Thanksgiving The First

I was in Utah last weekend for an early Thanksgiving feast.

My mom set a beautiful table.

And we had a feast!

Viva la Mamma!

We just finished up our fall opera performances at Rice. I sang the role of the Seconda Donna, Luigia Castragatti, in Donizetti's Viva la Mamma! No, I'm not being overly exuberant. The exclamation point is included in the title. We set the opera in modern day Italy.

Here are a few of my favorite backstage pics of Luigia.

Aren't you glad she's not YOUR daughter?

Firenze!

I just found out I've been selected as one of six singers from Rice

to go here...

...for the first year of the new Italian study program at Rice! It's a two-week, intensive language study course in Florence funded entirely by one of Houston's generous donors. I'll be heading over in April or May! More details to come...

I'm thrilled!

The Organist's Last Job...

This is pretty great. It's definitely worth 45 seconds of your time.

It will brighten your day.

Click here.

Bless his heart.

Kenny Rogers?

Tell me what is wrong with this statement:

KENNY ROGERS TO PERFORM WITH HOUSTON SYMPHONY

Houston Native and Country Music Legend to perform for One Night only

Seriously?

What up, playa!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

We carved PUMPKINS!  I made the scary monster house, using a pattern, of course.  And from left to right: little asian pumpkin twins complete with little pouty lips and blushing round cheeks, scary monster house, creepy man peeking through your blinds, scary scarecrow, and my personal favorite, pumpkin pie!

Headless pumpkin people.

We carved pumpkins and watched "Pirates of Penzance", starring Linda Ronstadt, Kevin Kline, Rex Smith and Angela Lansbury. (Which is posted on Hulu, by the way.  I HIGHLY recommend it.)

I didn't plan an inventive, creative costume for actual Halloween.  I ended up at MJ and Bri's, waiting for inspiration to strike.  And then it did.  MJ's 9th grade basketball jersey, Brian's basketball shorts, baseball hat and giant red sneakers, and, the clincher, $$$ bling!

I almost cropped this picture, but notice Octomom with 8 multi-racial babies in a sling behind Liza Minelli and I.  Too funny!

Gangsta baller with Liza and Daphne from Scooby Doo.  It was a fabulous Halloween!

Catching up

It's been FOREVER since I blogged, but I'm happy to say that after a summer +  a few months of being sans internet, it's about to be restored!  Tonight!  And hopefully I'll be here a bit more often.  Not too much has changed since last.  I'm aways in to what will most likely be my LAST YEAR OF SCHOOL!  I've been having a blast redecorating my new apartment.  I will post pictures cause it looks cool.  I'm teaching lessons and singing Sunday mornings with the Episcopalians, and trying to decide what to be when I grow up.  The biggest question is should I be this?

Or something else?

Went on a quick jaunt to UTAH in late July and had some adventures...

Went to afternoon tea at the Grand America with Mom and the wonderful G-Ma...

Took a wild motorcycle ride up to Albion Basin and captured some beautiful shots...

Threw a bridal shower for the future Mrs. Adams...

 

and caught up with some delightful friends!

I even visited the moon, and the planetarium with Sarah and the nephews...

I made it back to Houston and went to my first ever professional baseball game: 

Astros vs. Giants

We WON!

With friends Jon, Laura, and Mike.

Overall it's been a great summer.  School starts in 2 weeks!

More beach!

I went to the beach again today, although some people I've talked to don't consider the Gulf of Mexico to be a real ocean, nor the Galveston Seawall a real beach.  Nevertheless, we made sandcastles, frolicked in the waves and enjoyed the balmy breeze as a respite from the blistering 100 degree sun.  

Speaking of blisters, I may have gotten a bit too much sun.  *Sigh.*  At least I got some new freckles too.  And I think I stepped on a crab, although there's a lack of positive evidence.  It's kind of hard to tell what you're stepping on in the murky non-ocean water. :)  

It's summer!  Some updates:

Pie night.  I decided to experiment and it turned out to be a delicious surprise!  Here were the results:

On Memorial Day, Erin and I went down to Kemah, a little town near Galveston where there's a boardwalk.

We strolled around, window shopped and ate dippin' dots.  We also decided this girl would be a good candidate for What Not To Wear.  If you think the back was bad, you should have seen the front!

We saw a pirate ship.

And Spongebob Squarepants was there.

I took this one to show off my Texan-ness, but I look kind of horsey, so ignore that.

It was a great day!

Last weekend my ward had a bonfire down at the beach in Galveston.  Someone brought those velcro paddles and balls.  Remember those?

It's been a great summer so far.  Nice and warm, not too hot, full of beaches and bbqs and working.  Lovely.  

A change of location...

I moved.  But not too far.  Just down the street.  I packed my little car to the gills and moved everything, with the exception of my giant bed, in two trips.  Pretty impressive, I thought.  

I'm sort of housesitting for MJ and Brian while they're gone for the summer.  My contract just happened to end right when they were leaving.  I think the timing was fortuitous.  

So it's out with 507 and into 347.  

MJ and Bri's apartment has a lovely little porch full of tropical-esque plants and tiki torches.  It's a nice view, although it's getting a bit warm out to be able to sit out and enjoy it during the day.  I did see a little green lizard sunning along the top of the fence this morning.  I tried to catch him on film, but he disappeared as soon as I came out.

I've starting teaching almost every day.  It's good.  And I'm looking for another job in the mornings.  Along with everybody else in town.  

Wish me luck!

Winter Scenes video

This is a video of our November scenes performance.  It's a scene from Kurt Weill's opera Street Scene.  I'm the one in the red dress and shoes, and that's MJ as the old lady at the beginning.  She cleans up good, doesn't she!

It's been a while since I blogged.  Many things have happened.

The Braes Bayou Ward had a dating contest.  The guys had two weeks to go on as many "planned, prepared, and paid for dates" they could, only counting each girl once.  They got 93.  Then the girls had a chance to rally back.  We ended up with 120 something dates.  I added my 5... a pretty good contribution if you ask me.  

This is me and Ryan.  He's just using Jamie's apron.  I didn't kill him.  We were just arguing about how much garlic to put in the sauce.

I went shopping in celebration of Spring Recess with Erin at Buffalo Exchange.  It's an awesome second hand store.  There were definitely some gems there.  What do you think?

I had a crazy Holy Week and sang 5 services in 4 days.  It was a wonderful Easter and I learned so much from attending the services.  My favorite part was the end of the Maundy Thursday service where they stripped the entire church of all decoration and slowly extinguished the lights, symbolic of the Savior's Atonement and the tomb that would be found empty.  Sunday morning at 6 am there was a sunrise service which began in a dark, empty church.  One by one the candles we were carrying were lit, and the service proceeded by candlelight as we listened to the scriptures of the major dispensations up until Christ's time.  It was a beautiful, symbolic service.  I'm grateful for my Episcopalian experience, so far. 

And now school's out.  I finished my last day of classes on Friday and only have one measly Italian paper to go.  Hooray!  Erin, Alex, MJ and I went to see a show at the Miller Outdoor Amphitheatre.  A blast!  Let the summer adventures begin!  

True Beauty

That's the name of a ridiculous reality show that MJ and I started watching while we studied (or didn't really ever study) for our Italian class.  It doesn't have anything to do with this blog.  I LOVE the rain here in Texas.  The other day I was leaving the gym and it started to pour!!!  Check out the water gushing through the parking lot!   I almost felt like little Gretl for a minute, and then I decided no to be scared and went out to take pictures!  It was quite the incredible deluge.

Because it's the end of the semester, it's marathon recital time.  There have been six recitals in seven days.  All of them have been good, and some of them stunning.  Have you ever been listening to something and been totally transported, just for a moment?  That's what has happened a few specific times lately.  Everything combines for an almost perfect moment, and you forget everything else!  Usually the moment is ended by some unfortunate person rustling their program or coughing up a lung.  I am, however, very grateful for those shining, wonderful moments.  

I was looking through my pictures a few days ago and spotted this one- taken in the fjords of Norway.  I just like it a lot.

And I had to show off the cute little cake I made for my roommate Jamie's birthday.  

Delicious!

The Scream

Don Giovanni opens this weekend.  I'm covering (which is just a fancy word for understudying) the role of Zerlina, which means I get to attend all the rehearsals and watch all the stagings in case I have to go on, but never actually do them.  This week the girl who's singing the role got sick.  She called me about an hour and a half before one of the final run through rehearsals and asked if I could do the rehearsal for her.  This is what I looked like when I hung up the phone.

Needless to say, I was terrified, and I immediately sat down and started studying the score and all the notes I'd written down.  And it worked.  Even though it was just a rehearsal, I made it through, with lots of prayers and a few gentle pushes in the right direction from my colleagues.  And I had a blast!  I really do love being on stage.  It was a good chance to prove to myself and to my directors that I'm up to it.  YEAH!!!  And I have resolved (again) not to procrastinate my preparation, because as they say, "When the time for performance arrives, the time for preparation has passed."  

Longhorns and Bimbos

Post-North Carolina Spring Break was fabulous.  MJ and Brian picked me up from the airport and we treated ourselves to some ice cream from Jason's Deli, one of our favorites in Rice Village.

I took a drive up to College Station, Home of the Aggies at Texas A&M.  I saw actual longhorns on the drive up.  It was pretty sweet.

I went there to see my little brother Isaac swim at a big meet.  It was really fun to see him.  Obviously he is no longer littler than I am.

Texas A&M is in a tiny town called College Station, and the campus makes up most of the town.  And most of the campus is dominated by the giant football stadium, the baseball field, the aquatic center, and other various sundry athletic facilities.  

Good thing I don't go to school there.

And on my drive back, I saw this truck.  Yes, I admit I took this picture while driving, but I couldn't help it!  It reminded me of trips to Mexico, and even if it hadn't, it's just hilarious.  Don't you kind of feel bad for the guy who has to drive the Bimbo truck?

Home at last!

After two 5:30 am trips to the Raleigh airport, one massive east coast snow storm and cleaning out a large turtle tank I'm finally back home in Houston, two days later than expected.  Phew.  I was reminded of several things I'm very grateful for during this inconvenient little adventure.

• Independence.  I missed being self-reliant and able to get myself places and do things for myself.  I had to really on my gracious hosts for EVERYTHING!
• Good, kind, generous people.  Three girls I don't even know let me crash at their home, do some laundry, fed me, and drove me to the airport at the crack of dawn twice!  Thank heavens for them!  That could have been a long 48 hours in the airport.
• My iPod.  Silly, really, but it kept me occupied for several very long hours.
• Beautiful weather.  Good heavens.  I'd forgotten what it's like to scrape off an icy car in the frigid, dark morning with a credit card.  I'm grateful for Houston's balmy winter.
• This ridiculous sign that was on a vending machine in the Houston airport.  I had to take a picture.

Oh, the irony!

It felt so good to come home to my little apartment, with my bed and my car and all my stuff.  I missed it.  Looking forward to enjoying the rest of spring break!

Hush Puppies!

I thought Texas was part of the South, and I guess it is in some ways, but I think I just got my real introduction to real southern living.  I came to Raleigh, North Carolina for my sweet companion Mollie Loomis' wedding.  At the luncheon we ate delicious southern barbeque (not like the greasy Texas stuff), cole slaw, and hush puppies!  

Hush puppies!  

I thought hush puppies were just a brand of shoes!  And everyone down here has a real thick Southern twang, which is a bit different than the Texas drawl I've been getting used to.  

It was pouring rain on Mollie's wedding day, so we "borrowed" a cute red umbrella somebody left outside.  She didn't get soaked and they still got some cute pictures.  

All in all it's been a good weekend, although I'm ready for it to end.  I'm still stuck in North Carolina, due to a big storm heading down the east coast with no foreseeable end to the situation.  Looks like I may be here for awhile.  Good thing Mollie has some nice roommates that are willing to host a poor, lost soul!

I just had a really big weekend, but before this weekend I got very, very sick.

The ENT I eventually went to called it acute tracheitis, which is code for TERRIBLE DISEASE FROM THE DEPTHS OF HELL.  I lost my voice, had a fever of 102, and couldn't get out of bed all week.  And this was the week I was going to sing for Renee Fleming and sing my first masters recital.  On Wednesday, after two days in bed, I got a blessing.  On Thursday I went to the doctor, much improved, but not even close to 100%.  Thursday evening was the Renee Fleming Gala, a benefit concert for the opera program at Rice.  I might have coughed a little during the concert.  Oops. 

The first half was with Maestro Bado, our opera director.

The second half was with the Rice Symphony Orchestra.  

Here's the view from where we were sitting.

And here's us!  All the Rice masters students, after we sang "Libiamo" from La Traviata with La Diva.  I'm the fourth girl from the left.

Thursday night my mom told me to sniff salt water up my nose.  Gross.  But it worked!  And Friday I could sing!  I warmed up for the recital by singing for Renee Fleming in a masterclass.

To be honest, I didn't sing very well, and she didn't love my guts like she loved some of the other singers, but she told me some good things and I didn't die.  Phew.

And Friday night was my recital!  This is a glimpse of some of my adoring fans.

This is afterwards with my famous and fabulous teacher, Susanne Mentzer.

This is with James and Stephanie, a girl from Utah who saw me in Ragtime and happened to be in Houston...

With my dear friend Michael...

With wonderful coach/accompanist Jan de Chambrier.

And with Shane Ragsdale, and my best Houston pals Brian and MJ.

I was pretty pleased with the recital- it went well thanks to my little miracle.  I'll try to figure out a way to post some of the recording.  Let me know if you know how!  And now I must go back to having adventures with my mom and James.  More on that later...

Grow-a-Jesus update

Random updates:

#1  Since my birthday, my "grow-a-Jesus" has been making significant progress toward the 600 times his size goal.  I think he might already be there.  You may compare him to his previous photo a few posts ago.  I think you'll be impressed.

#2  Renee Fleming, diva extraordinaire, is coming to Rice to do a benefit concert for the opera program.  Tickets to the gala concert are $1000 a piece.  All the graduate students get to sing in a chorus from 'La Traviata' with her during the concert, and I got chosen to sing in the masterclass with her the next day. AWESOME!!!  I'll let you know how it goes.

#3  Despite loving to perform, I hate doing improv games.  We had an improv class in opera workshop last week, and not only did we have to make up scenes on the fly, we then had to sing them!!!  I hated it, and this is proof that I am not a thespian.  The following picture is not anyone I know, but I'm pretty sure that girl could be doing opera improv.  Ridiculous.   

#4  This picture is just cute.  Becky Foster came down to visit from San Antonio for opera scenes last week.  Gotta love the USU kids!

Latest project...

I think I may have the coolest major ever, if not the most practical.  Here are some shots from my latest project.  Thank heavens it wasn't a major research paper!  These are from the Rice University Opera Theatre Scenes program.  I did a scene from Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro, the one where Cherubino, the Count and Basilio all end up in the Countess' boudoir and Susanna has to figure it all out.  

It was pretty fun.  

This is me with Sarah Larsen, my little Cherubino.

and with Alexandra and Mary-Jane

and with some of the opera kids backstage.  Suffice it to say, it was a pretty long scenes program, and we got a little bored.

 

 Anyway, I'm very glad that my graduate school projects don't involve hours of editing and retyping, rather hours of translation, repetition and staging.  I much prefer the latter.

25!

My birthday was last week.  I turned 25.  A quarter of a century old.  I can't believe it!  My mom told me that it's officially okay for me to get married now.  Phew.  My school friends and I celebrated by going out to dinner at a fabulous tex-mex restaurant called Chuy's, and let me tell you, if you've never heard a table full of opera singers burst out at the top of their lungs in a chorus of Happy Birthday in a crowded restaurant on a Friday night, you haven't lived!  That was quite possibly the highlight of my 25th year so far. 

  

This is a picture of the giant yellow balloon that I got from the management at my apartment complex.  Below are my roommates Jamie and Zina, who made me that delicious brownie cake that we ate at 11:00 pm.  Yum.

This is a present from my friend Corissa.  It's a Jesus that grows!  You put him in water and he will grow to 600 times his original size (pictured below).  Maybe I will post some updated pictures of his growth progress.  He's getting very large.  And he came with a bonus mini Bible, which does not grow when placed in water.  

Last, but definitely not least, this is the sassy new bag my mom sent me for my birthday.  LOVE IT!!  It's the perfect size for carrying an opera score, one textbook/music book, and my laptop so that I can conveniently blog while sitting in the lounge at school, and do it in style!  

What a great gift!

So, it's on to my twenty fifth year.  Here's to whatever comes!

By learning you will teach; by teaching you will understand.

Today I was thinking about the incredible good a gifted teacher can do.  I was just called as the education counselor in my Relief Society presidency.  I'm floundering in my Italian class due to an "interesting" teaching style.  And I just got a part time job teaching violin, voice and piano (piano. right. we'll see how that goes.) at a music studio in the suburbs of Houston.  I was substituting tonight for a violin teacher that was gone, and it made me really appreciate the impact a good, or bad teacher can have.    

Albert Einstein said, "It is the supreme art of the teacher to awaken joy in creative expression and knowledge."  Good teachers are inspiring.  They show you how to discover and explore, how to think in new ways.  They urge you to break the boundaries and push the limits you thought you had.  They spark new interests, and show you what passion and dedication can create.  They shape you.  They guide you.  They encourage you.  They love you.  

I'm will ever be indebted to my many, many teachers: Ramona, Karen, Cindy, Janet, Mr. H, Dave Irvine, my grandparents, Mrs. Riley, Susanne, Jan, my parents, Sergio Bernal, the list could continue on and on.  I'm studying at a remarkable university where I continue to reap the benefits of attentive, loving teachers.  And I guess today I realized that I'm a teacher too.  I've been a teacher for quite a few years, but today I realized the difference one good teacher can make. 

 

"A teacher affects eternity; 

he can never tell where his influence stops."  

-Henry Brooks Adams

The smell of sultry air

This morning I walked out of Holy Spirit Episcopal (no, I'm not an Episcopalian now, I just have a job singing in their choir for services.  We wear robes like these pretty little things)...

Anyway, I walked out of the church this morning into the warm, moderately humid air and caught a scent that immediately reminded me of my mission in Nauvoo in 2003.  I don't know exactly what triggered it, but all of the sudden wonderful memories and feelings come flooding back and a spontaneous smile appeared on my face...

 

 

It was hot in Nauvoo.  It was really hot and sticky all summer, but my testimony grew more that summer than it ever had before.  I remember getting off the little puddle jumper and driving in one of our big 15 seater vans with all the sisters up to Nauvoo, and as we came into the city, I felt a warm confirmation that the stories we were going to portray were true and that Joseph Smith was a true prophet of God.  

 

I remember going to visit Carthage on our first preparation day.  We went into the room where Joseph and Hyrum Smith were killed and heard the tour.  The general mood in the room was mournful, but walking around afterwards I was talking to Sister Aston and she made a comment about how she didn't feel sad that they died, but rather she felt profoundly grateful for the lives they had lived and the things they had done.  

I guess the smell of the air this morning was a tender mercy from the Lord, a small reminder of things past learned, feelings long since faded, and friendships forged.  It was a gentle reminder of where I came from and what I know.    How grateful I am for what I know!

Joining the baby club

I realized the other day as I was catching up on some friends' blogs, that probably 75% of them were plastered in adorable pictures of their adorable children, and I decided that I should join in the fun.  Now, because I don't have any adorable children, or even one adorable child, I had to go looking for some.  Here's what I found...

Look at this sweet little guy in the green!  He looks like Kasper Larsson (in the blue), a kid from my last area in Sweden, but Kasper was bald.  This kid has the most amazing HAIR!!!  

Another amazing baby.  This one brushes it's own teeth.  Now, from what I understand in the friends' baby blogs, this self-grooming baby would be quite efficient and significantly reduce the time required of the mother.  This is the kind of baby I want.

This is the laundry baby.  Said baby peacefully sleeps while you fold the laundry.  Note the pleasant smile on baby's face as baby is sedated by the "clean laundry" smell.  This baby obviously has a model mother.

This baby is fat.  He looks like that dog.  That baby and that dog could keep each other occupied for a long time.  So if you're going to get a puppy, you should also get a baby that could pass for its sibling so they will play nicely together.  

Another tip I picked up during my research: If you're going to have quadruplets, make sure your spouse is capable of making ridiculous noises to make them laugh.  This will make your life easier.  Click here to see how this works.  

These last two are the only babies in the whole post that I actually have some sort of legitimate claim to.  They are my nephews, Zachary and Abraham.  Aren't they adorable?

There.  Now my blog has some adorable babies on it.  I've joined the club!  At least, temporarily.

Family

I got to take a quick trip back to Utah the day after Thanksgiving for Grandma Anderson's funeral.  It was a beautiful service- a great tribute to a great woman.  I also got to attend the Sorensen Thanksgiving/Christmas party, which I've missed incredibly the past two years.  I feel so honored to be part of such an wonderful group of people.  I couldn't quite explain how it felt to 

see them all again after such a long time.  They're absolutely amazing.  I love them! 

I also really loved coming back to Houston.  It feels like home now.  And I've come to the conclusion that regardless of where you are, it's people that matter.  People are what make life worth living.  Loving people is what can make you the most happy you can be.  

I love people!

Renaissance...

I went to the Texas Renaissance festival on Saturday.  It was amazing!  First of all, I drove forever to get there, but when I did, the entrance looked like this:

It was a castle!  In middle of nowhere Texas!  Full of tons of 

people that were totally decked out in full Renaissance regalia. There were barbarians roaming around, and you could eat a turkey leg or "drench a wench" in the dunking booth.  Pretty incredible. 

But the coolest part was probably the jousting match.  They were really jousting!

I was thoroughly impressed. 

It was like taking a step back a few hundred years in time.  Quite the adventure.  So if you're ever in Houston in October and November...

Halloween 2008

Happy Halloween!  So I didn't have any genius ideas for a Halloween costume.  I haven't dressed up since I was 14.  But MJ came up with an incredible idea.  And here

it is...

She was a figure skater, along with her husband Brian.  Stunning.  Really. 

Allow me to state that this incredible costume does not reflect my political opinion. :)  In fact, I'm woefully ignorant of all things political, something I hope to repair in coming elections.  I'm sure I have plenty of friends who would be more than happy to share their political opinions and discoveries.  So no, I don't hate Sarah Palin.  And yes, next time there's an election, I will definitely inform myself better.  And I will again indulge in ridiculous amounts of pumpkin chocolate chip cookies as I did this year.  Happy Halloween!

FALL!

So I'm pretty sure there's no fall in Texas.  At least not the kind of fall I'm used to.  I was walking across campus the other day enjoying the balmy, 70 degree weather, when I saw a single leaf fall to the ground.  One leaf.  And I thought to myself, it's fall!  Okay, so we don't have the stunning leaves, but we've had the most beautiful weather lately!  I love spending time out in the courtyard at school.  That's Alice Pratt Brown Hall, the music building at Rice.  Pretty, isn't it?  I love autumn in Logan.  The drive up through Sardine Canyon to Cache Valley from Salt Lake is stunning.  I miss it.  But I love this beautiful weather and this city.  I really do.  So even though I miss the fall as I have previously experienced it, and I would dearly like to see a mountain side flaming with bright color, I'm blooming where I'm planted.  I love school.  I've learned so much in the past two months, and this fall will be another great one.  A new one.  Maybe I'll become a Texan yet...  

BAlaNcE

Balance. I'm convinced it's what life's all about.  To attain a perfect balance is why we're here.  It seems to be an ever present theme in my life.  Maintaining a balance between work and play, sleep and awake, seriousness and craziness, just balance.  I'm pretty sure that once we've achieved a perfect balance in EVERY aspect of our lives, we're pretty well on our way.  

There's a term in singing and in art called chiaroscuro.  It appears to be a contradictory term because chiaro means light, and scuro means dark.  If you have chiaroscuro in your sound you have a balance of

 both the light and dark sounds perfectly mixed.  Just like if you have really good singing technique you're poised and energized in your musculature as well as relaxed and loose.  Seems impossible.  But it's not.  And really good singers have it.  Perfect balance.  It also happens in pictures.  Without the chiaro, you can't see the scuro.  You have to have the dark in order to see the light.

There's a great talk about balance by President Faust called "The Need for Balance in Our Lives". He says that "balance in large measure is knowing the things that can be changed, putting them in proper perspective, and recognizing the things that will not change".  That's true, right?  All of us have different strengths, different loves and hate, different weaknesses.  It's just about finding what the right balance is for each of us.  And actually living it.  And it's a lifelong process.  Like I said, I think that's why we're here.  God is the perfectly balanced person.  He has achieved the perfectly balanced life.  And that's what we're going for.  To change what we need to to attain that balance, to use moderation, to enjoy life.  And that's my spiel.