Awesome

During spring semester, I was asked to sing my recital duets at several functions.  The last one was some sort of event for important people.  I never did really find out exactly what it was.  But they fed us free food, so I didn't mind not knowing. :)   After we sang, we got a surprise.  The man in charge said they'd get our certificates to us in a couple weeks.  Certificates?  "Oh, you didn't know?  We're giving you gift certificates to Milt's."  Sweet!  The certificates proved to be good for either Rusty's or Milt's, which are owned by the same people.  For those of you not familiar with Cedar, they are a couple of Steak and Seafood restaurants that I never thought I would eat at simply because they are rather expensive.  And I don't care for steak or seafood, but that's another discussion. . .  So the sum of this little story is that I sang for my supper.  And I basically got three meals out of two songs, since I got enough food at Rusty's for lunch the next day.  Really, it's five meals if you count Terral's two.  Not bad, eh?  But as cool as that is, the meal at Rusty's represents something even better.

We saved the certificate until April 29th.  We decided to use it to celebrate.  And what were we celebrating, you ask?  Some very special news.  Earlier that day we found out that I'm pregnant!  So the following pictures (unfortunately taken with a cell phone in bad lighting) are of some super happy, slightly dazed, expectant parents! 

Funk

I was trying to come up with a word that describes some of what I've been feeling lately, and funk popped into my head. Eh. It works. Thankfully, there have been a few fun & funky moments to lighten the funk. (sorry, bad joke--just gettin' the dumb out)

This week has honestly been a lot better. We haven't had any snow yet (*yay*), but more importantly I've just felt lighter inside. You know how sometimes it just has to get worse in order to get better? Well worse was last week, and better is this week. The end of the semester seems so much more of a reality. It should--it's only two weeks away. I still have a lot of homework and projects, but I now feel I have the power in me to complete them. It was hiding for quite a while there. Sometimes it's just so hard to buckle down and do what you know you have to, when there are so many other things that you want to do that are also important and that would improve your life. Unfortunately, the things that I felt I had to do have timelines, so they have kept pushing the other things back. I hope I'm not being too confusing here.

It's been a long time since I've really posted. I've done a couple fill-ins, but nothing that's really me. I've kind of felt that it would take too much time to set up the background for what's going on in my life. When school gets out has become a too-frequent part of my thinking and conversation.

Although I've let some things I want to do (to live, really) be on hold, I have forged ahead into some new areas. Last semester I was introduced the world of craft blogging. I found so many good ideas! But I put off "crafting" at first because "I should be concentrating on school, etc. right now". Finally I just decided to heck with it and I started crocheting again. I don't think I had crocheted anything since before my mission. It felt so good to be making something tangible again. It started out with a few gifts, and then I started getting requests from my friends. I've sold a few things now, and it's turning out to be a multi-faceted blessing. (Random note: that word reminds me of my mom b/c she always told me that girls are multi-faceted like diamonds.)

I've been taking pictures of the things I've made, intending to create a craft blog where I can record what I've done and feel a sense of accomplishment. :) I decided I wanted to do that in January. Here it is April, and I'm not really any closer to it--except that school's almost out. (You see? There it is again.)

Well, now that it's out in the open I guess I've put some more pressure on myself. It's all about accountability when it comes to goals, isn't that right? Maybe I'll even go so far as to give myself a deadline. Let's say I'll have it by the end of May. That way, any of y'all who care to can start to give me flack if I don't get on the ball.

Now you know one of the things that has been making school feel so interminable. OK, I'll stop my rambling now. ; )

April Fools

It seems Mother Nature has a sense of humor. Ten inches worth.

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.