Overflowing Heart

Well, people, my heart is overflowing here. I love it. I do lead the normal life of ups and downs of course, but I have never been so inspired. These young people are incredible, passionate musicians, and my friends too. When I'm not doing something in the audio booth, I sit in the balcony and listen to rehearsal. Now, they sound great on a recording, but to watch them is something else. I watch each one, some don't move when they play, some are very animated. I spoke at length with a violin player from Argentina that I would now consider one of my better friends here - asked him what his personal motivation for playing music is. And besides himself enjoying it, and besides that indescribably calling to play music, he wants to give people "love." I immediately saw that this was what I call "beauty" when I think of giving people music and sharing with them, but I almost wonder if "love" is a better word. Either way, they're at least the same thing in regards to what we are talking about. And when I sit in the balcony and listen, I feel a lot of love, and I mean a lot. I've cried several times just for a minute, or 30 seconds, listening to rather cheery music and so forth. Aaaah - it puts a lump in my throat right now, it really is so beautiful. They glow with music, passion, vibrance, they are so alive. And when I think of them being my friends, when we sit on a Saturday night, drinking a little and laughing and when it starts to storm some people stay under the awning and some of us (including me) go out in the rain and get soaking wet, or go watch the lightning over the ocean from the beach, and then these silly, fun, "normal" people get in the orchestra and they become intelligent, skilled, love-giving musicians. Now, their character is just as profound when I see them around the apartments or anywhere else, being a "normal" person, but it is just amplified the greatness of the heart when they play their instruments. And then I see that in myself - how I hang out with friends, walk to work, chat at lunch, do the "normal" thing and then when I am creating, either playing an instrument or composing or bursting with emotion and artistic passion, I am that too. But the best I suppose is in seeing that it isn't two different sides to a person, it's the whole person, and having this art and this love inside just makes them so much more. Ahh....there's my rant.

I have begun composing a string quartet. I was napping yesterday and almost asleep when I realized I was hearing two violins playing VERY clearly in my head. I immediately opened my eyes and wondered if it was something I knew already that was stuck in my head, or a composition that was involuntarily rattling in my head. So, I wrote it down and stopped after two hours when I wasn't sure which of two paths to take next. I think I know which now, so I'll probably write some more tonight or tomorrow, but tonight's the big broadcast and I kind of want to stay focused on technicalities, so maybe I'll write more tomorrow.

Anyway - this inspiration -- perhaps my compositional voice will become more clear to me here, as I've always wanted. Last night I heard it so clearly in my head and had NO trouble writing it down, which is new to me. I really composed directly from whatever spark was inside instead of letting all the mental uncertainties and insecurities and confusions block it.

Yay.

Okay back to work!

Lying on the beach looking up - it so amazing when clouds create a backdrop shadow...

More gorgeous ocean colors...finally was at the beach on a sunny day after work.

More Florida beachin'.

Bird Feet!

People Feet!

Ope! This one's my favorite!! (AKA What my move to Miami was really all about...)

The people here....

Last night we all sat around by the pool until 2am chatting and stuff. I really can't believe that it's going to be like this all the time, and I'm really excited about it, ha! What? Eighty friends? Haha - okay not quite, but it really is an interesting atmosphere for social growth, and I really do mean that (not using "social growth" as a phrase for "partying.") I spoke Spanish half of the evening with a violinist from Argentina, with a difficult accent to understand, though. When I walked up he was having a conversation with someone from Uruguay, who had crystal clear spanish, it was interesting.

I've baked two batches of cookies and am sharing - I love baking, and I love sharing the cookies, that's basically why I bake. And a girl named Sun-Ho from Korea hung out with me. She was bored and going to watch TV in the lounge downstairs and I was putting my laundry in and I realized this was my opportunity to not be shy and to invite her up while I baked cookies and I knew I liked her already, and she was great company. That was a lot of "ands" in one sentence... She's a violinist. Katie is another violinst I immediately like. Dwight is the oboist, he's a soft spoken fellow but very friendly, it's his third year. Dennis is the Tuba player, and he is also very friendly. He's not a joker necessarily, but his comfortableness, social ease, and good attitude make him the one everyone's happy to see walk in the door, or chilling out on the couch in the lobby of the practice rooms at the hall, and the one to tell a funny hurricane evacuation story at the meeting - third year, know what kind of person I mean? Maybe not, don't want to write a paragraph about each person so I'll leave it at that.

Clyde works in the same space as me, though he's moving into the office directly below the audio booth, and he's definitely a character. He's someone you play the mean game with, giving each other a hard time and making up funny scenarios that you both laugh at because it's strange, like jointly developing a story about him sleeping there at night, feet sticking out from under the table with all the equipment on it so that if you're here and he's sleeping and someone walks in the code word to wake up is "Hey Clyde, did you find that cable yet??"

Dean and Admiral are the stage crew members, so Dean actually does some sound, which is good because quite often you need sound running simultaneously from the mixing board in the theater as well as from the recording booth up above. Dean is from Jamaica - Admiral has more of an accent but I think it's the same one. I think Orma at the front desk is also Jamaica. They say their "TH's" hard like a "T." They are all reaaally friendly.

I met Anne yesterday, the previous audio girl, and she is absolutely a sweetheart and very helpful. It is so fun watching a tiny, cute and cozy girl with one of the smallest little voices you've ever heard schooling me about cable and routing and recording software, etc. It's neat.

Okay it's morning and I JUST got up so I'm going to either a) take a shower, b) eat breakfast (coffee making optional), or c) ... - no just a or b. My writing sounds a lot like the book I'm reading - hey hey-- (!!!) -- that reminds me, I have TIME to read books here in the evening! I'm reading books and listening to NPR in the mornings and being all information-gathering like that. I like these intelligent activities I never had the time for. It's not that I'm not working, I just have an open-enough schedule - well, this week I've been going to work at 10am and coming home around 4 or 5.

Okay - a long blog entry! Perhaps my next one will be about what I'm doing at work. There's a large radio broadcast we're going to have to pull off and the radio station wants to know if we have the audio capabilities to mix in soundbites and we have no idea why their engineer isn't doing it because it's makes it literally 10 times more complicated for me to do it - so, we're working on that.

Okay - take care everyone!

First Days of Work

Well folks, it's been good! I have no less than greatly enjoyed my workplace. I haven't done any "work" yet, well, actually I have. My first day someone walked in and needed something from cassette put onto a CD. Now, this may seem very simply, but seeing as I was just figuring out all the routing, and that there was actually nothing already in place to do this task, I actually used my knowledge and put together a system to accomplish this task. I did it within an hour of him asking me, but I didn't have a blank CD and couldn't acquire one for the life of me until the videographer that currently shares a workspace with me came back and lent me one. So - either way, I was of course extremely proud of this first-ever task and yeah, that's that.

Otherwise I've just been messing around with the gear and doing a lot of listening since we indeed lowered the microphones. Today I recorded a string sectional so that I could take it home and compare it to what I've done in the past that I liked. I don't think it sounds so bad in the hall. I may have the oboist here listen to it since he's been here for 3 years and said the recordings were never that great. Anybody has good ears, it's just all subjective, so any opinion is usually worth something. How detailed their opinion may be dependent on their training etc., but still, everyone has good ears. Even YOU! (Insert poster of me in the Uncle Sam hat, pointing a fat finger at you).

I really can't wait until one or some of you can come visit. It'll be tight living space but who cares! I'll fit ya in! You've gotta see Miami Beach, where I work, how incredibly (amazingly) friendly everyone is here. Everyone. I feel immediately at home.

Guys, I love it here. I'm really happy. And I've only got more things to look forward to. Ahh....

Okay this is hilarious - my first game of Ultimate Frisbee and I actually kicked some ass, but uh, I sweated a lot. It's SWEAT, I said. But I got back to my apartment and looked in the mirror to see the damage and my mouth dropped open and I laughed, because what else can you do? I guess you can cry, but I laughed. And someone is STILL going to make me dinner tonight since I rode back to the field with them in the car to look for the cell phone they lost. Unfortunately it got ripped off while it was in the glove compartment, he found this out when he found that the $200 that WAS in his wallet was no longer in there. He took it well, though. Nice kid.

Got up early to catch the sunrise (they're not sunsets here, remember? Weird!) - not much of one but it was a nice walk anyway...

Lots of people there that were obviously still there from the night before, chatting, lounging, laughing, drinking Corona, even, kinda neat but I was happy that I got a good night's sleep.

The Plymouth Hotel, where most of the fellows are housed- cool looking, eh? That's some of the Art Deco of Miami Beach, almost every hotel looks crazy like that.

Side view...

Some more Deco on a nearby hotel

And across the street from the Plymouth...

Tour of the apartment...

Okie doke folks - here's a tour!

The entryway - Welcome!

And this is it, from the entryway. Directly to the left is the bathroom and fridge, and around the corner there to the left is the kitchen. You're looking at the back of my computer monitor to the near right, and my bed in the right corner.

From the far corner of the room...

Tiny, but very manageable, except the size of the sink, oh heavens, a frying pan won't fit into it... a small frying pan!

Gotta have a john!

And my new pet...evidently...

Cute!

And me, in my apartment, ta da!

The Road to Miami

Alright folks, I've been at this for two hours now and need to get to bed - but I truly hope you enjoy the pictures - this time in chronological order from top to bottom, so you can just read down from here. I had a LOT of fun and it wasn't too long or too short, really. And now here I am. I'll keep this updated. My love to you all!

First photo of the road trip, in Kansas.

Kansas was sort of eerie-beautiful, with reaaaaally low clouds that were moving and blooming and shifting very quickly.

Hand flying in the breeze, a must on a long road trip.

Prairie Dog Town - had to stop for all the road signs advertising a 5-legged cow, biggest prairie dog in the world, rattlesnake cage, and the like. Paid a whopping $6.95 to get in, but it wasn't so much for the attractions as for the country experience that I paid, and it was certainly worth the experience.

That's a real rattlesnake there - I, uh, don't know what to say about that. (yeep!)

I gotta say, it kinda looks real. It very well could be...but the next thing......

Hahaaa! I was looking at the rattlesnakes when I hear the woman keeping this joint reply to somebody's question with, "That's a deer butt with eyes" in a Kansas accent. I thought, "Nooooo..." and turned around and searched the wall and saw it and was incredibly amused.

A little ironic....

Those horns aren't just for show! They're useful!

Aha - I see, this is "the biggest prairie dog in the world." Hmm - am I surprised it was a hoax? :)

Coyotes...all seemed fine until I saw this and I caught myself (sorta) byt surprise and started to cry.

A dramatic representation of my feelings about these coyotes being here. Actually, I honestly just turned the camera around and snapped. Didn't wait, didn't hold still, just took it so that I could capture the moment. The camera was already zoomed a little from taking a previous picture and somehow it turned out crystal clear.

Arriving in Oklahoma City...

Back on the road at the break of dawn to get to my anxiously awaited night's stay at the Opryland Hotel in Nashville.

The first really green, lush landscape - Arkansas.

From Arkansas all the way to South Carolina, the freeway was always bordered with thick, lush green trees.

On my way to Tennessee!!

Memphis, about to cross the Mississippi River -- wasn't sure what I was getting into but it didn't look so hot, and actually, it looked pretty creepy, with lightning bolts striking down on either side of the bridge too!!

The Opry Land Hotel. Not an excellent photo but I didn't want all the cars in the parking lot in it, I didn't catch it from the freeway, and I wanted to get in the ominous sky that I was seeing once again. But this time I was safely at my destination and looking forward to an incredibly comfortable and exciting evening.

What should I wear to dinner tonight, hmmm...what about this, this isn't so bad?

I dunno...maybe this??

Yep, this one's the winner.

The place I went to eat a delicious dinner, Ristorante Volare

Well...there I was sitting enjoying my wine and excellent salmon when one handsome young gentleman approaches me, looking scared to death, and then to my confusion bends down on one knee. His voice quivering, beads of sweat dripping from his forehead, he, now get this, he proposes to me! Claiming that I am most certainly a goddess for I am the most beautiful woman he's ever seen!! Now, I could have told him I bake too, and use nice-smelling laundry detergent, and like a good Corona on a warm day, but I didn't want to tease him before I turned him down by saying, "Honey, I need a little more than a bended knee and a bead of sweat to be impressed enough to accept your gracious offer," and he says, "Well, here's the thing, we ALL want to marry you," and from behind the bushes emerge a group of six more men (one is taking the picture here) and they all bend down on one knee and wait in silence. It was a slightly awkward moment but I cleared my throat and asked, "Where are the seven diamonds?" They looked around at each other and I think one of them mouthed to the other "Diamonds?" and another shook his head as one fumbled through his pockets and finally I just said, "Look, sorry boys but I'm soaring as a free bird right now, but if y'all want to keep me company while I eat I'll buy you a round of soda pop-" and they immediately accepted. So, while I ate I got a back massage and my wine refilled and the corners of my mouth dabbed-at and they sat happily slurping on their sodie pops and I gave them all a kiss on the forehead and bade them farewell as I continued on through my adventure (ego a little inflated by now, I suppose) by taking a nice after-meal stroll. Ah....

A picture of me looking over the edge of...

...THIS beautiful fountain!

Taking advantage of the late night when there wasn't a lot of people around -- practicing my poses in case one of the boys showed up. Didn't want them to find out I wasn't REALLY a goddess, heavens, how would I explain myself then???

This was one of my favorite places, also empty, but I liked it like this!

Finished off the night watching the water show, it was very quiet, wait, except for the dance party sounds coming from somewhere nearby...but I was still at peace! :)