Take your daughter to vote

Today was just like any ordinary day. I got up this morning around 6:00 a.m. and got ready for work, took the girls to school and then drove to the office for the usual day. After I got off of work at 3:00 I drove to the high school to pick the girls up, as usual. Most generally, I get there a few minutes before the girls make their way out of the building, so I sit in the car and listen to my music, (most often Mozart, of course), and wait until they get there. Today, as I saw Lauren making her way out of the building I observed that she had a huge grin across her face. I thought that perhaps someone had just said something funny to her, or something really exciting had happened to her at school. So when Lauren got in the car I inquired, "What's the big grin about?" And you're not even going to be able to imagine what she said, "I'm just sooooo excited because I'm going to vote!"

Lauren turned 18 in September, and one of the very first things that she did was register to vote. I'll never forget the day she received her voter ID card in the mail. She literally jumped up and down like a kid in a candy store! I'm not kidding. This girl was that excited over it! Today when we pulled into the parking lot of the Stillwater Airport, (our polling place), she jumped out of her seat and flew out the car door. When we got into line she was still grinning from ear-to-ear. She proudly walked up and presented her ID card and signed her name. Then she told the man who handed Lauren her ballot that she was a first-time voter and asked him if he could explain to her what she needed to do. The woman sitting next to him looked up at me and smiled and said, "We need more young people who are as excited about voting as her!" Needless to say, I was proud of her, as I am always.

When we arrived home she changed into her uniform for work and proudly donned her "I Voted" sticker on her shirt. As we walked out the door she was still grinning as she exclaimed, "I just exercised one of my Constitutional rights! I now have a voice in this country!" Her enthusiasm was contagious and it gave me pause to think about the times when I have taken that right, my voice, for granted, and not exercised it as I should have.

From now on, when it comes election time, I will remember the enthusiastic smile on the face of my eighteen-year-old daughter, and perhaps it will cause me to remember what a joy it truly is to exercise my right to vote.

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Food for thought

Having once been a minister's wife for eighteen years I learned a few things about gatherings which involve food. During our potluck lunch at work today I made a pronouncement from the voice of experience. I stated that in my years as a minister's wife I learned that the worst food is found at wedding receptions, and the best food is found at funerals. It's true. And the reason being is that for the most part, wedding reception food is catered, institutional, cookie-cutter, everyone-has-the-same-thing-on-their-plate food. On the other hand, food prepared for funerals is food you'd find at a church potluck. It's Mom's homemade coconut cream pie, special potato salad, that green bean casserole that everyone's Aunt Mabel used to make, and church-lady fried chicken. It's comfort food, food with soul, given and prepared from the heart with special attention, care, and love.

I found out today that this group of realtors can throw a potluck that can rival any Southern Baptist church, (Probably because most of the realtors in our office are women, AND Southern Baptists!). I think that it's time for me to get out some of my old church-lady cook books and dust them off.

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The frustrated teacher in me

In the last several years I have discovered that I have a gift. When I was in college I majored in vocal performance and church music, and purposely avoided getting my teaching certificate because I really had no interest in teaching. Now, I fear that I may have made a mistake, and that my first love really is teaching/mentoring.

I love to teach private voice students, but thus far have had little success in gaining students in this area, so I have sought out and found another place in which to exercise my teaching skills and do it in a way that is creative, interesting, entertaining, and interactive. I have discovered MySpace. Yeah, I know... MySpace is the Devil, but hear me out before you close your mind.

MySpace is a place dominated by young people who are out looking for entertainment, networking, and plain having a good time. So I figure that if I can't get them to come to me, I'll go to them.

Running a close second to music is my love for history. No, actually, it's probably a tie. I love history every bit as much as I love music, and when the two are combined, I am in my element. So here's where I've used MySpace to get my foot in the door and reach young people with my two loves--classical music and history. I portray, historical/musical characters on MySpace, using authentic voices and introducing them to music, history, and the real people behind the music/history. And the amazing thing about it is that it's extremely successful!

I portray three different characters, all having an association with Mozart, and with one another:

• Nancy Storace
• Antonio Salieri
• Emperor Joseph II, of Austria

All three characters are extremely popular on MySpace and interact with Mozart as well as others in the MySpace "realm". The kids love it, and I have a great time doing it.

Who said that history can't be fun?

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No One Like You

I like your eyes.

I like your nose.

I like your mouth.
Your ears, your hands, your toes.
I like your face.
It's really you.
I like the things you say and do.
There's not a single soul
Who sees the skies
The way you see them.
Through your eyes.
And aren't you glad.
You should be glad.
There's no one, no one
Exactly like you.

Happy Birthday, you...

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Reflections on a Friendship

For some reason, I'm not exactly sure why, a certain person has been in my thoughts for several days. I first met him in the fall of 1999 when I began my graduate work at OSU. I knew from the moment I laid eyes on him that he and I were going to have a great relationship, but I had no I idea what he would come to mean to my life and how deep a friendship we would cultivate.

I've known this person for over seven years now, and in that seven years he has seen me go through a tremendous amount of turmoil and upheaval in my life. Indeed, he was the first one to know of my feelings for Steph, for it was on a cold and snowy February afternoon that I ran to his office in the Seretean Center, and with tears streaming down my cheeks, confessed to him of the forbidden love that would tear my life and the lives of my family apart. He sat and listened without judgment, but with tremendous concern for me and for the impact that a love like this would have on me and upon my family. Then when there was nothing else to be said, he threw his arms around me in an embrace and said, "Welcome to my side of the fence, darling!"

Since then, Allen Scott has been there beside me through every major event in my life. When Steph was so ill with ear infections that she couldn't get out of bed and I had to go to Texas to get my grandmother, Allen called to check on her, making sure that she was alright. When news got out of my mother's death, Allen came to our home with food, comfort, a listening ear, and a shoulder to cry on. In fact, Allen was the only person during that time who gave in such a manner. He repeated the same gesture a little over a year ago when Steph's mother died. Allen was there for me with support and friendship when I went through the hell of losing my children. He was the one who encouraged me to keep going when I didn't feel as if I had any resources of strength or perseverance left. He has been there beside Steph and me in our sorrows and our triumphs with his encouragement and amazing sense of humor, class, and style. Allen served as the chair of my graduate committee, and during my tenure at OSU, on two different occasions, I was blessed to sit under his instruction. Without Allen Scott, the world would know a whole lot less about Anna Storace, for it was Allen who encouraged and inspired me in my research on her. He was present at the party that was filmed and made into one of the scenes in Mozartballs. (Of course, he would be the one opening the champagne!) Allen has always been there to support and encourage me whenever I perform. He came to see me in the role of Katisha in The Mikado, when my own voice professor couldn't find it worth her time to come, and when Steph and I gave our screening party for Mozartballs, he was one of the most excited, most enthusiastic members of the audience, staying well into the wee hours of the morning to again, discuss the implications of this film upon Steph and my lives.

I can name on one hand the people who have been this important, and this close to my life. Each have contributed in profound and in different ways. I have been blessed to have people like these, who have loved unconditionally, who have supported and encouraged, and done it all without thought of themselves or what was in it for them. And among them is Allen, who will always be regarded as one of the dearest.

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Into every life...

Yeah, I know, a little rain must fall. But sometimes it's just damned inconvenient and a pain in the ass. Last night, Steph and I took Lauren to Tulsa for an interview with a representative from St. John's College and then out to dinner with my dad and his wife. The drive there was pleasant enough, although Steph really wasn't feeling well, and had been in an irritable mood earlier, (Tylenol III works wonders in such instances).

The interview went well, and Steph and I were so proud of our girl, who looked so professional and smart all dressed up in her suit and heels. She was articulate and intelligent, and we sat at a nearby table and gloated like only two proud parents could. Afterwards, we met my dad and Mary at The Olive Garden in Utica Square Mall, and had a really great time with them. After we got into the car and started pulling out of the parking lot, however, I realized that things were not all right with the car. It has been giving us indications for several months now, that a belt was going out, but we've just not been in the financial position to take it in and have it looked at. We thought, mistakenly, that we could keep nursing it along and that it would be okay. Well, last night, in the middle of the highway, just out of Sand Springs, it died. It just died.

Fortunately I was able to coast the car onto the shoulder and call my dad on Lauren's cell phone, and he came out to get us. Much to Steph's dismay, we had to leave the car sitting on the side of the road, near an overpass outside of Sand Springs as Dad drove us home to Stillwater.

There is a silver lining on this rain cloud, however. Micah has graciously offered to drive out with Steph to Sand Springs and get the car, tow it back with his truck, and if it is truly the engine belt, fix it. And if we're lucky, it will cost us a tank of gasoline, the rental price of a U-haul tow dolly, the cost of an engine belt part, and a couple of beers. Ah well!

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We will never forget

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Ready for some music

I've got the itch again. It has been nearly four months since I've done any serious singing and I'm ready to get back to work! Chamber Singers begins rehearsals on the 17th and I'm frothing at the bit to get started. We're doing the Faure Requiem along with some other Romantic Period pieces for our first concert in November. I'm excited, too, because my daughter, Lauren will be joining us for the November concert. Mark needed to pad the group up a little for the Faure and invited Lauren, along with a few others, to join us for the one concert. She seems pretty excited about getting to sing with us.

In other musical news, I have a couple of new voice students and a possibility for a new piano student. AND the DVD version of Mozartballs is due out very soon! Can't wait for that because there are 17 minutes more footage of Steph and me, as well as me singing at the Masonic Temple in Guthrie. Waiting on pins and needles!

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Ready for some music

I've got the itch again. It has been nearly four months since I've done any serious singing and I'm ready to get back to work! Chamber Singers begins rehearsals on the 17th and I'm frothing at the bit to get started. We're doing the Faure Requiem along with some other Romantic Period pieces for our first concert in November. I'm excited, too, because my daughter, Lauren will be joining us for the November concert. Mark needed to pad the group up a little for the Faure and invited Lauren, along with a few others, to join us for the one concert. She seems pretty excited about getting to sing with us.

In other musical news, I have a couple of new voice students and a possibility for a new piano student. AND the DVD version of Mozartballs is due out very soon! Can't wait for that because there are 17 minutes more footage of Steph and me, as well as me singing at the Masonic Temple in Guthrie. Waiting on pins and needles!

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You never know

This evening Steph opened her email and found a letter from a publisher of music books in Italy. They found this picture that I took of Steph in the window of Mozart's music room in the Figarohaus a year ago and thought it was so beautiful that they want to use it for the cover of one of their books!

It's probably my very favorite photo of the entire trip, and most certainly one of my favorite photographs of Steph. I just can't believe that someone else found it as beautiful as I do. And I'm not even a photographer!

It just goes to show that you never know what life has waiting for you around the corner.

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How the mighty will fall

I started to write a blog entry of my own on the subject of Rev. Ted Haggard and his escapades with a male prostitute in Denver, (not to mention the purchase and usage of methamphetamines from the same said male prostitute/masseuse), but when I found THIS ONE I realized that this says it all.

All I need to add is that, in my opinion, it couldn't have happened to a nicer guy. And uh, Pastor Ted, I don't recall Jesus ever saying anything about homosexuality, but I DO recall his condemnation of adultery.

"I bought it but I never used it...". Yeah right, Pastor Ted. I recall someone else saying that they smoked weed but they didn't inhale. We're not that stupid.

• Sunday, November 5th: This commentary just in from BBSN! A must read!
  
  
• Monday, November 6th: Another excellent commentary responding to Pastor Mark Driscoll of Seattle's Mars Hills mega-church-wannabe.
  

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A year ago today

Steph and I were traveling by train from Vienna to Salzburg to continue filming for Mozartballs. When we arrived in Salzburg and checked into our hotel, I decided to turn the TV on to CNN International and catch up on some news from the states. Our filming schedule in Vienna had been so hectic that we didn't have time to catch up on anything. When I turned the TV on, we heard the reports coming in from New Orleans of the disaster left by Hurricane Katrina. That evening we joined Larry Weinstein and the rest of the crew at the Stieglkeller restaurant, which was across the river and up the Festungsgasse. We were exhausted from the past few days' shoots, but the good food, good fellowship, and good Stieglkeller bier gave us the strength to carry on!

If we thought the past days were hectic, they were nothing compared to the next day ahead. It wasn't so bad for me, but for Steph, it was grueling. Steph and I both filmed at the hotel, (my profile photo), and then Steph was filmed all over Salzburg including the Mozart family grave, the Mozart Wohnhaus, and then after changing into his Mozart clothes, all over the Kapitelplatz, and the Festungsgasse. We didn't arrive back at the hotel until around midnight. Having had nothing to eat since lunch, we decided to walk down the street from the hotel to a little wurst stand, and get something to bring back to our room.

The next day was an off-day and after sleeping in, we awakened, dressed, and went to have a light lunch at a hotel restaurant and beer garden, not far from our hotel. I don't remember what Steph had, but I had the most delicious potato soup I think that I've ever tasted! After that, we returned to our hotel and napped before we dressed and then walked over the bridge to the old town to do some browsing and shopping for gifts to take back home to the kids.

We walked the ancient, cobblestone streets of Salzburg, held hands, and dreamed of the day when we would return to Austria as ex-patriots, living in Vienna. After we spent a couple of hours strolling through old Salzburg, we met our English friends, Liz and Nigel in front of Mozart's Geburtshaus, and had a joyous time meeting them face-to-face for the first time. We bought some drinks and sat at a table in the platz and talked for a while before we all walked together to an old restaurant where Mozart, Haydn, and other Austrian notables were known to have frequented, Zum Mohren. (Steph is fond of telling everyone that when one goes to the restroom, one can touch the ancient Roman city walls while taking a dump.) Our dinner with Liz and Nigel was fabulous, and we parted wishing that we could have more time together. It's our hope that one day we will be able to go to visit them in England, and then all travel to Salzburg together!

The next morning we awakened and packed our bags for the return train trip back to Vienna. Our return trip was not nearly as pleasant as the trip to Salzburg, because the porter ripped us off out of our first class ticket compartment! Seeing that we were Americans, and two women traveling together, he pulled the "I-don't-understand-English-well" routine and tried to tell us that our tickets were not first class tickets, and that we would have to pay twenty Euros more each to upgrade them to first class or go and sit in business class. Steph and I were too exhausted to argue with him so we gathered our luggage and moved, grumbling that if Gerhardt had been with us, this wouldn't have happened.

We arrived back in Vienna worn out, but needing the day to debrief and have some time alone, together in the city we loved.

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Okay, this is too cool

Steph and I have just come home from an evening of dinner out and shopping, something that we've not been able to do with one another for a couple of months since Steph has been so swamped with this huge web design project. Anyway, while we were out, we saw an outfit, a puce skirt and top that I couldn't pass up. Now that I'm working as a front desk receptionist in a real estate office, I need some nice looking clothes so I felt justified in buying it. But even more exciting is the fact that I have dropped TWO SIZES in the last two months!

This is a picture that Lauren just took of me wearing my new outfit! I'm starting to get a waistline again! Hooray!!!

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Kindness and Patience make all the difference

Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant 5 or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; 6 it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. 7 Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. I Corinthians, chapter 14, verses 4-7

It has always struck me as odd and hypocritical that those who boast the loudest about their "relationship with the Lord" can be among those who are the least patient and kind. Such would be the case for my most recent former employer, Dr. "JD". Here was a man who boasts of how active he is in his church, how he teaches a junior high boy's Sunday School class, and talks to his patients about how "the Lord" created us, and yet he is one of the most impatient, unkind, boastful, arrogant, and rude human beings that I have encountered in a long time.

I have a new job now. I work as a front desk receptionist/secretary at a local long-established realtor's firm and the difference is like night and day! There isn't even any comparison. It's an office of mostly middle-aged women, all with various backgrounds and experience. Some are regular church-goers, I'm certain, but none of them broadcast their "faith in the Lord". All are successful realtors, and depend on the work I do to keep them successful. I have been there on a three-quarter time basis (8:00 to 3:00) for just under a week now, and I already feel like "one of the girls". From day one I felt accepted, needed, valued, and welcomed. They have been patient and kind with me while I am in the learning phase. They don't have unrealistic or demanding expectations. They treat me with consideration and respect, and as a result I am learning the job much quicker and easier. In less than a week I have shown excellent progress and I am gaining speed, accuracy, confidence, and skill by the day. I never feel nervous or jittery, never feel as if I'm going to have a panic attack, and no one has ever made me cry, (and if they did, my office supervisor, Denise, would rip them a new one). The days seem to fly by and I find, for the first time in a long time, that I really enjoy my job. I can thrive in such an atmosphere.

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When love is forever

One of the greatest things about the belief in reincarnation is the fact that when Steph and I tell one another that we love one another forever, it doesn't simply mean in the future. We know that we are already living it. Forever is past, present, and future. I have loved, I love, and I will love this soul forever. And to me, there is nothing more comforting nor secure than knowing that I'm always loved and that I will always love.


Today's Musical feature is Mozart's Andante & Variations in G major, for piano (four hands), K. 501

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Taking some time to heal

I'm not one to give up on anything, nor am I one to say "die", but there comes a time when one realizes that it's time to throw in the towel. My new job did not work out, not because I didn't like the work, not because I wasn't learning and doing well, but because my boss was such an arrogant, impatient, abrasive and abusive jerk that I went to work every morning with knots in my stomach, and came home ill. I have been in such a state for the last two weeks that I have hardly been able to function. At first I thought it was me, and that I just needed to buck up and get with the program. He seemed great at first, but as time progressed I began to see a different side of him, and yesterday, when he flew into a thither over a minor mistake that one of the receptionists made, and then proceeded to rip the heads of every other staff member off and shit down our necks if we so much as looked in his direction, I knew that things in that place were not cool. I came home for lunch in tears and proceeded to announce to Steph that I could not take this any longer, and then I had myself a quiet little panic attack. My heart started pounding, I couldn't stop crying, I could hear the blood "whoosh" through my ears, I was nauseated, and I had a raging headache. Steph called Ville over at Express Personnel and told her that I was not going back in for the afternoon and explained why.

This morning, very early, I called in sick to Express Personnel. Today I plan to see the doctor to get a note telling them that I cannot continue at that job and why. It's not worth my health. Ville has already re-opened my files and is looking for a new job for me. In the meantime, we're doing well. We now have steady income coming in from Steph's web design work and at least for a couple of months we're going to be okay until Ville can find something else for me. And while she's looking, I'm going to take some time to help Steph with this current web project as well as do some healing things for myself, like finish this book about Mozart that I got for my birthday and learn to play my new guitar!

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Mozartballs to be featured at the Okie Blogger Roundup

Okay, I admit it... I had to swallow hard when Steph announced to me only a few minutes ago that it was official that Mozartballs would be showing at the Okie Blogger Roundup on September 23rd. I'm a little nervous about this one!

I apologize for the lack of entries over the last couple of weeks. I have been stressed and exhausted during this period of training and getting settled into my new job. I like the job, but it is a bit stressful and demanding at times. I'm starting to settle in better now and I'm feeling a bit more confident. I've also been busy building my two new My Space sites. One is my own personal My Space site, and the other is one that I've created for Nancy Storace. They've been a fun, creative diversion for me.

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Busy Weekend

It was a busy weekend, but restful nonetheless. Heather returned from spending a few weeks with her Dad and with her, Nathan, who will spend the next three weeks here before he goes back to Wichita to begin school. In only six weeks he has grown taller than his Dad and has gained muscle across his chest and in his arms! He is no longer a boy, but a young man. It was good to see them both. I really didn't realize how much I have missed them.

Today I begin my last week at my old job and on the 31st I start full time at my new job. I'm ready. The transition between the two is fatiguing and I'm ready to leave the past behind. Saturday I did laundry and commented that this would be my last load of scrubs. At my new job I wear regular street clothes and a lab coat. I feel rather professional!

Tomorrow is Heather's 16th birthday, so I'm taking her out this evening after work to get her birthday present. This weekend she's having a party with some of her friends, so the house will be filled with noisy teens! Oh joy! And BTW, happy belated birthday to my brother!

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This marriage

I found a text which describes perfectly what I have found and celebrate in my own life with the love of my life. This text has been artfully and sensitively set to music by Los Angeles composer, Eric Whitacre. It is most definitely worth a click to listen.

May these vows and this marriage be blessed.

May it be sweet milk,
this marriage, like wine and halvah.
May this marriage offer fruit and shade
like the date palm.
May this marriage be full of laughter,
our every day a day in paradise.
May this marriage be a sign of compassion,
a seal of happiness here and hereafter.
May this marriage have a fair face and a good name,
an omen as welcomes the moon in a clear blue sky.
I am out of words to describe
how spirit mingles in this marriage.

Kulliyat-i-Shams 2667

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Let tyrants shake their iron rods

Independence Day used to be one of my favorite holidays. When I was a child I loved the family cook outs at the lake, fireworks, patriotic music playing on the stereo, and all the hype surrounding the 4th of July. But now, in light of the war in Iraq, the political and social unrest in our nation, and the lack of respect that our government has for our Founding Fathers and their desire to establish a new kind of nation built on freedom, equality, and liberty for all people, I find myself at a loss as to how and if I should celebrate this day at all.

It seems that our nation has lost its zeal for liberty and that we have traded it for the zeal for conquest, acquisition, and conforming others to our way of thought, belief, and life. We have become no less tyrannical than the British against whom we rebelled in the 18th century. We have become the enemy we decried, and I stand and watch with fear and sadness at how so many other nations of the world hold us in such disdain.

Today I will celebrate with my family in the usual manner. We will grill hamburgers outdoors and Lauren and I will light sparklers in the back yard and then we'll all pile into the car and drive to the lake for the annual Lion's Club community fireworks display. It's tradition. And even though the tyrants are once again shaking their iron rods, and the tyrants happen to be our own government, I will still celebrate the principles on which this nation was established. And I will pray that we will return to those principles before it is too late.

Let tyrants shake their iron rod,
And slav'ry clank her galling chains;
We fear them not; we trust in God,
New England's God forever reigns.

Howe and Burgoyne and Clinton, too,
With Prescott and Cornwallis joined,
Together plot our overthrow,
In one infernal league combined.

When God inspired us for the fight,
Their ranks were broke; their lines were forced,
Their ships were shattered in our sight,
Or swiftly driven from our shore.

The foe comes on with haughty stride,
Our troops advance with martial noise;
Their veterans flee before our youth,
And generals yield to beardless boys.

What grateful off'ring shall we bring,
What shall we render to the Lord?
Loud hallelujahs let us sing,
And praise his name on ev'ry chord!

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