I got a snow day

Not today. Today is Saturday. But on Tuesday, I did not have to go to work because of ice and snow. And Wednesday was pretty nasty too, so Thomas got to stay home too. It was really good to have two very profitable and relaxing days, but now I am all mixed up and can't quite get it into my head that it is the weekend.

However, because of the snow days, or should I say ice days, yesterdays activities involved chopping away at 2-3 inches of ice in the walk around our house. We live in a half double, but we cannot access the sidewalk around our side of the house because of our deck. So we use the walk around our neighbor's side of the house. It had not yet been shoveled, but I heard our neighbor, Mrs. Helen, out there chopping away at the ice. So I went out. I started at the back, and she at the front. In the front part, there was mostly snow then ice, making it very heavy. On my end... and inch or so of ice for about five feet, then about two feet of of 3 inch ice. We chopped and hacked away at the ice, getting rid of it layer by layer with the help of ice-melt. There is still a patch about the size of a dinner plate that must have dripped from her gutter that we gave up on. My back, legs, and arms were sore; I can only imagine how exhausted she was, poor lady. But we had a pleasant time talking with one another.

I also practiced my voice piece for a bit yesterday. It is "L'amour est un oiseau rebelle" from Carmen. The chromatics and breath control are difficult, but the French is definitely the hardest part. I love it, now that I am beginning to understand the phonics of it, but it is so hard to remember how to pronounce everything on top of the timing and chromatics and breath control.

I realized again how much I love languages. See, this is my problem with considering further schooling. I love theater, but if I were to go back to school, I would want to study languages to become an interpreter or translator or just someone who could speak, like millions of, languages. It is so amazing that a combination of sounds mean something to those who speak that language, but mean absolutely  nothing to me. And it is so beautiful the way languages tell you so much about a culture. And if I could speak other languages, think how many more people I could communicate with.

This "communication" is at the center of all my loves. I love to teach; why? because of the communication and relationships that form, the knowledge that is shared, and the wonder that is instilled. I love theater for similar reasons, and I love languages for their ability to do the same thing. Beauty through words and movement and relationship...

One of my favorite children's stories is Miss Rumphius written and illustrated by Barbara Cooney. In it a little girl says she wants to travel the world and see many things, but then come home and live by the sea.

"That is all very well, little Alice," says her grandfather, "but there is a third thing you must do."
"What is that?" asked Alice.
"You must do something to make the world more beautiful," said her grandfather.
"All right," said Alice. But she did not know what that could be.

And she does. She does a simple thing that makes the world more beautiful.

"'All right,' I say. But I do not know yet what that can be."