Packing up, and moving on

"About noon the following day, as they were on their journey and approaching the city, Peter went up on the roof to pray." (Acts: 10:9)

I have grown so much during my doctorate regarding faith. This had a great deal to do with my summer "home" in Hungary - but I still am reminded, in some way, of how human I am, how erred, how not perfect. For someone who holds herself, and to some degree, others, to a high standard, this is a bitter herb to swallow.

I think by praying regularly as we pack up our home, it will be important for me to remember our time here with gratitude and incredible fondness. Many times I have left a place as a slightly better version of myself, with daliances with a worse version of myself somewhere along the way. 

I remember that when I moved into this apartment, I said, "I want to leave here with a doctorate, married, a job, and someone else paying for the move." All of those things are happening (I joke that I should have asked for student loans and world hunger to be eradicated as well!).

Despite these positives, it is hard to leave. We had a wonderful gathering of friends on Monday, and have been regularly saying goodbye for the past few weeks. We plan to stay in touch, in a "real" way, not just "posting things on Facebook." 

Also, as things get cleared away and into boxes, it is a reminder of how much happier I am without clutter. There is clutter ensuing everywhere, but it is over the "dip." I need to retain this discipline that I do not want more clutter in our new place.

I need to pray regularly, without ceasing, that everything goes okay. The transit, the upcoming recording session, the marriage interview, and then our drive across the United States. So much happening now, and in the next three weeks. 

"Have you never questioned those who travel? Have you never paid regard to their accounts?" (Job: 21-29).

Walking the streets on a snowy morning

I love snow. I have always loved it as a kid. I love its ability to quiet the world. It brings reverence to an irreverent world. People move a little slower, avoiding virginal white patches that are yet untrodden. Yet, we only have one word for it. 

Rounding the bend of my fourth winter in the "Great White North," I'm not sick of the winters yet. Zheng is still fascinated by them, because his first American snow was with me. I have a good mind to purchase a couple-sled or some kind of small tobbagan. 

In walking to one of my Syracuse "holy of holies," Cafe Kubal, I was properly bundled for the cold. Including my "eskimo" hooded, long, down-insulated camel-colored winter coat. It's warm. It matches my skin tone (and my boots) and it has been with me throuugh terrible weather in Ann Arbor, Rochester, Syracuse, New York City, Chicago, Cleveland, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Lancaster, Washington, DC, Beijing, and Shanghai. I will wear this coat until it is really time to retire it (I think it is with me for the long haul.).

Yet, I saw two people on my walk here that made *that* face, tthe face that says, "Oh my god, look at her hood!!"

Whatever. I'll let you be the judge. Maybe, like the article I've pasted below, we should have different words for "cold" and "warm." 

For now, I am having espresso, watching the flakes fall. And enjoying what's left of a quiet morning before six hours of rehearsal today. All photos are from my phone, and not filtered or altered in any way. -- KDY

This is from David Robson's article in the Washington Post:

"Anthropologist Franz Boas didn’t mean to spark a century-long argument. Traveling through the icy wastes of Baffin Island in northern Canada during the 1880s, Boas simply wanted to study the life of the local Inuit people, joining their sleigh rides, trading caribou skins and learning their folklore. As he wrote proudly to his fiancee, “I am now truly like an Eskimo. . . . I scarcely eat any European foodstuffs any longer but am living entirely on seal meat.” He was particularly intrigued by their language, noting the elaborate terms used to describe the frozen landscape: “aqilokoq” for “softly falling snow” and “piegnartoq” for “the snow [that is] good for driving sled,” to name just two."

A Shot in the Arm

Greetings from Rochester, where we are knee-deep in:

(1) no(!) snow - at the moment

(2) comps preparation

(3) preparation for Syracuse Opera (my next production begins rehearsals this Wednesday)

(4) Paleo-Whole30 lifestyle, including cooking and eating cleanly, and abstaining from old habits. Like "no Java's cookies." (Java's is a coffee shop with FANTASTIC large cookies that I frequently bought and ate during my entire degree. Sometimes they were lunch, and in my defense, I would often by them, eat HALF, and save the other half at least until after a gym visit.) Whatever. That is over now, and I am on Day 8 of Paleo-Whole30. It is great.

(5) ongoing preparation of Zheng's immigration process. This includes the joy of getting testing for him of tuberculosis and syphillis, in addition to translating and certifying Chinese immunization records. We had a lot of good laughs about what diseases where called, what the symptoms were, and how you got them. 

We also got a great laugh at Walgreens, when Zheng had to get a flu shot (and then get proof that he got one).

WaW (Woman at Walgreens): Can I help you?

ZY: I would like to get a flu shot, please.

WaW: Well, what dosage?

ZY: What do you mean? It's just for me.

WaW: Are you over 18?

[insert erupting laughter from KDY and ZY here)

ZY: Here's my driver's license.

WaW: Oh (blushes). Well, then the normal adult dosage.

Good humor is sometimes just the "shot in the arm" that we need.

PHOTO: Sweet potato hash browns with fried eggs. Putting some new recipes, and our WONDERFUL double-sided Crate and Barrel griddle to good use!

Tour de Musique

Greetings from a delicious day off! 

9-90 of the 2013 Syracuse Opera Resident Artists had a Triduum of performances this weekend. We went up to Watertown Friday night, Syracuse was Saturday, and my "hometown" - Rochester - was Sunday afternoon! Zheng had to work, but Aying came to the concert. She loved it! One of my Rochester "partners-in-crime," Connie, was also there,

Of special note yesterday was getting to play "Piangerò" on a harpsichord! The facilities manager at Hochstein asked me, "Why would you play *that?*" My response was, "This is more accurate for what Handel would have used than a piano!" 

I posted last week about the Champagne Tour and Tasting for the Barnes Foundation. You read about that by clicking 

http://songsoftravelditlow.blogspot.com/2013/09/tour-de-force-tour-de-champagne.html

This week has brought more outreach and getting out into the "community" of Central New York. It has been inspiring to do this. People are excited to see us (***) and it has been enjoyable seeing people at multiple events. It seems we have a "fan club."

(***) Two of the Resident Artists were asked to do "guerrilla opera" at various downtown Syracuse restaurants for a festival. At the bottom of their contract, it stated, 

"If anyone asks you to leave, do so immediately." Apparently that only happened once. I think it's incredibly funny. 

PHOTOS: Vanessa Finch took some great shots from the Champagne Tour. Thank you!

Hospitality, the international language

Elmgrove United Methodist Church welcomed Aying last Sunday with open arms. 

She responded to the congregation by speaking Chinese. They gave her a copy of the New Testament, in Mandarin. 

I am so happy to be worshipping and working with an open, welcoming, and accepting community. 

PHOTOS: This event.