beginnings, admissions, and love

We did it! Colman's Well, my (mostly) vocal trio that's been rehearsing weekly since September, actually performed last night. And it was so much fun!

But not just that: we did a house concert in the beautiful home of The Sisters (one of whom is aka Froggoddess, of previous mention in this blog), Curly and Mr. Blue Eyes, some of the most beautiful people I know. And the room was full of people I love, many of whom didn't know that I sing, and all of whom are real music lovers. It was such a joy to share this music with them and trust that they would willingly follow us on the somewhat meandering and occasionally weird journey through our eclectic musical tastes and tendencies. It was such an amazing way to start out on our performance path.

Our next concert is this Sunday in Leverett, MA (near Amherst). If you live around there, you should come! It's another house concert, 4:30pm.

Which brings me to the admission... See, I was all excited about the Polar Plunge, right? And I was pushing you to give me money, and getting all jazzed for the fun of the road trip to Boston and the incredible physical shock of 33 degree salt water. But then we discovered that they've pushed back the Plunge time from noon to 1pm. And plunging at noon, sprinting through the hot shower and hot chocolate queues (aka The Thaw), jumping in the car and busting our butts back home so that I could be ready to perform at 4:30 in rural western MA was going to be, um, exciting. But plunging at 1:00, etc., etc. and being ready to perform in Leverett at 4:30pm would be, um, totally impossible.

So, friends, it is with heavy heart that I announce my resignation from the 2008 DIAL/SELF Polar Plunge team. And it is with some curiosity that I take a step back and ask what it says about me that I am truly bummed that I don't get to drive 2.5 hours each way to jump into the freezing cold (and, might I say, smelly) ocean for 30 seconds? But regardless of that, DO NOT FEAR: your contributions, generous as I'm sure they have been, will still go to DIAL/SELF Teen Services and the other excellent (and undoubtedly underfunded) organizations supported by the New England Network. The checks I received in the mail have been handed over to our fearless team captain, and I called the Network to make sure that any online pledges in my name will still be counted toward our team total. There's also a possibility of an Acting Rachel plunging in my place. And I promise to jump into really cold water at some point and put photos of it on here.

And now for the love: I throroughly adore the poetry and artwork of Brian Andreas, and encourage you to go right now to www.storypeople.com to see it for yourself. While I've signed up for and then quickly begun to ignore a number of daily email listserves over the years (word of the day, anyone?), after several months I still love opening my email every morning to a new StoryPeople poem, even though I've read most of them at some point before. This one, waiting in my inbox this morning, just made me so happy, because it probably describes the relationships (past, present and/or future) of so many of us (gendered pronouns notwithstanding). It certainly doesn't have any current relevance in my life, but you never know what - or who - is around the corner.

Possible Love by Brian Andreas
She learned to love him before he
thought it was even possible, so
he didn't have a chance to hide &
mess it up & while it was a little scary
at times, mainly he could not even
imagine the world without her there.

Happy almost-Valentines Day...

(And please don't sue me for copyright infringement, Mr. Andreas. I am definitely not making any money off this blog.) (Unless anyone wants to give me money for this blog, in which case please go ahead, but don't tell Brian Andreas.)