Happy weekend!

My dears, what do you have planned for this weekend? Is it flying home to be with your husband and your cat for an entire MONTH? No, wait, that's me!! I'm a little over-excited about it. I'm already scheduling lots of Houston things, starting with Photo Day at the Zoo.

While I'm blissfully reuniting, some links for you:

Kim is writing a series of posts about auditioning based on reading Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance over on the Wolf Trap blog. Thought-provoking even for those of us who (thank God) don't audition for a living.

A round-up of Elisir reviews, all from the same performance, proof of how very subjective the art of reviewing is.

90 days, 90 reasons

I'm dying to see E.T. in a movie theatre next Wednesday! Will you go (and eat Reese's Pieces)?

Our friend Isabel is featured in the latest Opera News. Isn't she lovely?


Here's a blurry picture from opening night, taken from the Grand Tier. So many pretty dresses!

Hope your weekend is filled with cappuccinos, snuggly kitties, and sweater weather. xoxo LMB

A few things I've been trying

Writing gratitude emails to CM every night

A few weeks ago we realized we were getting very grumpy and complainy, about work, about being apart, about little things that didn't matter. I've been wanting to start some kind of gratitude practice for a while, and recently I read this and was re-inspired. I've seen a lot of people sharing daily lists of what they're grateful for on their blogs, but I wanted the option to write personal or work-related things that I'm not able to share here. I knew, however, that if left to my own devices, I would never write things down on my own. So, I roped CM into joining me, and we've been emailing each other nightly with a list of 3 grateful-making things from the day. I like it. How do you remind yourself of the good things that happen each day?

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Taking iPhone photos

I love my beautiful camera, and I love taking pictures, but after this summer's travels I wasn't loving lugging around my big camera bag everywhere I went. Plus, I have hundreds of photos to go through and edit (someday I'll show you the glories of Aix-en-Provence and Brussels, I promise). So I made the angst-filled decision to leave my camera at home when I went to New York this fall. In the interest of not letting the perfect be the enemy of the good, I've been taking lots of pictures anyway, but exclusively with my iPhone. They're not the best photos I've ever taken. Sometimes I miss my camera, like when I'm shooting in low light, or when a wide-angle lens might come in handy (like here). But mostly I'm happy to travel light, to take pictures that are good enough, and to worry less about post-processing. As a result, I'm actually sharing my photos more.

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Setting a timer

In college I had a surreal one-time gig in which I drove Bobby McFerrin from his hotel to the conservatory for a concert. I agonized beforehand about what to say to him, whether there were any questions I should ask. In the end I needn't have worried, because he spent almost the entire car ride singing. Scatting nonsense syllables mainly, in a way that didn't leave a lot of room for conversation. Later he told students that he carries a kitchen timer wherever he goes. At the beginning of the day he sets it for 1 hour (I think I'm remembering that correctly), and presses ‘Start’ every time he gets a spare moment to practice. He told us we could never say we didn't have time to practice, because even if you don't have an uninterrupted hour in your day, you can always work in practice time in shorter increments. The lesson stuck with me. I'm trying something similar, although not exactly the same, to buckle down and get some real work done (this MUST be the season I overcome my procrastination habits). Whenever I sit down to work on a task like translating or studying, I've been setting a timer on my phone for 30 minutes and then switching it into airplane mode. I work straight for that time without distractions, and then I allow myself to do something else for a few minutes. It's called the Pomodoro Technique, and I'm loving it. Having a self-imposed time limit makes me work more efficiently, and I'm not tempted to check my watch (or my email) nearly as often.

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What new things are you trying?

A sweet surprise

I keep a post office box in New York so I can receive mail while I'm here. (Oddly, mail carriers sometimes have a hard time finding the Met—how is that possible???) Yesterday when I checked it there was the sweetest letterpress card from CM in there. He sent it using the Apple Cards app!

There are lots of templates to choose from. CM chose the most romantic one (of course). The paper is lovely quality and oh, I'm such a sucker for anything letterpressed, aren't you?

Inside he chose a picture of us from our morning in Florence this summer, and he included a sweet note.

He was able to design and send the whole thing from his iPhone (or maybe he used his iPad)! Each card costs $2.99 (or $4.99 to send internationally) including postage. It gets created and sent automatically without you having to make any visits to a mailbox.

Now I'm thinking of all the people I could send cards to. Maybe it's the perfect way to keep our parents updated on the activities of their grandkitty?

Sundays in New York: Discovering Columbus

In one of the more bizarre (and awesome) things I have done in New York, on Sunday I went to see the Discovering Columbus art installation. Japanese artist Tatzu Nishi (one of several pseudonyms) built and furnished a living room around the statue of Christopher Columbus that stands in Columbus Circle. The living room sits atop a tall scaffolding, so you climb about 6 flights of stairs to get to it (they also have an elevator if stairs are a problem).

Once you're in the living room, you can explore the space, sitting on the furniture, reading the books and magazines, watching TV, and looking out the windows at the gorgeous views in every direction. And taking pictures, of course. The only thing you're not allowed to do is touch the statue. That seems reasonable, given that it's 120 years old.

They let only about 20 people into the living room at any time, so it's not too crowded, particularly since the living room is larger than almost every Manhattan apartment I've ever visited.

The exhibition runs through November 18. Tickets are free, but you need timed entry passes, which you can get here. I highly recommend it, if only for the view.

The artist specializes in building around iconic sculptures. Sometimes he builds hotel rooms you can actually stay overnight in! How cool would it be to go to this one in Ghent, Belgium?

All photos by LMB

It's the day of the show, y'all

Tonight is the opening of L'Elisir d'Amore, which is the opening of the Met 2012-13 season as well as the first opening night of my season. Of course, I got started a while ago—I've been in tech and/or rehearsals for the past 7 weeks—but tonight is still momentous, the official launching of another opera season.

Interested in being a part of it? If you don't have a ticket for tonight's performance, you can watch it on the big screens at Lincoln Center Plaza and Times Square, or you can stream audio live on the Met's website. You can also check out photos from the production here.

Thus kicks off the busiest season I've had so far, with (at last count) 8 more opening nights to go. I'll be celebrating tonight with champagne and a slinky cocktail dress. Won't you make a toast, wherever you are?