Wanderlust

Wan·der·lust (noun): Strong longing for or impulse toward wandering

I suffer from a terminal case of wanderlust. How else could you explain a person willingly and enthusiastically enduring a 18,000-mile month-long extravaganza in Brazil? Or a whirlwind tour of Toronto, Rochester, Boston, Providence, New York, Philadelphia, and Pittsburgh in just six days? Sometimes I'm lured to places just so I could say that I have been there. The only reason Providence is on the previous list is because I decided to take a slight detour on my way from Boston to New York just so I could say that I have been to Rhode Island. And Providence actually turned out to be the unexpected gem of that road trip. I love to just get a feel for new places and see the different ways that people live.

The urge to jump in my car and wander off has been especially strong here in Cambridge, New York. I pull out the map and drool over all interesting locations that are within easy driving range: New York City is 2 hours, Montreal is 3, Boston is also 3, Vermont is 15 minutes, etc.

A nearby destination is Saratoga Springs, famous as both a mineral bath hot spot and a horse racing mecca. I've never been to a horse race before, so when I had the afternoon off I zipped over to the racetrack. It intially had a fun carnival-like atmosphere and watching my first race was kind of fun, but after that it became immensely boring. The actual races only last about a minute and then it takes about 45 minutes for the horses to mosey back over to the gates to run the next minute-long race. I briefly wondered why no one else was bored, but I quickly realized that everyone else had come prepared with a cooler full of beer and a couple hundred bucks to blow on betting. Oops.

The drive home was great though because I passed a place called Ice Cream Man that I recognized from Throwdown with Bobby Flay on the Food Network. They may have lost the throwdown (the locals I met at the stand claimed it was rigged), but they still make a dang good ice cream sundae.

That, however, was just a small-scale trip. I had never been to New Hampshire or Maine before, so on Sunday when I had the entire day off I hopped in my car after church and drove due east until I hit the ocean. I made a few stops along the way, such as at South Shaftsbury, Vermont to visit Robert Frost's home (as seen to the right), which is now a museum. I also stopped in Concord, New Hampshire to see the beautiful capitol building, and I picked up some shells on the beach in York, Maine.

On paper the trip didn't make very much sense - I didn't really have a destination in mind when I took off and I just turned around as soon as I got there - but I just love being in new places. Driving in New England was so different from driving elsewhere - Vermont scarcely has a single freeway to speak of and so you pass through all these gorgeous little towns and mountain passes as you go along. I didn't see a single strip-mall or Wal-Mart anywhere along any of the main roads. And besides, I can check off two more states that I've visited. The list is up to 35 now, and most of the missing states are in the South. This may necessitate another crazy road trip some day. Who's up for a jaunt down to New Orleans?

Meanwhile, back in Cambridge, progress on the opera is going well. The reason why I had so much time off for wandering was because of a children's production of Peter Pan that occupied the theater where we rehearse, but now that show is over and we're back to work. Today we finally staged the Act II finale, meaning that the whole show is now staged. And our conductor finally arrived yesterday and it's been good to start to get acclimated to his tempos (they are all screaming fast!). Looks like we've got a show on our hands, and we've still got a week for some polishing before our preview audience next Wednesday.

Singing this role has been a good experience for me. I was a little bit nervous because it is so much freaking music to learn, and I was afraid that I wouldn't have the stamina to complete an entire performance of the show. Indeed, after the first singthrough of the show I was vocally exhausted, but it has gotten to the point now where I can sing for hours on end at rehearsal and still have plenty of juice left at the end. It's as if this role is teaching me how to sing in a more healthy and efficient way. So thank you, Herr Mozart, for the vocal coaching.

I've got the rest of the night off, so I think I'll wander on out of here (thought probably not down to New Orleans just yet - I would probably end up missing my next rehearsal tomorrow afternoon).