Day 2!

Day 2! It is pretty much unreal that I'm still awake. We basically lost 2 hours between Daylight Savings, and the time change...

Today was long but so great. Trina and I woke up several times last night, shivering. I ended up with four blankets on my blow up mattress in Atlanta. It was crazy... we don't understand how it got so cold. So we didn't exactly have the best night of sleep.

We ate sausage, bacon and cheese omelets for breakfast which were wonderful, and then headed back to Chris Stoke's church to sing for 3 services. It was a serious battle to stay awake by the third service.

After we were done, we ate, and set out on the bus. Next stop, Gainsville.

I'll probably write a more detailed version of today while I'm on the bus tomorrow. I am seriously tired right now. So that's what I'll do. We have 9 hours on the bus tomorrow, for which I am excited for, because I'm zonked. Florida tomorrow!

A lovely evening in Atlanta (Day 1!)

We're in Atlanta Georgia! Trina, Dr. Burge and I are staying with a young couple from Chris Stoke's church. I can't remember the guy's name, but his wife's name is Jessica. We lose two hours tonight between going into the east coast time zone, and Daylight Savings... We plan on going to bed very soon:)

Today we spent all day on the bus. It wasn't terrible... painful at times though. Trina and I have it mastered though: As demonstrated by Zach and I in the past on our own family trips, Trina and I place a pillow between our heads, and and count to three, and jam our heads together to keep it there. Alas. Rest can be found. Sometimes after giggles about how silly we are, but that only makes the sleep all the sweeter.

We sang for an hour once we got to the church we'll be singing three services at tomorrow. I thought I had absolutely no voice to sing with. I actually did not feel like singing at all. Not a note. I sounded like a man who had smoked for 40 years. In my opinion. After getting only about 3 and a half hours of sleep last night (laundry and packing party! Whoo hoo!), and being on a bus for like 9 hours or something... what else could be expected? I kind of lost track on how long we traveled today. Losing an hour crossing time zones, and just in and out of uncomfortable sleep... again... what else could be expected? Anyway, after warming up, it was surprising how good it felt to sing anyway:)

It is noteworthy that I hardly did anything while on the bus. Some people would read, and do homework. I can't read on a bus usually. Car sickness. No good. I only occasionally listened to music.

Trina and I had several bonding moments. Sharing silly text messages, and often just coming up with some story to share that we hadn't yet. You'd think that since we live together we'd know everything going on in each other's lives... but life can get busy.

The weather here is unbearably beautiful. Makes me miss the Jersey shore. Like most beautiful things do. It's just so clean, and pure. Lovely.

Tomorrow morning will come fast, so I'm gonna end this here.

One more thing. I'm borrowing a suitcase from a friend. He dropped it off last night, and I thought, "Ok wow, I could just pack myself along with my clothes. That'd save room on the bus..." It's massive. But completely wonderful. Because Trina and I packed our stuff together. So it's totally awesome. We've gone through several people saying hilarious things about me or Trina being a huge diva or something, because of our HUGE suitcase. We kindly inform them we packed together, and that we are not in fact, divas.

Ok maybe we are in some aspects.

But we packed light. Thank you and good evening.

I say evening, because as Megan, Olivia, Trina and I discussed, evening has a sort of loveliness to it. And tonight is indeed a lovely night. So good evening to you.

Choir tour eve

Tomorrow begins the 2011 Spring choir tour! We leave at 7 am, and have an 11-12 hour bus trip. To be honest, I'm looking forward to that. I love just being with everyone, and bonding, and doing whatever the heck I feel like.

I'm sure I'll be blogging, as I did last year. It's going to be wonderful. I'm excited to get away, and experience some crazy host families, and get to know people I haven't gotten to talk to very much yet in the choir. And! This year I even have Olivia as a gluten free buddy. God has blessed me:)

So, tonight, I have to pack. Have not even started. Oh well. So is the life of a senior in the month of March. Yes.

Falling flowers

Ahh how life can get ya down. Tonight is just one of those nights. Tonight I was working on a new song called Belong. Yes, I am a bit dramatic at times with my lyrics. But this song, I believe I can say it is quite truthful right now. It's not about any one experience. It's like every day of my life I gather a flower to carry into my bundle I keep in my hands... eventually my little hands can't contain them all anymore, and my grasp feels like a rubber band stretched too far. It happens every so often... it gets to be too much. What I hate to see happen is just see an entire garden fall from my hands onto the ground. So, even when it takes everything I have, and even everything I don't have, I try to toss everything up in the air, so I can close my eyes, and breathe in the fragrance of falling flowers.

So Belong is a song written out of another shower of all those flowers that used to belong in my hands.

Maybe one day you'll hear it. It needs a bit more work. But I like it enough, I think I'll keep working on it until it's done.

Ah, I had been so dry with songs lately... when something is on my mind, I can only write about that. Most of the time anyway. You'd think that'd be great. But then, what about the times you just wish more than anything not to think anymore? Yeah. I'd call it writer's block, but it's no such thing. It's merely reluctance to spend yet another moment on the very thing that can drive me mad.

So, Belong might be a song that gets to the bottom line of everything that's been going through my head. No more zipping through the vines like Tarzan anymore. Doesn't mean I'm out of the woods though. Nope, still there.

I'm sorry if none of this makes sense. I could write songs all night I feel like. If only I had a piano in my room. Or if I could play guitar like a decent music major. Yeah. That'd be fab. If only.

Now, to bed. Yes please.

Lucis creator optime

Hello again!

This is another video of the choir singing Lucis Creator Optime. That's Latin for Creator of optimal light... and it's completely gorgeous, and one of my favorite songs to sing as a first soprano. It's one of those that just satisfies when you sing it.

As I went down

This is my choir singing Down To the Rover to Pray. Kaitlin and I got to sing the solos, which we were so excited about, because the although the acoustics in Christ's Church Cathedral were ridiculously difficult to hear the choir with, they were wonderful with only two soloists.

It was also really cool for me to get to sing this solo, since I sang this song my junior year in high school in As You Like It, with the 4-H Burlington County Players:) It's just so cool to get to sing it again:)

I should also probably mention we normally do this song processing down the aisles. So we were just swaying back and forth last night in that concert. A little less extravagant, but just listen. It sounds so pretty with all those harmonies:)

The time of my life

My recital is over! In fact, 9 days have past since. I kept meaning to blog after it was over, but kept getting distracted.

It was fabulous. When it actually came time to perform I had the time of my life. My best friend Bi came in Friday morning, February 25th. Blakeley and I ran to the airport to pick her up... my family got there later on Friday night during my dress rehearsal. I ran out to meet them with Bi and Zach, and my voice prof. My uncle Phil and Aunt Barbara came too, which was wonderful. I hadn't seen them in years, so it was awesome to see them.

The fam went out to eat, and came back to watch the last bit of my rehearsal. It was absolutely hilarious to see such a long train of people filter into the room.

I was such a diva, going to bed so "early" even though I had my sister and Bi in my room. I just had a jolly good time beefing up the Diva stuff.

Saturday finally came, and I tried to sleep in as late as I could. But to be honest, it was like I was a child knowing Santa had come. I could not sleep. It was hard falling asleep the night before Bi came. And now that my whole family was in Greenville, I wanted nothing to do with sleep.

A bunch of friends came over to Zach's apartment, which was such fun. And soon the primping started. Caleigh and Bi curled my hair, and Trina painted my toenails. Ali came later, and did my make up and last minute hair touch ups. I tried on my dresses again to make sure everything was alright, and headed over to Whitlock where my recital was.

Ahhhh what can I say? I was so blessed by everyone. Everyone I worked with, everyone who helped me and sang and played and ran sound.... gosh I had the time of my life.

I got to get all pretty, and wear pretty dresses, and sing some of my favorite songs for a few hundred people. Come on! Fab.

There were a few moments that I was really conscious of what was going on when I was performing. Some moments that stink in my memory. To be honest, I was a little bit mechanical. I had to concentrate on singing right so I didn't lose my voice by the 13th song or something. Gosh, it was so much, but went so fast!

Number one, I wore my black and white dress I wore for my Junior prom. Hilarious! But pretty fun to wear it again.

During Nur Wer, my German piece, also my favorite out of the classical pieces, I just felt like I was the only one who ever sang that song. Like it was my song. Like I was the one it was made for. I just felt solid in it, and enjoyed myself when I got to sing it. The kind of solid feeling when you just ate a really good meal, and the food is settling very very well, and you just drank a glass of water, and you definitely feel heavy, but very good about it. It's a good feeling when you're singing and the song is settling well:)

I also loved blowing out the candle after The Crucifixion. That was a fun moment, even though I wasn't totally sure if it was a beautiful moment to the audience or not.


Anyway, when the quintet sang It Is Well With My Soul... I just loved the moment in the last verse... we were so in tune, and so in the moment. It was beautiful.

Ahh, and when Jake and I sang Come What May and didn't laugh at all when we met in the aisle-- even though we had smiles that weren't exactly saying "I'm acting like I'm gonna love you till my dying day because we're acting right now and this is the real thing" and really seemed to say "Your mic is about to fall off your ear but it's still fabulous and this is fun so let's get er done!" Yes, my mic almost fell off... but that's because I had to take my earring off as I went behind the set to meet Jake in the aisle filled with rose pedals, because my earring kept banging into it making an annoying sound... but it was wonderful.

So that was the first half!

Oh! And it should be noted that my little sisters Olivia, Lena and Melodi were my "flower girls" and christened the aisle with bright red rose pedals at the beginning of the recital before my dad opened it in prayer.

So! Intermission. I changed into my red gown, and the crew changed the stage, and my sisters brought rose pedals onto the stage as well. Kirstie lit the candles that I borrowed from St. Pual's down the street, and it was go time.

Zach, Rob, Shannon, Blakeley, and Nicole came out on stage with me, and we started Because of You by Kelly Clarkson. Ok, candles lit and glowing, rose pedals on the floor, everyone in their red and black ensembles, and a string bass, viola and violin, guitar and cajon.... just kill me with beauty. Please. It was like a dream to sing like that. And I loved my dress. Sue me for being a girl who loves my dresses... and I went barefoot. It just seemed right to do that. I left my shoes behind, sat down, and sang the song, and had so much fun.

Then went over to the piano, and waited for my people to adjust and move their order around before we started.

I played the intro, and realized something so exciting, and so just utterly fabulous. A few hundred people in the audience... my people on stage waiting for their cue...

This was exactly how this song had to be played.

I was so in the moment, and appreciating every single aspect about it.

It could have made me laugh. I Dare the Rain. It was a song I wrote over a year ago. I was in the most romantic mood when I wrote it, and recorded it. And then there I was, in this long flowy red dress, with my hair all curled and make up done. Bare feet. Rose pedals. Candles. A gorgeous grand piano. An intimate strings section, a guitar and a cajon.

And I thought to myself, "This is exactly how I dreamed this song in my head."

And I got to sing and play that song the way it looked and felt in my head when I wrote it.

It was absolute bliss.

I was dying, having the best time.

Then singing Superhuman with Mike... a dream come true because I love that song, and because Mike came back to Greenville to sing with me. And I know he's going to be famous someday. For real. He's in Nashville this semester, so it was awesome to see him again.

The last set was full band... and I got to wear my red boots. That was reason enough to have a good time. But I got to sing some of my favorite songs. And Away with a full band made me just love life all over again. And with all the strings at the beginning! I was in La La Land.

And then... the finale... the song for which I saved every last ounce of energy and stamina I had left. Bring Me to Life by evanescence. I just sang as hard and well as I could. And I just had the time of my life.

Yes, I realize I said "time of my life" all together too many times, but that's because I don't even know what else to say. I really did have the time of my life.

And I learned a very important lesson after my senior prom, when I changed into normal clothes too soon after I got home. If you buy something you know you may never wear again, get your money's worth out of it Darlin'! So I kept my red boots on nearly all night. Even though they were slightly too big and very uncomfortable by the time I had them on for hours.

It was an awesome time though, hanging out with my family eating chips and dip and scrambled eggs and cheese with everyone and the friends that came over after the reception.

It was fab. And yes, I had the time of my life.

But. I'm glad it's over. My life can move forward now. Thank you.

Butreally... I did have the time of my life.