Long story short

My life is crazy right now.  Someone should make a sitcom.

Long story "short":

Kyle visits for a gig.  He gets really sick.  There is a snowstorm during his visit that falls on Palm Sunday, so we have to cancel one of the services at church, and also the donkey that I had to hire (yes, a donkey) had to cancel.  A few days later (holy week) I get REALLY sick (like kyle).  Being sick during Holy Week when you're the music director is kind of a mess.  I had to cancel on a Chorale concert for that Saturday, and then showed up to church Easter Sunday with a huge fever.  There was a brass quintet.  Oh, and found out that our pastor had a stroke.  Yup.  So she's in the hospital.  Easter was crazy.  I almost died.  Then this week I kept thinking I was better, but I kept getting sick again.  I finally go to the doctor and get lots of steroids so I can get through a concert at the STL Basilica on Saturday.  I BARELY get through said concert, then get back at 3:30 in the morning on Sunday.  wake up 3 hours later and go to church.  I break the communion cup and everyone freaks out.  This week we have a service modeled after Prairie Home Companion, but pastor is still gone and NO ONE knows what to do.  Stress city.  On top of that I get a fax from the donkey people saying that they showed up to church on palm sunday and no one was there and they want us to pay them.  That is a lie.  I am in a fight with a donkey.

House Hating

Apparently in our house you cannot use the microwave and the washing machine at the same time.  Same goes for cooking pancakes on the griddle while microwaving syrup.  Also, I will never be able to blow dry my hair in our bedroom bathroom.
This townhouse is getting on my nerves.  We're thinking about moving.  I love this place, with its light floors, big, beautiful windows, and ivy crawling up our walls.  I love how big our bedroom is.  I love our neighborhood.  But people, it's time to leave.
It's also funny because we've had about 10 water main breaks in our neighborhood in the past 5 months.  That's a lot.  I'm just saying.

My Husband Rocks

He really does.

I have a lot of friends who talk to me about the negative relationships they have with their husbands, and this always makes me really sad for them, because as lame as it sounds, Frank and I don't have negativity in our relationship.  We really don't.  Maybe that will change, but in all the years that we've been together, the only goal in our relationship is to make sure we're happy when we're together.

Which is why my husband rocks.

Legendary

Singing Lord Nelson tonight with Flummerfelt.  It's a really cool opportunity that I'm lucky to have found myself in!  First off, the soloists are all my friends.  Kyle is one of my besties, and of COURSE Derrick is one of my favorite people.  And I hadn't met Pam before, but I want her to be my friend forever!  She's the REAL pro in the group, sings with the Chicago Lyric, and man is it great to sing with her.
BUT, Flummerfelt!  Oh my God he is wonderful.  A breath of fresh air, even though he's very old school.  He has an intense passion for what he does.  I didn't know much about Flummerfelt besides his name and his bio.  I kind of assumed he was an early music guy, seeing as he was brought in by Crabb to do Lord Nelson.  He's NOT into performance practice at all, but that's totally okay.  I felt foolish coming in with all my inflections and trills and rubato, when he just wants me to sing as loud and accented as possible!  But he is a wonderful man and I'm so thankful to be working with him.
I am so thankful that in the midst of all the stress with my new job that I can have opportunities like this one to really SING and make music with people I love and respect.

Universality

I am listening to a lot of Magnificats today to try to plan out the magnificat portion of Lessons and Carols.  I came across a Vaughan Williams Magnificat, and Frank and I really love his work (who doesn't?), so I gave it a listen.  Oh man.  Well, the setting is really dark, but sometimes there are these glimmers of amazing soul-wrenching music that you can only recognize as Vaughan Williams.  And I told Frank that everything he writes has a moment of musical gold that makes you really FEEL something.  I think it's his instrumentation--he's really good at it (an understatement)--in that he knows how to create sounds that universally speak to people. 
And then I thought of Bach, and how I think he's the most universal of all composers.  I started to listen to Erbarme Dich, and I couldn't help but think of how the beautiful melodies and harmonies (not instrumentation, as in Vaughan Williams) tugged at my soul and had the power to instantly put me in a different place emotionally and spiritually. 
I say "univeral" because I really do think that this music speaks in the same way to people of different languages and cultures.  Surely studies have been done on this, right?  Surely someone has taken a Western musical work by the likes of Bach and asked people from non-western cultures what feelings/emotions it stirs up.  If anyone has read anything like that, please let me know, because I've always been kind of obsessed with this idea.

Sorry for the really poorly written post, but it was just on my mind and wanted to throw it out there...

Big Girl

I got the church job.  And MAN it is a big girl job.  All of the sudden I've gone from teaching a few lessons a week in my living room to forming search committees for new staff members, writing budgets and job descriptions, planning funerals, buying Christmas music, trying to figure exactly WHAT I'm allowed to do during Lent.

It's very overwhelming, but I am pretty sure that it is what I am supposed to be doing, and I think that once all the newness settles down, and new staff are hired, and Christmas is OVER (dear Lord it hasn't even begun yet...) I will really enjoy this job.  I was thinking about my grandma the other day, about how much I admired her and looked up to her.  She was a church organist and also an amazing pianist. I'd like to think that I'm paying homage to her in this job, almost like I'm saying "Nana, thanks for everything you taught me about music, and now I get to follow in your footsteps!"

That sounds corny.

BUT it's a good time in the Lang-Fleschner household.  A STRESSFUL, CRAZY time, but an exciting time.

Oh, and I'm watching the debate.  UGH.

Cry Fest

We went to see Finding Nemo in 3D tonight.  Am I the only one who cries during the entire movie every time?  I think yes.
We had a "choir retreat" weekend full of looonnnngggg rehearsals, so it hasn't really seemed like a weekend.
I just realized that two weeks from today I will have just done a gig in Canada.  Boy am I swanky.  Canada.  I've MADE it.
The hamsters are rolling around my feet in their balls.  I love our funny little animal family.
Oh, and Aunt Sharon gave us a dog raincoat for Nelson.  when he wears it he looks like a little yellow butterfly and we are freaking out waiting for it to rain.