Sorry about the hiatus!

Hello all!

Sorry it's been such a long time since I've posted...last semester was a BEAR and I definitely took advantage of my winter break...and did about absolutely NOTHING!  It was wonderful!

What have I done lately?  Well, I've been making jewelry like crazy...I'm actually running kind of low on supplies, and I was thinking, in the season of inventory checks, maybe I should try and run my inventory as low as possible and then actually find out what I'm worth?  Sounds like fun, eh?  So I'm only buying stuff for custom orders...we'll see how long I last before I crack and order several hundred dollars worth of stuff from China.

I did an open house in January, and it went wonderfully!  I'm having another this coming Friday, so anyone in the area should stop by!  And don't feel bad; you definitely don't need to be pressured to buy anything.  You could just come and have a good time!

Anyhoo, the big news in my life currently?  I'M PREGNANT!

Haha just kidding.  Wouldn't that suck!

For serious now.  I auditioned at UW-Milwaukee on Friday for their graduate program in voice, and I'll give you the longgggg synopsis of how it went.  Since I've already given the longgggg synopsis to several people already, the next time someone asks, I'll just direct them here!

My application was completed before January, so I was allowed to audition for their "early" date, which was February 4th.  I never heard back anything until ONE week before the audition, giving me a schedule of the day's events.  I would have an orientation from 8:30 to about 9:30, a theory and piano placement exam at 1:00, and my audition at 1:55, which I had to prepare five selections for.

Thursday night, while I was studying for the theory exam and selecting my piece for the piano proficiency exam, I read on the review sheet that the exam should take approximately 2.5 hours.  But my audition was scheduled fifty-five minutes in!  My point?  I slept shitty on Thursday night.

Friday morning came.  My parents came with me, because when I'm nervous I revert to the scared fifteen-year-old who wants to be independent, but also wants my parents close by to help me...  It was a good thing they came along, because it took Dad about a half hour to find a parking space.  I'm pretty sure he doesn't want me to go to UW-M on that basis alone.

So after the orientation (which was mostly for undergrads) I asked someone about my scheduling issue, and he told me that my exam probably won't take that long, and if I'm not done yet, I should just leave, do the audition, and come back.  Not exactly the mind you want to be in during an important audition, no?

I later talked to another graduate applicant, and she told me that she had the same scheduling issue, but she talked to someone else, and he told her graduate students don't take the placement exams until August.  Would have been nice to know!

So my audition itself went ok I think...I sang decently...screwed up my French a bit, but I covered well enough that either they didn't notice or they gave me good bonus points for my faking-abilities.  You need to be able to fake it...

But the interview was strange.  They asked me what I'd like to do after I graduate, and I said that I like doing everything and would be happy doing almost anything in music.  I told them that I like teaching in a studio settting, teaching in a classroom setting, and also the work I've done with the SSO.  You know, performing and also being in the office type stuff.

I was feeling pretty confident until this point.  I asked them if they had any more questions for me, and one said "I just want to make sure that you know that our program is for people who are planning on pursuing professional careers in performing, either in a recital setting or opera setting."  And I was thinking, "Umm, would I have applied for your performance degree if I didn't like performing?  Really?"  But I think I covered well by saying that, Yes, I do enjoy performing...I guess the reason I was talking about teaching so much is so I get an assistantship and a free ride!  Prof. Herrick thinks maybe my business degree is freaking them out.  I can just imagine someone is thinking, "Oh, she has a back-up plan.  She must not be serious about performing.  If she was serious about performing, she would just perform and not do anything else."  Umm, it's kind of impractical to think that way, and frankly, I was going to be in school for five years with an education degree anyway, so I figured I might as well get a different practical career.  Helloooooo opening my own studio?  Duh!  Anyway, I ended the interview by telling them that I love going to school and could go to school forever, and that one of my life-long goals is to get my doctorate.  I think they liked that.  And another interviewer did kind of cover for me by saying that almost everyone ends up teaching in some degree, even if they are professional performers.  I should have just said "I want to do what you are doing right now."  Enough said.

(And I wore a red shirt for Women's Heart Health Awareness Day.  None of them were wearing red...)