Brief outline of 2007

If we were to write a Christmas card, it would maybe be an outline of how out-of-control our year has been. It kind of makes my head hurt to think of all the places we have been, and where we are still going. (It is quite long, so I will not be offended if you do not read it. In fact, I will not even know if you do not read it.) Here is a quick overview of 2007:

January-February We left for NYC for Brian to sing in the opera Therese Requin. I spent a couple of weeks in Connecticut with family (we miss you Hinckley House) before our sublet opened up in Brooklyn the end of Jan. In January, we got an offer on our home in Indiana that we accepted and set to close the end of March.

February brought us great sadness when my niece Kirsten was killed at the Trolley Square Mall in Salt Lake City. Colin and I traveled back to SLC for a family memorial from NYC.

March- we were home together for maybe two days before Brian had to leave again for Winston-Salem, North Carolina for Cosi Fan Tutte. This left me home alone with a very sick child and with only two weeks to try and pack up the house. Thanks to Mandy who flew out from Utah to help me and lots of other help from friends in Indiana, we somehow filled our temporary storage unit and Colin and I left for NC to be with Brian the last two weeks of March. We returned to Indiana two days before closing, worked like mad, made the sale of our home final and became homeless the very last day of March.

April-June after spending a couple of lovely weeks with friends in Indiana, we left for Tel Aviv, Israel for Brian’s work with the New Israeli Opera (Cosi Fan Tutte again, and two concerts of Mozart Masses in June with the Jerusalem Symphony). We loved Israel. We were planning on meeting friends in England and Italy on our way home, but in May an opportunity came up for Brian to sing the Barber of Seville in Mexico City with the Mexican National Opera so sadly, we had to cancel Italy and booked our trip to Mexico City.

June-July After a lovely week in England, we had a brief 3 days in Chicago with my sister’s family before leaving for Mexico City. Mexico City was a crazy adventure. I am very glad I speak Spanish and that we only had maybe 3 sketchy cab drivers.

In mid-July, we all traveled back to Utah but Brian turned around the next day for several more performances of the Barber of Seville in Tijuana, Mexico. I kind of did not feel like hanging out in TJ with my baby, so Colin and I spent a couple of weeks at our new home base in Utah with family. Luckily, most of the time Brian was able to pick up a USA Verizon cell phone signal from San Diego.

August- Brian came home, but only for a couple of days as he had to travel to Indiana to pack up all we own into a UBF truck to ship across the country and to drive our second car from the Midwest to Utah. We did not sit very still this month as we traveled to Minneapolis, MN for my niece Chelsea’s wedding, and to the Oregon Coast and the Seattle area to see Brian’s family. It was nice to see family, but hard to keep traveling so much (as evidenced by my back injury from too much time in the car).

September- a BREAK! We spent a lovely month just getting slowly settled in and hiking. However, we did spend a week this month in Atlanta for Brian’s work in a recital with the Southeastern Festival of Song. It was a great experience and recital. We also found out we are expecting a second baby in the Spring of 2008 this month.

October- We thought we would have a bit more of a break, but an opportunity for Brian to sing in the Pearl Fishers with the Lyric Opera of Kansas City presented itself, so mid-October we were off to Kansas City. We loved Kansas City, and we lucky to have a visit from my friend of more than twenty years Megan Hardy.

November- Brian was engaged to sing with the Kentucky Opera in Louisville, KY for Dialogues of the Carmelites. We also enjoyed Louisville and had fun being close to Bloomington, IN to see former friends.

December- briefly home for Brian. He had three separate trips scheduled to NYC for auditions and a trip to Indiana polis and Jacksonville, FL for two Messiah engagements. The Jacksonville engagement was canceled due to a strike so Brian gets to be home a bit more before Christmas. We also found out on December 11 that Brian has an opportunity to sing a Don Giovanni near Paris, France in January 2008, so we are leaving for France the end of December. Since Brian would have been gone a bit more than three weeks, all of us are going again. It is a bit mad, but it is Paris. I cannot believe we are going to take Colin through so many time-zones again.

So this is the life of a working singer. We are very grateful Brian is able to make his living from making music and that the majority of the time we are able to spend as a family. I did not really imagine this would be our life, but I knew I was never normal. And it is quite rude of me, but when I see other people’s Christmas letters and they talk about how much they travel, I just kind of think they do not even know what a lot of travel is.

Here is a slide show of about half of the year. Maybe someday I will do the other half, maybe not. It is just a few days before Christmas and we are getting ready to leave the country in less than two weeks. Hmm. . . . Merry Christmas!