Go, lovely Rose-
Tell her that wastes her time and me,
That now she knows,
When I resemble her to thee,
How sweet and fair she seems to be.
Tell her that's young,
And shuns to have her graces spied,
That hadst thou sprung
In deserts where no men abide,
Thou must have uncommended died.
Small is the worth
Of beauty from the light retired:
Bid her come forth,
Suffer herself to be desired,
And not blush so to be admired.
Then die-that she
The common fate of all things rare
May read in thee;
How small a part of time they share
That are so wondrous sweet and fair!
-- Edmund Waller
Wednesday, November 29, 2006
Tuesday, November 21, 2006
How did it get to be the week of Thanksgiving already? How did this happen? After this week is over there are 3 more weeks left in the semester. Oh the agony!
It's officially winter here in New England! FINALLY! lol - well I don't know about "winter" so much as it's finally cold. Our Autumn has been very mild. It's been in the 60's and 70's most of September, October, and even the first part of November up until now. Yesterday was the first real "cold" and it feels like it's here to stay. I don't care as long as the weather just decides. This going back and forth from chilly to warm and muggy and back to chilly wreaks havoc on my sinuses and my singing. Wouldn't you know it though Thanksgiving is supposed to bring with it a Nor'easter that's coming up the coast. It's only going to be rain - can you imagine what it would be like if it were snow??!!
Not too much time has gone by since I last posted so I'll start from the past and work my way back up to the present.
So let's see... Saturday was the BIG GAME! We had a small party of 5 Ohioans celebrating at my apartment. We were loud and raucous and I'm sure that the neighbors were wondering what on earth was going on next door. Actually... it was a big "game day" here in Cambridge as well as it was Harvard-Yale day. Home game! I was walking Simon at 9:30 am and the house on the corner was well into a party with what had to be a crowd of 50-75 people and good number of them doing beer funnels out on the front porch. Yes - at NINE-THIRTY in the morning. Igh!
It's actually quite funny to see all these Harvard-ites get worked up about this game. It's the last game of the season and they go all out: tail-gaiting, regalia, their small little band that doesn't really have uniforms, people walking in packs to the stadium. This is what it's like at a NORMAL university with a NORMAL football team on a NORMAL gameday. I think that Harvard wouldn't know what to do if they had to set up a "mini-court" on campus during gameday or had to hire a police force to guard their goalposts. No offense to my Harvard friends that read this blog (Rachel). It's just very humourous - that's all.
So anyhow - back to Saturday. Brian and Karen and Jenny and Bob came over and we had a good time.
Sunday was the Longy SAC hosted Thanksgiving dinner. It's traditional that SAC hosts this dinner the Sunday before Thanksgiving. SAC provides the Turkey, stuffing, gravy, rolls, mashed potatoes, cranberry relish, and drinks. Then we ask everyone to sign up to bring other side dishes and desserts. We always have a good turn out and it's a lot of fun. Every year we've ordered 2 fully cooked turkey's and 2 full dinners (the dinners include all the sides SAC provides)from Shaw's (like Krogers to those of you not out on the East Coast) and we pick them up hot and ready to serve when we get back. We've never had a problem with this before. So, Sunday, Brooke and I go to pick up the food and drink and we get to the deli, give them our order number and the guy comes out from the back with 2 huge boxes filled with our complete order. But there was a slight problem - everything was COLD and the "fully-cooked" turkey was still wrapped in the plastic packaging that turkeys come in when you buy them at the store. Brooke and I took one look at the order, then each other and then started to have a panic attack. Literally. We couldn't figure it out. We ordered this EXACTLY the way we ordered it last year (we didn't have to tell them last year we wanted it HOT when picked it up. "Fully cooked" meant FULLY COOKED!) So we called those decorating back at School and let them know that some serious microwaving was about to happen upon our return. Dinner was to start sometime after 5:00 - it was 4:30. We got back and the nuking began. Luckily, the turkey was thawed and was actually fully cooked - it just had to be heated and there were microwave instructions. While Jen and Elinor and myself microwaved the potatoes, gravy, and stuffing, Brooke and Brian carved those two gobblers. Once the sides were done we started on the turkey slices until they were steaming hot. We kicked butt because everything was on the table by 5:15 - hot and ready to eat. Not exactly like our Kodaly Institute feast 5 years ago - but definately still a good dinner.
Yesterday was slightly stressful because last night's vocal seminar was a bit like a mini mid-semester jury - except not. It's really too much detail and too much unnecessary information to go into why all of us were unhappy with this little set-up. Instead of complaining (I'll keep that to all of us in the voice department)I'll just explain what we had to do which won't sound nearly as bad as it really was, nor really as bad as 1/2 the semester has been in this class. So, 1/2 the voice faculty was sitting in "panel-like" formation in the back of the recital room - all set with their pens and pencils and forms on which they critiqued our presentation. We had to come in, slate our name, the piece, the composer, the poet, and then give a small spiel that would draw in our audience - something interesting about the composer or song. Next we had to recite the text of the piece as a monologue. If the piece was in a forgeign language we had to first recite it in English in a literal translation - but as a monologue. Then take a moment and recite the text in it's original language as a monologue and then take another moment and sing the piece. For example: I sang Süsser Freund by Robert Schumann (I think I posted it in a previous blog perhaps a month or 2 ago). So I came in, did all the slating stuff, and then gave the literal English translation as a monologue, took a moment, and then recited the German text as a monologue, took a moment, then sang the piece. It actually went well. But it was quite stressful. "Class" began at 6:15 and I was number 17 to go on the list so I didn't actually get to perform my piece until well after 8:00. It was torture and it was ridiculous which was the general sentiment amongst, actually, all the performers.
BUT now - it's Tuesday. Classes officially are over tomorrow evening but I don't have class on Wednesday so I am officially on break! Woo-hoo! Although I have a lot of practicing to do - I won't have class and that means some good ol' R&R.
I hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving!
And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.Colossians 3:17
It's officially winter here in New England! FINALLY! lol - well I don't know about "winter" so much as it's finally cold. Our Autumn has been very mild. It's been in the 60's and 70's most of September, October, and even the first part of November up until now. Yesterday was the first real "cold" and it feels like it's here to stay. I don't care as long as the weather just decides. This going back and forth from chilly to warm and muggy and back to chilly wreaks havoc on my sinuses and my singing. Wouldn't you know it though Thanksgiving is supposed to bring with it a Nor'easter that's coming up the coast. It's only going to be rain - can you imagine what it would be like if it were snow??!!
Not too much time has gone by since I last posted so I'll start from the past and work my way back up to the present.
So let's see... Saturday was the BIG GAME! We had a small party of 5 Ohioans celebrating at my apartment. We were loud and raucous and I'm sure that the neighbors were wondering what on earth was going on next door. Actually... it was a big "game day" here in Cambridge as well as it was Harvard-Yale day. Home game! I was walking Simon at 9:30 am and the house on the corner was well into a party with what had to be a crowd of 50-75 people and good number of them doing beer funnels out on the front porch. Yes - at NINE-THIRTY in the morning. Igh!
It's actually quite funny to see all these Harvard-ites get worked up about this game. It's the last game of the season and they go all out: tail-gaiting, regalia, their small little band that doesn't really have uniforms, people walking in packs to the stadium. This is what it's like at a NORMAL university with a NORMAL football team on a NORMAL gameday. I think that Harvard wouldn't know what to do if they had to set up a "mini-court" on campus during gameday or had to hire a police force to guard their goalposts. No offense to my Harvard friends that read this blog (Rachel). It's just very humourous - that's all.
So anyhow - back to Saturday. Brian and Karen and Jenny and Bob came over and we had a good time.
Sunday was the Longy SAC hosted Thanksgiving dinner. It's traditional that SAC hosts this dinner the Sunday before Thanksgiving. SAC provides the Turkey, stuffing, gravy, rolls, mashed potatoes, cranberry relish, and drinks. Then we ask everyone to sign up to bring other side dishes and desserts. We always have a good turn out and it's a lot of fun. Every year we've ordered 2 fully cooked turkey's and 2 full dinners (the dinners include all the sides SAC provides)from Shaw's (like Krogers to those of you not out on the East Coast) and we pick them up hot and ready to serve when we get back. We've never had a problem with this before. So, Sunday, Brooke and I go to pick up the food and drink and we get to the deli, give them our order number and the guy comes out from the back with 2 huge boxes filled with our complete order. But there was a slight problem - everything was COLD and the "fully-cooked" turkey was still wrapped in the plastic packaging that turkeys come in when you buy them at the store. Brooke and I took one look at the order, then each other and then started to have a panic attack. Literally. We couldn't figure it out. We ordered this EXACTLY the way we ordered it last year (we didn't have to tell them last year we wanted it HOT when picked it up. "Fully cooked" meant FULLY COOKED!) So we called those decorating back at School and let them know that some serious microwaving was about to happen upon our return. Dinner was to start sometime after 5:00 - it was 4:30. We got back and the nuking began. Luckily, the turkey was thawed and was actually fully cooked - it just had to be heated and there were microwave instructions. While Jen and Elinor and myself microwaved the potatoes, gravy, and stuffing, Brooke and Brian carved those two gobblers. Once the sides were done we started on the turkey slices until they were steaming hot. We kicked butt because everything was on the table by 5:15 - hot and ready to eat. Not exactly like our Kodaly Institute feast 5 years ago - but definately still a good dinner.
Yesterday was slightly stressful because last night's vocal seminar was a bit like a mini mid-semester jury - except not. It's really too much detail and too much unnecessary information to go into why all of us were unhappy with this little set-up. Instead of complaining (I'll keep that to all of us in the voice department)I'll just explain what we had to do which won't sound nearly as bad as it really was, nor really as bad as 1/2 the semester has been in this class. So, 1/2 the voice faculty was sitting in "panel-like" formation in the back of the recital room - all set with their pens and pencils and forms on which they critiqued our presentation. We had to come in, slate our name, the piece, the composer, the poet, and then give a small spiel that would draw in our audience - something interesting about the composer or song. Next we had to recite the text of the piece as a monologue. If the piece was in a forgeign language we had to first recite it in English in a literal translation - but as a monologue. Then take a moment and recite the text in it's original language as a monologue and then take another moment and sing the piece. For example: I sang Süsser Freund by Robert Schumann (I think I posted it in a previous blog perhaps a month or 2 ago). So I came in, did all the slating stuff, and then gave the literal English translation as a monologue, took a moment, and then recited the German text as a monologue, took a moment, then sang the piece. It actually went well. But it was quite stressful. "Class" began at 6:15 and I was number 17 to go on the list so I didn't actually get to perform my piece until well after 8:00. It was torture and it was ridiculous which was the general sentiment amongst, actually, all the performers.
BUT now - it's Tuesday. Classes officially are over tomorrow evening but I don't have class on Wednesday so I am officially on break! Woo-hoo! Although I have a lot of practicing to do - I won't have class and that means some good ol' R&R.
I hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving!
And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.Colossians 3:17
Monday, November 13, 2006
Our trip to Salem on Halloween weekend.
The first picture of the Cry Innocent performance - a re-enactment of one of the Salem Witch Trials. It's a fun performance because they act out the first 1/2 hour or so of it and then it's audience interaction time. Members of the audience are allowed to stand and ask questions of the defendent as well as witnesses. It's basically an improv for the actors and makes for a different show each time!
The other pics are of the group that went.
The first picture of the Cry Innocent performance - a re-enactment of one of the Salem Witch Trials. It's a fun performance because they act out the first 1/2 hour or so of it and then it's audience interaction time. Members of the audience are allowed to stand and ask questions of the defendent as well as witnesses. It's basically an improv for the actors and makes for a different show each time!
The other pics are of the group that went.
It's been a long time since I've updated this blog (in the words of Karen 5 days ago "You NEED to update your blog!!!). Instead of starting where I left off I'm going to start from yesterday and work my way backwards.
So yesterday... yes, yesterday. A day that everything needed to go as planned so I could stay somewhat sane. First I had church in the morning, then a rehearsal at 1:00 which was for another rehearsal from 1:00-3:00. A rehearsal at 3:15 for the Voice Department Coffee Concert at 4:00 and then an audition over at NEC at 7:30. At any rate, if the 1st half of the day was to be an indication of how the 2nd half of the day was going to go then I knew I was sunk. Luckily - things got much better as the day went on. First of all, my alarm went off quite early and I kept hitting snooze thinking - "Why is the alarm going off so early? This is not a day that I have to get up early." And then 5 or 6 hits of the snooze later it was 8:35 and I sat up suddenly exclaiming to myself "OH MY GOSH IT'S SUNDAY! I have to be at Church at 9:00!!!!" So I was late to our warm-up for choir - but I am never late so I didn't feel so bad. Then the service went over by like 30-45 minutes because it was Confirmation Sunday and not only that, it was DOWNPOURING and I didn't bring an umbrella and because of everything else that was going on that day I had a choice: Walk home, be absolutely soaked, take the time to dry off and re-do yourself for all your performances later today and then be very late to your rehearsal OR wait for a ride home, be dry, take the time to focus when you get home and only be slightly late for your rehearsal I opted for the latter - and my group was completely fine and very understanding about me having to be late - THANK GOD! I think that because I took the time between getting home and the first rehearsal I was actually less stressed and ready to begin the second half of my day which went fantastic. But, have you ever had one of those days where, not only do you have a specific way you want it to go and not only does everything start to go the complete opposite of what you planned - but it's a snowball effect of being able to sort of predict and see how wrong everything is going to be. Igh. Perhaps God's way of trying to get my attention I suppose! "SLOW DOWN" He says! LOL. What a little, little human being I am! :-)
So that was yesterday. Don't worry - I'm not going to go through a hour-by-hour, day-by-day synopsis of the past 2 1/2 weeks! Nobody (not even me) is that interested in what's going on with my life.
Friday - I dropped my phone. Big surprise, eh? Well it hit the floor so hard that the LCD display screen went blank and remained blank. So - I had to get a new phone. Good news and bad news. Good news: I had this phone for 5 years so I got a really good upgrade deal AND I wasn't replacing a relatively new phone. Bad news: I lost a lot of numbers. Some of you are going to have to send me your phone numbers again.
This past Thursday Ashley and Bree and I went to Scullers Jazz Club to see Audra McDonald perform. Amazing. Really - just simply amazing. The nice thing is that the Club is such an intimate setting so there's really no bad seat in the house. I smiled, I got teary-eyed, I laughed, I was moved - just really, simply moved. And she did some favorites too! Stars and the Moon (Stef and Orla - she's the one on the recording I played for you way back in the day for our Institute Cabaret night!!), My Stupid Mouth, Bill - and then some new ones as well.
Last Sunday was Longy's International Night I hosted a Hungarian Table. Mostly because I wanted to make Palacsinta which is a crepe-like pancake. I opted to make the Gundel palacsinta which is a dessert crepe and filled with a cremey substance which is a sweet-cream base with walnuts, raisins, candied orange peel, and rum. The palacsinta is then folded and topped with a chocolate sauce (which I didn't make but used Hershey's - much easier) and then tradition is that you pour rum (or the chocolate sauce has rum in it) on top and light it a-fire. Being that we were at school I couldn't do that. But they were a great hit anyhow. I also taught a Scottish dance. Woo-hoo. In addition I learned a Philipino dance called the Todo-Todo and some other crazy fast calorie burning dance. Michelle took video on my camera so I'll see about posting that on here.
The week before that was the annual SAC trip to Salem. The weather was a big big bummer - 35-40 mph winds, downpouring and raining sideways!!! It was fun though and we went to acouple of re-enactments of the Salem Witch trials.
Can it be that it is only a week and half until Thanksgiving??? How is this so? After the break is done it's 3 weeks of finishing up the semester - loads of performances. I really need to decide what I'm doing on my recital and also what I'm doing next year - SOON. Igh! Stuff I don't even want to think about - but seriously need to very very soon.
That's all for now folks. When I get home (or this evening) I'll try to post some pics from the Salem Trip and International Night.
P.S. everyone shout out a big HAPPY BIRTHDAY (on the 16th) to Orla who joins the ranks of us in our last year of being 20 something. :-) Love you Shennanigans!!!!! xxxx
So yesterday... yes, yesterday. A day that everything needed to go as planned so I could stay somewhat sane. First I had church in the morning, then a rehearsal at 1:00 which was for another rehearsal from 1:00-3:00. A rehearsal at 3:15 for the Voice Department Coffee Concert at 4:00 and then an audition over at NEC at 7:30. At any rate, if the 1st half of the day was to be an indication of how the 2nd half of the day was going to go then I knew I was sunk. Luckily - things got much better as the day went on. First of all, my alarm went off quite early and I kept hitting snooze thinking - "Why is the alarm going off so early? This is not a day that I have to get up early." And then 5 or 6 hits of the snooze later it was 8:35 and I sat up suddenly exclaiming to myself "OH MY GOSH IT'S SUNDAY! I have to be at Church at 9:00!!!!" So I was late to our warm-up for choir - but I am never late so I didn't feel so bad. Then the service went over by like 30-45 minutes because it was Confirmation Sunday and not only that, it was DOWNPOURING and I didn't bring an umbrella and because of everything else that was going on that day I had a choice: Walk home, be absolutely soaked, take the time to dry off and re-do yourself for all your performances later today and then be very late to your rehearsal OR wait for a ride home, be dry, take the time to focus when you get home and only be slightly late for your rehearsal I opted for the latter - and my group was completely fine and very understanding about me having to be late - THANK GOD! I think that because I took the time between getting home and the first rehearsal I was actually less stressed and ready to begin the second half of my day which went fantastic. But, have you ever had one of those days where, not only do you have a specific way you want it to go and not only does everything start to go the complete opposite of what you planned - but it's a snowball effect of being able to sort of predict and see how wrong everything is going to be. Igh. Perhaps God's way of trying to get my attention I suppose! "SLOW DOWN" He says! LOL. What a little, little human being I am! :-)
So that was yesterday. Don't worry - I'm not going to go through a hour-by-hour, day-by-day synopsis of the past 2 1/2 weeks! Nobody (not even me) is that interested in what's going on with my life.
Friday - I dropped my phone. Big surprise, eh? Well it hit the floor so hard that the LCD display screen went blank and remained blank. So - I had to get a new phone. Good news and bad news. Good news: I had this phone for 5 years so I got a really good upgrade deal AND I wasn't replacing a relatively new phone. Bad news: I lost a lot of numbers. Some of you are going to have to send me your phone numbers again.
This past Thursday Ashley and Bree and I went to Scullers Jazz Club to see Audra McDonald perform. Amazing. Really - just simply amazing. The nice thing is that the Club is such an intimate setting so there's really no bad seat in the house. I smiled, I got teary-eyed, I laughed, I was moved - just really, simply moved. And she did some favorites too! Stars and the Moon (Stef and Orla - she's the one on the recording I played for you way back in the day for our Institute Cabaret night!!), My Stupid Mouth, Bill - and then some new ones as well.
Last Sunday was Longy's International Night I hosted a Hungarian Table. Mostly because I wanted to make Palacsinta which is a crepe-like pancake. I opted to make the Gundel palacsinta which is a dessert crepe and filled with a cremey substance which is a sweet-cream base with walnuts, raisins, candied orange peel, and rum. The palacsinta is then folded and topped with a chocolate sauce (which I didn't make but used Hershey's - much easier) and then tradition is that you pour rum (or the chocolate sauce has rum in it) on top and light it a-fire. Being that we were at school I couldn't do that. But they were a great hit anyhow. I also taught a Scottish dance. Woo-hoo. In addition I learned a Philipino dance called the Todo-Todo and some other crazy fast calorie burning dance. Michelle took video on my camera so I'll see about posting that on here.
The week before that was the annual SAC trip to Salem. The weather was a big big bummer - 35-40 mph winds, downpouring and raining sideways!!! It was fun though and we went to acouple of re-enactments of the Salem Witch trials.
Can it be that it is only a week and half until Thanksgiving??? How is this so? After the break is done it's 3 weeks of finishing up the semester - loads of performances. I really need to decide what I'm doing on my recital and also what I'm doing next year - SOON. Igh! Stuff I don't even want to think about - but seriously need to very very soon.
That's all for now folks. When I get home (or this evening) I'll try to post some pics from the Salem Trip and International Night.
P.S. everyone shout out a big HAPPY BIRTHDAY (on the 16th) to Orla who joins the ranks of us in our last year of being 20 something. :-) Love you Shennanigans!!!!! xxxx
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