City livin'

Well now, yesterday was quite different than I expected - never a dull moment! I mentioned that Tuesday was a long trek across town, but didn't specify the goal: well, I had found some pesky moths in my apartment Monday, specifically meal moths who like to eat flour etc. I had dealt with these extensively at Noah's last year, so I recognized them immediately and sprung to action...hence, walking so far. I walked all the way out to Home Depot, only to find they had neither one of the two kinds of meal moth traps listed online...frustrating. Then went to "Canadian Tire," their competitors: nothing.

So, overall the day was a success, but the search for traps was less so. I bought some general catch-creepy-crawlies traps and put them around, just to see; and also tried to order mothtraps online, but they were back-ordered. So I resigned myself to just cleaning all day, which I started early on yesterday, having gotten up early even after going to bed late - motivatedstelí! But, as I was putting together a packet of music to practice today/tomorrow when I'm downtown, I saw some movement under the corner coffeetable...I'm totally imagining things, I tell myself, since I've been looking everywhere for bugs...but no, I looked again, and it was a mouse. I moved closer and he scurried into the fireplace, at which point I fled the apartment, rang the girl downstairs, Ginny, who's lived here a while, and politely freaked out. She didn't seem surprised; there had been a mouse a couple years ago, but a neighbor's cat got it; another few years back, she set a trap and, well, yes.

Ginny was very kind and invited me into her apartment, talked to me about this area of Montreal and how old it is even if the internal stuff has been redone, so hence, summer critters. I can't say it was a relaxing conversation (especially when she had an encyclopedic knowledge of bedbugs...ahh!) but it did provide me with some solid information and good rational back-and-forth, something I'd have lacked just wringing my hands alone upstairs. She also gave me the name of a great church choir I should look into, which was encouraging, and the name of a cooking/home supply store very nearby which would have (sigh) mousetraps.

I had to rush off to my meeting with the bank, at which I was still a little flustered but asked many many questions and successfully opened up the chequing account, and applied for the credit card. Next was the store for mouse traps, but I also bought two well-insulated glass jars for flour, some stainless steel wipes for cleaning, and a beautiful checkerboard-style wood cutting board that was on sale from $20 to $10. I'm glad the things I "impulse buy" when stressed are usually actually useful!

Headed home and guardedly began the cleaning process, breaking down any more boxes I had on the back porch, sweeping the floor then vacuuming, shaking out mats and carpets, finding trinkets in odd places and getting rid of the unnecessary. I'd completely forgotten to eat all day, so I also made pasta with sausage and pesto and ate between tasks, another of the tasks then being dishwashing. Ginny had graciously called her boyfriend Dave when I was there and asked if he might help set up mousetraps, so he came over at 5:45 right as I was about to start mopping - good timing. He was also incredibly helpful and friendly, and promised to come help if he was around when I heard the "snap" - something I'd been most worried about. Baited with peanut butter, we set four traps around the apartment, and he kindly asked me to come down to their place for dinner tonight. I am lucky to have such nice neighbors!!

Within all this mouse business was still the stalking of any possible moths - and I did find one, when standing on a coffeetable cleaning dusty eaves, so I tried to nab it with my papertowel. Failure - he flew straight into my face, at which point I prioritized not-falling over keeping my eye on him, so I was frustrated to lose sight of him. I then found him perched on the wall in my room above my wardrobe - far too far for me to reach even on a chair - so I thought, maybe Dave can help with this later. Failure again! He had flown away when I checked back a little later. Finally, mid-cleaning I was on the phone with my parents talking through they day and bank stuff, when he actually emerged from somewhere and flew in my face. "I see the moth, call back!" as I hung up on parents...he was flying terribly, likely from the ceiling fan wind, and was thus hard to spot, but finally he steadied on a wall and I *got* him. Kill the Beast! I liked to imagine him as "the last one" (there have only been I think four in total, but enough), just as I hoped that of the disgusting silverfish I killed at about 2:45am trying to scurry under my bed before sleep - nosir! I had to deal with the unsettled feeling of having killed something right before bed, but, I told myself, better than the high-stress feeling of knowing he's crawling around in my sheetmusic.

But, after a trying day, I found a few encouraging things in the evening to shush my internal worriedness about mousetrap snaps and annoying moths and icky silverfish: first of all, the church that Ginny had recommended was St. Andrew and St. Paul on Bishop/Sherbrooke, which apparently has a fantastic choir that does things on the radio for xmastime, etc. What do I find in my McGill email inbox last night, but an email from the music directors of that same church - "Based on conversation with your future teacher, Sanford Sylvan, we would like to invite you to audition." Even better? The excerpt to prepare is Bach B minor "Et in terra pax" solo (the B minor Mass was the work I just spent a lot of time with, on the Schola China/Korea tour in May). How unbelievably serendipitous, no?

And lastly, I was looking through the few sheets of music I'd set aside, which included some reference materials on vocal health, neck/back stretches, and music philosophy/rhetoric. Two years ago I had had an amazing, life-changing experience at the Vancouver Early Music festival Baroque Programme, having just returned from an equally life-changing two months studying voice and German in Bavaria. I had a little green notebook of quirky phrases ("auditioning people is like choosing avocados") and personal thoughts, generalizations and summaries for myself about music and life and things I had learned over such a busy and challenging summer. I was much more relieved than miffed to discover that certain things "learned" can often require a lot of reminder, to be lived with day-to-day; so I read the phrase my two-years-past self instructed, and felt better to know how well it applies now, and to realize a need to just say "yes" to the process of it all.

"Check your availability, your capacity for change, your blindspots. Learn to be happy with the excitement of not knowing what tomorrow brings."

Love,
E