Crystal clear

I feel like I'm going to fail at GALA. We have master classes with Bernice Johnson Reagon, the founder of Sweet Honey in the Rock, for two or three afternoon while we're there. We are supposed to pretty much know (= memorize completely) the music before we get down there.

I also have signed up for Festival Choir. We have rehearsal each morning. We are expected to be pretty familiar with the music before we get down there.

And I'm working 12+ hours/day right now. I am actually scheduled for 12 hour shifts for 10 of the 11 days before I leave for GALA, with pager on-call anytime I'm not working (and I'm really wondering if I'll get to stop working after only 12 hours). I can pray for 6 hours of uninterrupted sleep, but I'm not sure when the time for music is going to happen.

And my director gave me heck when I told her I'd be working and might miss parts of rehearsals and the performance we have this weekend. I feel like I'm working really hard and not getting much for it. Maybe it's just that I'm tired.

I have two upcoming solo parts, and tomorrow sing (an entire piece) solo for the masterclass I'm taking weekly (I also have intense private lessons weekly). I've gone from desert to lakefront, or at least that's what it looks like from here.

I have friends looking for cameras like mine because some of my photos have come out so well from my recent shoots at the butterfly show. I'm web shy of posting them here, since I want to be able to show them in the future. At the same time, I do want to share a couple of them which are much better than the ones I've actually posted. Such a dilemma!

(And no, I don't believe it's the camera. But I'm helping them find similar cameras, because one should always have a tool one likes.)

My house search continues to be ... very slow. My neighborhood is well established. So far, those leaving have the $385,000 & $750,000 houses, which are slightly outside my range at this time. *laugh*

I know it's silly, but I'm happy about the weather. Finally, it's gotten up to 80 degrees. It has been a very long, cold spring for here (according to those who have lived here a long time). To me, it's been a lot like being in Michigan. In the mornings, it's 50 degrees, and only getting up into the high 60's or low 70's during the days. And it's been raining like crazy! Last year, it was already in the 90's, and 65 when I got up in the AM. Looks like things are finally turning around this week. I'm ready -- so's the convertible. I can finally turn off the seat heaters!

Elections are this weekend, at which time I will officially be elected a Board of Trustees member at St John's. We'll see what happens after that. But it seems like a good reason to be looking for a house nearby.

I went to my first rehearsal with MUSE. If last year's first rehearsal with St John's UU choir was overwhelming, this was my first view of the true size of the iceberg that is MUSE.

MUSE is a choir, and a closely-connected community, of women who sing songs about women for change. I am a newbie, one of seven in my section, eleven in the choir of approximately 70 women.

We started out with seven new (to me) pieces of music. I'll have three weeks to memorize three of them for our first performance. Meanwhile, we'll get new music for our fall concert, and I have a stack of maybe 30 other pieces which I'll need to know for concerts this year.

There are eighteen women in my section. I have no idea what to expect next, and that's part of what's overwhelming. It's as if this choir is more of a commitment than I expected: not just in time, but in community. I didn't expect that it would be more than just singing together, and I think that it could be. Wow.