MCAT, Cute Matthew, Juries

Sooooo.. a lot of you know that Aaron took the MCAT to apply to medical school a little bit ago- well, he got a great score back and now we're working on applications. Woot!  Life goes on!  It's amazing, right?!  Good job, Sweety!  I have to say, today I had lunch with Aaron spur of the moment and it was really nice.  I miss just us time.  You sometimes forget about real life and the people who mean the most to you when you are in school up to your neck.  Thanks for a nice lunch, babe (And for picking up my slack this semester).  I needed it after my stressful juries.  I was in a little bit of a funk and you really brightened my day :)

Awwwww how sweet. ok, enough of the mooshies.  I also have to say that I got to spend some time with my good friend, Brittney W, today and that was awesome, too.  I NEVER get to just sit and talk.  Thanks, Chica (Oh, BTW, I posted Aaron's news cause when I shared the info with BW she said "Wha?! Why didn't you POST that?!" I may be misquoting, sorry- at least it's not plagarism, right? LOL inside joke, sorry blogiverse!)

Ok, moving on- I got Matt's kindergarten graduation pictures back this week...

Awwww... what a stud.  And seriously?  They couldn't get MATTHEW to smile?  He's the smiliest kid ever.  Ah well, he's still cute.  I'm going to be sad when he doesn't have pudgy fingers anymore. booooo.  I just want to nibble on them. They're so cute.

Another note- it's officially hot enough to swim but too cold to get in the water.  Meg and I went last Saturday morning and the water was FREEZING (no, not literally) so we laid by the pool and proceeded to get sunburned.  I rubbed my back just a second ago and my hand got wet-apparently I'm now peeling. gross.

Oh yeah- I mentioned the Juries. ug.  This morning I had my final exam for private voice instruction.  The final consists of singing for a panel of 5 voice teachers (none of them your own).  They judge you on your vocal skill, pronunciation (at least three songs have to be in a foreign language), diction, presence, etc etc etc. 
(Oh, a little side note- one of the judges is an opera singer FROM Italy, so he'll definitely know when you mess up your Italian- are they TRYING to give me a heart attack?!)
When you enter the room you hand the accompaniment folder to your voice teacher and then hand a jury sheet to each judge.  This is a paper that lists all of the songs you've worked on this semester, the composers, and which of them you've chosen to present for the jury (for my grade level you have to have at least 5 songs ready to present).  You get to choose the first song that you sing.  After that, they get to choose whatever song off the list they want to hear.  It's 12 minutes of torturous singing (ha ha- I'm so dramatic).  Usually they only get to about 3 songs...
Now, EVERY vocal major who does juries has that one song that they are cloudy on the words or just recently memorized and DONT want the judges to pick.  It's the singer's "lemon" song if you will.  I made it through my three songs unscathed and  I thought I was in the clear and then they wanted to hear another song.  Wha?!  Why me?  Maybe I should've taken a slower tempo on the other songs...  well, they picked my lemon for the 4th song and I forgot words.  bleh.  slap the forehead.  oh well.  I'm just glad it's over! sigh...  The songs I sang were:

1. Un moto di gioia, MOZART (the song I chose to sing first)

2. Das Verlassene Magdlein, WOLF

3. Take, O take those lips away, BEACH

4. La Zingara, DONIZETTI

I linked for you in case you want to hear them (random youtube links not sung by me- and not all of them are great quality singing, but good enough to get the idea)

Cecilia Bartoli that sings Un moto di gioia on that link is my opera idol. She's amazing. And makes really funny faces when she sings :)

Ok, I need to write my term paper about the history and significance of the Stradivarius violin now.  Good night, y'all!

Oh- one last note- My voice teacher, Jennifer Nagy, is holding a recital for her vocal students on May 20th at 7pm at the PAC at CGCC Pecos Campus if anyone is interested in attending.  It's free and it's fun to go and listen.  I think it shouldn't be very long- maybe only a few (5 or 6?) of us are singing and maybe just one or two songs each. that way you can grab an ice cream after :)