My New Job

I have started a small part-time job as a choir accompanist. I was not looking for a job, and didn't really want to start working, since I have Gunner at home and Spiff is a busy 3rd-year bee. And then an opportunity jumped out at me from out of nowhere, and I couldn't turn it down. A voice teacher I knew while working as an accompanist at a local university called me a few weeks ago and offered me the job. I hadn't spoken to him in a year and a half, and I am quite surprised that he remembered me. He told me that his former pianist quit at the last minute, and he practically begged me to take the position. The choir is a "class" at a pharmacy school, made up of students who want a form of artistic release in the midst of all of their scientific studies. They meet twice a week, and usually only half of the choir is present at each rehearsal. He assured me that it is a very low pressure, low stress gig. So after talking to Spiff and convincing many of my friends to help watch Gunner, I decided that it was a good opportunity for me, and I took the job.

I have been doing this for about a month, and so far it seems to be working out. I think it is nice that Spiff has a scheduled evening to be with Gunner. It is also nice for Gunner to spend one-on-one time with daddy, and to get out and play with other moms and kids during the weekly rehearsal. It's so much fun for him that he thinks he has died and gone to heaven for two hours a week.

It is also giving me a chance to play the piano and exercise my brain. I am so badly out of "piano shape", and I can feel my fingers and my mind being stretched like taffy while I play warm-ups and parts, and sight read. This is pretty easy stuff, too, and I'm surprised at how much I find myself working at it, considering that accompanying (sight reading, sight reading and sight reading!!!) was what I spent the majority of my time doing while in college and grad school. So, I am grateful for this new tiny job because it's giving me a small chance to get back some of what I have lost over the last few years of ignoring the piano.