So, for the next 5 days, Dr. Brenner and his wife, who've come all the way from Germany, are visiting the DePauw School of Music.  Both highly accomplished musicians, Dr. Brenner is a distinguished director who's worked with all of the big names in opera, and his wife had an impressive opera career and has been teaching voice students for 34 years.  

To get to the point, they're amazing.

Today, I had the pleasure of working with both of them, an experience I'll never forget, and the feedback I got was exactly what I needed to hear after having such a rough sophomore year.  In my coaching, after hearing/watching me, Frau Brenner said that I was excellent, and in the staging of the scene, Dr. Brenner seemed to be really pleased with how quickly we picked things up.  

To get that kind of feedback, even the unspoken kind, was completely rewarding after spending a year in the wings.  It made me feel like I didn't miss out on a year of singing, and that I might be close to where everyone else is vocally.

I might be able to do this :)

Prof. Jay White also stopped me in the hall today to tell me that he thought I sounded really good at my proficiency.  I love that man. 

It's hard to believe that I very nearly had a nervous breakdown after biology this morning, considering today has really turned out to be a good day for my self-esteem.

... it's been awhile...

I passed my proficiency. 

So, last weekend, my lesson was canceled, because my voice teacher was recovery from surgery.  Anyway, now this weekend has come around and his wife just called me at 7:45am to tell me that she had to take him to the hospital last night, my lesson would have to be rescheduled, and he'd call me later...

Oh, Dr. Irwin, I really hope you're okay!

Last week, we found a large bump on my dogs face.  We took him to the vet on Monday, and there's 50% chance that it's a melignant tumor - that means cancer, and that's bad.  It's too far back to be an absessed tooth, but they said it might be a pollup.  They gave us anti-biotics in case it's an infection, but they haven't made any difference.  They also tested a sample of the lump, but it was inconclusive.  He goes in tomorrow for futher testing.  We'll see... It's just so unfair, because he's so oblivious - nothing is wrong with him otherwise.  And we never would have known if I hadn't groomed him last week.

I'm worried about my puppy :(