The b!tch is back

Greetings, fellow travelers! Three weeks have passed, and much has transpired. Here are the Cliff Notes to get you back up to speed:

• Had an audition and two callbacks at the beginning of the month, and was cast as Golde in Eagan Community Theater's production of Fiddler on the Roof. Last played this role [coughtwentysevenyearsagocough] at Winnequah Middle School. We have been rehearsing e v e r y night - but they didn't schedule me tonight. WOOT! Come see it. We have a lovely air-conditioned auditorium...
• St. Paul's Choir threw one heckuva spring gala, complete with a brand new (for us) grand piano and a huge Abba singalong; the songs from which are slowly leaving my brain.
• The school year ended, another batch of 18-year-olds was released onto an unsuspecting world, and the parade of graduation open houses began.
• Animal world update: mollies, mollies, mollies. Oh, and baby snails at J's place. Heh heh heh. AND Mom and Dad adopted the little orphaned kitten they found under their front step one morning. Dad tried to name him Emil (pronounced EE-mull. I know - he was vetoed). Their "mature" cat, Lily, is tolerating him mildly.
• IT"S BEEN HOT AS HADES AND HUMID AS... HADES.
• My summer voice studio is up and running. There is a part of my Taurean nature that loves a structured schedule.
  
• Knitting a little pink sweater during rehearsals and shifts at El Yarnery. It's the twin sister to the little blue sweater previously posted. Photos to come.

So that brings us to my rehearsal-free evening. And how did I spend it? Combing area thrift stores for "black or brown ankle boots with little to no heel". Gar.

Pitch, 10; Rhythm, 3

Ooh, it's the morning of the district Solo/Ensemble Contest!!!

Did anyone else go through this rite of musical passage? I'm sure most of my students woke up with butterflies in their teenage tummies in anticipation. All that preparation (or last-minute memorization) for a 10-minute slice of your life to be dissected and evaluated and r a t e d.

And on top of that, seven lucky events get to have me as their accompanist. Mwah hah hah...

Saint Cecilia, pray for us.

UPDATE: No one died. Several cried (not mine), mainly because of one very questionable judge. My piano skills did not inflict pain or suffering.

Coming up for air

The Republicans have packed up and gone home.

The school year has begun.

Facebook is a fatal time-sucking black hole of doomy-doom-doom (thanks, friends).

Hopefully I'll have some actual knitting content next post. OMG. If I remember how to knit.

End Times, and other things

from the editor: I'm a bad LYS employee. I've really done scant knitting this week, and thusly another fiberless post. Le sigh.

This is the last week of school for my studio singers. I know, everyone else under the sun is done but us. Graduation is on Friday (the 13th - don't think the irony is lost on some of these "adults"). And although most teachers spend the next three months travelling on vacation improving themselves at workshops, I teach a summer studio. As an independent contractor, if I want to be paid, lessons are taught.

I've never really been a get-the-heck-outta-Dodge vacationer - nor have my people - but this summer is proving to be different. The third week of July will be a Genuine Road Trip Vacation, the likes of which haven't been experienced by my family for over 20 years (ahem).

Destination: The Big Apple :-D
Motivation: seeing the MN Twins play at Yankee Stadium before they tear it down
Participation: mom, dad, sis, and moi

Driving halfway across the country.
In July.
Watching outdoor baseball (here's the view from our slice of Yankee heaven):No me gusta the potential heat/sweat/humidity factor with this itinerary, but I will shut my yap and deal with it.

OK, one question: I am certainly not the most sportly-minded lesbian to walk the face of the earth (though I have been known to cheer on a championship whatever in a social context), but shouldn't it be illegal or unethical or something to tear down Yankee Freakin' Stadium? It's like the Mecca of baseball, isn't it? Babe Ruth, Joe DiMaggio, Mickey Mantle and all? (Heh, I didn't even google those names. Pretty impressed right about now, aren't you?)

side note: On this day in 1969 the Yankees retired Mickey Mantle's number, 7. Ironical. (This factoid was looked up after I wrote his name above, thus the ironicalness. And yes, I know it's not a real word.)

Lay it on me, readers. What should I petition the fam to see whilst in Nueva York? Leave me a comment with your favorite tourist-y spot, off-the-beaten-path eatery, or whatever. You're going to be listening to me blog about it, so the sights might as well be something we'll all enjoy.

***Blog Alert***

*This is a Blog Alert Early Warning Announcement:

I made mention in February that audition songs in my voice studio have the ability to affect my mental state in a lasting and not-so-good way.

Please take all blogging by Meema in September 2008 with large grains of salt; the Other School will be casting their own production of Disney's High School Musical with
three.
weekends.
of.
performances.

Oh, the humanity.

(And the unfortunate side effect of programming lucrative pop schlock versus music with substance? Talented students, especially seniors, will be choosing not to audition for their yearly musical solely because it's HSM.)

*This now concludes the Blog Alert Early Warning Announcement.

[POP]

That's the sound made by a million blossoms opening at the same time, which happened at the beginning of the week (these pictures were taken yesterday).

My fave bonsai-esque tree, in full bloom:

Grammy's crabapple tree, which has to be fifty feet tall:

And the surest sign of spring? When youth of great physical coordination gather together to throw weapons at the clear blue sky.

To their credit, they also throw colorful and shiny flags.

Greet the spring!

Too many singers

Today was the district Solo/Ensemble Contest for my studio singers. Our school district is comprised of four large suburban high schools, none under 1600 students.

Large populations of singers. Long day.

My students sang well, but I am ready to sack out. G'nite, all. Knit something springy for yourself!

Sunday

Well, just like that Spring Break is over. It's a bit depressing that my next vacation day is Memorial Day. Distraction will be key to survival; this week is crunch time for Solo/Ensemble Contest for my singers on Saturday. I wish they were all ready to go, but I can only imagine the amount of information that fell out of their brains over Break. Yikes.

I worked a great shift at The Yarnery yesterday. We were dead for stretches, which was nice for conversation with coworkers (I love the variety of people there!), then crazily busy in spurts. I actually was able to complete the Log Cabin stripe I started on Friday, so hey, can't complain when knitting progress is made. It's always fun when someone I know on "the outside" comes in while I'm there - commenters Deb & Phil came to scout laceweight yarns for a specific project.

I leave you with a new element to my blog: Just Say No. Some things in this world make you shake your head and utter Nancy Reagan's gift to the American lexicon. Call me quirky, but there's a fine line crossed when a person takes their doggy out of a bag, and actually turns their little friend into a bag.

Randy Newman on the brain

I love my job as a high school voice teacher. The human voice goes through some dramatic transformation during these four years. I encourage my students to bring performance materials to their lessons for assistance - college audition songs, choral music, solos for church, whatever. Always glad to help.

Then there are weeks like this. One school I'm involved with is holding auditions for their spring musical revue, so my last 13 lessons have been coachings of "Friend In Me," made popular in Disney/Pixar's Toy Story. It's safe to say that, whenever I close my eyes, this is what I'll be hearing for the next week or two.

It could be worse, though. It has been worse - at another school, the fall audition was "Memory" from Cats (so many students didn't know it!), and last year's High School Musical audition song was "What I've Been Looking For" (they all knew it). I still don't see the appeal of HSM. No disrespect intended, but the government should consider the effectiveness of showing this particular musical 24/7 to Guantanamo detainees...

The home stretch

Thursday afternoon I finished teaching lessons until January, so it's off to finish some gifts. Pointy sticks at the ready...

Knitting pictures to balance out the holiday activity-centric blogging of late:

pattern: Fiber Trends' Felt Clog (one of what is to hopefully be gifted as a pair)
yarn: Lamb's Pride Worsted

pattern: The Fiber Pirate's Mistletoe Ornament
yarn: Frog Tree Sport (leaves), Cascade 220 (berries), random rug wool (bow)

Shameless Marie-Mayhew-o-Rama to follow:

pattern: Woolly Gingerbread Cookie

yarn: Frog Tree Sport (small), Cascade 220 Heathers (large), 220 and rug wool as above (decorations)

pattern: Felted Nest Ornament

yarn: Frog Tree Sport, blue roving

The weekend promises to be fiber-rich, so stay tuned for further maniacal progress. Happy knitting!

Knit much?

This is the first lesson week of the new school year. I'm seeing a pretty good return rate from last year's studio, and new contracts are coming in fairly well so far. I always love the fall, getting back into a regular schedule after a relaxed summer existence. Me Taurus. Me like structure.

The only down side: my knitting has been temporarily preempted by studio administration and the nasty cold/allergy crud I brought home from the Fest this weekend. I have tried snuggling into bed at a fairly early-for-me-but-reasonable-for-everyone-else hour with my knitting and a Lime & Violet podcast, but I end up crashing after about 30 stitches. Hmm - maybe I need more sleep.

Happy New Year!

The End Time

We all survived the recital! I had thought it would be a full contingent, but silly me - students just waited longer to cancel out. All but one student gave solid performances, and even he has bounced back way more than I would have at that age. That done, it's now a matter of wrapping up the last two weeks of the school year, saying goodbye to seniors, and wrangling students for summer study. We'll see how that goes.