updatopia

[concretekiss]

Favorite most recent flowershop card messages:
sympathy - "I miss you already."
holiday - "Sorry for being such a prick. Happy holidays from old St. Nick"
love - "It's been 6 months since an angel found me."
recovery - "When you gonna get up off your ass?"

My Sundays are now working at a plant nursery that grows everything organically. It's only seasonal, with the possibility of being employed permanent. My hopes are low that I'll get hired on because I'm a staunch pessimist and it is a dream job, to me, going home with dirt under my nails, learning about propagation, chill hours, soil content, paramagnetic rock. There is a butterfly garden, a labyrinth, two donkeys, some cats, chickens and goats. GOATS. That go maaaaaa. Did you know that pecan trees can have both male and female parts? Did you know peat moss has to age in a bog in New Zealand for 100 years?

Yesterday I was accepted into the city choir. I'm a contralto, the lowest of female voices. Aw yeah.
I have only done some community musical theater in my teens and took advanced choir in like, 8th grade, so I was surprised and excited that I made it through auditions.

We are big and beautiful. We sound together Gothic and omniscient and powerful. Our director is amazing and charismatic, calling to us enthusiastically. I would feel so godlike as a conductor, my every gesture a paint stroke of voices, deepening and fading at my fingertips. Can you imagine?
I'd forgotten how much I loved the experience, the acoustics, being part of such a colossal and profound voice. We are learning Cherubini's Requiem, and how Beethoven loved and owed much of his style to Cherubini.
Then on the way home from rehearsals I was singin my heart off, and a man who was staring at me while trying to make a turn hit the median and had to clomp over it. I was mortified for him.

Even working through the week without a day off I am derelict for the most part. I piece rent together from several paychecks. I am cooking every meal, perusing ingredients to make your own laundry detergent, consulting HillbillyHousewife.com for frugal ideas. I still have want issues, but I'm happy. I love my jobs. I am learning so much about flora and now busy with classical composers and Latin dirges. It's nice to be able to sing, especially when you're dirt poor.

Comments

[phoenixsinking.livejournal.com]

Then on the way home from rehearsals I was singin my heart off, and a man who was staring at me while trying to make a turn hit the median and had to clomp over it. I was mortified for him.

you're just too damn pretty

[flightviolation.livejournal.com]

no YOU!

my mouth was open like a damn hippo! he probly thought i was screaming. heeee.

[phoenixsinking.livejournal.com]

Blaaaah! I meese you!

[flightviolation.livejournal.com]

I meese you, peaches!
Glad I get to see you soon. Let's have queso and adventchars!

[cowboyjesus.livejournal.com]

Wow on that choir! That's a radical-looking background.

One of my LJ friends, "Lifes_Gifts" makes her own detergent because one of her sons has sensitive skin and allergies. You ought to ask her what she uses. I think she said it's cheaper too.

The only Latin choir stuff I've heard was one song on an album by The Chieftains, "Santiago". It had some really great 1 - 4 harmonic interval in it. I think the whole album was a tribute to the Galician monks who infused Spanish culture with Irish music back in the 800's AD.

[flightviolation.livejournal.com]

i'm not sure where they are performing in that photo, but they have been to carnegie hall twice! i'm still in a bit of disbelief that i'm in it.

the cheiftans, aye? i vaguely remember singing Dona Nobis Pacem in middle school, which is about as familiar as i have become w Latin in choir. this is part of the song we are learning. glorious stuff.

and the detergent IS way cheaper. i did it before. we spend a huge percent of our money on the advertising and packaging of the product we purchase. it's ridiculous.

[sealwhiskers.livejournal.com]

That job sounds perfect for you, I'm just thinking about what amazing and wonderfully written stories you will bring home for us after a work day! So, as I am selfish like that I'm crossing toes and fingers and eyes so that you'll get it. A butterfly garden...the mere word sounds sooo dreamy to me....

[primroseport.livejournal.com]

Congrats on the choir!

[featherveins.livejournal.com]

that plant nursery sounds a lot like heaven to me. you are amazing.

[clsisold.livejournal.com]

Way to go!

I've heard the angel sing.

[flavorpacket.livejournal.com]

It doesn't surprise me that dude lost control.

I am jealous of your choir. Mine is not so good. :/

[howard-cosell.livejournal.com]

that sounds like a dream nursery -- a butterfly garden and all those animals?? yay!!! I hope you get hired permanently.

haha, that poor dude was probably experiencing a little cognitive dissonance from the contralto coming out of li'l you.

[flavorpacket.livejournal.com]

Dona Nobis Pacem? SO pretty in rounds. We sang that in the vocal class I took at the community college in Oakland. Still the best musical experience I've ever had.

[mojodragonfly.livejournal.com]

it's the job you always wanted! I hope they let you keep it.

[cowboyjesus.livejournal.com]

"no tracks available" (Last.FM)

http://www.last.fm/search?q=pater%20familias%2Fad%20honorem&from=ac

It only plays when you listen to their radio for The Chieftains.

I love that immovable note in Agnus Dei. I wonder what Cherubini thought of it as symbolically. It becomes mystical.

Congratulations on making the choir!

[flightviolation.livejournal.com]

i hope i get it too, sweets.
there is a migration of monarchs in the spring, my trainer says the garden sings with hundreds of them. ooooh so many photos.

[flightviolation.livejournal.com]

thank you!

[flightviolation.livejournal.com]

it's a really lovely place. and everyone is vibrant and warm and kind.

[flightviolation.livejournal.com]

gracias mucho!

wynonna judd my naomi judd

[flightviolation.livejournal.com]

you know that just means you got to come live in austin and join our choir.

[flightviolation.livejournal.com]

i really do too. but i don't know. there are a lot of people who want jobs there dancing down the aisles n shit with they jazz hands. we'll see. if anything, i am learning so much.

and i was singing tennessee ernie ford! on the part where it goes I OOOOWE mah soul to tha company stoooooo (very unsexily) and he was like WTF-BANG!!

[flightviolation.livejournal.com]

it really is. and thank you for the hope!

[flightviolation.livejournal.com]

yes, it's really magic and how it ends so softly w the last voices! i like the ones that fade off like that.

[howard-cosell.livejournal.com]

haHAH! I'm certain that's why he forgot how to drive!

I would looove to work & learn at a nursery, too. I think the plants will respond much better to you belting out the Tennessee Ernie Ford on a regular basis than to some silly jazz hands.

[disorganization.livejournal.com]

new job, choir rehearsals -- damn girl, I wanna come visit you like NOW and just marinate in the positive vibes. Austin sounds like paradise. YOU ARE AWESOME