12.17.2006

IT'S OVER!!!; wherein, we discover that sopranos shouldn't be allowed to be that cute

The craziness that was Semester, Fall 2006 has finally ended. My last final was on Thursday at noon, but I had a choir concert on Saturday night, so I felt like school wasn't really over until the concert was over. But now, that too has passed. And now I am granted rest from my labors, for a time. (Minus work, which means that I don't get to go home for Christmas until this Friday night.)

Speaking of the choir concert, it rocked. Basically it was a fundraising dinner put on by the Music Associates, who are a group of nice people (and when I say "a group of nice people" I mean "a group of nice old ladies") who generously support the music department and raise money for lots of scholarships. So we like them. Anyway, they put on a dinner at the TSU for $100 a plate (extra for forks and knives, not to mention food), and then recruited the University Singers and Chamber Choir to perform a "Carol Candlelight" Christmas Choir Concert. It was cool. We did a few Christmas carol sing-alongs; reprised the Gabrieli Jubilate Deo and the Rutter Gloria from our previous concert; sang some creative arrangements of Little Drummer Boy, Silent Night, We Wish You A Merry Christmas, Jingle Bells (this arrangement, because it's called "Jingle, Bells," is known to the choral world as "Jingle Comma Bells"), and Sleigh Ride; the Chamber Choir did their pieces from the last concert (for chorus and guitar) and some jazz tunes; Sean Saclolo and Hanna Kim sang solos which rocked; and then there was The Twelve Days of Christmas, arranged by John Rutter, made crazy by Rob Istad (our illustrious maestro). We acted out the item or action for each day, complete with sopranos doing disco moves on "Nine ladies dancing," altos blowing cheap plastic whistles on "Eleven pipers piping," tenors jumping on "Ten lords a-leaping," and basses squatting to the left and striking muscular poses on "Six geese a-laying." Every time we came to "Four calling birds," a phone which was on a stool next to Rob would ring; the first time, he answered it and said "Hello?", Marie asked "Who is it, Dr. Istad?", and he turned to the audience and said "It's the birds!" "Three French hens" were serviced by three screaming rubber chickens held aloft by two basses and a tenor. And the "partridge in a pear tree" were performed by Joe and Ricky (two low basses), who improvised some crazy moves with a baby tree in a basket and a really stupid-looking bird puppet (respectively). It was a big hit.

Also speaking of the choir concert, I come to the second part of my title....

One of the sopranos caught my attention earlier in the semester. I'm close to the edge of the bass section, and she's on the edge of the soprano section, so when we're in the choir room with its curved risers we're pretty much right across from each other. I thought she was kinda cute, you know. Then the day came when the soloists for a piece we were working on (Ralph Vaughan Williams' Serenade To Music, to be precise) finally sang their solos. This particular soprano had one of these solos, and the first time she sang it--which was the first time I had heard her sing alone--she blew me away. She has a beautiful voice, equally suited to being light and floating and to being robust and powerful. And she's a high soprano, and hit a high A with no trouble at all. In short, this chick's got pipes.

In the concert last night, she had the soprano solo in Michael McGlynn's arrangement of Silent Night. To make things more theatrical (which, I'm realizing, Rob has quite a knack for), while the mezzo and tenor soloists stood on the stage next to Rob with the rest of the choir, she was up on the balcony above everyone, so her voice floated down from on high, as it were (which of course was the desired effect). It was lovely. She was perfectly in tune and had a flawless tone. Sigh.

I was expecting that the choir would be having a Christmas party after the concert, allegedly at Rob's house, because we had talked about some such thing earlier in the semester. But apparently, it never materialized, and so after hanging around in the lobby for a while talking to various groups of people (and for some, drinking champagne provided by the Associates), we dispersed. Yes, I know, I had the whole semester, but I chickened out upon numerous occasions; I was hoping that at the party, I would get a chance to meet and talk to this lovely lady. However, my hopes were dashed and shattered like the champagne glass someone dropped on the expensive polished hardwood floor. (Okay, so that didn't really happen; I just needed a creative analogy.) So, instead, I just came home to an empty apartment (M-bito was down in south county last night) and was left to myself to brood. I was able to find her Myspace page, which was positive on one hand because I found out that she likes Lord of the Rings, Coldplay and Evanescence, and House (one of my newly-discovered favorite TV shows), is in the process of reading classics, more importantly is a Christian, and just as importantly is single. On the other hand, this was a negative thing because now I have the opportunity to obsess over this Myspace page. Perhaps fortunately, I wasn't able to access her "Pics" page, because you have to be a member of Myspace in order to do that. Curses.

Thus, I decided to be smitten with a cute soprano--just AFTER school ends.

Perhaps I should buy my emotions a new datebook.

(Get it? Datebook? If only I could channel my cleverness to actually talk to girls I find attractive.)

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

AJ, you are awesome. I love your brain, it's great. I'm a myspacer, if you need me to log in and do some detective work later. Anyway, you need to get in touch with this lady. Luckily, one of my many alter egos is courtney the magnificent match making fiend. We will plot tonight!!! hahahaha!

Mike Morabito said...

AJ, don't give into the myspace stalking, it never helps. It gives a false closeness that isn't real don't do it!

See her next semester and asks if she would like to get a coffee and then buy it for her. It seems like most girls like coffee.

haha

-Mike
ps. I am just reading this now at 7:25pm on sunday night just as I promised I would before I took a shower for the big planning party but now all of you on road trip america are having fun outside my door with out me while I still need to take a shower!

Darth_Harbison said...

First off, let me say that Wayne would be proud of your ridiculous uses of the letter C in this entry . . .

And actually, I think you got my thoughts on this in our conversation, so . . . yeah. Beware. Guard thyself, for thou hath a roadtrip before thou canst date.

(And no, there was no reason for the random archaic language in the last sentence . . . I'm just painfully tired . . .)

Idhrendur said...

I understand dude...I was about to say "more than you can know," but you know EXACTLY what I'm talking about.

Anonymous said...

Ha! I know how you feel as well! I'm sure that every single college student has felt this particular pang at least once in their career. I've been tempted myself to make a myspace to connect with another, but I have so far fought the urge. :)

She sounds like a wonderful woman, AJ. I hope that through some work of God, you may meet her. I love that you just shared this intimate detail with the entire world, maybe one day she shall happen across your blog and discover you as well. lol.

And yes, it does seem that women enjoy coffee.

I feel you,
Marge

Anonymous said...

I disagree. Coffee is so overrated. What you should do is just get a myspace and then ask her to be your friend! You could also try to make her jealous. Like for instance, maybe next semester I can come by after your class, where she will be conveniently watching. I will act like I am cold, and you will generously hand me your blackish, leatherish jacket. I will then leave, and she will be like wow, he's a pimp and want to talk to you. It's totally worth a shot.

Merrilee said...

There is only one thing worse than having a myspace... Making a point of how much you hate it and then using it to stalk pretty girls. I think you should get one, it's much easier to find information on these special interests of yours. Although nothing is better for stalking people than facebook.