Stop the ride please, I'd like to get off

If this were my journal (which it really actually is) I'd flip back to where I last left off and pick it up from there, so thats what I'm going to do. After all a wise woman once taught me to start at the very beginning (a very good place to start). Shameless, I know. So lets see, the last time I really wrote was a week ago Sunday so I'll start with Monday.

Layne is into his new softball league "full swing" (pun definitely intended) and is still playing basketball Tuesday nights with some guys from our ward. Its been good for me since I have needed the time he's gone to rehearse for my audition. Layne has really enjoyed getting involved in sports again, but its not without its price. He had jammed his thumb during warm ups and proceeded to play on it for over and hour. Well this is what happens when you don't ice an injury.
Beautiful isn't it? The next day it was purple and green and the size of a softball. I've jammed enough fingers in my time to know what happens if you don't ice, ice, ice!!

Wed. was a very busy day at work and I barely made it home in time to change my clothes and be at the church at 6:00 to take our youth to do baptisms for the dead at Jordan River. I almost didn't make it in time but I'm glad I did. There is nothing to calm you down like being in the temple. The worker at the desk almost wouldn't let me in because he thought I was too young to have a "real recommend" and not one like my girls had. I suppose I should be used to people guessing my age about 8 years younger than I really am, but sometimes it still catches me off guard...like that time Layne and I went to Walgreens to buy some cough syrup and the lady at the counter asked to see our ID...both of us...for cough syrup. I didn't even know they carded for cough syrup PERIOD, much less a married couple both over 25. ANYWAY, sorry for the tangent.

Thursday was another busy day at work and I had many things to report on in my meeting. After the meeting, my boss (same guy that offered me the PhD.) asked to have a private conversation in the hall. I thought he was going to ask me if I'd made any decisions about graduate school, but instead told me that he wished he could pay me more than I make and wanted to give me the opportunity to earn more money. He then proceeded to tell me that he was looking for a few people on our project to take on some extra hours at his spin off company, I2S Micro Implantable Systems (formerly Cyberkinetics, Inc) doing the same kind of thing I do at the U. He asked if I'd be interested and I said yes. He's now in the process of setting up an independent contract for me so I can begin soon. I figure that now is the time for me to buckle down and earn as much money as I can so we can kill off our student loan debt. It will mean probably working 50-60 hours a week, but he told me he'd pay me well for my time so I'm going to take advantage of the fact that he needs someone who can do what I do without much additional training.

Thursday night I spent one last hour rehearsing for my University Singers audition the next day. Friday was quite stressful for me with everything going on and by 4:20 when it came time for my audition, my nerves were pretty much shot. I was going up against dozens of music majors to fill only like 10-15 open spots in the group. The piece I had prepared to sing was Traum durch die Dämmerung by Strauss. My friend and home teacher Tom LeBaron was kind enough to tutor me in German diction after church on Sunday so I felt confident going in and actually performed it better than I had in practice, even though there was a note I was pretty sure I wouldn't be able to hit without a pole vault! Next I was asked to read some texts in Latin and German which went well. Then I was asked to sing my part in a piece we were given to learn called 'Mundi Renovatio' which also went well. Then came the sight singing. Ugg. Gone are the days of one line of music in 4/4 time in the key of C with stepwise motion, easy intervals and rhythms, and maybe an accidental or 2. This stuff was HARD!! It was by far the most difficult sight singing I've had to do in a college level audition. Surprisingly I sung every note correctly, but was so focused on getting the intervals right that a few of the syncopated rhythms threw me off course once or twice. I was able to go back and self correct, but still, I HATE messing up! After sight singing Dr. Allred said, "Well, I think thats all I need to hear!" I thought I had blown it for sure. Thus began the agonizing 2 and a half day wait to find out if I would be invited for call-backs. Fortunately for me, I'd have PLENTY to do to distract me over the weekend. Friday night I had to prepare for the youth lake activity the next day by getting my cooler ready with ice and by baking some cookies. We also had to prepare the house to host my cousin Spencer and his girlfriend for the night on their way back to school at Utah State.

We met at the church bright at early at 7:30 Saturday morning to caravan to Rockport Lake. We had a good turn out and there were no serious injuries so we count the activity as a success! There were 3 boats (2 of which broke down before the day was over), which was plenty to ensure that all the kids and leaders got to spend plenty of time on the lake wake boarding, tubing or riding the infamous water weenie. I got to spend half an hour on a wake board and I rode the water weenie 5 times (which I would pay dearly for later). Its been many years since I've ridden a water weenie and now I remember why. While the ride itself is fun, nothing else about it is. For those who haven't had the unique pleasure of riding a water weenie, allow me to describe the physics of it for you.
When you crash, it sends 5 bodies hurtling in the same direction at once. And as we all know, an object in motion tends to stay in motion unless acted upon by an equal or opposite arm, leg or head. Another delightful part about riding the water weenie is trying to mount it from the water once you have fallen off. Let me assure you it is an exhausting exercise in patience trying to get 5 people onto a slippery inflatable tube floating in the water. I don't know that I have ever laughed so hard in my life! In spite of the water weenie whiplash, everyone had a blast and I was so proud of all the girls (and leaders) who tried their hand at wake boarding (for many of them it was their first time)!

Kimi and I got a little TOO much sun, so we turned to the Bedouin lifestyle around 4:30pm.

One of the many uses for the boat "shamie". Those things are AWESOME!

We stayed until 7pm which made for a LONG but fun day. I could feel that I had been burned to a crisp even though I applied 50 spf suncreen FIVE TIMES during the day. Sure enough, by the time I got home, I looked like I had just crawled out of a bisque.

The next morning when I managed to peel open my eyes, I realized very quickly that there wasn't a muscle in my body that wasn't screaming in pain. The worst of it was the lower back pain for which I place the entirety of the blame on the water weenie and getting flung off it time after time. Sunday was ward conference, and it was nice to see that I wasn't the only one who was suffering from sun and soreness. We were an easy bunch to identify! Monday morning I woke up to my surprise (and relief) to find an email in my inbox from Dr. Allred inviting me to attend call-backs the next day and telling me what I would need to be prepared for. I had pretty much convinced myself that I had been eliminated so I was delighted to get the news.

After doing the grocery shopping Monday evening, I had planned to spend the evening practicing for call-backs the next day. Unfortunately for me, Murphey's Law had other plans for me. Layne and I had been upstairs (he was rubbing icy hot all over my aching back) for a while when Layne went downstairs for something. When he came back into the room, I could tell there was something wrong. He said, "You want a home warranty problem? Come look at this!". That is never a good thing. A week earlier the moulding along the bottom of our stairs had popped off and was impossible to put back into place. The night before, the screw that held our towel rack to the wall pulled out leaving a huge hole in the drywall. I had been telling Layne that we needed to call our home warranty people to see if any of those things would be covered before our warranty expires in October. Well, this one took the cake! As I came down the stairs I heard a dripping noise, and my heart sank. Next to the stairs in our entry way, water was dripping rapidly from a big bulge in the ceiling. It had been going on long enough to practically flood our entry way (wood flooring mind you) and soak our nice entry table where we keep all of our PHOTO ALBUMS! Yeah, nice.

Once we got over the initial shock, we started scrambling around like mad trying to stop the leak and clean up the mess. Picture it: Kelly leaning over the banister holding a large mixing bowl over her head bailing water, while Layne makes snow angels on the floor with every bath towel we own trying to mop up all the water. He was able to rescue our table and photo albums from drowning while I continued to catch water. Then he brought in a ladder and we put the bowl on top to catch the water while we tried to figure out what was going on. The leak was just below where our mechanical closet is that holds the AC unit and the water heater upstairs. We scoured the closet with flashlights but there was no sign of any water, leaks or broken pipes. At this point we pull out our home warranty papers and make the call. After getting an appointment set up for the next day, I looked at the leak from a different angle and I notice that the entire ceiling around the bulge was sagging and felt cold to the touch just like the water.

Now we're looking at severe structural damage and perhaps a ceiling collapse if we don't get that water out. So I did what I have often done in my life when I'm in crisis mode and need help, I called my parents. My mom suggested that I call a disaster relief company to come get the problem under control before our second floor became the first floor. I made arrangements through our home warranty to have someone sent and they told me I'd be hearing from someone in 3-8 hours. So I tried to stay awake waiting for them to call but finally gave up and went to sleep. About 2:30am when I went to empty the bowl I noticed that the water drip had slowed significantly. For the sake of length here I'll skip all the awful details about what a mess it was trying to get someone to come out and fix our problem (which didn't end up happening until this morning) and about how our home warranty denied coverage on ANY of the costs (which so far are over $1,000 not counting the repairs that will need to be made after they're done tearing our ceiling and walls apart. Here is what was going on when I finally had to leave this morning.
I helped hold buckets while he cut into the sheet rock. Enough water came out to fill a bathtub! What a mess!! ANYWAY, where was I? Oh yes, I had just stayed up all night and was frantically trying to find a plumber the morning of my call-back audition. I barely made it on time and was completely frazzled. Call-backs were very intense. I suppose it wasn't so much call-back auditions as a hostage situation. We were in there until he had heard everything he wanted to hear! There was a lot of small group singing. We ran through a new piece twice and were asked in small groups to come up and sing it. There were a lot of women there, and most of them were altos (my competition). Many of them were VERY good! I felt like I did as well as I could have given the circumstances, though I was quite nervous, and left feeling pretty good about my performance, but not necessarily about my chances against so many other women (most of whom were music majors). At least it was finally OVER!! That night was the opening night for the Salt Lake Choral Artists season. It ended around 9:30 and so when I went home, I knew I'd have a few hours to wait until Dr. Allred e-mail out the results of the auditions. Sure enough around 12:20am I got the following email:

Dear Kelly,

I am pleased to invite you to be a member of the 2008-09 edition of The University of Utah Singers! You have successfully passed the auditions and I have great faith and hope that you will live up to the high expectations of membership in this award-winning choir.

As you may know, we are hoping to participate in the Marktoberdorf Chamber Choir Competition at the conclusion of our European Tour. This is a highly competitive international competition and so we need committed singers who are willing to sacrifice and put forth their best effort every day! I am very excited about the choir this year and feel that we can accomplish great things!

If you can join with me in this endeavor, please come to the first rehearsal tomorrow at 11:50 in Room 270!

Congratulations!

Dr. Allred

WHEW! I was both surprised and relieved! On the one hand I feel a little sad and guilty for all the amazing girls that got cut. I don't know that I deserved to be chosen, but here I am. On the other hand I'm absolutely GIDDY with excitement! I've never been in a group on this high of a level before, or made it through such stiff competition. This is going to be a very busy year and I've got my work cut out for me if I'm going to prove that I belong and can contribute, but I DO love a challenge!! So today was the first day of class and it was very humbling to be there when I think of how lucky I am that I got in. I am so excited for some of the things we have on tap this year such as:

* Recording and releasing a new Christmas CD in October
* Singing in some great collaboration concerts
* Going on a 3 week tour of Eastern Europe (Prague, Budapest, several cities in Slovenia, several cities in Croatia, Vienna, and parts of Germany)
* Competing in the Marktoberdorf International Chamber Choir competition

Just a little about the group. This year there are 45 singers. I am the highest alto (which means I am a pivot person that sings the middle part whenever it breaks into 3 part women). I LOVE this spot! I couldn't be happier. It means I get to be an alto who gets to sing some 2nd Sop from time to time.


I have admired this ensemble since I heard them perform for the first time at the end of last semester. For anyone interested, here is a video from last year as well as a couple clips from a live concert.


The first clip is from a piece that was comissioned for them by Imant Raminsh. Its called Ave Verum Corpus and the big chord in the clip is one of the juiciest most delicious chords I've heard! You'll know it when you hear it. :) I can't get enough!

The second clip is from a piece call Hallelujah by Robert Sund.

Click here to see their website.

Anyway, I'm so glad that the past 2 weeks are behind me. Now if only we can get this leaking mess repaired, maybe our lives will return to some kind of normalcy! My apologies to those of you who actually read this post! :)