My last day at work was June 8, and while Mark was putting in a few more weeks of work at home, I kicked it off with a 10-day Opera Workshop at Vassar College in Poughkeepsie, NY.

I thought I had signed up for a good old opera program, where I would work with coaches and directors on an opera scence (I sang Octavian in the final trio and duet of Richard Strauss' Rosenkavalier-see photo- for you non-singers: mezzo sopranos often sing so called "pants roles", where we play a male character, in this case Octavian, who is in love with Sophie...); but I was in for much more than that: I learned that as singers we are storytellers, who must open ourselves up completely to communicate to our audiences the emotions we are singing about. I learned a lot about the artistic process, and that singing is much more than technique, if we want to grow as performers. I met a lot of great singers. I could go on and on...

Vassar College ( a gorgeous campus) was the perfect place for this - and I hope to return some time in the future, maybe even next summer.

Then it was on to Yosemite - another divine experience...