the real end

Since I walked at graduation last year with my class for part of my degree, I won't be walking again this year. It's sort of strange, really, because last year, I participated in all the festivities without being able enjoy what they represented. This year, there's a lot less festivity in my life & a whole lot more denial that this really is the end of my undergrad career. I'm so excited & so terrified all at once.

I don't know. For now, I suppose I'll just make my festivities the more personal kind - coffee with friends, movie nights with the girls, dinner dates. Who knows when/if I'll ever see some of these people again?

edit: I glanced at this again & realized that it was a lot more sad that I meant for it to be. I blame the lack of sleep :). I'm quite happy, actually, it's just one of those moving on points in life - a very good one, but one I have to see play out before I know what it will be like. I know I'll be in touch with those I'm closest to (but I hate phones, people, so let's be creative... LETTERS!!!) & that I'll meet plenty of new & wonderful people, I just feel a teensy bit misty-eyed when I think about it all. Change is a part of life that I love & long for but that I also try to avoid sometimes. I don't mind. :)

choir tour a la twitter

April 1st:
2:01PM -  On the charter bus. On our waaaaay. Eleven days.
3:43PM - Bradford.
9:04PM - Concert number one: complete.
10:24PM - Hot. Tub.


April 2nd:
8:12AM - Destination: Philadelphia
10:41AM - Bathroom stops make me want to punch women. Seriously, ladies, what takes you so long?
12:05PM - If vegetarians eat vegetables, what do humanitarians eat?
3:47PM - Bah! Philly's a pretty cool place. I'm so coming here to explore someday.
5:57PM - Singing a Good Friday service then a concert at a beautiful church in Philly.
11:27PM - Coloring Easter eggs!

April 3rd:
12:56PM - Manhattan!
1:35PM - Bah! Our hotel is right across the street from Carnegie Hall!
3:20PM - Sigh. I love people.
4:26PM - Cheese, bread, & hummus in Central Park. Yum.
6:28PM - Ruth: "I think I know who Ben Hur is..." - (skeptical glance from me) - Mary: "You've watched it?" - Ruth: "Oh... it's a movie?"
8:45PM - Pad thai! The perfect way to end(ish) a perfect day.
9:37PM - The subway brakes make a minor seventh then a minor second. How very melancholic.
10:04PM - Because watching "The Ten Commandments" the night before Easter in a hotel across the street from Carnegie Hall is what 23 year olds do...
10:40PM - So we decided to mute Charlton Heston & make up our own words. The Old Testament has never been so... confused.

April 4th:
8:41AM - Singing at two Easter services in NYC. Happy Easter!
10:56AM - Church member: "I like your purple robes. They're very Harry Pottery."
11:23AM - I love hearing black men sing.
6:43PM - Concerting in Manhattan. Intermission... so far, they seem to really like us.
7:33PM - Sometimes on stage I can't help but think about how funny it would be if the audience could see how we were dressed UNDER our robes...
7:45PM - In case anyone wanted to know, the women's bathroom on the second floor of Calvary Baptist Church in Manhattan is THE COOLEST BATHROOM ever.
9:12PM - FINALLY leaving Manhattan. Destination: DC. Around midnight. Ah, the concert touring life.
9:35PM - I have my pillow, my slippers, & the whole back seat of the tour bus to myself. SO good.

April 5th:
1:11AM - FINALLY in DC. Waiting for our hotel keys. & BED.
11:06AM - Being a tourist.
1:06PM - Library of Congress. Sigh... it's GORGEOUS.
1:56PM - Air & Space Museum!
3:19PM - Museum of Natural History
3:32PM - Dinosaurs!
4:33PM - Walking barefoot through the grass & eating an apple. One of my favorite things to do. (& in DC!)
4:56PM - Ha. We just did the National Gallery of Art in the final 5 minutes before closing...
6:01PM - Star. Bucks. Starbucks.
8:03PM - I mean, you obviously haven't lived until you've done karaoke at a roadside bar in Maryland.

April 6th:
11:10AM - Choir tour over Easter = mega overdose of sugar. Currently in the form of Cadbury Mini Eggs, so I'm okay with that.
12:35PM - Williamsburg, VA. So warm...
1:41PM - Sitting in a coffee shop in Colonial Williamsburg. Some things can't be helped.
1:48PM - Raspberry Italian soda. Yum.
2:38PM - oh, & earlier, when I said Virginia was warm, what I meant by that was that it's FREAKING HOT.
10:23PM - GREATEST host grandma EVER.

April 7th:
12:57PM - It amazes me how much a little distance can remind me so intensely of just how much I love someone. Not that I forget otherwise. You get it.
8:23PM - Second half of concert, commence. SO. HOT.
9:14PM - Ha. We girls get back to our changing room 2 seconds after a sweaty concert, & a poor MAN comes out of the next room. His face = priceless.

April 8th:
8:35AM - Quiet time on the bus is my favorite thing.
1:12PM - Doing a high school assembly. Ha.
9:18PM - Just finished a joint concert with the Syracuse University Singers. It was fantastic all around.

April 9th:
10:21AM - I'm sick of not being able to pee when I have to...
10:59AM - Diction on the bus. Fun fun fun.
12:44PM - Concert at Crane at SUNY Potsdam.
7:17PM - As I tried to discreetly grab a yummy-looking cupcake, a man said, "You had the eyes of a child on that one. Keep that forever."
10:12PM - Going to bed! Early! (up at 4:45AM...)

April 10th:
5AM - Why. Am. I. Up?
7:29AM - "Guten morgen, mein kinter." "Mein vater, mein vater!"
7:27AM - "So, if you're missing a very small monocle, come see me."
7:41AM - Almost in Canada & phoneless until Sunday afternoon. Concert this afternoon, Bach b minor Mass at the Toronto Symphony tonight.

April 11th:
2:01AM - So one Canadian biker just told me that I was the first New Yorker he's ever met & that I'm cool. Then another told me I had huge boobs. (Terrifying.)
3:52PM - At the border... They're making us ALL get off the bus. Ha.
4:04PM - Haha. Welcome home. :)
4:20PM - In a perfect Russian beet farmer's wife accent: "We altos. We move bus after men leave."
5:59PM - HOUGHTON! Houghton. Hough. Ton.
6:04PM - I just started singing as we rolled onto campus & got the whole choir to end the tour singing. Go me, haha! :)


That about sums it up. Seriously. It was insane & exhausting & wonderful & exhilarating & everything else all at once.