“Gratitude is a quality similar to electricity: it must be produced and discharged and used up in order to exist at all.”
– William Faulkner

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Thanks to the many, many of you who shared my excitement and your well wishes for my upcoming trip to Italy. It was great fun to have so many of you get in touch. *smile*

*Great big singing adventure

I’m going to Italy.

To sing.

(I KNOW, I can’t quite believe it either!)

I’ll be heading abroad the first week of July to spend a week improvising with new singer friends in Il Poderino, Tuscany. The singing week is part of a year-long advanced vocal improv program called All the Way In taught by one of my improv mentors, Rhiannon.

(I always suspected singing would take me places and now it’s taking me to Italy. *teehee!*)

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Here’s what happened.

Last summer, I applied for a grant to attend ATWI. I asked for money to pay the tuition and make the 3 week-long trips that were part of the year of study. Destinations included the east coast (New York State), the west coast (California) and Canada (Toronto).

A few months after submitting my application, I found out Rhiannon decided to take ATWI international for 2010-11. Oh well, I hadn’t heard any word about the grant anyway …

(I mean, other than checking the web site whenever I was feeling particularly daring or neurotic to see if they’d announced the awards from time to time. They hadn’t.)

I set thoughts of ATWI aside and got busy with a middle-school musical, my Dakota debut and a commitment to do an improv-based show with my friend Mankwe in May.

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Then a couple of months ago, I was notified I’d been awarded the grant (yeah!)

But now travel would be international, not national. As my friend M would say “Whhhhhyyyyyyyyeeee?!?”

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I know, I know. Complaining about going to Italy (to sing, no less!) is ridiculous.

(As my friend M also said, “Imagine the pictures you can post on your blog from Italy!?”)

I just had to adjust to the idea. I’ve never traveled abroad. I was burnt out. I’d have to raise more money.

It was no longer simple.

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Yep, in the Universe’s way of giving us more than we ask for, this was (is) truly a case of being careful what you wish for and dreaming a bigger dream and all that.

As we know, I sometimes have trouble making transitions; it’s one of the reasons spontaneous singing is so good for me. It teaches me to embrace and enjoy the unexpected.

So. I’m embracing.

And I’m excited. (*excited giggle*)

“I try to take one day at a time, but lately several days have attacked at once.”
(unknown)

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(Happy Friday. *smile*)