Wild and Wonderful Weekend

I feel so full this morning.

Full of stories and adventures and random pictures of random moments from this crazy, exhausting weekend. A weekend that in the end was pretty damned amazing, for many reasons. The best way I can sum it up is in sections. Starting with this morning, and then going back to Friday afternoon and moving along chronologically.

The 5K That...Wasn't

I was supposed to run a 5K this morning. It's happening right now, as a matter of fact, and here I sit, in my pajamas, just finishing my morning cup of tea and tip-tapping away on the keyboard.

As I drove home last night, nearly delirious with exhaustion, I decided that getting five hours of sleep, forcing myself awake, and returning to Sacramento to force my tired body and mind through a 5K sounded like pretty much the worst thing I could do to myself. While I hate missing the race, the bottom line is that it's much healthier to get a good night's sleep, allow my body time to wake up and recover, and then go for a good run here in the neighborhood. So that's what I'm doing.

Friday Afternoon Blues

By Friday afternoon, I was getting sick and tired of the storming. I wouldn't mind it if I hadn't been stuck at home alone, avoiding the crazy drivers of the world...but I was starting to get some serious cabin fever (if posting a video documenting three days of weather didn't convince you of that...) and yet, I had absolutely no desire to go out to choir rehearsal on Friday night. No, I wanted to crawl in bed and feel sorry for myself.

But I couldn't do that. I made a commitment to choir, and I have been looking forward to this concert, so at 5:30, I saddled up Rosie Pro and hit the trail for Carmichael, a nearby community in Sacramento County, where we would be meeting in the gym at Jesuit High School.

Along the way, I found some reasons to smile.

I made about three U-turns to come back around and get this sign pic.

After stopping for a hot chocolate, I turned down the street for the school
and promptly found a full-arch rainbow. Sometimes the universe gives you
these things to remind you to smile.

Then I found THIS. I knew Keane Dr. existed in Carmichael and had
vague plans to someday find it to get the sign pic. To find it when I had
to be there for choir? Priceless. Yes, that's more rain.

From the gym parking lot at the school. Many of my fellow singers were
also marveling at this display by Nature.

In the gym. The seating arrangement for this concert had the Soprano 2
section in the back stage-left corner of the choir. Odd set-up, but it worked.

Rehearsal ended up being fantastic--the music we've been doing is so uplifting and glorious (not to mention challenging). Finally hearing it with full orchestra, instead of just a piano, was incredible.

I arrived home at about 11:00 Friday night, exhausted and ready for bed, but I had some things to plan and pack for Saturday. Because my life doesn't seem to be able to be dull, I had a bloomin' crazy day planned, starting with...

A Job Interview

Earlier in the week, I had a call from ESL Arts Camp, a small organization that runs three-week camps for students who are learning English, usually groups from China who come for a three-week session to practice their language skills and stay with a host family to learn the culture. They are looking for music instructors and I am looking to teach music, so they asked if I would interview on Saturday morning. No problem! I knew it would be wacky, fitting that in before yet another choir rehearsal and the concert that evening, but a girl's gotta do what a girl's gotta do.

I spent the morning doing everything that needed to be done--breakfast, feeding the cats, washing up, and packing a duffel bag with my outfit changes, makeup bag, choir music, dinner, Ibuprofen (just in case), and my Kindle. I left at 10:00 to get to Sacramento before my 11:00 appointment, armed with a lesson plan and a lot of nerves.

The lesson requirement was to present "Little Miss Muffet" to teenagers in a music lesson. I'm creative, but good grief. I left the house with this feeling of total dread that my lesson idea was weak...but I was determined to claw my way through it.

Turns out I was mistaken in thinking I'd actually be teaching the lesson--the good news is that I just had to present my idea to a panel of three really friendly ladies. This made me feel much better.

What I ended up doing was a lesson using layered rhythms. And it turns out that the lesson I'd feared might be weak was actually pretty perfect for what these women aim to do--bring fun, musical activities to English learners as a way to help them learn and practice the language. The panel loved it, and told me they really liked what I had to say. I'm very hopeful that this bodes well for me--the job is a temporary thing, but to be hired and working is something I could put on my resume, and it would open more opportunities up to me (not to mention be another reference).

And this kind of job is right up my alley. This is the stuff I love to do.

The goal would be to divide the kids into three groups, performing the
three rhythms at the same time.

I pointed out to the ladies, as I demonstrated the rhythms, that I was using off-beat (syncopated) rhythms that mimic a lot of what is used in current pop music--the camp director's face lit up. Turns out, they love using contemporary pop as much as possible because the visiting students love American culture. "Would you be okay with using pop music?"

"Definitely!" And I am--I love using music that is fun and relevant to my students. I talked about studies I've read about, showing that English learners benefit from repeated, rhythmic practice of English. I pumped up my teaching training and my previous experience teaching ESL students (by the way, ESL stands for English as a Second Language), and how it is impossible to avoid teaching ESL students in California anymore.

I am very, very hopeful this morning. The panel seemed very enthusiastic about what I presented and had to say.

Costume Changes

When I left the house, I was wearing my interview outfit--slacks, button-down top, professional shoes. Immediately after, I drove straight to a nearby Starbuck's I'd staked out, ordered a hot chocolate, and dashed into their bathroom for a costume change into jeans, tank-top, hoodie and tennis shoes. I'm a pro at the post-interview quick-change (I can don skinny jeans while sitting in the driver's seat of my car), and my bare feet never even touched that bathroom floor.

I spent a lovely hour at Starbuck's, playing on my Kindle and relaxing with hot chocolate and a protein plate. There was absolutely no way I was going to drive 40 minutes back to Lincoln, only to turn around an hour later to return to Sacramento for choir rehearsal. I thank Mom and Dad all the time for giving me a Kindle Fire for Christmas. That thing is all kinds of entertaining.

The Choir Nerd Rides Again

Call time for our choir rehearsal was 2:30, so I found my way to the Community Center Theater early to see if I could help with anything or just generally get in the way. I left Rosie Pro in a nearby parking garage, gulping madly at the thought of how much it might end up costing me to park there for about 8 hours (turns out they stop charging at 6:00, so it ended up being a bank-breaking $5. Ha.). Feeling smug and very much like a professional musician, I hoisted my duffel bag on my shoulder, my choir dress over one arm, and strode a few blocks to the theater, where (and I love this part) I went in through the back stage performer's entrance. Enter through the lobby? Horrors. No way.

I helped out a little bit with some set-up in the lobby area, but I also had some time to wander outside a little. The sun was out and Sacramento looks glorious in the sunshine.

Women's dressing room.

The view from the stage.

I walked on it, just to spite whoever put that silly
sign there.

Between the theater and the convention center.

A few blocks away, the Cathedral of the Blessed
Sacrament, where we had a concert in October.

Our director, Don, with his dog, Mushu.

With over 200 singers on stage, we needed risers.

We had a full orchestra accompanying us.

Out in the lobby.

As we got closer to rehearsal, I took my spot in the 11th row nosebleed
section and got a pic of my perspective. You can *just* see Don's stand.

Cali Swimmy has grand dreams of being a famous baritone soloist.

During the dinner break, I went for a quick wander and got this pic of a
beautiful and useless building where nothing is ever accomplished...yep,
our State Capitol!

Once rehearsal was finished, we had a two-hour dinner break. I had a quick wander before settling in with my Kindle, my iPod (to avoid talking to people so I could rest my voice) and a packed dinner of apples, peanut butter, carrots, and two mini bagels with cream cheese. I drank water and did my best to relax. I was already tired.

The Concert

Finally, showtime. We started at 8:00--the first half of the concert flew by, and finally it was time for our showcase piece, "Belshazzar's Feast." 

When I received my copy of this behemoth in December, I immediately started listening to the practice CD and...well, what is this?! It actually took me three rehearsals to decide if I would love it or hate it (there can be no in-between with a piece like "Belshazzar's Feast"). I decided I loved it. What an enormous, monumental, insane piece of choral music. It is full of passion and energy, yet moments of extreme tenderness and beauty. And it is bloody difficult. There are dissonant chords sung at full volume and moments designed to make the hair on the back of the necks of the audience to stand on end. It is a full workout for the singers, the orchestra, and especially the conductor--and it is epic and wonderful.

I could spew adjectives all morning, and never come close to really helping you understand just how monumental this piece was to me as a singer.

It is rarely performed here on this side of the Atlantic (it's by an English composer, William Walton), because it is rather obscure to American audiences and because it is such a huge undertaking. It requires a large chorus--we actually had Don's Sac State University Chorus sing with us to take our numbers over 200--and a large orchestra.

If you ever have a chance to hear it performed live...take it. Please, just trust me on this.


Exhaustion

By the time I returned to my intrepid little Protege after 10:00 last night, I was near-comatose with exhaustion. How I managed the drive all the way back to Lincoln remains a mystery. Along the way, I made the decision to sit out of today's 5K and let myself sleep...and I'm so glad I did. I'm still a little on the tired side, so a gentle run and some relaxing this afternoon are just what I need. Tomorrow morning, I hit the ground running with an early workout with M. the Reasonable.

What a weekend.