Nothing But Fancy

Tomorrow I will experience a miracle, I am getting bladeless lasik surgery and will have 20/20 vision without contacts or glasses!

Do you remember in elementary school when they would line you up in the cafeteria or library for a vision and ear test?  Until the fifth grade, I would stand in line and memorize the eye chart.  The line would always swing around close enough to catch a glimpse of the last 3 rows, so that when it came time to cover one eye, I would pass my sight test with flying colors!  Like all good teacher’s pets, I sat in the front of the room so there was never a problem reading the board.

I lived my childhood never really seeing leaf definition in the trees or being able to recognize people from far away… I DIDN’T CARE, because I didn’t have to be a dork in glasses.

Somehow in middle school, I was assigned to a mid to back row and could no longer function in class without seeing the board.  I remember going to the optometrist and getting my eyes tested, hoping with all my might that somehow, just by visiting the eye doctor, I would be fixed and not have to wear glasses.  Before I went in to be tested, mom helped me pick out a few pairs that looked “nice.”  When the doctor wrote my prescription for glasses I freaked.  Tears streamed from my eyes that immediately became red and puffy!  In that moment, it didn’t matter what the glasses looked like, I knew it would be terrible no matter what, so I ended up with huge, ugly circle glasses that tented in the sun and didn’t change back when I came inside for at least 5 minutes.  They were terrible.

Luckily, when I entered 7th grade mom let me wear contacts!  They couldn’t be colored because she loves my baby poop, yellow, brown, green eyes, but I didn’t care because I got rid of the retched things!

I have worn contacts ever since and have only slept in them about 2 nights in my whole life.  Disposable, pieces of plastic rubbing my cornea day after day and the insertion, removal and care was always something that merited the greatest care.  I am amazed by contacts and thankful for their invention, but eventually it got to be too much, my eyes would protest every second of it, until months ago when I became a full time glasses wearer.

Tomorrow I will experience a miracle!!  I will be able to see 20/20 without glasses or contacts!  It will be one of the best decisions I have ever made in my life.

With my new improved eyes, here is a list of things I hope I NEVER take for granted:

To wake up and see the time on my alarm clock from ½ way across the room.
To play the piano in my glasses and see my fingers out of my peripheral, heck, to have peripheral vision!
To shave my legs in the shower and not miss a HUGE patch of hair because I can’t see it.
To never be frustrated when I can’t tell the difference between 1 and 2 at the optometrist.
To watch a movie without having to lick my finger and stick it in my eye to unstuck my contact.
The fact that my eyes will not look like tiny beads behind my glasses.
To never feel on every surface to find my glasses, or get frustrated and ask someone else to find them, just so I can see enough to do a menial morning or night time task.
To sweat without my glasses falling down my face and get rid of the constant acne around the bridge of my nose.
To never worry about the corneal thickness, curvature, and surface regularity or feel the effects.
To perform without being able to see people face’s because my contact is dry or out of focus.
To lay in bed and see the white dots on the roof and for shadows to have definition in the dark.

But alas, I have taken for granted my ability see at all, my whole life, and will probably take this miracle for granted too.  HOWEVER, tonight the prideful little girl who squinted her whole childhood and the grown girl obsessed with quality and  efficiency will be thankful and rejoice for the legally blind will see!

Today I taught beginning music theory and piano to musicians in Ecuador as a teacher with Músico a Músico a group that travels the globe conducting four day Congresos focusing on the worship life of musicians and artists.  It is the first time I have taught music with a translator. 

There are a few fascinating things about Latin American music understanding, such as the names of notes in both pitch and rhythm.  The names for note duration in Spanish are: Whole = Redonda (rounded), Half = Blanca (white), Quarter = Negra (black), and Eighth = Corchea (??).    Therefore explaining that half note is 1/2 of a whole note is a bit more complected when the note name is a color and not a geometry term.  Then explaining that to my non-musical, but wonderful translator was moi dificil!  Notes names for pitch in Spanish have two different names:  one for speaking and one for writing.  They write the letter names of the notes, but when they speak the names they use solfege.  The Do does not move with the key signature.  Do is always C, and in order to differentiate between the sharp and flat notes in a key signature such as key of F, one would say:  Fa, So, La, Si Bemol, Do, Ri, Mi and back to Fa.  For the key of G they would say:  Sol, La, Si, Do, Re, Me, Fa Sostenido and back to Sol.  But when they write them down on chord charts they know the letter names.  Very Interesting.

When teaching time signature today I was so excited to explain dotted notes, that I completely forgot that my students could not understand English!  When teaching in a different language the eyes are on you but the recognition of understanding is not there until it is translated.  So the whole time you are thinking… not a single person understands these concepts… but really they are waiting for the translation!  I finally asked the students to come to the board and fill in rhythms.  It reminded me of Sophomore year when Dr. Rodgers would make me come up and write secondary dominates on the board and I was nervous to make a mistake!  They caught on very well and I couldn’t help but be overjoyed to share one of the most important things in my life, music, with people who desparately want to learn.  And the purpose of their wanting to learn is to worship God with excellence!!  Absolutely FANTASTIC!!!

The members of the Músico a Músico team are incredible.  They are not only talented musicians, but they deeply love the Lord.  1/2 of us are bi-lingual and 1/2 of us only speak Spanish or English – It makes for very interesting rehearsals when the electric guitar player and second piano only speak Spanish and the lead vocal/piano/band director, acoustic guitar, drums, and myself (singer) only speak English.  The base, and 2 singers have to translate all the directions.  It was only by the grace of God that we sound half decent, let alone play with excellence together!  Its unbelievable how tight we sound… I can’t help but dance.  We sing in Spanish.  It has been wonderful to realize that making a sound is my worship, not what I say.  I will write more on that later . 

I am so thankful for this learning and teaching oppertunity!  Te Alabo!

I wrote an article about my Summer in NYC for my home town newspaper, The Lakeland Ledger, and they published it today!

http://www.theledger.com/article/20080816/NEWS/808170316/1326&title=Experiencing_A_New_York_Minute

(They even paid me!)

I was walking down the street to the subway (the 1 train) and I found a picture of my friend Etienne Charles glued to the Wall right outside Juilliard’s main entrance:

I had music history with this cat!

Today I attended the International Fancy Food Show at the Javits Center on 34th street in NYC. It was the most unbelievable and overwhelming food experience I have ever had (and it just so happens to be FANCY). Normal food consumers can not just show up to this conference, you must register as a retailer, distributor, restaurant owner, caterer, ect. and thousands of exhibitors set up booths for you to sample their product, in hopes of future business. The exhibitors come from all over the world. The 3 story convention center had sections of booths set up for each country (Italy to South Africa) and was so expansive that one could not walk though it in a day.
I singed up as a retailer with my friend Joy Beth, who one day hopes to own her own bakery. Therefore, at the food show I pretended to work for JB Desserts in Nashville, TN. By the end of the day, after talking to everyone from chocolatiers to winery, JB Desserts caters weddings, creates gift baskets, makes cakes and cookies for special events, and we are looking for many other options from cheese crackers, peanut brittle, gummy worms, every type of cheese imaginable, margaritas, breath mints, gelato, gum, peanut butter, to guava juice (just to name a few) for sale in our store front.
I would like to expound on my favorite booths. I enjoyed Paula Dean’s booth, where I saw Paula Dean herself and tasted some of her treats. While mentioning famous people I also saw the Barefoot Contessa and ate a very delicious bite-sized cupcake. I would like to say that before today, I thought that I made the best Key Lime Pie in the world… but I tried Kenneth’s Key Lime Pie today and it was divine. I also enjoyed the sparkling water from Italy (or maybe just the Italian man who gave it to us). Then there is the chocolatier with a mission to better the world by providing fair trade, organic chocolate. There was so much tea — black, herb, white, oolong, green — all kinds all flavors and so many companies. I love how HOT tea is right now (pun intended).

When I left the Fancy Food Show and walked 4 avenues back to the subway station I felt a little sick from all the tasting and overstimulation. It was well worth every second of it!

Those of you who know me… know that I love my curly hair.  It’s part of my identity and part of my fanciness.  Well, yesterday the fanciness was taken to a whole new level!  I went to the New York City salon: Ouidad.  Ouidad only cuts curly hair and they have a patented technique for cutting the curls so they form together and never do the pyramid – flat on top and fro all the way down.  When I got there I had a consultation with my stylist where I told her I wanted to keep my length and she told me in more words or less that she would make my hair look fantastic.  Her assistant (yes, she has an assistant) washed my hair with the special Ouidad products and I sat at her hair station.  After she then trimmed my layers and ends she did the patented “carving and slicing” which thinned my hair and made my head feel 3 pounds lighter.  Then they rinsed my hair so that they could style it.  The styling was so intentional and perfectly done… I will never be able to master it myself.  After dividing my hair in sections, she smoothed each section and divided it meticulously with her fingers.  She pulled and swiveled each lathered clump of hair and laid it down without touching it again.  On the top of my head she placed duck bill clips to add height.  The assistant came back and dried my hair with the defuser.  When I tilted my head toward the mirror, literally my breath gone for a second.  I was amazed that my hair could look like that… individual beautiful barrel roll curls, without rollers!  It was worth the arm and a leg I had to pay for the cut!
Later, I was walking on Broadway on the upper west side.  I went into an Orgins to put a little moisturizer on my face and an employee came by to assist me.  I said that I didn’t need any help and he stopped me and said, “Your hair is so beautiful!”  If it was any other day, I would have thought that he was just trying to sell me something, but as I said, “Thank You,” I knew that it really was beautiful!.

Every little girl has a dream… one of my dreams has been to live in NYC.

I unpacked my stuff and sat in the bay window of the School of American Ballet’s dorms on the 20th floor of the Juilard building -right next to the Lincoln Center. As the sun went down through the buildings I can do nothing but revel in the fact that the Lord knows exactly how to pursue my heart.