MUSIK!!!!!!!!!!!

We are in the lovely city of Missoula, Montana and attending the International Choral Festival ...http://www.choralfestival.org/

I was asked to blog here about our adventures and I will...later..and complete the entries with some photos too....

But for now...impressions.

The mountains everywhere you look. The out of this world music I have heard the last two days. Choirs from S. Korea, Taiwan, Germany, Sweden, the Republic of Georgia...and US, of course. And we have been good, I might add. Tonight's program went extremely well...great audience!

The ice cream flavors at the Big Dipper Cafe.. so far I have tried Mexican Chocolate, Cardamon, El Salvador Coffee....wow!

All the wonderful people that are here and have been so wonderful to us. Sigh.

I like Missoula Montana.

Tomorrow - white water rafting on the Alberton Gorge on the Clark Fork River, west of Missoula. Check it out....

http://www.montanariverguides.com/

'Nite from the mountains!

Mal at the wheel!

This is us at Cedar Point celebrating Mallie's TENTH birthday. At this point, she is already into "doing something" for her birthday and the gift thing - not so much. Last year, we celebrated by taking a friend and going to the DIA.

Next year...?

What do all these people have in common?

ME!

That's what all these people have in common...they are all in relationship with ME,

My family and friends mean so very very much to me. Why then do I have days like today?

Things can go very wrong, at times, and depending how your brain is that day...you can feel so all alone, right?

Today, my car died. Just died. I had been doing alot - checking in with my mum who is just home from ten days in hospital. We've been readying the house, back and forth to the hospital, sweating over tests and such. That has been stressful. They were checking her out after a series of things.. a blood transfusion, extreme shortness of breath and looking for lung cancer. The latter turned out to be negative, thank God and the Universe for that.

I have been very worried about my mum and seeing that she is comfortable. That has been a real strain over the last two weeks. CANCER..yup it can scare you ...bad.

Bills and the original phantom - the IRS. All running through my brain at every turn.

My husband working out of town - guess I really do like him around. Sigh. I do miss him and forget how he can really ground me when I am spiralling.

And then my car.....kaput. Dead....as a doornail. Hey! What does that mean anyway??

I had a real breakdown today. Too much....everything! Time to go back to the drawing board and look at life as IT IS not as I fear it is.

My mother turns 84 next week. Her oncologist told her that he was ready to sign off for Hospice eight years ago when she was first re-diagnosed at advanced Stage 4. That would have been alot of Life missed.

Our IRS bill was dealt with and they were very cool. Actually WAY cooler than we expected. Burden lifted.

My car....no idea but I will not freak over that. And hey, it gave me the chance to spend a little time with my husband. He is my soulmate and my best friend and I am blessed.

My daughter turns ten on Thursday. What an amazing decade it has been. One full of tears. One full of fears....most never came to be. And one full of amazing love and laughter, music and fun.

I am blessed with wonderfully talented and loving friends. Laughed with three of them this weekend. Really laughed...and sang...and carried on as my grandma used to say..

I am truly a blessed soul. Sometimes I think I get bad shit thrown at me to get me off by myself to worry and moan about the what ifs. Truth is....the shit can even smell sweet if you approach it correctly!

HA! Just try to keep me down! (But not right away.....please? I need a little rest first.)

Sick....again!

CRAPOLA! It seems that, since last fall when I was laid low with bronchial asthma, every bug I get makes a beeline for my chest.

I hope to be well enough to sing on the concert series Sunday with my husband and his amazing friend, Adam, who can really play the alto sax. Adam is playing the music of Rudy Wiedoeft
and it's really fun stuff.

Check out the link for info...http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rudy_Wiedoeft

For info on the concert this Sunday go to www.dtos.org

I am singing some of the music of Noel Coward. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noel_Coward He's another amazing musician - dead since the 70s. If you read through some of my older postings you will see that we did a revue of his music a couple of years ago.

Gee, this complaining entry has turned into early 20th century music 101!

Well, dinner and then off to bed! G'night.

More Proud Mom stuff - part 1

Here is video of Mal's recital. This is the first piece she played.

More Proud Mom stuff - part 2

This is a little backward. See the other postings for more video and information on the recital.

And here are the other two pieces performed by Mal and her teacher.

Proud Mom!

This past Sunday was the 2009 Piano Recital for Mallie and 26 other students. Everyone played several pieces - some four hand stuff, some with their teacher playing accompaniment. Mal played "Orientale" (Tansman), "March of the English Guard" (Clarke) and "My Daydream" (Faber). Every year (I missed last year's recital due to performances of "..Forum") plaques and trophies are handed out. And, since 2005, there has been a "Top Ten Award". Reading from the program.."Top Ten Award for 1st, 2nd or 3rd place awards in the following areas and Honor Awards (4th - 10th place) in 2 or more: 1/ Theory, 2/ Technique, 3/Sightreading, 4/Memory, 5/ Piano Performance, 6/ Lesson attendance.

The 2009 Top Ten Award winner is.... MALLIE!!!! WHOOOO HOOO!!

Reading on I can see that a 9th grade boy has been sweeping it since it was started so I felt pretty great about my girl grabbing it on her 2nd recital. Last year's recital was Mal's first and she had only just started lessons.

I was one proud mom. Congrats, sweetheart!