Why I Love Being a Musician

I popped "Piazza" back in the car's cd player. I think it has surpassed "Last 5 Years" as my favorite show. I really do. As much as I loved L5Y and what an intense, amazing cello book it has, Piazza is just....swoony. There's no other way to describe it. It's lush and sweeping. It's heartwrenching and beautiful. And when I listen to it I'm instantly transported to playing it 2 summers ago. I can remember all the little nuances in the score. I can remember all the little moments when Susan and I'd peek at each other enjoying a little string duet. I can remember emitting a little tiny 'yehaw' when Donna and I made it through that perilous, rhythmic passage.

Now I'm listening to the soundtrack from "The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee" which I'll be doing in February. It's a teeny pit. Lots of delicious cello lines. Lots of hysterically funny lyrics and wildly outrageous characters. But there's a song. "The I Love You Song". It brings tears to my eyes every time I listen to it. It's heartbreakingly gorgeous and sad and touching. I can't wait to play it. And fall in love with another cello book.

And the beauty is.....

So I've been absent for a while. I had a rather large life change. I got a new job. A. New. Job. I was at my old job for 9 years. Nine. Years. Longer than I had been in both high school and college. Longer than I had been anywhere. Needless to say, it was a bit of an adjustment. I don't do quite so well with change. I had a hard time saying goodbye to the friends I had made there. These are people who saw me get married, battle cancer and have a baby. These are people who sent me food and flowers when I was sick, danced with me at my wedding and visited my son after he was born. I had known every in and out of my job. I had answers for any problem that would come up. I was told by the chair of the board of trustees that I was one of the 2 people she would go to when she had a question no one could answer.

My new job is at Hofstra University. The. Hofstra. University. The place I spend weeks at a time when ensconced in a show there. My office is IN the playhouse. The playhouse I've played at countless times. I step out of my office (and a cute, happy office it is), go up a few stairs and I'm standing in the balcony of the theatre. I love it.

So, as sad as I was to leave said old job, I'm happy as a clam. My new co-workers are incredibly nice, there's tons of possibility for me to do good things there and I'm already feeling productive.

As Little Red sings in "Into the Woods": "(It) made me feel scared, Well, excited and scared." I hear those lyrics in my head each day I've parked in the lot next to the playhouse.

Excited and scared is a good place to be I think.