There are gentlemen in this world!

The past couple of days it has been really rainy here. As I was walking outside under my "special" umbrella (it does not like to stay up!), I all of asudden recalled a few weeks ago when it rained. I was walking to the campus center and had forgotten to grab an umbrella, but I figured I wasn't going very far so I'd be fine. Out of nowhere this random guy I have never met before came up behind me and covered me with his umbrella and walked with me to the door and opened it for me! How sweet! Gentlemen do exist! Now, I just need to find me a keeper! hehe! (Actually, I was introduced to some really nice guys this weekend...) Oy! What a week! It's been something else. Most of the week, I wasn't in a very fabulous mood. I'm usually very bubbly...not so much this week. Everything was great and absolutely horrible at the same time. I can't really explain it. So much in life is good...I am so blessed. But then everything seemed to be falling apart right before my eyes. Thursday was when everything went smacking into the wall. Audiation (ear-training for music) has always been really difficult for me. It doesn't come easily, so I have to work extra hard. (Last semester, I had TWO tutors...one being a professor! But I brought my grade up a whole 11% by the end of the semester! YAY! This semester, I've been doing it all on my own and doing really well...but with lots of extra practice, too.) Thursday, we had a performance exam where we have to go into our theory professor's office and sing the different chords and scales/tonalities, sing prepared melodies, and sight-sing. I gave most of my practice time for a week (we get the sheets of what will be on the exam one week prior). I knew that stuff inside and out. I was going to go in there and kick butt. Yeah, right. I kicked butt alright...my own! I freaked out and screwed up on so much. Argh! The morning had been particularly stressful (whosever idea it was to invent group projects was dumb!), so I was already not in a very good mood. Then, I just completely freaked out before I walked into the room to take my exam. I don't know why. I had been doing so well. The things I sang, I have no idea where they came from. It was ridiculous! I screwed up on the even the simplest of things. I was so mad at myself. What I exemplified in there was not something they'd want to send overseas. Of course, as soon as I walked out of there I had myself a good cry and then buried myself in some piano practice (I'm really not so great at that either) before my voice lesson. I was still extremely frustrated with myself as I headed upstairs to Lynn's studio, but my lesson was so wonderful. Like I've said before, Lynn is like an angel from God. I walked in there feeling awful, but singing served as my therapy. (I truly believe the voice has healing powers.) Lynn commented on how well I was singing, and she was right. I was sounding great! Better than I have in a long time. My spirits were lifted, and things were sunny again (probably helped it was sunny outside, and sun was pouring into the studio through the windows). Everything with my voice is starting to click (starting being the key word). I was so excited. My disappointment was still there, but the goodness of life was taking over. Oh, and in my lesson we mainly concentrated on picking out my pieces to sing at NATS state competition next month. Our choices ended up being everything I never thought we'd pick, but I think we chose the right ones...I just have a lot of work ahead of me to clean them up and make them performance-ready. The one has a lot of melismatic areas (runs, or lots of notes for one syllable), and I have never actually performed any of that sort, so that's a little unnerving. Anywho, Lynn gave me another new piece, Longing, for my 20th century entry. It's by Robert Saari. It is actually from a whole cycle called Laurel Leaves. The songs are SO beautiful! The first one is called Rain Has Fallen. She sang it to me. It was one of the most beautiful moments. Bittersweet. Chad was playing the piano, I was looking at the music over his shoulder, and Lynn was singing. I almost burst into tears. She'll say that it wasn't that great and that she's just an old soprano who does not sound like she once did, but it's still there. I never heard her in her prime, but I know that it is just as beautiful now. Near then end of the song, she made me join in, but I did so very reluctantly. The sweetest thing about these songs is that she sang them personally for Robert Saari (she referred to him as "Bob"). I know that one of them was actually written for her and is dedicated to her, and I am almost certain that that was not the only one. And...my dear friend Melody said that the book was sitting on the piano earlier in the week. She asked who they were for in her lesson, and Lynn said for me. I feel so honored that she would want me to sing these precious pieces! Chad, too, said he was hoping she'd give them to me because he kept thinking how great I'd sound on them. Aww! I am more thankful than words can say! Okay...back to my week's story...Thursday evenings I also take a yoga class, and it is so relaxing. It did me a lot of good this week, too. Friday was a brilliant day! I was my bubbly self again. It is amazing what a voice lesson with Lynn and a yoga class can do to you! :)