Break and Tom:
Today officially starts my spring break. I excited to have a little more time to read, play the piano, bake, and visit Mary in Houston. In fact, most of the break we will be in Houston. Mary is having her Masters recital, and we decided to go down to support her. Neither Tom nor I have been to Texas so we are looking forward to seeing the south. We hear Houston is all about good food, so we worked out extra hard this week so we wouldn’t have to feel so guilty (well maybe not extra hard, but we worked out once!) We went for a run Thursday night at the gym. We ran on the indoor track. I am a pretty boring runner, I often choose the same routes, and always run the same distance- 3 miles. We ran 3 miles on Thursday but Tom spiced it up by adding two hurtles. That’s one thing I love about Tom, he doesn’t go for boring, and will do what it takes to make things a bit more interesting. He is much more pron towards taking breaks to make writing an essay less painful, or adding a movie to an evening of folding clothes. While I’m on the subject of my husband, I’ll brag a little more. I have been craving Tom’s lasagna for weeks. I love it, it has such a great flavor while also being healthy and delicious. I have hinted several times that I would love it if he would make it for me. He was always willing, but it simply takes a long time to put together and he hadn’t had the time. Yesterday, he made the time. It didn’t turn out quite as good as usual as he only made the sauce- the most laborious part. I compiled it and made the bechamel. I didn’t make quite enough sauce nor was I great at accomplishing the “just enough” nutmeg measurement that Tom had given me. That’s one thing about Tom’s cooking that fascinates me, he really works towards tastes. He is a big taste tester, not for the purpose of just sneaking bites early, but really for making decisions about what to add. I rarely taste my food, unless it’s cookie dough, before I eat it. He knows what things should taste like from his years in Italy and he won’t give up until he thinks he has a close resemblance. Thus- better food.
Recital Preparation:
Singing has gone wonderfully lately. I am getting more and more excited about my recital. This week I decided that I was going to stretch myself and sing the Mozart Concert Aria I had picked out. I had been waffling between replacing that piece with a short Handel Cantata I am preparing with my baroque ensemble, but I decided against it. I haven’t had to really push myself to learn music more quickly, and that’s a huge part of this career, so I think I’m going to go for it. I also am hoping to compile a quartet to accompany me. Which I am really excited about! I’ve never done that before so I’m not exactly sure how to go about it. Ms. Mahy informed me that I have to take the orchestral score and cut it up into individual lines so that each instrument has only their part. (Let me tell you how laborious that is!) But it’s fun, I love the idea of working with instrumentalists. I sent out an e-mail to several friends yesterday. I currently have my two violinists, now I just need a viola, cello, and 2 oboes! (I wish Adi could do it!) It’s a rarely performed concert aria, in fact Ms. Mahy had never heard of it, which is a real signifier that it is rare. But it’s beautiful and sits in my voice very nicely. It has some fun and experimental ornamentation passages. The struggle is simply its length. It’s hard to maintain ones endurance and vocal ease and technique with such a long piece. But it’s something I need to master, so I’m looking forward to the challenge. (All those of you who are coming out will see if I am successful or not!)
Light- Poetic?
A few weeks ago I walked into a coaching with my favorite coach Mr. Highfill. The room was quite dark and I asked why. “I don’t find overhead lighting very poetic.” In my modern dance class the lights are always off and only the meager light that can make it through the cloud coverage and into one of the many windows in the room is used. Which means that the room is typically a bit dim. My professor told us, “I like the natural light.” Now I am certainly a proponent of natural light, but when there isn’t any?! I don’t understand how these guys can stand to work in such darkness. So maybe florescent lighting isn’t as artistic, but don’t they find the lack of light depressing? So were my thoughts at first. What is this idea of mood lighting. How effective is it? Plenty of houses now have dimmers, and progressive lighting. I enjoy turning the lights a little lower at night, when my eyes are tired. However low lighting tends to bring on that feeling- of fatigue. To me, light is energy. Perhaps places like Oberlin, with its scanty lighting system, is the cause for music that capitalizes on unrequited love, loss, and introspection, think Germany. And perhaps that is why Italy’s music tends to be light, chipper, and fast moving. How does light affect you? Do you find that your creativity is peaked when you turn off the lights and focus on the natural? One thing I can say is that I like the idea of appreciating the light that is there; finding beautify in the way it streams through the clouds, and in the way that you can look at the sun all day without harming your eyes as a result of the protective covering. Light fascinates me.
Flowers:
This week for my Writing and Rhetoric class I wrote on flowers. For the past few weeks I have been watching the bulbs of my next door neighbor awake and send up their greenery, I have enjoyed the yellow forsynthia, and smiled with glee at the little white flowers that have covered the bed of another neighbor. Thursday was the first day of spring and I welcomed it with open arms. I can’t wait to fill up by flower pots again, I already bought the soil. However, this morning I arose to find two fresh new inches of snow. Tom just informed me that snow is expected for the next three days. It looks like spring is more fleeting than usual this year. How flirtatious the weather is here in Ohio, just as you think you’ve got something- it changes. (Dear, am I whiny this morning or what.) They say however that the expectation is almost more enjoyable than the receiving. So I suppose these months of postponement will only make the actual of spring more glorious!