Sisters in Zion

This weekend seemed like a holiday because my sister who I hadn't seen in a month came up from Provo Friday night to stay with us for the weekend. On top of that, it wasn't half as busy as most weekends have been lately. Poor Layne had to work at 5:30 on Saturday morning, but was off by 10:30 and able to come with me to a lunch with my co-workers to celebrate the upcoming marriage of my boss Florian to grad student Xiaoxin. Lunch was Dim Sum at The Golden Dragon. (side note: of course Layne spent the whole morning singing Bill Pullman's little song from Sleepless in Seattle)
I posted about my friend Qiurong taking Rebecca and I there for lunch one day and trying chicken feet for the first time. Layne had never had Dim Sum before so he was excited to give it a try. Layne is definitely a good sport and he tried everything they put in front of us including seaweed, Chinese eggplant, and some very interesting fish! We had a good time socializing with my VERY diverse group from work (3 Chinese, 2 German, 3 Indian, 4 American, 1 Korean) for two hours before heading home.

My stake got invited to attend the General R.S. session of conference at the conference center and I was able to get an extra ticket for Kim, so we took the Trax downtown Saturday afternoon and attended the session together. We had a great time! While we've both attended general conference many times, neither of us had ever attended the R.S. session live so it was really neat. Our seats were on the main terrace on the left side. I've never sat on the main terrace before. I loved President Uchtdorf's talk! That evening we enjoyed one of our favorite movies The Holiday.

Sunday the Bishop made a change in the YW's by releasing my Beehive adviser Megan and calling she and her husband to serve in the primary. She was devastated. I felt so bad for her. She cried the whole day. I think she'll be great in primary and she is still going to be over camp so she'll get to be involved and see the girls. Though it hasn't been announced yet, I'm really excited about who they've chosen to replace her. I think it'll work out great once everyone gets used to the change. Part of being in this church is dealing with change and learning to serve with all sorts of people in all kinds of situations.

Kim stayed the night Sunday night and by Monday morning it was REALLY hard for us to get up early and go our separate ways again. It felt like a vacation because she was here and you all know how hard it is to return to work after vacation! Ugh! At least next weekend is conference weekend! Yay!

Concert Weekend

In spite of last Saturday being photo shoot, dress rehearsal AND concert day, it was still the most restful weekend I've had in a LONG time! Saturday morning I had to get up early so I could be in my casual concert attire and to the school by 8:45. We met the photographer at City Creek Rotary Park downtown, took some pictures there, then walked up the street to Memory Grove, one of the hot spots for wedding photo shoots.


We got rained on after taking some pictures there, then we made our way back to the school and took some pictures around the University of Utah sign and then in the concert hall. After pictures we rehearsed for an hour and were dismissed. My wonderful husband had cleaned the entire house top to bottom and done all the laundry and dishes by the time I got home! I had intended to take a nap but ended up watching the last quarter of the ECU vs. NC State game with Layne.
Even though they ended up losing a game which was in the bag, I'm still proud of my Pirates for putting ECU on the map in football this year going undefeated up until Saturday's game.

By the time I got some visiting teaching and young women's calls made, ran to the store, and folded some laundry, it was time to get back into my concert attire and go back to the school. I had to be there by 6pm even though the concert didn't start until 7:30. I got to go up and sit by Layne during the first half of the concert and listen to the other groups perform which was nice.

University Singers opening with Laudate Nomen. (I'm front row 2nd from the end)

For our portion of the concert we performed 7 pieces and it went quite well. Dr. Allred said it was the best first concert he's done in years. To have 7 pieces memorized and performance ready, AND a Christmas CD recording session under our belts after only about 3 and a half weeks of rehearsals is pretty good! They recently posted the concert recording files on iTunes U (a very cool feature at the U that allows students and faculty to download any file from any performance for free using the iTunes platform). Anyway, here are the files from our portion of the concert in performance order, so feel free to give a listen (though if you're going to, I wouldn't recommend laptop speakers. They can't handle it. Pop in some head phones before you listen).

Laudate Nomen - Carlyle Sharpe
Ave Maris Stella - Trond Kverno (I love this one)
What Sweeter Music Can We Bring? - Leo Nestor (Christmas CD preview)
O Magnum Mysterium - Morten Lauridsen (Christmas CD preview)
'Round the Glory Manger - K. Lee Scott (Christmas CD preview, I don't so much love this one)
Alleluia - Ralph Manuel
Mundi Renovatio - György Orbán (the piece we all had to learn for auditions)

We received a long standing ovation and the feedback was wonderful. Half the audience confessed to being in tears during our performance of O Magnum Mysterium which was definitely Layne's favorite (in spite of the blasted baby crying at the end). It was very rewarding, and a relief to have the first real concert under our belts. After the concert there was a social for all the choirs and guests. Layne took off and I stuck around to help fill punch bowls and mingle for a while, though things quickly turned from party to hostage situation once the dancing started.

Stephanie Brown & I with our punch.

Dr. Allred & his wife in a VERY good mood after a solid concert.

Sunday morning I got to sleep in (9:00) for the first time in a LONG time. It was delicious! I attended BYC at 11, then stayed to rehearse with the girls our musical number for sacrament meeting. We had to learn a few songs for girls camp by Jenny Phillips. I had never heard of her before that. Our ward's song was To Become Like Him and after hearing it at camp, some of the ward leaders requested that we sing it in church. It's a pretty song with sweet lyrics, but I must confess, when it comes to musical numbers in sacrament meeting, I'm all about the hymns (with a little more flexibility at Christmas) and songs written by general authorities. I think there is a time and a place to sing such music (non-sacrament meetings, EFY, girls camp) and that it can certainly be uplifting and moving, but I'm really picky when it comes to the music in sacrament meeting. I am of the opinion that only very tasteful (not poppy or jazzy) arrangements of hymns (including the children's song book) should be used, like in general conference. Maybe I'm alone in my opinion, but I'm not afraid to say it! You can listen to a clip of it here and tell me what you think. Anyway, it went really well and the girls did a great job and of course the ward reacted very favorably to it.

This week wasn't much more eventful than usual. I did go see a bunch of my friends from Singers perform in Pirates of Penzance last night which was a lot of fun, and we got to watch the new episode of The Office!! Yay!! I won't say anything in case you haven't seen it yet.

Yearbook Pictures

First of all, I have to say that ALL the credit for this post goes to my most clever and hilarious relative Megan Hastings for posting about this. Megan, Layne and I did this for FHE activity and were laughing so hard we were in tears, so thank you!! For anyone who wants a good laugh, you can do this to yourself or anyone you have a decent picture of at www.yearbookyourself.com

And now, for a blast from the past. Layne & Kelly Nelson through the years...

1952

Kelly: 1958, Layne 1956

Kelly: 1962, Layne: 1960

Kelly: 1966, Layne 1964

1968

Kelly: 1972, Layne: 1970

1974

1976

1978

1980

1984

Kelly: 1986. Layne: 1988

1990

1994

1996

1998

2003

Mic Check...

Another weekend and week has come and gone without so much as a hello. I hate that I've taken to doing one long post every 2 weeks instead of little posts bi weekly, but there are VERY few chances these days for me to sit down at a computer long enough to blog. I apologize to my few readers and ask that you bear with me, as I'm scrambling just to keep a record for myself of everything going on. Last Saturday morning at 9am I had SLCA Chamber Singers rehearsal until 11. When I got back I hurried and made a batch of cookies for my visiting teaching visits later, then Layne and I went to his company cook out at a co-worker's house. It is always interesting to meet people AFTER you've heard all about them because sometimes the mental picture you've created is WAY off and sometimes its scary how dead on it is. Layne has a knack for describing his co-workers using movie/TV characters which helps. One of his co-workers he described to me as Ricky from Better Off Dead and he was SPOT ON!
I nearly couldn't look at the guy without laughing, much less carry on a conversation with him without hearing in my head, "You would do well to do what mother says, Lane Meyer." We had a nice time and stayed until around 3. When we got back I made a visiting teaching stop. One of the sisters on my list lives in a tiny little attic above an auto shop. The gates close and lock every day at 5 and are closed on the weekends. In addition, Rose doesn't have any family, a telephone, a drivers license, most of her hearing, sight in one eye, heat or air conditioning and up until a few months ago, a door. What she does have is a VERY high energy flea infested dog that sheds like crazy, LOTS of flies and no shortage of cigarette smoke. She's the sweetest lady in the world who has had a very rough life, but she's the toughest person to visit that I've ever had, and the actual visiting isn't the hardest part.

I had to hike up a steep hill and scale a chain link fence to get in (while carrying a plate of cookies and a care basket). Once I got inside the perimeter I had to fend off her dog and just walk in unannounced since she can't hear. We visited for a bit and I threw the ball I brought for her dog, then I left. Unfortunately I couldn't get out the way I came in so it took me half an hour to go about 100 yards squeezing through the space between a concrete wall and a chain link fence about a foot and a half wide filled with spider webs and small trees. By the time I made it to my car my head and arms were bleeding and I was covered in all kinds of unmentionable ick including dog hair, twigs, spider webs, leaves, cigarette smoke, rust, dirt and bits of crumbled concrete. I felt like I was in that scene from The Shawshank Redemption.

I totally struck this pose when I made it out alive, but once again I suffered the tragedy of being clever and alone. I suppose if I can ever connect with my companion I should tell her not to bring her newborn with her on visits...

It amazes me that just a couple blocks away from me in Murray Utah there is a little old lady living in abject poverty. Being at her "house" really reminded me of being in some of the poorer areas of Brazil. It makes me realize just how blessed I am and that no matter where you live, there are people all around you suffering and in need of help. It also made me grateful for my visiting teaching sister's homes (past and present) that are easier to get into than community college.

After I got back and pulled all the "nature" out of my hair, Layne and I changed and went to the adult session of stake conference. Sunday morning at 8am was the youth session of conference followed by the main session at 10. While its a lot of meetings, my favorite part about stake conference weekend is Sunday AFTER church. I took a real nap for the first time in a long time! It was wonderful!

Monday was a long day as it was recording day for the Singers upcoming Christmas CD Carol of Joy. Our recording session in Gardner Hall was blocked out from 5pm-?. The "?" meant essentially, 'till we get it right', which it was anticipated would be 11pm at the earliest. We were all prepared for a LONG night. Once we got going however, we flew right along doing around 3-4 complete takes on each piece. It took some time to change mic arrangements and do sound checks to accommodate a classical guitarist on one piece and a guest Soprano soloist on another, but other than that it wasn't too bad at all. We sang really well, got through all the music, got all the takes we needed, and ended an hour and a half earlier than anticipated! Yay! Hopefully that means the additional Saturday recording session scheduled won't be necessary now. Here are a few pictures from the "choir camera" that the historian sent me from the evening.

Fruits & Veggies: The hungry singer's best friend.

Kiersten, Ashley and I bonding over Kiersten's generic wheat thins during break.

Marianne Mabey, lady of mystery.

Dr. Allred entertaining us with a little Simon & Garfunkel

Stephanie & I popping a squat on the risers between takes.

The amazing Tulley Cathey doing a mic check with his Spanish guitar. Soooo beautiful!

We recorded some beautiful music and I can't wait to hear how it comes out. I did leave my little digital voice recorder on during some run through rehearsals prior to recording so I have a few clips of what will be coming on the CD.

Editorial Note: When I say digital voice recorder, I'm talking about my little Olympus pocket sized recorder meant for lectures, NOT concert hall choral singing. It was sitting in the front pocket of my backpack a couple rows back in the hall so please keep that in mind if you're going to listen. The mics we recorded with are the best available in the world today so it will be interesting to hear the drastic difference once the CD is actually released and I can post similar clips.

This first clip is of a piece called In Silent Night, which has quickly become one of my new favorite Christmas songs ever. The lyrics are especially beautiful. This is one that we have only sung through 2 or 3 times total. This is the last verse. Listen

Next we have a bit of El Rorro and its too bad that my recorder didn't pick up more of the guitar part because its the best part. Listen

Anyone familiar with the name John Rutter knows that this composer is King when it comes to beautiful choral Christmas music. We did multiple Rutter pieces. This clip is of Mary's Lullaby and it probably took the least amount of time of all the pieces to record. I think we did 2 takes. Listen
Yet another Rutter, Love Came Down At Christmas, is special to all of us because its sort of the piece that brought us all together. I mentioned before that when we came to callbacks, Dr. Allred pulled out an unfamiliar piece of music for us to sing through once, then sing in small groups to determine how quickly we could learn music and assimilate nuance. Well this was that piece. We're all in Singers because we learned this whole thing in 10 minutes. Listen

'Round the Glory Manger is a Christmas spiritual of sorts and our guest Soprano soloist is on the voice faculty here at the U. This run through wasn't great, but there you have it. Listen

Finally, Baby, What You Goin' To Be by composer Natalie Sleeth is a piece that you may have heard your ward choir or the MoTab do at Christmas, but I'm willing to bet you haven't heard it done this well before. :) We have 2 long time members of the MoTab in Singers who'd be willing to atest to that. Most people LOVE it and bawl their eyes out, but there are some who think its cheesy. I find the lyrics sweet and the music pretty, but I can see where people might find cheese. Listen

The rest of the week was less eventful but busy with rehearsal on Tuesday and Wednesday night. Last night Layne and I went to the mall so I could find a new pair of shoes that will go with my choir dress. The GAP was having a big sale on socks so I stocked up. I LOVE socks from GAP, especially socks on sale. Because I have to wear closed toed shoes every day I go through socks like a mad woman. It was nice to get out of the house and just be with Layne, especially since I won't see him much this weekend. Tomorrow morning at 8:45 Singers is doing an outdoor photo shoot in our casual concert attire. After the photo shoot we have dress rehearsal for a couple hours, then a concert tomorrow night. Here is the poster for the concert:

The University of Utah School of Music presents the Fall Choral Showcase, this Saturday, September 20, 7:30pm, featuring The University of Utah Singers and A Cappella choir under the direction of Dr. Brady Allred and The Women's Chorus under the direction of Dr. Jessica Napoles.

Including music by Morten Lauridsen, Sergei Rachmaninoff, Arvo Pärt and György Orbán, the University of Utah Singers will also offer a preview of repertoire from their new Christmas CD, Carol of Joy to be released late October.

Tickets are $3 for students and $7 for adults and are available at www.arttix.org, at the box office, or from any choir member.

Also, join us afterwards for a reception in the Thompson Chamber Music Hall and mingle with choir and audience members.

Be sure not to miss this season opening event!

Visit http://www.uofusingers.org for more information.

Retreat & Pandora's Box

It was another busy week! My first rehearsal for the Salt Lake Choral Artists was a week ago Tuesday followed combined mutual Wed. which I (technically the Beehives) was in charge of. Some of my girls had been begging me to teach them how to twist balloon animals so I decided to make it into a combined activity. It took a lot of effort, planning and patience, but the girls LOVED it and we all had fun.
Thursday night I had to pack for my weekend Singers retreat to Bear Lake the next day. I had to be to work (with all my stuff) at the crack of dawn in order to get everything done before we left the school of music at 2:00. My carpool arrived at Bear Lake around 5:00pm and we all met at the Bear Lake ward building where we had dinner and rehearsed for a few hours before playing "I Never" and having happy hour which included virgin margaritas and appletinis, music and yes, dancing. I must say, after singing in an ensemble where I was the only member of the church, it is SO refreshing to be in a group that is about 90% LDS. Don't get me wrong, I LOVED the diversity at ECU, but it makes my life SO much easier not to be the only "Mormon girl" in a group like this. As you can imagine we went to bed late and had to get up early so no one got much sleep and Saturday was a long day. After breakfast at 8 we rehearsed for several hours and discussed some of the details of our Eastern European tour in May. We broke for lunch, then rehearsed for a few more hours before going outside to play some games.
After that we rehearsed in the chapel what we would be performing that evening for our impromptu concert for the Bear Lake ward and any interested locals. I have never learned so much music so quickly and performed it in concert the same day!

Dr. Allred said it was a first for any group of his to learn so much music in such a short amount of time and be ready to perform it within a week of school starting. At least 3 of the pieces on the program we had seen for the first time earlier that day. After dinner we all changed and gave an hour long concert. It was by no means a packed house, but the audience was very gracious and receptive, and it gave us an opportunity to see how well we could come together and sing under a little bit of pressure.

(I don't know if anyone but music nerds would find this funny, but this picture is hilarious to me! During Dr. Allred's photo shoot for his Bio, he actually took one making the musical "gang sign", a 'messa di voce'. So nerdy, so funny.)

Everyone, including Dr. Allred was extremely surprised and impressed with just how well it went for something so off-the-cuff. We all went away feeling like this is going to be a great year of music making considering just how much we've been able to do in only a week's time.

It was a long and exhausting weekend (as you can tell by all of our faces here), and a lot of work (12 hours of singing!?), but I got to know a lot of the singers and it was very fulfilling to get a taste for what the year will be like. After the concert, many people drove back to SLC. The rest of us went back to our cabins and watched movies. In the morning, a group of us went to church at the Bear Lake ward which was HUGE! The funniest part about it was who happened to be sitting a few rows in front of us and to the right. Its not a face I ever expected to see at church. It brought new meaning to the phrase, "Speak of the devil". There in his Sunday best was Satan himself, Michael Ballam!
Talk about WEIRD! He made a very hasty exit after sacrament meeting, which is totally understandable considering that he probably can't go anywhere without being called Lucifer. Its funny that my first reaction isn't, "Oh wow, Michael Ballam, the famous opera singer/movie star/professor at Utah State/youngest person ever to get a Doctorate Degree in Music at his University!" Oh no, my first reaction was definitely Beelzebub in nature. Poor guy.

After sacrament meeting we drove home, arriving around 2pm. After unpacking and a quick nap I made fast Sunday dinner and Layne and I set to preparing the house for Oscar, the floor guy.
It feels like it's been a complete uphill battle trying to get back to normal after our little flood, but we finally have our house back! Sunday night Layne and I spent a good deal of time moving all our furniture to various locations around the house so that everything would be off the floor when Oscar arrived first thing Monday morning. Somewhere between moving the couch and the entertainment center I tweaked my lower back which has been angry at me since. Unfortunately Oscar had a family emergency and had to fly to Florida so our living room remained in our kitchen all week until one of his other workers could come do the job yesterday.
Last night Layne and I put the house back together and cleaned and dusted everything. I'm just so glad its all over. Now if we can only figure out how we're going to pay for it all...

It was tough jumping right back into work and class after such a full and tiresome weekend. We got our memorization schedule for Singers on Monday. For every day there is a new section in at least 3 pieces that must be memorized which we're tested on every day. No rest for the weary! For anyone interested (mom and dad) who has a facebook account (sorry mom and dad, maybe Dane will let you use his), someone took a little video of a run through at one of our regular week day rehearsals and posted it on facebook last weekend. It was shot probably the 4th day of school as we were running through a piece for only like the 2nd time. It's not high quality (shot with a digital still camera), and the piece is rehearsed at about half the tempo we performed it at on Saturday night, but its a little inside peak at the group and what rehearsal is like. At the end of the video it cuts off the part where Dr. Allred was asking if we had it close to memorized. Yeah, first week of rehearsal. Anyway, here is the link.

Yesterday was the first day I've had in a while that I would call an all around "good day". At work I was able to ship a box of completed arrays to Germany which was a huge burden off my shoulders. We had a great rehearsal in Singers. The floor was finally being done. I finally had a night where I didn't have anywhere to be or any responsibilities. I had to work till 6, but I didn't even mind. On my way home I took a new route down 800S. due to highway construction and just past 1300E. the road suddenly drops out of the sky and there is a huge hill. Well, having never been down this road before, I didn't anticipate the sudden acceleration and by the time I realized I was even on a hill, a stupid cop on foot had tagged me with his radar gun and was holding up a stop sign and waving me into a parking lot. There were 2 or 3 of them doing this and the cars were piling up. When he told me that I was going 5 MPH OVER THE SPEED LIMIT, I thought for sure I would just get a warning. Well, I was wrong. He took my liscense and registration and wrote me a ticket on the spot. 5MPH OVER! Thats 40 in a 35 zone people!! I was so mad. He kindly explained that 5 over won't hurt my insurance much, but that I had 2 weeks to pay the fine. How nice. Maybe I should have shown him my temple recommend. I wonder if that carries any weight with the SLPD. I guess it isn't possible these days for me to have one completely good day without anything bad or expensive happening to us. I know I should just try to smile & shrug it off, but its getting harder and harder to do that these days. If having a sense of humor in these situations is indeed the best medicine, I'm quickly begining to feel like I must be in the placebo group. Anything else in the box Pandora?

Neighborhood Watch

I hope everyone had a nice 3 day weekend! Our plans were ruined thanks to our home falling apart, but it ended up being a good thing that we stayed in town. The first reason it was a good thing that we stayed came up on Friday evening.

It was just before 5pm, I was on my way home from work and I stopped at the mailbox on my way back as I always do. I turned off my car and got out, then suddenly heard the most piercing blood curdling scream. I looked franktically around for the source and saw my 65 yr. old neighbor (one I had never met) in the doorway of her home struggling to get outside. I then saw a man (her husband) had her by her arm and was trying to yank her back inside. As the screaming and struggling continued I ran over and shouted to her asking if she were ok or needed help. She responded for me to call the police. I ran back to my car, got my phone and dialed 911. While I was calling I ran back to her house and shouted at her husband to let her go because the police were on the way. He let go of her arm and she slipped outside and shut the door. She was was shaken and had lots of red marks and scratches on her arms, but looked otherwise ok. She explained that her husband had been drinking, and attacked her. She didn't say much else. I filled in as many of the gaps as I could on my own for the dispatcher, and waited with her till the 4 officers arrived and went inside for her husband.

I went inside before the cops came out so I don't know what the outcome of the ordeal was, I was just so glad that I happened to be outside when she needed help because there was no one else around and who knows what he would have done to her. I have no tolerance for such things. Looking at this cute, sweet little old lady sitting on the ground, shaking and holding her knees, it rememinded me of my grandma and how I would feel if someone had done something like that to her. If the cops would have let me (and the guy wasn't 6'2", 230 pounds) I would have gone in myself with a baseball bat and showed him what I thought of him! It was a good reminder for me that we need to watch out for each other and ourselves, especially as women. Know the signs of abuse!

The rest of the weekend was less eventful. The water damage people finished up on Friday afternoon and we had a contractor come out Saturday morning to start repairs on the ceiling and walls. He worked for several hours and managed to patch all the holes, but tore out more floor.
While he was tearing up the downstairs, I spent hours organizing our office and file cabinets. When Layne got back from work, we went to IKEA to see if we could find a dresser to take some of the burden from our closet. We found just the thing and brought it home.
I'm like a kid at Christmas when it comes to new things and started putting it together right away. I was at it from about 8pm till we went to bed at 11:30 and I still hadn't finished. Layne helped a little bit, but was tired from having to work early that day so I told him I'd do it myself. It was a BIG job! I put the finishing touches on the drawers Sunday after church and we had fun sorting through the closet, and filling her up! I know that probably doesn't sound like "fun" to most people. But we both LOVE getting organized so it was fun. Right after we finished, my sister arrived from AZ!

Kim has been at home for the past month and a half and I was so excited to see her again and have her back in Utah for her first semester at BYU. We had dinner and caught up while she caught up with the last several episodes of 'So You Think You Can Dance' that we had saved for her. Saturday night and Monday morning were STORMY!! It was raining and hailing like crazy!
The contractor came back first thing to continue his work on the house. Kim did some laundry then headed down to Provo to get ready for her first day of school. Layne spent the morning studying for the GMATs while I read Twilight. There is nothing like reading on a stormy day off! The contractor put up tons of plastic, but still, everything in the house (my lungs included) got covered with a thick layer of white wall dust. Lovely.
The sun eventually came out but we drove by one of those temperature signs and it said 52 degrees!! Today's high is only 72. It's BEAUTIFUL! After grocery shopping, we went and saw that movie, "The Rocker" with Rainn Wilson aka Dwight. It was pretty much what we expected, funny but stupid. I could have done without seeing as much of Rainn's bare behind as I did, but there were some really funny lines.

Ok, I have to tack this on here because I just got it in an email from a co-worker and it's TOO cute! This is someone's backyard in Anchorage, AK. Amazing! Proof that ALL children (and some adults) like playing in the sprinklers in June. Simple pleasures. Enjoy.