handle multiple da capo arias).

That's about it from my not-so-exciting life. I will be leaving for three weeks of tour on April 7th, which I'm pretty excited about. It's going to be like a three week vacation away from all my students, which I could really use right about now. Plus performing a role I love and hanging with all my fabulous colleagues in random tiny Wisconsin towns. I'm trying to persuade Robert to audition for OFY for next year. The only thing that could possibly make OFY a better gig were if Robert and I were touring Wisconsin together. That would be nuts.

Happy almost Friday everyone!

Happy Easter

Sorry again, no blogging this week, but it was Holy Week, and I was entertaining a guest, so I have excuses. This will be short because I am very tired, but I will be sure to follow up tomorrow or the next day with some pics and a better post. Mom's visit was tons of fun, we ate lots of delicious food and shopped and drove through one crazy snowstorm and had a fantastic Easter brunch at my church choir director's house with all my fellow paid church-giggers. And I fetched Nick from the airport this evening, and he has been snoring loudly since about 9 pm, so life is pretty much back to normal for me. Until this week when I have a million St. Matthew Passion rehearsals. It's going to feel a little strange to re-kill and re-resurrect Jesus next week, but Music of the Baroque couldn't compete with the churches of the city of Chicago during Holy Week. There just aren't enough paid choristers to go round, I suppose.

That's all from this end. Hope you all had very happy Easters. I know I did.

st. patty's

Yikes! It's been a week since I blogged! Although I thought the time while Nick was away would creep slowly along, it has actually passed very quickly. My week was busy with rehearsals and teaching, but I managed to have a few dinner and lunch dates with friends. Some nicer weather finally came our way which put me in a fantastic mood for most of the week -- not having to wear my giant comforter coat and feeling the sun shining down on my face made this Chicago gal extremely happy! Spring makes me want to shop! I treated myself to a couple of new clothing items this week and this lovely springy table runner and candles from Crate and Barrel:



Now I really need to have a dinner party...

In other news, my weekend has been somewhat of a flashback to younger, more irresponsible days...yesterday I attended at St. Patty's Pub Crawl in the Lincoln Park neighborhood with my friend Jessica, her husband, and their friend from out of town. I was really pumped about the awesome t-shirt I got (for free!) to wear for it:


(my camera is broken and Nick has his in Greece, so I am taking these pics with the camera on the computer. They come out like mirror images for some odd reason...)

I joined up with the group at about 2:00 pm after my St. Matthew Passion rehearsal. We started with lunch and beers at a pub in Bucktown, then took at cab over to LP, where the scene was ridiculous. Drunk people in green everywhere. It was definitely not my usual scene, but it was fun to run around to all the different bars, and I saw no less than 5 people I knew from either high school or DePauw. That's Chicago for you. By about six we had had enough of the bars on the crawl, which were all ridiculously crowded, noisy, and no specials, so we headed to some dive-ier bars that were less crowded, cheaper beer, and more fun. We ended the night at Arturo's Tacos in Bucktown, which was quite possibly the best tacos I've ever tasted. Jessica's husband is Guatemalan, so he knows his Mexican food. I came home at midnight and promptly went to bed since I had to get up for a rousing Palm Sunday service this morning. Ride on, King Jesus!

So thus begins Holy Week. My week is looking pretty fantastic, since the high school where I've been teaching is on spring break, which means I only have my afternoon teaching this week. And...my mom is coming to stay from Wednesday to Sunday!!! I'm so excited! Wednesday night we are going to see Jersey Boys, which should be great. No plans for Thursday, besides attending (working) Maundy Thursday service at church. Friday we're planning to go to Ikea in the morning, which is right by where I teach in Palatine in the afternoon. Mom's never been to Ikea, and I think she's going to love it. Saturday will probably be shopping and a fantastic meal somewhere, and Sunday is Easter of course, followed by soloists brunch at our director's house. And then Sunday night I will get to pick up Nick at the airport! Good things.

Now I must go scrub every inch of my apartment in anticipation of Mom's arrival. Can't have her thinking she didn't bring me up right, keeping a dirty house. :) Happy St. Patty's, everyone!

ramble ramble

It's midnight on Sunday night, and thanks to daylight savings time and a two hour nap this afternoon, I'm not the least bit tired. I've watched two On Demand movies (Waitress and The Nanny Diaries, both pretty good) and don't really feel like reading. So I figured I may as well blog. It's funny the things you do when you're not used to being in your place all by yourself. Today I went around looking at all my photo albums that are in various places around the house. I find myself becoming very nostalgic and weepy when I'm alone sometimes. Today I was looking at some pictures of my semester abroad, easily one of the best times in my whole life. Do you ever find yourself missing yourself? I wouldn't trade my current self with any of my old selves, because it took a lot of work to get where I am emotionally and otherwise. Much as I like to complain about the everyday minutiae, I love my life. But sometimes I look back on that girl who took Europe by storm, and I miss her a little bit. Obviously my circumstances were very different then, seeing as though I was a happy-go-lucky college student, but I lived life there in a way that I've never been able here in the States. Maybe this is telling me something....

Anyways. A whole weekend alone in one's giant apartment will apparently make one a bit loopy! The weekend turned out to be sort of enjoyable, despite freezing temps, missing Nick, and general grouchiness. Friday night after rehearsal I went to a "girl party" at my new friend Jessica's. Jessica, you'll remember, is my colleague at the music store in Palatine with whom I often drink beer on the train. So she invited me to a girly party at her apartment in Bucktown, complete with cosmopolitans and lots of yummy snacks. It was fun to meet and hang out with some different people, something I don't do often these days, and I think my friendship with Jessica will continue. And it's always great to know musicians who aren't classical ones, keeps it real.

Saturday I was a wee bit hungover, and I slept most of the day. I ventured out of the house in the early evening for a sushi date with some Northwestern friends, then came back home to study some Bach and veg out on the couch. That's gotta be one of the dorkiest Saturday nights in the history of the world. Thanks to daylight savings, it was rough getting up for church this morning, but I poured some Starbucks down my throat (along with a Mucinex and a gallon of water) and managed to sing some decent Bach. He's a real stinker, that J.S. After church, I had a lovely brunch with church friends Ryan and Sarah and Ryan's boyfriend Michael, then came home and passed out on the couch for two hours. Oh how I love a Sunday afternoon nap.

So that was my solitary weekend. It wasn't so bad, but I am missing my Nick. Especially on Sunday nights when we are always together relaxing at home and cooking dinner. He's having a swell time in Greece though, 70 degrees and sunny! He spent most of the weekend with his sister and her family and visiting his grandma in the village. This week he starts work on the taxes and other business-y errands dealing with the properties. I'm hoping this week will fly, and I think it will, since I have a million rehearsals and all my regular teaching. Then next week (Holy Week, God save us church-jobbers), my Mom is coming to stay with me for five days! Actually, my church job is pretty tame during Holy Week (compared to my last church job - 10+ calls during HW), so I'll have plenty of time to spend with Mom! Should be lots of fun.

Well, I guess I'll try to sleep now. Hope you all have a terrific Monday. Hang in there Chicagoans (and others in cold cities). I feel spring is near, it's just got to be...

blue funk

I've somewhat recovered from my blue funk (when I was in middle school one of my friends' moms used to always say her daughter was in a "blue funk" about something), probably due to the fact that it's Friday and there are above freezing temps in our future. Last night I took the wise Allison's advice, and upon coming home from rehearsal, checked in every room and closet and under every bed, then bolted all doors before sitting down to my Thai food and Sex and the City on the tube. Might as well take advantage of watching girly television without any complaints from the peanut gallery. :) I didn't sleep as poorly as I thought I would, only waking a few times in the night and getting back to sleep fairly quickly. So I'm feeling pretty good on this Friday morning. I've accomplished nothing this morning besides doing 20 minutes of yoga in my living room and waiting for Nick's call saying that he arrived in Athens safe and sound. That and watching inane segments on the Today show -- I swear, that show gets more ridiculous by the day. If I have to hear one more "Eat This, Not That" segment.... I refuse to believe that most Americans do not know that a green salad with dressing on the side is healthier than a taco salad from Wendy's. Just as I chose to eat greasy pad thai at 10:00 pm last night, knowing full well what a "poor food choice" I was making, people choose the taco salad because it tastes better and they just don't care. Doesn't the Today show have any more groundbreaking stories to report? I would switch morning shows, but the other choices are Regis and Kelly or the lame people on Fox News. Or maybe I should go to the gym instead.

I'm going to have to spring into action soon, however. My day consists of driving to Palatine to teach for 3.5 hours and then making the ridiculous trek to the south side for St. Matthew Passion rehearsal. In rush hour traffic. I've done it once before, and I already know it's not going to be pretty. The train schedule does not work out, so I'm forced to drive. I've allotted 1.5 hours for the drive, and I hope to God it's enough. Not that there are any serious consequences for being late, but I like to be professional. After rehearsal I may meet up with friends for drinks, but maybe not. I've got this Bach thing on Sunday for which I'm really unprepared and couldn't attend the dress rehearsal, and I need to spend a good part of Saturday looking at it. Saturday night it's looking like a return to my favorite all you can eat sushi joint in Lincoln Park with some Northwestern friends. So I guess I won't be so lonely this weekend after all. Bach and sushi, what more do I need?

Have a good one, kids.

mrrrrrrgh part deux

I've just been alerted to the fact that Sunday is spring forward Daylight Savings bullshit. Which means that at 9:30 am, as I'm trying to croak out a ridiculously difficult under-rehearsed Bach duet with period orchestra for our performance of Cantata #9, it will actually feel like 8:30 to my vocal cords. Yippee!

Hi, I'm Debbie Downer. Have we met?

mrrrrrrrrrgh

Nick is leaving for Greece tonight. I've been doing all I can to help him get ready, since he's been working long hours all week and hasn't had a lot of time for trip errands. Not that I've been sitting on my duff -- it's just that my free hours of the day are usually ones in which stores are always open and not crowded. I guess that's one of the (few) pros of my working hours. I can go to Target or the dry cleaners at 10:00 am on a Tuesday. Goody.

Anyway. Yesterday I had a little meltdown/hissy fit about not getting to go to Greece, and I realized something. I've basically been going full throttle since September without much of a break or vacation of any kind. The fall was full of audition trips and preparing for said audition trips while trying to build my teaching business. Even at Christmas, I had a paltry four days off. Then it was off to Madison, followed by more teaching, and now another Music of the Baroque concert and an entire month of touring in Wisconsin. I feel so lucky that my teaching business is thriving and that I've got singing gigs, but....I NEED A BREAK. I'm feeling the burnout big time. You know when you say something over and over and over and after awhile it doesn't make any sense to you anymore? That's how I feel about teaching singing. I've come to realize that teaching is something you can't do for eight hours a day, and you need to step away from it to gain perspective every now and again. I've tried to explain breathing and support to so many people that I've started to confuse myself. I've tried to make mousy, breathy voices strong; and i feel like I've had some success, but sometimes when nothing is working I just want to throw my hands in the air and give up. I could REALLY use a week off to just be. It would be nice to spend that week in Greece or some warm climate, but I'm not even that picky. I'd be happy to just sit at home, or take a trip to my parents', whom I haven't seen since Christmas.

The thing with freelancers is that we decide when we take our vacations. And when the gigs are rolling in and the teaching business is thriving, it's pretty difficult to go away from all that. I have a feeling that I'm going to get my break come summer, but since it's March and I've got weeks and weeks of work looming ahead of me, I'm feeling pretty pissy that I don't get any much-needed time off.

So I'm grumpy today. And I'm going to miss Nick a lot. And I'm scaaaared of sleeping in our apartment by myself. Could I rent a dog for a couple of weeks? One that doesn't poop in the house? That would be great.

oh the sex

Um, can we talk about how excited I am for this movie to come out? The trailer absolutely gives everything away, but I'm still giddy. What can I say? I'm a sucker for the fashion, glamour, and sex.

Hope your Monday is a little less bleak than mine -- it's raining/sleeting/snowing and back to freezing here in Chicago.