I rock.

Would you take a look at this? I mean, granted some credit can be given to Dan, Candy and GOD, but the makeup.... all me, baby. And can you believe how gorgeous she is???

Doing makeup for weddings is on the top of my list of things that make me happy. There's nothing greater than making a bride feel AMAZING on her wedding day. And when I step away and watch them look at themselves in a mirror, that's one of my favorite moments. Or when they turn to their mother, best friends, etc. and they all bask in her glow and rave about her beauty, I know I've made it happen for that bride. One of the UTMOST important thing about any woman's wedding day is that she feel stunning, radiant and gorgeous.

My process for preparing for the day always involves finding out more about the bride's usual makeup, what she wants to accentuate, her trouble spots, and a photo helps too. Every woman who wears makeup has their "it" things, whether it be flawless looking, non-oily skin, lots of bronzer, mascara mascara mascara, beautifully blushed cheeks or a pension for heavy eyeliner. Taking those into consideration immediately puts her at ease to know someone is going to give the same time and attention to those as she would for a special occasion.

I literally study these things and the photo(s) before the big day. I try to determine bone structure, how to best accentuate the eyes, skin tones and texture, eye color, etc. When asking for photos, I always ask for a picture that she feels she looks gorgeous in. That helps me to determine how she wants to look in photos. If she's 50lbs thinner in the picture, I'll be sure to contour her better. If she's got a nice glowing summer tan, I'm looking for where her face tans.

The point of all this? I love to do wedding day makeup and I'm fucking awesome at it. That's my point.

(But secretly, it still intimidates me just a little!)

Let's get our church on!

I left the house tonight for choir feeling like total crap. The onset of a cold, horrible cramps, general malaise. Sucksville. I had taken a nap upon arrival at home and just did NOT want to get out of bed to go to choir. Le sigh.

But you know what, it's really frickin' hard to stay pouty and pitiful when surrounded by some fabulous people, making incredible music and preparing for the ultimate of spiritual experiences. It's as if God doesn't allow it. I went from mopey and near feverish this afternoon to dancing down the aisles to galavanting around the church during breaks. Thank God! ;-)

If you're not familiar with the concept of Holy week, it consists of Holy Thursday, Good Friday, Tenebrae, Easter Vigil and Easter Sunday. A quick overview of each:
- Holy Thursday: the Last Supper, the washing of the feet (as Jesus did for his apostles), the last opportunity for Eucharist (communion) before Easter
- Good Friday: Jesus is crucified, Veneration of the Cross
- Tenebrae (friday also): Jesus is buried
- Easter Vigil: people gather to await the rising of Christ... starts very dark with candlelight, the great Alleluia is proclaimed again (Alleluia is not sung in the church throughout Lent), and everyone sits for a really long time as new Catholics are baptised, communed and confirmed.
- Easter Sunday: the fun parts of Vigil but in pretty pastel clothing (and little girls in frilly dresses in white patent mary janes with ruffled socks!)

While most "CAPE Catholics" (Christmas, Ashes, Palms, Easter) come for mostly the fun stuff (Ash Wednesday obv not 'fun'.... you can kinda tell by the name) - Christmas Carols, Easter lilies, rainbows, puppies, all that is happy - we in the choir know when the REALLY good stuff happens..... FRIDAY.

All Catholic churches will have a Good Friday service. This is very central to our Christianity, as it is the moment where Christ dies on a cross for us. Heavy stuff. It's a very introspective, meditative atmosphere as you ponder that reality. And then they pass the cross. Literally - it's essentially 'crowd surfed' over the congregation. From a choir perspective, we watch from above as each person bears that weight. Then everyone has the opportunity to go forward to genuflect at the cross, each silently expressing their gratitude, and leaving, singing "Stay here and keep watch with me... the hour has come."

Oh but wait.... there's more....

A very special and unique experience happens at 7pm -- The Office of Tenebrae. It's maybe not something you've heard of before, but it is a spiritual experience unlike any other.

Traditionally, Tenebrae was celebrated on Wed, Thurs and Fridays. From wiki: "Lighting was gradually reduced throughout the service. Initially 15 candles were lit and placed on a special stand known as a hearse, which were extinguished one by one after each psalm. The last candle was hidden beneath the altar, ending the service in total darkness. In some places the use of a strepitus (Latin for "great noise") was included as part of the service. The great noise was usually generated by slamming a book closed, banging a hymnal or breviary against the pew, or stomping on the floor, symbolizing the earthquake that followed Christ's death. This custom seems to have originated as a simple signal to depart in silence. Following the great noise a single candle, which had been hidden from view, was returned to the top of the hearse, signifying the return of Christ to the world with the Resurrection."

It's seriously unbelievable.... but you can't forget MUSIC.....

At Tenebrae, the Basilica Chamber Choir sings the Miserere by Allegri. Now, this piece is absolutely beautiful and instantly gives the feeling of meditation. But there's more to that story.... a pretty cool history, in fact (from wiki again):

Miserere by Italian composer Gregorio Allegri is a setting of Psalm 51 (50) composed during the reign of Pope Urban VIII, probably during the 1630s, for use in the Sistine Chapel during matins on Wednesday and Friday of Holy Week. It was the last of twelve falsobordone Miserere settings composed and chanted at the service since 1514 and the most popular: at some point, it became forbidden to transcribe the music and it was only allowed to be performed at those particular services, adding to the mystery surrounding it. Writing it down or performing it elsewhere was punishable by excommunication.

Although there were a handful of supposed transcriptions in various royal courts in Europe, none of them succeeded in capturing the beauty of the Miserere as performed annually in the Sistine Chapel. According to the popular story (backed up by family letters), the fourteen-year-old Mozart was visiting Rome, when he first heard the piece during the Wednesday service. Later that day, he wrote it down entirely from memory, returning to the Chapel that Friday to make minor corrections. Some time during his travels, he met the British historian Dr Charles Burney, who obtained the piece from him and took it to London, where it was published in 1771. Once published, the ban was lifted and Allegri's Miserere has since become one of the most popular a cappella choral works now performed.

Mozart was summoned to Rome by the Pope, only instead of excommunicating the boy, the Pope showered praises on him for his feat of musical genius.

All in all, it's an amazing experience and, in my opinion, the best service of the entire year. I've managed to get Andrea and Ana to commit to joining us, so hopefully it'll live up to my hype!

And there you have it.

Baby steps....

Literally.

We enjoyed a pre-Easter Easter Brunch this morning after church with the family and got some great time with our favorite nephew Luke. As of yesterday, this cool dude is 1 year and 3 months old. Now lil' P (short for Peanut!) is a smart cookie. And unbelievably adorable. But as much as he loves to move and shake, scoot and play, he just hasn't yet mastered walking. Why walk when one can be carried? Mom's arms are getting tired, lil' dude!!!

GENIUS. Youngest IT manager ever. (photo not in India, FYI)

So we gave it a concentrated effort today, getting some steps in with all his fans watching in anticipation. It's so much fun to watch and even more fun to get in on the action. I'd grab him, face him towards mom or dad (his favorite people in the whole world) and put my arms out like bumpers at a bowling alley. He'd get himself balanced on his feet, clap for himself and lurch forward, sometimes with his feet first.... other times just leaning forward (the face-plant method is less successful). I can imagine his difficulty trying to balance being that he's so TALL these days - those 10 month olds have a much lower center of gravity - but he enjoys the process.

My favorite part of the whole process was... well TWO favorites. First was the fact that he started every attempt with a round of applause for himself. Self-affirmation is a very good way to take on a new endeavor! And it's frickin' cute. Claps and a smile before starting off in his new direction. Have you tried this method lately?

My second favorite was bonding with my lil' pal. He doesn't exactly recognize me at first sight, and I know that. So instead, I slowly try to engage with him. Walking into a household for one of our family gatherings, you're immediately struck by loud voices and conversations. He gets overwhelmed and clings to mom and dad. So rather than get all up in his business and offend his delicate sensibilities (like some unnamed family members), I start to talk to him quietly, let him stare at me a bit while he figures me out and slowly start to play with him after he's warmed up a bit. And that's when the fun starts!

As time passes, I know his recognition and engagement will only get better and better.... but I so enjoy every morsel of love, affection and happiness he shares with me at this point in his development because I feel like I'm earning it. Not to say that I won't enjoy the day that he sees me walk in the door and runs over to give me a big bear hug..... Man, it's gonna be fun to watch Luke grow!!!

Kid tested. Luke approved.

I'm watching you.

I just installed Google Analytics. Holy crap. It's nuts how much it can tell me.... I don't even know 80% of what it's telling me, but DO know that it's telling me something. Catch all that?

More to come....

Back on the Blog Horse, I'm Lame, Kate's Wedding

OK, so it's been awhile.... specifically 2.5 weeks. Have you missed me?? And by "you" I mean the 6 of you readers that cared to comment on my Roll Call post below. So, Erin, Ali, Melinda, Brian, Missy and Tom - THANK YOU. This is for you, friends!

Life as of late has been.... interesting. And by interesting I mean dull. Oh, and I was in a wedding. I am a homebody that loves to stay put. I somehow manage to keep friends despite the fact that I'd surprisingly rather be in my pajamas on my couch. Did you know that I'm a bit of an introvert? Yeah.... everyone thinks I'm really extroverted, but I'm just really chatty out of nervousness.

Back to what's new.... Kate's wedding was a really grand time. I don't know if you have seen pictures or what not, but she was an unbelievably gorgeous bride. Katie has timeless good looks -- beautiful bright eyes, great bone structure, long lashes and big lips... can't go wrong, right? Seriously though, she looked stunning.

I myself looked awesomely tan. Hooray!!! A victory in and of itself. I've found the cocktail of electric beaching plus self-tanning two days before = the perfect bronze goddess look.

Here are a few other notes from the big day:

1. Kate & Tyge are a cute couple -- they also have very good looking friends.

2. Christos Union Depot is beautiful!!

3. WHY can't the bridal party sit down at some of these weddings? My feet were numb. I had eventually stopped listening to the goings on because I was so focused on rediscovering my toes. I even considered if anyone would notice me sliding my foot out of my shoe and standing barefoot on the altar. It was bad.

4. I love being a bridesmaid.

5. I am annoyed easily. But we'll leave that one cryptically disguised.

6. I never cried on my own wedding day... is that bad?

7. I may not be the most gorgeous bridesmaid, but I am satisfied hearing that people think I'm "so hilarious" and clearly awesome at taking pictures....

All in all, it was a great wedding. I'm entirely jealous and want to plan my OWN again, because that's how I roll, but I'm so happy that K & T had the wedding of their dreams.