Merry Christmas to all!
I went to Christmas Eve services with the in-laws tonight, and it seems that years of singing Handel's Messiah have left me unable to hear certain bible verses without the accompanying music showing up in my head. "Good wi-i-ill too-wards men!"
Saturday, December 25, 2010
Friday, December 17, 2010
Crisis Averted
On Wednesday morning, I woke up, checked my e-mail, and discovered a disaster in progress: the church hosting the Voci concert scheduled for Saturday afternoon had booked a wedding for the same day, and the concert was now without a home! We have been advertising our concert, selling tickets, and our commissioned composer is flying in with his entire family to hear the new piece he wrote for us. Our poor administrator (T) found this out late Tuesday night, and spent the night having anxiety dreams about our homeless choir. (I often check my e-mail fairly late at night, but was tired enough on Tuesday to go to bed early, which saved ME from a sleepless night.)
The women of Voci are very impressive. We are all busy people, with full-time jobs, kids, etc., but we leapt into action. Calls were made to churches, pleas were sent out by e-mail, and by lunchtime we had two churches that were willing and able to host us for a concert three days later. Church A is a place I'd sung before; a friend from another choir called the church on our behalf (she's a member there) and verified that they were free on Saturday, all within twenty minutes of my initial e-mail plea. They were not available for us to rehearse that night (our previously scheduled rehearsal night), but could accommodate us on Thursday evening instead. Church B had an office administrator that said the space was free, but we had to get the permission of the music director to use the organ & piano.
All day, T had been leaving frantic messages for our music director, J. By 3:30 pm, we had not heard back from either J or the MD of Church B, so T made the executive decision that we would hold rehearsal at our usual time and place, while continuing to research our performance venue. At 4:45, the board president and I met at Church A to tour the space. It looked perfect for our needs, and their administrator (a choir director herself) was extremely sympathetic and helpful. In the meantime, J finally checked his messages (he had been giving exams all day), and confirmed with T that Church A would be workable. Problem solved!
The women of Voci are very impressive. We are all busy people, with full-time jobs, kids, etc., but we leapt into action. Calls were made to churches, pleas were sent out by e-mail, and by lunchtime we had two churches that were willing and able to host us for a concert three days later. Church A is a place I'd sung before; a friend from another choir called the church on our behalf (she's a member there) and verified that they were free on Saturday, all within twenty minutes of my initial e-mail plea. They were not available for us to rehearse that night (our previously scheduled rehearsal night), but could accommodate us on Thursday evening instead. Church B had an office administrator that said the space was free, but we had to get the permission of the music director to use the organ & piano.
All day, T had been leaving frantic messages for our music director, J. By 3:30 pm, we had not heard back from either J or the MD of Church B, so T made the executive decision that we would hold rehearsal at our usual time and place, while continuing to research our performance venue. At 4:45, the board president and I met at Church A to tour the space. It looked perfect for our needs, and their administrator (a choir director herself) was extremely sympathetic and helpful. In the meantime, J finally checked his messages (he had been giving exams all day), and confirmed with T that Church A would be workable. Problem solved!
Tuesday, December 14, 2010
Traffic Karma
I must have used up all my good traffic karma on Sunday. Today I picked up DH at the airport, and what should have been a 45-60 minute trip took us 1 hour and 49 minutes. Add to that the hour his flight was late, the 15 minutes for customs (reasonable) and the 45 minutes it took for his luggage to appear on the carousel (not so reasonable).
KLM's website refused to tell me what time his flight was actually scheduled to arrive: all it said was "in flight." If I had known it would be an hour late, there were a number of things I could have done with that hour: run some errands, read the Sunday paper (yes, I'm a little behind this week), etc.
KLM's website refused to tell me what time his flight was actually scheduled to arrive: all it said was "in flight." If I had known it would be an hour late, there were a number of things I could have done with that hour: run some errands, read the Sunday paper (yes, I'm a little behind this week), etc.
Monday, December 13, 2010
Warp-Speed Laundry
Dear B,
I'm very grateful that unlike your brother, you actually remember to bring your P.E. clothes home to wash every now and then. However, in the future, I recommend that you present them to me a little earlier than 8:15 am on Monday morning, as neither our washer nor dryer have a warp-speed setting.
Love,
Mom
I'm very grateful that unlike your brother, you actually remember to bring your P.E. clothes home to wash every now and then. However, in the future, I recommend that you present them to me a little earlier than 8:15 am on Monday morning, as neither our washer nor dryer have a warp-speed setting.
Love,
Mom
Sunday, December 12, 2010
Traffic, Concerts, Chores, Etc.
The traffic gods smiled upon me today. On Friday and Saturday, traffic going to my evening concerts was awful, and I was late for call despite allowing 45 minutes for the drive. Today was the day with a quick turnaround--I finished one concert in Oakland at 6:00, and had to be in San Francisco for another one by 7:30. It only took me 35 minutes--no traffic at all until I reached SF, and only a little slowdown there.
Four concerts and one Nutcracker (co-stage manager) this weekend, and DH is off enjoying the cold and dark in Sweden. The kids did almost all of the chores I requested today, but they have some interesting blind spots. M took out the trash that was in the kitchen trash can, and even put in a new bag, but somehow never saw the three bags of extra trash sitting in front of the can. Both kids emptied the dishwasher (mostly--they left the coffeepot and filter, because those weren't assigned to one kid or another), but putting their dirty dishes into the empty dishwasher never occurred to them. I arrived home this evening to a counter full of dirty dishes, and complaints all around that they were running out of clean underwear. (Gee, I wonder why mom hasn't had time to do the laundry this weekend?)
Onward to Nutcracker: this week I'm working three outreach performances, 1.5 dress rehearsals, and one regular performance, plus I have a ticket to see B dance in one of the shows. Oh, and if you didn't make it to any of my FOUR concerts this weekend, you have one more chance next Saturday!
Four concerts and one Nutcracker (co-stage manager) this weekend, and DH is off enjoying the cold and dark in Sweden. The kids did almost all of the chores I requested today, but they have some interesting blind spots. M took out the trash that was in the kitchen trash can, and even put in a new bag, but somehow never saw the three bags of extra trash sitting in front of the can. Both kids emptied the dishwasher (mostly--they left the coffeepot and filter, because those weren't assigned to one kid or another), but putting their dirty dishes into the empty dishwasher never occurred to them. I arrived home this evening to a counter full of dirty dishes, and complaints all around that they were running out of clean underwear. (Gee, I wonder why mom hasn't had time to do the laundry this weekend?)
Onward to Nutcracker: this week I'm working three outreach performances, 1.5 dress rehearsals, and one regular performance, plus I have a ticket to see B dance in one of the shows. Oh, and if you didn't make it to any of my FOUR concerts this weekend, you have one more chance next Saturday!
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