An unusual week

This has been an interesting week so far. My dad called me on Monday to say that he was en route from Ohio to Colorado to visit. My brother had driven out there to get the motorcycle Dad was giving him, and they rode back across the country together. They got in this afternoon. It was strange having so little notice. Eric and I have been hoping to get him out here for over 5 years without success, and now that he is here, we are piled with responsibilities we can't get out of (i.e. studio recital & dress rehearsal, classes I am teaching, Eric working nights and being on-call). Still, it is wonderful to have him here. It was great to spend the evening just chatting over crackers, cheese and wine.

In other news, I have made the uncharacteristic decision to take a hiatus from my own voice lessons for the next 6 weeks. Too many things are going on with me physically and emotionally right now that are keeping me from focusing on my singing, which makes me dread each lesson where I expect to feel like a failure. This is not an unusual circumstance for any singer, but it has been this way for months now and is just getting worse. In 16+ years of continuous voice lessons, I have never taken time off, except summer vacations in college. Even when I changed teachers 3-4 years ago, I was only out of lessons a few weeks. I'm hoping in the next six weeks I can get a fresh perspective and come back to my music refreshed. The trick is, of course, that I am not taking time away from music - I am still teaching a great deal, and I am going to the NATS national conference at the end of the month - so, I'm just taking a break from the weekly deadlines that I keep missing, but I think that will help a lot.

I think I am going to hit the sack early tonight - I'm whipped!