September 2017

My baby is growing up.

She's an incredible young lady and she amazes me everyday with her intelligence, determination, perseverance, hard work, and strong sense of who she is.  Haley started school a couple weeks ago. This year she is taking two classes online through the community college as a dual enrolled student. Online courses because we have some travel planned and cannot guarantee she would be able to attend classes in person at the college.

Haley decided she'd like to try some different courses this year and see if anything appeals to her (as much as music). This semester she chose Psychology and Art Appreciation and is enjoying both, though they are a lot of work. The first week was on the light side then, she received lists of work for week two. Like any perfectionist (ask me how I know), she felt like she needed to get everything done on Monday and was a bit overwhelmed. I sat with her and showed her how to go through the list and parse out the work in her planner so she was doing a bit every day, keeping track of deadlines, and not being overwhelmed every Monday when the lists arrive.

She's a quick learner and the next week set up her schedule on her own. She quickly got into a routine.

I am so proud of this girl. She is handling her college classes plus her regular schoolwork, practicing violin and fiddle, continuing to work on her novel, and doing most of the meal preparation in the home. Haley decided a couple months ago to try out the vegan lifestyle and is very dedicated to making it work plus loves to try new recipes so we are eating very well.

Here's a little video of her this summer strutting her stuff on stage this past July in the Studio2Stage production That's Dancing 2017...

Studio2Stage 2017

From Swannanoa Gathering, we drove home, did a load of laundry, slept for the night, then got up early to head to Kean University for Studio2Stage. Studio2Stage is an Irish dance camp where they bring non-professional World Champion level dancers from around the world along with a few musicians and put together a full scale Irish dance show in nine days with all live music.

This was Haley's 4th year playing fiddle for this camp/show and  my first year as an official production assistant so I was able to watch from Day 1 until the final show on Day 9 and even though I saw it all unfold, I was still blown away by the final performance and how everyone came together to do their best to put on a fabulous show. The staff from the production staff to the choreographers to the music directors do a wonderful job creating a positive, encouraging atmosphere while demanding each person's best effort.

Haley had a wonderful time. She made fast friends with the show's singer/ukulele player from Dublin, Shauna. They were inseparable from the first moment they met.

Haley and Shauna sharing a joke prior to the performance

Haley and Shauna dressed for S2S Oscar's Night.

All the music magic happened here...kinda funny they were put in the Human Performance Lab...

The music directors, Anton and Sully, are a lot of fun and do a great job putting the musical part of the performance together in a fun way. They send most of the music ahead of time so they can spend their time at camp arranging and working out harmonies. Anton and Sully also put up with the girls' ideas for band movie and snack nights, band facial night (see photo below) and band meals...usually Indian food.

On Friday, the entire camp takes a train into Manhattan to do a dance flashmob in Times Square. 

Shauna, Sully, and Haley in Times Square NYC!!

After all the hours of rehearsal and the fun, there were two shows on Sunday, a matinee and a final performance. The week went by way too quickly!!

Haley even did her part to encourage the next generation of Irish fiddle lover...

Another week gone too quickly...we had one week at home and in a couple days are flying off to Ireland.