Opera Conference 2006 - Monday and Tuesday

Hello from sunny, windy Miami. Yesterday my flight took off an hour late and landed 15 minutes late. It was like magic. Or physics. Upon arrival at the Marriott, my male coworker and I were given a room together and we quickly set the front desk straight. I have a room BY MYSELF and it has a balcony. On the 29th floor. With a balcony. And a microwave and a fridge. Woot! I made a trip to the Publix supermarket, which was ALSOME. Just like a Hannafords but with more booze. Of which I purchased none. At 2:30 p.m. the whole staff gathered and moved boxes around and prepped materials for filling the binders, bags, and name badge pouches today. At 5:00 p.m. we went on an all-access tour of the Ziff Ballet Opera House at the Carnival Center. Then at 7:00 p.m. the people who are hosting Network Dinners on Wednesday went to Lincoln Road to get the lay of the land. Meanwhile, I made myself risotto with garlic, Parmesan, spinach, and green olives in my hotel room. (Everyone said my dinner sounded better than theirs!) Then SLEEP.

I'm currently in the staff office at the end of a very active day. This morning I made some quiona with dried fruit, then took a walk to and around the Carnival center for kicks. I came back to the Marriott and helped stuff envelopes for individual conferees and moved many, many boxes filled with bags and binders from one room to another. We had a luncheon for the Florida Grand Opera volunteers I also had the FASTEST introduction to a projector/DVD/VHS/laptop combo in the history of... well... me. But everything was fine during the seminar I sat in on this afternoon. No explosions, no fires, just a sort of pink cast to the projected images. I also reconnected with Sara Jane Patterson, with whom I worked with at Glimmerglass a million years ago. Now I'm OFF DUTY. Time for another walk, dinner (leftovers), and then perhaps some socializing in the bar.

So far, everything has been OK. I've had one conferee summon me with a series of finger snaps, but whatever. I'm actually looking forward to tomorrow, the first full day of the conference, when the bulk of our conferees will arrive and things will be in full swing. My previous anxiety seems to have been fear of the unknown fueled by the horror stories of conferences past. I think this is going to be OK, not disastrous and not life-changing, but OK. I'll keep you posted.

Also, Miami is absolutely pedestrian unfriendly. You need a car if you live here. If not, you're walking FAR for everything you need. I'm in downtown Miami and on my morning walk (8 to 8:30 a.m.) I counted eight pedestrians, not including myself. Unbelievable. Ask me how many bodegas, boutiques, fast-food franchises, souvenir shops, etc., I passed on the street. Go on. OK, I'll tell you. NONE. That's right. NOT A SINGLE ONE. Astounding. And inconvenient. It's weird. And there's some serious development going on here. There are at least 20 high-rise buildings under construction right now. The skyline is filled with cranes. As I understand it, they're all being built on the gamble that the housing market here will pick up but that investors are just bleeding cash because very, very few units have actually been sold. This sounds like a recipe for disaster. And on that uplifting note, I'll take my leave.