Accompanist Woes

Okay, so many of you may not understand the severity of this rant, or why I'm even really upset, but I need to vent...

I volunteered to serve as the accompanist for a sweet, amateur Jewish choir made up of Jewish refugees in their 60s-90s from Russia. I did this volunteering before even moving to SLC, but while in preparation for the move and all too conscious of my need for musical sustenance in some venue or other. I figured - one hour a week, no problem - plus, I was used to playing for the Charbonneau Chorale weekly and knew I would miss them all...

Since moving I've gotten to know these dear people a little bit better, have been educated and amused by their love for food and celebrations, have learned a few Russian words and have suffered through many, many horribly unorganized, semi-mutinous, very off-key rehearsals. Some weeks I deal with it really well and focus on being an aid to a group of people who love meeting with each other and find joy in singing together. Other weeks I truly suffer through rehearsals, wishing I didn't have a degree in music or a perfectionist's temperament.

The biggest struggle throughout my experience with this choir has been their lack of music. Due to a very tragic accident, all the previous accompanist's music was lost or destroyed. Therefore, I've had to extract each piece of music here and there when the choir suddenly decides they want to sing it. Now, my personality dictates that if something like this happened and I had a new person who was coming in to help the choir (whether singing or accompanying) I would try to pull together all the music I could find to be able to hand them a folder of as many pieces as possible...

So, each week, I wait to see what "new" piece of music they are hoping to practice that I don't have - and the worst part - what different key they really want to sing it in than the one miraculously pulled from a choir member's folder. Then, we struggle through the music for a few minutes before the choir director finally tells me, "Down 1 step. Transpose. Next week." I generally sigh, nod and tuck the music away, knowing I will be fairly grumpy about doing the transposing during the week and will put it off until the following Tuesday night, or lunch on Wednesday before choir.

Now, the first couple of times I needed to transpose something it was okay. Heck, I even enjoyed it a little bit. The problem is, it really feels like it's now almost every piece, the pieces are getting more intricate, I have less patience and for goodness sake, we're talking 1/2 a step to a 3rd lower! Pretty much, that's nothing!!! So, why do I have to transpose it again? Why can't the choir practice enough to be able to reach high C? Plus, most of the time, I spend time doing the transposing and then we don't even practice the song again for several more weeks!

Okay. So, now you know where I was emotionally and psychologically when I went to choir last night (except you need to also know that this week almost anything has made me want to cry - again, thank you hormones). When I got to choir, I found out they will be performing at the re-opening of the state capitol building here in SLC on January 5th. This time, they did have a list of possible songs we might sing at the concert (hallelujah!). Upon the list, however, was "The Choir of the Slaves" from Verdi's Nabucco. This is a beautiful piece and I had the music, but we'd never practiced it together before last night. It's written in F# Major and I'd learned it as written... only to be told as we began to play, "No. No. Too high. Too high." She told me to take it down 1/2 a step. 1/2 a step! Essentially nothing. And, the director assumes one can just cancel out the key signature and still play it as written. Yeah right! There are accidentals all over the place and flats to play that aren't written in... AHHHHHH.

So, ultimately frustrated, I tried to stand up for myself (something I'm not always good at doing). But, due partially to the language barrier and partially to a very stubborn choir director, I was ignored. Here's where I'm still rubbed wrong: this choir cannot sing on pitch, therefore does not have good harmony, cannot hear when things are off or wrong, and doesn't know the concept of counting. So, why exactly should I transpose an entire opera chorus orchestration down 1/2 a step to accommodate them? Why can't they accommodate me in this situation and let me play it in the key it's written?

Anyway, the night ended with me dissolving into angry and frustrated tears in Seth's office, which gave me a headache that sent me to bed instead of getting to frost the cookies I'd made for a special presentation Seth had at work today. Sad, but not the end of the world. Hopefully I'll get to do some frosting tonight. :) Plus, I have a whole week before I have to face the chaos again...

P.S. I think the hardest thing in all this is that I don't want to be frustrated. I really do want a place where I can play for people. I really do like the choir quite a bit - they are sweet people who love to sing. I just feel stretched way too thin for the level of music we are really producing.

21 Weeks

So the tummy has emerged. Amy Arnold was right - it happens miraculously quickly all of a sudden. For me, it happened to be Friday afternoon, some time between noon and 6:00 pm. I had a doctor's appointment early in the day - no tummy. (Things look to be going really well these days). When I got home from work and changed into comfortable clothes, though - wala - tummy.

Freaky Fridays

Okay, so last Friday was the gunman scare at the office. This Friday was a witnessed accident on the way to work. Ahhh! Life certainly comes in waves.

So, here's the story:

Seth and I were on our way to work, around 7:35 am. It was a rainy, blustery morning and still pretty dark. We had just turned right past the high school by our house and were preparing to take a left hand turn onto 1900 E. We were stopped behind a silver Mazda and began to turn just after she did. Mid turn, both Seth and I realized there was a bicyclist in the crosswalk, crossing 1900 E. Thus, we watched this Mazda completely plow straight into the guy on the bike! I saw the car hit him, clothes and limbs went flying and I covered my eyes. I really think it's the worst thing I've ever seen.

We pulled over right behind the car who hit him and Seth hopped out to help. I must admit, I was a wreck and just sat in the front seat, crying. It turns out the kid is okay; he was a high school student on the way to school. He may have had a slight concussion, and he was afraid his ankle was dislocated/broken, but his parents ended up coming and taking him to the hospital - he didn't have to go in an ambulance. His bike was pretty well mangled and we had to stick around to give a statement, but it turned out as well as could be expected.

Now, I would hope that in stressful situations like this I'd have a straight head, but today I just completely melted. I've kind of processed it, though, and I think it's because I had so little control in the issue. It was like watching a movie, but knowing that it's real life and knowing that it's horrible and still not being able to do anything to stop it. 

After the event, taking the bike over to the school to try and figure out who the kid was and get in contact with his parents, giving a statement, etc. we were already really late for work. So, Seth decided we should go out to coffee to chill out and process together a little bit. This helped a lot, but I'm still a bit shaken up. The kid had dark clothes on, didn't have any good reflectors on his bike... neither Seth nor I had seen him, either, before we began to turn... it's just such an easy thing to have happen...

Seth and I have the VA Christmas Party to go to this evening. Hopefully it will be relaxing and fun. Pretty much, though, I'm once again really ready for the weekend. Snow is predicted and I'd like to decorate our Christmas tree... maybe I'll make York-a-Like Peppermint Patties... anything non-stressful, anti-anxiety provoking and calm.

First Snow & Second Snow

These are pictures of the 1st real snow we got here in SLC from the front of our home. The trees are my favorite!

These are from the backyard, the 2nd time it really snowed (Dec. 1). We waited until the evening and the sky was really pretty. Evidence of these 9-10 inches still remains and it is supposed to dump on us again tonight. Seth is excited to get to snowboard again this weekend.

Finally some pictures...

Here I am back at week 12.

Here I am back at 13 weeks. I wanted to document this day because it was the last time I figured I'd wear that shirt for a LONG time. It has plenty of room in the tummy, but the rib cage was feeling mighty tight. :)

Here I am this week - week 19. I feel "thick" these days, but everyone tells me I still don't look pregnant. I'm just waiting for pleasantly "round!"

Baby Tippin

Here's a sampling from our ultrasound earlier today. We thought this profile and arm were pretty cute. Things look to be going well. The kiddo is weighing in around 11 ounces and my predicted due date is April 28th. We chose not to find out the sex.

Melancholy

I'm feeling lonely today. Hopefully it is an emotion that will pass quickly - and I expect that it will, seeing as we have a holiday party here in the office today and Seth and I get to go see our mini-kiddo through an ultrasound this afternoon. Anyway, I've been reading blogs all morning and made the mistake of checking out North Valley's December newsletter... it just made me really miss everyone at home and made me sad that we don't have a church home here yet. It also made me feel really removed from our old life...

So, everyone back in Oregon, you are missed! And, all those who have moved this past year, too, and are scattered around the country - I'm thinking of you, commiserate if you are feeling lonely and miss you, too!