EE-step, not EH-step, not Eh-STEP

Ladies and gentlemen of the germy, I am in Michigan.  It's pretty surreal.  I haven't been here since I was twelve years old in very late 2003 and very early 2004.  A few years after my parents divorced, my sister Emily and I flew from Oakland, California to Michigan to spend the week after Christmas with the whole Estep clan for the first time since we were very little (my father was living back here with my grandparents at the time).  A lot has changed since then.  The digits in my age have reversed; instead of being 12, I am 21.  New family members have been born, people have married, and the Estep family continues to grow.

 

This week, for the first time in many years, all of us will be together to celebrate my grandparents' fiftieth wedding anniversary.  I flew from St. Louis to Detroit yesterday, Emily flies from Louisville to Detroit tomorrow, and my father, his wife, and their kids will drive up from Georgia on Wednesday and get here on Thursday.  When I say everyone, I mean everyone.  Last time we were all together, there were seven grandchildren and one great-grandson.  Now there are twelve grandchildren, three grandchildren-in-law (is that a real term?), and five great-grandchildren.  My father has since remarried and his brought his wife's four kids into our great big, happy family and they have an adorable little girl together, my baby sister.  It's not only an anniversary party, as my grandmother has put it, but a gigantic family reunion.  I haven't seen my father, step-mother, and siblings in about five years, since I was sixteen.  I haven't seen my oldest sister and brother in even longer, since I was last up here.  I haven't seen Emily, whom I grew up with, in about six months.  Words cannot express how excited I am for all of this to happen.  (And though I say the Estep family continues to grow, don't expect me to contribute to the number of great-grandkids any time soon.)

 

I'll be here for two weeks, and then it's straight up north with Lauren, Deb, and David.  We'll spend a few touristy days in Québec City before Lauren and I move into our respective dorms, at which point our study abroad experience will begin.  But you all already know about that.  There's a lot in store for this summer besides this big family bonanza: vocal coaching with one of my favorite singers, seeing Bruno Pelletier in concert after three years. . . .  Oh, yeah, and studying.  That, too.  That's kind of the whole point of going up to Québec in the first place, but we don't worry about that.  (Although I am terrified that I'll make a fool of myself while trying to speak French.)

 

While packing, I actually accomplished quite the feat in that I only forgot one thing, albeit an important thing: my laptop charger.  And, of course, it took a dead battery in my laptop for me to search for the adapter and realize that it wasn't with me.  I'm currently using my grandma's, but I ordered another charger for fairly cheap, so that should arrive soon.

 

Now I'm going to go write.  Noodles.

A veritable whirlwind

Just as the title suggests, the past few days have been a veritable whirlwind.  Many, many things have been good, even amazing, but not everything.   Lauren and I will be leaving our comfy room at BNB for a smaller one in Dobson.  I shall resign myself to communal bathrooms and try not to let it kill me.  I went to Hannibal today to spend the day with Kat since it'll be the last time I get to see her until I get back from Québec.  I was sad to leave.  Sigh.  This whole "being apart" thing isn't fun.

Oooh, what else?  Let's see . . . oh, yeah.  I get to sing and be coached by one of my favorite singers, Gabrielle Destroismaisons.  It's kind of a long story.  She's been offering four vocal coaching sessions for about $350, which is quite reasonable.  The problem is, I'm a broke college student and can't afford that.  Not only that, but I don't have the means to go to Montréal for weeks in a row.  It's just not possible.  So I was pretty bummed.  Then I received an email from Gabrielle herself (yes, I'm just that cool) saying that, after multiple requests, she was opening up a single group session for $85 on 27 July.  MUCH more doable!  Though I would prefer a one-on-one session, beggars can't be choosers, as my mom likes to say.  I'm just happy and grateful for the opportunity to sing and be coached by her, period.  Lauren and I will probably spend the night and the next day in Montréal, as well, before heading back to Québec City.  While I'm in Montréal, since it might be one of the only times I'll get to go there, I'll also be meeting up with a friend of mine, François, for the first time.  We met online via NaNoWriMo because he saw that I liked a lot of Québécois musicians and he was surprised.  He's cool.  I'm excited.  Woo!

Since Lauren and I are being driven to Québec by her wonderful parents, we're going to have a few days of "tourism time" before we move into our dorms and start classes.  One of things we'll be doing is going to Trois-Rivières to see Emilie-Claire Barlow at Le Festivoix.  She's a lovely jazz singer about whom I only know because she sang with Bruno Pelletier once upon a time.  Lauren and her parents looooove her and they're beyond excited.  I'm happy, too, even though I'm not overly fond of jazz.  I don't mind her jazz. :)

Speaking of concerts, Lauren and I had some pretty damn good news today.  Well.  Apparently, there's been an event up on Bruno Pelletier's Facebook fanpage since late May about a performance in Lévis (a city just across the river from Québec City), and Lauren and I had no idea.  We've been waiting on tenterhooks to see if Bruno would be performing somewhere close by while we're up there.  And he his!  He'll be performing on the evening of our second-to-last day of classes, the day after his birthday, on 8 August.  Technically, it's Bruno Pelletier et le GrosZorchestre, his jazz group, so he will presumably be accompanied by Julie Lamontagne, Richard Irwin, and Dave Watts.  Again, I'm not fond of jazz, but this is Bruno Pelletier.  I don't need any other pretense to see a jazz show.  And Lauren is beyond ecstatic.  She has wanted to see Bruno for years and years, and I was a bum and saw and met him first even though she introduced me to him.  I was a little disappointed that it's not one of his typical shows where he performs his regular stuff, but then I realized: I had my turn.  I was fortunate enough to go to Québec to see Bruno twice in October of 2009 for is Microphonium tour when I was 18.  Not to mention the fact that I got to meet him after both shows.  Bruno's stuff with the GrosZorchestre is very close to Lauren's heart.  She loves jazz, and it was the first stuff of his she found, so this is perfect for her.  I'm so happy that this, of all shows, is her first experience with Bruno.  She has been over the moon with joy about the whole thing.

It happened like this.  The lovely Ekaterina said there was going to be a show in Lévis when we were talking on Facebook.  Apparently this is already common knowledge.  I checked out the website and it turns out it's free, too.  It's a show in the street, literally.  (So we should probably bring some chairs.)  Obviously, no decision needed to be made.  We were going from the moment Ekaterina said it was free.  Unfortunately, Lauren had already left for class.  It was about an hour before I was to leave for Hannibal.  Nonetheless, I texted her and told her to call me asap since I had reeeeally good news.  We got a hold of each other while I was on the road and she was walking back from class, and I told her.  She cried and was hysterically happy, and I wish I could have been there to see her.  She's been in a state of disbelief all day.  I know exactly how she feels.  It's how felt when Sarah invited me to come with her three-and-a-half years ago.  (Something for which I am still and will always be immeasurably grateful).

This all sounds a little one-sided.  I am very excited, too.  I think part of my problem is that, not only has it not kicked in yet, but I'm worried that something will conflict with me going.  Not Lauren; she's going.  But the program in which we're participating at l'Université Laval has us doing, not only an actual French class, but a sort of workshop of our choice.  We submitted our top three choices and will be "sorted" upon arrival. My first choice was a singing workshop in which we would learn, sing, and perform francophone, especially Québécois songs.  The only thing is that I'm paranoid that that final performance will conveniently fall on 8 August since it's the day before the last day.  I have no way of knowing if it will or if I'll even get into the workshop, but the unknown is driving me crazy.  Maybe that's what's preventing me from screaming and jumping up and down and running in circles like I should be.  Hopefully that'll change soon.

Don't get me wrong: I am very excited to see Bruno again.  Immeasurably excited.  I'm just not good at showing it right now.  It's weird.

Anyway.  I leave for Michigan in twelve days.  I'm very excited for that, too.  I'm going to celebrate my grandparents' fiftieth anniversary with them.  I'll get to see my two oldest siblings, Dawn and David, for the first time in nine years, my grandparents for the first time in about two years, and my father, step-mother, step-siblings, and younger sister for the first time in about five.  Pretty crazy.  I'm nervous.  But hey, it's family.