Reclaiming the Ice Cream Sandwich

This (Saturday) morning N headed off to Christ Church for a meeting and Battell for an Ilya continuo audition, and I was left to fend for myself breakfast-wise.  He insists he has plenty of food, but my findings were slim (cheese? juice?) so instead I had an ice cream sandwich.  This wasn't just any ice cream sandwich, though - he'd gotten me a box of them as a gift during Music Man time in early August, and of course they couldn't come along to Montreal with me.  So having one today was especially amusing since I've been begrudgingly/happily hearing about it every time he eats one of my ice cream sandwiches, but now I'm here to reclaim them!

The second thing I did this morning was throw some ingredients into Chris's bread maker and start a little baking project.  It's so fun to be here with nothing to do but relax!  Now N and I are off to the farmer's market on State St., and some lunch too.  Love!

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Ahh.  Now it's Sunday, and winding down at that.  Yesterday ended up much more relaxed than any day in my recent personal history - we checked out the farmer's market and N bought some creamy potato-leek soup, then we had a great breakfast at the smallest-ever two-person table at The Pantry.  N had a shortstack of banana pancakes with forktinesfull of butter, and I had an onion bagel slathered in cream cheese (too much I said!  Never too much, N said!) with some Canadian bacon (ha!) on the side.  Halfway through the meal we noticed a new poster up, right next to the table, for the Ottowa Jazz Festival...and along with the bacon, I couldn't help but feel like Canada was chiding me a bit for deserting on such short notice.  But the home-ness of New Haven has really done something for perspective, and Montreal newness will still be there when I'm back tomorrow night.

The rest of Saturday was spent with little errands, checking out bedframes at Ikea with N, picking up a couple things at Sash's and my favorite little Walgreen's, and treating ourselves to the homemade pretzels I made (some cinn/sugar, some kosher salt, some garlic salt) and a little champagne N got for my visit / end of auditions / for Chris White's first week of teaching classes.  Also down Memory Lane included dinner pickup from Ivy Noodle (the best steamed Chinese broccoli with oyster sauce, ever!) and fortune cookies in the true, college-reminiscent what-am-I-doing-with-my-life fashion.  N had some work to do and I caught up with Ma, after which point we watched a good portion of the A&P church xmastime sing-in (on VHS, provided by Conrad) and finished off champagne; then early to bed early to rise, since Noah had his first Sunday as organ scholar and co-choral director at Christ Church New Haven.  !

Sunday N went off to two Xchurch services, while I slept in, did a little reading, and then walked downtown to surprise Mixed Company, my college a cappella group, with a visit.  Only one person, Ian Janer, knew that I'd be around, so it felt especially stealthy; what I wasn't anticipating was the actual act of walking around Yale campus as a completely unaffiliated person.  Granted some of my perceptions became sentimentalized - what I might've described as my "preferred route" became now in my mind my "favorite way to walk downtown," etc. - but it was certainly an interesting feeling.  I stumbled into Saybrook, my old residential college, barely behind someone who'd swiped their ID card in, and was flooded with memories of each of three dorm rooms there with Sash, Liubin, Agnes, Cari...not to mention all the memories and mystery of the tower and the feeling of being in the hammocked courtyard again, right next to the 3x/day dining hall.  Right as I passed through SY and into Branford I just so happened to see an old friend, Arden, reading Shakespeare's "A Winter's Tale" on the steps, who then of course got up and told me all about how he's dramaturging this show and how he was sick last week and had hallucinatory dreams and ahhh why am I here and for how long!?  It was a lot of fun to experience what I so well remember as the Yale overachiever overenthusiast way of life...how I wish some McGill singers would get over themselves and be more this way!  Anyway, right as we parted ways, Mixed Co went on lunch break and happened to be walking through Branford, right towards me...and the reaction was completely priceless.  Scott Hillier particularly bowled through the group and picked me up and it was so great and fun to be with them all again; since they were on break Scott and Ian and I went to Booktrader for Tempestos and iced vanilla chai, and caught up a little bit before we went back to the audition space, and I filled out an auditionee form with various inside jokes and MixedCo references.

I was introduced to the group by the rush managers just as any other auditionee would be, and then sang my original audition song from (AHH) five years ago, "Angel Eyes," plus various other silly things (impressions of a few group members throughout gump history, the Cranberries, Alanis Morisette, etc.).  It was lots of fun, and almost even better was getting to sit for an adorable audition - a real live freshman, only a little scared out of his mind, clutching a bottle of Yale water and singing "Somewhere Over the Rainbow."  Luckily though he was very good, and I even got to go sing the "How the Scenery Changes" shoe part with a quartet.  If BK is reading this, I still love that song!

At this point it was a little after 1:30, so I didn't want to keep N waiting downtown; said some sad goodbyes and headed to the department where he'd been practicing for a little while after church.  He said the YBOP crew were having a meeting on the first floor, and that I should say hi, so of course I stopped in - but the reaction was so horribly different than the other I'd just received, "What are *you* doing here, aren't you supposed to be in Montreal?"  The only person who was genuinely happy to see me was Prof. Lalli, so I gave him a quick hug and kiss and left feeling not unlike chopped liver.  I'm sure what with the final year of the project, everyone is incredibly stressed with the start of a schoolyear and the auditions going on, not to mention it seemed like all the most important people were there working hard and concentrating; so I didn't let it bother me.  Needless to say the stress and exhaustion of last year's jobs meant something very different than four years of a cappella friendships, so all that really mattered was seeing Lalli and his happy smile of greeting.

N and I embarked on a few errands, then decided to do something a little spontaneous and silly:  in honor of his recent trip to Germany/Austria, and both of our loves of German / cold beer on hot days, we went to a hilarious restaurant outside of Berlin CT that specialized in German food/drink.  Huge liter mugs and silly hats abounded, not to mention dirndled waitresses and ridiculous food portions.  Noah went for the mushroom-gravy Schnitzel with fruit cup and salad and spätzle and banana creme, and I had scallops with spätzle and fruit cup and salad and apple pie (to go).  So much food!  We had a good time, though I'll admit I was letting some McGill stuff gnaw at me; a friend, Clayton, was going to go to the department in Montreal and check the opera cast lists for me, but hadn't gotten a chance yet, so I felt really caught in between (not to mention, there was an Opera McGill meeting scheduled for Tuesday morning, and if I got into the opera I'd need to be there; if not I could stay another day in New Haven and take a Tuesday morning rideshare).  So N was good to talk me through those thoughts and fears, and we drove the 45 min home after a long leisurely meal.

Upon returning home, the email said one new - Facebook, from a new countertenor friend at McGill.  "Hey girly, cast lists are up, you're Agrippina and Dido cover."  And that was it!  Rideshare for Monday afternoon, and opera this semester.  Handel's Agrippina only has a few female characters, and I've never had a title role before; Dido is a role I've never expected to play since I've always been more a Belinda, but okay!  Even though this sends my schedule into a complete messy frenzy, and I've already begun to send emails for meetings with administrators and phone conferences with group directors, I'm glad to be getting a chance to sing with McGill Opera this year.  Whew.

Anyway, N had to practice so I brought along some work, and did reading in the ISM while he holed away for a little while; we got to see Arianne briefly (yay!) and I met a couple new Yale organists.  We just barely made it out in time to get to Criterion to see Julie and Julia, which I really enjoyed (esp. the onion chopping scene), and we got more popcorn and drink than any six people could consume, let alone two.  N had Monday morning class so it was again early to bed, but I was so glad we got to see that movie together, and it was the end to a great day.

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Today, Monday, was my last day in New Haven and last chance to relax before returning to an ever-faster-paced Montreal life.  So, when N got up early, I did too - answered emails, called Dashon to make a lunch plan, and even got to see Derek Greten-Harrison briefly who dropped off music to me and gave me the lowdown on Emma Kirkby coming to Yale in October (AHH I really want to go!).  N got home and we went downtown to have a short lunch with Dashon at Bulldog Burrito (so good to see him!), and we also got to see Panetti (love her) and Casey B (¡¡hooray!!).  We snooped in Xchurch a little then said goodbye to Dashon, and headed up to West Rock to just relax and walk around, and say goodbye.  New Haven is still stuck in summertime, not to mention full of people and places and things that represent my past; comforting and comfortable as all that may be, it was time to go.  There's something less disturbing and more reassuring (yet definitely quite a bit of both) about the fact that life moves inexorably forward, and Yale/New Haven goings-on move at the same pace as they would with or without me.  Neither will Montreal have paused!  I do hope that my lilies on the dining room table have stayed hardy, and that the weather hasn't gotten too much more autumnal. 

N dropped me off at the same meeting point off of 87 to ride back with Abbie and Phil, and it's been largely uneventful - a little reading, a little napping, a lot of leftover popcorn consumption.  Soon we'll hit the border and hopefully avoid a long wait, not to mention work through Abbie's lack of passport (! luckily she has a permanent residence card and health card, or some such, and lots more proof of Quebec residency than of American citizenship).  I'll start with real lessons, opera, church job, and real homework this week, so there's not too little to do (...why do I ever worry about that??...); but there's a certain relaxing quality about learning where to work and study in a new place, so I'm hoping to use that as a balancing beam plus add a little more socializing.  Wish me luck!

Love,
Estelí