Happy Birthday to Me!

 During the run of Rigoletto my website hit counter was ticking like crazy. To know that people were returning home from the performance and ‘googling’ me gave me a surge of deep satisfaction. Seeing my name on posters all around town also filled me with a sense of pride, and of course the reactions from the audience after each show were very flattering and at the same time reassuring. 

    Now, a couple weeks later, the Rigoletto posters have been covered up by something new - this week’s movie schedule, the Main River Festival, the Backstreet Boys in concert (yeah, I did a double-take on that one as well). Apart from a few stray clicks, my beautiful website has been left virtually untouched. It’s hard to believe that the production I’d been looking forward to since last fall has come and gone. 

    To make matters worse, it’s my birthday today. Birthdays, like website hit counters, are just numbers, reminding us to tally up our accomplishments. Just today, as a matter of fact, I was sitting in the waiting room at the dentist’s office flipping through a women’s magazine and came across “30 Things You Should Definitely Do Before Your 30th Birthday.” I think I’d only done one of them - get a Brazilian wax - and that since turning 30. 

    Does this mean that if I haven’t fulfilled a certain task by a certain time that I should just give up on it all together? Do my wishes have to have an expiration date? Do my goals have to be the same as yours? If I haven’t sung at the Met by the time I’m 38, well, I can just forget about this silly singing business. If I haven’t had a child by the time I’m 42, I should just get me to a nunnery. If I haven’t won a game of bingo by the time I’m 67, go ahead and order me that plot at the cemetery. According to freundin magazine, my life is over. But heck, if a Backstreet Boy can still go on tour, anything can happen.

    Tallying up my score for this year, there was a lot left undone, to be sure. Much to my surprise, even though it seems that things aren’t much different, apparently I’ve accomplished quite a lot since my last birthday. 

• I moved to a new town to start a new phase of my life, met new people who encourage, inspire and influence me.

• I had four singing gigs (one major operatic role, one challenging artistic endeavor, and two smaller operatic roles). Oh wait - actually five gigs if you count singing a program of Gershwin songs in a hotel lounge in return for a five-star buffett (please, sir, can I have some more? Why, yes!); six if you count a benefit concert in Barcelona (did I mention Barce-f*ckin’-lona?); seven if you count singing “Oh Holy Night” on Christmas Eve at the church down the street; eight if you count singing Dolly Parton songs with a banjo player in an apple orchard.

•I started doing Bikram yoga. (Speaking of timelines for accomplishments, it was Bikram Choudhury who said - "It's never too late, you're never too old, you're never too sick to start from scratch once again.") 

• I started writing this blog.

If every year is like this year, I will be one happy woman.

Bring on the next birthday!!