Playing catch up

It is only by virtue of the illusion of holiday afforded by Easter that I've been able to catch up on a few things like updating this site with new dates and a note to you all.

It's been so long I don't even know where to start...

Julia and I spent Christmas down in Marin County with son Mike's adoptive family, exploring our childhood haunts and continuing the celebration of the grand expansion of our family. Now we're so settled into the new reality that it seems like it's always been this way.  

I received a call at the end of January to take over 3 lyric courses at UBC for the prof who had to go on medical leave again - with just a couple of days notice - so that has pretty well consumed my life since then. It's been a huge and inspiring challenge - and great to have a real job!

Julia is in the thick of finishing Grade 12 and attending to the myriad of applications required for the 6 schools she's applied to - 3 Canadian (McGill, UBC, U of Toronto) and 3 US (Cal Berkely, Brown, and Stanford). The final choice will undoubtedly depend on scholarships and bursaries available. 

At this point, the prospect of her living across the country is rather unfathomable. I look at it with a combination of excitement about the creative life ahead of me, and anticipation of the adjustment to the loss of my constant companion and housemate. Fortunately I love living alone, so it's win/win. Mostly, it's fantastic to see the wonderful person she has become and to know she's poised to have an amazing life.  

The other thing I've been working on is choral arrangements for a concert at St. Andrews-Wesley in Vancouver on April 13 with their choir. Darryl Nixon invited me as part of the sacred music series. Clearly they're willing to have a very broad definition of "sacred"! Julia, Bill and Linda Kidder will be with me as well. It's something I've wanted to do forEVER - so if you're a fan, considering I so rarely do shows in Vancouver, I strongly encourage you to come to this concert and bring lots of friends!. Tickets will be at the door and showtime is 7:00.

Pumkin will be touring again through May and June - check the dates to see if we're comin' to your town. "Pumkids" has won a whack of awards which is darn exciting.  

I'll try VERY hard to not let so much time go by next time....

Happy Trails gang!