Where have you been?

I know, I know, I'm sorry. But you would not believe the week I've been having. First off all, I had to prepare for, and then make, a two-hour presentation to my company on our new management system, which I've been intimately involved with developing. If that sounds at all interesting to you, seek professional help. The presentation, which was yesterday, came off pretty well, with many people complimenting me afterwards on a job well done (one person said that I was very clear and easy to follow, which for this type of material is sort of the highest accolade you can get).

But you know what? I am still exhausted from it. I don't get nervous at the thought of public speaking -- though I have learned that when it comes to the point of actually doing it, I do get classic stress symptoms like dry mouth and need to have a big glass of water close at hand. It completely shatters me, though. I had to have many restorative chocolate chip cookies and a lavendar bubble bath yesterday evening.

The other thing that's been going on is preparations for the Dalton Chorale's concert on the 14th. If you're in NYC, I hope you'll come. As I've mentioned before, the actual job I'm doing (apart from singing in the Alto section), is not difficult, though it is time consuming. Preparing the program, making arrangements with the church for the space, keeping the chorale up to date on rehearsal times, those sorts of thankless tasks.

What has been amazingly, if not difficult, but frustrating, is participating in all the back and forth that goes on among the chorale's Board (most of it initiated by One Especially Verbose Bass) whenever I need to get their approval on something. I don't want to exaggerate, so I've made an exact count: 43 email messages in the last week about the need for, existence of, size, design, and printing of a contribution envelope we will stuff into the program. Is it any wonder I haven't had time to write in my blog?