Blog: Summer End 2025- Nick’s Soft Launch
Some people have been nagging me to clarify that I am back from Italy, which is why the blog’s stopped. Apologies to those who felt like I skipped the final chapter of the book. I started writing some things from my final week and just got too swept away in my return to continue. But I felt deeply blessed and impacted by the whole experience and all of the people involved. And I got to spend a few days in Arezzo, shadowing family friend Matt Schloneger who runs a summer opera festival there, and then in Venice, catching up with my dear friend Gabe. There are plenty of stories there, including the delights of staying in a 2-star hotel and discovering bedbug bites all over your body on day two, but I will just say that Arezzo is a delightfully charming Tuscan city, free of the tourist-chaos of Florence, and Venice is as beautiful and romantic a place as advertised for a few days.
Since arriving back in Chicago, I experienced a new sort of feeling: the relief of home. I was relieved to be back in Evanston, with the trees and grass and University resources (like practice rooms, and the library). And I LOVE campus in the summer: never fighting for practice rooms or dodging folks on the paths. It is beautiful and quiet. We are now in week 4 of the new quarter, and I am still thriving, but I sure enjoyed summer.
One of the many benefits of going to Florence this summer was that we were paid like real adult humans with a skill set (as opposed to music programs that will squeeze every ounce of you before paying a buck- and yet we do it because we love it…), which meant I did not need to find a silly part time job for a month and a half before classes started just so I could pay my rent. So I have been able to really relax, enjoy summer, get things done that I am too stressed or busy to do during the school year, see friends and work on personal projects. The relaxing part has been very significant. And another area of my life in which I was able to invest significant energy was romance.
You read that right- Marie has finally been bitten by the love bug, again after MANY years. The love bug came in the form of my boyfriend, aka passionate Greek lover, Nick. Nick and I met a week before my recital in May and went on three dates before I shipped off for Italy. I didn’t know that we had enough established to survive 6 weeks apart at the very beginning of dating, but Nick persistently scheduled weekly FaceTime dates and I pretty quickly recognized that these 2.5-4-hours-long Facetime dates were pretty special, something I looked forward to each week and not something at which to turn one’s nose up. I started to feel quite antsy to return to Chicago to see this special man in person again.
In the month and a half after I got back to the US, I took three little trips (Atlanta, New York and Kansas), fell in love, started teaching a handful of new students in addition to my usual crew, conceived a new independent study about comedy and classical music to pursue this quarter as I continue working towards my dissertation research and goals, and started a sketch-writing class at Second City. Very soon I will also be starting an improv class at the Annoyance theatre with a couple of my colleagues, Bobby and James, as well as a Musical Improv class at Second City- which is something I have been wanting to do for some time!
You can consider this Nick’s soft launch into Marie society, the official internet launch, in addition to the official notice that I am bound to US soil again for a while and that I am ready and looking forward to the upcoming school year, the ultimate year of courses in my terminal music degree.
Marie
