Suzy Q Homemaker

Everyone and their mama came to hear the summer choir with Joe Jennings on Sunday.  Even my yoga teacher came!  It was great to have the support of the community, friends, and family.  We worked very, VERY hard every Monday night in Aiken with Joe pushing us to the vocal limit.  It’s always a great experience working with different directors.  With Joe, the word “experience” is putting it mildly.

Instead of driving to Aiken and back from my house (a very long trek), I drove into Augusta and hitched a ride with friends who were kind enough to put up with the incessant talking that seems to come out of me when beers are put into my body.  I’m pretty sure they learned more about me than anyone really needs to know…

Rehearsals were grueling.  There’s a strange dichotomy in Joe Jennings: “Praise Jesus!” is often followed by some off-color remark or semblance of a dirty joke.  And there wasn’t a piece we did that I didn’t come to love in some way, no matter how atonal, chromatic, or full of screamissimo high B-flats.  I was honored to have a couple of solos, too, my favorite being the little tiny one in “Greater Love”.  Oh, and I also got to squeeze out a high D at the end of a Moses Hogan piece.  That was fun.

So, here I sit, trying to recover from whatever sinus infection/cold/conjunctivitis/strep(?) thing I have going on that causes me to hack, wheeze, blow colorful objects from my nose, and have to pry my left eye open in the morning.  Though I want desperately to take fifty naps every day, I have to get back to the gym to re-lose those five pounds I gained drinking beers after rehearsals and eating those FREAKING DELICIOUS jalepeño things from Soirée.

I’ll be putting my nose to the grindstone again next week, though.  The all Fauré recital is coming up at the end of August, and I expect EVERYONE I KNOW to be there.  You hear me?  EVERYONE.

That is all.  :)

OH!  Except for this: a photo from Sunday’s concert.  See me?  I’m right down front!

What a surprise we had this summer when a HUGE vine grew out from under the front porch. Obviously, someone dropped a pumpkin seed or two last fall.

I had to look up info on how to tell when it was ripe (aside from being orange). So I cut it just a little while ago before Algebra the Mule could get to it. I wonder what we should make with it…

The picture quality on my HTC Eris isn’t so bad. I still miss my Canon Powershot that Simon destroyed. Sigh.

I was giddy when the adult choir sight-read through this piece during rehearsal several weeks ago.  Not just because it’s a really pretty work of music, but Jamie and I are fans of  ”The Vicar of Dibley.”  If you’re supernerds like us, you’ll have this stuck in your head for a week.  You can thank me later.

Also, I could not stop weeping once the music started.

Caution: contains explicit lyrics.  Jamie and I are trying to catch up on Flight of the Conchords and it took us FOREVER to find this video.  I hope you all mention my casseroles in the future.  I don’t want hurt feelings.

Hurt Feelings from Brian Kessler on Vimeo.

I’m so proud of my little conductor.  Look how enthusiastic his cues are!