Goodbye Rotten Decade - Welcome Sweet New Decade

Happy New Year to me. Happy New Decade to Me. There, it has been said and done and I am left to count down the few hours remaining until life gets a whole lot better.

What made 2000 - 2009 so awful??????? Here goes:

2000: Breast cancer, mastectomy and finally, an "all clear,"

2001: Duodenal Ulcer - bad bad bad bad bad

2002: Still ulcering - still bad bad bad bad bad

2003: Dirty doings going on.

2004: Still dirty doings going on.

2005: Still more dirty doings going on.

2006: Still more dirty doings going on, only now I have PROOF!!!!!!!!

2007: Revenge of Catwoman.

2008: Catwoman lives to wreak more havoc.

2009: Catwoman and cats are worn out!

Welcome sweet new decade in just about 2 hours from now. I need a rest!!!!!!!

Deck the Halls With Boughs of Holly

Fa la la la la, la la la la! It's the busy Christmas season for us, starting on Saturday afternoon, November 28, at the Festival of Trees, our annual Christmas Recital on Sunday, December 6 and finally, our appearance at the annual Carol Fest on Tuesday, December 8th. By "we," I mean my Grande Prairie Regional College Conservatory Choir, now in our 22nd year of performing, and all of my varied students, aged 6 on up to 17, who will be singing solos and duets as well as singing in the Choir. (Actual photos are going to appear after all of this concertizing), I HOPE!!!!!

This afternoon for 2 hours, we (the choir) rehearsed our 4 songs for the Festival of Trees. We are singing four 2-part selections, one of them an a cappella arrangement of "I Saw Three Ships" written especially for them by our friend and composer extraordinaire, Christine Donkin, who lives in Ottawa now. This arrangement was my best birthday present on November 6, as that is when it arrived, along with my worst birthday present, a very bad cold, cough and all the rest.

Half of our 12 singers are 6 & 7 years of age, and it is so thrilling to hear those little kids sing such difficult music - in tune, accurate notes and musical to boot! The other half are from 11 years to 17, and they really are the foundation of the group. The students who are singing this year work very hard and actually learn their music. Ha! (There have been other years with other singers who were, for want of a better word, lazy). I'll take six itty- bitty kids who work, over 15 who can't pick up their music in-between rehearsals. They really make me proud!

After the Festival of Trees concert finishes, I am then headed to the Grande Prairie Regional College for an evening concert of The Messiah where I sing Soprano 1 in the GPRC Concert Choir. After being sick for over two weeks, it is wonderful to have my high notes back, as there are a flurry of them in this oratorio. Our conductor is a friend of mine, John Murray, who has conducted the choir for many years now, and I am so thrilled to be singing in the choir this year.

Now, before Saturday night, I have to get rid of Linus so I can cut out my skirt for the concert that I still have to sew, and I discovered the perfect ruse today - turn up the Christmas music on the stereo full blast and zap - he's out of here! I haven't seen him for 4 or 5 hours, but I still haven't cut out that skirt. I guess I can't be motivated unless I have to fight off that cat rolling around on the pattern and chewing the glass bead-top pins. The dress I was making for last Christmas still hangs in the "to do" closet with the sleeves sewn in inside out - I believe Linus "helped" me sew that, too.

Ha! I DID finish my new coat for the Christmas season that I began about ten years ago. It is an "in" color, a black and royal blue plaid with a faux chinchilla collar and cuffs, wide shoulders (they're back in now) in a princess style maxi length and lots of thinsulate, good for -40 Celsius. The 10 year- in- the- making- coat was designed before global warming, so it may be too warm, even here in northern Alberta, Canada, but I certainly intend to wear it to all of the festivities this season. Then it's back to the orange coat that I have yet to finish - the one Linus has been laying on for 2 months now.

It seems as though we were just preparing for last Christmas season, and here we are again. Only this year the kids have worked ever so well learning their music AHEAD OF TIME, and I think the crowds are going to enjoy them so much. I know that I will!

Thoughts and Memories Brought by the Snow

Life, as I know it, is going to get better......I can just feel it all through my cold, weary bones. You see, it snowed out there today, and all of the ugly brown leaves that littered my unkempt lawn are neatly hidden underneath that blanket of snow.

I remember another little plot of land that had also been covered with newly- fallen snow in the autumn of 1983. Before that snow fell in late November, wrinkled, rumpled brown leaves lay scattered, along with bouquets of dying roses, over the grave of a little girl gone much too soon.

For 26 years, autumn has brought its own version of a grievous hell into my life, and I have survived both badly and quite well along the way. On the good side of hell, there has been my music, and my ability, they tell me, of "having a way" of successfully reaching the many students entrusted to me. This is something I own, something over which I have control, and should I not succeed in being a good music teacher, then I will have only myself to blame. For most of the past 26 years, inordinate success has come my way, and I had hoped for that to continue unimpeded. But..........

On the bad side of hell are the influences that have dared to rob me of my life, my livelihood and my very soul. Forces not attuned to the emotions of a mother's loss of her child, forces without a whit of an idea of a mother's grief, have forged a presence in my life that has become almost irrepressible in its strength to devour and destroy. What once was thought to be mine totally, had nearly morphed into carrion for the crow.

However, unwilling to surrender the remains of my being to unfeeling forces of nature, I determined that I would once again be the force in control of this mid-hell in which I reside. Steps have been taken to enrich my life, despite my long ago grief, and I continue to think of a better tomorrow. Lately, unforeseen circumstances lead me to believe that the road ahead will no longer be a path of unfilled potholes, but rather, a smooth, scenic roadway through beautiful mountains and bountiful valleys.

On this new journey, I am reminded by a poem I discovered copied into the scribbler of a little blonde girl, gone too soon:

Frost's in the air now.

All the trees are bare now.

Grey shadows creep,

Cold breezes blow.

Daylight is dying,

Withered leaves are flying,

Soon they will sleep under the snow.

So the dead leaves are hidden under the snow today, as are the past few years' travails hidden and sleeping under the snow today. Let them remain forever under the snow, even when the sun shines on a better day tomorrow.

Another Friday Night at the Little House With the Red Door

It's Friday night again...time to catch up on my niece's blog, write a few words here, and bond with my poor four cats who were left home all alone today. I did cover up all of the pins before I left, though, just to reassure me that Linus would still be breathing when I got home.

I am looking over at the kitchen table, the one Linus was decorating last Friday night, but he has moved on to one of the fluffy little cat beds from Publishers Clearing House, on the sectional. Now if I could operate my camera well enough to move photos onto this computer, I would show you all of these scenarios, but alas, I am still in study mode (together with no time).

Anyhow, since I covered up the still uncut pattern pieces of my orange fleece-knit- coat-to-be, Linus has lost interest. If you had to navigate through a tin foil box, dusting spray, a box of plastic wrap, a bowl of popcorn from last night, 2 vanilla wafers boxes, a pair of jeans, a washcloth, a box of Ritz crackers, a package of gluten-free noodles, a box of Shake- n- Bake, a 5 lb. bag of red potatoes AND a cookbook, you would think twice, too, before putting in the effort needed to satisfy pin-passion. "It's just not worth it," I can just hear him say, adding, "I'll just wait until she clears it off tomorrow when she finally does the dishes and needs a place to put them." (He has me figured out pretty well...very well, actually, when one considers his short stay in this little house).

And Teddy, the 15 or 16 pounder, with feet the size of a Great Dane, is reclining on a his hand knit, harvest yellow afghan that he swiped from the sectional last year. It wasn't even FINISHED when he took over making bread, and at the same time pulling bits of yarn out (with his teeth, obviously). Therefore, Teddy's afghan has no finishing extras such as a fringe, no loose ends woven in on the wrong side, etc., and is full of Teddy-teeth-holes, but he does love it. (Photo to be provided at a later date). Linus lasted just one afternoon on Teddy's afghan.....must not have had the aroma of "home."

Suddenly I am aware of the many projects in my little house that I have created over the past 19 years we have all lived here. Everyone has his/her place on the 3 piece sectional that I bought for $90 in a second hand furniture store in 1988. It was reupholstered nine years ago (by me, after a year's worth of studying), complete with a million staples, new foam and a complete rebuild. So it lives on, now clothed in a slipcover made out of indestructible outdoor fabric, blue and harvest gold gingham, and will no doubt outlive me. It just fits in this little house's little living room/music studio and is just big enough for one human and four felines to sit simultaneously and comfortably. This is about the 10th slipcover for my little sectional, but they have been easily affordable since I am a slipcover seamstress, as well as a music teacher.

The only thing I haven't learned how to do in this little house, is how to keep it clean and tidy. Maybe when I finally put up some photos of this cluttered little house, I will finally realize that I had better do some serious de-clutter study. But in the meantime, life, such as it is, goes on. And who cares anyway?

On Needles and Pins

Linus is a 1-1/2 Ragdoll from hell, purchased from a really sweet lady/breeder in Calgary, in the summer of 2008. I am going to write about Linus, as he is developing a passion for straight pins with a colored knob at the end, the kind I use for sewing. One of my other cats, long gone now, Munz, also had a pin-passion, and I am dumbfounded as to why these very dangerous non-toys for cats are so attractive. Pandora, really long, long gone, also developed pin-passion, and I swear she almost ate many of them. WHY???????????? Are they fish flavored? (I'm not going to taste-test in order to find out).

Casper I and Casper II, obviously white cats (and we all know that white cats are bizarre), preferred (and prefer - present tense for the living Casper II) to pull pins from patterns that have been waiting to be cut out. Just like that, unbeknownst to me, the pattern is soaked with saliva, is torn into shreds, and no white cat in sight! Because I am much too busy (or lazy) to pin patterns onto fabric and zip, cut them immediately, this is what I am left with. I will really have to hide those expensive vintage patterns as long as Casper II possesses pattern-pin-passion.

But Linus is the issue here; being "last pick" of the litter of 7, he demonstrates just why he was so left for me by those other litter pickers. Ragdolls aren't supposed to develop mats, HA!!!!! Twice he has been to the groomer down the street, who just happens to be a student of mine, to have tons of mats shaved off. This time, a month ago, he received a "lion cut," and if I could ever get him to sit still for a photo, I would let you see him.

Ragdolls are supposed to be wimps, but of course, Mr. Last Pick is anything but. He just loves to harass Casper II and Lucille, my 18 - 1/2 year old stray. He does romp with Teddy, the 15 or 16 pound Himalayan/Turkish Angora cross, until Linus takes one too many chomps on Teddy's rear end appendage. Linus has broken the paper tray off of my irreplaceable old workhorse printer, he broke a lamp, he takes great delight in knocking everything up high onto the floor and, you guessed it, it's broken. This particular kitten weighs about 14 pounds now, and unlike LITTLE kittens who are very naughty but small, he does 14 pounds or more worth of damage.

Now he is staring at me from the kitchen table, which is covered in uncut garment pieces camouflaged by the laundry covering the sewing project. The orange coat-to-be is soft, knit fleece, a sure magnet for Linus, so I had to hide 15 pieces before he rolled over for too many belly rubs and tore the pattern into shreds. The pins that he delights in throwing all over the place are resting on top of my stove. I hope none ended up in the cranberry nut bread baking in the oven. I wonder what he's thinking?

Just Catching Up on a Quiet Friday Evening

Just stopping in on a quiet Friday evening (now Saturday, actually) because I haven't stopped her for awhile. Still no pictures to post, as I don't yet know what I am doing in that department. I know, practice makes perfect, but I haven't been practicing.

I missed nearly an entire week of teaching a couple of weeks ago; oh, I did get sick with some sort of stomach flu, but all that is past now and I am fine. Along with missing a week's salary, ouch, I missed one of the College/Community Choir rehearsals that I usually attend for three hours every Tuesday. We are madly preparing for a November 28 performance of "The Messiah," and I am really loving singing Soprano 1 for a change. Usually, for almost all of my singing life, and that is a LONG time, I have sung alto, because I read music and could help the other non-musicians along in singing harmony. An adjudicator a couple of years ago asked, "Do you know the definition of an alto?" None of the audience knew the answer: "A soprano who reads music!" How true!

I am also organizing the many Christmas events in which my students will perform. That includes the Festival of Trees, our annual Christmas Recital and the Festival of Carols. We will not be singing as the guest choir this year for the November 28 concert, due to the length of "The Messiah." That suits me just fine, as we are really in a rebuilding mode this year and so it is a good time for us to prepare for a guest appearance in November, 2010 instead.

That's about it for now; nothing really earth shattering, but one never knows in this city what tomorrow will bring. But I have 2 days off, so I will be walking on my healing cracked ankle and enjoying the promised fair weather fall days.

A Brief History of Conducting a Choir and Firing Up a Canon

When I first moved to Grande Prairie, Alberta, in August, 1988, part of my new employment was the position of Conductor for the College/Community Choir.  This was a group of adult singers, about 50 of them, who rehearsed together every Tuesday night for 3 hours.  Although I was excited to conduct this choir, the experience would end up as one of the worst in my professional life.  

When I was hired in the spring of 1988, I had no idea whatsoever of the political hornet's nest I was inhabiting, until one dear friend advised me that the "bag ladies" were after me!!!!  BAG LADIES?  They were, indeed, and numbered about 25 - 30, at least half of the choir membership.  Feeling the urge to sing elsewhere, with a conductor who was one of them, they departed unceremoniously after our last concert.  

Although my stint as conductor was not very successful, I did meet many new friends who have enriched my life in this city.  One of those new friends, Judy, someone who likes to fiddle with new cameras, volunteered to show me all the ropes involved in operating a camera and uploading photos.  

So tonight my photographical education began, and who knows what the future will bring?  I promise not to put too many cat pictures here, because they only sing when they purr, and I don't really call that "real" singing.  And besides, my niece (who gave me the camera) despairs after reading too many cat tales...she prefers turtles.

Oh, by the way, this year I am singing in the College/Community Choir, along with my friend Judy, and it is so nice to watch our wonderful conductor doing all of the work!  

Ha!!!!!!!!!!  Judy, my friend, has performed the impossible.  I now know how to operate my new little camera, I think.  Wonders will happen from now on as I become smarter.

I AM BACK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Finally I am back at my blog, after wandering the halls of "Nomansland" for 24 hours, bothering the frazzled nerves of my niece, and just generally getting super annoyed!  I am back!  I am back!

Of course, when one signs in, as was requested, it is always beneficial to use the CORRECT EMAIL address, idiot!  But I DID figure out, all by myself this morning, that I used the wrong address.  No wonder I had no blog anymore.  But now I do.

Now it is on to all things house- worthy before lessons tomorrow, because this place was seriously ignored yesterday and is in need of serious attention. 

Cleansing Thoughts as I Prepare For Another Year of Making Music

Before starting a new school year with one's singing and musical theatre students, one ("one" being moi, the teacher) must have accomplished at least some of these chores:

                 Vacuum cat hair off of newly cleaned carpet

                 Dust cat hair off of newly laundered slipcovers, because laundering them doesn't 

                         necessarily do the trick.

                 Mop cat hair off of the walls and doors, or using whatever to accomplish this

                 Dust off thousands of pieces of music that haven't been looked at all summer

                 Dust off the piano, also not looked at (well, not meaningfully)

                 Insert fingernail file into slot between piano keys in order to latch onto long strings of                         built up cat hair.  Slowly withdraw said cat hair thread, hooked onto fingernail                               file;  be careful - some threads are the length of a cat's tail (well, not a Manx).

                        

                Organize all of the new choir music which has taken on a life of its own, on top of the                          entertainment center, while acting as Linus' summer bed-cool- off  cushion.

                

               Give up the notion that one will have sewn a new concert dress before Sept. 8 

                       and instead, aim for Halloween; my new concert dress is black, after all,  & I could                        become the witch "they" (definitely not my students) truly believe I am.

               *        

               *          

               Begin looking over one's shoulder, in case one has ceased to do so over the summer

                       holiday, so to avoid too many nasty surprises throughout the year.

                     *  *  (Note the extra space 2 lines above; I have no idea how to fix it).

               Get a "With-It" haircut in order to camouflage advancing years.  That being done 

                       today, complete pre-making-music-year tasks by: 

              FOR SURE, SIT HERE AT YOUR COMPUTER AND DISREGARD EVERYTHING ELSE.

So, only paying particular attention to the last item on the list, I am happily not doing anything listed above in lower case type.  I KNOW that I work best under pressure, you see, and with a full two days to go before my students come through the raspberry front door, there is PLENTY of time for everything (not on my list) to get done! 

 Can I help it if all enthusiasm waned  as I nursed a cracked right ankle and bruised and beaten

 other leg, for nearly 4 weeks?  Can I help it if a pothole upended me whilst jay walking (running, actually), resulting in 4 weeks of enforced procrastination?  Rehabilitation, that's it, and  prescribed rehabilitation (prescribed by moi, that is) specifically excludes any working type contact with  walls, carpets, dishes, windows, ironing, laundry, cooking, and cleaning the oven (but it's a self-clean, you say - but owner is too scared to turn on the high temp button, for fear of a fire)!  I could, as little Kaylyn dictated to me, "turn on the dishwasher," but "I AM THE DISHWASHER, Kaylyn, and I am not turned on!"  

As for the "with-it" haircut, and with asymmetrical being "in" (as per Kate of Jon & Kate, etc.), that is what I have now.  Well, it is always asymmetrical,  because one side grows twice as fast as the other, but now it has been  professionally preened,  and I am WITH IT!  If the kids don't care for my haircuts, the question asked is, "Did you get your hair cut?"  However, if they approve, then it is a "Oh, I LOVE your haircut!"  I'll bet my 4 cats that they don't know that I know so much, but advancing years have enlightened me.   (They'll discover that same enlightenment in their lives, too, in 2075).

Actual guilt is setting in here, so maybe, just maybe, those dusty eyelet sheers will end up in water, soap, and pummeled by an agitator other than the usual ( ie: climbing cat claws).   Did you ever wonder why cat owners choose eyelet fabric for their sheers?  For those not in the "know," eyelet is full of manufactured holes, so what better choice for cat owners?

Yes, sheer guilt overcomes me,  so with my  new "with-it" haircut and now-nimble legs, "I am yours, my Whirlpool!  Coming, dear."  

(If lines jump all over as you view this piece, so be it.  I have absolutely no idea in hell how to fix lines that are stuck on a pogo stick).                       

A Badly Behaved Backdoorigan Discussion

As I prepare for the new season of making music with my wonderful students, I am made aware again,  that there are a few badly behaved backdoorigans (you know, those entities on this planet who choose not to enter through the front door - "frontdoorigans") in this town.  So I find myself trying to figure out how I will deal with these badly behaved backdoorigans; perhaps I will discover a viable modus operandi  as I write here this evening.  If not, I will have saved myself a trip to the shrink, if I actually had one.

For over 20 years, I have been blessed to have supported myself in a career that I love and actually can do pretty well.  Throughout the past 20+ years in this city, I have taught 24  provincial winners (1st and/or 2nd places) in singing, choir and musical theatre.  Before my professional life brought me here, to the north pole, I taught many more provincial winners, so I do have a record about which I am very proud.   In addition, my students have enjoyed themselves most of the time, I think, (no, I am not deluding myself, you know who), and have actually learned something along the way.  Many enjoy successful careers in music and/or the theatre.

Beginning on Tuesday, my students will enter through my front door, painted with a luscious shade called "Raspberry Trifle."  (Mmmmm, that sounds good right now).  To this date, I do believe that no one has ever tried to enter through the back door, because they KNOW.....they really know that being a backdoorigan would not be tolerated here.  Even the cats don't go near the back door, but they could care less...the front door is much more welcoming for them - that's the spot of choice for greeting kids.  But I digress; kids are not the problem here.

A few years ago, well actually 9 years this summer, I was happily ending my teaching year and looking forward to a relaxing holiday...NOT.  One mastectomy later, along with the bleeding ulcer going on in a stressed stomach, I wasn't feeling exactly well.  Eventually, all was well again, but unbeknownst to me, a badly behaved backdoorigan had invaded my little world.  Try as I might,  I just couldn't get that back door to close; my recent illnesses playing a significant contributing factor.  Nine years later, though, healthier and wiser, I must prevail here.

 A new year will begin for me on September 8, and tonight that damned back door blew open again, even more!  I mean, the first kid hasn't even entered through the raspberry trifle  front door to even BEGIN  the new year.  Give me a break, badly behaved backdoorigan; at least let my year START before you blow through!  (I don't think that backdoorigans have ears; rather,  they grow an inordinate amount  of tentacles......long, summer near-Arctic days being the host's best friend). 

These last precious days of summer, before my kids arrive, are usually spent in hot pursuit of a clean house, the one time of the year that it is transformed into a  truly habitable hovel.  I vow that tomorrow I will continue this tradition, and to hell with the backdoorigan.  Perhaps a solution genie will magically poof out of the Mr. Clean bottle tomorrow and life will return to pre-2001 status.  (As I dream on).

For sure I will find some way to permanently lock that damned back door this year, and I can blissfully go back to what I do best...teach kids and feed cats. 

 

Adventures in Technology's Troubled Twisty Turns

An epic event occurred today in Grande Prairie, Alberta, Canada.  No, the provincial treasurer didn't find the $200 missing billions, trillions or otherwise gazillions needed to bring about economic health in Alberta.  Nor did the Happy Financial Future Angel deposit herself in my bank account.  What then, what could have happened that was so earth shattering that you are reading it here?  I found out how to push the correct buttons for creating a template, coloring it green (to match that new camera that is on its way from Kansas) and I also found my way HERE!  Here, where I can post anything and everything because technology smiled at me, will be my very own blog.

  

My niece, a talented artist, also smiled on me from afar, guiding my piano playing fingers through osmosis of some sort.  In this town, there are others who have learned through osmosis, so I thought that I might try it, and how it worked! Step by step, key by key, she led me to Singing With Ellyn, my very own blog!  (Well, I did get a little help from my son who gave me this technical marvel a Christmas or two ago).  And what do they say about relatives?  

Through technical twists and turns and spits and spurts, you will hopefully see pictures of my wonderful singing students, present and past, you will read all of the musical notes from my voice studio here in the north, and you may even meet my 4 cats.  (Every eccentric music teacher has a cat, but I have 4, just to be different).

Speaking of cats - chow time for Teddy - at least, that's what I think he wants.  Not a bad idea for me, either.