Less than one week

Packing is still going slowly, although I managed to fill one more plastic bin with mostly books. When I went to Interlochen, I made sure I brought along some of my favorite books to help alleviate the homesickness. That pile got bigger when I went to IU last fall, and now I'm bringing even more, making the bin very heavy. War and Peace is the major addition, and being the bookworm that I am, I'm bringing two translations of Eugene Onegin.

This is probably the last Cat Pic Friday for a while, since I'll be at school and away from my cats.

Salem lounging the the hallway.

Tacy sleeping on my bed.

Random Post

I'm nearly finished with War and Peace with about 20 pages left. It's amazing. Go and read this book now. Right now. Part 1 of the Epilogue is very satisfying, a good mix of humor and sadness. Too bad Tolstoy didn't write even a sliver of a sequel, just so we can see what happens to Nikolay Bolkonsky, Prince Andrey's son. He's a character that's in the background for most of the novel, but his 15-year-old self becomes more important towards the end, being inspired by Pierre and his late father.

Due to the muscles in my eyes not liking to focus close-up and leading to some double-vision, I need reading glasses. Groovy.

Early this week, I found the trailer for Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, and I can hardly wait until November! Yes, I am that big of a Harry Potter fan. Proud of it. =)

Cat Pic Friday. This is one of the few times Tacy actually looked at the camera.

Can't think of a title

8 days until the recital...

Nearly everything is ready. Next week everyone involved will have a "dress rehearsal" of sorts so that we know where we'll be entering from, where the piano will be, and matters along those lines. There's only one piece that everyone is involved in, and I don't anticipate that many problems will arise with that (I hope not, as we haven't had the time to rehearse it!). The piece, "Si mantiene il mio amor" is really a bizarre piece to end a recital with. The text translates to "My love is nourished by grief, anxiety, and pain, so much that I cannot think about my beloved without being unhappy. I love, even thought I do not hope." Kind of a downer, you know? But it's a beautiful piece, and it will sound very nice with the two violins. I still need to finish the program notes and the actual program. Except for the English pieces, I printed all the texts and translations. Not being computer savvy, I had a heck of a time figuring out how to line up the original text and the translation, and finally came up with a method that isn't great, but worked. However, the Rachmaninoff text isn't side-by-side with the translation. Just couldn't pull that off.

This week, it's Cat Pic Saturday

On the vocal highwire

Sometimes, my voice surprises me.

After Alice made the comment that I might be a coloratura Rossini mezzo, I decided to take a closer look at Rosina's aria "Una voce poco fa" from The Barber of Seville. And, as anyone who has ever heard the aria knows, the repeated sections of the aria often include variations and ornaments. None of these are "officially" written in, but most singers who sing this aria put them in. I FINALLY got my hands on these variations and tried them out. Although some of the specific variations seemed to be aimed for sopranos (don't get me started on the topic of sopranos singing Rosina and other Rossini heroines. They just shouldn't and that's that. Maria Callas could, but she could have sung Figaro, Rosina, and Almaviva at the same time if she wanted to), but surprisingly, they fit in my voice. I won't be doing the high D# however; it's there, but it really doesn't like to be. Obviously, it's nowhere near being polished yet, but I know it can be. And that makes me happy.

My Russian education is continuing this summer, with a great deal of help. About a month ago, my dad had to do a funeral at a neighboring church because their pastor was in Germany visiting his daughter. The funeral was for a local farmer that many people knew, but no one had ever mentioned (to me at least) that his wife was Russian. During the preparations for the funeral, my dad talked to her several times, and mentioned that I was taking Russian and also that I'm a musician. So she told him to have me call her, saying that she would be happy to help me with my Russian. I've gone over to her house twice and have learned quite a bit! Who would have thought that in little Adams County, with our 30,000 people (lordy more people go to my university than live in my county), that there would be someone within 10 miles of me who speaks Russian! Funny story; she saw Dmitri Hvorostovsky sing in Moscow about 20 years ago before he really was anybody, and said that he was the only good singer in the whole show and that the chorus was especially bad. She also asked me where I work, and when I told her I work at a pizza place she shuddered and said, "No. No, don't work there. You protect voice, work on that." But I've enjoyed having someone to speak the language with and learn more of it myself. Fluency is my eventual goal, but if that ever happens, it won't be for years. But I've gained some new vocabulary and know some more complicated grammar structures.

Cat Pic Friday. Tacy's newest bad habit. Now we have to make sure the lids are down.

Cat Pic Friday!

Salem and Tacy on the kitchen stool.

Cat Pic Friday!

Salem is almost back to normal. He wants to go outside and is back to his old habits, like lounging on his back on the kitchen floor. Here he proudly displays his stitches.

Cat Pic Friday!

I'm also joining in on Cat Pic Friday. This is Tacy, my calico cat. It isn't a great picture, but it shows what she does all day.