Brotherhood of Musicians

At the end of November and beginning of December, before all the holiday concerts took over every spare moment, I had the honor of singing in the Star Wars in Concert performance. The CleveOrch Chamber Chorus was contracted to sing as the Royal Philharmonic Chorus for performances in Pittsburgh, Columbus and Cleveland.

There were 60 singers, and I had a blast! We were able to meet Anthony Daniels, who played See Threepio. We observed some very talented musicians and heard incredible music. Those of us who wanted to were able to stay for the second half of the show in Cleveland and see how this incredible show was put together.



I'm standing on the back row, the rightmost woman as the camera pans across.



The orchestra had been put together in England, but other musicians had been added in the States over the course of the tour. To walk backstage and see so many professional musicians, ranging in age from their late teens or early 20s to their 60s, was thrilling.

There are so many young people who have talent and dream of careers as musicians, and yet it's a very hard dream to achieve. Seeing all these musicians together, to know that here, and in many other venues nationwide, are jobs for talented musicians. I felt pleased and encouraged.

We were seated behind the percussionists. As the mother of a percussionist, I loved seeing the interactions between these musicians. I loved seeing the camaraderie and the joy in the music they were making.

I felt very lucky to be participating in this concert, and in listening to these talented musicians.

In the end, it's all about the music. It's about the joy and fulfillment and inspiration we get from the music. Aren't we lucky?!

Deja Water

To set the stage: Maybe you've heard—it's been damned cold here. I've decided that hell is not full of fire and heat. It's full of below-zero temps and icicles and double-digit below-zero wind chills and snow-snow-snow! And we're livin' in it, Darlings.

On Tuesday, wonderful new insulation was blown into the ceiling of the garage, creating blessed heat in my bedroom.

Friday morning I woke to no hot water in my bathroom. The pipes were frozen. I showered in the kids' bath and Jaci called the plumber. The plumber was able to get the pipes thawed out enough so that no damage was done. We placed a space heater in my bathroom and left the water dripping and thought we were done with that problem.

Saturday I had to go to work, so got up and took my shower in my bathroom but had only hot water, no cold water. (Should have paid closer attention to this sign.) I made sure the water was dripping and the heater running, and left for my long, frigid drive. When I got home at 5:00, I headed straight for my bathroom, as I needed desperately to micturate. (Oh, look it up. This is what Daddy (an M.D.) always had us say instead of "I gotta go pee." It was the South. It was the 50s.) As I stepped into the bathroom in my besocked feet, I placed my foot squarely into standing water. Oh! Shit! I immediately began shouting for Jaci to come and for the babes to bring towels. Jaci calmly walked in and said, "your tub is overflowing."

It seems the pipes had thawed and water had begun running but the drain must have still been frozen, as the tub filled faster than it drained, and water was now seeping through the bathroom floor, through the brand new insulation, through the sheetrock in the garage ceiling, and pouring onto the garage floor below.

All I could think of was my pipe nightmare a year ago in Tucson. Story 1. Story 2.

I want a year to be calm, serene, pothole-less. I was sad for most of 2007—the kids left in February; I tried to figure out how to craft my life without them; they let me know they missed me and wanted me with them so I started looking for a job; I spent a year sending out résumés; I had, as I recall, one brief relationship all year. It was a depressing year for me and I was glad to see it draw to a close. I was certain that 12/31/07 would be the end of the sadness and 2008 would be all goodness.

Then 1/1/2008 dawned, beginning a month of house woes. I got a job, but it included a 60-mile commute. I moved. I sold my houses, and had to cough up $70K to close. I had a few forgettable dates. I lived for my kids and grandkids.

Certainly with the passage of 2008, the financial woes would slow down and 2009 would be smooth sailing. Right? Then the horrible cold set in and this pipe fiasco. It feels like I'm a jinx to plumbing systems. It can't get worse, can it? Certainly, it will not get worse. This is the bottom, and we have only uphill to go from here.

(Did you ever wonder about that adage? Doesn't "going uphill" entail more work? Climbing? Pedaling harder? I question it every time I write it.)

My mother called yesterday, as I had not called her all week. I explained to her that I had been sick and to speak was to cough. I knew I couldn't talk on the phone without coughing, so just had not called. I told her about our plumbing problems and our concerns over the cost of repairs. She said "I'll pay for you." Oh, General Tso be blessed. She'll send me money. Oh, wait. What did I hear her say? "I'll pray for you." Shit. Mom, I'd rather you send me money than pray. Money goes a damned sight farther than prayers, at least when it comes to plumbing!

So that's our week at Chez Clark. And three blocks away, on Coronado, I'm getting rid of leftover furniture, having some painting done, trying to get the house ready to move in. Each hour I spend in that house convinces me more and more that I've gotten ahold of a real estate treasure.

If I start having plumbing problems when I move in over there, I'm simply going to shoot myself!

It's So Warm in My Bedroom!

"How warm is it?", the reading audience shouted en masse.

On Thursday night, it was so warm in my bedroom, I:

• kicked off my socks


• turned off the electric mattress pad


• snaked my foot out from under the covers to cool off, and


• pulled off the fleece jacket I've worn every night over my silk pajamas

This despite the fact that it was about -5 outside.

However, the fact that it was -5 outside, and the fact that the garage radiator was malfunctioning, led to the hot water pipes in my bathroom freezing. An emergency call to the plumber and a space heater running round-the-clock in my bathroom has ameliorated the problem. Now we just wait for the cold wave to break.

'Nuff Said?

Looking for a new business venture?

I've got just the thing for you! A towing service!!

During my 2.25 hour evening commute today, I saw at least 20 cars—facing every possible direction—in the ditch, in the median, slipped off the shoulder. Probably the most impressive was the jeep who had done a 180 degree turn and was on the right side of the rode in the ditch on its left side. In other words, I saw the axle as I passed slowly by. I also saw a semi in the ditch where the driver had failed to negotiate the curve off the toll road onto I-80 crossing the reservoir.

Just in case you're wondering, it snowed all day. The temperature right now is 13; the low tonight will be -8; and the high tomorrow will be 4.

I voluntarily moved from Tucson, where the high tomorrow will be 72.

The Hits Just Keep On Comin'

Today is my first day at work this week. I've been down with a cold, and had nothing to contribute to the blogosphere.

Saturday I drove to Kent, OH, to attend a technical communications workshop. The weather forecast for Saturday was 4"-8" of snow. I think we got 9". The drive, which should have taken 45 minutes, max, took me an hour and 45 minutes. The drive home took over an hour. The roads were minimally plowed and ducking scary.

On Sunday, I spent the afternoon at the new house, getting things ready to go to Goodwill, sorting, culling, purging. The handyman/painter/family friend came over to see what he needs to do his job. I discovered that one of the pieces of furniture left behind was a Knoll Barcelona stool. I went to Lowe's and spent $200+ on paint and supplies. A busy day. When I laid my head on the pillow at 10:00, I started coughing. Monday, when I got out of the shower, I said, "there's no way" and crawled back into bed. Tuesday I didn't even bother with the shower! That should give you a little clue to how bad I felt.

This morning I scraped about 4" of snow off the car before I set out. As I glance out my window, it is snowing and snowing and snowing. Not a blizzard. Just steadily-falling snow.

The longest I've lived in cold weather before this iteration was the school year of 1971-72, when FOMC got his Master of Music degree in choral conducting at the University of Wisconsin. I don't remember much about that year, except being overwhelmed by the fact that I had made the biggest mistake of my life in marrying this guy. Oh, and I remember the day when the high was 23 below zero and our heat pipes froze. Not fun.

I've fantasized throughout my life about living lots of different places. But I think I never supposed the weather in that locale would be any different than it was on the day I fell in love with it. Boulder, Colorado; Gloucester, Massachusetts; Northeast Harbor, Maine; Chicago, Illinois; …. You get the idea—I have a great real estate fantasy life.

But now here I am, ostensibly for the rest of my life, in northeast Ohio where it's damned cold. When I woke this morning, the temperature was 5 degrees. Okay, so that was above zero, but still. (My friend JW is going to scoff at this post, as he currently resides in Rochester, MN, where it's double-damned cold.) I never dreamed I'd be living in this kind of climate.

The snow is still magical to me. I grew up in Orlando. When I was in second grade, we had snow one day, and the principal rang the fire alarm so we could go out and catch snowflakes in our little mittens. My next experience with snow was my freshman year in college in southern Tennessee. Repeated instances of snow, but nothing like this!

So I close with a shout-out to the hard-working guys from Energy Detectives, who have been laboring for a week to upgrade the level of insulation in the Clark residence. Even thought the outside temperature was 5 degrees this morning, the temperature in my room was 50 degrees! Astonishing!! Thanks, guys.

Post script 1:20 pm: Just ran out to the car to retrieve the cough drops I bought on the way in to work this morning. (They weren't there. How could I have lost an entire bag of cough drops?) It's so white ouside I had to shield my eyes to see where I was going. And damned cold.

Dipping My Toe in the Real Estate Pool Again

Oh, wait. I guess I'm not just dipping my toe in. I've done a cannonball into the pool.

I closed on my new house on Friday morning, and the docs will be recorded on Monday. I spent a significant amount of time there yesterday afternoon and am starting to feel a sense of ownership. The reality is starting to sink in.

I will meet the family handyman, Donny, there tomorrow to see where he needs to start and how to prioritize the work. All the rooms need to be painted, and I will pull up the carpeting, at least on the ground floor, to reveal the beautiful hardwood flooring. The other priority is having insulation put into the attic to try to keep the gas bill at a manageable level.

I'll move in a couple of weeks—sometime before the 2nd of February, on which date I must vacate my storage unit.

Thanks for all the support through this process. Come visit!

(Oh, and we got about 9" of snow today! Take that, all you Tucsonans.)