Sherrilyn Kenyon Book Signing

I don't know if any of you are Sherrilyn Kenyon fans, but I love her books. Especially her Dark-Hunter series, but really, everything the woman writes is phenomenal. Last night she was having a book signing here in my area (at the Borders in Oak Brook, since I know that Donna knows about where I'm talking about). We all had so much fun. Unfortunately, I live around 2 hours, or a little bit more, away from there, so I didn't get home until 2:30-ish am. Ouch!

There was a note in the email about the when/where for the signings mentioning special prizes for those who came in costume as one of Sherrilyn's character's. Since I am anal about Quin not going to doors for trick-or-treating by herself, I always go up with her. As I do that, I also always dress up with her, too. Halloween is lots of fun for us. So, last halloween, I went trick-or-treating as an Amy Brown faerie. (I swear, this really is relevant...) It just happens that that is very much like what one of Sherrilyn's characters named Simi looks like. So, we decided that I would go as Simi for the signing.

Apparently, it seems that my costume was good enough that EVERYONE knew exactly who I was dressed as (and initially thought that I was part of the book signing group traveling with Sherri, since she often has characters at the signings with her) and I got stopped for pictures by just about everyone with a camera. That was totally flattering! Definitely the best part for me, though, was when we got up to talk to Sherri and she had her own camera there and SHE asked if she could get a picture. She had only taken two or three other pictures that whole night. That was cool. She also commented on how much she loved it and said that so far, I am her best Simi ever. WOW!!! Of course, for all I know, she says that to everyone who dresses as that character. But, whether she does or not, it was still exciting and very flattering that the author and creator of the character said that I was the best one yet.

Russ and Quin went, too and Russ tried to get some pictures, but our digital camera wasn't working, so he had to try taking them on the camera on the cell phone. Unfortunately, they just didn't turn out as great as I would have liked. If anyone is interested, they are here: http://s236.photobucket.com/albums/ff230/GlencairnCindi/Me%20Pics/Simi/

Quin, who has grown up watching me read all of Sherrilyn's books and knows how eagerly I await each new release, wanted to go with, so we made it a family outing. Quin wanted Sherri's autograph, too, and was completely star-struck when she got her turn to meet Sherri. It was hysterical. Sherri is a mom, and has a son who is the same age as Quin, and quickly put Quin at ease and got her chatting (of course, once started she didn't stop...) and Quin has talked about not much else today.

It was a wonderful evening and if any of you are fans and have the chance to go to a Sherrilyn Kenyon book signing, go! It is so much fun.

Take care,
Cindi

Why Do I Do This?

Okay, I haven't written anything in just about forever it feels like, but I really got to thinking about this and it made me want to write.

A friend sent a video to me and I opened it up and saw that it is a song called "Sleep" by Savatage. I was already familiar with this song, actually. I love it. So, in my infinite wisdom, I open the video and watch and listen. Sure enough, by the end of the song, I am in tears. I have yet to ever - EVER - make it to the end of this song without tearing up. I don't know why, but there you go.

That got me thinking about all of the phenomenal songs that have this emotional pull on me. Frankly, music is life in my world. I can't live without music and I like a little bit of just about everything. In any given genre there are those songs that I can't hear without tearing up, though. To me, that is one standard of truly GOOD music. Lots of music is nice to listen to, but just doesn't have the same viscerally emotional punch that good music has.

Some of the songs that really get to me on an emotional level are "Don't Take the Girl" by Tim McGraw. From Les Mis "Come To Me", which is the scene when Fantine dies. As a parent, that one is devastating. Also from Les Mis, "A Little Fall of Rain" which is taking place as an interaction between Eponine and Marius as Eponine is dying. From the Disney cartoon movie Dumbo, "Baby of Mine". Again, as a parent, it means more to me watching Dumbo's mother singing this song to her child, knowing that he has been taken away from her, and feeling the pain that would cause any parent, than it ever could have before I had my daughter. It is always the emotion that has to do with being a parent that gets me. Really, who can watch the movie "I am Sam" with Sean Penn and Dakota Fanning and see the scene that has the song "You've Got to Hide Your Love Away" by the Beatles and not cry? I can't even hear that song anymore without tearing up. Cheesy as it might be, "My Heart Will Go On" by Celine Dion from the movie "Titanic". Still. Every time.

Another one from a movie is "I Know You're Out There Somewhere" by The Moody Blues from the movie "A Summer Story". The ending of that movie was tragic and the song will always reduce me to sniffles for having seen and loved that movie. A good number of the songs from the musical "Rent", too. One that is not from a movie or musical is a traditional song called "A Health to the Company". This is one that has been used for an end of the day closer at my local renaissance faire and particularly, amongst the cast, as a season closer. It is how we said "goodbye, I hope to see you again" to each other. Sometimes we did, sometimes our friends had moved on to other pursuits. No matter what the outcome, we always knew that we were in the thoughts of each other.

Above and beyond any of the others, though, is one from the musical "Wicked". The song "For Good". It is a really moving song about friendship and touching the lives of our friends, but it has a double dose of emotional pull for me now. My best friend was moving back to Florida and, after a day spent packing the moving van, it was finally time for her and her family to leave. There are hugs and tears all around, especially since I have no idea how I am going to survive now that my closest friend won't be a quick car ride away anymore. They leave and the group of us at her house stay until the van has moved out of sight. All of us are hugging and crying and offering comfort to each other before leaving for the last time. Being a private person with my tears and emotions, I am a bit moist around the eyes, but not actually crying. After everyone thanks ME for being the strong, emotionally stable one who they took comfort from, not knowing how I was feeling, what with that whole privacy thing and all, I get into my car to go home and just starting up on my XM (set on the "On Broadway" station) is "For Good". That was when I broke down and cried. It was a bit of a while before I was able to put my car into gear and semi-safely attempt to drive. I just can not hear that song anymore without associating it with the night my best friend moved and the sadness that I felt. She touched my life in so many ways that she changed the whole of who I am. ...Like a hand print on my heart...

Of course, now I can't think of any others, but as soon as I hit the publish button tons more will come to me. I guess that I will just update this then. For now, however, those are some of the songs that bring me to tears every time.

Il Barbiere di Siviglia

On Friday night we had tickets to see "Il Barbiere di Siviglia" (The Barber of Seville) with Joyce DiDonato (who is a family friend) playing Rosina, Nathan Gunn singing Figaro, and John Osborn singing Count Almaviva. It was phenomenal and the cast sounded absolutely brilliant!

Count Almaviva was originally set to be sung by Juan Diego Florez, who had to cancel because of a throat infection. He was replaced by John Osborn. Not that JDF isn't a wonderful singer, but my personal opinion is that no one was missing anything. In fact, I thought that John was a MUCH better Almaviva than JDF would have been. His voice is just better for that role. He even sang the 10 minute long "Cessa di piu resistere" which is usually left out, and he did it extremely well while making it look incredibly effortless. Just wow!

Nathan Gunn sang Figaro and was also phenomenal. That man is freaking built, too! He opened with his "Largo al factotum della citta" aria and it was fantastic. He started out with a reverse strip tease, waking up with only his underwear and dressing as he sang. Thank the gods of beautiful almost-naked men for that! It was worth the cost of tickets solely for that one scene of Nathan Gunn half naked! He was a hysterical Figaro, and really played up the comedy of the role. I could listen to the man sing forever and not get tired of hearing him, too.

Joyce DiDonato sang Rosina and was absolutely brilliant. There just isn't enough praise that I can give for her performance. Joyce is also a family friend. Back when she was just getting started she was in the Merola program with the San Francisco Opera and was sponsored by Russ' aunt and uncle. They have kept in touch ever since and remained extremely close friends and Joyce has included everyone else in the family in that friendship as well. I was so excited to finally get to see her perform live! She was even more amazing than any of the YouTube clips could have ever indicated!

We had been invited to visit backstage after the show by Joyce, and when we went back to meet up with her, we got a chance to meet and visit with the rest of the cast. They were absolutely wonderful and completely down to earth, despite all of them being considerably famous within the opera and recording world. It was just fantastic. All of them doted on Quin and couldn't get enough of her. Both John Osborn and Nathan Gunn have kids of their own, so they were very at ease with her and really went out of their way to cajole her from being shy. (Then again, it WAS 11pm and 2 hours past Quin's bed time and she had just woken up from about a 45 minute "nap" and she is always shy when she is tired) Joyce was also fantastic with Quin and posed for pictures and really got Quin to open up and joke around with her. Quin has a new friend and has been talking about the whole cast non-stop since Friday night!

Admittedly, I already enjoyed opera, so someone who isn't into opera might not have enjoyed any of this as much as I did. But, Barber is really a great opera to see if one hasn't been to an opera before. It is a two act comedy, and with the right cast, is absolutely hysterical. Luckily, we had a cast who played the comedy wonderfully.

The pics are Quin and Joyce DiDonato.

Take care,
Cindi

The making of a Frame...

Jewels and I went to get Quin from her afternoon with grandma and grandpa and Quin was all excited about the valentine gift she had for me. We waited until we got back to Julie's house to open it, and it was a very pretty little wooden frame that she made and painted and decorated.

Jewels and her hubby, and Russ and I were all sitting around the dining room table admiring her frame while Quin was telling us about it. She was so proud of herself and kept saying "I made you a frame. I made a frame." I looked at her and said that once, daddy and I made a Frame, too. (That is our last name, just in case anyone wasn't aware of the Frame significance)

Once it finally was hinted at enough that Quin realized that we meant her (Hey, Quin, what is your last name...are YOU a Frame?) Quin looked at us and said "But not with tools!" We all just started snickering. Russ leaned over to Mike (Julie's hubby) and said "no tools...but that one screw...") and more laughing ensued. Not that Quin got it, luckily. Then Quin started rambling on about hammers, nails, and various other tools and Jewels looked over and said "at least, not with those tools". More snickering.

It was just one of those moments. We laughed about that for a bit!

Posted with help from Jewels...I never would have remembered all of the comments on my own!

Take care,
Cindi