All week the weather has been beautiful, in the mid-50’s.  It has been somewhat unusual for mid-February.  But, with winter always comes a chance of snow – and a lot of it!     In Colorado, we like snow.  We also like dogs, Subaru’s and micro brewed beer.  So when the meteorologists predicted a large amount of snow equal to the label, “Snowpocalypse,” everyone headed to the grocery store.  We did too, passing partial empty peanut butter & spaghetti sauce shelves.  Now as I write this, the snow is falling with a gentle sleepy ease and the secret hope of monster accumulation.

I prepare for every gig as if it were a gigantic snow storm.  Maybe over prepare and usually very thankful.  I practice the music ahead of time, even if it is a song I have performed before.  I photo copy the music, tape it together and practice it from there.  I plan my outfit, dress and heels,  so I look great AND so that I am able to carry my Korg keyboard about 1/4 mile.  I prepare because my reputation precedes and follows me.  I must think with integrity and use my quirky experience to be the best musician in the room.

One year, on May 25th, I sang for a memorial service deep in the Black Forest east of Colorado Springs.  A lovely family who’s father passed months before hired me to be both the pianist and the cantor for a Catholic Mass they set up in their back yard.  Because of my years as a Catholic liturgist, I was able to play the mass parts, a psalm, 1 hymn, prelude and a postlude (Fantin’s solo at the end of Les Mis when her father is raised to heaven). I brought the keyboard, bench, stand, mic and mic stand, music, cables, a speaker and clothes pins to hold the music in case it was windy.

The only thing I didn’t count on….was that it would snow.