Running Playlists

I did it!

I've officially registered for a half marathon in May.

I really wanted to do one before I turned 32, and this will be a month late, but it's close enough.

You may remember that I trained for one back in the fall. 

I did the training, but during the weekend of the event, Aleks and I went to Chicago. 

So, I haven't actually, officially ran a half marathon.

I'm excited and nervous and feeling a little crazy, but mostly motivated.

Training started yesterday and due to a week of winter storms, it's a bit snowy outside.

I don't mind the gym too much because training inside has its benefits. Namely the T.V.s that are built into the treadmills.

However, even that can get tiresome. I mean, a person can only watch Dance Moms for so long.

What I really need is some good music on a playlist.

But, I stopped listening to music around the time I graduated from college. My last well-loved CDs include John Mayer (pre-douche bag), Norah Jones, Jeff Buckley, and a compilation of greatest women jazz singers.

In the last 5 years this is what I've been listening to:

• Any music that I'm preparing for performance. This includes classical art song, opera, oratorio, and some musical theater. My favorite way to memorize is at the gym with the music in front of me and in my ear.
• Sirius radio: NPR and Met Opera Radio stations for pleasure. I also listen to the Broadway Station, but mostly as research, to acquaint myself with the repertoire and performance practices.
• Kids Place Live on Sirius, which actually has some really great music. Sometimes I'm driving by myself and have just reached my destination when I realize that I had Kids Place Live on the entire time.

Recently, I've been thinking about why I don't listen to music.

1. Since the birth of the iPod, listening to music seems too complicated. Buying and downloading from iTunes. Transferring it to my phone. The whole iCloud thing. Complicated. I miss the good old days of CDs. We do have a whole wall of CDs, but no sound system. And I have a MacBook Air (no CD drive). I do have an external CD slot thingy, but again, so many steps!

Aleks got a record player from his dad for Christmas and since then, I have been listening to records. It's incredibly gratifying to lower the needle onto a record and hear that slightly scratchy sound. I plan to add to our collection.

2. My ears are my work. After teaching, I desperately crave silence.

3. The kids. OMG. They are so loud. They never stop talking. When I put on a record they inevitably start playing with their musical toys and we get a Charles Ives-like environment. Then I want silence.

4. I think I'm on the HSP spectrum. Sounds can stress me out.

5. I don't really know what I should be listening to. And I have a hard time spending money on an album, when I might not like the whole thing. Actually I have a hard time spending money on music at all.

So, combined with training starting up and the acknowledgment that I am out of touch with the current musical culture, it's time to listen again. 

For fun.

I signed up for Spotify, so that'll help my frugal side when I'm at the computer. But for those running playlists, I need help. 

What should I be listening to?

On my list so far:

Mumford and Sons

Florence and the Machine

Lumineers

Fun

I want to revisit Marc Broussard

I'm embarrassed to admit, the Oscars was the first time I heard Adele sing. But from my understanding, she might not be the best workout music?

Please help. I'm clueless.

Tell me what your favorite, bad ass, motivational, lose-yourself-in-the-music, groove worthy albums are!

When I'm slooowly running 10 miles, I'll be ever so grateful.

A snow day with this and that

Aleks and I are not novices when it comes to snow.

Connecticut can serve up a pretty incredible nor'easter.

I also have a vivd memory of shoveling a good 1 1/2 feet of snow outside our Pullman home, which was on a corner, so there was a lot of sidewalk to cover. I had Ruby's monitor clipped to my jacket and Maia was trailing behind me, eyes as blue and shining as the sky.

Where was Aleks you ask?

Oh, he was at work because Washington State University didn't cancel classes. Ever.

Today the city of Wichita is basically shut down because we had a blizzard last night!

There was even thunder and lightening in the midst of the storm! 

The midwest is so dramatic.

This was taken yesterday, before most of the snow came.

I'd say we got just over a foot of snow at our house and supposedly there is more coming throughout the day.

I'm certain that many other cities across the country wouldn't shut down for this little snow, but I am so grateful.

We're still not 100% here. We're over the worst of it, but everyone is still congested and not sleeping as well as we usually do. I don't typically teach on Thursdays anyway, but I am so grateful for the day off. Maia's school was canceled, we had a plumber coming today and he canceled, and WSU is closed. I went from preparing myself to be in survival mode again,  to having a free day stretched out in front of me. 

We're all taking things at a slower pace today.

I did make pesto chicken crepes for breakfast and just took out a pan of spicy brownies. 

(Click on that link and see the recipe. There is chipotle powder and cinnamon in the batter!)

One of the reasons I haven't been able to shake this cold is because I've been really busy, in a wonderful way. A last minute decision had me learning and memorizing a Ricky Ian Gordon song in 2 days. Not something I advocate to my students, but it's a skill I've been cultivating since having children. On Saturday I attended a workshop put on by the Kansas NATS, at which Ricky Ian Gordon was present and did a masterclass for us.

(That's him in the hat. I was trying to be stealthy in my picture taking.)

Ricky Ian Gordon is a big deal, especially in the vocal world. He regularly works with people like Audra McDonald, Renee Flemming, Frederica von Stade, countless stage directors, and prominent vocal teachers. He could have been completely arrogant or uninvested and I don't think any of us would have thought twice about it.

However, he was one of the most generous, present, and encouraging people I have worked with. 

And he knew how to talk to singers, which if you ask my husband, takes talent.

He created an environment in which we all felt safe and thus willing to take risks.

It was an intense day.

I also really appreciated that I got to know my fellow Kansas voice teachers better. This singing world can be vey catty and it was refreshing to build a supportive, encouraging base with my colleagues.

Two days later I got to work with another composer, Z Randall Stroope. WSU brought him in for two days as a guest clinician to work with the choirs and give masterclasses to our composers. If you've ever sung in a choir, you probably know his work. I had the opportunity to sing two of his songs in the Tuesday night concert, which we coached with Mr. Stroope on Monday.

So, as you can see, it's been go go go, while feeling 60% and today, boom! we get a break. I'm almost giddy with relaxation, if such a thing is possible.

And you guys, I have to tell you.

Ruby is doing so much better.

I'm not exactly sure what happened. Maybe the consistency of how we were handling the tantrums or she just started understanding, or the sticker chart? I don't know.

But now, when it's time to go to bed, we do our routine and shut the door and there is no screaming. Sometimes she cries, but calms herself down quickly. She also stays in bed most of the time. But if she doesn't, she just plays quietly in her room or reads.

We are even able to open the door and talk to her and shut it again with NO crying.

It's a miracle.

Thank you for all your support as I shared our frustrations with her.

It got better.

Happy snow day to you!

How Do You Get to Carnegie Hall? (a guest post)

Hi Everybody, today's blog will not be as eloquent, thoughtful or humorous as it usually it is because Emily's husband Aleks is writing it. I recently returned from a trip to New York where I just had two new works premiered at Carnegie Hall. Apparently people want to hear about how things went so let me share.

Let's start with day one: Tuesday (feb. 5th) I arrived in NYC. I went from the airport to have lunch and catch up with my old friend Jen. Of course I started off the trip without taking a pictures of her or our food. After a great time catching up I caught a cab and headed to the Hyatt Grand Central and walked around New York for a little while.

Here's the best picture I could get of the city skyline

 My swanky hotel room

 The nasty first day blister. :(

After touring the city for a little while I had reservations for the restaurant Ko, owned and run by David Chang of Momofuku legend. This restaurant is so cool because it seats 12 people and you sit at the bar and are served 16 courses by the chefs. For a foodie and avid home cook like myself it was awesome because I could talk to the chefs and ask all sorts of questions (they didn't seem to mind).

The restaurant is so hip you can't even find it. It's hidden behind that cage. Also you're not allowed to take pictures while your inside so, sorry, but no food pictures.

Day 2: After an exhilarating day in the city it was off to Connecticut where I stayed at my friend Tom's house (one of the three composers being featured on Carnegie along with my friend Craig). The three of us caught up and then went to the Hartt School of Music where we gave a guest lecture to the composition students at Hartt. Afterward the head of the program, Robert Carl, took us out to dinner and beers and showered us with praise. 

This is Tom's daughter Charlotte who is just a month younger than Ruby. Her favorite song to sing is "Lucy in The Sky with Diamonds" by the Beatles.

Here are the hallowed halls of Hartt, where I spent many a year learning and teaching.

Day 3: The next day we all woke up bright and early and drove to Kutztown, Pennsylvania where the musicians, known as the Case Ensemble, were giving a preview concert. 

On a personal note whenever a group you don't know is going to play a piece(s) of yours, especially at somewhere big like Carnegie Hall, there's always a lot of stress about what kind of performance you're going to get and how your piece will be received.

 Let me tell you the preview and rehearsals were AWESOME. In fact I would rank it as one of my top three performances of my music ever. These guys came to rock.

Dress rehearsal for my piece REM (Ruby, Emily, Maia)

Day 4: Alright so here's where it starts to go to hell a little bit. If you're not aware Thursday night the weather announced a little snowstorm would be coming through and New England would be getting between 3-5 feet of snow...So I woke up at 5:30am and high tailed it from Connecticut to NYC to beat the storm. Fortunately I made it to the city and met up with my dad who had flown in for the concert. We spent the day touring a little bit of the city, spent most of it buckled down in our hotel room avoiding the ice snow and that evening had dinner with some of my family who live in New York and only get to see every five years or so.

The beginning of what they called the "White Scare"

This is the new Freedom tower where the WTC used to stand

The eternal fountain at the 9/11 Memorial

Doesn't quite have the same ring as "Take the A train."

By the end of the day this is what NYC looked like. Not bad at all.

Day 5 (The big day): So here we were the big day of the concert. It was pretty amazing and a little bitter sweet. While Manhattan hadn't really been effected Connecticut had been bombarded with snow. Tom's house had been covered and the snow banks were about 5 feet tall. Unfortunately the Governor shut down the roads and there was $1000.00 fine and up to year in prison if you were caught driving on them. This of course meant that Tom did not make it to the concert. However with all that said we had a great turn out of 70+ audience members, a spectacular performance by the Case Ensemble and overall a really magical 5 day experience. Of course I was sad that Emily and the girls couldn't be there to share it with me. And my mom flew to Kansas to help them out which was huge. But like I told Emily this isn't the last time my music will be played there.

The day of:

The poster outside Carnegie Hall

Dress rehearsal in the hall

Top secret picture taken during the concert (Pictures are for forbidden without prior consent from the house manager and is punishable by fines and you can be ejected from the hall, etc. etc. Don't tell anyone)

Me backstage.

A final bow with the performers and 2/3 of the deadbeat composers (That's our "band" name)

 (Left to Right: Jeremy Justeson (sax), Sussana Loewy (flute), Dan Immel (Piano), Craig Biondi (Composer), Maria Asteriadou (Piano), Me ("Composer")

The performers after the concert

And to end it all here's a cool video that Kutztown University put together with the performers about the concert.

Feb. 14

As my girls say:

"Happy Valentimes Day!"

This holiday is so much more fun with kids.

We've had a bit of holiday love around the house.

We put this picture on one side of Maia's valentines for her school friends.

And this is one we sent to friends and family.

 I hope your day is filled with lots of love (and some chocolate).

3 year olds are funny

We really need to go to the grocery store, but Maia said "No mommy! We want to keep playing!" and who am I to stop 2 little girls who are playing nicely by themselves?

Groceries can wait.

Daddy is home!

The east coast storm did not delay any of his flights and he's home, tired and satisfied, off to work this morning.

And, poetically, after several days of clouds, rain, and wind, it's clear and sunny today.

In spite of all the stress of being a single parent this past week, it hasn't been all frustration.

Like most 3 year old, Maia has been saying some pretty cute things lately. I've started taking notes as they happen.

We brought home some new books from the library and Maia was sifting through them. 

She pulled one out and said "Have we been in this book before?" I know how she feels. I love going into new books myself.

During one of the times Maia got out of bed this week, she told me "This night I had 2 boogies in my nose and I ate them!" 

(She must get that from her father.)

(Just kidding honey!)

At least 3 times a day, Maia asks me how old I am. I told her to ask me more interesting questions. 

She then asked me how old my legs and teeth were.

The teeth one is a bit tricky, actually.

Maia informed me that her teeth are 3 ounces old.

Maia and Ruby love to play doggy. Maia will get my measuring tape out and ask me to tie it around her waist for a leash. Then Ruby takes her for a walk and everyone answers my questions with barking.

In related news, I've been getting licked at random times throughout the day.

Maia was playing with something she shouldn't have been touching and I told her to leave it alone.

She crossed her arms and said "if you don't let me touch that I'm going to be heartbroken."

I was trying to figure out where she learned the word "heartbroken" until my eyes fell on the stack of Berenstain Bears books we got at the library.

Our coffee table holds "The Berenstain Bears Lose a Friend", "Teasing", and "Get in a Fight" from our most recent trip.

I loved these books as a little girl and Maia does as well. However, I think they're geared at an older crowd.

They always give just enough information to prompt my precocious 3 year old to ask more questions.

This time Maia dropped the bombshell while we were in the car.

Mommy, does everything die?

Yes.

Mommy, am I going to die?

Yes honey, but not for a long time, so you don't need to think about it.

I don't want to die!

Silence

Mommy, what does die mean?

Well, it means that you stop breathing forever.

When I die will I die in Kansas or in Nana's country or in Grandma and Papa's country?

Ummm, I don't know sweetie.

She seems to be satisfied with the answers I gave. 

I should probably read up on how to talk about these things with your kids so I don't get ambushed again.

Happy Monday everyone.

Being a single parent is hard

I really want a beer, but I have had almost no water today.

So, I'm making myself drink 24 oz. of water first, while I write this blog and dinner cooks in the oven.

Also, I feel like there might be some swearing tonight.

Just so you know.

Aleks left early Tuesday morning for New York.

He's got a really exciting week, which culminates on Saturday when 2 of his pieces will be premiered at Carnegie Hall. I told him to take lots of pictures so that I could write all about it when he gets back.

But really, what you should realize from that paragraph above, is that I'm a single parent again.

I now realize that any strength I've had as a parent is because I've had an incredible partner to help me.

Oh look! Only 6 oz left!

I'm a hardcore water chugger.

It's something that my cousin Eliza and I share. Our water chugging abilities.

Ok, good things first.

The girls woke up in a really good mood.

I was rested and had an idea that maybe sticker charts would serve as good incentives for my girls.

A sleep chart for Ruby and a food chart for Maia.

If Ruby stays in bed after I put her down, then she gets a sticker when she wakes up. If Maia tries a new food, or eats something she doesn't want to eat, then she get a sticker. Once the charts are full, they each get a new toy.

It worked like a charm for nap time. Ruby went down without throwing a fit and when she woke up she said "sticker on my chart!"

Maia ate 3 pieces of cheese and got 3 stickers for her chart.

Other good things.

I got a shitload of work done during nap time.

(ooo, I've never sworn on this blog before. It has that good naughty feeling. Sorry mom and dad and grandpa and anyone else who might be offended. I'm still your sweet daughter/granddaughter/member of society.)

The girls were wonderful at Sam's club and the grocery store.

Maia's student-teacher conference yesterday was amazing.

Maia is doing really well. 

I literally started crying when Mrs. Patrick was talking about how Maia really loves all her friends and includes everyone and how she is really in tune with how each student is doing or feeling.

Can it get any better? Isn't that what we all want for our children? To be empathetic and aware of others?

I won't take credit for that, I'm just grateful that it's part of who she is.

Bless Mrs. Patrick for putting up with weepy parents.

Not so good things.

I've been blowing out dark green snot for 5 days now.

Do you think I should go to the doctor?

This is my second night in a row of fierce fighting with Ruby during bedtime.

Girlfriend can scream. And likes to scream. And is soooo defiant.

It's like she's decided that bedtime is the thing she is going to use to show me that her 2 year old self is the boss.

She doesn't respond to reasoning, bribes, threats, consequences, or being held. I haven't tried hitting. She probably wouldn't respond to that either. 

But I think I've tried everything else.

The only thing that made her eyes soften a bit was when I looked at her with really angry eyes and said "Enough" 

Like really angry eyes.

All squinty with small pursed lips and everything.

It makes me feel so horrible inside. I don't really know what to do anymore.

However, tonight I'd put her in her bed and she'd scream and run to the door and throw it open and I'd pick her up right away and put her back in her bed and turn around and leave and we did this about 6 times in a row. After the 3rd time, I stopped shutting the door all the way and just left it cracked open. The 6th time she got out of bed, she was still screaming, but she pushed the door shut all the way and went back to her bed, instead of opening it and screaming at me.

It's a small thing, but maybe just maybe a step in the right direction.

And then Maia sees this all play out and has been giving me lots of trouble going to bed as well.

Last night she was up and out of bed 8 times.

Gah.

I know by sharing all of this I'm opening myself up to judgement of parenting and that's a little scary. 

But, you should know, that I love my children and everything I do is fueled by that love.

(If you're pregnant with your first child and reading this, don't worry. I'm sure that my kids are exceptionally difficult and your child will be sleeping through the night at 6 weeks. Having kids is awesome.)

We all need discipline, right? If our parents hadn't disciplined us the world would be full of selfish, impulsive, emotionally uncontrolled people. 

Oh wait...

Seriously though, there is that point that a child has to learn that they can't always have their way. That the world doesn't revolve around them. It's like breaking in a colt. (I know nothing about horses, but that sounds good.)

And honestly, it makes me really sad to have to be a part of the breaking. That 2 year old determination and stubbornness is an awesome thing.

A small part of me is envious of those 2 year old's visceral convictions.

Sheesh, this is long.

See what happens when I'm home alone with kids all day.

Thanks for listening.

Home Warranty for the win!

Back in July we decided to renew our home warranty. It was a sizable chunk of change for that time of year.

You may not know this, but many professors across the country are on 9 month contracts, even if they have tenure.

What does that mean? No paychecks for 3 months in the summer!

During the summer you hope and pray and keep your fingers crossed that nothing breaks. Which is why we decided to renew our home warranty, even though we were at that scary end of summer/haven't gotten the first paycheck/rice and beans again existence.

We felt that we could afford the $500 (or whatever it was) at that point, but surely not $1000+ later if our air conditioner broke or the roof needed to be replaced.

About a week ago I started unloading the dishwasher, only to realize that nothing was clean. After debating for a few hours and running the dishes again, we scheduled an appointment with our home warranty appliance division.

That day they sent someone out to look at our machine. Basically, there is so much calcium in our water, that the filters(?) or something is blocked and no water was coming out. After running cleaner through the dishwasher several times, the repairman decided that he needed to order 3 new parts and would be back in a week to install them.

From my limited understanding of how a dishwasher works, it looks like he is basically rebuilding our machine.

And we only have to pay the one time fee!

This is the second time this year we've had the home warranty people out to the house and both times we've saved a bundle.

Currently my fingers are cracked and dry despite numerous applications of cream (anyone have any good recommendations for hand cream/lotion?), but we'll have a refurbished, working dishwasher on Monday and we didn't have to spend $800 on parts and labor!

_______________________________________________

In other news, Tuesday was Pioneer Day at Maia's school. I did my first parent volunteer duty and felt very grown up.

The pictures I got aren't great, Ruby was very clingy that day. Perhaps it was the live animals and energy crazed 5 year old boys that made her timid.

(Boys?! I don't even know. They are so different than girls.)

The kids were encouraged to dress up in pioneer outfits. I put Maia in a dress that used to be mine and cowboys boots.

Pretty darn cute if I do say so myself.

The gym was filled with cattle roping, butter making, clothes washing, animal petting, game playing stations.

I was on bouncy horsey thing duty.

Ruby was great, helping me pull the covers back on the balls when they came off.

To my surprise, Maia actually pet a goat and chicken. I thought she'd be too nervous.

I don't have a much pioneer garb in my closet (surprised?) so I made do with one of Aleks' plaid shirts.

I'd say Maia had a great time. She was tired out after that crazy day!