The Longest I've Gone Without Posting...

Ok well this is officially the longest I've ever gone without posting anything since I started this blog. My friends Tom and Jessica recently urged me to update it or delete it. Those being the only two options, I decided to update and hopefully stay with it better this time with shorter more frequent posts. Lets see how quickly and simply I can make note of everything that has been going on since just before Christmas.

The week before we left to go home for Christmas was full of performances. Thursday night the U Singers did a concert at a church in Park City. A few pictures:

Click here to watch a performance of "The Three Kings"

The following Friday and Saturday nights were the Salt Lake Choral Artists dress rehearsal and performance of the Ralph Vaughan Williams "Hodie" with the Salt Lake Symphony. It went really well. Layne said he actually ended up liking "Hodie" better than Handel's "Messiah". Some pictures:




The day before leaving for Christmas, Layne and I attended my Singers Christmas banquet and white elephant gift exchange which was very nice. Here are some pictures:

We thought this was hysterical. Can you say wardrobe wavelength?

Janell and I (the checker board sisters)

My first gift (a DI sweater) which was stolen

My second gift (which was also stolen...by a balding tenor)

Tuesday we packed up the car and drove home. It was a long drive and we got stuck in traffic in Vegas trying to avoid dangerous icy roads, but we made it. Our trip home for Christmas was WONDERFUL! I got to stay longer than Layne did, but we both had a great time. Here are some pictures:

Squeege and I getting a little gangsta in our Christmas hoodies

Annual Flaherty Christmas day 3 on 3.

The look on my face would make you think that John just canceled Christmas.

Who will be the Guitar Hero?

New Years Day hike to Bat Cave

Mom Nelson sporting her white elephant winnings: HD sunglasses and "The Snuggie"

John and I trying to keep spaghetti sauce off our white shirts while cooking Sunday dinner.

Me and mom

On a 7 mile bike ride with Kim & dad

Flaherty sibling SATB a cappella. Does your family have SATB?

At Ashley's surprise 30th birthday party

I was scheduled to fly home on Sunday evening the 4th. I packed up, said goodbye and was dropped off at the airport when I found out that America West has a new rule about flying and I ended up getting pushed to the next day. Mom and dad came back for me and I stayed one more night. My flight the next day was delayed 3 hours and when I made it back it was in the middle of a full on blizzard. Quite a weather shock after being in AZ for a couple weeks.

The first goodbye :)

Getting back into my normal schedule was tough even though Singers hadn't started yet. My first day back I slid out on black ice and wrecked my car. Nothing serious, but it meant a week in the shop for my car. A week later, Singers started up again and that weekend (Jan. 16th-17th) was Singer's retreat held Friday evening through Saturday evening at the beautiful Cathedral of the Madeleine downtown. We worked really really hard, learned a lot of music, learned some things about countries we'll be visiting on tour and sang the 6:00 mass in the cathedral on Saturday evening. The next Monday was MLK day but I spent almost the whole day in a recording session with the Singers.

Recording day

On break during Friday night retreat rehearsal

Singing Mass at the Cathedral of the Madeleine

Wed. night we sang a special piece of music written for the Sorenson Legacy Foundation dinner. A week later we sang at the High School Choir Invitational. Here is one performance video from the invitational. "Behold, This is the Way" by Robert Cundick. We learned this piece on retreat and sang it at Mass (which is a little funny because it is a Book of Mormon text. Shhhh, don't tell. 10 points to anyone who can name the verses.)



That weekend (Jan. 30th), I came down with the flu, or the virus from hell. I was knocked out with a fever of 103 and other awful symptoms for 4 solid days. I missed 2 days of work and barely made it to New Beginnings that Wed. night. I even had to excuse myself due to a massive coughing fit where I almost ceased to breathe. I was thoroughly embarrassed. I have gradually been getting better, but I still have the cough from hell and think what I actually have is pneumonia. Saturday the 7th was the first weekend I had since Christmas where I didn't have anywhere I had to be or any responsibilities. It was great. I fixed our doorbell and did a bunch of stuff around the house. Saturday evening, Dr. Allred called and invited us to go out with he and his wife for Thai food at one of their favorite places. Afterward we came back to our house and got caught up on Lost together. It was a good time. And that brings us up to this week. PHEW!
Ok other misc. things that have been keeping us busy since Christmas. Layne re-took the GMAT exam on January 22nd and KILLED IT! I am so proud of how hard he studied and how well he did. After that it was a lot of work to get his applications in for the U of U's MBA program, but its all finally done. Now we wait.

In exchange for contributions to my tour account, I've been taking on some work for Dr. Allred, the U Singers and the School of Music. This has included more work on Dr. Allred's personal website and the U Singers website (http://singers.utah.edu/index.html) as well as spearheading the creation of our new YouTube channel, and Wikipedia page. Check them out!
UofUtahSingers channel on YouTube. I've been editing and uploading videos for a few weeks now. There are about 24 now. Subscribe. Watch. Rate. Comment. :)



Here is the Wikipedia article I just finished.


Oh and I have been meaning to post some music files for download from recent (now not so recent) concerts and performances.

Here are some pieces from the scholarship concert with the Philharmonia and the a cappella choir where we sang the Beethoven Choral Fantasy and The Planets suite by Gustav Holst


Click here for the Beethoven Choral Fantasy

The Planets (first and last movement)
- Mars, The Bringer of War
- Neptune, The Mystic

Did I mention I'm tired of snow and cold? Because I am. Our heater was broken for like a month and it was 55 degrees in our house all the time. I don't know why we waited so long to get it fixed. I guess we were just worried we'd end up having to replace the heater altogether which would have cost an arm and a leg. Thank goodness it was just a little part!