On the job again

I flew to Syracuse this morning to start my first professional non-YAP opera contract. I'm here for a few weeks so after a fair amount of grumbling about the new baggage fees, I checked the bag affectionately known as 'Big Red' and schlepped my enormous laptop bag and a grocery bag of breakfast food onto a very VERY small airplane. Note to self: I don't like small planes. Not one bit.

The lead-up to this morning was a lot more eventful. My friend Zach was my zen shopping guru on Thursday and helped me find the perfect 'first day of work' outfit. Yesterday, I went to Kenneth Cole and a very sweet theatre major from Northeastern did an excellent job of helping me into not one but two gorgeous pair of shoes, pictured here for your drooling enjoyment. Then I went and chopped off a significant amount of hair to eliminate what I've identified as the 'ponytail problem.' So long as the hair is long enough to go into a ponytail, that's the only place it will go on a daily basis. It's still long enough to go under my Red Sox hat and behind my ears so I don't eat my hair while I'm running, but short enough that it has a lot more opportunity for me to maximize the curl possibility. Read: Now I have to fix my hair.

What prompted this adventure in fashion and personal grooming, you might ask? Well here's the thing. I've been a student for so long, I've forgotten what business dress looks like. I know what I can wear to go to class or to a concert, but the whole idea of a dressy look for professional purposes is largely lost on me. I have one audition outfit. I have multiple gowns. And I have three amazing pair of jeans, one pair of waterproof trail runners, one pair of regular running shoes, and a whole lot of shoes that are really meant to look pretty while I'm standing still on the stage. But when I walk into our first meeting tomorrow and I meet a new conductor, artistic director, stage director, and the cast of a show that's being re-mounted (that's right, I'm the 'new kid' in class) I don't want them to see a doctoral candidate with my JanSport backpack and my Dansko clogs and my favorite comfy jeans and tortoiseshell glasses. I want them to see an opera singer. Wearing amazing shoes.