Tuesday, November 21, 2006
The evening shift
As I mentioned in an earlier post, my hubby has been working evenings since September, and all in all the experience has sucked the big one. The 2 older kids barely get to see him at all, and have suffered a bit because of that, especially my eldest. She has cried a few times, missing him and feeling that things just aren't right in our family since he started this unfriendly shift.
It's hard for D. too, of course. He never gets more than 6 hours of uninterrupted sleep (to which mothers of small children might say "well boo hoo!", but it's not fun, no matter what the reason) and he misses the kids as much as they miss him.
But today we had the rare occasion to take advantage of the evening shift situation and went to the MSO's open rehearsal, with rockstar conductor Kent Nagano. His stage presence is undeniable, even when he's sitting down with his back to the audience, listening while the violin soloist leads the orchestra in Vivaldi's Spring and Summer. The man himself conducted a new piece by a Quebec composer, inspired by Terry Fox. When Nagano waved to the audience at the end of the rehearsal, the (very large) audience went crazy. These were mostly kids from about 9 to 16 years of age, which says a lot about Nagano's appeal and what it might do for the future of the MSO.
So: beautiful music, interesting insight into the workings of a professional orchestra, a glimpse of Nagano at work and a fabulous lunch of Lebanese food downtown, and we were at our friend's house to pick up our littlest one by 12:30! Now that's a good morning.
As I mentioned in an earlier post, my hubby has been working evenings since September, and all in all the experience has sucked the big one. The 2 older kids barely get to see him at all, and have suffered a bit because of that, especially my eldest. She has cried a few times, missing him and feeling that things just aren't right in our family since he started this unfriendly shift.
It's hard for D. too, of course. He never gets more than 6 hours of uninterrupted sleep (to which mothers of small children might say "well boo hoo!", but it's not fun, no matter what the reason) and he misses the kids as much as they miss him.
But today we had the rare occasion to take advantage of the evening shift situation and went to the MSO's open rehearsal, with rockstar conductor Kent Nagano. His stage presence is undeniable, even when he's sitting down with his back to the audience, listening while the violin soloist leads the orchestra in Vivaldi's Spring and Summer. The man himself conducted a new piece by a Quebec composer, inspired by Terry Fox. When Nagano waved to the audience at the end of the rehearsal, the (very large) audience went crazy. These were mostly kids from about 9 to 16 years of age, which says a lot about Nagano's appeal and what it might do for the future of the MSO.
So: beautiful music, interesting insight into the workings of a professional orchestra, a glimpse of Nagano at work and a fabulous lunch of Lebanese food downtown, and we were at our friend's house to pick up our littlest one by 12:30! Now that's a good morning.
# posted by becca : 11:28 AM
