Happy New Year and Debbie V!

Okay...I'm catching up on the weekend, again!
Friday was one of those days where all the best plans were disrupted and the day evolved into something entirely wonderful, depite it all. Plan--go to Nia, then 2 more dance classes at Steps, go to the library and research news songs and then have a coaching with Michael at Juilliard. Reality--go to the gym, barely miss beginning of Nia and skip it and work the cross-trainer instead, go get soy milk and splenda (Ah!!!! I couldn't take no splenda life anymore!) at Key Market where I was 26 cents short and the cashier tells me to bring it in next time (amazing! NYers can be nice.), get call from Maria D'Amato that she is in the neigborhood and decide to ditch dance and meet Maria at the cutest tea place in the world called, "Alice's Tea Cup." It is completely decked out with Alice in Wonderland paraphenelia and Maria says the waitresses often wear fairy wings. Maybe I should get a job there!? It is just a sweet and wonderful place and I loved the chance to really catch up with Maria and not just hear her gorgeous voice from the stage. I tried a pot of ginger tea and Maria had two amazing-looking scones (pumpkin and chocolate-cranberry, I think?). I can't wait for you all to visit so I can take you there...I'll even eat some sugar with you, I promise! Since I am now aware that people can find this blog on the WWW...to all you opera directors out there, trust me, you want to hire Maria...she rocks! I practiced in my apartment a bit before heading to the West side...and then got a call that Michael had to cancel. I looked positively on the great opportunity I had to linger at the library! I ended up meeting a woman in the aisle where the Handel opera scores live...she ran up to me and asked me if I was a soprano and if I could help her find a Handel choral-like piece for an upcoming Broadway audition. She was so excited when I picked "Bel piacere" and wrote out the pronunciation and even found her a CD of Renee Fleming singing it...she said, "I just know God sent you to me as my little angel." And you know, I like to believe God did send me to help her and also tell me about that audition that I will definitely be crashing on Thursday! There was a reason I didn't go to dance class and my coaching got cancelled. All good. I had so much fun finding several of the songs that Laura had recommended the night before. I loaded myself up with scores and books and braved getting on the subway during rush-hour. I have to say it's not real fun. When I arrived home I was met by Adrienne and her mom, Susan, who came for the weekend from Pennsylvania. We had such a nice evening, ordering in Chinese and watching "Wordplay" a documentary about crossword puzzlers (I heart Will Shortz) which inspired a friendly competition of Scrabble. Adrienne cleaned up and I lost, but I'd like to blame it on all those vowels!

Saturday morning I rose with the sun to attend the Redeemer Membership Seminar. My new strategy is just to leave my blinds open at night. I find waking up early for the casting calls, etc. is so much more pleasant and I don't have to get frustrated with the finicky blinds that sometimes don't like to close!
The Redeemer Offices are down on Broadway near Herald Square. They had catered coffee and fruit and breads and there was a little awkward mingling before the sessions began. We sat in tables from which we split up into groups and I met some interesting girls. I know, I keep meeting girls. Yeah, yeah. I learned a lot about Redeemer and how it started and its vision for the whole of NYC...very cool stuff and I was also interested in hearing about the PCA denomination and how that differs with PCUSA. Basically, it's a bit more conservative in the areas of women's ordination but similar in that way to what I knew at Highway. I was really impressed with the two staff members who led us...both seminary graduates and so quick on their feet about really tough questions that people posed...mostly having to do with the hot button topics of infant baptism, pre-destination (EEK!) and the ordination of women.
Adrienne had thrown out the possibility of going to Jersey for the afternoon to do some shopping and just get out of the city but she and her mom were pooped and disappointed with the shopping they found in the morning so we altered our plans. Instead, we had an amazing Malaysian dinner at "Penang" where I had some desserty banana frozen cocktail and the Curry Mee. Yummmmm. We were stuffed but saw a "Pinkberry" across the street which is a fro-yo place that had been highly recommended by my new friend Grace. They only have two flavors, yoghurt and green tea. It's all-natural, pretty low in sugar, and comes with the option of many fresh fruit choices. I went for yoghurt with mango...so refreshing and delicious!
We had gotten tickets to the Radio City Music Hall that evening. Adrienne had wanted to see the Chinese New Year Spectacular and so her mom bought us amazing orchestra tickets. Gong hay fat choy. Oh my goodness...first of all, it was a nightmare getting into the Music Hall and getting our tickets from Will Call. Mob scene! But once inside I was thrilled by the art-deco space...really really cool. Our seats were perfect and I sat next to a woman and her husband who slept through the entire show. He snored through it all and I decided they must have just gotten off the plane from China! The show started with a funny dramatization about some Emperor and Adrienne nearly lost it when the set graphics started floating around. Hard to explain. The costumes were stunning and it was a sort of variety show with singers, instrumentalists and a lot of dance numbers with props and banners. We didn't realize until about halfway through the 1st Act that this show was full of Falun Gong propaganda. It turns out that the TV station that organizes it is a Falun Gong affiliate. Hmmm....very interesting. My favorite part was the woman who played the two string instrument that is a hybrid of a guitar and a violin. She was amazing and there were no words to ponder about the Divine Way or Tianamen Square.
Of course, as soon as we came home, we did google research and found out exactly what we suspected...undercover Falun Gong propaganda at Radio City! Hmmph!
On a side note...I seem to have a frequent problem when i open cab doors...the wind pulls the car door and generally hits the car next to it....oops!...Adrienne has now witnessed this 3 times...the first time I actually saw yellow paint on a shiny black Mercedes. Nightmare!

Arising again with the sun, I enjoyed my walk across the park to church. The snow is still packed onto the lawns and the sun was out and so were all the dogs in Manhattan. The only problem with these long walks is that I end up arriving at church a bit hot and sweaty. You know, here, you're either hot or cold. I guess I prefer hot. Church was wonderful as always with highlights being an amazing violin sonata and a quartet from Mendelsohn's Elijah that included two guys from my small group. The bass, Louis, was especially amazing. Wowsers! I chatted bit with the two women next to me who happened to be visiting from Baltimore. One of them grew up in Mountain View! Random. As I was chatting with the them, I saw, out of the corner of my eye, the one and only Deborah Voigt, talking to my friends from small group. Oh my goodness gracious. I didn't want to go over there and fawn all over her but I did end up saying "Hi" to Rosemary and by way of her, getting a hug from Mark. I slithered away, not wanting to be another drooling fan, and went downstairs to get coffee. I ran into Julia, a girl I met a few weeks back at a Citilights praise night and I really enjoyed catching up with her. She is so sweet and gentle. While we were talking, Mark came up to me and said, "Kristen, I'd like you to meet my friend Debbie!" ahahahah! I shook her hand and I think I said something like, "Wow, it's such a pleasure to meet you" before introducing her to Julia and making a bit of small-talk. It was pretty amazing and she is so beautiful and kind in person! Jenny, a fellow singer that I met last week, came up to me a few seconds later and we giggled about how we couldn't believe we got to meet her! It's like meeting Bono in opera-land, really. I giddily walked back through the park calling all my opera friends that I thought would be awake to let them know what had happened! On my way back home, Alexandra, my new friend from the library, called me with desperation in her voice. I ended up meeting her at a studio on the West side to teach her a song for Thursday...we ended up with "Dido's Lament" from "Dido and Aeneas." I really was happy to help her and like she said, I hope I get to sing for this audition, because it's perfect for me!
I had hoped to meet up with Laura Andersen, one of my Redwood Camp campers and a freshman now at Georgetown. She was in town visiting some family and after about 6 games of phone tag it ended up not working out. We had a good chat on the phone and I was glad for the extra time to practice and get my week of auditions in order.
I took my first trip to Queens to have dinner with 3 Rice friends: Amy Krivo, Jameson James and his new wife Naomi Horowitz. I had such a great time with them and felt home once again. Jameson was a voice major with me at Rice and I have fond memories of straddling him during "Pirates of Penzance". Naomi actually directed the Hanszen College production of "Guys and Dolls" I was in and Amy K was and is an amazing actor-singer and someone I always felt was a kindred spirit. Jameson and Naomi live in Astoria which is famous for its Greek food. Astoria apparently has the greatest concentration of Greeks outside of Greece....Opa! Actually, their house is right near a restaurant called, "Opa!" that has a great recommendation. Can't wait to try it! The dinner and wine was amazing...Jameson is now a cheese and wine expert and is the general manager of a new wine store in addition to singing tenor. He hooked us up with a beautiful Pinot Gris. Yum. They served a white bean puree with truffles to start and then some Greek sausage with an asparagus and edamame risotto. Tres gourmet and so delicious. I really loved looking through their amazing wedding photos and seeing the passion that both Naomi and Jameson had for eachother's dreams. Really sweet! Amy K lives across the street from them and we had fun commiserating about the life of the non-equity actor. She has a real job, as a copywriter for Oxford Press, and isn't auditioning as much, but still may join me at some of the auditions to come. It was such a great, great night and I hated to leave but with two auditions early in the morning...I left around 11 pm. Just a note, the subways are scariest on Sunday nights. That's all. :)