February 27, 2008

This is it

In the past few weeks, there's only been one thing on my mind: my audition at Juilliard. It's finally here! Well, almost. Next week. But Chad and I are leaving tomorrow for New York City. The only time that worked out for both of us to go and have some time for site-seeing is this weekend. It's too bad that I won't be able to enjoy any of it. If the weather's cold, I don't even think I'll want to go outside, I'm too paranoid of getting a cold or sore throat or something right before the audition. The audition is Monday, and we're not leaving until Wednesday morning, so I guess I'll have a day to unwind and take everything in. As long as I don't totally screw everything up in the audition. Then I may as well just drink my sorrows away.

I'm performing the "Queen of the Night" aria, from Mozart's The Magic Flute, as my chosen piece. I know that it's one everyone knows and does, but I think I can impress them with it. I can get those high notes pretty well, so I'm hoping they'll see it. Who am I kidding, of course they'll notice, it's not like I'm singing for Chad. Not that he doesn't appreciate the music, he just doesn't quite get the difficulty of some things. I do adore him for trying, though, and putting forth the effort.

The second selection is one chosen by the jury, "Vissi d'arte," from Puccini's La Tosca. I've done this one once before, years ago, so I feel alright with it. But when I think a little bit about it, I get nervous that I haven't focused on it enough in the past couple of weeks, and then I get into this whole spiral of worrying again. So I'm going avoid doing that from now until after the audition. There'll be plenty of time for worrying after that.

Well, time to start packing. While I'm not usually a "girly girl," I'm getting very excited to get all dressed up, both for the audition, and for the nice dinner that Chad's promised me. I told him we could just get a pizza and check out some places, but he is insisting on taking me out to a fancy-pants place. We'll see how things go!

February 04, 2008

The semester so far

Things are busy here in Sheffield, and by busy I mean ass cold. Seriously, you'd think we live in freaking Minnesota or something. I’ve been staying warm by never leaving the house except when I absolutely have to and by making lots of trips to Brews Brothers for hot cocoa and hot apple cider. Plus, Brews Brothers is about the only time I get to see Heather. I’m trying not to get too worked up about it, since she is following a dream and come March all this stress will be over, it just sucks not getting to spend any real time with her.

The radio station where I interned last semester called me and offered me a job a couple weeks ago. Can you believe that shit? They must be desperate. Regardless of the reason, I accepted it and am now assistant producer for the morning show. Luckily, this all happened early enough in the semester that I was able to rearrange my class schedule a little bit to work around it. The hours kind of suck – I have to be there at 5:30 a.m. – but it pays pretty decently (this would obviously increase exponentially if I were working full-time) and it will look great on my resume. It’s basically like another internship, only this time they’re paying me.

This weekend is Crazy Dayz in downtown Sheffield. Maybe they should have hired me at the Chamber of Commerce so I could veto “Crazy Dayz.” All the businesses are having huge sales, and they’re having a chili cook-off that Wyatt and Wendell are participating in. Yesterday I was in Brews Brothers around lunchtime and they offered me a bowl to taste-test. I never pass up free food, and it was pretty delicious. The credit union is doing giveaways and since the ladies on the teller line are going to be participating in the chili cook-off that leaves yours truly to hold down the crazy credit union. After being at work at 5:30 a.m. every single weekday I am not looking forward to being at the credit union at 8 on a Saturday, but I’ve been told there will be balloon animals so it might be fun.