Magnolias

The picture above is me standing in front of a stand of magnolia trees. This is one of the lovely things about living in Champaign. We are far enough south to have magnolia trees all over the place blossoming at this time of year, filling the air (when it's still enough - not a gale force wind) with their lovely perfume. And so today on this Palm Sunday, Kaia and I took a trip to West Side Park, two blocks from our new apartment (we move in August), to enjoy the nice weather while the cats stayed home and held down the fort:

It's been a nice quiet day and it's given me a chance to reflect on everything that's happened in the past couple of weeks. First, we have a new apartment. After deciding that stately Ashton Woods (so named for it's four trees) is not the place that we want to live for the next 4-5 years, we began looking for a new home in earnest a couple of weeks ago. We found a house, or rather the upstairs of a house, minutes from campus in Champaign. It has hardwood floors, 1200 square feet (including a room that is 10x24), a yard, a "porch that would make the Clampetts jealous!" and is very conveniently close to everything. We will be moving in mid-August so that means we'll be homeless for a couple of weeks. Maybe we'll just rent a truck, pack everything up, and take our worldly possessions on a road trip.

In other news I got a job. Earlier this year I saw a posting on the Conductors Guild website for a youth orchestra music director position in Crystal Lake, Illinois. I applied for it, got an interview, and got an audition. Yesterday they called to offer me the position and I accepted! And here's the interesting part: they want me to start immediately... like this year... like next week. So it looks like I'll be diving in with both feet as the school year draws to a close. It's a great organization and I had tons of fun working with the group at the audition so I'm very excited to be on board. Plus, as an added bonus, they want me to go along with the group on their tour of Italy in June! I guess I will need to start working on my Italian.

As we sat at the West Side Park today with the blue sky above us, surrounded by magnolias, Kaia and her magazines, me and my scores, a cup of warm coffee for each of us, I truly felt grateful for all of the good things in this life. I know that this new job will present challenges for me, especially as I try to balance it with school, but I feel so fortunate to be given this great opportunity.

On Being Alone

As an aspiring conductor I spend a fair amount of time going to workshops and festivals all over the place. Most recently I spent a long weekend in Ann Arbor, Michigan at a workshop with conducting guru Gustav Meier. Usually when I go on these trips Kaia stays at home - last summer's workshop in the Czech Republic being an exception. I mean it was Europe after all - not that Ann Arbor or Lubbock, Texas aren't interesting places in their own right.

This past week witnessed a role reversal in our relationship as Kaia attended a CCCC (that's four C's) writing workshop in Atlanta with some of her U of I colleagues while I stayed back in Champaign. It was the first time in our married life where Kaia has gone off to a conference and left me at home to fend for myself. I have to say that I did a pretty good job of not going crazy while still managing to feed and clothe myself each day, care for our cats, and even clean the house before she returned home. A couple more days, who knows? Below are some thoughts on being alone.

Food:

When fending for oneself, it is important to stay well nourished. Not wanting to do a bunch of dishes or cook a meal that would only be eaten by me, I managed to come up with some great alternatives to the sit down dinners that are our typical fare.


This is not just a frozen pizza. It's the "Meaty Legend" from Gino's East. How could I resist?

My final meal of isolation. Foraged from our cupboards this meal includes important staples including a venison stick and Kippered Snacks - which contain essential oils and salts.

Exercise:

It is important to keep your body fit throughout periods of isolation. While Kaia was gone I ran 6 miles, biked 14 miles, and did some strength training including push ups and sit ups. I found this training essential because I've read that endorphins released while exercising can help keep a person from feeling depressed and ward off loneliness. It was also essential because I consumed an entire frozen pizza, kippered snacks, several peanut butter eggs, and 5-6 venison sticks.

Entertainment:

One important component to being alone is to keep yourself engaged through different forms of entertainment. For me, this included Saturday night's 2012(really bad 2009 movie with Nicholas Cage, Woody Harrelson, and others)/Ghost Adventures (on the Travel Channel) marathon. I may have been lonely, but at least I wasn't one of the people in these movies/shows. Somehow I felt better about my situation.

In the end I didn't perish or go crazy - I guess this is a victory. It was nice to have the time alone, but it's nice to have Kaia back. This whole week I kept thinking about of Myrtle and Florian Krebsbach from Lake Wobegon on Garrison Keillor's Prairie Home Companion. In one episode, Florian accidentally leaves Myrtle at a truck stop while they are on their way to the Twin Cities for a doctor's appointment. He is nervous - after fifty years of marriage he can't imagine a life without his companion. He even thinks about all of the times during the day when he wants to turn to her and tell her about something mundane - something from the newspaper - but what if she wasn't there? Eventually they both find their way back home (separately) and all is forgiven. While we haven't been married quite that long yet there were many times this week I read something amusing in the newspaper and I turned to make a comment and I was met with blank stares from the cats. Definitely not the same.

The Week In Review

We are looking for a new apartment. After living for almost an entire school year in a thin floored, fly infested, somewhat dumpy place downwind from the University of Illinois swine research facility, next to a credit union and the Illinois Water Survey station we have decided it's time to move. Going back I have to say that we made the right choice since we moved here in the midst of last summer's chaos (leaving our jobs, going back to grad school, moving, trip to Europe, Carmen and Oscar's wedding) since we didn't have the chance to make it down here to look for housing. We could have ended up in a real dump or in a bad neighborhood - you know, one with shootings - or something equally awful. It's not been a terrible place it's just that, well, we're longing for an actual neighborhood, trees, and better access to downtown and campus.

So we've spent the past week and a half scouring classifieds, craigslist, and local rental companies looking for the right place to call "home." This is especially important since we are both going to be here for a few more years than we originally planned. Kaia and I will both be finishing up our masters degrees (me next December and Kaia in the spring) and moving directly into doctoral programs at the U of I. I will be the first ever doctoral student in orchestral conducting starting next spring and Kaia will be starting a PhD program in English in the fall of 2012. As a result, we would like to live in a place where we will be comfortable for a few years. We're getting closer to finding the right place and we might even sign a lease sometime this week.

In other news, I interviewed for a youth orchestra music director job in the northwestern suburbs of Chicago on Thursday night. It was a phone interview and I spent a good portion of the afternoon preparing (see photo below) myself. I think it would be an absolutely great position in a fantastic organization. If I get invited for the second round, I will get a chance to rehearse the group sometime this month. I'm keeping my fingers crossed!


Last night we went to concert number four of our five season ticket subscription to the Chicago Symphony (see photo at the top of this post). We got to see Kurt Masur conduct Bruckner Symphony No. 4. I really appreciate what a gift these season tickets have been (thank you NHS band students) because I'm getting to see some truly legendary conductors this year. We saw Pierre Boulez in January, Masur last night, and in June we will get to see Bernard Haitink conduct Mahler 9! It's been an incredible opportunity to see these conductors work - I'm learning so much from each performance. Plus, because we hold season tickets, we get to go back on Tuesday to watch an open rehearsal of Verdi's Otello with Riccardo Muti and the orchestra (for free!).