i've been to the mountain, left my tracks in the snow

It was my birthday last Saturday. No, I'm not going to tell you how old I turned but I can say that it was the nicest birthday that I've had in years. For one thing, I didn't have a show that landed on my birthday this year, (thank freaking Jesus) two, I'm so glad that I got to actually spend time with my family that came down from Cold Lake just to see me and three, it was a day where I actually got to just relax for once.

For the past week, I've been just miserable beyond belief. From going to shows to my birthday to rehearsals to preparing for performances and a million other things, I have just been STRESSED out. Throw Christmas gift shopping on top of all of that too. Oh yeah, Christmas shopping sure is fun...who doesn't love an overcrowded mall and scrambling to grab that last thing on the shelf before that other bitch gets it? No but seriously, Christmas shopping is always best when done early.

I'd have to say that the thing I stressed the most about this past week was the Ross Sheppard Winter Concert that as many of you know, happened on Tuesday night. It was their first performance of the season and my first time sitting in a concert directing. (For Shep Singers) Holy hell, I was just a nervous wreck. But what did I really worry about anyways? They all did fantastic.

Ross Sheppard's annual Big Band Dinner and Dance is tonight though. My singer's soundcheck was scheduled for 2pm. At lunch I got them all warmed up and sent them on their way to the Aviation Museum on Kingsway Ave...my girls ended up coming back to the school 45 minutes later, upset and crying. I understand how stressful getting ready for performances can be. Especially when the sound check went horribly. It's fricken MISERABLE when nothing goes right. I love them with all of my heart, so then that situation caused me to stress and worry once again and we ended up running our "trouble" songs through once. Once was enough. I'm still so bummed out about not being about to attend Big Band to see them sing due to my own mandatory dress rehearsal, but I had faith in them and surely enough, my inbox was filled with positive text messages about how wonderful they sounded...you don't even know how relieved I feel right now.

My Shep Singers (from L to R) ShelbyLynn, Michelle, Leah, Bailey, Lexi and Joanna performing at Ross Sheppard's annual Big Band Dinner and dance

Now all I'm pretty much left with to worry about is Kokopelli's two big concerts (WinterSong) tomorrow at 2pm and 7pm which I'm actually also super excited for. It's been a lot of work...we have definitely been kicking our asses extremely hard and it's time to just let our hard work pay off. It also occured to me how funny it is when you work so hard at something, you feel the rush and you're living in the moment, then suddenly you realize that it goes by all too quickly. Next thing I know, we're going to be doing our Stories concert in February then we're on tour for the next three months after that. Everything goes by all too quickly. I cherish every living moment I get with the people that I love. Whether these are good moments or bad, these are the best times of my life and I intend to make the most out of it.

-chantalnguyen