Today

So I liked today.

I took my lil bro to the doctor to get whatever he needed for his working papers. Then I took a quick trip over to Mango to get some last Thai stuff in before I get all strict and diety again. Which, was a good idea because I do feel quite nauseous after all the fatty stuff attacked my body.

I'm going into production for La Boheme with Opera Manhattan next week, and as the cover, I'm going to have to stand in for many of the rehearsals in November. I got into Super Opera Dork mode and got some research materials on it from the library before I met up with Joe to get the score. Then of course I did my normal busy work of highlighting the words. Tomorrow, I'll tab and translate. Feels good to be getting back into production.

Haha, hee hee, hoo hoo

I hope you all enjoyed my joke below. That wasn't a mistake. I am, in fact, a hilarious procrastinator.

The past few days have been cool. I don't know if I told you but, my car is up and running so the procrastination station is back in business. The funny thing is, I'll see a spot and say ugh, that's entirely too far for me to walk from. Meanwhile, for the past 3 or more weeks, I've been walking clear across town to Park Slope, uphill, from my house! I guess it's the state of mind that you're in. Had I have had my car, I wouldn't have walked.

Been working out, singing sometimes. Running into a lot of crazies on the train. This young, seemingly sane, mildly attractive guy told me he liked my boots.

Guy: [[sits directly next to me on the platform]]"Yeah, I like yo boots"
Me: ::pretends not to hear that even though he said it right in my ear::
Guy: "Nah, you heard me though?"
Me: "Oh...what?"
Guy: "Yeah, I said I like yo boots yo, them shits is tight na'mean?"
Me: "Ah, yes, thank you thaaaank you"

Mind you..ah I should've taken a pic of them...they are the most girlie, I mean little girlie, looking boots you can imagine. I got up and looked for the train. You have to bend over to do that so that probably wasn't the best idea. Then I started pretend coughing (bad for the chords, I know) so he would think I had tuberculosis or something.

The Top Ten Reasons I Procras

Book review: The Man in the Picture: A Ghost Story by Susan Hill

I wanted to go to the pizza place the other day but I couldn't find a book to read in my house. So, I ended up picking this up from the library. It's size and subject matter was of interest to me after reading the very long "American Gods" by Neil Gaiman (which is a bit too long for me to review on here).

Well, I read this book in a matter of days. The language is clear and very conversational (as most of it is a recanting of a story from various characters) which made for easy and quick reading. It involves two main characters, a college professor, Dr. Parmitter and his student, Oliver. One night, the professor decides to share a story with his student but it's much more than a story, it's a horrifying tale that no sane person would or should believe.

I think the outside flap was misleading. I thought I'd be reading a hallowing, gruesome, bloody tale filled with violent death. I ended up getting much more. It was probably one of the more elegantly written books I've ever read. To quote another review I read on this book: Think The Omen vs. Scream or The Shining vs. Saw III. This is the art of understated horror. I won't ruin the twist in the story so I'll end it there.

Thursday!

My friend from grad school, Beth, came to town today and I told her I'd meet up with her for lunch and general catching up.

She was nice enough to agree to travel to Brooklyn since the weather was so bad. But before we met up, I had to run some serious errands. I threw on my trusty old rain boots and headed Downtown Brooklyn. As I was walking down the street, I felt my heel go a little too far back in my boot. I also felt a bit of a draft.

I got all the way to the Atlantic Center Mall before I realized that there was a hideous slit in the back of my rainboot!!! To add insult to injury, I had on hot pink socks that had multi-colored polka-dots all over em! Ugh.

Well anyway, it was a good thing I was at the mall. I jetted to DSW and got some super cute, long overdue new rainboots.

Hooray, disaster averted!
Xoxo :)

Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

Movie Review: The Fourth Kind

Um.

Alright.

My friend told me he had some free tix for a screening of this movie. I asked him the name and he told me. So I googled the trailer and found out it was pretty much a scary movie about aliens. I don't normally like those movies, but I figured "What the heck, it's free".

So here's the review: The Fourth Kind is about a history of disappearances in nome, Alaska and it's direct relationship to a psychologist's study of sleeping patterns of it's inhabitants. This is a 'first of it's kind' movie that includes "archival footage" while simultaneously showing the actors re-enacting certain scenes. Done pretty inticingly if I do say so...you prefer to look at the "proof" even if it's on a low grade camera. Before the movie even starts, Milla Jovovich introduces herself as the actress portraying Dr. Abigail Tyler [the real doctor is eerily narrating the events in the movie, by way of an interview with the director]. If I've already made this sound more complex than it is, that's because it's hard to explain their storytelling method. The truth is, they are still editing things out. The movie actually comes out next month but this screening is supposedly going to help them decide what should stay and what should go.

I don't want to give away too much, but, I went into the theatre not knowing what to expect. It's sort of like seeing the Blair Witch Project without knowing that it didn't really happen. So of course I was shocked at many of the things I saw. They did say the footage would be distrubing but I hadn't expected it to actually disturb me. By the end I knew it all had to be fake...I mean...right?

Bottom line, go see this movie, suspend all disbelief and you will be supremely entertained.

Tuesday

My mom stayed home sick and I of course do not want to get sick also...so I've been finding oppurtunities to get the hell outta the house as soon as possible. I actually had rehearsal for a church gig today. I left a little early to meet Lori for the grossest empanada I've ever had [Cafe on 71st I think, gross] while waiting for Darrell to get outta work.

The gig is up at the tippy top of The Bronx and we took the train to his car. Before we went into the church, we grabbed some snacks from the corner store. It was an Irish bodega of sorts [if that exists] and they had every type of Cadbury product you can imagine! I was in Cadbury heaven. I also tried "Walkers Roast Chicken Flavoured Crisps". Sounds yucky but it was DElicious!

Singing at the Church was fun! I missed all the people there and we actually practiced inside of the church instead of the practice room. Their Bi-Centennial is coming up this Sunday so they needed extra voices. The job kinda sings itself. There are a lotta sopranos, including one that I've dubbed the Disney Princess, bc she's pretty and has a nice bell sounding voice. In addition to the organ, there were 2 trumpets and a dude on an amplified keyboard, which simulated another type of brass instrument, and at times, timpani..?? All I know is that, if I decided to stop singing, would people even be able to tell? Yeah, prob. But it's nice to know I can drop out sometimes.

On the way home, Darrell's car battery died. Tis the season I s'pose. I told him join the club, to try to keep the mood light. He, of course, was pissed. But, after about a half hour of sitting in his car, Triple A came and gave him a jump. All's well that ends well I always say!! :]

xoxo

Day 4: Holla atcha boy

There was nothing that happened to make me use that sub-title, I just figured I'd be silly. Hehe! It was a bittersweet ending today for me at my dream temp job. They're off to Asia on Monday and I'm back to being unemployed today! Awesome.

After I left and drank too much coffee, my mom and I went to the nail salon to get outrageous colors on my toes and nails [green and yellow, respectively]. After that we went to the grocery store for far too long. And now, I think my stomach is punishing me for all the caffiene I had today...ugh.

Day 3: God bless us everyone!

I got to NY Phil at 8am today (7:53am to be exact). I had no idea what was gonna be thrown at me so I just rolled with it. We ended up getting the breakfast order and setting it up for the judges. The auds started at 9 and we ran through them all at the speed of light. My calf muscules are gonna be so friggin toned by the time this is all over.

There were a zillion colorful characters of course, but one stood out. He was in the early morning and didn't advance but stuck around to meet people and network. In his dressing rm, he had a plastic bag full of snacks. There were granola bars (that I wanted), a dr peppy (?) and a whole bunch of other things I couldn't make out. Anyway, he offered me the granola bar and I didn't take it. At the end of the day, he asked if he could please be let into his room...on the way over he had to tell me how forward he was by giving the conductor is business card. 'I think New Yorkers expect you to have a lotta moxy!', he giggled. He was just the sweetest guy and of course he ended up giving me a package of trail mix and his card saying 'you never know you might just be the next big thing!' And then he told me God Bless me! Hehe from his mouth to God's ears, I say.

I was asked to stay longer than scheduled AND to come back for the semi-finals and finals tmrw!! That's from 8 to 5 so I'm gonna get to sleep. Thanks for reading :)

Days 1 & 2 : Holy moley, is this for real?

SO the day finally arrives that I'm going to temp with the ny phil. After not so much preparation but a whole lotta an-ti-ci......pation, I get there early and wait to meet my supervisor. She's a really sweet lady who was excited for me to help her. We get upstairs and the orchestra members are on stage in between numbers. I think I came in while they were playing some Beethoven. I almost fainted when I saw the stage from that angle. Avery Fisher Hall was where I was first introduced to live classical music professionally.

Anyway, I got RIGHT to work, on a birthday present for Lorin Maazel [!]. I had to full color copy all of the seating listings that he had done while he conducted there. They are going to get it bound and give it to him as a memento. Beside nearly pissing my pants at the magnitude of how much it would SUCK if I screwed up anything, I got to it and got half way through before I was there even an hour. Then it was time for the auditions.

They are auding for an specific instrument for the orchestra and that entire section was there to judge. I'm speaking cryptically because it was supposed to be a whole top secret thing, and not like any of them will read my blog, but I'd still like to respect their privacy. Anyway, the audition is blind. So the judges don't get to look at them, which is so amazingly awesome b/c that means their decision is solely based on talent ! Us opera singers needs some of that sometimes! Well, for competitions anyway.

Basically I do a lot of the busy work while my supervisor gets everything ready for their tour of Asia next week [they leave monday!! take me with you!] . Then, I have to bring the applicants to the stage for their auditions. It's crazy hectic and *freaking* AWESOME. I'm having the best time and look forward to the rest of the craziness!