Mommy and Me, and No. 11 is complete!

I can't even begin to explain how fortunate and blessed I feel to consider my mom my best friend. As Steve was away on another conference this past weekend, we had the pleasure of having a mother/daughter weekend while she visited me here in NYC. We've had several of these special moments over the years and I treasure them deeply. This was a particularly fun weekend as we ate, shopped, walked, got manicures and pedicures, and ate some more, and I don't think I can laugh with anyone like I can laugh with her... I'm talking "tears in my eyes," "i'm gonna pee!," cackling, snorting, laughing fits, and we had quite of few of those this weekend!

I'll focus this post on the fun we had Friday evening, which also includes the completion of No. 11 on my "Thirty by 30" list:

"Go to a diner after midnight."

My mom got in late Thursday night so we slept in Friday morning, then headed down to the Seaport to get some Broadway tickets at the "tkts" booth. Even though I initially headed the opposite direction out of the subway, we eventually made it (after I swallowed my pride and double checked our new direction with a security guard), and were lucky enough to get tickets to Curtains without even standing "on" line for more than a couple of minutes! It was a beautiful day so we enjoyed a wonderful lunch overlooking the river and Brooklyn Bridge , and spent the rest of the day shopping and relaxing. After some yummy Thai food for dinner,

we took a bus to the theater, taking in the sights along the way- something we especially appreciated about the buses (wink, wink Mom!) .

The show was excellent- very funny, tongue-in-cheek type humor, with great choreography and acting, starring David Hyde Pierce, Debra Monk, and Edward Hibbett. We thought we were hot stuff as we leapt out of our aisle seats at intermission in a mad dash to the ladies room, with NO line, straight to the toilets, beaming at ourselves as we saw the outrageous line that had already formed when we finished. For some reason, that was quite comical to us.

And then after the show ended, feeling particularly giddy, we attempted to take pictures of ourselves in front of one of the signs of D.H.P advertising the show, which resulted in more fits of laughter with people giving us more strange looks.

Still cracking up at our own silliness, we then walked by a large, wooden, chicken thing, advertising some chicken restaurant, and decided it made sense to take pictures of ourselves in front of that. We thought we were pretty funny at least, but I doubt anyone that passed us would've believed me if I said I actually lived here and wasn't a tourist...sigh. Good times.

We had quite an adreniline rush high at 10:45pm and were pumped to hit a diner. We stopped by home first to get more comfortable, and laughed even harder during that bus ride home as I attempted to teach my mom how to "txt message." At the suggestion of menu-pages, we headed down First Ave to "Ritz Diner," walking in right around 12:02ish. It was a very diner-esque diner with its decor and crowd and we ordered a haagen-dazs chocolate milkshake and mozzarella sticks. Mmmm… such yummy goodness. I attempted to take pictures of ourselves as we each drank out of a different straw of our shake at the same time, and that put us into side-splitting giggling, and then my mother decides she needs to floss.

I just about lost it.

I'm telling you, my face and my stomach actually hurt. Seriously. You would've thought we were at a bar, not a diner, kicking back shots of tequila, not sipping a milkshake by the way we were acting. I don't know what it is, but we just crack each other up. We gave up on trying to take our own picture and finally asked the waiter to take one- he was a bit hesitant because of our craziness, but it worked out.


We got home a little after 1am and were very proud of ourselves. It was definitely a fun "challenge" to complete and my mom was the perfect person to share that with. The rest of our weekend was awesome with more eating (Alice's Tea Cup, Hudson River Cafe, Beyoglu, Crumbs, Rosa Mexicana, Jacques Torres Chocolate, to name a few of our stops), more walking, and more shopping. I love you, Mom, and thanks for the unforgettable memories! :)

No. 19 - Completed!

So the great "Thirty by 30" Challenge is underway and I can now cross #19 off of my list:

"Read the Bible at least 30 minutes every day for an entire week."

I started in the New Testament with Matthew and am now midway through the book of Luke. I haven't decided where to go from here... I think I'll finish up through John, and then do some research into finding a devotional guide that will both advise me with what to read, and also provide more in-depth insight and understanding into what I'm reading. Any and all suggestions are very welcome!

I really did enjoy this challenge, and while I'd love to keep up with thirty-minutes of reading every day, I am disappointed to say, (but must honestly admit) that I probably won't be able to keep it up :( - every day for a full thirty minutes each time, but I'd like to come close! I have learned many things over this past week that I hope remain with me, however.

What impacted me most was changing my thinking about how I read the bible. Like I said before, I got into the habit of making 1-2 chapters my goal, so I would end up reading through those as quickly as possible and didn't really let anything sink in. Now, no matter how much time I have (30 minutes or just 5 minutes), I want that time to be purposeful and to let the words really soak in- whether it's a half a chapter, or ten chapters! For me personally, by setting aside the time to read, it wasn't about just getting through the chapters, it became intentional reading. I read slowly. I read aloud. I re-read passages that I didn't understand. This was a pivotal realization for me- I need to stop being preoccupied with how much I'm reading and I need to start focusing on how I read. The famed "quality over quantity" saying does have it's merit, that's for sure!

I'd like to share one passage that particularly stood out to me throughout this past week concerning Jesus' parable of the seeds that were scattered either along the path, the rocks, the thorns, or the soil. I love reading the gospels as they share many of the same stories in their own words because I felt like these stories were really sticking with me, and each time I read that specific parable about the seeds, I had the same thought. I worry that too often, I am like the seed that is spread along the thorns becoming choked once it grows up-

"they are those who hear, but as they go on their way they are choked by the cares and riches and pleasures of life, and their fruit does not mature" Luke 8:14.

I get so caught up in the day to day of life, so caught up in worldy things, so concerned with what others think of me, etc, etc, that I know my "fruit" is not maturing as it could or as it should. I don't boldly share my faith with others at work because of my fear of what they'll think of me- I'm choked by the cares of life and of this world; I enjoy shopping maybe a little too much, and must "keep up appearances" with how I look and how my home looks- I'm choked by the riches of life; I like to be comfortable and am not always willing to give up some of these comforts even when it means I will be helping others or even bettering myself- I am choked by the pleasures of life. And the list goes on...

Thankfully, we have a gracious and merciful God who still loves me and is willing to work in me and change me, because there's a lot of work to be done! I am thankful for the opportunity I had last week to help pinpoint some of those areas in my life that so greatly need to be healed and changed. While I missed Steve terribly (and am so glad he's back!!!), I am glad for the extra time I had to be in His Word and am happy to say that I have grown closer in my relationship with Him through this challenge! :)

30 Minutes and Spouse-less

What do you do when your husband is gone for a week leaving you with extra time on your hands cause for some reason it makes you feel lazy to watch tv on the couch at night all by yourself? Well, for me, I decided what better opportunity to tackle one of my "Thirty by 30" challenges and commit myself to reading my bible daily for a week for at least thirty minutes, than while my husband is out of the country. The purpose of my challenge isn't necessarily that I'll do many of the items on the list just one time to reach my goal, but that with some of these items, I'll be encouraged and inspired to continue. For instance, I'm sure it would only be to my benefit if I regularly took notes on JRs' sermons, but it seems I need some sort of jump start to get me in that habit. However, that's for another time.

As for my daily (or at least weekday-daily...) bible reading, I've lately been in the habit of reading a chapter or two and then patting myself on the back for making that commitment. Obviously, the pat on the back is completely missing the point and not what these devotionals should be about, but I also recently noticed that reading these 1-2 chapters take only an average of just five minutes of my time! I knew it would be a challenge for me to then commit to a full thirty minutes of bible reading, but knew I needed to take that plunge to help me in my understanding of God's word and grow my relationship closer to Him.

I'm happy to say that I've been consistent with this thirty-minute bible reading challenge for the past three days and am enjoying the book of Matthew. I figured a good place to start was in the New Testament and hopefully after this challenge, I'll be inspired to become more intentional with an actual devotional guide. I'm taking my pastor's recent advice of reading aloud, too (well, whispering aloud at least for my voice), and have noticed that also makes me read more slowly and get more out of the passages. There are several things I'm noticing in Matthew now that I don't really "get" or understand that I've never noticed before, so I'm excited to take note of these questions and spark some good conversation with my hubby when he returns.

Speaking of my sweet hubby, Steve... he is in Stockholm, Sweden for the week- the lucky guy. Why you may ask? Well, his prof from UCSD works fairly closely with people at the Karolinska Institute, http://ki.se/ki/jsp/polopoly.jsp?d=130&L=en, and goes there frequently as well (he's got a bit of Swedish blood in him in fact); while we were in San Diego, a grad student from KI, Helene, came over to UCSD for a couple months and worked with Steve on one of his projects. Helene is now giving her thesis defense on some of the material they worked on together so she graciously invited both of us out there to attend. So sweet, sigh... but alas, it wouldn't work out for me to go so I'm all by my lonesome. Steve gets to give a talk while he's there which is awesome for him, plus it's an all expense paid trip to EUROPE which is even more awesome for him, so I am happy for him.

But, I am unhappy without him. :(

Life in the Mason household is just not the same with half a Mason gone. Even Parker seems to notice. Luckily, it's a fairly busy week so I'm not at home much with nothing to do, but when I am home, his absence is definitely felt. He spoils me in the mornings making me breakfast and getting my lunch ready and, well, just being there, so I'm not quite as inspired to get moving when I wake up. And falling asleep without him by my side seems to invoke less sweet dreams. I am blessed to call him my husband and miss him when he's away. I could go on and on with this, but will save that for a post of "why I love my husband" for another time.

For now, the first "challenge" begins and I'll return with a report upon its' completion! :)

Tan Dun, Lang Lang, and Firebird

Thursday, April 10th, 2008 at 7:30pm

The New York Philharmonic at Avery Fisher Hall of Lincoln Center

First half- Lang Lang in world premiere performances of the Chinese composer Tan Dun's "Piano Concerto"

Second half- Igor Stravinsky's, "The Firebird," the complete work written for ballet

What a concert! There are several performances throughout April that I'll be attending, so I didn't intend to write about each one, or any of them for that matter, but I had to get some thoughts out about last night. We always feel so fortunate to benefit from the "free tickets" perk of my part-time job with Lincoln Center, and yesterday was no exception. We sat on the aisle, just slightly off of center with a wonderful view of the pianist and conductor in the 12th row from the stage- normally $106 each!!! We haven't been able to take advantage of this perk very much this year, and are now inspired again to make it a priority. As Stravinsky is one of my all time favorite composers, we couldn't miss this particular concert series. I also had the opportunity to play a piece by Tan Dun for solo "water percussion" and orchestra when I played with the La Jolla Symphony in San Diego, so I was looking forward to hearing his new "Piano Concerto" played by none other than the incredible, 25-year old (sigh...) Lang Lang. I don't want to ramble on and on about my thoughts on this performance so I'll try to keep it brief (but you know me...) by just expressing some of the emotions I felt.

Where to begin... Stravinsky's music can in one moment bring me to tears with the lyrical, soaring melodies and lush harmonies underneath, with hints of folk derived themes and chromaticism; then in the next moment, I want to jump out of my seat like a mad woman, dancing in some type of modern, interpretive dance form as I listen to the pounding syncopated rhythms, harsh dissonant chords, and triple forte tutti orchestra. Aaaaaaaaah... what this music can do. I highly recommend listening to some Stravinsky- either "Firebird," "Rite of Spring," or "Petrushka" should do it :). One of the things I particularly enjoyed about Tan Dun's piece, in fact, was the resemblance it had to Stravinsky's music. It also contained these gorgeous, soft melodies, with hints of exotic orientalism that truly took my breath away, and then in an instant turned to a heart racing mix of sounds with heavy percussion, glissandi strings, and thumping winds and brass.

Of course, the fact that this is the New York Philharmonic playing this music, only enhances these feelings. I mean, this orchestra is incredible, both with its' individual players (the principal trumpet and horn players, for instance, can enter in pianissimo sections without even a hint of cracking the note; the piccolo player plays in tune with a round, full sound in all registers- not an easy feat!, etc, etc.) and as an ensemble, where an entire string section of several dozen players can sound like a single violinist. It was also pretty cool that Tan Dun, himself, came out after his piece was performed to a crowd on their feet as it's pretty rare to see the actual composer of a work you just heard in the flesh.

Last night was nothing less than an experience and it truly affected me. I love this kind of music, and it sort of broke my heart to think that there were some people in that audience who weren't even moved enough to stay awake... sigh. So my encouragement to anyone reading this- listen to some Stravinsky, or some Bartok, or Shostakovich, or any "classical" composer writing music in the early to mid-20th century. I believe you will be glad you did!!!

And if you do accept this challenge, let me know what you thought of it :)

Pruning

"I am the True Vine."

I've always loved those seven "I am" statements that Jesus makes throughout the book of John, but have seen them in a totally different light after our pastor JR's series entitled "Jesus according to Jesus."

JR has such a great way of using metaphors to illustrate his point, and I loved the illustration he used in describing how Jesus is the true vine and the Father is the vine dresser this past Sunday. He comically told us of a video he found on "YouTube" of a woman pruning shrubbery- (yes, they actually have videos of that... crazy) and how important it is to cut off the dead branches, and even the living branches that are somewhat getting in the way and aren't contributing to the greater well being of the entire plant. While picturing some woman describing how best to prune a shrub on "YouTube" is pretty funny, applying the metaphor to our own lives is actually kinda scary.

We, too, have so many areas in our lives that are like these dead branches that need to be cut out and pruned so that we may live the fullest life that God intends for us. What a beautiful picture it is to think of Him working in our lives to rid us of these "dead branches"- no matter how painful it may be in the moment for us to realize, accept, and then change these areas- for our own greater good. He always has our best interests in mind; sometimes we just need to let Him in and prune away to reveal it! It was such a sweet picture to me- God being the vine dresser and taking out our "dead" areas, and Jesus being the true vine that we need to let in and take over our lives- such a great reminder. I definitely cannot do this sermon justice so if you missed it and are interested in more, check it out at www.apostlesnyc.com !

The "Congrats Cookie"

I've long debated the idea of going back to school for a DMA. After grad school in San Francisco, I was pretty sure I was done for good with papers, classes, etc. but while living in San Diego, the idea would occasionally cross my mind. I was getting pretty burned out with the monotony of the beginner/intermediate flute lessons I was teaching and also missed the performance opportunities that abound when associated with a university, college, etc. More and more people in the music world would stress the importance of having a DMA if I ever wanted to teach at that higher level so the idea would continue to waft in and out of my thoughts. Even though there wasn't a school in SD that would've fit my needs, I knew our time there would be short lived and that our next stop may include a city that might have options for this kind of degree.

Well, after three wonderful years in San Diego, Steve was offered a position at the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center located in none other than New York City. Our first year was quite a whirlwind as I was busy trying to advertise for lessons, practice for competitions and auditions, etc and find a somewhat stable part-time job while I attempted the "freelance musician" lifestyle, so I didn't start considering more school until, go figure, it was too late to apply for that following fall. Beginning last year (2007) I started to seriously think about it and knew the person I wanted to study with would be Carol Wincenc at SUNY Stony Brook. She's a world renown, INCREDIBLE flutist who has been a soloist throughout the world with major orchestras and teaches at The Juilliard School in addition to Stony Brook. I'd taken a few lessons and masterclasses with her and the rapport was great. I knew Juilliard was not an option: 1. my chances of even getting in there would've been slim to none, and 2. their program is much more academic based, lasting up to 4-5 years, versus Stony Brook's performance based program which is feasible (albeit not easy...) to get done in 2 years.

I talked to Carol about starting the program in the fall of 2008 and she was very encouraging about it but I was nervous to find out last fall that she may not have any openings in her studio. I applied anyway and nervously awaited whether or not she'd be accepting new students. I prayed and prayed that God's will would be done and I would be accepting of and at peace with that will- I just asked that He would open or close the door depending on what He had in store for me. So, boy was I excited when Carol called me several weeks ago to ask if I'd be interested in being her Teaching Assistant!! The acceptance letter arrived this past Saturday offering admission with a full scholarship and the teaching assistantship, which includes a stipend! Praise God! Boy, was that confirmation that this idea, this dream of mine, might also be in accordance with His plan for me :) .

What is a DMA you may ask? It stands for Doctorate of Musical Arts and will be a performance based program consisting of many recitals including a lecture recital, a couple of papers, and a final oral dissertation of the final recital. My hope is that it will equip me to some day have an affiliate or adjunct faculty position at a university or college where I can teach more serious students, but also have more opportunities to perform!!! There will be quite a big change in our lives starting this fall, and it will be a challenge, but I am excited to begin. There will be much more to come on this adventure!

As for the cookie, which was the whole reason behind this post- my parents are the greatest. :) It arrived yesterday with a sweet note from them congratulating me on the acceptance letter. How sweet are they? We still have some yummy Crumbs cupcakes left over from our community group from Tuesday night so we are going over to the Sullivans tonight to share the yumminess. And if you actually read this entire post, you deserve a cookie, too!

Welcome to my BLOG!!!

This is exciting for me! :) As most of you know, I have a weird aversion to the "MySpace"/"Facebook" phenomenons, but I've had no real excuse for not creating some sort of web page to post pictures and keep people updated, so here goes!!!

Bare with me as this is all very new to me, but I hope you enjoy my various thoughts, ideas, happenings, pictures, memories and milestones ...

The idea to get this site going at this point in time, stems from a recent conversation I had with my good friend, Christian, about "bucket lists." We were talking about her mom's list in particular and I mentioned how I should start a list of things I'd like to do before I turn 30. As I just recently turned 29, I've gotta get going with this list! Christian came up with the title "Thirty by 30 " and we figured what better time to get started with a blog than to use it to chronicle this adventure!

So without further ado...

The Great "Thirty by 30" Challenge!!!

Thirty things I'd like to do, see, hear, experience before I turn 30!
In no particular order, organized in groups of things dear to me-

For the love of my city...

1. Hit the major NYC museums- Met, MoMA, & Natural History Museum for starters
2. See the Cloisters in Washington Heights
3. Bike ride and paddle boat in Central Park
4. Go to a Yankee's or Met's game
5. Take the tram over to Roosevelt Island
6. Watch the sunset from the Top of the Rock
7. Hit all 5 burrows in one day and sample cuisine from each
8. Finally take advantage of Restaurant Week
9. Go to a Shakespeare in the Park performance
10. See a concert in Carnegie's Stern Auditorium
11. Go to a diner after midnight
12. Prepare a meal using all fresh ingredients purchased from a farmer's market

For the love of music...

13. Spend an entire practice session focusing on sound & playing long tones with a tuner
14. Learn a piece that I don't like and see if I still don't like it after learning it
15. Listen to my mp3 player during walks to/from work for an entire week

For the love of my God and the betterment of myself and those around me...

16. Share a meal with a homeless person
17. Help someone in need even if it makes me feel uncomfortable
18. Spend my walks to/from work in prayer for an entire week
19. Read the Bible at least 30 minutes every day for an entire week
20. Share my faith with someone at work
21. Take notes on JR's (or Kenny's) sermons for a whole month
22. Spoil my husband for a whole day- not his birthday!
23. Call my closest friends and family just to say I love them within one week's time
24. Send flowers to someone special for the simple reason of "I'm thinking of you."
25. Avoid shopping for anything I don't need for one month
26. Go a whole week without eating out or ordering out
27. Avoid petting cat for one day (if you know Parker, this could be for my betterment!)

For the love of my sanity...

28. Rent a car for the day for some chain restaurant eating and suburbia shopping
29. Go on a romantic weekend getaway with my husband
30. Take a day off of work for no reason