Long time no post

So it's been a while since I've posted. The blogs have fallen relatively silent, and we all go on in our busy ways.

2011 was a good year to say the least. Once again, full of changes and new things - most notably Luca's birth and every day of his growth and development into the little boy he is becoming. The end of the year was great - visits to Cincinnati/Springfield where many people got to meet him for the first time, and then capped off with a holiday trip to North Carolina where we had a remarkably relaxing week.

2012 has not started off quite so well... I replaced the furnace in Oakley (it went out with a cracked heat exchange/carbon monoxide leak on New Years Eve) and then the day it was installed (Wednesday), our furnace went out here in the house we are renting. Fortunately it is Florida, so the cold is not as brutal as Ohio's 18 degrees, but the house is barely insulated... so it was cold. Wouldn't have been a big deal for us, but we worried about Luca.

I am singing again - which is great. I joined the St Petersburg Opera (in the chorus, nothing big), but our first concert in December was the first half of La Boheme (See also: This Post) It's a small company, but one that cares about good musicality. I had a little two-line solo, and it felt good - My first performance in an opera since 2002. Oddly enough, one of the soloists was in the chorus with me in Cincinnati in 2002. It is, indeed, a small world. The next performance is Camille Saint-Saëns Samson et Delila - which - also coincidentally enough, is the first professional opera I ever sang. So it sort of feels like a little bit of a musical restart for me, which was very much needed. I forgot how much I love the power of the human voice and good singing.

We'll see what 2012 brings... Laura and I have some definite goals for the year, but - as I've learned - we are going to leave ourselves open to what the year brings and see where that leads us.

Wishing you all (my massive, burgeoning readership) a happy and healthy New Year.