please don't stop the music

Catch-up time! Sooo.... in the last month or so, things have been (as usual) going a mile a minute. So, let's start at the beginning.

During our honeymoon I was asked to fill a now-vacant spot in the Jacksonville Symphony Orchestra's upcoming Opera, La Traviata. Upon returning home, I had approximately 2.5 weeks to rehearse and learn all the Italian before our big performance. It was a very whirlwind experience, but I had a lot of fun! Here are my costumes from the first and third acts. I was a Victorian Lady (with a capital L! I think that just means you are very rich...)




In this picture I hadn't yet put on my gloves, but just imagine black velvet elbow length gloves. :-) Check out how long/big my dress is!!!! It was soooo fun. It followed behind me at least 6 feet! I felt like Scarlett O'hara. hahaha...



First Act: watching the amazing Scott Piper (Alfredo) sing the famous Libiamo ne' lieti calici while I look on adoringly... ha!

Act Three: Gypsy song! I was picked (albeit randomly) to be a gyspy, had to wear a kinda scary looking mask, and luckily got to play a tamborine! woo hoo!


Awesomely hideous angry opera faces. We were supposed to look like that. ;-) Alfredo did a bad, bad thing.

Towards the end when Alfredo is learning his lesson that he messed up, but we are all sad because we know it won't end well...

This is actually during the dress rehearsal. We had to stop for a minute while the Orchestra worked on something. My dress was very hot... so I had to hike it up a bit. I had NO idea anyone was photographing us! Oops!


So, yeah for Opera. You get to sing loud, in italian, with as much over-dramatic gusto as you can muster. Fabulous!

So THEN right after the Opera, I had minor surgery to address some Ovarian cysts (or so they thought). Turns out I have Endometriosis, but the surgery went really well and my prognosis looks good. I actually just went to the Dr. yesterday and she gave me the all-clear as far as my recovery is concerned. So that is good. But anyways, had surgery. Felt Icky. THEN started to feel better just in time for our wedding present from Michelle...

A trip to see this dude in concert:

Michael Buble! It was very fun! Yeah for good music and nights out!!!

And here's a picture of my cute husband after the concert. I just had to include it. :-)

Somewhere in that week there was a Lunar Eclipse. I dragged myself off the recovery couch long enough to ghetto-rig our camera on top of my car to take this picture:

(not bad for an object that is 1.255 light-seconds away!)

AND THEN... we went to the beach with our good dog, Bella. Actually we went twice, last weekend and the one before. Good times! Yay for Springtime in the Florida Sunshine!

Bella likes to attack blankets. and paper. and fringe. and towels, obviously.



This was (for about 30 minutes while the tide was out) our own little private sand bar island! It was awesome! We waded out from the shore and let Bella run around and chase the birds. :-)



Happy dog and happy us. See you again soon!