Why, that would account for a good many things

There have been about twelve times in the past week or so where something has happened and I wanted to write about it. And obviously, I haven’t. Both facts relate to the circumstance that the past week has been one of the busiest weeks of my life. I think my strategy will be to briefly chronicle the week, stopping along the way when I come to things I want to treat less briefly. Last Sunday I flew from Houston to Providence and spent the evening with Audrey. I was very tired and crashed early, doing only some of the required reading for Jaegwon’s seminar. Monday I had office hours all morning, and also went to the post office. Nomy’s class was in the afternoon, followed by Jaegwon’s seminar. I left seminar early to drive to Cambridge for Yeomen rehearsal, where for the first time ever, I spent some substantial time working with Krista, our Elsie Maynard.

I don’t care for Krista. She’s been in absentia for the entire rehearsal period thus far, because she was in a production of Don Giovanni. This, of course, is not the reason for my distaste (see: Jonathan as Bunthorne in Houston). But the way Emily tells it, she was less-than-upfront about just how much rehearsal she’d be missing for that. And she doesn’t know her material. I’m pretty sure that there’s much of it that she’s never even looked at. And she didn’t seem at all embarrassed or apologetic about it; I guess she thought it’d be cute and endearing for her to say, all super-girly like, “wow, I haven’t looked at this music in months!”, or “the off-book date is THAT SOON? Wow, I definitely won’t make it.” The other Krista thing that I found to be in very dubious taste was the gratuitous trashing of people she’s worked with: she asked Emily how she’d liked Don Giovani, and Emily told her that she’d liked it, and had in particular liked one particular singer. Krista decided to point out: “He’s very flat.” That’s just rude and unnecessary. And, the way Emily tells it, false. (I didn’t see the show.) She also didn’t bother taking notes on, or even paying attention to and comprehending, the blocking instructions, instead telling me in a trying-to-be-cute tone of voice, “I’ll just follow you.”

I left my car on Mass. Ave. that night and went to go hang out with Emily, who was working on marking parts. On the way, I talked to Emily about being annoyed with Krista. I also mentioned to her again my crush on chorus-soprano-Colleen, which has existed for a while, but became a little bigger that night. We speculated that Colleen (along with others) probably assumes that Emily and I are dating, since we’re clearly familiar during rehearsals, and we sometimes leave together, and considered possible counterstrategies. We already made a point of rather conspicuously answering that question while other people were around, but there weren’t all that many people there, and apparently people don’t gossip about us enough. So we considered more daring options. My idea was that we just run with the assumption that we’re dating, and stage a dramatic breakup during a rehearsal. This resulted in sample staged conversations and much amusement.

I planned to get up early and collect my car before the meters started running at 8:00, but that plan fell through when Emily and I both overslept. Shit. I woke up at about 8:00 and ran to the T station. I have two parking tickets in Boston already that I haven’t bothered paying yet — I haven’t checked, but they’re probably overdue. Do they tow? Boot? Arrest? Timing was with me, and I arrived at the stop the same time the train did. It took me to Mass. Ave, and I ran across the bridge to my car, where it was miraculously without ticket at 8:45. Awesome. My morning got worse, though, when ABSURD traffic (plus construction) caused my drive, which should have been two miles down Mass. Ave, to take over an hour. At least class was interesting.

I drove home and went to the gym in the first time in forever. Then I read for Ernie’s seminar, then I attended Ernie’s seminar. Ben showed up a little late — he’d been visiting USC for the weekend. (I hadn’t seen him since before my first Houston trip.) We all went out to drink afterward, as is our Tuesday custom, and I spent some time speaking to prospective philosophy grad student Katherine (I’m not sure how she spells it (update: looked up, corrected)). Katherine is from New York, and quite nice, and when she mentioned being an Anglophile, I asked about Gilbert & Sullivan, and it turns out she loves the stuff! She’s a fairly serious singer, it turns out. She’s a soprano (coloratura), and she’s sung at the Met! They were children’s choruses, but still. I hope she comes.

(As for the obvious question: Yes.)

I got in at about 2:00 in the morning, and had to spend some time hanging out with Ben, because I hadn’t seen him in a long time, and was leaving the next day for Houston, and would get back during Spring Break, at which point he’d be in Utah. So basically, exaggerating only slightly, Tuesday night was the only time I’d be able to see my roommate over the course of a month. We watched an Angel. Then I went to bed and got up at 6:00 to get myself packed, etc., managing to forget nothing more serious than the stack of resume’s I’d been reviewing for prospective summer interns. Oops.

My flight to Houston was delayed, again. I’m really sick of delayed flights, and am hereby frustrated with Southwest. My flight to Houston, which was all one flight, was: Providence-Philadelphia-New Orleans-Houston. At least I got a good exit row seat, but it took *forever* to get there. Andyr brought me in from the airport. Andyr is pretty awesome, by the way. He has a lot of the qualities that I like in myself.

Gondoliers sing-through was Wednesday night. One reason it was very important for me to go was that I wasn’t going to be in town for auditions, which are next weekend. I’d made arrangements to submit a video, but I thought it’d be good to have been seen recently. As I arrived, music director Clif pulled me aside and said that for our chorus work that night, there was exactly one section where we needed principal singing, and would I be willing to sing Antonio? You better believe I would. I think I did a pretty good job. If I were to bet on a summer fate for me, I’d bet on Antonio. I’d be thrilled with Giuseppe or Don Alhambra, and I think I have a shot and a way outside shot, respectively, but I’ll be happy as Antonio. Nice to see some old friends there, including Alix. George’s comment to me was that I’d gained weight. This is true, but I didn’t realize it was that obvious. Damme.

Thursday morning I got up early for a third full day of interviews. (I had lunch with Dr. Kulstad, my former professor, during my break.) Did I write about those last time? I forget, because it was so long ago. And I can’t look it up, because I’m writing on the airplane. (Anyone keeping up on technology and stuff? How long before we have wireless internet on airplanes? That’ll rule.) We’ve been asking everyone questions about working in teams and groups. What makes a group work well, what sorts of groups do you like working with, what sorts of positions do you tend to take in groups, etc. After hearing some twenty-two Rice undergrads answering these questions, I’m officially sick of theleader-follower dichotomy. “What position do you take in groups?” “Well, often I want to be the leader, but I’m good at following directions, too.” I know that I’ve said and thought things like this before, and maybe as recently as my early undergrad years, but this strikes me as very simple-minded. Groups are made up of leaders and followers? What about innovators, listeners, and people who are good at remembering and recognizing and putting things into terms of the big picture? What about organizers? People who have a good intuitive feeling for when it’s appropriate to crack a joke? People who set good examples by doing superlative work? Leaders and followers. Really, give me some content.

(I’m being extra-harsh because I think this is an important point. I thought that almost all of the people we heard we very, very good, even though none of them particularly impressed me with their answers to that question.)

Thursday evening, Emily arrived! Yes, she’d come to Houston to see the show! Hooray! She and HHH and I ate burritos together before the show, and then it was the show! I thought it went pretty well. Ok. Nothing to be ashamed of, but I felt not QUITE on. I knew I’d do better the next (last) two shows.

Friday morning, Emily and I made my Gondoliers audition video. Don Alhambra went easily and well, and we got it on one good take, but Giuseppe proved to cause me lots of stupidity. Word/verse confusions. I eventually gave up, and spent a little while talking to Dr. Grandy and letting him know about what I was thinking about with respect to my thesis, etc., and we went out to lunch with Shari, and then tried Giuseppe again, and it was actually better. Concentration, focus, etc. That afternoon we hung out for a little while with Geoff and Andyr, and then I hung out at Valhalla a little while with some Rice philosophy students. And then dinner where I was in a really, really weird mood, and a mini-food fight with HHH, and the show.

I was worried that my weird mood would eventually cause me to crash and be depressed and un-fun, but fortunately, I was able to hold on to my silliness, and even convert some of it to focus. I was really, really on my game Friday night. I know of two points where things didn’t feel exactly perfect, but it was a performance that felt the way I wanted it to feel. Timing, energy, facial expressions, were all what I was going for. And the audience was huge and receptive. We got taped that night — I can’t wait to see it. I can only tell how I *felt* about a performance until after I’ve seen it — only then can I assess whether I actually did a good job. But if you want to know how I felt about it, I felt like it was the best performance I’ve done in my life.

We drank afterward and had a fun time, but I ended up with a really, really bad hangover. I didn’t drink all that much — three margaritas — but I guess I didn’t feed/water myself sufficiently, because I felt *terrible* in the morning. But I had lots of water and a big early lunch and got myself feeling a LITTLE better, and then I went to go help set up for the CD recording of our Patience at the music school. This is something RLOS has wanted to do for a little while, but we just haven’t gotten ourselves together to organize it. I’m glad they did it this year, though — I think we’ll end up with a very good product. I was in charge of organizing the schedule for the recording session to minimize time people had to sit around. I ended up kind of organizing lots of little things — telling Dr. Bill the name of each number, making sure each singer was in place, etc. The music was very good, and it was really nice and easy to sing in an acoustically live environment, and my voice felt ok even though I had a headache. By late afternoon when we finished up, I felt perfectly healthy and good. And then a Saturday show that, like Friday, felt really excellent. HHH and I both thought that Friday was slightly better, but Lauren says Saturday was best. They were both pretty awesome. Saturday we had a very, very laugh-ready crowd. There were scenes where I literally had to pause after every line. It’s a great feeling when you have to decide where *you* want *them* to laugh, and plan your line accordingly, because it would have killed the energy to pause for laughter too many times.

That was the last show. Afterward, we struck the set, and that went reasonably quickly. I’m pretty good at being useful at set strikes, and it’s something I actually sort of enjoy. Then, party! They bought a ton of food and drink, and we enjoyed it thoroughly. Not everyone came, which made me sad — I didn’t get to say goodbye to Dan, Nicola, or Meghan — but those who came, enjoyed. I had resolved to drink quite a lot, which is something I haven’t done in a long time, but I got distracted, first by pleasant things, then by important things. Ah, well. At one point I lay down and slept off and on just a little bit. Maybe an hour or two? It’s hard to tell.

There was some leisurely breakfast and talking, and eventually we left at about 11:00 in the morning. John drove me back to Joe’s, and Andyr picked me up a couple of hours later to go to the baseball game with Nathan. Nice time there (see above re: Andyr and awesomeness), even though Rice self-destructed in the eighth and lost. Then I came back and took a short nap that ended up being about twelve hours, which was bad because I didn’t finish preparing my audition! I was going to record dialogue and transfer it onto a DVD or VHS, and I didn’t! I also didn’t have dinner or tell Geoff what time my flight was in the morning! Gah!

I woke up, severely disoriented, at about 6:30 a.m. I emailed Geoff and asked if he could get me around 8:00, even though I knew there was no chance he’d be up yet. At 7:30 I called and felt guilty for calling at 7:30 in the morning, but he didn’t answer. I eventually decided I didn’t want to bother people further, so I just took a cab to the airport. Nice taxi driver. He had NPR on.

My flight was delayed. Over an hour late — first leaving Houston, then landing in Philadelphia. Southwest did not win points with me in these couple of trips. Four flights, three substantially late. Advice for flight attendants: doing cutesy jokes designed to make people laugh when explaining the safety features of this aircraft is a risky business. If you pull it off, you’ll be endearing and cute and people will enjoy you; if you don’t, you’ll have made a complete fool of yourself, and been unprofessional to boot. IF THE FLIGHT IS OVER AN HOUR LATE, PASSENGERS ARE NOT LIKELY TO BE IN RECEPTIVE MOODS. No, I don’t think your little line about how luggage and unwanted spouses should be securely stored in the overhead bins is cute or funny. Not when I haven’t eaten since lunch yesterday, I don’t.

Right. Anyway. I was late into the airport, so I missed the shuttle I wanted to take home, so I took another cab, and then was going to be late for rehearsal anyway, but right after I’d left, Emily called to tell me it’d been canceled. So I came home, ordered a pizza, and spent about an hour and a half catching up on email and such, and finishing up this entry, and talking to people online, and actually relaxing for just a little bit. Later tonight: clean room. Do laundry. Make to-do listfor the week. Maybe invite Audrey over. Probably watch some TV or a movie or something. Maybe do some schoolwork, depending on how bad the to-do list looks.

Note to self: in the future, write about events shortly after they happen, instead of saving them up for an entire week.