eight more sleeps ...

... until the Handel, Bach, and now Telemann concert.

And sleep has been much better in the past couple of days, as things slowly get crossed off the list. Program notes - done, lecture on Anglican church music - done, reference letter, done, bios and photos collected and sent off to the program designer, done. Everything else that needs to be done is the hands of the Business Manager, so I can concentrate on the music only for the next week.

We had a close call this week though, which added to my insomnia on Tuesday night. My Sop I soloist called me on Tuesday with NO VOICE (none, barely a whisper, complete laryngitis!) Luckily, my Sop II soloist was prepared to understudy her solos, and a soprano in my choir was prepared to take on the few bars in the 6th movement, and the longer duet on the 7th of the Dixit. The contingency plan wasn't ideal, but it was going to be fine. Since then however, my Sop I has recovered, so all is well. We ran through one of the duets in the Bach yesterday, and she sounded near top form - so with eight more days, she'll be her usual perfect self.

Adding things to my plate is not something I really want to do this week, but the director of the Symphonic choir is going away for two weeks, leaving me to prep and rehearse on Tuesday night a whole lot of music I don't know - including a "work in progress" that is riddled with mistakes right now. It is also choir where the note learning process can be quite tedious, and tiring. However, I will survive.

I also agreed to sub in for a curling game on Wednesday night for a team that I used to play on for the past two years. It will help my "30 minutes of exercise" a day though, as I will have to play front end, which will require a fair amount of sweeping. What's curling you ask? It's just another bit of evidence that I am indeed Canadian. Speaking of which, I better go outside and plug in the car's block heater, it's -40 again.