Life like opera - All the strenght I have

The main problem was (and still is) that I just do not know how to say the word ´no´, so whenever someone asks me to sing somewhere, I always happily agree and only later I realize, that I do need to relax sometimes, too. During 4 weeks at the end of December and the beginning of January I managed to sing at 22 concerts (sometimes even 3 concerts a day), I survived one gastric flu and few birthday parties (which you cannot miss, because you feel like drinking is some kind of relax, too).Later I was expected to sing at the semestral concert and, of course, - the finals time at school, when I spent about 12 hours a day in the university. It is not surprising, when someone gets tired both physically and mentally after this. I take this as a warning, because it happened to me for the second time since my very busy summer. You make your bed…

            It was pretty expected, that when I put my work on the first place instead of my studies, the professors would not be thatamused with my performance after the Christmas. And that was exactly what happened. The pressure was huge and so I had a little breakdown. I do not even know with what should I compare this state of mind without insulting anyone, maybe with my teenager phase or the mental states of a pregnant woman, but my moods were swinging during January maybe twice a day. Sometimes I felt like the biggest loser, who is not doing anything and should go back to his parents to the countryside and other times I felt like a social butterfly, who is making everyone in Vienna melt.
Basically, my happiness was changed by depression every day. Not even going to mention some singing mistakes, that I made and still make and that will take some time before I get completely rid of them.
            I finished the semester somehow. (Somehow, in my dictionary, means, that I did not only have A´s, but I got some B´s, too, which made my perfectionalist ego kind of sad.) And then there were holiday.
Well, ha ha, the holiday means, that it was the beginning of the practices for the school university opera project – The Barber of Seville. It is going to be played in March this year, but the practicing starts in February and it continues during the whole two months. I also said yes to a project in Olomouc, so since the start of the month, I have been travelling again from Vienna to Olomouc and back. But luckily, the train always stopped in Brno, so I could drink a true czech beer during the waiting for my train. (The Austrian beer really is not anything comparing to the Czech one.)

            But there is actually this one thing, that changed to better. I did take a lot of time for myself and I practiced my singing for a longer time and slowlier than before and somehow, I do not even know how, I woke up one day and my singing range was extended by a quart. For the non musical people – I could suddenly sing easier and higher tones, which I could not before. If that was a miracle or some form of postpubertal mutation – that I do not know, but I do enjoy practicing much more since that.    

Since I am a worcoholic, I do not think I will be free for the next couple months (maybe a week in July, but I do not actually think so, since I know myself). I do need to relax more, maybe in the nature or with people, that do not have anything in common with music. Because being 24/7 with just singers (the musicians that read this must laugh now, because they know I am right) is very hard. Sometimes I miss the true, normal, nice debate over a glass of beer about how the prettiest girls are really in Morava!
So, wish me luck and I go study now!