Is It Thursday Already?

I'm in the middle of a very busy three-week period where—three days each week—I have my normal morning 60-mile drive (just over an hour) from Youngstown to Akron, followed after work by a 30-mile drive (usually about 45 minutes) to the east side of Cleveland for Blossom Festival Chorus rehearsal. Then at 10:00 p.m. I drive 65 miles (about an hour-and-fifteen minutes) back to Youngstown. This morning I left the house at 6:30 to be at the office around 7:30 so I could leave at 4:30 to make a 5:30 neighborhood meeting in Youngstown. All this adds up to three weeks where I'm sleep-deprived and constantly pushing myself to keep going.

And yet, when I get to rehearsal, I love every single minute of the time. The voices around me are all excellent. There are rarely missed notes or ignored rests. People listen to the director; people cut off when they're supposed to cut off; people pay attention. People care about the music. They're not just there because it's their regular social evening. It's first and foremost about the music. And I love that. It fits me perfectly.

But all that said, during these mini-hell-weeks, I don't feel much inspiration about this blog. On Thursdays—"Oops! Thursday"—I normally write about something I've done that I wish I hadn't done and share the lesson I learned. I think the past six weeks or so of Thursday revelations has pretty much depleted my reservoir of oopsy stories.

This blog began three years ago on July 5th, and I have written 1,235 posts. I can't even imagine what the corresponding word count would be. What I do know is that the blog has been invaluable in my life. It has been a regular and methodical writing exercise, that has pushed me to consider words and phrases and grammar, that has turned me—in my opinion—into a far better and more disciplined writer than I was three years ago. It also has served as therapy-without-the-therapist. I've dug into myself, pulled out issues and feelings, and turned them over and around, examining them from many perspectives. I've learned more about myself; I've grown up some more; I've learned—I hope—to take myself less seriously.

Even the Oops! Thursday exercises have taught me a life lesson: stop holding onto things for so long. Look at them and let them go.

So I think the series of Oops! Thursdays has pretty much concluded. And once all these BFC rehearsals and performances are done, I'll get back to more regularly posting.

Oh, if you're in the Cuyahoga Valley area on July 5 or July 12, I'm going to be performing in some pretty fabulous concerts at Blossom Music Festival. On the 12th, it's Copland, Gershwin (Porgy & Bess), and the Dragon arrangement of America the Beautiful. Yum! On the 12th, the Bravo Broadway concert will be lots of Rodgers and Hammerstein, sung in lush arrangements while standing behind the "Best Band in the Land", the Cleveland Orchestra. A beautiful outdoor venue with beautiful music! You can get tickets at ClevelandOrchestra.com.