Here’s a look back at the week that was….
HITS
- I thoroughly enjoyed finishing my audiobook that traveled with me across the country earlier this week. Julie Andrews’ memoir Home was certainly not what I expected, and I was pleasantly surprised. It was a charming account of her childhood and the beginning of her career, including Broadway premieres of My Fair Lady and Camelot. What I especially enjoyed were her comments about vocal technique and the importance of solid vocal training. I had to rewind the audio when she mentioned singing the “Polonaise” from Ambroise Thomas’ opera Mignon. I made my way to my computer that evening and found a recording of her performance on YouTube.
- Now that classes are being taught entirely online at Wayland, I got to experience some real successes in the first week of teaching. I conducted several piano lessons by Zoom and had a lot of fun. Was it perfect? No. I wanted to reach out and touch a few of my students and could not. But I found that I was choosing my words much more carefully to accurately convey my meaning. I was also very lucky to participate — perhaps stealthily observe is a better description — a watch party hosted by opera workshop. Students and faculty (me included) watched a production of Wagner’s Ring Cycle streamed by the Metropolitan Opera. While they watched, students held a running dialogue about the production, stage craft, plot development, and singing technique. I was fascinated by the learning that was happening — without anyone really realizing just how much they were learning. Suddenly, my entire outlook about what could be accomplished in a virtual classroom began to change. I don’t want to teach this way for the rest of my career, but I am certainly willing to explore what I can share with my students in a non-traditional manner as we get through our current national dilemma.
- After several sleepless nights over Spring Break trying to figure out how things were going to work in my classes, it was nice to get to see students virtually and in person this week. As much as they can frustrate me sometimes, it is always good to be reminded that they are truly the reason I do what I do. I miss having them around more than I care to admit….and I think I’ve let them know that more than a few times this week!
- I almost forgot to include this point in this week’s HITS. I received the official announcement this week that I will be promoted to the rank of Associate Professor beginning in Fall 2020.
- I decided to start watching a new series after playing a recital on Friday afternoon. (By the way, playing a recital in a virtually empty hall so that it can be live-streamed it a weird experience. I don’t like playing in a room when the house lights are up and I can see the few people sitting there. It’s strange!) On a whim, I started watching All-American on Netflix. How have I missed this series? Is it not well received? I’m finding the storyline fascinating and I am officially sucked in. Now I just have to make sure that I’m getting other things done as well and not just bingeing away on too many episodes. (By the way, I did a search on how to correctly spell the verb above. Apparently, both with and without the -e are acceptable, but ‘bingeing’ has become preferred. It doesn’t look right either way to me!)
MISSES
- On Tuesday, I drove to the airport in Lubbock to return my rental car and pick up my personal vehicle from long-term parking. Things were going quite well until I got to the machine that would take my payment. I don’t know if I was sleep deprived or simply having a blonde moment, but I failed to notice that the slot to insert the ticket was not where my credit card was supposed to go….until I realized that my credit card was stuck and I was not going to get it back. I choked down my embarrassment and dialed the number of the helpline posted nearby. An airport employee arrived on the scene fairly quickly with a grin on his face because he knew exactly what I had done. Thankfully it wasn’t too difficult to fix and the gentleman assured me that I was not the first person to have ever made this mistake. Still, I just wanted to pay the meter and get out of there before I screwed anything else up on that day.
- Wednesday morning got started with a bit of excitement. After my morning shower, I was greeted by the annoying shriek of the apartment’s smoke detector. Apparently, the steam from the shower set the alarm off — although this has never happened before. I’m not a morning person anyway, so I certainly don’t want to deal with such loud noises if I can avoid it. I examined the smoke detector to make sure there were no signals that the battery needed attention. No flashing lights. No quiet chirps. Thankfully there has been no additional outbursts since that morning, but I am being much more cautious about keeping steam away from the sensor.
- After a bad Wednesday morning, I was certain things could only get better. The day was going fine until I taught a piano lesson that afternoon. I was working with a new student that was referred to me by another teacher in the area. Because of social distancing, we were going to be working virtually instead of face-to-face. Everyone understands the current situation and is rolling with the punches. I asked what method book the student was using and was happy to discover that I had the materials on hand. Or at least I thought I did. As the lesson started and the student began playing from page 10 of the book, I immediately realized I had an old edition and would have to wing my way through this lesson. That’s never a good feeling! Thankfully, this student was a good sport about it. We had a good laugh and got some work done. As soon as the lesson was over, I began the process of getting the correct music ordered!
- After Friday afternoon’s recital, I was very tired and my arms were quite sore. So I decided to take Saturday off entirely. No playing. No typing. It was a very good decision for sure.
Livin' Life 