I woke up Friday morning not feeling terrific, or rather feeling decidedly not terrific. Last year’s conference had been very poorly organized and this one had been shaping up to be just as bad, but I had already committed funds to this, and I do enjoy seeing everyone, so I finished packing and headed out to get my hair and nails done. I wanted to look my best while I sulked in a corner. I picked my friend up at about 2pm and we headed northwest-ish. Getting off Long Island was not a problem, but we had no sooner gotten off the Throggs Neck Bridge (which, as a child, I swore was called the Frog’s Neck Bridge) and added our vehicle to the line of cars waiting to cross the George Washington Bridge some 11 miles away. That portion of the trip took a little over an hour. The next leg of the trip, along 95 to 80, went smoothly, for about 3 miles, then we hit more sluggish traffic, crawling at 7 mph or slower, for the next 20 miles or so, finally thinning out, leaving the last 7 miles of the trip bearable - a trip of 55 miles took over two and a half hours - but we had it easy. Another carload from our chorus left Lawn Guylandt 15 minutes after we did, took the same route, and arrived one full hour after we did.
The 5 of us had a nice dinner together, then we went to our first meeting. The guest faculty for the weekend was a very personable woman of note within the Sweet Adelines organization with many humorous tales to tell. But I was tired and dozed off at one point. After that we had our first chorus rehearsal of the weekend. The convention registrants are split into two choruses, which sing for each other after breakfast on Sunday. However, one of my chorus mates, who decided she’d rather work with Chorus A director, did not join me at Chorus B rehearsal. I was mildly pissed off. It was apparent by the chorus sizes Sunday morning (A had clearly half again as many singers as B) that she was not the only one who did this. It’s okay, tho, I much preferred the songs we sang to the ones A sang. (we actually sang “Sweet Adeline”) After the rehearsal, there was a quartet mixer for those already in and those who want to be in quartets. We didn’t learn any new music, just sang songs we all knew. Each of the parts lined up and when the second one in line thought the first one had sung enough, she tapped the first one out and sang until the next one tapped her out and so on. That was fun, I love to sing in quartets, except for this other diva who kept tapping me out just before the cool bass swipe*. That brought us to about 11pm. and we all went back to our rooms to sleep … because vocal warm ups were at 8 freakin’ ay em. (I slept in and also almost missed the 8:30 class) After that, there was another class, then rehearsal, which I skipped in order to have a private vocal lesson, which actually turned into more of a philosophical discussion. My instructor was the director of another chorus here on LI, and a real piece of male eye candy to boot. His chorus has always done respectably in competition, so now I’m thinking, after I get my knees fixed and can stand for more than 3 minutes at a time, I’ll audition to join his chorus as well. Being a dual member has become vogue of late, ever since HQ came out with official criteria two years ago. But besides being twice as fun, besides allowing me to keep the friendships I’ve formed and remain loyal and also be part of a medal winning chorus, it’s also twice as expensive - two sets of dues, of costumes, of shoes, of various events, and on and on - so I need to be physically whole, the financial part is secondary. After lunch on Saturday were more classes, then a nap, then dinner, with the traditional rubber chicken covered in sauce, altho this was actually tender and tasty, with a baby zucchini for accompaniment, and a yummy cake that thought it was tiramisu for dessert. During dinner, the medal winning choruses and quartets performed between courses. We were back in the room by a little after 10:30, so we watched Victor/Victoria and a little of SNL until we fell asleep. This morning there was a rehearsal, then breakfast, after which the two choruses sang for each other. Since I was feeling a little utzie, I opted not to sing but I did take videos. When I’m done editing the photos and such, I’ll post a link for a snip of one or two of the songs, since due to copyright laws I am not allowed to post the whole song. Then everyone got up on the performance risers and the directors took turns leading us in “regional songs” (those are songs all the choruses in the region already know or have just learned this weekend as opposed to an individual chorus’ personal repertoire) Oh yeah, and I shopped. The host chorus (a different one each year) gets to have a boutique to raise funds. There are gift baskets to win by raffle ticket, old costume jewelry for $1 a piece, homemade baked goods (the peanut butter cookies were yummilicious) and assorted other things. I bought 3 pairs of earrings and a tote bag covered in kitty cats (well, not real ones, just images thereof). The ride home took a hour and 15 minutes - half as long as Friday’s drive out. Yeesh :smack: Smokey yelled at me when I get home, but as soon as I settled in for my nap, there she was, full of nuzzles and purrs. Ah, it’s good to be home.
Oh, yeah, the thread title - The first bit of info regarding the conference sent out made no mention of a theme or costume (tho traditionally, there is always something) Subsequent literature said “don’t forget to join the angel network” which most of us took to mean they’d be collecting donations for some charity or other. It wasn’t until less than a week before that “don’t forget your wings and halos” appeared in anything. So only about 60% of us were dressed as angels. (I contemplated pulling a sheet of the bed and throwing it around me, (I later saw two other women had done this) but decided against it since I wasn’t feeling up to singing and preferred to take pictures anyway.) But we all sounded like angels, anyway.
Thus ends the tale of my fall convention. Tune in next April when I regale you with stories of Competition 2007
*a swipe is where one part gets to sing a measure or so by herself while the other 3 hold a chord, adding a little flourish to the song.
Kaiwik, your posts are so full of interesting stuff! LOL What is backstrap? Or do I want to know? 