The symphony chorus was involved in this weekend's series of concerts featuring Bruckner's 8th Symphony, although apparently nobody knew it.  We sang Bruckner's Ave Maria at the beginning of the concert from the upper balcony (normally closed off for classical concerts).  It's a five minute piece, but of course I still had to get there, park, warm up, etc. so it's not like it was any less time-consuming, really, than the 9th or Messiah.  Comments from the audience overheard by our assistant director down at orchestra level included "wow...that sounded almost like a real choir!".  I am going to put that on a t-shirt for everybody to wear to the next orchestra rehearsal.  They weren't the only ones who thought they were listening to a recording.  Maestro Graf, of course, was very sincerely grateful to us for having put the time and effort in for what was basically a thankless job (we weren't in the program, not on stage, etc. and of course we don't get paid).  I just hope he doesn't make this a regular thing.  We get our payback at the end of February with Ein Deutches Requiem.

I'm actually making some...maybe friends is too strong a word, but people whose names I know and I can talk to during rehearsals in that group, finally.  Of course, most of it is making snarky comments about people in the other sections who ask stupid questions, or people in our section who make us look bad.  We need to play Chorus Survivor where each section gets to vote one member out of the group once a year.  I'm pretty in my section the vote would be nearly unanimous for a particular tenor who is always late, a bad musician, and unfortunately DOES have a good (i.e. loud) voice so his lack of musicality isn't hidden.  Plus he bounces up and down during melismas no matter how many times we tell him to stop.

I've got to interview a guy this afternoon and then I'm punking out of here early to go to the store and lay in some supplies before the ice storm hits.  I will most assuredly work from home tomorrow, even though the office is now five minutes away.  I hope that either the storm isn't as bad as people say it will be, OR the powers that be decide to cancel HSC rehearsal tomorrow night.  It's been a long time since I've had to drive in anything approaching snow or ice, and that was in a car with Blizzaks, and more importantly I don't think most people around here have a lot of experience with any kind of "wintry mix" driving...and they all have trucks and SUVs.  I can think of less risky ways to die, thanks.

The dust is pretty much settled from the move, although it is clear that we were pretty desperate to cut our rent down ASAP because contractors are still putting the finishing touches on the space and it doesn't look like they will be done any time soon.  The focus, obviously, was getting it ready for occupancy in the things that matter (adequate power, cooling, network connectivity, phones) but other basic things like working sinks in the kitchens were not available until mid-week.  My biggest complaint about the new space is going to sound strange, but it's a not-so-little little thing: the way the stalls in the men's room work, it is impossible to tell if they are occupied without yanking on the doors, or sticking your face right up to the crack to see if there's somebody in there.  The doors are naturally closed whether they are in use or not, and there's no "occupied/unoccupied" indicator on there.  Other than that the men's room is easily the nicest-looking space I've seen on the whole floor.

I had a dream last night about holding hands with a girl I know.  It was nice.  I'm a huge sap.