Reasons I Love My Job, Part 1

#1. As a GA, I get a bigger locker, access to lots of extra places, longer library loan periods, and an extra mailbox.

#2. People call me and want to spend time with me. People pay to hang out with me.

#3. Sometimes I get paid in zucchini muffins....that are delicious.

#4. Sometimes things get so intense that singers send spit flying across the room. Onto me.

#5. Sometimes I get to play for singers who are planning to sing for the Denyce Graves masterclass in a few weeks.

#6. My job description is making music with other people. In my teacher's syllabus/studio expectations, she concluded with "We are privileged people." Privileged, indeed.

After the Storm

Well, Irene has come and gone, leaving a few things in her wake. The wind and rain started at about 10 or 11 Saturday morning - and while the rain has stopped now, the winds are still howling a bit outside. Luckily, though, we never lost electricity!! I spent the evening at my friend Liz's place downstairs with a couple of other students. We had a movie marathon, roasted marshmallows over candlelight, played Apples to Apples, drank wine, and listened to the storm and a few crashing windows outside. And I got to go puddle-jumping in my galoshes too ;o).

Around 11, I went up to check on my place; the weather service was predicting that the storm would be at its peak by midnight - and being on the northeast corner of the building, my apartment would be taking a beating. I discovered that I had water leaking in a few windows (more through the molding above the window than from the actual window). I got to work putting towels around it and carefully placing tupperware to catch the drips.

While I was doing this, I heard a crash and went into my kitchen to find that the wind had sucked the top panel of my window out. The wind blowing around my building had created a vacuum - so it just took my window right out. I called the emergency number, and since our maintenance manager is out of town for the weekend, the property manager himself came and boarded it up for me. He had a busy night - and there were a few tenants worse off than I am. My window will get fixed this week - and I expect the molding above the window in my bedroom will need some work as well.

I am so thankful it was my kitchen of all windows - that it didn't leave a single shard of glass - and that the wind was blowing out, not in. Otherwise I would have had a TON of water in my kitchen! None of my things got wet - so I have much to be grateful for!

And I am thankful for friends to helped me out - and that I had a place to stay last night. A few of us had a slumber party in Liz's apartment - she lives on the third floor, so the other buildings around us shelter her place. I went upstairs every two hours to change my towels and empty my tupperware. So I am a bit tired today - but we're planning on taking it easy today. We slept in and had brunch at my place - and will be reconvening in a few hours to continue our movie marathon. Perhaps a little "Singing in the Rain" while we watch the rain outside...

Hurricanes and Zucchini Bread

It gives me great joy to share that I only have to take one review class! I have completed all of my entrance exams, and thanks to great preparation on the part of some wonderful Whitworth professors, and many study parties this week, I tested out of Music History, Ear Training and Music Theory review classes! I also took a keyboard skills placement exam and will have to be in a sight-reading review class once a week - so not too bad! And I can always use practice sightreading!

I feel a bit like my brain got sucked out of me, jumbled around a lot, and shoved back in. So I am spent - but grateful to be able to dive right into classes that will count towards my degree! I registered yesterday and will be taking an Ethnomusicology course, several accompanying and keyboard classes, and a required "Music Bibliography" class. I will also be filling up my time playing for probably 4-8 voice students and the "Singing in Italian" class. As a graduate assistant (GA), I have to work an average of 4-5 hours a week as an accompanist - so I will be working to fill those hours. The other Accompanying GA, Nadja, is from Serbia. She is a GPD student (Grad. Performance Diploma), a wife to an internal medicine resident, and a mother to a 7-mo. old (she did her audition for the program with a 4-week-old!). Since we met for the first time on Wednesday, we have done nothing but laugh, and I look forward to getting to know her more.

I also got to have my first rehearsal with a student yesterday. A student, originally from Bellingham (did his undergrad at Western) called to ask if I would run through some music for his opera auditions. It was a wake-up call in terms of the level of music I'll be playing and how much repertoire I will be responsible for. But it also was a taste of the incredible people I will be working with. We ran through an aria from Mozart's "Magic Flute," and I immediately felt at home. This is why I came here. And as an added bonus, it was also great to meet someone who wears chacos and has an REI backpack ;o). We talked for awhile about places to hike in the area, and he also is bringing me zucchini bread as part of my payment (made from a giant zucchini he grew in his garden).

Liz and I are headed out soon to get some hurricane supplies before the winds get too strong. Some other gals are coming over this evening to watch movies (until our computer batteries die) and play games as we wait out the storm. We are enjoying our last weekend of freedom before the semester begins on Wednesday.

Home, Part 1

From the corner of my living room, you can see the shelves in my entry way. On the left side of the picture is my kitchen and on the right is the hallway to my bedroom and bathroom. Side note: there is now a keyboard sitting on top of the small table you see here! It's been sitting in the basement of my building for a few months. It needs a power cord and probably an amp - but I got it for free - we'll see if it works!

My bedroom is at the end of the hallway - more pictures to come once I finish decorating! Unfortunately, I mailed my posters before I left Snohomish, and they have yet to arrive...so I may have to get creative with filling all of those empty walls!!

My bathroom has been re-vamped, so it's great to have new flooring and a new vanity/sink!.

And my kitchen! Today my stove is loaded with every pot I own, filled to the brim with water. We're all prepping for the hurricane - due to hit here this afternoon/evening. Last I heard, they'd lowered it to a Category 1 Storm; however, that still means we will probably be getting winds of up to 50 mph. It will be an adventure for sure!

Room with a View

Here I sit, on my couch, sipping my morning coffee, looking out over Baltimore. From my 8th floor windows, I can see the historic Belvedere Hotel, the Johns Hopkins Medical Campus, the city prison, many church steeples, and dozens upon dozens of row houses. My apartment is on the northeast corner of the building, so I catch the morning sun. And what a beautiful sunrise it was this morning!

It is a gift to sit here and reflect upon the insanity and the abundant blessings of the last week. My parents and I arrived last Tuesday in the wee hours of the morning. It took awhile to gather 6 pieces of luggage (plus our carry-ons) and find a shuttle that could fit them all. But we made it, and I am grateful both for their help and that every bag made it in one piece!

The next few days were a blur. Shopping trips. Cleaning. Assembling furniture. Scouring Craigslist. Unpacking. Organizing. Filling up many blank walls.

Already, I have been blessed by the people I have met. The staff of my building are kind and helpful. My new friend Liz (who I met when I came to look at apartments in May) is 5 floors down, and has been a kindred spirit. We have been pretty much attached at the hip for the last few days - studying together, exploring the school together, etc. Lots of laughter and good conversation. I am looking forward to being her accompanist this semester!

So here I am, one trip to IKEA, 2 hard-working parents, 3 trips to Walmart, 4 hours of deliberation over which curtains to buy, 5 thunderstorms, and countless trips up the elevator later...I am finally home. There is still work to be done. Things that need a home. Walls that need to be clothed. But already, this is a place I love to be. Quiet. Light-filled. Peaceful. A place where I can take a deep breath and have a brief oasis from the intensity of school. I look forward to the hours spent in this place...the people that will sit around my table with me...the mornings just like this one...the conversations and laughter and tears that will be shared in this room. And I look forward to watching this city and learning about it from above.

I'm still alive!

Sorry for the delay in posts. I have plenty to share about the last week, but that will have to wait until I have internet access. But until then, here are a few important updates:

- I am moved in and settled in my apartment.

- I started orientation yesterday and will commence my placement exams this evening. Today I have sightsinging, tomorrow I have Music History, and Friday, I have advanced keyboard skills. I am hoping to pass one of the 3 so that I only have to take two review courses. I am thankful to have already passed Music Theory in February.

- Yes, we did have an earthquake yesterday. Yes, I do live on the east coast now...maybe it got sent to the wrong coast? No, it wasn't bad. I was at school in a meeting - no one knew what it was except the Californians and me. Everyone else thought it was construction-related vibrations - and actually the meeting continued on. I am just thankful I wasn't in my apartment on the 8th (top) floor. Apparently my building was swaying back and forth. Thankfully, only one thing fell off my shelf!

Goodbye?

My what a rich and full few weeks.... I am so blessed to have spent the greater part of the last month with some of my favorite people. I was honored at a wonderful goodbye party in Spokane, and got to go kayaking with the "queens" of the Whitworth music department. I had countless lunch dates and ice cream dates and coffee dates and dinner dates and phone dates and long conversations that lasted into the wee hours of the morning. I watched the sunset from the top of Mt. Spokane with my adopted Spokane family. I went fishing with my brother and sister-in-law, went backpacking in the Goat Rocks Wilderness with my dad, spent an evening with my aunt and uncle in Naches, and stopped in for a quick "hello" in Olympia with my uncle, aunt, cousins and grandmother....and I happened to be in time to see one of my cousins perform in a musical - what fun!

I have listened, shared, laughed, cried, danced, reminisced, sung, prayed, hiked...and I have driven...many, MANY miles! Oh, and I may have run a few errands and packed a little too....

There have been moments when I've been overwhelmed with how many people I have to stay in contact with...which is not something I'm not always the best at. But in those moments, I am quick to remind myself that I GET to stay in contact with all of those people. What a gift to know and be known by such dear friends - to have shared time around so many tables with such precious souls. I am blessed, indeed.

And in all of this, the phrase that keeps coming back is "see you later." I don't know when or how or where, but I will see you later! It's a comforting thing to say. It doesn't feel as final as "goodbye."

But as I got to thinking this evening, I considered the origins of that dreaded word..."goodbye." It's simply a contraction of the phrase "God be with you." It's not a farewell. It's a blessing. A benediction. You might say it to a friend as they set forth on a journey. Or, you might speak it as a word of reassurance to someone going through a difficult time. And even more than a wish or a desire, it is the restatement of a promise already made. God be with you because God is with you. Immanuel. God with us. Here. Now. In this moment. In every moment. In the past. In the present. In whatever lies ahead.

So while it's still not going to make it on my list of favorite words, I think I've perhaps come to a new appreciation of what it means to say "goodbye." I know God is with me because I have seen and known and heard and felt Him through my wonderful family and friends. And I hope to live my life in such a way that others may know and realize the truth of the promise of His presence.

So, goodbye. God be with you. God is with you.