Another plane entry

(Written around 3pm EST, Nov. 22)

I’m flying on Delta’s budget airline, Song, which has some nice amenities (comfy chairs, good mp3 selection along with the DirectTV – current listening: Franz Ferdinand and Bright Eyes), but I thought the flight attendants’ shtick when we were boarding was going to do me in. There’s only so much cheerfulness I can take at 7:30am! For the first time in a while, I have a travel companion: Erik is with me today and we’re on the way to Brooklyn for Thanksgiving with the Birds. We’ll have four nice days with them; then Erik returns home and I move up to Inwood, where I’m subletting an apartment for my audition trip. More on that later.

For now, it’s really nice not to have singing on my mind, at least not at the very forefront of my mind. I’m looking forward to a few days of true downtime; my only concern is that I’ll let down so much that I get sick! I plan on keeping up my intense flu season / audition season regimen of vitamins, melatonin for good sleep, and lots of water. I’m also going to try and sing a little bit every day, even if it’s just warm-ups in the shower. My voice is tired (a direct correlation to my body being tired), so I need to let it rest, but I don’t want to go too long without using it (for singing). My speaking voice tends to get a little low if I’m not singing regularly, which makes it harder to get back up in to my resonance, blah blah blah… So a bit of exercise everyday is necessary to stay in prime audition form.

I was only home for four days, which wasn’t nearly enough. Time enough for a bit of catching up with friends, an invigorating fall workday with my housemates, Sunday dinner with Erik’s folks (and a dress fitting!! Again, more later.), and a few hours of teaching on Monday. Then I packed the suitcase that I had unpacked only days ago, and headed back to the airport. Sigh. I don’t know how the big stars do it, being away from home the majority of the time, only home for quick visits. Maybe you get used to it. Maybe I’ll get to the point where I have one set of clothes and toiletries that I use exclusively for travel so all I have to do is wash them and put them back in the suitcase, ready to go again. Somehow that’s not appealing…

Anyway! Sorry for the doom and gloom, I’m just tired.

But here’s some good news! I found out that the La Pasion tour concludes with a stop in Portugal! Two days after the London concert, we have a concert at the Casa de Musica in Porto, and concert hall designed by Rem Koolhaas, the same architect that designed the new downtown Seattle Library. Now, if I can only find my way over to Barcelona to see the Bilbao** for my birthday, which is (unofficially) two days after the Porto concert, I’ll have a full architecture tour on the docket as well!

We’re getting ready to land, I think, so I’ll sign off until I can get on the wifi at M&E’s and post this. I have more on my mind to write about, so I’ll see if I can make some time in the next few days. In between holding the baby and reading to Sylvia and shopping and eating and watching football and…

UPDATE: 10:16pm
Our bag didn’t make it. Not sure how, as we were early and it was a direct flight. I’m too tired to care, really, but it would be nice to have my pajamas… grrr…

**CORRECTION: 11/25
The Dilletante Traveler (who else?) has corrected my confusion regarding architecturally unique art museums in Spain. The Guggenheim Bilbao is actually in Bilbao. Duh. I wonder what I was thinking of...