By Wednesday of last week, it appeared that I might have both this Sunday and Monday off, my first consecutive days off since the summer. I talked with M&E on Thanksgiving about possible overnight get-aways here in the area, and when E said something about taking a bath (“in a bathtub that someone else cleaned!”), I knew I needed to get away. (My shower, like everything in my apartment, is tiny: 32x32. I know the dimensions ‘cuz they are printed on the shower floor. Classy.) My schedule was confirmed on Friday, so before show time on Saturday night I had rescheduled my Sunday night dinner-and-shop-talk with a composer and fellow NEC alum and booked myself a room at a bed & breakfast near Poughkeepsie. A room with a whirlpool tub. Oh. Yeah.
I didn’t realize how tired and stressed I was until I sat down on the MetroNorth train and my body started to melt. I had magazines and books, but all I could do was sit there and watch the “Lordly Hudson” hardly flowing outside my window. My cab pulled up to the Inn as the owner was finishing up the outdoor Christmas decorations, and I walked in to the smell of a fire in the fireplace and cookies in the oven. It was perfect, and the melting continued. A two-hour nap, some football, some dinner, an incredible bath, and then ten hours of sleep. Bliss. A fantastic breakfast; some love from Heathrow, the inn’s dog; a shower; and then, in front of a fire to ward off the dampness of the day, I had what was likely my best Figaro study session in months. Amazing what some rest will do for one’s Italian comprehension. (That, and the motivation that comes from being tested on your Susanna recits by a certain baritone currently singing Figaro…)
My moleskine is full of notes for great (brilliant! insightful! witty!) posts, and I’ve had innumerable amazing conversations recently with colleagues and friends that need recounting here, but not tonight. My rehearsal schedule is very light this week, so I hope to write daily. Especially if I can get over to the Mac store and get a new laptop…
Stay tuned!
Confidential to TM: the semi-colons in this post are for you.
1 comment:
You keep a notebook of ideas for blog posts? Isn't that cheating? Aren't those supposed to arise from nowhere, on a moment's inspiration?
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