V-day in Appropriately-Red Rock Country

For Valentine's Day, Terral and I felt like getting away. We took the opportunity on Saturday, since I had rehearsal on Monday. We headed south about 25 minutes to get a taste of spring. We've picnicked by Silver Reef before, so that was our original destination. Part way there, Terral asked how I felt about exploring a little. Since I was not at all opposed, we exited at Leeds, found a random dirt road, and went hunting for some sandstone. We ended up in Red Cliffs Desert Reserve. Neither of us knew it was there, so it was a fun find. The signs aren't incredibly visitor friendly, but we enjoyed discovering things on our own. We had a lovely lunch, and then we got to know our surroundings a bit better.

A disadvantage to going somewhere with just the two of you is that there is no one else to take a picture of the two of you. Single shots aren't that bad though. ; )

I love the fact that it felt so nice outside, but you can see the snow-covered mountains in the distance.


I found this little puddle with a couple rocks in it. One of them kind of looked like a writing tool, and I was inspired. . .

What can I say? I'm a hopeless romantic.

The sand was so smooth, soft, and inviting.

We found a cool canyon. . .

an awesome large-scale rock garden. . .

a seasonal waterfall. . .

and a beautiful pond.

It was a wonderful day.

NATSAA

Every other year the National Association of Teachers of Singing holds an Artist Award competition. Contestants prepare fourteen songs that fit specific criteria and the judges choose fifteen minutes' worth of songs.

The contest was on Friday. I placed third. : ) The guy who won has been singing professionally for three years. The girl who placed second is a second year grad student. I was one point behind her.

Yeah, I feel pretty good about that.

In Love Again

Tuesday evening I went to Salt Lake with the department chair, his wife (our accompanist), and four other students. We sang in the Joseph Smith Memorial Building. It was awesome! First, I sang "Uzh Vecher" from Pikovaya Dama with Charity. Then I sang "Mira, O Norma" from Norma with Theora. Sarah and Kim finished it up with the Flower Duet from Lakme. The acoustics in that room were awesome. Before we left, I had decided to just have fun with it and stop the stressing, and I can't even tell you how much fun it was. It was so great just to be performing and making people happy without being under critical scrutiny. (I love my teacher, but. . .) The high C at the end of "Norma" just felt so good! I wish I could have been that open on my recital, but I guess I'll just be grateful it was decent.

So many people came up to us afterward just gushing sincere compliments. We surprised everyone! "Wow" was an oft-repeated word. The first man to come up to us told us his wife was going to hate him because he'd told her not to come, and now she'd missed out on hearing us perform. (I later found out he is the lieutenant governor, Greg Bell.) One of the servers was a music student at the U. He (reluctantly) told us that we did really well and that he had no idea there was such talent "down south".

I don't want to sound full of myself or anything. This is the first year that I can honestly, critically tell myself that I really am good at singing. And I feel okay about not qualifying that. People were complimenting us, and I was just so happy to have made them happy and to feel their sincerity. It was amazing. I can't tell you how good it felt. And it was so good just to get away from school and opera rehearsal for a day.

Another ingredient to the "love potion" has been my practicum. Visiting the high schools has gently reminded me of my love for singing and teaching. I pretty much had no idea what I was doing when I was in high school, but I loved doing it! Now I have a really good foundation and I can focus more on what I love to do, and not so much on how to do it.

I just wanted to remember this milestone. Singing at a Rural Legislators Conference may seem like small beans, but somehow it made a huge difference for me.

I feel like I've finally found my voice.

Artwork

I have had a blog for some time now but I didn't really do anything with it. I have decided to start it up again and post some of my non-commercial/fine art type work. If anyone is interested here is the link.

Feel free to take a look and leave a comment.