This weekend Bree's friend Allie was visiting the East coast to audition at several schools in the area. We took her to Longy's annual Gala on Friday night. As always it was an absolute blast - have danced like that in ages. Not like there's ever an opportunity to anyhow. Couldn't asked for a better night - great friends, free alcohol, and I got my inner horrible dancer out on the dance floor!

On the Up n' Up

It's been a whole week and a half and our household is looking a bit brighter and feeling a lot healthier than last week at this time. I went back to work on Monday, sang for the first time yesterday and actually felt 85% better today (although Bree told me I feel 95% better). This virus/cold/flu crap has sucked the life out of us for almost two weeks now - but we are prevailing. If you haven't contracted it yet, pray that you don't.
Tonight I met up with 3 ladies - all graduates of Longy - Deirdre (flute), Yhasmin (clarinet), and Lindsay (piano) (don't you love how i associate their names with their instrument??) We have formed a quartet and spent this evening discussing repertoire and rehearsal times and will be looking for venues to perform in for the future. We'll be performing chamber pieces in several different combinations - clarient/flute, clarinet/flute/piano, voice/flute, voice/clarinet, voice/flute/clarinet, voice/flute/piano, voice/flute/clarinet/piano. Any suggestions for a group name??? I'm really excited about working with these gals - they are all very talented, artistic and musical, and a lot of fun! WHOOT!

That's this week's update. I'm excited for the weekend!

Happy Groundhog Day!

It's official -
6 more weeks of Winter...

A Tale of Two Sickies



The picture you see above is that of two lovely, healthy ladies taken several months ago. If I were to take a picture of the two of us now, at this very moment, we would be unrecognizable. Pale, coughing, stuffy-faced messes. I admit, I am to blame. I came down with it first. Two and half days later the roomie contracted it and it was all downhill from then on. Whatever this virus is - it's awful. I missed Monday and Tuesday at work, my boss sent me home on Wednesday, I made it through all of Thursday, but couldn't even make it in today - Friday. Bree and I have been quite a sickly pair. We both commented earlier how we don't think we've ever been sick together at the same time and certainly not this sick in a long time! I don't think I've ever watched so many tv shows and movies nor just laid around completely lethargic for a week in years. I cannot wait to get out and get running and training and to get back to practicing. I was on a roll there for quite a while! Ah.... the best laid plans of mice and men.....
So, currently we are on our 4th movie of the day - Harry Potter V. Perhaps this will cure the cough and aches and pains. It certainly has made for quality roommate time! Our conversations have most recently consisted of "cough cough cough!" Quite stimulating if you ask me! :-)

Life has been a whirlwind the past couple of weeks. Due to Mother Nature and Martin Luther King Jr. I've had two 4 day weeks in a row. Sweet. I've actually kind of gotten used to it - so I think next week is going to be a real shock. 5 days will probably feel like 5 weeks. Igh.
At least the New Year's resolutions are going well. Eeks - should I report that on here? Now I'll be held accountable!!! Actually - I don't believe in "New Year's resolutions". I like to think of the New Year as a time to start anew - turn over a new leaf - get rid of bad habits and start new and improved habits. Ok, ok... I know - sounds like "resolutions" - but they aren't, I swear. Sooooo - I've decided to that I'm going to spend my hour or so lunch breaks in a practice room either practicing or at least vocalizing - and even if it can't be a full hour I'm still going to do it. None of this all or nothing crap that I tend to pull. I come home so often in the evenings and just can't pull myself to get out the piano and the music and practice so unless I have a lunch meeting or have an overabundance of work to do, lunchtime is devoted to Mozart, Wolf, Haydn, Purcell...and the likes.
The other goal for this year is to run a 1/2 marathon. Started to train for it last year but turned out the race was 2 days before the concerto competition so I decided to train with the buddies but forgo the race. This spring is it. I need to get back into training mode! Words of encouragement anyone? It's so darn cold outside!!!!
Great Bay Half-Marathon here I come!!!

I'm back from my whirlwind trip back home. It was relaxing and just great to be able to visit with family and friends. My deepest apologies to those of you I was unable to visit whilst at home. I seem to have gotten into this cycle where, if I don't see you when I'm home in the summer then I'll see you when I'm home during the holidays - and vice versa.
It's good to be back to work and on a regular schedule. It's time for me to begin concentrating on practicing and getting this voice back into shape and also to prepare for gigs this upcoming spring. whew! How is it the middle of January already?
More pics and thoughts posted later. I have mucho to catch up on! :-)

Goodbye 2007! Welcome 2008!

How did it get to be the end of another year already???
I'm sitting here at my brother's apartment, wide awake from a 7:00 coffee run with Karen, switching back and forth between Law and Order and The Sound of Music - an interesting combination, I know. This year's trip home has, so far, proven to be painless, snow/ice free, and we headed West this time! (If you want to hear the story - ask. No point in disclosing Rachael-Moments when it's not absolutely necessary.) Can it be possible that this holiday season's trip home will be normal - or have I spoken too soon???
Jen, Brian and I left Massachusetts and it's 24 inches of snow behind last Saturday to a fun-filled road trip home to a snow-less and mild Ohio. Well, as fun as a 14 hour drive can be. But, we are fun people so it couldn't have been any less than that! :-)
Christmas Eve kept me on my toes. I knew ahead of time that I was going to be singing with the choir and sight-reading the 6 or so anthems - but when I got there I was recruited to sing alto as two of the altos who sang at the 9:00 service couldn't stay for the 11:00 and the choir alreay has 50 gazillion sopranos. Sight-reading and singing alto at the same time - not necessarily a good mix for Rachie - but I prevailed somehow. lol
So now we are to New Year's Eve Eve - Ralph has just threatened Captain VonTrapp and blown his whistle to get the attention of the other soldiers aaaand... Rachael is STILL wide-awake.
HAPPY 2008 everyone!

Final pics from 2007
Ashley's Christmas Party

 

 

 

Some fun at John Harvard's after the Carol Service. Angela and Brian are sporting similar hats. Oh wait, that's MY red hat!

 

I think the girls wanted to do something fun. From the looks of it I'm not sure I approved!

 

Welcome back to Boston Angela!!

 

Christmas dinner with the girls. Christmas crackers provided us with crowns and jokes and I even came away with a beautiful watch of which the face was lost later in the evening. Cheap...

 

 

Jen and Brian and I somewhere in up-state New York, or was it PA? Yes... I think it must have been PA - the very beginning of PA - PA is VERY loooooooooong!

 

Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols
Christ Church Cambridge

 

 

 

 

 

 

Before the marvel of this night
Adoring, fold your wings and bow,
Then tear the sky apart with light
And with your news the world endow.
Proclaim the birth of Christ and peace,
That fear and death and sorrow cease:
Sing peace, sing peace, sing gift of peace.

Awake the sleeping world with song,
This is the day the Lord has made.
Assemble here, celestial throng,
In royal splendor come arrayed.
Give earth a glimpse of heav'nly bliss,
A teasing taste of what they miss:
Sing bliss, sing bliss, sing endless bliss.

The love that we have always known,
Our constant joy and endless light,
Now to the loveless world be shown,
Now break upon its deathly night.
Into one song compress the love,
That rules our universe above:
Sing love, sing love, sing God is love.

Christmas at the Cockerell-Chagat Household

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thanksgiving Video Sequence
Enjoy a little video montage of our yummy day of cooking and eating and game playing and more eating and even more eating...

Bree Cooking


Ashley's arrival - she's explaining how she had a "fire" incidence before she came over...




Dessert at Michelle's




Thanksgiving Night Games

Pudgy Bunny Sequence...


Bree attempting "Pudgy Bunny"


"They're usually so pretty!"


Thanksgiving - The Day After

Happy Thanksgiving!!


I was taking a look at Michael Podesta's website tonight (love his art/works) and came across this "quote" from him. On this day of Thanksgiving not only am I filled with 'thankfulness', but my heart is also filled with joy in the life I have been given. Reading this was also a reminder to me that I often miss joy because of stress, confliction in my heart, and my all too often daily auto-pilot life.

Behind The Art -Joy:
Elizabeth Elliot has a wonderful definition of the word “joy”. She says, “Joy is not the absence of trouble; it is the presence of God.”

I was visiting a friend, a minister in Marietta, Georgia. He was my host while I was at a local Arts and Crafts show. After dismantling and loading up my exhibit on the final day, Sunday, I returned to his home quite late. There was a note saying he had gone to bed, but that we should get together in the morning for breakfast. When I got up he said, “Let’s go out. The phone has been ‘ringing off the hook’. This is supposed to be my day off. It’s got to be more peaceful at a restaurant.”

We talked as we ate. We had each had a hectic Sunday. It’s a pattern. We are both very busy. He has a large congregation. I travel to shows twice a month or more. We both have families. Obligations abound.

Predictably, the conversation turned to observance of the Sabbath and the familiar scriptural instructions for a special day of rest. We spoke – a bit wistfully, I think – of outdoor leisure; how it can lead to delight in the natural world and how that delight so readily turns into worship.

Over a third cup of coffee I decided to share a disturbing, highly speculative, little whimsy of mine. I imagine I have reached the afterlife. I am confronted by my Creator. A retrospective ensues. The atmosphere is friendly. My family, my work, the constant activity, and everything else are on clear display. (Perhaps this history appears on a screen, like a movie?) At some point, God turns from the spectacle. In a gesture that seems patient, but maybe a little weary, He brushes His palm across His brow. He looks at me. He sighs and says, “Hmmm. Well, it is interesting, I suppose. But, you know Michael, there are certain things we’re seeing that are not exactly what I had in mind. We have plenty of time, and there are other matters I would like us to talk about, but before we go any further, there is something I just have to ask you. It’s a little detail, but it really puzzles me. I see where, in your early thirties, you practically stopped … swimming. You used to love to swim. I created oceans and lakes and rivers for a number of reasons, of course. They seemed like an ideal environment for the fish, they help regulate the weather, then there are your regattas and hydroelectric dams, not to mention maritime commerce. But one of the reasons was that I knew swimming in them would give you joy. That was one of my gifts to you. But then, as we have seen, you just quit. Now, “He says this ever so gently, “that’s something I would like you to explain to me.”

This is as far as my fantasy goes, I tell my friend as we leave the restaurant, because I just can’t imagine what to say.

I was reminded of this conversation a couple of weeks later when, at another show, a lady asked me if I had heard of a certain text. She thought it was from the Talmud. She didn’t know it word for word, she said, but in effect, it was that on the Day of Judgment we will be called to account for all of those things we were given to enjoy but would not.

The Psalms tell us, “Let the heavens rejoice and let the earth be glad” and “Delight yourself in the Lord” and “Serve the Lord with gladness”. The Shorter Catechism says “the chief end of man is to glorify God, and to enjoy Him forever”.

My hopeless defense before God might have been that I had missed joy because of responsibilities; the reality turns out to be that joy is a response God expects of me, that joy – which so readily turns into worship – is a responsibility.

A Kodaly Reunion in Boston

This weekend Jamie and Gretchen were in Boston for a wedding and we got to spend all of Saturday together. We were all at the Institute together in 2001- Jamie and Gretchen met there and are now married - and it's been about 5 years since I last saw them!! It was great to catch up with each other, catch up on all the Institute gossip on fellow classmates, and drink some pints/pitchers together reminiscing about our life in the 'ol monestary of Kodaly.





Jamie has a cupcake fetish - these were THE BEST cupcakes I've ever had. mmmmmmmmm...

World Series Champs!!

Celebration in Harvard Square