Official.

It's official. The tuition deposit has been mailed, the financial aid agreement signed, the roommate directory filled out (...), and books filled with everything I need to know about relocating my current life to Boston in possess. Sweet Jesus, I think I've bought a one-way ticket to crazy town! haha! Here we go...it's gonna be brilliant! (Except for the fact that Boston is apparently the third more expensive city in the U.S. Fantastic!)

All this Boston and Massachusetts talk always brings the Little Women Broadway version to mind...because of this song:

(Is it completely nerdy that I am really excited about being in the same place as the March sisters?! Don't answer that! I know for myself that it is beyond nerdy. haha! But I don't care! I love that story. Always have. Always will. :) )

Gratitude 325
There is something quite rejuvenating spending an entire day and not leaving the apartment butto take the trash/recycling out. Sure, I'm still tired (I think that is just a perpetual state), but it recharged my spirit a bit.  Yesterday, I had a legitimate day off. No babysitting, no bakery, German lesson canceled by my tutor, and probably contrary to good judgment, I decided against a practice session. I put on comfy clothes, hit shuffle play on the ipod dock, and dug down into the depths of my room in hopes of rediscovering the floor.

And discover it, I did!...plus $32, an AmEx gift card w/ $5.60 left on it, and sticker earrings! I decided that I ought not ever hire a cleaning lady...haha! I love cleaning because it always holds a surprise. ;) I also filled a whole box of things (mostly books and nonsense papers) that will definitely not be going to Boston with me. It's a start at least. :)

My friend Lindsey came over in the evening to borrow my washer for her laundry, catch up on life, and we watched How Do You Know?. (It turned out to be one of those stupid funny movies, but it was worth the RedBox dollar-filled laughs.)

Hmm...let's see. In other news... Oh, yes! I have a story to share from last week that I didn't get to post. The 3-year old at my nannying job was throwing a fit about wanting to wear penguin pajamas that don't actually exist anymore (but he doesn't know that) and then throwing a fit about all the other pajamas in the draw. To get him to wear the helicopter pajamas, I convinced him that the Penguins of Madagascar were on a secret mission inside the helicopters but no one could know they were in there. He bought it. Of course to my luck, though, once I finally got them on him, they were too small, so I told him that all the penguins couldn't fit in the helicopters, so they disguised themselves as dinosaurs for their secret mission. Clearly, I have proven that a 3-year old will believe just about anything. haha! I thought it was pretty ingenious...my mother, when she heard the story, told me it was mean. It was merely using my resources creatively! ;)

And lastly, the lovely Joyce has shared a fantastic 3-part video that every singer should watch. She's serious when she says that the advice would be like $1000 in any other outlet!

I've got to go to work in about 45 minutes, so I should probably finish washing my shirt. Cheers!

A Soprano on Her Head sings...

"Willow Song" from The Ballad of Baby Doe.

Well, actually, this was recorded back in November, but I thought I needed to add a new file to my YouTube channel. It's nothing fancy, as it is only an audio file with a picture for a background. Enjoy! ;)

Also, you should check out this Google interview with Gaga! It's pretty fabulous. (Although, she should have done a sit-check in that dress prior to making it her final decision!) My sister calls me a Gaga addict, but not true. I'm just thoroughly intrigued by her genuine musicianship and personality (however crazy it may be!). She talks about the future of the music industry, and it should be filled with genuineness and "real deal" musicians! Alright, I'll get off my soap box. Have fun watching!

Gratitude 324
I had absolutely nothing that I had to do today except fax a piece of paper and do a little practicing. Hooray for a day off! (Esp. after practically running the bakery this past weekend while Geri was out of town!) I'm thoroughly exhausted right now and definitely should be in bed right now since it is 2am instead of uploading videos and blogging! Most productive thing of today: I watched Disney's Hercules. haha! Brilliant! ;) Although, I also cooked dinner, fax that paper, sang a bit, folded a load of laundry, and sorted through a stack of papers for recycling...so I guess I cannot say that I did "nothing" today. However, I need to stop starting projects that will inevitably take a long time at 11:30pm! haha!

Gratitude 323

On Friday, I was at work much later than usual, prepping for the next morning, because I needed to do some major zenning and zoning out. (Even though the morning had held exciting news, the evening news gave way to upset.) When I finally left at after 11pm, I took some flour over to my boss Geri's for her. She poured me a cup of tea, we chatted, sorted out schedules and bakery details, and more chatting. Then, we were listening to music, and she was feeding me snap peas and white cheddar cheese. Only Geri would randomly find snap peas in her fridge! haha! Before I knew it, 3am rolled around, and I was still there, entertaining her with YouTube videos while she packed for their trip to DC in the a.m. Love it! I ended up crashing there around 4am. Just the night of ridiculousness I needed. :)

Also, Geri keeps saying I look like a cupie doll, so when I was googling, I found this:

Apparently, I really am a cupie doll! haha!

Yesterday was my friend Sarah's recital. Brava, diva! ;) Then, it was off to the bakery for the rest of the afternoon and evening. By that point, I was ready to just collapse on my couch, as the exhaustion had caught up with me. Instead, I ended up grabbing dinner and a drink with Sarah and chatting with her for a few hours. Oh, well! haha! Of course, that led to over-sleeping this morning. Oops!

Still exhausted, today is decidedly "Sofa Sunday"...at least for a few hours until I have to go attempt a chocolate babka recipe. And my room currently warrants the use of caution tape from its disastrous state!

My mind has been swirling with thoughts and ideas of my "big move" to Boston, which is to be roughly 4 months from now! It seems such a sudden happening, yet such a long time coming; I've been setting up my life for a move to another city for the past year, and two days ago, it was actually laid out in decision. Craziness! Let the insane and inevitably highly expensive apartment search commence! (Looking at the state of my room, again, the packing part in and of itself will be quite the adventure! haha!)

Acceptance Letter via Snail Mail

How charming and exciting that there are some places that still use postal mail to deliver news. There is something extra exhilarating about opening that envelope and not knowing what is going to be within!

Gratitude 322
This morning, that little envelope held an acceptance letter to the Longy School of Music in Boston!!! Yay! :) There was even a personal note jotted at the bottom! AND...they are offering me TWO assistantship positions!! Awesome! One part of anxiety has been settled. ;)

Plus, I found my camera charger...in my bicycle basket. Go figure that I'd find it right after one had been purchased on ebay! haha! Oh, well! It's mid-60s today, so I'm pulling out the bike to ride over to my nanny job. I wanted to attach the basket, but of course, I need an allen wrench...where could that be around this place?? I guess I'm a bit of a basket case, myself, when it comes to remembering where I put things!  

Empty inboxes are frustrating.

As I anxiously await some life-changing emails, I am struggling with myself to keep it chill, calm, and my mind occupied on other aspects of life. Thinking about it just adds to the anxiety...Tuesday, I was so high-strung and in knots that it may or may not have taken a half a bottle of wine to calm me down... haha! ;) Che sera, sera....whatever will be, will be...and the future's not mine to see.  And worrying about it isn't going to change anything. *sigh*

Well, Happy St. Patty's Day to my fellow Irish folk and everyone else, too! To the luck o' the Irish!

May God give you...
For every rain, a rainbow,
For every tear, a smile,
For every care, a promise,
And a blessing in each trail.
For every problem life sends,
A faithful friend to share,
For every sigh, a sweet song,
And an answer for each prayer.

Gratitude 321
I just got back from some lovely life chats with the darling Lynn O'Roseberry (hehe!)...no singing today at my lesson because I have a stiff neck, causing me to sound strangely like a soubrette, which I'm definitely not! (Ew to tense muscles and a high larynx!) I love our little chats on her comfy floral sofa in her studio! :)

Now, I am currently on my balcony for the first time of the season! Yahoo! Off to work for a few hours here in a bit, and then perhaps a few shenanigans in honor of my Irish heritage.

 
"Wherever you go and whatever you do, may the luck o' the Irish be there with you." Slainte! (pronounced slawn-cha, meaning "cheers!")

Obsessions.

My mother sent me a package a few weeks ago that included Julie Andrews' autobiography. Now, if anyone knows me, they know that I am kind of a major Julie Andrews fan, and I've been waiting probably ten years for this book. (It only came out in 2008, though, so I'm not too far behind.)

Every day, I've been going into work with a little factoid about Julie Andrews or something related to her to reveal to Geri (my boss). Seriously, everything goes back to Julie Andrews. Everything. It's like the dad on My Big Fat Greek Wedding, where every word somehow goes back to the Greek root. I am constantly finding connections that lead me back to the Julie block...a cadenza in a new song I am working on that is practically note-perfect to the one sung by the mirror reflection in Mary Poppins, any conversation we've had about old movie stars lately takes us to her, and even Lady Gaga, when she references the lyrics of "A Spoonful of Sugar" in an interview!

 Geri has officially noted that I'm obsessed. It's probably true. (Okay, definitely true!) I go on ridiculous kicks of this or that, but I have come to the conclusion that all of my "obsessions" are rooted in either music or the Golden Age of Hollywood. I can't help it, I'm just mesmerized by the greats and their incredible work. ;)

Gone Gaga!

What a weekend! My sister came to visit because...

We had tickets to the Lady Gaga concert!

(And of course, we dressed up! My outfit also included my new pink rain boots and electric blue gloves. Yes!)

Gratitude 320

Alright, I have to say it. Lady Gaga really is the shit. (Pardon my French.) She's pretty psycho and rather risque at times, however, there is nothing to debate about her legitimate talent. She's a real musician. What a voice! She's one of those pop artists that when I listen to her singing, I have a moment when I wish I could sing pop. haha! And she played like four instruments during the concert. The real deal. I was totally mesmerized. She's also very much a motivational-esque speaker, very much about not caring what others think and being yourself. The whole experience of that concert was just awesome, and I am finding it hard to describe in words as I write this. There is simply nothing else like real live performances. (The opening band sucked, though! Blech!)

Our seats were on the side of the stage, which I was concerned about not being able to see anything, but in fact, they were great. We could see the stage, backstage (scene changes and the like...super cool to me!)...and the naked people changing behind the stage. haha! I wish I had awesome pictures, but, unfortunately my camera was officially dead and still no charger in sight. Never fear, though! You can see pics on a friend's site from when she saw the show in Sweden here. (She also was better at putting the experience into words than I am right now.) And I am in the midst of purchasing a replacement charger!

Quinton took Jessi and I to the Gaga after-party at a gay bar downtown. Oh, man! That was some craziness! So. Many. People! But it was fun...and many ridiculous stories were accrued in those few hours! ;) 

Friday, after I nannied, Jessi and I went thrifting and gallivanting around town, exploring new places, and Saturday, we did the same. We found a few pretty sweet deals, like I got a gown for $7! Yes, that's right. It needs dry-cleaned, but it's in really great shape. Yay! She headed home late afternoon when I had to go to the bakery. 

You know, since that concert on Thursday, I've had a new perspective on how others view me, as was demonstrated this afternoon...

Quinton was competing in a scholarship competition, and he chose to perform a piece he'd written for me while he was in Hungary. It is a setting of Psalm 142, and the tessitura of the entire piece is extremely high, which makes it quite difficult to sing. Anywho, he decided to take the morbid route of this text, and make me look like a Lucia-esque, mentally--and physically distraught widow. An elegant, long, black gown...and smeared dark makeup, Visine to smear it more and make me look like I was bawling my eyes out, and crazy person hair. We really needed a picture of that! How did I agree to all that? All in the name of the art of music. haha! The best part was when I walked over to the conservatory from my apartment. It was like I was taking an elegant "walk of shame." haha! Hilarious! NOT that I've ever taken that walk in any instance, but funny because that's totally what people were thinking. Seriously, people didn't know what to do/say, so they just diverted their glances. I'd say that's evidence enough of the impact of Gaga's speech. ;) 

The performance went well. My teacher was there, and I had neglected to tell her about this piece and it's height in the vocal part...needless to say, my creepiness factor was enhanced when my stomach dropped with an "Oh, snap!" moment when I saw her in the audience; the fear became a little more real! haha! It was fine, though. She was quite impressed, and I think a bit awed by my ability to pull it off. Thanks, Lynn! :) Oh, yeah...and we won! Yay! 

I no longer have to work on Sundays, so I actually had a real "day off" today! So since I got back from the competition, I have been a vegetable. Made dinner, took a nap (that's a real shocker, actually!), watched some TV...absolutely nothing productive, but I think that was necessary. I'll catch up on work/cleaning/etc. tomorrow...maybe. ;)

Time zone change, a cat intrigued by a laser pointer, zing zang singing, Mozart, and endearing people

I am forcing myself to sit down and write a post because procrastinating about it only makes more to remember that I want to write!

I wish I had some sort of epic tale to tell of my latest travels, but they were really quite mellow on the adventure scale. And you know what? I'm okay with that! This trip's focus was: relax and keep the voice fresh and tension-free, visit with my Katie and Bry Bry, visit the school, meet endearing people, AUDITION, Katie's opera, wine. ;) Sadly, there are no lovely photos to accompany this post, as I STILL can't find my camera battery charger...this is getting irritating! And the campus there is just so beautiful, so I am very sorry I was unable to get some artistic photography out of this trip. :(

I arrived in Chi-Town Wednesday evening and made it out to Katie and Bryan's in time to have some quick pizza and zip off to the final dress for the school's opera, The Magic Flute. It was not Katie's cast, so we just watched. The director had no idea who this random girl was with Katie. I caught him staring at me a few times, and you could just see his head reeling with, "Who is that? I think I've seen her before. Am I supposed to know this person?" etc. haha! I just love bewildering people! Esp. when I know who they are, but they aren't sure if they know me. Of course, he'd seen me before; he watched the prescreening DVDs. Good times. ;)

Wednesday was errands day, brunch at Le Peep (yum!), a bit of practicing, and relaxing. We ran into Sunny Joy (the teacher I took a lesson with when I visited in December), and she was so excited that I was auditioning and promised to be there the next day. I met many of the students in the voice dept. and got to hear many of them sing, which was so great. Most everyone was so nice and happy to chat and get to know a new face about town. Many so humble despite the enormous amount of talent. :)

Katie had a performance that night, so I was left with the apartment to myself...except for Carmen, their cat, who was obsessed with a laser pointer. Every time I put it down, she freaked until I got it back out. Oh, man! haha! Only thing that would keep her from jumping all over me; I'm quite allergic to cats. A relaxing bubble bath, face mask, tea, Gnomeo and Juliet (quite ridiculous but entertaining), and an overall quiet evening.

Friday was audition day. Pretty dress, pretty hair, pretty makeup, glitzy jewelry, a bit of Anastasia music while getting ready, and I was set to go wow them with some crystal high notes. ;) I don't know how, but I was warming up to high F#s like they were nothing for some obscure reason. I'll take it! And now enter the ridiculous irony of my life...

Pam, one of the voice faculty, came out to usher me into the audition room, and instead of a typical "Hello," I was greeted with an exclamation of where my home town is and that she grew up a mere 20 minutes from my country bumpkin small town. Say what?! Yes, it's true. The people I meet and the connections they have to my life are mind-blowing! haha! How are these things actually possible?? It was pretty adorable, though. (And just yet another ironic connection for me to that school...) 

My audition time slot was very generous there...3:40pm, but they were running behind, so I didn't sing for them till about 4pm. Prime singing time! ;) I feel it went rather well. Not perfect by any means, but well done and tension-free tessitura. Also, what piece did they choose? Of course, the Hungarian! haha! Sunny was unfortunately late that day, and did not make it in to my audition. However, I walked out of the room to find her standing right in front of my face; she'd walked up two seconds after the door closed and was going to go in, but the piano started playing then. So instead, she listened through the door with Katie. ;) I am very thankful for both of their support throughout that weekend...and Katie being my lady-in-waiting the whole day. It meant a lot to me (Gratitude 319). :)

And as for the results of this audition and Boston's...che sera, sera...I'll know in a couple of weeks...and till then, I'm apt to be a bit off-kilter and a little more stressed. I must remember, though, that it is in God's hands now.

Friday evening was filled with some wine, Mad Libs, Carol Burnett videos on YouTube, a bit of silliness, and receiving the completed music video from our video shoot a couple of weeks ago! It can currently be found here. Oh, man! It is fantastically cheesy. Gotta love it!

Saturday, I had a meeting at the university and then just dilly-dallying. Dinner with the McGookeys and the opera. A little get-together at their apartment with hor d'oeuvres and wine. :)

Sunday was back to Ohio...and a grumpy Samantha! :/  Hopefully back to wonderful Chi-town, again, in the near future! Such a lovely town! ;) Time to get back to work and on to whatever is next. Besides, I think Geri might have gone crazy if I'd stayed away longer! hehe! Regional NATS Competition this Saturday. Oooh Bowling Green. Not a fan of that place, but it is what it is...and another 9:30am audition slot...goody! haha! Just another chance to perform and put myself in an audition setting...always good practice, since this is my life!

Cheers!