The sweet smell of success

I sang a competition today. I showed up early, was told I'd be third in line to warm up and then sing since they were running early. Somehow, in the next hour (MORE than three people later) I ended up warming up and then only singing one aria because....they were running late. Weird.

But the success of which I speak does not have to do with the competition, oh nosir. The success of which I speak is the sweet wonderfulness that has to do with finding an audition dress that is so very much exactly what you want, and on sale, and OH HEAVEN, they have it in two colors that both look amazing with your skin. So what did yours truly do? That's right, she did what her momma taught her. She bought both dresses. Both on sale. Both fabulous, in two lovely shades of eggplant ("Bob, would you call this color 'eggplant' or 'aubergine'?") and mallard blue - I look divine in jewel tones.

So now, when I waltz into my Santa Fe audition tomorrow, I will be sporting one of these two divine concoctions (purple? blue? so many choices!) and the other will be packed safely in my bag for my other auditions this week, and I just know I will be working it. How do I know? Because a girl knows when she's working it.

Gotta go pack the bag. Think positive thoughts. Momma wants to work, as well as work it :)

Making a list, checking it twice

Finished applying for two faculty jobs today. Cover letters edited, proofread the CV, double-checked contact info, requested transcripts. Done and done.

For now.

Other job deadlines are a little bit later so I'm giving myself the latitude to step away from the Macbook and take it easy until next week is over (italian coaching, Haydn coaching, two auditions and a competition, oy) and I can get back on my feet. Plus, I really need to give the Brahms a good hard look and make sure I have a strategy for singing it beautifully. I don't remember if it was Richard who said it to me, but a runner friend told me they had heard some very sage words regarding race running: Position yourself toward the front, and then run.

Basta. Position yourself toward the front, and then run. I'm trying to adopt that as my mantra for singing and job-hunting. Honing those paper materials so they display the best of my skills and education in a premium of space. Choosing my words for the cover letters so I give a little bit of my personality with a big whack of my qualifications and a dash of ingenuity. Making sure I have a really good understanding of my strengths and weaknesses.

Weakness: I run slow.

Strength: I run long.

Weakness: No one would pay to hear me sing low notes.

Strength: Check out those high notes! With a healthy serving of fioratura!

Cindy has been doing this Boot Camp thing and it got me thinking that perhaps I should set a regimen for myself. I have a lot of music to cover and a lot of jobs and competitions to apply for, and not a ton of time in which to do it, while also balancing this thing called life and marriage and running and eating and whatnot. So here's my proposition. Starting next Monday, I will get up at 7:30am and either

a. have breakfast and get dressed right away, spend 1/2 an hour reviewing my Schoenberg and my Haydn recits, give myself a good warm-up and sing into the Brahms for another 1/2 hour, and conclude with reviews of the tricky spots in my audition arias, all before 10am

OR

b. get dressed and go for a run, stretch/shower/change, eat breakfast, and then commence with said music routine.

None of my engagements start before 11am. I'll be in NYC Sunday night through Wednesday morning, so I should be able to get in some good running (thanks to the VeganDiva, with whom I have a running date on Tuesday evening already!) during the daytime or at the very least, some good stretching and strength training. I don't need to sing to review a lot of my stuff, so I can do this in a quiet non-vocal way (thereby NOT pissing off the neighbors at my grandmother's building) and be really productive and get myself in the game.

This is me, positioning myself toward the front. Stay tuned.

Multi-tasking

This is what I call multi-tasking: writing out the Italian from my recits in ink, skipping lines to leave room for the translation and IPA (in different colored pencil), putting that down to look over the Copland and then the Schoenberg, and glancing up from time to time to see the silly drama that is the new 90210. Amazingly enough, 90210 does NOT require all of my attention to follow along. I hardly noticed when it was over and Melrose Place came on, until Ashley Simpson came on the screen with ridiculously red hair and I thought to myself, "wow, that's either a really bad dye job or a totally synthetic wig!"

I'm also multi-tasking in parts of my life. Yesterday it was "take the dog for a long walk and get my cross-training in at the same time." Sammy did four miles of walking and so did I, but I didn't get home and go to sleep on my big fleecy pillow, nosir. It was also "visit with friend while scrubbing the bathroom." In that respect, I was the most successful. I know I'm supposed to be looking into greener ways to keep things clean, I know I should, but Lord help me, I do love the smell of a bleached bathroom. It is a childhood illness from which I may never recover.

The biggest new ring to my circus of existence is the faculty applications. I am searching for these jobs every single day. I am reformatting my cover letters and double and triple-checking my CV. I am sending transcripts or NOT sending transcripts, preparing CDs of "unedited recordings," (what exactly does that mean??) and preparing myself for the barrage of questions from the people whom I have asked to write letters of recommendation (are you moving? are you going to stop singing? will your husband move too? OMIGOSH people. It's just an application until there's an offer on the table. Until then, let's view it like an exercise in skill-building. Good? Good. Yeesh.) while also trying to keep perspective about the actual jobs and where I might consider going to work.

It's hard to envision a life that would involve teaching full-time and auditioning as well. I tell myself that colleagues of mine make it work and that I could make it work if it came to it, but in my heart of hearts I'm really not sure. I don't know what "faculty job" looks like other than the teachers I've had, none of whom were still performing really. Part of me is excited at the prospect - teaching students, having my own studio, making a difference in the lives of young musicians, starting from day one with the golden rule of preparedness so that none of my kids are the ones who show up without their music learned. There's also the added benefit of some financial stability - benefits, a salary, retirement. Things that would make my financial adviser ever so happy, and keep me from fretting over whether or not I can afford to have these three fillings fixed (no, miss thang at the dentist's office, I can't have them done in silver, I show my teeth to the world for a living, thankyouverymuch). But there is the fear that taking a full-time faculty job will put a crimp in the pursuit of this crazy thing called singing. Will I have time to read through my recits when I'm also reading vocal lit papers? Will I have time to learn and practice Lucia when I'm teaching German diction to my young ones? There are a lot of unknowns and I'm trying to be patient. My friend Althea said I sound like such a good Presbyterian when I say I know I'll end up wherever I'm supposed to be. In the words of George Michael's immortal acid-wash jeans, "I know I've got to have faith (a-faith, a-faith, AH).

For today, it's in the cosmos. And I am here, in my house, in my jammies, and I've got to shake a tail feather. Rehearsal in two and a half hours, a voice to wake up, and a tummy to feed. Thursday is the day I get back on the road. I always sleep better and breathe easier with a few miles under my feet. Today's best to you and yours, and a shout-out to Cindy as she takes on her first race this weekend! Go git it girl!

Fall crazy

Eight days ago, I ran the Boston Half and it was a glorious 45 degrees, clear and crisp and breezy, perfect weather. It got chilly. Then it got cloudy. And yesterday, it SNOWED. Now if I were up on my cult film-ology, I would produce an instantly recognizable quote from Apocalypse Now, but instead I'll just say that I was waiting for the frogs and locusts to show up because for crying out loud, it's OCTOBER. Today, it's beautiful and sunny again, still rather chilly but walkable, and I am astounded to see that the little piles of snow that had accumulated by the time we got home from the grocery are gone. I really hope Mother Nature isn't psyching me out on this one. Really.

In other news, I've decided to run the Chicago Marathon next year. My running mentor/organist friend Richard was running it the same day I was doing the Boston Half. He called me before my race started and we had a lovely chat, shared our pictures after he got home, and then it hit me, like a ton of bricks. I think I want to do a marathon. I KNOW I want to do a marathon. Oh my goodness. So I was talking to Richard about it and he says, "Why don't you come run Chicago with me next year?" And that was it. We haven't talked about hardly anything else. We're going to get hotel rooms and make a little mini-vacation out of it. I've already bookmarked Hal Higdon's novice marathon training program (debating between the novice marathon program and the novice supreme - I think I can maintain my basic mileage on my own, up to about an 8 or 9 mile run, so the 18 week program should suffice) and contemplated what running through the winter is going to be like (layer system, you have nothing on me) and how I really need to get a pair of those running tights that have muscular support in them, and how amazing it's going to feel to cross that line and, somewhere down the line, tell my kids that I ran marathons, because of course I'm going to have to do more than one. This could become an illness.

Shiksa running - staving off the crazy since 2007. Get on board, little children, there's room for many a-more.