Long Time No Blog...

To borrow Samwise Gamgee's (Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings) words again, "Well, I'm back." Happy Saturday to all!

First of all, Happy Birthday, TC, wherever in the world you are, and whatever you are doing today. I miss you, and I wish you only the best. Take care of yourself, be happy, and have a great birthday and year!

Also, I missed AS's birthday on April 1 and BR's birthday on April 6, and Audio Artifacts had a birthday on April 18. Belated Happy Birthday to all of you, and many happy returns! :-)

I bet many of you thought this blog was dead, didn't you? I don't blame you. MAN, it has been a LONG 7 weeks since I last posted. So much has happened! My new job is the biggest thing, and it's been very intense. Lots of long hours, lots of stress, lots of adjustment to full-time work (I still have two part-time jobs, too!), and LOTS TO LEARN. Luckily, it is going well, and I feel like I have accomplished a lot and picked things up quickly during these first 7 weeks. I'm still glad I took the job: I work with great people, and the work environment is fun, which makes the stressful times much more manageable. My job may also be getting easier in the foreseeable future. We have hired a Director of Operations who will be taking some of the room scheduling/facilities management duties off of my plate. She starts this week! Hallelujah! One church bulletin (plus the "annoucements" insert) a week, one newsletter a month, plus all the phone answering, people-seeing, duties, in addition to managing the student front desk staff...I've got PLENTY to do without having to handle renting out meeting rooms. Though we're going to be doing less of that starting very soon. The church and its foundation building are about to start a major building and renovation project. So that is another cause of stress...how exactly will that affect everything at work? None of us really know yet. It is a kind of unsettling time. And yet I still like the job...I just have to mention that again. Everyone once in a while, though, it helps to just vent about all the stress-causing things so that they seem less scary somehow. Thanks for reading my vent!

What else...well, on March 25, my church choir performed Faure's Requiem. It was SO EXCITING!!! Of course the last few weeks before the performance were a little scary as I went through the (very familiar to conductors and performers) freaky thought-processes of wondering whether the choir would be ready, whether I would find a baritone soloist in time since my original one cancelled, whether to give up my dream of using organ not piano, etc. There was a LOT on my mind. But by the time we did it, the choir WAS ready, and I was proud of myself for getting them prepared. I did find a baritone soloist, and he was phenomenal...I would work with him again in a heartbeat. And we ended up using piano...I finally made peace with the fact that in the loud sections of the piece, the organ would bury the choir, and my accompanist did a beautiful job on piano. The performance truly moved me, and many of the choir members reported the same experience. As a conductor, I had never prepared something as large and complex as the Faure before. I had sung the piece 5 or 6 times before, but never led it. It was a pleasure to have several friends join in the effort of mounting this thing: MJS was my beautiful soprano soloist, and her husband B was kind enough to be my recording technician. MH joined the alto section (come back anytime!), and Husband was singing tenor (you know you're always welcome). It was a really incredible experience...I don't think I have words for it yet. But I will always treasure that special morning. I feel so lucky to have been able to do this.

The weekend of March 30-April 1 found Husband and I in New York City for my stepmother's 60th birthday party. It was such a delight to visit with family and good friends for the birthday festivities...these opportunities are too rare. We really enjoyed seeing our two fantastic nephews...only wish we'd had more time to visit with them. They are so much fun to hang out with! Husband and I really enjoyed the broadway show that we went to see as a family, Jersey Boys. Great music, fast pacing, terrific performances, and a much better show than either of us expected. Our soundtrack CD for the show has been in the CD player for weeks going round and round. We also had a brief but lovely visit with Husband's parents that same weekend. It was really nice to see them. It was a jam-packed weekend, tiring but lots of fun.

I've had a couple of singing performances the last couple of weeks. The women's chorus I sing with, Amasong, was part of a mass choir performing Boito's Prologue in the Heavens from his opera Mefistopholes with the Champaign-Urbana Symphony on April 7. It was a lot of rehearsal time at a busy time (Holy Week, for pete's sake...I work for TWO churches!), but it was really fun to perform with veteran bass opera singer Ronald Hedlund, who played the Devil to our heavenly choir. He was fantastic...lots of fun in rehearsal, and though he's in his early 70s, you'd never know it from his voice or his appearance! The next weekend, Amasong's chamber choir peformed at the Urbana Free Library, which was really fun. I love singing in smaller ensembles...so much more communication among singers is necessary, and it's fun to really work together to make music.

This weekend is catch-up time...resting, blogging, reading, cleaning up our completely disgusting apartment, and enjoying the gorgeous weather. It is finally spring, and we've got our garden plot about ready to plant! Well, Husband has gotten our plot about ready to plant...he's done MUCH more of the work than I have. He's so excited about this garden...it's very cute, actually. ;-) Anyway, we're going to wait to put plants in the ground until next weekend, when one of my sets of parents will be visiting. They've had a successful garden for years, so we're going to let them advise us on planting.

Husband has three more days of classes and one final exam left in his first year of grad school...isn't that crazy?! Wow does time fly! So he's finishing stuff up this weekend, and really looking forward to being able to properly catch his breath next weekend! He's been REALLY busy these last couple of weeks...school, work, and EBERTFEST. For those who might not have heard of it, Roger Ebert, the film critic, is a native of Champaign, IL, and every year he has a festival of overlooked films right here in his hometown (www.ebertfest.com). He comes to Champaign for the week and everything. He also brings in film stars and directors. It is a really fun event. Alan Rickman(!) was here on Thursday night (and I had rehearsal and couldn't see him...sigh..he's so cool). Anyway, yesterday, Husband got to play in the pit orchestra for a silent film in Ebertfest, Sadie Thompson, an old Gloria Swanson/Lionel Barrymore film based on the novella by Somerset Maughan. It took up a lot of his time, but he had a ball doing it! And I was in the audience...what a treat! How rare a thing to get to enjoy a silent film on the big screen in a beautiful, ornate old movie theatre with a balcony, and to watch said silent film as the score is performed by live musicians in the same room! It was very, very cool.

So we've been busy. Sorry this post has turned into a book. I'll try not to take 7 weeks off before I write again. Happy spring to you all! I miss you, and I'm sending love and hugs your way. Enjoy your weekend! And come to IL and visit!