Happy November everyone!

It's been a good few days, in general! Conducting in the pool was a real experience. I think it was effective, though... and my suit wasn't an issue. The Zipcar grocery trip let me cook quite a bit Thursday night, so now I actually have meat for stir-fry and sandwiches. I had a rather boring but nice halloween... unfortunately I was costumeless, but that's okay. I had a big sushi dinner, went dancing down South University with Ushi and the Hare Krisha devotees, and stayed up too late chatting online. All in all, a decent, relaxing evening.

Randomly: A guy (aparently homeless) came up and asked me for money... I told him I didn't have any cash, but offered him my rice instead. He took it, and seemed really grateful. I never give money to people on the street... but when I'm carrying food, and I know my $1.50 order of steamed rice would help... I don't know. Does it do more harm than good?... I don't know.

Anyways, I got up early this morning to clean up at Elke's, then had a voice lesson. (Here comes the recital update, of course: ) I think I was too hard on David L! Prof. Sheil basically called him out and pushed him a bit on expression and... overall taking it more seriously. The transformation was incredible- the set that I thought was going to end up as decent filler is now rockin'! It's incredible what a difference it made. Things just kicked into gear all of a sudden. Morillas is full of lovely legato, Si tu Madre is forward and bouncy, Cafe is actually in the proper 6/8-3/4, Galapaguito went from boring to heartbreaking, and Ojos Azules has the mad intensity it needs. I mean... <3. Wonderful, wonderful, wonderful. I can actually pull off this recital, despite it being mostly soprano territory.

...Yeah, I'm going to be obsessing about that recital for the next three weeks, just so's ya know. ^^;.

So, my quick to do list:
1. US Music Exam Monday- Read, study
2. Syntax Homework due Thursday
3. Conducting Exam next Tuesday?
4. Registrar's office dealio
5. Linguistics department dealio
6. Spain Housing survey/letter to host family due Nov. 6th
7. Illinois application paperwork due Nov. 10th- Sent out by the 8th

Off to lunch!
<3

Argh, it's been forever. Debbie's going to the game today (And maybe Kathy as well, if she's not too tired. She went out with a couple of friends last night in celebration of finally finishing her project and exam!). I'll go straight from there to Elke's to clean up, meaning that I'll have tomorrow completely free :)

Homework to do: 
Practice piano (scales mostly!)
450 Paper- Watch biopic
Schedule interview time with Ms. Marilyn


Yesterday was a lot of fun... Voice lesson went well. I really need to work on the Maja dolorosa pieces, but that's expected. Vocally, they're probably the most difficult set on the recital, even harder than the big zarzuela at the end. Hopefully David L. will have them ready to play by this Wednesday. I'm also singing Monday night at Vocal Arts Lab! -Oh crap, I also have a voice lesson Monday afternoon! Wow. Better practice, and better make sure David L. remembers. I really have to work on Maja by Monday's lesson. For the VAL, I'll sing a set of five short pieces... this happens to mark the third year in a row that I've sung a Spanish piece at the October Vocal Arts Lab (there's one every month).

In US Music, we went to the Clements library. It was really an interesting experience. We got to see original sheet music published during the Tin Can Alley period... plus some incredible artifacts like an original Bay Psalm Book, Urania, Christopher Columbus' notes, a letter written by Frederick Douglas. Our guide was the most fantastic history nerd I've ever seen <3.

I practiced for a total of four hours yesterday, mostly piano ><. Hopefully that'll keep me above water. I ended up cutting my time short and going to Prof. Lusmann's recital- it was a series of piano and art songs composed by a U of M grad, all about ceramic artist George Ohr. The dude was completely insane. The music was incredible, though... really interesting; a real accomplishment in terms of composition. And Prof. Lusmann is a great performer :).

I turned down ping-pong and DDR with Ushi and the gang to go home and get started on my paper due Monday... I have to write about the music used in a political candidate's biopic video. Ending up watching Obama's... I might post the paper at some point, I think it'll be interesting.

In other news, OMG SPAIN. AHHH. It still hasn't worn off yet. Though the OIP is really, really not helpful in terms of scholarships. Or in terms of almost anything, I guess.

<3

If I ever end up as a choir conductor (which I'm sure I will, at some point, even briefly) I want to be like Professor Rardin. A choir of over a hundred people, plus men's glee club, and he knows everyone's name. He loves his job, and actually gets people generally excited about singing somehow, even the piano majors just doing it for the scholarships. He saw me- keep in mind I haven't been in his choir since last April- stopped me and asked how I liked Orpheus! I told him it was great, though very different. He said he missed me in U Choir, but was glad I was having a good time. Even if he was just being polite, which is likely, what a nice thing to do! It means a lot to me to know he remembers me.

Nice, nice dude. And a brilliant conductor. I can't wait until I have him for Conducting 316...

I think I'm giving my poor accompanist a heart attack. Learning seventeen (17!) pieces for me is not exactly what he signed up for, understandably! He's a sweetheart, and I totally understand that he's overwhelmed. I think I'll end up splitting my recital, so he'd only have to learn like... 9 pieces instead. That's way more reasonable. I'll figure out rehearsal time somehow. I need to time all the pieces so I can give Prof. Sheil a good idea of how much music I intend to do. Also, I need to get the Stearns building reserved! I think that's my best option for performing.

I had some serious doubts last night about my ability to pass out of piano in October... (Last night was lame in general; I hate being home alone. And never listen to Sufjan Stevens when you're depressed!) Those stupid minor scales are just killing me. Really obnoxious. But I talked to Ayako (who btw was really on the warpath today) and she's convinced me I can manage it. The flat minor scales, which were the ones giving me all the trouble, are a) only meant to be learned like, one every three days, and b) NOT ON THE FINAL! <3333. So I feel much better. I can handle the rest of the scales... majors are set, and minors are almost set aside from the flats. Harmonization I'm fine on. The solo and accompanying piece will just take a lot of practice.

Okay! I'm skipping lunch today, because for some reason I'm really not hungry. Maybe not a good idea? Hmm. But I bet I can get bloodwork done this afternoon if I fast. Okay, there's a good excuse not to eat. Though I might have a mental breakdown by dinnertime. That seems to be my track record on skipping meals...

Any day now, OIP ><.

<3

Today's been good? So I guess I should write about it? :P

But first yesterday!

Last night I booked my flights to Baltimore in October and Louisville in November! It's really exciting... I can't wait to go visit Sam :). It was a little sad for my bank account, but it had to be done! (Except that I did it wrong and ended up on the phone for a half hour with an operator in India ><). Baltimore is going to be lovely; I'll really need a break about that time. And Kathy's going to come home with me for Thanksgiving! She can't exactly get back to Cali for any reasonable price, so I've invited her to come to Kentucky. It's going to be really fun showing her around and stuff... and since we'll be home the whole break instead of going to Cinci or Virginia (though we still might go to Cinci, it's not for sure) I'll have more time to both hang out with family +Sam and show her around. Dad's already making plenty of jokes about how history is repeating itself.

I decided to start Weight Watchers this morning. I'll see how it goes :).

Musicology 139 is interesting. It's really strange being in a room full of Freshmen who are all just so freakin' excited about the idea that music communicates ideas!!!1!! But I don't feel cynical or anything, it's just funny. I remember my first semester at the music school, and it was really a different world... Anyway, we have a paper due in a couple of weeks where we have to interview another student in our class and discuss their musical experiences and how they relate to society's attitude to music in general. I ended up pairing with the girl who just happened to be sitting next to me, Emily. We decided to just go ahead and meet this afternoon! We talked for a while over bubble tea. She's pretty interesting; homeschooled, from Arkansas... totally different background from me, but nice to talk to, interesting. I realized as she asked me questions that I'm a pretty interesting person, too... Really, how many half-deaf Kentuckian opera singers who've studied five languages do you meet? I guess you don't really realize your life can be interesting to someone else...

My first voice lesson of the semester was today, as well. I got there a minute or two early because I came straight from musicology, so I talked a bit with a man whose daughter was taking a preliminary lesson with Prof. Sheil. I totally remember how it was, when I first studied with her; it's so scary to have to prove yourself to a new teacher! And especially when what you're looking for is an audition, there's a lot of pressure. It was nice to be knowledgeable, I suppose!

The lesson went great. I feel like I've really graduated to another level of solo rep with the completion of my junior standing. She's throwing all kinds of things at me on day one (5 new Lieder!) that I couldn't have taken on even as a sophomore. She's also learned some really interesting new things from her time on sabatical in Italy. We have a new scale that really does odd things with your voice! Plus she's going to fix my high range this semester <3. It's so wonderful to finally be an upperclassman.

So I'm chillin' now, and doing homework. Man, what a lame Friday night... oh well. I should hit the gym, but I have a lot of work to do.

ETA: Went to Pinball Pete's with Kathy! I officially rock a skeeball. We're going to save up our tickets so we can actually get something cool, lol. Ushi also showed up at random at the Village Corner where we were (Stalker!). So now I have some baby carrots, tip beef and turkey bacon to help me on my WW quest.

<3
 

I spent this morning practicing piano and hitting the bookstore for one last supply run... I'm going to try keeping binders of notes at home, and carrying just one notebook? It was Kathy's suggestion, and I think it'll be easier on my back :). Then I tried to grab a few MP3s from the music library, which unfortunately didn't open until 1pm... so instead I just went ahead over to Elke's. I'll be at her apartment most every Saturday cleaning etc. She's in a wheelchair, so she needs some help reaching things, doing laundry; cleaning just takes more time for her. She pays me 25$ each week, and for that and some good conversation, I don't mind cleaning a bit!

Today was Elke's birthday, so after the apartment was clean we set up some tables outside with chips and cookies and took advantage of the beautiful weather! There were almost a dozen of her friends there to share cake and hang out by the time the party got started. It was a really great time- Elke's friends are from all over, so it was a quad-lingual party, lol. This really nice Spanish-speaking guy and I got to talking, and we exchanged emails so I can practice with him. It was weird... Usually I get kind of nervous when I'm conversing in Spanish with a native speaker, but it was really easy with him! He was very clear, and he seemed to have no trouble understanding me. I'm excited to actually get to speak some Spanish soon.

After the party I tried to go back to the library, but I'd forgotten what day it was, so it was already closed ><. I hope Prof. Clague doesn't mind my sending in the MP3 tomorrow afternoon. I practiced a bit instead; I think I'll sing "Non so piu cosa son" at voice studio on Wednesday! Hopefully before Elke busts out her amazing recital pieces.

I left just as the sun was starting to set, and called mom while I was waiting for the bus. She's in SC with her family... my grandmother's just had surgery to remove a cancerous lump in her breast. It sounds like everything went great, though! She's already up and moving and feeling just fine. I'm so grateful that they caught the cancer at such an early stage for her, and that things seem to be basically settled after this surgery. It's also great that her whole family's there for her. Mom's spending the weekend there to make sure everything goes okay, and then she'll visit Joe on her way back up through Atlanta.

Btw, Joe is so out of touch with us! I think he's just busy, and he's never been good about Facebook/Email/Cell phone obligations anyways. He seems to be doing well.

After the first bus got to the stop completely full, I decided to just walk all the way home from north campus while I was on the phone... it was, um, way longer than I realized. Like, a 45 minute walk (slowly). And I was already tired. So I'm now wiped. But it was a lovely walk, with the sun setting and the perfect weather, so I don't regret it :).

I'm home alone because Kathy's out with her friends from Shanghai (she's full of energy 'cause she left the football game early and came home to nap) and Sneha's out with Hari on their traditional Saturday night dinner date. Luckily I'm tired and full, so it's all good!

<3