@SpartanDrew We heard her singing while applying makeup as she was getting ready to go to work. Fortunately, they are letting her make the coffee drinks tonight so she can avoid talking!. Thanks @vistajay It started with a sore throat on Friday. I am still hoping it is related to a virus and will resolve quickly. @compmom couldn’t agree more about low carb being key! Sadly, many physicians, nutritionists, and advisors don’t get it.
@SpartanDrew, a word of caution about the small humidifiers that use a water bottle as a reservoir. Some have had success with them, but we had a bad experience. In short, On one audition trip, i set one up and we went to sleep. The filter was clogged from the start and the water never made it thru - there was nowhere for the water to go, so it just bubbled up and leaked all over the desk. We woke up to no steam and a large puddle just inches from a laptop. We ended up buying a Vick’s personal humidifier/steamer that uses bottled water but doesn’t use the bottle as a reservoir. Hope your experience is better! (and keep it away from laptops)
I find this talk of humidifiers interesting but foreign. It is always so humid in Louisiana that I have never heard of people using humidifiers. Is this a dry climate, northern necessity or is it helpful even when traveling to audition in Florida and South Carolina?
I run a humidifier in my house right now near Chicago, and I don’t sing. It is dry when it is cold. Skin cracks, etc.
@BearHouse I’m sorry your D is dealing with illness! (In the interest of full disclosure, I will admit that I tend to err on the side of ultra caution when it comes to these things!) If I were you, with high stakes stuff coming up (college auditions), I’m afraid I might shut down all non essential activities (probably including work) if my D was experiencing vocal strain at this point. She’d be swimming in hot water with lemon and honey, taking lots of hot baths, and just otherwise relaxing and recuperating. Especially if the vocal strain is related to a recent virus, her body is working overtime to heal itself, and you want to encourage this healing in any way you can by reducing all other stress to her system. Audition trips and the related travel are inherently stressful, and I’m a big believer in healthy sleep and eating patterns, as well. A singer’s body is his/her instrument, which brings me to the vaporizer issue! Like @GoForth says, in his house he uses a vaporizer because indoor heating and winter conditions can be so drying that skin cracks, etc. Well, tiny cracks occur in mucus membranes in cold, dry conditions, as well, setting up a perfect environment for bacteria and viruses to enter the body; that’s the number one reason to use one! But, for singers, keeping things ultra hydrated and healthy is so important, and @vistajay , especially if you are coming from a humid climate, travel humidifiers are essential! Personally, I’d bring one along on all the audition trips because air conditioning and heating in lodgings can be very drying. @SpartanDrew , maybe your Christmas gift was the one we talked about?? I hope you like it! @momzhood , yikes! I still think a good travel humidifier is invaluable, but maybe for others check the reviews carefully and definitely keep it away from electronics! My D travels with (and uses in her dorm room) a daily personal humidifier (MyPurMist), a room humidifier, and always wears a “Humidiflier” when flying; pretty much all the things many Opera Singers do. If you want my personal recommendations on brands, please feel free to PM me!
Thanks so much for your great input @dramasopranomom! Yes, I think the travel humidifier is the one you had recommended. Funny that you mentioned the issue with yours @momzhood as we had the same issue with the hotel humidifier in San Diego over the holidays. I got one for D’s room and one for ours. I noticed after two days the carpet by ours was squishy and I kept having to refill it. Well, it was leaking terribly. Then the entire hotel room smelled like musty mildewy carpet. YUCK. So I will for sure try out the travel one before we leave and check it when we use it in the hotel. That being said, many of the nicer hotels out there have humidifiers and will send them up to your room no charge. @vistajay if your S is auditioning anywhere north and cold absolutely be sure to have one!
I am looking at flights and lodging now for the February Boston/NY week. Ugh. It’s crazy. And expensive. I am thinking about renting a VRBO apartment in west village for 4 nights around the New School audition and then either taking the train to Purchase there and back the same day (haven’t gotten that invitation yet but assuming D is invited…) or renting a car. I’ve heard that the train isn’t all that easy there and back and then getting a cab or uber from the train station to Purchase can be very tricky if not downright impossible. Anyone out there have any different experiences? Or advice? I really don’t want to spend the night out there if we can avoid it. That would mean 4 different hotels, etc over a 6 night period which is unappealing to me.
If anyone has any advice we are all ears!
There really is no problem going to Putchase from NYC.
I LOL’d at your comment @dramasopranomom on the prescreen thread! I’d love to find $1000 on the ground but probably the winning Powerball ticket might be better! :-)))
Reading all this reminds me of my D’s UG audition. She auditioned for VP right after flying in that afternoon (without any knowledge of humidifiers or that auditioning the day you fly in is stupid). She felt like she had a really good audition. We had dinner and were all giddy. The next morning was MT (which is hours!). She came out in a very dark mood and said she felt sick…I just assumed it hadn’t gone well. She went back to the room, threw up an hour later and slept for 14 hours. I sat in the room all afternoon and evening thinking…well this isn’t going well. We had to fly to Chicago the next afternoon (never got to view the campus as planned) for Unified MT auditions…the majority of auditions were within 5 days and she was in bed sick as a dog. But by noon the next day, she was feeling better and could fly and felt better on Monday for her first audition. AND that was only one of many problems…we got to Chicago and realized NO ONE had given me the memo on proper attire…how dare they not tell me! We had to go shopping on audition day in downtown Chicago in a snow storm…that was super fun…since it was obviously my fault.
Moral of the story: things can go wrong and you can still get offers.
@bridgenail I love this post so so much!!! Not the sick part…I am dreading but preparing for our bumps in the road. We already experienced that on her very first audition at Loyola where she became sick as a dog 2 days before we were heading there and ultimately couldn’t sing at the audition. Awful. They were super kind, happy that we made the trip and we met with them and still gave her their highest merit award in jazz voice - with her prescreen videos. Whew.
But the attire part - cracked me up! I am so glad to know that I’m not the only Mom out there that everything is all my fault! Makes me feel more normal somehow. HAHAHA! D plans to wear a nice dress for audition days which I’m sure is appropriate for what she is doing. I’ve asked her repeatedly if she knows what she plans to wear and she repeatedly tells me she has lots of options. Maybe I should have her model some of them so she doesn’t show up in a dress meant for Miami weather when we are in Boston in February!
Dear God, @bridgenail , I got the cold sweats reading that, lol! Yep! Things can go wrong (and things WILL go wrong) and you can still get great offers!!! I am most contentedly drinking my coffee and FaceTiming said D this morning at her perfect fit school during Winter Term, whilst making zero airplane or hotel arrangements. It will all work out and next year will come, and they WILL go to college somewhere! For us, being super organized just allowed us (mostly me, lol) to relax and accept all the bumps knowing we’d done what we could. Also, @bridgenail will the “attire” issues ever end?!? It’s only harder to make sure D has the right clothes while she’s 2500 miles away. (hahaha @SpartanDrew … it’s so unfair that this is mostly a singer only thing! We saw instrumentalists at auditions wearing God Knows What with questionable haircuts, and…no problem!)
On blame.
At work, normally the productive groups are the ones receiving blame.
Well said @GoForth
On attire, S being an instrumentalist, he went fully conservative - same suit in every take of every audition/pre-screen video (easy to mix different days of videos) and same suit at the live audition. Maybe not required, but why not do it. We had no idea of his musical standing at that time.
Well…we thought we were doing things right! I thought I was prepared. I had a binder with all kinds of notes and details to prove it (and yet I found myself in the hotel business center - remember those - during Unifieds writing a short essay on why I wanted to attend a certain school while my D auditioned - I’m quite sure I nailed it).
I would recommend hanging loose during auditions, being ready for anything and having a sense of humor. It really is about your kid’s talent during that 5-10 min in the audition room…and not about the ugly process of getting them there
@dramasopranomom I still pay for a gown and/or cocktail dress annually for my D. I trust her taste and obviously have a wide range of acceptable so it’s not really something I’m concerned about…except the cost! As for her hair…she’s on her own on that. I never know what style is coming next…but it’s always cool in the end.
@SpartanDrew Just popping in and catching up. If you haven’t booked your Airbnb in NYC yet, you might look at Pod 51, Pod 39 and Pod Times Square. I stayed at Pod 51 with S last year during auditions, and D and I will be staying at Pod Times Square in Feb for one of her auditions. Our room, on Times Square, is $95 per night. Now, it is tiny - a lot like Ikea designed it. But for us it worked out great, and we are going to be able to stay an extra night and enjoy ourselves a little to celebrate the END of auditions!!!
That said I am a huge Airbnb fan. NYC has strict rules about it, so be sure wherever you stay is following them. Once when we stayed at an Airbnb in NYC, we were instructed at check-in to tell the neighbors we were visiting relatives.
Thanks so much @BassTheatreMom I will check it out. I’ve been looking at VRBO. I’ve had fantastic experiences with VRBO. I’ve never done airbnb but am open to it. When you stayed at one in NY was it a private room or the entire residence? We have friends that live in the village. not far from Chelsea market and have offered their extra room to us to stay. That being said, while D has met them every time we’ve gone to NY I’m not sure how comfortable she would be staying there and trying to rehearse, warm up, all of that. I am leaning more and more towards a little studio or 1 bedroom where we could have a kitchen and do a lot of our own meal prep to save bucks as well. Dinners out for sure but we love having a kitchen, living room and space to relax and unwind with some of the creature comforts of home. I actually found a 2 BR apartment about a 10 minute walk to NEC in Boston right next to Copley place that looks great and is cheaper than a hotel!
When we did the Airbnb in NYC it was a private 2 bedroom apartment in the Hell’s Kitchen area (which is a lot nicer than it sounds these days). But that was for a family of five for five nights. With just the two of us for three nights, we don’t need all that.
I love Airbnb - mostly we get private accommodations, but we stayed with a cute young couple in Tampa for D’s audition there, and a couple years back we stayed with a UT professor and his wife when we were visiting UT Austin. We did all of our Europe trip this past summer in Airbnb’s, and we’ve used them in Boston, Chicago, Florida, Smoky Mountains, and a couple of other places, I"m can’t think of now. If you need any tips on using them, let me know.
We are now the proud owners of, not one, but two humidifiers. One for her room and a personal one for travel. Thank you @dramasopranomom
S17 and my D visited Purchase. They took a bus from Port Authority one way and took Metro North back; MN is out of Grand Central Terminal. I wanted them to check out both means of travel. He said the bus stop was at the train station and they took a cab from there (and then back from the school); it was about a 15 minute ride. The bus ride was really cheap - like $10. It’s about an hour on the bus. He liked the school but ultimately wound up not applying. It should not be necessary to spend the night up there.