A Happy Place

 

(So I fully realize it’s been just about three weeks since I’ve updated the blog!!  My apologize to the four of you who regularly check… there’s been a lot going on since getting back to Texas and I’m actually currently writing from Bloomington, Indiana [more on that in a later post].  Just a couple of more Blue Lake posts and I should be up to date!)

In between the round of concerts at Hill Auditorium and the Blue Lake homecoming concerts I had about a week off, during which I was able to spend some free time in my former hometown of Ann Arbor.  Any trip to the city wouldn’t be complete without a jaunt to Kerrytown, and I spent the large portion of a day re-visiting this charming neighborhood.

 

Kerrytown is home to many of my favorite places in the city, ranging from Kerrytown Concert House to Hollander’s Paper Store—and let’s not forget that divine delicatessen, Zingerman’s!!  Brian, who was my “host family” for a couple of nights, and I ventured to the deli for lunch and I was not surprised in the least to see that lines were still forming around the corner despite some new construction under way.

*Sigh* … the memories (and dollars) I have spent here

 

  

L: Brian waiting patiently in line.   R: It’s the light at the end of the tunnel!!!  (except in this case it’s not so much a “light” as it is free samples of their mac 'n cheese or smoked meats from around the world)

 

My regular order: #73 Tarb’s Tenacious Tenure: “All-natural turkey breast, fresh avocado spread, Wisconsin muenster cheese, tomato & plenty of Zingerman’s Russian dressing on grilled farm bread” (Russian dressing on the side with) add Honeycup mustard, cucumber-y pickle and an iced cold brew coffee.  DE-LECKER!!!

 

Another favorite spot, and I know my mother would agree, is the Treasure Mart, an antique store just down the cobblestone street from Zingerman’s.

“Excuse me… can you ship these giant stained glass windows to Crockett, TX?”

 

Ann Arbor is also a great city for book lovers and Kerrytown is home to several really great independent book stores.

 

 

And finally, while I failed to get a final picture with Brian, I do have this one from one of our nights out in Minden that I haven’t put up yet.  Even though I knew him only peripherally last year on tour I must say I am very happy to count him among my close close friends.  I will miss you!!

EBONY AND IVORY, 2011

 

Artist: Katie Melua / Album: The House  

Climb Every Mountain

 

For my birthday this last Friday the chairman decided to celebrate by taking the group on a hiking tour of the French Alps.  Okay, so maybe it was just happenstance that those two things occurred on the same day, but it sounds muuuuuch more flattering the way I put it.

As far as birthday cakes are concerned, I was fortunate enough to have TWO!  The day before during a rehearsal break I was walking around with some of the orchestra counselors and we stopped in a bakery to get some coffee.  Now, you must know that one of my favorite things in the world is merengue cookies, and this particular establishment had a, shall we say, birthday sized merengue I just couldn’t pass up.

Ummmm… HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MEEEEE!!!

 

Following are several pictures from the hike.  There’s not a whole lot to explain except that it was extraordinarily beautiful and a fantastic way to celebrate my 27th.

 

 

Orchestra staff member (and dear friend) Brian Dunbar taking in the scenery

 

We came across this shelter at one point during the hike:

Brian: What is this, Frodo Baggin’s house? When did the Shire move to the Alps?!?!

 

We stopped at a rest area for lunch and enjoyed this view while picnicking:

The rest area… we have the same birth year!!!

 

NATURE!!!

 

We also managed to find some fresh (albeit tiny) strawberries

 

On one of the trails there was a tree trunk that had been carved into a "throne” of sorts.  Now how could I pass a chance to sit in it…

Birthday King!

 

I mentioned earlier that I had two birthday “cakes,” the first being my ginormous merengue and the second when we got back to Villard-Bonnot for dinner:

Bon Anniversaire, indeed!!!

 

Artist: Richard Rogers and Oscar Hammerstein II/ Album: The Sound of Music

Beer Drinkers & Hell Raisers

 

Typically the Brahms concert is the last performance in each town but in Minden it was the orchestra concert that was the final event.  Instead of being held in the Dom it was located in the same church where the quintet performed the previous Sunday and where our host father is the priest.

Sabrina and I are thinking about starting up a second hand flower shop with all the lovely bouquets we have been getting for the performances!

 

Another amazing reception was held afterwards, but the real party occurred afterwards.  Our house crew took the opportunity to explore Minden’s night life and grab a couple of drinks out of uniform and (most importantly) away from the KINDERN!  We also did this on our first night but had to behave during the interim in order to stay  in “performance mode,” which will explain the change in attire between some of the pictures.  Y’all know how much I love a good costume change but I’m not crazy enough to change in-between bars.

First night:

Here comes troooouuuubllleeeee! (Adam, Mahogany, Mark, Eric, Brian, Sabrina)

 

Mahogany, Brian, Sabrinta

 

It’s okay because Sabrina’s husband is also named Eric.  That’s how it works, right?

 

Last night:

With a special guest appearance from Zack!

 

Even though Sabrina and I decided to go out we still had to call it an earlier night than those crazy orchestra kids under the guise of being responsible but mostly because we were dead tired.  The stars were out in all their glory that night and on our way home we decided to lay down in front of the church tower and stare up at them for a while.  Even though I knew it would turn out horribly I still took a picture…

… sadly you can only see one of them

 

It was such a wonderful change of pace to be housed with members of the orchestra for once and our host family was a duh-ream!  Here’s one final parting shot from “the entertainment group!”

Front: Adam, Eric, Brian, Mahogany, Mark.   Back: Sabrina and Joseph!

 

Artist: ZZ Top/ Album: Tres Hombres

Africa

 

Our fabulous host mother in Minden asked us when we first arrived if we had any specific requests as far as meals were concerned, and after all of us basically said whatever she wanted to serve we would be happy she responded with something along the lines of: “Well, I know you will be getting a lot of wurst and potatoes and sauerkraut and other typical German food on your trip, so how about one day we make a meal inspired by our many mission trips to Tanzania!?!”

As there was much chopping and preparing to do we all chipped in and helped with the cooking process.  At one point Eric was slicing the peppers and as she passed by I yelled “SMILE FOR THE BLOG”… and this is what I got:

I LOVE HER!

 

I decided to take the same approach with the zucchini, whereas Adam was a bit kindlier to his carrots:

 

Why they let me around the children I’ll never know

 

YUMMMM!

 

Adam, Eric, Brian, Tabea (our host sister), Frau Krupper, Mahogany, Sabrina, Mark

 

Artist: Toto/ Album:

Churchyard Entertainment

 

Our second stop on the tour took us to Minden, Germany, where I was lucky enough to be housed with not only Sabrina, but with the wind quintet from the orchestra as well.  The priest from the Mariankirsche and his family have a large apartment on the top of the parish house next door and were able to accommodate many of us at once (though I’m not quite sure they knew exactly what they were getting into!—by the end of the stop they just kept referring to us as “the entertainment group” *sung and waving hands*)

 

The church with a view from their vineyards and the interior space

 

As we were being housed by the priest, the wind quintet had the opportunity to perform during the service this past Sunday.

L to R: Brian Dunbar, flute; Mark Cooney, oboe; Erik Grunkemeyer, french horn; Mahogany Dudley, clarinet, Adam Farmer, bassoon

 

(Mind you, this is taken from my phone and the acoustics being what they are from the side)

Artist: Meredith Monk/ Album: Book of Days

Gimme the Prize

Welllllll this is the last post regarding my Blue Lake experiences, and think it's only fitting to end with an AWARDS CEREMONY!!!!!! So without further ado, here are the Blue Lake Fine Arts Camp Awards (The BLFACA's, or "Biscuits" as they are affectionately known as in the business).

International tour I most wished to go on (besides choir, of course): Ballet, with Corey and Jamie

Cory Goei and Jamie Brege.  Party because they had about 1/7th the number of kids we did, but mostly because they are so much fun to hang out with

Most prophetic photograph: Zach Vanderburg

Poor Zach's future head

Most fabulously stereotypical French woman: my host mom from Obernais, Germany

COME. ON. It's in black and white, she's got a saucy pose going, and she's smoking a cigarette!

(It's a little blurry, sorry!)

Choir counselor who, sadly, never appeared on my blog (excluding one group shot): Joshua Nelson

*tear*

Best "That's what she said moment": Sabrina Laney Warren
Using the bus' overhead speaker system:

"Okay, y'all, Peter the busdriver has just asked me to make an announcement regarding getting on and getting off the bus. It is imperitave of you to remember this, as we do not want to scratch the side of the bus with our bags.  Remember, the front is for entrances and exits, and the rear is for exits ONLY, y'all." 

pause...

pause...

pause...

*giggle*

(Not realizing the mic was still on) "Heh, that's what she said."

Most consistent head tilt in photographs: Mason Rivers

"But it's my good side!!," he would say

Most patient host family member: Lena Maiss from Ottersheim, Germany.  She tolerated Mason and I giggling every time we saw "ausfahrt" and saying "that's what she said" alllll the time.  This one's for you, girl!

Hehe... Butt

I imagine this is the face she would give after seeing this post

Best story that I probably shouldn't tell but am going to anyway because it's too good:

So... in the last town, Billerbeck, I was staying with both Maestro's (or is that Maestri?)-- our own Christoph and the guest conductor from that town.  Christoph conducted his last a cappella concert for the European leg and came home and said: "okay, now we eat? now we drink?"  Needless to say Christoph draaaaaank the night away.

The last thing that the house mother said was: "If you stay down here with the lights on, make sure the doors are closed so that animals don't come in." 

Well, I woke up the next morning and went downstairs and the house mother pulls me aside: "Joseph! We woke up at three in the morning and went downstairs and all the lights in the house were on and the doors were open to the porch, and Christoph was sitting in a chair, passed out, only wearing his underwear!!" [to remind you, Christoph is in this blogpost]

So I went down to breakfast chuckling and Christoph came in looking a little perplexed. "Did you have a fun evening last night!?!?," asked the host dad.

"What do you mean," he replied.

As my host dad told him (in German) what they woke up to and showed him where he was sitting outside, Christoph all of a sudden goes: "ALZO, have you seen my teeth? I wondered why I could not find them when I woke up!"

My host mom walked outside, spotted something, bent over, pointed and declaired: "Ummm, are these them?"

Indeed, Christoph's dentures were miraculously found outside and he proceeded to pick them up and take them to the restroom and clean them!!!!  He had no idea of how they got there and no rememberance of even being outside.  Thank goodness no animals had gotten in while he was passed out, though!

And yes, I actualy took a picture of his dentures being cleaned while he wasn't looking

Counselor who most resembles her pet: Emily Goodwin

It's okay, though, because she gets the award for Rockin'ist mamma EVAH:

GET IT MAMMA G!!!!

Best Only picture I have from the after party:

Ellen Williams and Brian Dunbar (an orchestra counselor who moonlighted as a choir member for the Elijah performances)

Picture that most expresses what I felt like at the end of the trip:

The irony is that this phot was taken at the Chicago airport on the way TO Europe.  We hadn't even left the States yet!