Flights booked!

It is official now.

Upcoming Trip: 12/11/11 - New York Audition trip

EarlyBird Check-In™

Confirmation Number: I2J7P6

Passenger	Departure/Arrival	Flight	Date
Ellen Moeller	Depart Denver, CO (DEN) on Southwest Airlines at 6:10 PM Arrive in Newark, NJ (EWR) at 11:55 PM	#319	Sun Dec 11 Travel Time 3 h 45 m
Ellen Moeller	Depart Newark, NJ (EWR) on Southwest Airlines at 12:20 PM Arrive in Denver, CO (DEN) at 2:45 PM	#1919	Fri Dec 16 Travel Time 4 h 25 m

Very exciting. I have to leave so late on Sunday because I'm auditioning for the Colorado Opera Chorus at 1:30. Wouldn't it be awesome to have to decline the chorister position because I'll be singing in Europe? Hee. We shall see. 

ah ... I remember ...

I woke up this morning with a killer sore throat, body aches and headache. Usually, unless I was subbing, being sick was annoying but not much more than that. I had forgotten how panicked a singer gets when the throat is involved. Luckily, I haven't been sick much at all this season and am confident that I can beat this in a few days. Still, it's frustrating. I have a lot of practicing to do in the next 2 weeks!

Here are the arias I am preparing for my auditions:

Voi che sapete (Nozze)
Il padre adorado (Idomeneo)
Faites-lui mes aveux (Faust)
Must the winter come so soon (Vanessa)
Ich lade gern mir Gäste ein (Fledermaus)

I would rather have Octavian and Cenerentola in the mix, but those aren't as solid. We'll save those for Chicago!

I've slurped a total of 3 bowls of miso soup, an entire clove of roasted garlic, 1 ginger-apple juice, 4 glasses of EmergenC, 6 cups of lemon-echinacea tea, and countless hits of homemade tinctures. All that plus naps should kick this cold out of my system quickly!

Finally, my newest favorite mezzo. Flicka remains my all time favorite, of course, but others have come and gone. Elina Garanca is lovely. And seems to be a nice person too! All the better. Enjoy!

Wherein I change direction entirely...

It didn't seem proper, on the blog I had worked so hard to create, to suddenly launch into another project. Perhaps one day I will merge the two. Until then, The Daily Grind stands, rather ignored at the moment, as the blog of our family. And this one will help me stay in touch with those who are interested in this next phase of life.

For, you see, I have reached that time in every mother's life when she stops and realizes ... with surprise, relief and quite a bit of sadness, that she is no longer needed 24/7 anymore. My youngest is in first grade. All three of them are out of the house from 8am til 4pm. After school activities take us til almost 7, at which point they are fed, read to (of course!), and put to bed. There is less opportunity for Mama time, though it is precious and necessary when it is needed (last week when Ted had an as-yet-undiagnosed concussion + flu, for example).

I have subbed in the childrens' school, which I enjoy, but don't love. I have made soap. I have cooked from scratch. I have still not cleaned my house very well. I'm not sure exactly when the other shoe dropped, but suddenly I was singing more. Rehearsals were back to back and I was needing to practice new music. And I loved it. Like a breath of fresh air, it was so refreshing to be back doing what I loved.

So, with the support of my family, I am going to see what happens at this juncture. I have auditions lined up that may or may not lead to an opera career, but at least it's a start. I am coaching again. I am taking lessons again. I am staying up WAY too late watching YouTube opera videos. I am re-connecting with my successful singer friends and trying to learn how to sneak back into the field I left almost 10 years ago.

Will I be successful? I don't know. What is success anyway? I think it's more in the journey. The practice, the feedback, the experience ... those are what will measure success for me at this point in my life.

I can't guarantee that I will keep this blog going consistently, but it's a place to record events as they happen, gradually, and hopefully, taking shape into the next phase of my life.

Toi, toi!