Friday night consisted of Dirty Board (a game that Katie's family picked up from another family out in the Poconos years ago - a combo of Trouble & Chinese Checkers), Trivial Pursuit (because it could be played while Sabrina stared cooking dinner), dinner (which was super yummy pork and delicious summer corn on the cob), then more game playing and bed. Once we were all in the back room we sang a little from our reclined positions, noted how weird it was to hear things like this (Bari top bunk, Lead lower bunk, Bass floor trundle, Tenor top bunk other side) and then promptly fell asleep.
Saturday was jam packed with awesome. We were up by nine-ish so we could eat, get dressed, and get to ceramics early enough to get four seats together. The morning walk around the lake to get to ceramics is always so peaceful and beautiful. Here is what we made:
I made painted the fairy, Sabrina the gnome, and Steph the baby Stella puppy. I can't share pictures of either of Katie's creations because they are presents for people, and I am no surprise-ruiner. Then it was time for a lovely walk back to the trailer for lunch and time to get water and gear up for our trip to Bushkill Falls.
I would like to start my story of Bushkill Falls by saying that it is a beautiful place and it was really a nice day to take the trip there. The second thing I would like to say is that I hate hiking. HATE it. The beauty of nature is beautiful and all but I will almost never go willingly hiking around to see it. There is pretty non-hiking nature and pictures from other people's hikes. But I digress. The first thing you do after you get your tickets is walk through a small diarama type room that shows the local wildlife.
Our lead is the grill master. So as she put the kabobs on we stayed outside with her and sang some tags. Dinner was amazing and the kabobs went perfectly with our vegetable packets, which had also been grilled. One of my favorite things about our retreats is the food planning and cooking. Sabrina and Katie take the lead on it and we always have such well rounded and straight up yummy food.
After dinner we decided we wanted to learn new tags. I brought the hand-out from the embellishments class Dale Syverson taught at the conference in Toronto. I had already shown the Rhapsody of New York tag to Katie, and in true tenor fashion she was salivating over that high note at the end. We picked it up with great success and after several times through, always tweaking to make it that much more fabulous, we were ready for another. The next was The Impossible Dream tag. We were loving how much movement and music there was in this tiny little tag. And also the fact that since it starts in a unison Sabrina can just start it anytime and we all jump on it. By this time it was about 11:00pm and quiet hours were upon us. We wanted to keep singing but we also wanted to go out to the fire and have s'mores. So Sabrina stepped outside and we closed the door and made sure all the windows were shut before we sang "a screamer of a tag." Sabrina, who was right outside on the deck, said that she could barely hear is. It was like someone was watching TV inside or something, and no one was going to even be that close so we could definitely get some late night singing done without disturbing anyone.
The rest of the evening was a blur of s'mores (which through the years I have found a way to make without the marshmallows thank god), singing softly around the campfire, and going back inside and singing through the tags as well as the uptune and ballad we're looking at. Although my favorite memory of the evening was probably when we decided to do a Cool Runnings version of one of our songs, which we actually made it all the way through, just before crumbling into a pile of hysterical laughter.
Sunday morning was breakfast, tagging, and some quartet planning. We talked about where we're all at vocally, what we want for ourselves individually and as a group, what we've all got going on personally this year, and how we can support each other in our goals. We also made the decision not to compete this year. Which involved some looks of surprise from my quartet-mates as I was ok with this choice. Between a wedding, two student teaching semesters, and a tenure year we've got tons going on. We want to improve, we want a larger repertoire, and we want to sing out more. But trying to get two songs we just finally nailed down ready for March would be pushing them too soon and making us more stressed and less fun. We'd rather work on our repertoire and kill it in the hospitality suites Saturday night at Regional. So that's exactly what we plan to do.
Before Sabrina had to leave we all went outside on the deck and rocked out the Rhapsody and Impossible Dream tags one last time before engaging in big ole group hug. Long story short, and in case you hadnt already noticed, I freaking love my quartet. Another weekend in the plus column.
