End of Semester Catch Up

Hey guys! It's finally May, it's finally summer. That is so strange to me! The semester felt really long, yet it flew by. Basically up until spring break, time seemed to mosy on and take a relatively slow pace, but after spring break came and went, it's like I blinked and it was suddenly over! The latter half of the semester was filled to the brim with seemingly endless deadlines and performances, so naturally it whizzed by faster than its preceding half.

Surprise Party Shenanigans!
One of the first eventful things to happen post-break, was my incredibly successful secret scheme of throwing Ian a surprise birthday party! Ian isn't one to make a big deal of himself, let alone his birthday, and I felt that he should be made special on his special day. Considering how terrible I am at keeping something like this a secret, and Ian can read me so fast, it was a huge success! We had a good 20ish people show up, including friends from out of town. I lured him out by getting a birthday dinner at Serrano's (one of our favorite restaurants) and stopping at Walmart to get Moana to watch when we got home. My mom had picked up the groceries I had ordered for party refreshments and with the help of party goers, decorated our living room in time for when we arrived back at the house. Ian had no idea! I actually surprised him! And I think he felt very loved. #bestsneakywifeaward

School Shenanigans!
With Ian's party done, it became a mad dash of finishing assignments, memorizing music, and learning staging. My aesthetics (read: philosophy) was probably the hardest class I have ever taken in my education career and I somehow managed my time beautifully during the chaos of the last few weeks of the semester {which NEVER happens} and I think I did a bangup good job too. [I got an A, so I will definitely take it]. It was a split undergrad/grad class, and based on what my friend Tyler told me, if I was able to be successful in that class then I can definitely do grad school. *phew*

The rest of my classes were a breeze compared to that beastly aesthetics class, and I know I was able to keep up with everything. Music History was fine enough, though the TAs were tougher than the actual professor {my bet is that it's an ego thing but maybe that's just me /shrug}. My Jazz in America class was awesome, considering it's geared towards non-music majors, so I had zero problem acing that class. I did get to go to a really great jazz performance for my final report, and I actually came out of it really glad I took the class. I love it when that happens!

At The Nash in Phoenix 

Opera Scenes was downright the best class I had this semester. My scene consisted of all-star castmates and we had the most fun scene! We did the opening bit of Bernstein's Candide, and yours truly got to sing Cunegonde. Dream come true! Everyone was hysterical in their roles and as a whole sounded pretty darn good. Robert even said he really liked it, so you know we did a good job. Upon listening to someone's recording, I wish I had worked on my part with Anne in hindsight, just because I heard myself fall back into some bad habits that I had worked so hard to try and press out of my system and I think she could have cleaned up my high notes better than I did on my own. I wanted to surprise her, and though I did well, I am a little frustrated that I know I could have done better. C'est la vie! Now I know for the future. :) I wish I had taken some photos of us in costume because we all looked fabulous! The rest of the scenes were also so impressive, and there wasn't one weak scene in the whole program. It's seriously so incredible how many talented people are here, and we're not lying when we say we have the hottest MT program in the US. ;) I managed to end the semester with good grades, all As and one B. The B was in music history, and as mentioned before, the TAs were really hard so I will consider that a success.

Summer Shenanigans!
I have some good plans for this summer, which include not working. BLESS. As fun as the kids are most of the time at VIK, working for VIK is not for the faint of heart and I was tired of being treated poorly and then blamed for circumstances out of my control, as well as a lack of organization and respect from people above me. One of my bosses straight up through me under the bus on multiple occasions because of mistakes she made and that was the last straw for me. I got the email about working summer camp, and I just ignored it. I don't know if I'm brave enough to just email them and tell them to take me off payroll (there are people who "stay" on payroll so they don't have to reapply every summer) but I haven't gotten there yet. Maybe she'll just assume I'm done because I won't ever come back? Is that bad?

We also held a very successful Bollywood night (and ironically on Cinco de Mayo ha) with my dear friends Taryn and John, and their significant others Jared and Kylie. We made curry and naan, watched "Om Shanti Om" and had a jolly time. It's been decided we shall do this more often because too much fun was had. Also those people are some of my favorite people so that's always a plus. 

I had been asked/hired to sing the "Pie Jesu" in Faure's Requiem (If you've never heard it, please go take a listen. It's truly some really beautiful music! Nothing fancy, but very pretty nonetheless) with a full choir and orchestra in Chandler/Sun Lakes. I was super excited for it because it was my first paid gig, and it was going to be really good. I had gone to a rehearsal on a Friday (5/5) and it went really well and was looking forward to the performance the following Friday. WELL that weekend is when things went towards a different...direction. Sunday was fast Sunday, so naturally I didn't have anything to eat all day by the time I got to my in-law's house for dinner. They had saved me some food (we get out of church later than they do) and I went to town. My stomach kinda started to hurt when I finished eating and my tummy felt a little tight. It was a little uncomfortable, but I just thought maybe I had eaten too fast or something. I felt it for the rest of the evening but it wasn't bad enough to warrant leaving early. We get home and go to bed and I complained to Ian that my tummy really was feeling really weird, but I was hopeful I would sleep it off. I was very wrong. I got a very poor night's rest, tossing and turning! I would lay still because moving made my stomach hurt, but then I needed to change position again and it would make me super nauseous and it was just a never ending cycle of discomfort. We woke up the next morning, around 7 and my stomach was feeling super weird and not good! I was getting a little nervous because it was something I had never experienced before. It was like I had done a really intense ab workout and my stomach was super sore from it. There was the tiniest pinch on my lower right side, which made me think appendicitis, but upon texting my sisters I initially didn't "pass" the criteria like hopping on one foot, or hurting after releasing pressure, etc. I thought maybe my digestive system was backed up so I went downstairs and started sipping on some apple juice to get things flowing. To my surprise that kick started my colon I guess, and I did my business. But it made it worse! I was starting to really not feel good. I hollered up to Ian to call our primary doctor to schedule an appointment (we had just taken Ian to the ER for his gallbladder and I didn't want to make that expense if my problem ended up being digestive). The earliest we could get in was 3pm that afternoon. I made my way upstairs and my pain started to really increase. I was in tears by the time we were off the phone making the appointment and within 5 minutes of that phone call, we decided to just go to the ER. We waited in the ER waiting room for about 45 minutes {read: 2 million hours} before I was seen, and by the time they got to me, my pain was at a solid 8/10. I felt absolutely dreadful, extremely nauseous, and straight up miserable. My ER nurse gave me some morphine and something for the nausea and the staff were pretty quick on all the registration/housekeeping. My time gets foggy at this point, but I think within the hour they had a urine sample, blood samples, all that good stuff and I was taken to get a CT*

              *Tangent: Getting a CT was kind of a cool experience actually! Uneventful, but the fluid they put in to see all your junk made it feel like you whizzed your pants. haha

Came back from CT, and hung out for a little while longer and my drugs were starting to wear off. They were really quick with the results and I was informed I had acute appendicitis and would have to have emergency surgery! By that point I didn't really care how they got it out, nor was I nervous about having surgery (I've never have had one before this), it just needed to come out so I could stop feeling miserable so they brought me up to the OR floor, (upon arrival, I vomited because without the morphine and nausea drugs my pain/nausea was def a 9-9.5/10 so it's good to know I wasn't exaggerating any digestive pain I guess). They put one of those little caps on me, I met my surgeon and anesthesiologist (who was like the nicest person) and then he put something in my IV, and I was out. I vaguely remember opening my eyes and seeing the OR light and them putting on the gas mask and then the next thing I know, I'm in my hospital room! I stayed overnight, and was home around 2pm Tuesday. It was crazy and kind of a whirlwind, and I kind of have a hard time believing it actually happened. haha It was an adventure, that's for sure. I was in the ER by 9, seen by about 10, and in surgery by about 1. It kinda went 0-100 real quick haha

I was still pretty drugged up at this point haha 

Recovery has been interesting because I don't know what to expect from something like this, but it's been fairly straightforward. They did the procedure laparoscopically, so fortunately I haven't had to deal with any nasty draining/stitches/etc. Just some small incisions down my lower belly. If anything, it's been more annoying not to be able to use my core muscles! You forget how much you use them by just...existing. haha Oh and for laparoscopic surgeries they pump you full of carbon dioxide so the surgeon can see clearly, so I was bloated AND couldn't use my abs for like 5 days, so I now I have a pretty good idea of what I'll look like when I am like 5 months pregnant, whenever that will be. xD I started to feel like myself on Saturday, and I've been feeling much better every day. Ready for the steri-strips to come off, but I'm not allowed to touch them till they fall out on their own. Boo. And even though I feel almost perfectly fine now, I can't lift anything above 15 pounds for another 6 weeks, and I don't know how long till I can workout. I was planning on totally getting in shape this summer, but now I'm set back 6 weeks! rawr.

In other news, I was cast in this fall's LOT production of "The Bartered Bride"! I have a few featured chorus roles, like a waitress and a bride, and my personal favorite, Heidi the Yodeling girl!

I have no idea what that entails, if I get to yodel or not, or whatever but that is my character's name and basically means I get to have a lot of fun with it. Or I'll make it fun. Or both. Either way, it's a win. There shall be lots of stage time, and lots of folk dancing! Normally I'm nervous about choreo, but with my background in swing and country dance, I think I can actually offer something really nice this time around! Huzzah!

In the mean time, I have an opera workshop with Jeff Stevens and Jen Nagy to fill up my time, as well as some lessons with Anne to get a headstart on my recital. Because OHYEAH I'm delaying graduation till May just to make my life a little bit easier, and to have more fun.

I also have girls camp to do, but that is being planned by my camp directors for the most part, so not much for me to do there....so yeah. That's been my life in a nutshell since March.

Till next time, my lovelies!