End of an Era

A few weeks ago, in a lack-of-coffee-induced AM haze, I totaled my 10 year old Blue Saturn Coupe.  The accident was not that bad, but was my fault, and did more damage to my Saturn than she was worth.  I made do with a rental and with J's car for 2 weeks, and then finally, after research and test driving, last night I bought a new car.

Meet my economical, somewhat sporty, environmentally responsible red Prius!



J and I had been discussing getting a new car for me for awhile, and had done some research.  I had never thought about buying a Prius, but with all of the driving I do (500 miles or so a week sometimes!), it makes sense financially.

As much as I love this new car, I was really sad to see my little Saturn go.  She was a great car, and even though she was worn down, a little dirty, with no shocks and a slow oil leak, I was sad to see her go.  Last night, I even realized that yesterday, August 9th, was 10 years to the day that I got my Saturn.  She was a college graduation gift from my parents and in a way, marked my passage into adulthood.  I started thinking about what has transpired these past 10 years, and how she had been a part of it.

She took me to Spartanburg to move into my first post-college house.  She transported me on countless fruitless job interviews right after 9/11, and finally to a successful one that provided my first job.  She carried numerous college girls to many lunches, coffees, and dinners.  Cleaning her on Saturday mornings provided something for me to do other than sit inside watching TV.  She ferried my roommates and I on many ice cream outings.  She safely transported me to "the Branch" on icy and snowy roads.  She helped me map out the mileage for running courses during half-marathon training. She made the trip to Annapolis with me as I moved my life from SC to Maryland (while the Uhaul had most of my personal belongings, she carried the sterling and the grits!)

She got a fabulous daily workout commuting from Annapolis to the Westside of Baltimore every day. She took me to my first audition for the Chorale. She became an expert at navigating between Annapolis and SC. She experienced apartment living for the first time. Her backseat became the scene of many mid-afternoon naps. She transported me to my first date with my husband. And consequently made many trips to Baltimore over the next 2 years. And learned about Baltimore's window-breakers. She learned how to carry my bike during triathlon training. She's an expert at navigating the Chick-Fil-A Drive-thru. She became a fabulous partner on my wedding planning excursions. Her sound system kept me sane during crazy long commutes. She moved with me to Baltimore and took up residence in our tiny, one car garage. And she finally came to rest in a collision repair facility in Randallstown. Though by now, I'm guessing she is scrap metal and parts. :(

So, my attachment to my Saturn is obviously nostalgic. :) My Prius and I are getting used to each other...and I'm excited to see what my next 10 years with him/her will contain!

Some Things

Hello, my few and far between blog-readers!  I'm married!  It was lovely.  I now live in Baltimore in my New-to-me Old Victorian house with my husband (Husband!  It's taking awhile to get used to saying that).  My surprise Mini-moon destination was Napa Valley.  It was lovely, as well.

Christmas happened.  My parents and Godmother visited.  We have a humongous live tree.  It's beautiful.

New Years' is around the corner.  We'll get our professional wedding pictures back in a few weeks.  I'll hopefully get some posted here.

Now that I have a new camera and am not furiously house-buying and wedding-planning, I hope to complete the 365 project this year.

Please see my next few posts for a 2010 year-end review (my, my, the changes that have occured!), an evaluation of last years' resolutions, and my resolutions for 2011.

Holy Smokes...It's October!

I love October.  But this year...it's a little frightening!  Simply because we have hit the under 2 months 'til the wedding mark.  Yikes!  Sorry for falling off the 365 wagon.  I had some pictures on my camera...but lost the USB cord to link it to my computer.  Still searching for that...

Anyway, here's a brief little numerical update on what's going on in my life.

Days until I'm no longer single: 50
Wedding tasks completed: 119
Wedding tasks left to complete: 92
Mini-moon facts left to ponder: 51
Concerts to sing this year: 3
Pieces of furniture to move to Baltimore: 14
Boxes to pack: ~20
People who have RSVP'ed YES: 60
Days I exercised in September: 23
Roommates I will miss: 1
Kitties I love: 2
Doggies I will soon adopt: 2
Houses I currently "live" in: 2
Hours until I see my fiance again: 24
Temperature I desire on Nov 20th: 55
Husbands I want to acquire: 1
Daily cups of coffee: 3 (Yikes...used to be 1)

One of the Challenges of Being Engaged to an Opera Singer

There are definitely some challenges related to being engaged to an opera singer, or really a performer of any kind.  During rehearsals and performances of a show, they are rarely available, most evenings are taken up with the performance, etc.  But really, those types of "time together" challenges can be an issue for any engaged couple.  However, today I ran into a challenge that is quite unique to being the significant other of an opera singer.

J is a performer who is very willing to change his appearance for a show.  In the time that we have been together, he has sported quite a few different facial hair looks, almost all for different shows.  A trimmed beard, a bushy beard, a weird Edwardian Goatee, a Handlebar mustache, a 70s pornstache (ew!), and even some clean-shaven times.  Though, the clean-shaven time is generally to get rid of whatever strange facial hair look he was sporting in a prior show.

It's kind of funny how my view on facial hair has changed since I started dating J.  From high school through college and beyond, I was pretty much against any guy having facial hair (any of my college friend readers remember when we painted mascara beards on our faces to protest the facial hair growout of our guy friends?)  However, as I stated above, J has had some facial hair for almost all of the time we've been together.  He even met my parents for the first time sporting the Handlebar mustache!  After we had been dating for about 6 months, he had some time without a show on the horizon and asked me what he should do with his facial hair.  I told him I wanted to see him clean shaven.  So he did.  And you know what?  I really wasn't a fan.  I'd become so used to him with facial hair, that he didn't look like J without it.  Crazy, huh?  For some reason, when he is clean-shaven, it looks like he is trying too hard to be presentable!  My favorite J look is a nicely trimmed beard.  Presentable, but still my J.  Which is what I hope he will be sporting for the wedding!

Anyway, for his current role as Monostatos in the Magic Flute, the director has the vision of Monostatos as a former gang-banger ex con Hispanic chaffeur.  Yeah.  Go figure that one...it's going to be an interesting performance, complete with a hispanic accent.  I haven't seen J since he shaved his beard into these odd L-shaped sideburns.  And then this morning, he sent me a picture of his self-tanned face.  Which in the picture looked rather orange.  Normally, I'd just shrug and say, "Oh well, he'll be back to normal J in a few weeks".  The problem?  We were supposed to shoot our Engagement Photos next Tuesday, in the midst of this Magic Flute run.  I had been so concerned with figuring out what I was going to wear to look most myself (as you are supposed to for Engagement pics), how I was going to do my hair, make-up, etc....that I forgot about J's appearance!

Luckily, we have a very flexible photographer who was able to reschedule for us!  I just want to be able to look back at the pictures and look like "us"...not..."Oh, right, J was in that show where he had wacko sideburns and was orange." :)  So ladies, a warning...if you find yourselves engaged to a stage performer, be sure not to schedule photo-ops while they are in the middle of a show!

More News...

Oh, hi there.  Welcome to the blog I update monthly, I suppose.  I really do have these grandiose dreams of updating this thing daily...or every other day...but life gets in the way.  As many other bloggers have written, "I've been busy living life instead of writing about it".  This pretty much sums up my situation.

However.  You are certainly due an update.  So here goes...

First of all, we are under contract for a house!  What?  You didn't know we were looking for a house?  I think I mentioned in my last update that we were merely thinking about looking.  Actually, it's kind of been a whirlwind search/offering process.  I looked at real estate one day and thought it seemed like a good time to buy a house, mentioned it to J...and we were off and running.  The tax credit ending April 30th had something to do with it as well.  The house is an old Victorian, circa 1890, that has been completely redone from a shell.  The folks who renovated it restored everything exactly the way I would have..black and white tile bathroom, pressed copper kitchen ceiling, etc.  Your next question must be, "How can a lowly software trainer and opera singer/private club membership director afford such a grand home?".  Well...it's in a transitional neighborhood.  Most of the houses around it have been redone, but two blocks over and back is a different story.  I always said that I'd love to live in a historic home, even if the area was not so good.  My only stipulation was that I'd have to be married.  And I will be.

Wedding plans are coming along.  My goal of having most everything planned by Mother's Day is becoming a reality.  Now we just have the fun details to complete.

This past weekend, J and I drove to SC for the ginormous Engagement Party dessert drop-in my parents threw.  Our parents also met for the first time.  It was quite an eventful weekend!  Everything went well, and overall, I had a good time.  The party itself was a bit overwhelming...I haven't talked to that many people in 5 hours ever.  EVER.  I felt like I spent too much time talking to people I didn't know well, and didn't get to spend enough time with those I wanted to.  I guess everyone understood, but it still was difficult for me.  J was a real trooper, considering the fact that he knew almost no one.  Thank goodness he is quite an extrovert!

Well goodness.  I think that is all.  I can't promise an update anytime soon, since I will hopefully be busy living life.  We'll see.

Whirlwind of Life

Oh hello!  Why yes, I am still living, breathing, thinking, feeling, loving, and planning.  Just still not picture taking. :(  However, I will be getting a new camera verrry soon (hopefully this weekend), and I will try to resume my 365 project.  I'm just considering the month of March a FAIL, and moving on.  Anyway, I thought I'd do a quick bullet point update for anyone who has missed me!

• Oh my, I am neck deep in wedding planning.  Enjoying some moments immensely (cake-tasting and wedding discussion time with J)...and others not so much (emailing and calling vendors with no response).  So far, we have a church, a reception venue, a cake, and a photographer.   I have a dress and shoes.  We registered for gifts.  We still need a DJ, official hotel block, and flowers.  But all in all, I think it is going well!

•  On the topic of wedding planning...I find it ridiculous that it is so difficult to get vendors to respond to emails requesting information.  We're in a recession...and I am a potential source of money!  If you aren't going to respond to a contact form on your website, then don't put it out there!  I even had a hard time getting some people to call me back.  I can tell you, though, that I am not hiring anyone who won't call back.  As much as I hate the phone, it makes me nervous to think I wouldn't be able to get in contact with someone before the wedding if I needed to!

• At the beginning of this month, some of my friends threw us a fabulous surprise engagement party!  I honestly had NO idea it was coming.  It was a fabulous party with many of our favorite people...complete with a piano player, bartender (the very same one who witnessed our engagement!), fabulous food, and valet parking.  I was so shocked when we walked in, that I think I was speechless for awhile!  We were so grateful for such a special party, and all the effort and love that went into it!  I must also confess that I broke my Lenten discipline and had wine.  But, I figured it is the only surprise engagement party I will have in my life, and I would regret not having some of the tasty bordeaux and cabernet that was provided.  I always say that I am not legalistic about my faith...and this was a night to prove it! :)

• We are headed to SC in a few weeks for an engagement party that my parents are throwing for us.  I am looking forward to that as well!

• On a non-wedding note, we sang Bach's St. Matthew Passion this past weekend.  I hope I can write more about this piece later, because it really moved me so much more than I expected.  I was fighting back tears through both performances.  I am normally not one to jump on a musical bandwagon, but I am really quite a fan of this piece.

• I am really excited about Holy Week and Easter this year.  I am loving singing in a church choir again, especially one that performs works from composers that lived 200 years ago or more.  I have seriously missed good choral church music.

• J and I are thinking about buying a house this summer.  An exciting and frightening prospect.

I think that is about all I can fit into a 5 minute update.  Hopefully I'll be back to elaborate more soon...

45/365 A First

The place setting at my very first Valentine's Day Date.  Well worth the wait.  As was the company...:)

**Note: Days 43 and 44 are on the camera but not accessible to me today.  I will hopefully get them posted tonight!

14/365 A Little Bling...

Well, I thought I would be arriving back at my house on Wednesday evening with only the bling from my Disney races.  J had a different idea, however.

 

(For some reason, I can't get the pic larger today)

He very sneakily invited me to join him for a drink after rehearsal at the wine bar where we had our first date.  I go there often, so no bells went off that this was different from any other night!  We ordered drinks, and then he began to tell me how much he missed while I was at Disney and that he had done a lot of thinking about where we are headed.  I wasn't clued in to what was happening until he reached into his pocket, pulled out the ring, got down on one knee and asked me if I would do him the honor of marrying him!

Needless to say, I was shocked!  The funniest part was that I was still in my grungy travel clothes and the dirty pink fleece I had worn for 6 days in freezing Orlando.  At least it wasn't the stinky marathon fleece that I was tempted to wear for warmth...

Sorry for the blurry picture above.  I think it's definitely time for a new camera...my cameraphone and 3.0 megapixel camera just aren't cutting it anymore!

Decade in Review

Apparently, a lame blog year in review is not enough...seeing that I have now been reminded by countless "Decade in Review" stories on TV and the internet that we are closing out a decade.  Is it the 0s?  How do you say that...the "ohs"?  Or the two thousands?  Are we going to the tens?  Anyway, here is my very brief Decade in Review.  Too bad I don't have a picture to post from each year...that would be great!  But would have required a scanner and me remembering before today that we are closing out a decade.  Oh well.  Maybe next decade...

2000:  Y2k happens.  Or doesn't happen...depending on whether you thought the world would end or not.  I spend 2.5 months of the summer in Mexico with Campus Outreach.  Don't want to leave, but must finish college.

2001: I graduate from college, barely squeaking out a Cum Laude honor.  By .01 of a grade point.  I go 6 months without a real job.  September 11th occurs, further dashing my hopes of a real job.  In November, I begin what turns out to be a dead-end-for-me job at a bank.

2002: Turns out to be the hardest year of my life so far that I have learned the most from.  Heart gets broken by a boy, job is slow and not challenging, I am bored.  Life in the "real world" outside of college is hard.  Come to know God more for it, but somehow become bitter, too.

2003:  I discover that I need both athletic and musical outlets in my life, even though I am out of college.  Join a chorus and train for a half marathon.  Two decisions that have made huge differences in my life, even today.

2004:  Heart is broken again, but this time I leave dead-end depressing job at bank and SC (my home for 25 years)...and move my life to Annapolis, MD.  Best decision yet!

2005:  I am a little bit lonely, but am slowly making friends and adjusting to life in Maryland.

2006:  I go on last minute Bulgarian Carmina Burana tour to Florida with the chorale.  Make what I feel sure will (even today) be lifelong friends.  Spend too much money going out to eat and drink with said friends.  Move into Home for Wayward Chorus Girls to save money.  Another great decision.

2007: Run first marathon.  Get new, more likable, better paying, shorter commute job.

2008: Make off-the-cuff decision to sing in the chorus with operetta company in Baltimore.  Meet J.  Start dating J.

2009:  I turn 30 and buy my first diamonds, a pair of earrings.  Spend birthday in New York City.  Fall in love with J.  Train for Goofy Challenge.  Go to the opera a lot.

So that's it!  My Decade in Review...boy has my life changed!  Not quite as drastically as my friends who now are married with 3 or 4 kids, but I am in a different geographic location!  That should count for something.

Happy New Year, everyone!

Fall Nesting and Perspectives on Life

Something about cool Fall weather brings out my nesting instinct full force. Perhaps it is knowing that I will soon be hunkering down to survive the cold winter (relatively cold...at least for my thin SC blood!). In any case, I have this strong desire to clean, to organize my closet and drawers, to cook comfort food, to drink apple cider, and to snuggle with the kitty cat on the couch with a blanket and football. Sounds idyllic, huh? October is my favorite month, but this year I have not had time to indulge my nesting instinct. I did manage to get my fall/winter bedding on the bed, but that is about it. In the past I have had a few completely free October weekends to get my space/life "winter ready", but I have missed that this year. Between football, singing, and spending time with my boyfriend, I haven't had a chance to bring order to that area of my world. But for once, that's ok. I've been breaking my tasks up into little chunks I can complete each night that I'm home, and I think I'm making progress!

This Saturday could have been a perfect nesting day, but instead I declared a "do nothing" day for J and I. He was staying with us for the weekend since he performed in one of the Chorale's performances on Friday and Saturday night. We watched football, went to a wine tasting, began the process of making "lime-on-cello", and hung out. It was really relaxing. Saturday night, I went to his performance.

**I don't talk about my relationship with J on here very much...mostly because I think it's the type of thing best discussed in person. But, I'm going to break my rule here just a bit...**

It's so interesting for me to go to J's performances and hear people talk about how great he sounds, his lovely singing, etc. To be honest, sometimes I forget he is really a singer. We don't talk about it all that often (though it is part of his profession). I mean, we talk about music, but not in terms of his career in music. I don't get to go to his performances as often as I would like, so it is a treat for me. To be completely honest, the fact that he sings well was one of the first things that attracted me (I mean come one...anyone who knows me should not be surprised by that!). But it was more of a novel thing like, "Hey, I've gone on a couple of dates with an opera singer!". Or, "Hey, see that guy up there singing on the Jumbotron at Nationals Park? I was on a date with him last night". I must admit, that was pretty fun. :)

But now? Now he is not an opera singer to me...he's just J. A generous and compassionate man who for some reason decided to fight hard for me and not let me run away like I tried to do after our first couple of dates. A man who has seen so many of my insecurities and hasn't run away yet. Someone who, without trying, points me back to where I need to be spiritually on a regular basis. Having someone like him in my life is so much more valuable than the novelty of dating an opera singer. When we do talk about his singing, etc, I have a phrase I use in a bit of a sarcastic manner. "Poor, untalented J." I think I coined the phrase when we were organizing his opera scores and I ran across a few inscribed by Placido Domingo when J sang some solo roles in Washington. Sometimes I think he thinks I am being a little catty, but I really am in awe of his talent and the hard work he has put in to sing well.

Anyway, pardon my mushiness, but I've just been thinking about the interesting nature of that recently. I won't get to do any fall nesting activities this weekend, but I will get to spend time with J. And that is certainly more valuable than having a "winter ready" house!