A Miscellany

We've found a new Latin American restaurant right here in Moore!  It's wonderful!  Amazonia Latin Flavors is on 12th Street across Janeway from Parmele Park.  The food is SO good!  The people are nice, too!  We've already been twice.  Can't get dessert too often, or I'll have to exercise 2 hours a day just to break even!

 One Week Later: 
Just got back last night from my week in Austin, TX at the Texas Library Association Annual Conference.  My colleagues and I had a great time, and learned a LOT.  Now I have to sit down and digest all that good info into useful chunks that perhaps our library system can find useful.  Also have to fill out an expense report for the reimbursable things.  (Meals.)

Not this weekend, though.  Today I had laundry and yard work to do.  Tomorrow I will finish laundry and of course, go sing at church.  It is also the 20th anniversary of the  Murrah building bombing.My thoughts will be on what happened 20 years ago, not on the conference just past.  Monday is soon enough to go over my notes and get them typed up.

Looking chubby for some reason at TXLA2015

Some observations from my trip:

And through the grey cool damp
We climb
And find once again
That the sun still shines
In spite of turbulence
And pain
Hope shines forth
For all again.

Wrote it as we climbed above the clouds as we were leaving for Austin.  Funny though, it fits the story of our recovery from the bombing, too.  We have climbed past the dark and pain, and hope and light fill our city again.

It's nice when an airline can keep its cool and just reschedule you around weather delays.

Adventures are fun but I prefer my cozy nook and my books.

It's really hard to write legibly when there's turbulence.

Need to develop a "Captain Obvious" character for our library videos.

For me, flying seems to be a diuretic.  Alas.

It's cool when your celebrity friends acknowledge your tweets.

Twitter withdrawal:  It's a Thing.

I may be a fussbudget, I may just be.  But I'm organized!!

Scenes from a walk to the conference from the hotel.

Austin is weird, but it's a beautiful kind of weird.

Bluebonnets growing close to the sidewalk in downtown Austin.

My great adventure, wherein I was bitten or stung by some obstreperous insect or arachnid.

How the bite looked the night after.

Library people are the best people there are - helpful, friendly, and caring.  (Except when it's a race for the free book table.  Then all best are off!)

Jewelry vendors do very well at library conferences.  (Heavily female crowd, mostly far from home with no time to go shop away from the conference... and you are selling shiny things!)

Trying to write a coherent report on this conference is going to be like trying to force the ocean through a tiny little funnel.  It's not all going to fit!

Digital citizenship session

Tomorrow is the day I will try to wrap my head around the fact that it has been 20 years since the bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in down town Oklahoma City, just two blocks away from the church we attend.  So much has happened since, we've all grown so much since then.
Monday is soon enough to write my conference notes.  Tomorrow is for the remembering of the bombing, and tonight is for relaxing.

Musing On Soprano Things

I started this journey with my voice 12, almost 13 years ago.  The singer I had leaned on a lot was leaving our choir, and I felt insecure.  So, I started taking lessons from the same vocal coach that she studied with.  This set me on a journey of self discovery that has caused changes in more areas of my life than just my singing.

Friends have commented that I seem to have more confidence in myself, I am less likely to sit back and let others carry conversations.  Friends who have heard me sing are also sometimes astonished that it was ME they heard singing. 

Twelve years ago, I had a light, unsupported, unremarkable singing voice.  Nice enough, OK for choral work, nothing to write home about.  Then I started taking voice lessons with Karen Smith-Pearson.  I discovered the great literature of Grand Opera, and classics beyond church music.  I also discovered some of the great oratorios that I thought would always be beyond my skills.  I also rediscovered show tunes.

For my first recital, I sang Oh, What A Beautiful Morning from Oklahoma! .  That was very difficult for me, not technically, but as far as my confidence and my nerves were concerned.  After it was over, and I realized how well I had truly done, I was energized.  The high you get from singing well, and truly feeling it, there is NOTHING like it!  I wanted to do it again!

Over the last twelve years, I have worked very hard (with Karen's skillful help and patience) and I have seen my range  increase, my voice gain resonance, power, luster, even a little vibrato when needed.  Sounds have come out of  my mouth that I never, ever thought I could correctly produce. 
For recital, I have sung pieces from Mozart, Offenbach, Handel, and Donizetti.  I still marvel that I sang the Doll Aria from Tales of Hoffmann and didn't crash and burn. 
This last recital, it was a Holiday recital, so I sang a piece from Handel's Messiah.  "Rejoice Greatly, O Daughter Of Zion."  Karen and I had BOTH had issues with this piece, the runs were a particular challenge.  Everything came together at performance time, and it was one of those shining, rare, flying moments when you get lost in the music, and the music takes you up to the heavens.  It was truly a great feeling. 

 Since the recital, I have had another breakthrough with my vocal development.  The resonance and depth of my upper register has increased, and I have actually been able to sing a few coloratura pieces without squeaking all the high notes.  (The Minnie Mouse on helium effect.  NOT desirable.)  SO glad to finally be able to get past that pinched off place, at least most of the time.  No, now my high notes sound like real, resounding, grown up high notes.  At least more often than not.

It DOES do wonders for one's self confidence to know that one has such an instrument of power at one's disposal.  My t-shirt that says "Keep calm or I'll use my Opera Voice" is not an idle threat.  My opera voice could hurt you.  ;-)

I realize that I do not have a great voice, merely a good one, but I have so much more than I ever dreamed I'd have.  Practice isn't boring, isn't work, it's a challenge, it's fun, unlike the frustration piano practice always was for me.  Singing truly takes me to another place, another time, takes me out of myself, really gives my soul wings.

Make no mistake, singing properly IS work!  It can be damned HARD work, but it is SO rewarding! When the notes come out right, when the pinched place finally opens up, the wonders, the joys you can find in that beautiful sound make it all worthwhile.  You share that joy and beauty with others, it magnifies it, multiplies it, makes the whole universe shine.

There is still a LOT for me to learn.  I told Karen I feel like I'm still trying to learn how to walk in these high heels.  This sound isn't secure and locked down yet.  Lots more practice required to get the rough edges off, get the muscles used to putting the sound in the right place, get the breath pressure correct.

I am SO looking forward to the process; for I know the end result will be glorious.

The journey continues...

What A Year! And It's Only 3/4 Over!

I have been thinking a lot about all the things that have happened over the course of this year so far.
It's been a doozy for me already. 
The bad things:  Our cat died, my husband had to spend a week in the heart hospital, two tornadoes came through our little city, my nephew died, and just yesterday, a friend and coworker who had been battling cancer passed away. That's a lot to deal with in about nine months' time.
The good things: Matt and I have both changed our diet and our habits, and are both losing weight and getting healthier,  I have made some awesome new friends online, my niece welcomed a daughter, so now I have a tiny little grand-niece, our church has a new roof and consequently, better acoustics, my voice lessons are going really well, and I feel better about life than I have for awhile.

Lots of things are coming up, a trip for a weekend away with my hubby, a chance to meet someone I admire, a trip to my Mom's to help my sister do yard work, the library system's Staff Day, Red Ribbon Day here in Moore, Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, all that fun stuff.
I just hope the rest of the year has more of the fun stuff and less of the sad stuff. 
I miss my cat, my friends lost their house in that tornado, I miss my nephew, and I will always miss Melodie.  A sweeter, more Christian person you would never meet.  Everybody loved her, and quite literally, the whole town will miss her.  Patrons ask about her, how she's been, since she became ill.  They will be heartbroken to know she is gone.  She fought for so long, and she fought so hard to hold on to life.  She made all of us appreciate life so much more.  She did everything with love, and I am very, very lucky to have known her, and to have her as one of the people who trained me at my job.
I only hope her calm, loving presence finds my nephew in that life beyond this, and that she lets him know how much we all love him and miss him.
I hope my crazy cat finds my nephew and gets in his lap and refuses to let him up, like she used to do us.  I hope my sweet dog Bear finds Melodie and loves on her for us.  Bear met Melodie a few times, and he was always up to love and be loved on by her.
I hope as life goes on at the library that we all live a little more by Melodie's example:  her calm, her patience, her smile.  She was a truly selfless person, always more concerned about others and their needs than her own.  
This world is a poorer place without her. 
There are so many potentially really good things on the horizon, I hope they turn out as well as they promise to.  This town (and I) could use some happy endings right about now.

This was Melodie on our Pirate Day at the library about four years ago.  We will always miss that smile!