Sunny Days and Lazy Afternoons...

...the story of my summer... :)

(...along with high humidity that turns you into tea cakes, occasional boredom, lack of income due to lack of job, an endless apartment search, and all the practice time I want...)

Gratitude 101
I am thankful for the beautiful and perfect weather that has been here the past two day. :) I hope it stays this lovely! I took advantage of the hiatus from the smoldering heat and took my pretty little quilt to a lawn on campus to read, listen to music, and play with my camera...

I love photography! One day, I hope to have one of those ridiculous digital cameras with the fabulous lenses. For now, I am contented with my 5x zoom...

Refusing to go inside to the dreary conservatory, I also practiced some of my music outside. haha! Yes, I am that ridiculous soprano! Oh, the looks I got from passerbyers as I sang my gorgeous Bellini double aria. Brilliant!! ;)

I think I have made a fabulous breakthrough in vocal production today, too! I think... If so, it is the beginning of some pretty exciting work! :)

ALSO...I just found out that there are going to be two encore Met HD performances this summer!!! Except, I don't know if I'll get to see either of them because there are only a few theatres granted permission... :(

The First 100 Marker

I wanted to find some huge gratitude for the 100th one, but then I realized that is not what this is about. It's about all the little things in life...with some awesome and big things along the way. So 100 shall follow the same as the last 99 and the next 265.

Gratitude 100

Laptop Computer: $1000
Internet Connection: $40
Skype Download: Free
a two-hour conversation with my dear friend
Sun Xing halfway around the world: Priceless.


Last night, I got to talk to my friend Sun Xing from China. (We studied together in Hungary.) It was so great to hear from her. Since she is now back in China, it was weird because my midnight was her noon during our tomorrow. It's exactly a 12-hour time difference. We talked for TWO HOURS!! My internet decided to stop working in the middle of our conversation, so I was sitting outside my apartment on the steps to the sidewalk to get connection from the only unsecured server across the street. I got some of thr craziest looks from the neighbors and passerbyers as I sat outside in the dark talking to my computer. haha! Sometimes, getting internet connection is like doing acrobats! She has been accepted into the Master of Music in Pedagogy program at the Kodály Institute, so she will be spending another year of study in Hungary. Congrats, Sun Xing!! :)

*****

Yesterday morning, I was babysitting Gretchen and Kate, and they wanted to watch a DVD. They handed me My Little Pony! haha! It was like a flashback to when I was their age! PJ Sparkles, My Little Pony, Care Bears, Rainbow Brite, Pop Beads, Strawberry Shortcake, Gumby...all that stuff from when I was little...and even before that...I remember playing with my mom's Strawberry Shortcake dolls...has just began popping up all over again. How funny!

*****

Life's been just ridiculous but nothing super eventful. Watching some movies, spilling coffee all over my baby pink blouse (ugh!), practicing...the one thing I hate about the voice: it can only withstand so much...sometimes I wish I could practice for endless hours! Instead, I have to force myself to stop. Nagyon szeretem énekelni! I love to sing! :) I have also began studying some Hungarian again...making vocabulary flashcards. The professor advising me on filling out a Fulbright Scholarship application said I need to go learn 500 more words...so I can be "actively studying Hungarian". haha! Okay...worth a shot.

Speaking of the Fulbright, I am sort of torn on whether or not to actually go through with completing the application. It is hardcore. The application is SO extensive and complicated. I don't know if it is worth the hassle and extra stress. More decisions to make...

Earlier this afternoon, I was out buying a pair of scissors...they are one of those things that just miraculously disappear...I think we have a house elf that likes to come and steal them!...and at the check-out I saw something called "Tootsie Pop Pops." Curious, I picked up a pack, and they are virtually mini Tootsie Pop lollipops without a stick. And they are quite delicious. :d However...now, we will NEVER know how many licks it takes to get to the center of the Tootsie Pop! What would Mr. Owl say to that now?!

Opera Madness!

Gratitude 99
I am thankful for the brilliant master class that I got to take yesterday evening with Brian Cheney. He was "auditioning" to be an adjunct vocal professor at the conservatory beginning next year...that'll be slightly confusing having two Brians on voice faculty!

Lynn asked me at my lesson last Friday to sing at the master class. I was excited. :) Not only are master classes usually very enjoyable, but they are also so beneficial. I honestly wish we did more of them. It is good to have someone other than just your teacher telling you the same things, and sometimes, just one little word that is said different can be all it takes to make it click. Plus, it is good to get feedback and to learn how to handle taking criticism and/or instruction publicly. Brian was brilliant! My vote is a definite yes for him. From the half hour or more that he worked with me, he seemed to be a great teacher. Brian is really nice, too.

I sang my Rusalka once again. It just feels very comfortable in my voice right now. And it is a lovely piece. By the end of the class, the piece was so different. In a HUGE way. And singing in English, or any native language at that, poses challenges you don't expect would make it so difficult! Oh, how I hate the American 'R'!! He kept forcing me to use the 'R', and yes, it made a world of difference in the conveying of the text, but I still hate that 'R'! It sounds so awful to my ears!

(Also...the music director of the opera company I auditioned for was at the master class!! Just to add a few more nerves in there, right? haha! It was cool, though.)

After the master class, my friend Quinton (aka Q) and I tried out putting together the piece that he has written for me. (Q is a composition major, and he is writing two art songs to Hungarian texts for me to sing on my senior recital. How exciting! The first one is finished and just needs tweaking. It is gorgeous! And haunting! But crazy difficult!) Quinton loves to be ridiculous, however, and has given me many challenges in this piece....like the sustained high E-flats (above high C) in one passage! It is really sweet and actually much easier to create in my voice than I anticipated.

We were in the recital hall after everyone had supposedly left going over the piece. It was the first time we had put the voice with the piano. It was a little rough but not bad for a first run-through. Well, apparently Lynn, Chad, and Barb (the lady that accompanied me on my recital this past March...brilliant pianist!) were still in the Fishbowl, which is the lobby just outside the recital hall, and heard the E-flat passage soar through the doors because it was just that loud. Barb knew it was me and said, "That's Samantha." Lynn and Chad hadn't heard her, and when it happened again, Barb said that Lynn and Chad just looked at each other and said, "Is that Samantha?!" I guess Lynn had this look on her face that she didn't know if she should be amazed/proud or alarmed. haha! How funny!

After our little rehearsal, Tracy, Quinton, and I cooked a fabulous supper and took it to the conservatory for a picnic with Chad. haha! It was such fun! We talked and goofed off even after we had finished and didn't leave until nearly 10:30pm! We have dubbed it "The Lunch Club." We're just going to have random picnics in the lobby at lunch during the school year. haha! Amazing!

Besides all this singing and practicing (I never actually leave the conservatory! Lynn keeps seeing me and giving me this look of, "Why are you still here?" haha!...It is opera camp week for middle/high schoolers, so it's been crazy over there!), I have been babysitting Barb's daughters, Gretchen and Kate, every now and again. I am pretty much just on call for anytime she needs me. I have done quite a bit for her this week, though, and by the end of tomorrow I should have worked off my accompanist bill with Barb. (Instead of her paying me all the time, I have the option of swapping babysitting in return for coaching time. Sounds like a good deal to me! First, we're starting with my bill from my recital.)

Real-life CSI...not cool!!

Actually, I'm not even a fan of fake CSI, but real-life is far too much! Saturday evening, IN FRONT OF MY TOWNHOUSE was a car crash that ended a high-speed chase, guns (not sure if there was actual shooting involved), about a dozen squad cars, a dead body LYING IN THE STREET, crime scene tape, and a chase on foot...FOLLOWING A TRAIL OF BLOOD!!! Ew! I saw it all! Not cool!!! It is suffice to say that I was totally creeped out...and now even more not so fond of my current location. Ack! And my dad found the "excitement" amusing when I told them about it!!

Besides that psychoticness, life's been alright. A little rough, but there's gotta be a rainbow eventually, right? Today, I began to freak a little bit about finding a flat for next year. I need to find one ASAP, and everything is extremely expensive. Ugh. I honestly don't know what I am going to do. And I only have a month or so to figure it out. Slightly stressin'.

I would also love to go spend some more time at home. However, I'll have to wait till probably mid-July to visit home again...before I can even think of stepping away from here again, I have to find an apartment!!! :( Lynn keeps telling me I'm "homesick" and orders me to go back home for awhile longer. Perhaps she is right. Maybe I am a bit homesick. Sounds so silly, though. I mean, I have lived halfway across the world, I have been away at college for three years now, and I get homesick now? After all that time away? And I just spent a month there. Hmm. Perplexing...and slightly annoying.

*****

I FINALLY got to have my chat with Chad time on Friday!!! Yay! I missed my Chad! hehe! It been something like 6 weeks! And I had a lesson with Lynn, which went splendidly. We had a nice chat, too, while I was in the studio. She gave me one of her sort of "God talks."

Gratitude 98
I am thankful for those great chats that day. Every once in awhile you need someone to knock you back into place.

Thank you, Lynn, for always keeping me in check. ;) I honestly don't know what I'd do without those two...and I am not looking forward to finding out a year from now when I must move on to somewhere else, the next phase in my life. However, people like that stay in your heart forever, regardless of your world location or point of your life. :)

*****

The rest of my "kidnapping" in Sandusky was lovely. Boat rides, roller coasters (eek!), cocktails/wine on the porch, delicious espressos, grill cook-out, the sound of a brilliant baby grand piano.

Monday, Katie, Bryan, their friend Lauren, and I took the boat over to Put-in-Bay. Good times, good times. ;) Tuesday was Cedar Point. I am definitely not really one for roller coasters, but they got me on 6 or 8 of them...and I actually really liked a couple of them. Wednesday was a lazy, rainy day, so we mostly lounged around in the parlor. ;) Then, Thursday it was back to my apartment. All holidays must come to an end...but there are always more to come! (Hopefully, the next one will be soon!)

Slow down, you crazy child...

...Slow down you're doing fine, you can't be everything you want to be before your time...

...you've got your passion, you've got your pride, but don't you know that only fools are satisfied?...

Recently, I have fallen into a Billy Joel phase. I don't think I ever consciously listened to his music before. I don't know why...I suppose I was just never really introduced to it. But you know, I am really enjoying it. :) Music is weird like that...different styles, genres, songs, artists, etc. "speak" to you at different times in your life. Josh Groban, my jazz streaks, showtunes only times, exclusively classical days...and whenever I am home, I find myself surrounded by country...but that is also partly because of my mom. (What she doesn't know...well, until now since I am writing it, and she will surely read it...is that there is some of that I choose on my own to listen to.)

It was really dear old Joyce (Didonato, that is!) that brought me to Billy's music. A beautiful opera singer by trade (with a gorgeous voice of gold! and a brilliant photographer, too!), she is never afraid to let her love of "the other stuff" be known.

In one of her more recent postings I caught as I have been trying to catch up on after my blogging hiatus, she was at her Kansas home grabbing a few days of "Joyce time" between jet-setting from Vienna to Roma. (Someday...I'll have that life someday...) It was a "grounding" post...I love those...she is truly genuine, and it is spiriting to know where she came from and what she has become...makes me think there's still hope! ;) ...Even the mere fact that she...and Renee come to think of it...had their falls and had a slow climb to the top of the mountain they are now on...it's comforting to know...

Anyway, through reflections of her recent week in Vienna and then returning home, she made a comment about how the lyrics of Billy Joel's "Vienna" reverberated through her thoughts and, as she stated, "...These lyrics which have accompanied me through thick and thin finally hit home..."

Slow down, you crazy child
and take the phone off the hook
and disappear for awhile
it's all right, you can afford to lose a day or two
When will you realize...Vienna waits for you?

So out came the ol' Billy Joel tunes, and as I listened, the melody, the harmony, the lyrics...were exactly what I needed to here. And "Vienna"...scarily felt like the Big Daddy above was trying to comfort and console His daughter of her fears, disappointments, and discouragement. (Yes, I know this sounds completely and utterly silly, but nonetheless...) ....I suppose, too, that it was a little more poignant for me, as I was slightly jealous and have been longing to be back soaking in the culture and beauty of Vienna...honestly, one of my favorite cities. :) It waits for me to return someday...

Music is weird like that...speaks to you in the most unsuspecting of moments. (Then, of course, there's the absolute capture of your entire body, soul, and heart with every single listening of a fragment from Bellini's La Sonnambula that just makes your heart ache from the beauty. haha!)

*****

So...my audition yesterday afternoon upset me greatly. I'll be honest. I am very angry with myself. My brain left me, and besides my high notes (which were brilliant!), I felt like I completely smacked the ground running. Certainly not one of my finest moments, and I feel Lynn would have been very disappointed had she been there and saw/heard that. Ugh. I'm just upset. A HUGE audition for me, and I lose my brain the second I walk through the door. Just trying to keep reminding myself "Thy will be done" and "you can't be everything you want to be before your time." And whatever the results happen to be from yesterday are the way God meant for them to be...whether I end up liking them or not.

After that whole fiasco, I went with Katie and Bryan and have been chilling out in Sandusky. We went downtown to experience Ohio Bike Week last night. haha! I thought it was hilarious...nuts, but nonetheless funny. SOOO many people and SOOO many motorcycles! Not really sure we fit in to the "biker crowd." haha! Then, we just sat on their front porch shooting the breeze and watching the escapades that passed by the house. Katie and I had a little girl time, talking till 4am! We started to hear birds chirping and decided we ought to hit the pillow before they start singing for real with the sunrise. haha! So, this morning I was a bit dizzy from tiredness, but it was worth it. ;) I missed our girl time.

We went to church this morning at the church where Katie and Bryan will be getting married next June...and I am singing at! It is beautiful! That is going to be fun to sing in! ;) Then we went out on the lake on their boat for a little cruise around. A lovely time...and a soaking wet butt when the waves splashed over the side of the boat! Oh, well! ;)

Gratitude 97
I am thankful for the scent of vanilla candles. :) I LOVE that smell!

Sympathizing with Beethoven

I apologize that it has been a dreadfully long time since my last post, but I just have not felt much like writing. (It's just a bunch of personal junk.) It is not that there wasn't anything to write about; it was that I knew that in my "grump slump" I would not be able to write without giving off a terribly unappealing cynical vibe. But I am doing better and feeling like I am ready to return.

Lots has happened since my last post in my time all-too-short time at home...days of family, laughter, frustration, "sisterly love," the hilarity of a night on the town with Dad and Jess, playing Auntie Sam, bonding over shows on Planet Green and episodes of Gilligan's Island...We bought the entire second season...in color, nonetheless! Brilliance! Oh, Gilligan! He's so ridiculous. Oh! and after much debating with my dad, mom, and little sis, I have figured it! How they got where they are and had so much luggage with them, that is. See, Mary Ann, the professor, the Howells, and Ginger were vacationing on an island in Hawaii. The "tour" was actually like a ferry-type idea that was taking them to another of the Hawaiian islands. Skipper and Gilligan operated the boat to take the vacationers, but they ran into a storm that threw them off course, so they landed on an unknown/undiscovered island. Hence, why they cannot be found. AND hence, why they had so many ridiculous items and clothes while stuck on a deserted island. AND the natives that they occasionally run into on the island are just indigenous people of the ancient islands. It's all in episode 7 of season 2...you just have to pay attention. Perhaps, someone has already figured this out long ago, but I was very excited about my 1am revelation of how it all works.

There was also a not-too-fun continuing battle with the cough from my bronchitis episode. Ugh. More steriods, which gave me an ear infection...first of all, I am terrible when I am sick...melodrama all over...it's "I'm dying!!" every five minutes...just ask my mother...she was ready to kill me! But the ear infection was the worst of it all...there was so much pressure in my ears that I could not hear out of one...or sometimes both...ears at any given time. My sister was joking with me that had a Who village living in my ear on a speck of dust (Horton Hears a Who anyone? haha!) Then my mom joked a spider had laid eggs in my ear! Ack! That was definitely not helping! I freaked more. I now understand how Beethoven felt. The feeling of not being able to hear makes you feel trapped in a glass box filled with water. It is an excruciating experience filled with the scariness of wondering when or if you'll be able to hear the sweetness of the world ever again. I pray I never go deaf.

Gratitude 96

I am thankful for my hearing...you don't realize how valuable and precious that sense is until it doesn't work properly.

*****

Mom and Dad also celebrated their 25th wedding anniversary on June 2nd.

OH!!!! AND....I climbed a tree! Yes, I know, this sounds absolutely absurd, but believe it or not, I am 21 and had never climbed a tree before in my life! Unfortunately, the pictures of that are on Becca's camera, so I will have to hopefully snitch that from her next time I am home. ;)

Xander and Grandpa love to play ball, but sometimes Baby Xander has the attention span of a goldfish...but what else do you expect from a 9-month old?

Becca and I were goofing off outside...and then we climbed the tree.

This afternoon, I have an opera audition. Eek! The conservatory has created a new vocal internship program with the opera company beginning this fall. This is probably one of the biggest auditions I have ever done, but I trying not to think about that too much. Just going to go perform like I would at a recital. And breathe... haha!

It's been quite a long week. I returned to my apartment at the end of last week and awoke in the morning to the discovery that I am allergic to my roommates damn dog. (Yes, she got a dog...but we are not going to go into that issue...it's long, complicated, and aggravating...) Fabulous. I haven't had an allergy attack like this since I don't know when. It was terrible. I couldn't even sing at all till Tuesday, and it is just now returning to mostly normal. Lynn saw me on Wednesday and gave me the go-ahead to go through with the audition, so I'm just praying for the best. It apparently didn't sound too stuffy when I sang because I know she would not allow me to do the audition otherwise. More to come after the audition... ;)

Afterwards, I am being kidnapped by Bryan and Katie to Sandusky for a few days. Perhaps sometime in the next few days, I will post some more randomness of life. For now, I must go get my dress and make-up before I need to go warm up. Wish me luck! :)