Blessings

I can't sleep.  I'm still on one of those audition highs!  and in one of those reflective moods... 
Looking over my life at where I've come from and where I hope to go, I can't feel but incredibly proud of myself!  Especially tonight because I went on one of those "dream auditions"!  I auditioned for the Tanglewood Festival Chorus which is the Boston Symphony Orchestra's official chorus.  Boston Symphony Orchestra is probably the country's, no I'm sorry, the WORLD'S top Orchestra.  and tonight, me, Lisa Marie Marut Shriver, got to enter Symphony Hall through the stage door where my name was waiting on a list, and walk past the entrances onto Symphony Hall's stage and audition for one of the Maestros of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, John Oliver.  A man who shares the stage with James Levine, probably the world's most famous conductor, who divides his time between The Metropolitan Opera and the Boston Symphony.  My audition was at 7:40pm which just so happened to be about the time when the Orchestra was taking an intermission in their Opening Night at Symphony Hall featuring the world premiere of John Williams' On Willows and Birches for harp and orchestra, written and performed by BSO principal harpist Ann Hobson Pilot, Debussy's shimmering La Mer, and Chopin's Concerto No. 2, with Evgeny Kissin as soloist ALL conducted by James Levine.  I passed all these people in tuxes backstage and was hoping for just one teensy glimpse of Mr. Levine!  No such luck.  I am hoping and praying and wishing with all my might that I get picked to sing in this choir!  The ironic part of all my auditions and experiences so far here in Boston is that I'm overqualified to get paid to sing in any church choir but qualified to sing in the group that pays nothing but might not take me because there are sooo many great singers out there that they might like better than me.  Should I get to sing in this choir, I would get to perform Mendelssohn's Elijah on the same stage that Stephanie Blythe will be performing the mezzo solo conducted by Jame Levine!  I mean I could just pass out thinking about the sheer amazingness of even being in the same room as some of these people I've mentioned!  Just to even hear James Levine speak in person and not just on a DVD recording!  It's so crazy to me to know that all 8 years that I've been in school getting a Bachelors and Masters degree preparing and learning how to take auditions- I just did it.  I did it!  The path that life leads us is just sometimes so mind boggling.  I know that things happen for a reason and maybe me not getting any of the paying church choir gigs I auditioned for was just God's way of making sure I had a clear schedule  and no conflicts to sing in this highly prestigeous group of singers for free.  I know now driving around Boston that I probably would not have been able to come here had it not been for Davids new job.  I've been too overwhelmed and felt too out of my league to probably survive in this city during an undergrad degree, and now David is helping to support my dream.  I'm incredibly blessed that my life has turned a corner and picked this path!  wow, I'm just so incredibly blessed to even step foot inside that stage door tonight regardless of if I get the gig or not!  Somebody needs to pinch me.