Enjoying it all..."while I still can"! (smirk)

Hello there, festive and faithful friends and family!

No news here, which I suppose is good news as my due date isn't officially until 12/27. I went on maternity leave last week and am loving it. For several days I went crazy, running all the last errands and buying all the remaining baby things for the nursery and layette and my hospital bag.

Since then, however, my doctor has told me to take it easy and rest, because during the final weeks it's easy for blood pressure to escalate and mine showed minor signs of doing just that at my last appointment (which was the morning after a doozie of a major errand/shopping/nesting/exertion marathon day, followed unsurprisingly by a bad night's sleep). I was relieved to hear from her, doctor's orders, that I should no longer push past my exhaustion and discomfort in my anxiety to prepare for the baby's arrival. I am now feeling much better; even my ankles and feet, which were looking like a cabbage patch kid's, look normal and unswollen after periods of rest.

So now I'm just enjoying the last gasps of free time, sleep, recreational activities, and time to myself, all of which, according to all of the Harbingers of Doom who love to give advice, is all going straight to hell in a handbasket once we have this child. Our lives as we know them, according to these gloombots, are simply going to end. As the neverending "Get your sleep while you can!"s and "Just you wait!"s continue to pour in, I am honing my Academy Award winning smile and practicing my starring line: "I'll keep that in mind, thanks" as though this is actually somehow helpful (not depressing or insulting) advice that I am thankful to have received. After 6 months of this, I figure I deserve at least 7 Oscars at this point.

Despite the initial dread and anxiety that all of this naysayer feedback aggravated, I really think I've crossed over to the other side. I'm actually really excited now, and I can laugh at all of those Eeyore types who love to tell you all the bad things but who couldn't come close to describing to you the joy of holding your own child in your arms. Of course it helps that we finally have all of the nursery furniture assembled. David did a marvelous job, and the crib and dresser/changing table look absolutely beautiful, despite the fact that the instructions appeared to have been badly translated from Sanskrit and illustrated by M.C. Escher. He has been wonderful helping around the house, carrying things and shoveling the piles of snow here in the upper midwest. He must have shoveled 3 times a day on some days this past week. We now have well over 12 inches on the ground, and the piles along our driveway are at least 3 or 4 feet tall.

Meanwhile, I have been doing loads of baby laundry, intently studying the minute differences between receiving blankets, baby blankets, cloth diapers, burp cloths, lap pads, and washcloths in an effort recognize and categorize them as I fold and organize them in the baby's closet. (Does anyone know what a lap pad is or what you use it for? I asked my brother, also a new parent, and he didn't think he had any of those and had no idea.)

In the spirit of enjoying my life as I know it "while I still can", I have been indulging my reading itch as well as my Netflix account. I finished Jodi Picoult's Salem Falls, which was quite possibly the best book of hers I've ever read. I haven't read a book that riveting in quite a while. I give it 4 out of 5 stars. I was sad when I finished it, because it was such a great escape.

My most recent read was definitely out of my usual genre rotation. It was a debauched romp through the dirty world of Hollywood fame and fortune, following the often tragic and broken life of a stunningly beautiful and brilliant woman on her rise to success. I'm not quite sure what possessed me to buy this book (and don't remember where I was or what I was thinking when I did), but I did find it moderately entertaining - sort of like my guilty pleasure of occasionally buying and reading gossip rags. I wouldn't necessarily recommend Tilly Bagshawe's Adored to anyone who didn't avidly read Cosmo and People on a regular basis, but it was okay. I give it 3 out of 5 stars.

I've watched a few great movies lately too, thanks to having finally found the last Netflix movie that had come months ago but had gotten lost in a mound of paperwork. Beauty Shop was a hilarious movie with Queen Latifah as a hairstylist who quits her fancy and tedious salon job (where she is bullied by Kevin Bacon, of all people, who plays a flaming and pompous European salon owner) to open her own in a questionable part of town. I think seeing Kevin with long heavily-styled locks and speaking with a queenish Euro-affected accent was one of the biggest highlights of the movie. Not the best movie on the planet, but definitely fun. I give it 3.5 stars out of 5.

Then, upon the recommendation of my brother, who along with me is a huge Will Ferrell fan, I watched Elf. Oh my GOD. If you want to laugh so hard you cry, you need to see this movie. The plot was okay and a little bit schmaltzy in the Christmas movie genre tradition, but Ferrell completely makes the movie. His schtick is just sidesplitting. A perfect Christmas comedy to rent around this time of year. I highly recommend it! I give it 5 stars, all of them going straight to Will.

That's all for now...back to folding baby clothes!! Stay warm and safe, and have a lovely week ahead of you.

Do you hear what I hear?

This week we're doing Beethoven's 9th Symphony. This represents my last full week before going on maternity leave. I'll be off until April 1st, at which point I'll come back to play Stravinsky's Rite of Spring. I'm looking forward to being off, but I'm also apprehensive. Will I go insane without the structure and fulfillment of my work, which I generally really enjoy? Yes yes, I know I'm going to be busy; I'm not a flaming idiot who thinks taking care of a newborn is going to be a cinch.

Ah well, no matter what, at least I can look forward to coming back in April. And I'm not taking all of the leave entitled to me, so if I do need more, I can take it. To tell you the truth, I'm not at all sure about anything that's about to happen to us once our son enters our lives, so I'm not really expecting to feel anything until it happens! (Very Zen of me, isn't it? Those Buddhist study and meditation group meetings at my church are coming in handy! **grin**)

So back to the Beethoven. I am thoroughly enjoying it. The soloists - Erika Sunnegardh, Gigi Mitchell-Velasco, Stuart Neill, and Andrea Silvestrelli, are incredible. They're all strong, but they also blend. I often dread that spot in the last movement when all four of them are singing at the tops of their lungs, because sometimes it sounds like four opera divas/divos seeing who can win the game of Survival of the Loudest and Widest Vibrato. Not these soloists. Man. The blend and balance was amazing and shook the entire house last night. I was particularly impressed with the bass, Andrea Silvestrelli, who we had actually heard sing one of the dragons (Fasolt) in the Lyric Opera of Chicago's Ring Cycle back in 2005. I don't think I've ever heard a more powerful voice. And of course the MSO Chorus sounds incredible, powerful, and perfectly in tune. I absolutely love performing with them. They're such a fun, energized, passionate group of people. We have two more performances, tonight and tomorrow afternoon.

Anyway, so I was sitting on stage last night, thinking about how many times I've played the 9th. A lot. But somehow it stays fresh. I think as a musician, you bring your most recent life experiences to any performance, no matter how many times you've done the piece before. This time, I'm 9 months pregnant. That, let me tell you, puts an entirely different spin on things, knowing that you're not the only pair of ears in your immediate vicinity listening to all the thunderous beauty happening on stage! I was overcome with happiness thinking about how amazing it was that our little guy was listening to one of the most magnificent, majestic, spectacular pieces ever written, along with his mom who was lucky enough to be a part of it.

And then, I began thinking about all of the great pieces he's been able to hear multiple performances of since his ears were fully developed in his 4th month. That goes all the way back to my summer festival in Breckenridge! I thought it would be really neat to go back and make a list of all the performances of big orchestral pieces he's been able to hear since then:

In Breckenridge:
Copland, Fanfare for the Common Man
Stravinsky, Rite of Spring
Walton, Crown Imperial March
Liszt, Mephisto Waltz
Mozart, Sinfonia Concertante (with mommy as soloist!)
Shostakovitch Cello Concerto No. 1
Mahler, Des Knaben Wunderhorn
Shostakovitch, Symphony No. 7
Dvorak, Czech Suite
Bizet, Toreador March from Carmen
Dvorak, American Suite
Verdi, Triumphal March from Aida
Saint-Saens, Concerto for Piano
Stravinsky, Scherzo a la Russe
Debussy, Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun
Bernstein, Divertimento for Orchestra
Hummel, Trumpet Concerto
Britten, Variations on a Theme by Purcell (Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra)

(There was also a whole slew of great chamber music we did, way too much to list here.)

In Milwaukee: Since we came back to work this fall at the MSO, our little guy has been treated to multiple on-stage experiences of:

Barber, Symphony No. 1
Rachmaninoff, Piano Concerto No. 2
Mahler, Symphony No. 5
Williams, Nimbus 2000 from "Harry Potter"
Rossini, Allegro Finale from "William Tell Overture"
Grofe, "On The Trail" from Grand Canyon Suite
Copland, John Henry
Mussorgsky, Promenade (1st mvmt) from "Pictures at an Exhibition"
Williams, E.T. Flying Theme
Berlioz, Roman Carnival Overture
Tchaikovsky, Symphony No. 5 (he heard this one a lot because we took it on tour)
Beethoven, Symphony No. 2
Higdon, Percussion Concerto
Tchaikovsky, Symphony No. 4
Beethoven, Symphony No. 4
Waxman, Carmen Fantasie for Violin solo
Hanson, Symphony No. 2
Dvorak, Symphony No. 9 "New World"
Bizet, Suite No. 1 from L'Arlesienne
Ravel, "La Valse"
Lehar, "The Merry Widow" (his first opera, which he slept through along with his mom)
Sibelius, Symphony No. 2
Beethoven, Symphony No. 9
Strauss, Don Juan (which we're reading next week - the last piece I'll play before I go on leave for nearly 4 months!)

Isn't that cool? Some day, I'll be able to look back at this blog's archives and show our guy why he loves (or hates) Tchaikovsky so much. **grin** Hope you're all having a great weekend so far. It's snowing here, and the weather is supposed to get completely nasty later today - more snow, wind, falling temperatures, sleet, hurricanes, tornados, earthquakes...ha ha, just kidding. Anyway, I'm glad my commute to work is just 10 minutes! :)

Hope all is well where you are! Stay warm and safe.