How do you get to Carnegie Hall?

$939 and airfare.

That was what one of my fellow group singers quipped as we talked about our experience. If you can perform and can convince someone to book you, you can perform at Carnegie Hall. Hate to bust your bubble, but there it goes. It all comes down to money.

But I was glad I spent that dinero for the opportunity. During tech rehearsal, we got the chance to stand on stage and wiggle and fidget like a bunch of elementary school kids. You look out and think, "I'm in the same place where Tchaikovsky, Bernstein, Horowitz and Yo-Yo Ma have performed. Billie Holiday and Ella Fitzgerald sang here." And you're standing there with your friends and fellow singers in that same place! It does two things: makes you damn proud and makes you determined to do your best.

During rehearsal at the hotel, Tim warned us not to react to the weepy parts of the program. "Think of anything! Don't pay attention to the narrators! Don't listen to the words! You cry and you lose your voice. Think enchiladas!" Sure enough, there's a song the sopranos and altos do that is a daughter's cry to her mother who is now gone. Guaranteed to turn on the faucets. I sing tenor so I'm free of singing this, but I have to watch them sing it. I sit attentively on my stool and stare at the hairline of the guy next to me.

"Come to me, mother, again in my dreams"

Enchilada, enchilada, enchilada....

"You left an emptiness no one can fill."

Enchilada, enchilada, enchilada...

"Oh comfort and hold me once more while I weep."

I'm so glad I'm not having to look at the audience...enchilada, enchilada, enchilada

It worked like a charm.

The concert really capped a busy day. Earlier, I went downtown to Knit NY to knit on the Olympic sweater and meet up with a couple of my fellow knitters from the GLBT Knit List. Liz and Jeri arrived around 2 to chat and show projects and put faces to the names we see in our mailbox. Liza's showing Jeri a swatch while the Olympic sweater is having a rest. I had to break it to them that I couldn't stay longer than 3 as I had to get back to my hotel to change and be ready for the concert at 3:45, not 5 as I had thought earlier. While it was brief, it was a great gathering, one West Coaster meeting two East Coasters. I reached the neckline shaping of the sweater in the process; whee!!