Day 20

Wow, Day 20! Only 10 days to go! Well, I guess 11 since there are 31 days in January, but who is counting? I'm posting early today since I work tonight, and last Thursday I cut it waaaay too close for comfort as I was running out the door for work and I don't want to do that to myself again. I have been to yoga three nights in a row and I am so sore, in a good way though. Week three has definitely been the most gratifying so far and I also feel like I have gotten the most done. It seems like ever since my meeting with Kurt on Friday I have been knocking things off my list left and right and it sure feels good. 


20 days till my grad school auditions... and I'm finally starting to feel like I'm ready!


Dance/Personal Fitness Number 6

Date/time - January 20, 2011 5:30

Type of class – Yoga I/II

Difficulty Level - Intermediate 

Studio and Instructor – Sports and Wellness, Robin

What did you most enjoy? – I most enjoyed the way Robin instructed this class. She is one of my favorite yoga teachers. She combines vinyasa techniques, and also comes around and helps deepen the poses/stretches when you really didn't think your body could go any farther. Her voice is also really calming which I really like. 

What did you find challenging and why? – Today I had a really hard time with balance in standing poses, which is normally something I never struggle with. It was really strange. This first time I lost my footing I think it got into my head and I just started over thinking it. Robin also thought that I was probably over thinking it as well. I decided to just rest in childspose and focus on breathing to refocus my mind. I didn't want to get frustrated over something silly that I'm normally strong at.   

Observations – 3 classes in 3 days! 4 to go! 

Daily Practice Session

Technical Concepts - Warm up with along with Kurt recorded warm up, started with lip trill scales, yogi bear nah nah's, goo goo's, baby cries, mixing in chest voice, middle voice, and head voice. Then did new exercises that Kurt had given me, breathing/strengthening exercises.
Minutes - 40

Repertoire - A Chorus Line, Nothing, Sara Bareilles, Gravity and Spring Awakening Mama Who Bore Me
Minutes – 25

Successes – I am starting to feel pretty strong when it comes to breath support. I can tell when I'm breathing shallow and adjust it right away. Also I am spending a lot more time during my warm ups mixing in head voice, and not just getting stuck in middle voice.

Areas for improvement – Having a hard time getting off book on Nothing, worried it won't be ready to perform on Sunday?

Notes: I have a private lesson and coaching session scheduled with Paul and Kurt Monday which I am really looking forward to going over Nothing. I have been doing work by myself, but it will be nice to have piano and coaching time.

Day 19

I cannot believe that I have made it through 19 whole days, and that tomorrow will be day 20! Congrats to everyone else who has made it this far also! I'm so proud of you all. And although I'm not at school with all of you guys (which makes me really sad), and don't see you every day like I used to, I feel like this has all made us all a lot closer, in it's own weird way. Okay, now I'm done being all sappy... I am excited for our performance on Sunday, but I'm also kind of nervous. Even though it's been 19 days, I don't really feel completely ready to sing in front of anyone yet. Mostly I don't feel ready because I don't feel like I have had enough time with an accompanist yet. If there is anything that this challenge, this year, grad school auditions, and being a graduate has taught me is that I will always feel like I never have enough time. Normally in Kathy's class, we have time with Paul to go over our songs with the music and the piano at least a few times before we get in front of people and sing, and I have been practicing mostly by myself, so I guess this just doesn't seem like the "conventional" way of doing things to me. I suppose this is actually the conventional way in New York or other big cities when one goes to an audition, so this challenge is actually teaching me a very good lesson.


Today I got a lot of work done. Today was the 6th day in a row I have worked for at least an hour and a half on my monologues, which I am really proud of myself about. I scheduled a meeting with Paul next week to work on my URTA audition, took a yoga class, ate a healthy meal, and of course, did my daily singing.


Dance/Personal Fitness Number 5

Date/time - January 19, 2011 5:30

Type of class – Yoga I-II

Difficulty Level - Intermediate

Studio and Instructor - Sports and Wellness, Erin K

What did you most enjoy? – I most enjoyed being back in a class that was back to what I am used to. I really like Erin. She is a really cheery instructor with a good attitude, but also is teaches a very challenging class. I liked todays class because she focused on hip openers, which happen to be some of my favorite classes. Especially pigeon... A lot of people don't like pigeon, but it happens to be one of my favorite poses.

What did you find challenging and why? – The class was really full today, and I felt like I was literally on top of the person in front of and on the sides of me. It was challenging not to knock the girl in standing in front of me in the face, so sometimes I lost focus of my breathing. I had to recompose myself in those moments when I started to laugh. 

Observations – I got to have a full shavasana today! My favorite! Nothing like it. Literally brings me to tears sometimes. Does anyone else feel that way?

Daily Practice Session

Technical Concepts - Started with new recorded Kurt warm up, lip trills, yogi bear goo goos, muh muh's, za za's, mixing from chest voice, middle voice, head voice, breathing/strengthening exercises.
Minutes - 35

Repertoire - A Chorus Line, Nothing, Sara Barellies, Gravity
Minutes – 25

Successes – Listened to Nothing over and over and over again. Ha. Almost memorized. I really like this character a lot, and think that this song will really round out my URTA slate perfectly.

Areas for improvement – Need to figure out which 30 seconds to use for audition. Honestly have no idea what to use.

Notes: Have meeting scheduled with Paul for Monday. 

Healthy Eating Number 16

Meal Description – Grilled Chicken Salad with toasted almonds, apple slices, bleu cheese crumbles and raspberry dressing

Restaurant or Market – Cheese and Coffee

Rating – 6/10... sounded good but was just eh.

Day 18

Hey guys! Today was a great day. I finally feel caught up on sleep and back to my normal self. I had some major breakthroughs with my Henry IV monologue today and for the first time I actually enjoyed working on it. I am finally starting to "live" in the Doll character like I do with Harper in my Angels in America monologue and it feels good. I'm starting to look forward to my San Francisco trip. Don't get me wrong, I have a lot of work to do, but I feel like I'm starting to head in the right direction. I also got a lot of work done for the challenge today, and I'm not blogging at 20 till midnight, so it's a good day! 


Dance/Personal Fitness Number 4

Date/time - January 18, 2011, 7:40 p.m.

Type of class – Yoga 

Difficulty Level - Beginner/Intro to yoga 

Studio and Instructor - Defined Fitness, Chris M.

What did you most enjoy? – I most enjoyed that I made myself go today. I originally wanted to go to the Sports and Wellness Yoga II/III level class at 5:15 class, but I ended up not leaving work until 5:30. (Yes I have memberships at both at Sports and Wellness and Defined, ridiculous I know...). When I missed class I was all annoyed, and didn't necessarily want to go to a beginner class later in the evening but I talked myself out of the negativity and went to the later class on the other side of town. I was glad that I didn't let staying late at work make me miss yoga today.

What did you find challenging and why? – I found being in an intro to yoga class challenging to be honest. The entire class was spent introducing names of poses poses and how to get through a class, which I already know. We never even went into downward dog or even childs pose and those are the aspects that I most enjoy about yoga. We also never did shavasana at the end of class and my jaw nearly fell to the floor when class ended without it. Although the class was moving slower than I'm used to, I just took the opportunity to focus on breathing, deep stretching, and meditating.


Observations – I still need 6 dance/yoga classes. Yikes!!

Kinda blurry, felt bad asking for another picture... she is, in a headstand after all.

Daily Practice Session

Technical Concepts - Evening warm up along with Kurts recording... lip trills, yogi bear goo goos, muh muhs, za za's, chest voice, middle voice, head voice, mixing, breathing/strengthening exercises.

Minutes - 35 

Repertoire - Chorus Line, Nothing Sara Bareilles, Gravity

Minutes – 15

Successes – Felt good about mixing in head voice today.

Areas for improvement – Need to start working with pianist/someone on Nothing...

Notes: see above.

Healthy Meal Number 15

Meal Description – Brown Cow cherry vanilla yogurt, chocolate chip Cliff bar, and Throat Comfort Yogi Tea (my absolute favorite tea of all time)

Restaurant or Market – La Montana Co Op

Rating – 8/10

Day 17

Happy Martin Luther King Jr. Day! It was so nice to have a day off from work! I got a lot of monologue work done and was also able to sing today in the afternoon which I always love. I also got to finally see Black Swan, which I thought was amazing, as all of my friends seem to have agreed on. I always seem to be blogging at the last minute, but as soon as I get this knocked out, I'm looking forward to getting a long night of sleep! 



Daily Practice Session

Technical Concepts - Nice long warm up while cleaning my out of control kitchen and doing laundry to Kurt's recorded warm up... started with lip trills, moved to yogi bears and goo goo's, muh muh's, la la's, za za's, chest voice, middle voice, head voice, and mixing. Breathing/strengthening exercises. 
Minutes - 40 minutes.

Repertoire - Chorus line, Nothing and Sara Barellies Gravity.
Minutes – 20

Successes – Worked on character choices for Chorus Line. Had a lot of fun with that. I only have 30 seconds for the URTA audition, so listened to the song a bunch of times through and started making notes about where good places for cuts would be. 

Areas for improvement – Still need to spend more time working on mixing in head voice. It's getting much better but I need to do it more and more every day.

Notes: I went to the FA library today to find the sheet music for Nothing and they were closed. Bummer.


Healthy Meal Number 14 

Healthy Eating

Meal Description – Light Ceasar Salad

Restaurant or Market – Whole Foods

Rating – 8.5/10

Healthy Meal Number 15

Healthy Eating

Meal Description – Veggie flat bread sandwhich with mushrooms, tomato, green chili, and avocado a and grilled chicken salad

Restaurant or Market – Quiznos

Rating – 8/10

Day 16

Hey guys. Hope you all had good weekends! It has been such a long and crazy week two. I have felt like I have gotten a lot done but have also put a lot on my plate. I need to do a better job of managing what I can and can't do. The next two weeks I need to make sure to have a little bit more sleep and I hope to make it through this challenge! Today I was bummed about missing the brunch but I had picked up a shift at the bar Saturday night and hadn't made it home from work that morning until around 4 a.m. I woke up at 9 Sunday a.m. feeling pretty awful and didn't want to show up to the brunch making everyone else sick. I think I just worked myself too much this week. I need to know when to say no to working at the bar. It's easy money and I love the social aspect, but now that I work full time I just need to say no for my own sanity. 




Daily Practice Session

Technical Concepts -Did a light warm up today after I had rested/caught up on much needed sleep. New warm ups, lip trills, goo goos, yogi bear, baby cries, na na's, mixing in chest voice, middle voice, head voice, breathing/strengthening exercises.
Minutes - 25 

Repertoire - Sara Barielles, Gravity, Chrous Line, Nothing (Looked up several versions on Youtube for character ideas) 
Minutes – 40 

Successes – Honestly, that I even got through it today. But then I remembered that I had had so many successes this week and I have already made it halfway and there is no point in giving up now.

Areas for improvement – Getting enough sleep each night. 

Notes: I did get out of the house for an hour today to work with the lovely Christie Carter on my Henry the IV monologue. I have been struggling with it and she was so helpful. I wanted to give a little thank you to her for that because I really appreciated that. It was miserably hot and I was a tired/sick mess so, thank you, dude for doing that for me! 



Okay, finally, as I have been promising for the last three or four days, here are the posts about the charitable deeds...


Charitable Deed Number 1


Delivering food to women who live in the "International Zone" at the La Mesa Presbyterian Church. Every other Tuesday, a friend I know through my job at the law office takes food from Ned's on the Rio Grande to Hispanic women who live in what we all know as the "War Zone" on the south side of Central. The city is now trying to rename this area of the city to the "International Zone." The La Mesa Presbyterian Church holds a meeting every other Tuesday for young Hispanic mothers who live area of town to help them get their children into school, provide them with food, clothes, homes, etc. What I helped with on Tuesday was picking up the food from Ned's on the Rio Grande and delivering it to their meeting at the church. 

First we stopped at Ned's on the Rio Grande to pick up the Tacos, beans, rice, chips, salsa, and garnish for the meeting. It took a few trips to load the food. It also took a few different times tries trying to arrange the trays in the car before we figured out which way made the most sense. ha. 

dramatic salsa spill! 

... which made us 15 minutes late... 

Once we got to the church we helped unload the food and serve it to the women at the meeting. Since we were late I didn't want to interrupt their meeting to take any actual pictures with myself and any of the women but when I go back next week I will make sure them add to my blog! It was a great experience for my first charitable deed, and it was interesting to go into the "War Zone" because I definitely don't go there under normal circumstances, and it made me very grateful for all the nice things that I have in my life. 

Charitable Deed Number 2

Homeless Court

On Wednesday, I volunteered at The Bernalillo Metropolitan County Court Homeless Court with Naomi Salazar. This was by far one of the most eye opening experiences I have had since I have been working in the defense community in the last two years. The Homeless Court is set up at the Saint Martin's Homeless Shelter in the back room. 

St. Martin's Homeless Shelter is on Third Street and Mountain, downtown just down the street from the Metro Courthouse not far from where I work. I heard about this opportunity from my friend Naomi Salazar, a defense attorney who represents the homeless people who are required to appear at Homeless Court at St. Martins. Homeless Court was originally set up by Judge Victoria Grant as an alternative to regular court for the Homeless people in Bernalillo County. Homeless people who are regularly attending drug or alcohol counseling, have some steady form of income, and have a place to stay, can come to court and have prior misdemeanor charges worked out with the judge so they can be put on the right track towards sobriety and a better life. 

I helped Naomi with asking her clients all the preliminary questions once they got to the shelter: 

1. How long have you been in counseling?

2. Do you have a steady income, how much, how often, etc.

3. Where do you live?

4.Do you have social security?
5. Food stamps?


The interesting thing about Homeless Court was hearing the stories about people who had just recently been living on the streets and who had literally pulled themselves out of the gutter to try to make a better life for themselves. It made me think about how when I am stressing about the things I stress about there are people out there who have genuinely worse problems than I do. It really made me reevaluate life for the rest of the day.


I could only take pictures before court started because of the private nature of the cases, so unfortunately there are very few pictures for this one... I hope that's okay... 

Judge Benavidez's Secretary and Clerk before he entered the courtroom that was setup in the back of St. Martins Homeless Shelter

The courtroom, and Judge's Bench where Judge Edward Benavidez heard the Defendant's cases.

Day 15

Alright I know I have promised to blog about my charitable deeds for four or five days now but I keep running out of time and picking up more shifts at the bar... My blog today will only include my daily practice log and a healthy meal. I promise to blog about the charitable deeds tomorrow. I have been having a hard time uploading the pictures from my phone onto my computer and that is why it's been taking me so long to get everything up... I'm looking forward to seeing everyone at the two week brunch tomorrow! 


Daily Practice Session

Technical Concepts - After my private lesson with Kurt yesterday I got to record a new warm up! That was definitely exciting, because the old recording I had was starting to get a little boring... Lip trills, goo goo, yogi bear and baby cry exercises, mixing (my favorite), chest voice, middle voice, head voice, breathing/strengthening exercises.
Minutes - 40

Repertoire - Sarah Bareilles, Gravity and Chorus Line, Nothing
Minutes – 25

Successes – Finally have a show tune that will work for URTA auditions, also staring to get really comfortable with mixing in head voice.

Areas for improvement – During the breathing and strengthening exercises I need to remember to take the breaths low into my stomach like in yoga, not high and shallow.

Notes: Made sure to drink lots of water today.


Healthy Meal Number 13

Healthy Eating

Meal Description – Salad Bar, Spinach, tomatoes, tuna, two hard boiled eggs, broccoli, carrots, peppers, grapes, melon, grilled pineapple and blueberries.

Restaurant or Market – Whole Foods

Rating – 8/10

Day 14... My favorite/most productive day yet

As in the title, Day 14 has been my favorite so far. It has been so productive, considering I have literally had 6 hours of sleep in two days. As soon as I have finished blogging I am off to bed. I am really excited to be going to bed at 1030 tonight rather than barely starting my night at work. Hopefully I can wake up early, go to yoga, and then blog about and add pictures about the 3 charitable deeds from this week that I have been promising for the last three days.... Ok, here we go. DAY 14.


Healthy Meal Number 12

Meal Description – Chicken Caesar Salad with no croutons and vinaigrette dressing

Restaurant or Market – Costco (random but it's really good) and dressing from Whole Foods

Rating – 6/10 the chicken was cold. Like cold, cold. Should have thrown it in the microwave or something.

Daily Practice Session 
(Did this in the morning before I went to work and later had a Private Voice Lesson with Kurt)

Technical Concepts - Followed along with recorded warm up, lip trills, yogi bear and goo goo scales, mixing, chest voice, middle voice, head voice.
Minutes - 25

Repertoire - Sara Bareilles, Gravity
Minutes – 15

Successes – I'm starting to feel more comfortable with head voice and mixing. Breath support is also getting much better.

Areas for improvement – Just in general I don't function well when I don't get enough sleep and don't drink enough water. I really believe it directly effects my voice/singing.

Notes: Ready for new warm up exercises....


Today after work I had my first Private Lesson for this Challenge with Kurt. I felt like I got SO much done in such a short amount of time. Also, the picture is pretty ridiculous, and a true testament to why I will be going to bed as soon as I publish this post. If it wasn't completely necessary to post pictures as proof of our sessions, let's just say that I wouldn't be posting this picture on the internet. ha.


Private Lessons/Coaching Session Number 1

Date/time - January 14th, 2011, 6 p.m.

Instructor - Kurt Robinson
Minutes- 90 minutes

Repertoire - Sara Bareilles, Gravity

Points covered – Technical concepts throughout warmups, lip trills, goo goos, yogi bears, chest voice, middle voice, head voice, mixing. We recorded the entire session that way I could have new material to warm up to. We also went over new scales and breathing/strengthening exercises that I am really excited to start using tomorrow. We spent a lot of time on mixing, and head voice, and I felt like I have made a lot of progress in the two areas especially in just the last two weeks! 


We also spent a good amount of time discussing the show tune issue I have been having with my URTA audition, and started looking at character repertoire that is appropriate for my age and look. Tomorrow I will start playing around with Charlie Brown and Chorus Line. I finally feel like I am on the right track after a few days of wandering around aimlessly with no direction.

Notes: I never really expected to be so stressed out after graduating from college, but I honestly love what I do and sometimes I just need to take a deep breath and remind myself of that.