that's all there is to it. a good family friend (who is a ridiculously talented urban-style photographer) just took her senior photos, and since i'm a bossy big sister, i'm going to put them all over this blog. out of love. and the fact that she's gorgeous, and frankly, i'm related to that gorgeous!!!
not a broken water heater. just a knob somewhere that somehow got turned off. who knows how or why. the point is, showering is a glorious glorious thing.
the laundry in my apartment's been out for a while.
fine, not a truly big deal. inconvenient, yes. major tragedy? no.
post-run this morning, i found out that our hot water heater is on strike.
NOT OKAY.
is 8:30 to early to call the landlord? because i'm certainly up!!!
here's your german lesson for the day:
ohrwurm.
literally, it translates to 'ear-worm'. figuratively, it translates to 'the song that's stuck in your head, like a broken record.'
which leads me to the summary of things lately: THIS SHOW IS ONE BIG OHRWURM.
we open on friday, after which point i'll have my life back. rehearsals continue to be one big parade of 'awesome'.
i moved into this gorgeous apartment a little over a month ago, and it's taken that long to feel settled. well, that's not true, it's a pretty great place to be. BUT, it's taken me that long to get my act together in the ways of repainting, furniture assembly, and generally making it 'mine'. and let's be honest, 'mine' is usually a little bizarre.
ready? go!
step 1: ikea.
step 2: assembly. oh no.
i should point out, that the directions don't have any words, because ikea is too cool for words. just happy swedish cartoon people, showing you how.
step 3: arrange furniture. this takes two people, with college degrees, at least a half an hour. because you're too smart for your own good. and you've been drinking beer...
step 4: grab some dinner with your friend, the furniture co-arranger. (remember? the ikea directions? i'm a good listener. i found a friend.)
he will obviously find a picture of a bulldog puppy.
......then probably paint some more.
step 6: clean clean clean, scrape dots of paint off of the fake-o wooden floor (benefits of cheap flooring = everything comes off!). sweep, then sweep again, and then one more time. put things where they belong. PULL UP THE PLASTIC DROP CLOTH JUNK THAT'S BEEN LIVING ON YOUR FLOOR.
soooooo, after all of that....i am sore and very tired, but it's all worth it though, because this.......
is now this.
mmm. i am so excited.
this past week, every single day has been sweltering hot, which really just reminds me of home. but unlike this time last year, i'm not spending my unemployed summer tejas diva days by a pool sipping sangria. instead, i'm in europe, where air-conditioning is absolute heresy. i realize no one feels bad for me, and i can appreciate that. the point is, it's hot. BUT, every night it's also rained from the heavens above, in sheets, with a pre-storm calm, and then a spectacular light show that's really unusual in these parts.
meanwhile, rehearsals have started for the show that i'm so lucky to be a part of. i've forgotten that familiar 'exhausted but oh-so-fulfilled' feeling that comes with endless rehearsals, with making it better and better and better, and with meeting a whole crowd of new people. there are several faces that i swear i've worked with before, and obviously i haven't, i've never sung professionally here before! it's moreso that in a cast this big, there are always roles to be played, but in a different way. there's that one person who's really awkward, there's the one person who's super-sweet to everyone, there's inevitably someone who is ridiculously gifted and has no idea....the list goes on and on. i've been asked a few times already why i came here, and the best answer i can come up with is that this is so seldom possible in the states...to pay your rent singing opera. it's not that the appreciation isn't there, its just that it exists on a much smaller scale, and so the oppurtunities are few and farther between. on the other hand, if i sang musical theatre, i wouldn't have a problem...but i don't. opera is where my heart is, and in the search to make a life of it, i get to live here, in a city where there's enough art - and the mass appreciation it needs to survive - to last a hundred lifetimes, and oh yeah, mozart lived around the corner once. the bliss that entails is really overwhelming to realize. i can't think about it too often, because i get so incredibly verklempt and overcome with emotion that i can't even manage a declarative sentence. and even though i've been singing very seriously for a while now, i am yet to understand how i got this lucky.
i am so unbelievably happy.
just busy.
back soon!
vienna has been invaded.
it has been invaded...by kazillions of soccer fans.
european soccer fans.
can you imagine this? can you understand?
there is football-mania. there is more football souvenir-esque crap to buy than one could ever imagine. my water bottle last week came with a sport top that doubles as a fan whistle. the bakeries sell football-shaped bread. could i make this up?
alright, lemme say this: i am all for national pride. GO countries that are awesome! WOOHOO!
i am NOT...for noise pollution. for littering. for a disturbance of public transportation, particularly if it's the public transportation that takes me home...selfish, i know. i can't bring myself to do it, to embrace the soccer-mania. i'm trying. it's not working. a noble attempt has been made.
i will say though, it's surpemely cool to live somewhere important enough to co-host the european soccer cup. that is the silver lining, that i get to live here...even if "here" means that this is parked around the corner from where i work: