I went to see "Catch me if you can" with Tom Hanks and Leonardo Dicaprio. It was very good. I would highly recommend it! Go see it -- its certainly better than most other stuff out there. Except Lord of the Rings -- it's still selling out here! Go see. I have to go figure out what to do with my New Years Eve. No clue. Mom, Dad and I went to bed early last year -- but maybe this year we'll be adventuresome! Happy New Year!

I've found a new craft! Two actually! My friend Mary Beth made a quilt for her brother for Christmas, and now I'm in the mood for quilting. Mother said she'd buy me a starter for grandmother's flower garden. I love that pattern. And to top it off, they're selling reproduction 1930's calicos...so I can make one that doesn't look new. They have a technique to shrink it once its all done so it looks worn! I'm going to try it. After I get done turning 49 hankies into a lapquilt....And I thought after last semester it would take me a year to want to sew again!

The geese are flying north. Why? The cat likes nothing better than to sit on the table and eat the centerpiece. And the dog runs around outside perfectly happy in a red down coat. There must be something in the water here.

Boy are we grumpy over here. The Christmas fun is over, and now we're all walking around snapping at each other, and then complaining that everyone else is biting our heads off. Aren't we a blast?

Merry Christmas! May we all remember what we're supposed to be celebrating! And then, once our priorities are straight, I hope you all got gifts you can actually use! I went shopping with my mother and pointed to stuff, so no big suprises here! Staples. And legal pads. Go figure!

Tis the Season!

This christmas is strangely lacking the Kunze Christmas mania. Partially this is because my parents have spent the entire semester trying to, first, buy a house, then get the tenants to get out so they can move in. Lately they couldn't move more than the basics in because the carpet layers were coming "soon." Finally my parents decided that they coudln't wait for them any longer and moved half of the stuff out of storage and bought new furniture to replace the stuff that was left in California because it wouldn't fit in the moving van. True to form the carpet people showed up directly after we'd hung all the garland and put up three of our four christmas trees. They also made it the week of the faculty Christmas party, and were laying carpet still within an hour of the first guest arriving. Needless to say, we are short on fa la la la la around here. As for myself, the combination of being sick for a week and a half after thanksgiving, finishing a recital dress and having finals has left me with little energy to climb an orchard ladder and hang an angel on the twelve foot tree. Andrea's boyfriend has been here all week, so she has little energy that doesn't involve fawning all over him..don't get me wrong, he's a nice guy. It seems like this might be it for her, but still. Chaperoning for a week is the last thing I wanted to be doing. Luckily(or unluckily) they are extraordinarily loud, smacky kissers -- so one doens't have to be in the room to know what they're up to. Sitting at the fireplace I heard them quite clearly down the hall and could heckle them without actually having to move. So anyway -- I'm going to go wrap presents now. We bought more stuff at Costco which falls under the "stuff for the house that we get instead of presents for each other" and rather than display them, I'm going to stick a bow on it and put it under the tree. "From: Mom and Dad, To: Mom and Dad" So there! Deck the halls indeed!

Oh yes. Skiing. Every muscle in my legs is protesting this morning. More in my back are joining in the chorus. And my arms keep claiming that they've been ill-used. There's no rest for th' wicked, and th' righteous don't need none. Anyway -- I'm going to go curl up by the fireplace and try to stretch these suckers out. Before I finish allie's present, decorate the tree, and make a zillion angel ornaments! Merry three days til christmas!

Skiing! Isnt' it wonderful? Wizzing down the mountain at a breakneck speed, staying upright only by luck and the grace of God! My family went for the first time in 3 years (hard to find snow in California). Jason, Andrea's boyfriend, spent the day on the bunny slope trying to master the snowboard. He's only ever surfed before, so I hear he spent more time sprawled out spread eagle on the slope than he did upright. Allison only wiped out every 3 feet or so on the "big people trail" and Andrea and I had far too much fun racing to the bottom. Oh, except for once when we made a wrong turn and found ourselves staring over the edge of a black-diamond cliff. We made a mutual decision that neither of us had dying on our agenda for the day, so the next best plan was to hike back to the Y and take the other fork. We thought we'd just take a short cut through the powder, but ended up waist deep, so we had to truck it back uphill and around. As I see it, I planned on downhill skiing, not cross country with a good portion of hiking thrown in. I'm sore now, but tomorrow will be worse....Anyway -- we abandoned Jason to the bunny slopes, and spent the rest of the day taking Allie up and down the backside of the mountain. All in all it was a great day...and to end it off with a kick I went off a small ski jump! And landed it even -- barely, but I still feel a victory! Anyway, I'll blog tomorrow if the muscles in my body still permit me to type!

The Twin Towers! Amazing! Everyone who hasn't yet needs to go see it. I love it. They kept nearly everything from the book, and Gimli has the best lines (basically all of the comic relief) but they aren't just ploys to add some lightening. They're actually in the book! YAY! I can's even critique it! Even the stuff they changed was ok (and granted it wasn't much -- they were pretty much purists). Wow! Glowingly positive reviews from me! I can't wait for the third one. Until then I'll just have to read the book again....and again....and perhaps again! (on a side note, I'm so happy to know what happened in the battle scenes. Normally I skim over them because I can't keep the names straight -- are they talking about a city or a person. Now I know!)

I went ice skating tonight! I haven't done that in years. At first I just kind of flung myself from one wall to another with reckless abandon, but the third time around I remembered how I'd done it before. By the 5 time around the rink, everyone get out of my way! I stop for no one. (Except of course for those annoying little kids who flail around, cut you off and then fall....then you look like an idiot flailing around trying to develop some coordination in time to avoid landing on them) Then Eric Benson did a really neat trick of turning around and SKATING BACKWARDS! Of course I had to learn how to do this. Winter sports are the only things I'm good at (actually, just skiing, come to think of it). So he was skating forwards facing me, as I drunkenly staggered around backwards. I never did quite get upright all the way -- I felt much safer bending halfway to the ground. That way I was that much closer to it when I fell. But I didn't fall. not even once, and pretty soon my coordination had picked up enough to the point where he didn't have to catch me when I lurched nearly as often. It could have been a scene from a movie though...skating around, losing your balance, falling into the arms of the man in front of you. Eric of course is years younger than I am, but the thought did cross my mind that this is the first time I've been in a man's arms (relatively speaking of course, with a few technicalities thrown in) in...wow....lets see...well the last time that happened I don't think I could have technically labelled him a "man" since neither of us had reached 18 yet. Has it been that long? ouch. Well...speaking of depressing news on the homefront, new years is rapidly approaching. I've never kissed anyone on New Years. Is that just a myth hollywood has started to make us feel bad? Meg Ryan movies seem to make it seem necessary, or wait -- how many movies has she been in? Maybe it's only Meg Ryan that gets kissed on New Years, and a few background extras. oh well. I'm not going to think about it. That will just put a damper on my whole holiday to get all sloppy now. I just finished watching When Harry Met Sally for the first time (sacrilidge I know) and I'm a bit of a funk. I'm only 22...I should give myself a break. And on that rather depressing note, I'm going to go to bed. Goodnight all, and Merry Christmas if I don't have 3 seconds to blog until afterwards!

I am so tired. This semester just about wiped me out. Usually I'm the big pusher of the Christmas season, and right now I couldn't care less if we actually put the rest of the ornaments on the tree or not. Part of this funk may be lack of sleep combined with multiple appointments. 8:00 and the dentists office don't mix...but on the plus side my eyes have remained the same for the first time since I was 5 years old. Yay! No more wondering when exactly I'm going to go blind. Now I'm eligable for laser surgery. On the minus side, I found out that being a singer is bad for your teeth. Yep. Did anyone else know that mouth breathing causes halitosis and gum recession? Me neither. Also I don't grind my teeth, but I clench my jaw when I sleep. I have been informed that if I keep this up I will not have teeth in another 40 years, and it's contributing to my gum recession. Plus genetically I'm pre-disposed to, you guessed it, gum recession. They keep throwing around words like "grafting." I asked if they knocked you out when they did that. They both looked at me and laughed. I wasn't being funny. If someone is going to be taking skin from one part of my mouth and stitching it to another, do they think I want to be awake for it? But anyway -- that's quite a ways in my future. When my parents are no longer paying for such things I'm sure. Anyhoo. I'm going to bed. I have to go to Bonnie's house tomorrow to wash her mirrors and vaccuum her floors (I'm not complaining, she's paying well!) Night!

Big freaking final in an hour. After getting roughly three hours of sleep the night before last, I got a grand total of 5 hours of sleep tonight. Woohoooo-getting up at 5 to study for an 8 o clock final may not be the best way to go, but at this point I don't care. Then I have to come home and pack and go HOOOOOOMMMMMMEEEEEE!!!! For "all y'all" in Yakima -- I'll be home in a bit!

FA LA LA LA LA!!! I go home tomorrow! I have had less than three hours of sleep this past night, and I have a huge final tomorrow that, at least for the present, I seem to be unconcerned with! I have a random guy crashed out on the floor of my apartment (actually not so random -- Matt, who came home after his final to finish writing the term paper he must turn in this afternoon) and I am in desperate need of a shower. Ah well. Perhaps after my nap....

The Worst Movie Ever

I just went to see Star Trek: Nemesis. Wow. Let me say that I am somewhat of a Star Trek fan. I don't do conventions, I don't have technical readouts scattered about my apartment. But I am relatively versed on the time line (next gen at least), and I do enjoy the occasional debate about alternate timelines/multiple universes. Having said that -- this movie blew. It was horrible. I'm now going to ruin it for you.....

We open the movie with a "best man" speech that even Patrick Stewart can't make sound well written. Then Data breaks into a chorus of "blue skies" and Worf-with-a-hangover growls "Irving Berlin." Right. Then we get positronic signals from an uncharted planet. Picard grabs Data and Worf to go try out the new ship -- which turns out to be a ....ready for it...DUNE BUGGY! Oh yes. There's all that spiffy technology for you. Rubber tires. No windshield. And a cleverly fixed Star Wars-esque rotating machine gun on the back...which is a good thing too, the star wars part that is.....because they are found by SAND PEOPLE!!!! So now we know that the uncharted and nearly uninhabited planet in the middle of nowhere (if there's a bright center tot he universe it's the spot furthest from) is Tantooine. And the Jawas help load them into their own dune buggies. Aha. So we rescue the Data-in-pieces (no it isn't Lore) and get the heck away from a long time ago in a galaxy far far away.

Now we're back on the ship. We've been called to Romulus to witness our 35th government takeover since the series began. Suddenly a ship uncloaks in front of us. It's big. It's mean. And its loaded with ...... orcs. Apparently Sauroman the Wise had been busy this week. Funny, I don't recall Romulans getting rings. But apparently the elves took a little detour to another quadrant of the galaxy after leaving middle earth.

So we meet the real bad guy. A very bald twenty year old with a complex. Turns out he's a clone of Picard. To prove it he cuts himself with a big stinking knife and hands the blood stained knife to Data. On the ship Crusher takes an EYEDROPPER and sqeezes the blood into a PETRI DISH. Wow -- my guess is that they used all of the money for this film in the spectacular dune-buggy chase sequence. Or perhaps in stealing other movies' props....because Picard and Data get captured by the bad guy (who by the way watched a little TOO MUCH princess bride beforehand "Oh, and WHAT AM I!!!!?")....and escape using the cute little black ship from Independence Day. As they burst their way through a labrynth of hallways, I kept waiting for a "must go faster...must go faster."

So we've reached the crisis. The Enterprise is crippled. No other ships can help them. Picard decides that he must see his double face to face. So he beams over, and after killing off a few orcs, beats the crap out of his dying nemesis. Complex boy makes one last ditch attempt to stab Picard with a knife -- when Picard pulls something from wall, and the poor boy's momentum impales him.....(wait for it)....the boy looks down at the shard of metal sticking out of his chest -- looks defiantly at picard, and taking a hint from the Uruk hai (so if you cross orcs with what -- Klingons?) -- pulls the shard further in, killing himself. Wow -- somehow it isn't as cool without the face paint, the dreds, and the growling.

Meanhile, the crew is still in ultimate danger of the weapon-o-mass-destruction that the ship carries...the transporters are down....the ship is crippled...so what do we see coming to the rescue? Its...a bird! It's a plane! No -- it's SUPER DATA! (This was the coolest part of the movie. seriously) He hurls himself through a hull breech using his momentum to get him to the other ship. Great in theory right? But we somehow ignore the fact that the same momentum that will carry him to the other ship, also would cause him to do somersaults through space on his way over..thus negating the superman flying routine.

I won't spoil the ending completely....but isn't it amazing that, somehow, in a plot twist before Data sends himself into a life or death situation.....Him and Picard on an exploding vessel and there's ONLY ONE PARACHUTE (ahem...emergency transporter).....and just prior to that he's downloaded his entire memory into the newly discovered positronic B-4 (prototype date)....hmmmm sounds to me like the writers were keeping their behind covered in case, for some goodness knows what reason, they decide to make another movie after this one.

So that's the story. Have a missed anything? Oh and for those that do go see it...the cheerful tune that data sings in the holodeck that they all smile over but can't remember what it was....Pop goes the weasel.

I have two finals tomorrow -- or rather, today. It's three o clock in the morning. I have a jury tomorrow that I'm beyond being nervous about. I have a final in Music History that I'll BS my way through as usual. And I'm tired. I don't want to have a voice tomorrow. I want to go in sick as a dog -- sing my one song and go. Anyway. I'm off to bed for a few hours. Then up to study. And cram one final song into my head. Ouch. Cram...cram...cram...

My first final is tomorrow, and my voice jury. I've been sick, and haven't been practicing as of late to save whatever voice I have left...so the crunch has begun. My birthday was so much fun once the party got rolling. Some friends took me an hour south of Waco to see a drive through Christmas Light display! It was awesome...everything had moving lights, and there was a carousel, and all 12 days of Christmas...and hot chocolate at the end. Anyway -- I need to get back to studying and all that -- but I thought I should blog and let all who read know that I haven't fallen off the face of the planet!

Wow, let me pause a moment to unscrew my smile. Heeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaarrrrghghg. Ok. Better now. I just got done with a recording session for our Christmas Concert PBS premier (set for christmas, 2003). We're being videotaped. So we have to look happy, and joyful, and greatful to be there.

ha. Dr. Bailey looked at the dress rehearsal that they taped to fix problems, and he said it looked like we were chained to the risers. Pretty close. We were just trying to make an acurate portrayal. We recorded in front of an audience, and then locked them in so they couldn't leave for our re-recording of several songs. Ha. When they paid for their tickets, I bet they didn't know they'd be held hostage. I'm sure whoever watched the concert next year will really enjoy it. It will look great, and be very uplifting. Look for me up and to the right of the mezzo soloist smiling away. Looking happy, and joyful and greatful to be there.

Especially during the symphonic pieces that we were, essentially, a curtain to mask the risers. No other reason for us to be there -- we could have filed off and come back on after three movements of Vivaldi, but no. We had ugly risers to mask. So we stood there looking happy, and joyful, and greatful to be there.

Especially on the camera close ups -- the we were positively glowing. At least during the Forest scene from Tchaikowsky's Nutcracker I could envision all of the beautiful dancing. I made up whole ballets this week in dress rehearsals. So, it wasn't too bad tonight...but tomorrow we have to hold the audience longer to make up all the mistakes they find tomorrow in the review of tonight's performance. Oh goodie. (ok, now can we do measure 30-35 of the Sir Krisemas piece...ok that was great..thanks) Oh, and in between concert segments, we have a sing along with the audience. But...someone forgot that WE don't have words in front of us (the concert is memorized). So here we are three verses into "Hark the Herald Angels Sing" -- and the cameras are doing closeups of us going: Hail the ...hm hm....prince of peace...la la la la righteousness....light and life to something bring..........watermellon in his wings......mild he something something by...la la la la hmmmmmm hmmmmmmmmm la la la la la la la la.....HARK THE HERALD ANGELS SING! GLORY TO THE NEWBORN KING! That ought to look wonderful. Ok, I'm going to bed. I have a recital dress to finish for Jen's dress rehearsal tomorrow afternoon. Then I have to head to part two of happy, and joyful, and greatful to be there.

Alright, since my birthday is in 3 days, people have started asking me what I want for it....so I'm going to post a "wish-list" here:

1. coloring books -- my favorites are precious moments ones

2.victorian reproduction die cuts, greeting cards, namecards, punch outs -- anything I can use for my decoupage screen that's sometime in the future.

3.girly stuff -- bubble bath, nail polish, potpourie, candles (vanilla, cinamon, etc), and picture frames, gold or victoriany so I can frame some of the pictures I have of all of you!

4. The Silmarillion -- JRR Tolkien

5.pretty teacups. I love them -- I have them all over my house, and they're all over the place at antique shops and gifty places ....or

6. Of course gift certificates are always nice -- Hobby Lobby is Mecca, and The Compass too -- anyway. So, I've covered my bases for this year...and these are just ideas -- no one needs feel obligated, but I told some people I'd post ideas up...so there!

I've been having my feelings hurt by a friend of mine this semester, and have been mulling over what to do about it. My first reaction was to get irate, yell about how I "deserve" to be treated, list off all the things I've done for him, and then stalk off. Hmm.... then I read this from the book Christy, by Catherine Marshall (and by the way, Miss Alice is a Quaker -- hence the language)

"David, no Christian ever has a right to sever any relationship with anybody out of anger or pique, or even injustice, no matter how much he disapproves of someone's actions. It's our place to demonstrate reconciliation - not judgment or revenge or retaliation. That's God's business, not ours. Beware the chasms in thy life, David. Sooner or later thee will fall down in the chasm thyself. I suggest that you make the poing of talking to Ozias. Extend the hand of friendship. At least try it. After all, David, when the lines of communication are cut so that two people can't even talk, what have you gained then? All you've done is sever what may have been God's only route into a man's heart."

So what is a Christian to do when they are being treated poorly? "Turn the other cheek" comes to mind, but how does one do that without becoming a doormat. And then, should that be a consideration? Do we even get to take into account self? In the case of friendships, we're told that we need to set boundaries, and assert ourself when we perceive that we're being put upon? How does one draw the line? Any comments anyone?

I feel absolutely terrible. Mia sorella e stato simpatica e ora, io sono malata. (ie: My sister was kind enough to give me her school's running cold.) Did she stay sick however? No. In fact last night I hear she was running around in a snowsuit injoying Yakima's first snowfall. Darn it. Me? Sick as a dog. Not anything that one can skip class, or perhaps a choir concert over. Nope. Just walking around hacking up lungs, and blowing my nose every 32 seconds. And to add to the fun, waco temperatures, knowing full well that I'm homesick, decided to rival Yakima upon my return from thanksgiving. And I thought I was being clever when I left a suitcase full of my winter clothes at home so that I wouldn't have to cart them back in two weeks. I miss my hat and scarf too.

On the plus side, I am currently passing all of my classes -- I don't think my GPA is going to be very high. If I do well on finals -- and I do mean all of them, I might be able to keep them all b's -- but I currently have a C+ in Italian -- my lowest grade in a class since Spanish, my freshman year of highschool. I'm not happy. This will probably blow my 3.8 (probably, heck I know it will), and I'll have to make a 4.0 next semester to recover from slacking off this semester....oh did I mention I'm taking 17 hours next semester? Ah well. I'll worry about finals and money first. Then I'll worry about my 4.0 next semester. Ouch. Alright..I have to go finish a recital dress. Talk to you later -- after the recording session from hades tonight

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I hate choir. I don't care how many times I've written "submit yourself to the governing authority" all over my music, I still hate it. We had a three hour rehearsal tonight which stretched its way 29 minutes over. It was horrible....I'm sick, and that didn't help the mood at all. I hate the fact that since we aren't professionals they can take as much time as they want, keep us late, not give us a break (illegal were we paid) and then lecture us when we groan at "just another two minutes" and then threaten to flunk us if our attitude doesn't improve. Oh man am I tired.

On the plus side, opera is over...I'm registered for nearly all the classes I need to graduate, it looks like my independent study may actually go through, my birthday is coming up, and on the 17th I get to fly home. How's that for positive? Alright, I'm going to sleep now. Too tired to write, and I'm our of kleenex. I'm going to have to be creative.

The Christmas decorations are up -- along with three of the four Christmas trees and about a zillion feet of garland. This is my favorite holiday, and I'm leaving it with a new skill -- Becky Logsdon (old family friend) taught me how to knit. Now all I need to do is learn how to tat, and maybe how to weave, and there will be nothing textile related that I won't be able to do. Does 't that sound like fun? Making entire outfits that you've had a hand in, start to finish? I'm still thinking a deserted island or a small self-contained farm in the middle of nowhere would be a good place to test out one's resourcefullness. Someday perhaps. Anyway -- the two days of holiday feasting were wonderful. I didn't eat myself sick, but I savored every bite...who knew turkey was so delicious? And shrimp and stuffing. Oh man. Next gourge opportunity is my birthday -- 9 days and counting! I hope you're having a great holiday! I sure am!

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

The Fourth Wise Man

This is the story of the fouth wise man. His name was Artaban. He set out to follow the star and he took with him a sapphire, a ruby, and a pearl beyond price as gifts for the King. He was riding hard to meet his three friends, Caspar, Melchior, and Balthasar, at the agreed meeting place. The time was short; they would leave if he was late. Suddenly he saw a dim figure on the ground before him. It was a traveller stricken with fever. If he stayed to help he would be too late. He did stay: he helped and healed the man. But now he was alone. He needed camels and bearers to help him across the desert because he had missed his friends and their caravan. He had to sell his sapphire to get them because he had helped the man. and he was sad that the King would never have his gem. So he journeyed and in due time he came to Palestine and to Bethlehem, but again he was too late. Joseph and Mary and the baby had gone. Then there came the soldiers to carry our Herod's command that the children whoudl be slain. Artaban was lodging in a house where there was a little child he had come to love. The tramp of the soldiers was at the door; the weeping of stricken mothers could be heard. Artaban stood in the doorway, tall and dark. He had the ruby in his hand. When the captain came Artaban bribed him with his roby not to enter. The child was saved, the mother was overjoye; but the ruby was gone; and Artaban was sad for, as he thought, the King would never have his roby now. For years he wandered looking for the King. More than thirty years afterwards he came to Jerusalem. There was a crucifixion that day. And when Artaban heard of this Jesus who was being crucified He sounded woundrous like the King. He was going out fo Calvary. Maybe his pearls, the lovliest pearl in all the world could buy the life of the King. Down the street there came a girl fleeing from a band of soldiers. "My father is in debt, " she cried, "and they are taking me to sell me as a slave to pay the debt. Save me!" Artaban hesitated; then sadly he took out his pearl, gave it to the soldiers, bought the girl's freedom, and she was safe. Then on a sudden the skies were dark; there was an earthquake and a flying tile hit Artaban on the head. He sank half-conscious to the ground. The girl pillowed his head on her lap. Suddenly his lips began to move. "Not so, my Lord. For when saw I Thee anhungered and fed Thee? Or thirsty and gave Thee drink? When saw I Thee a stranger, and took Thee in? Or naked and clothed Thee? WHen saw I Thee sick in prison, and came unto Thee? Thirty and three years have I loked for Thee; but I have nver seen Thy face, nor ministered to Thee, my King." And then like a whiper from very far away, there came a low and sweet voice. "Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as thou hast done unto the least of these my brethren, thou hast done it unto me." And Artaban smiled in death because he knew that the King had received his Gifts.

I went shopping today and bought elf shoes. Not really -- but they look like christmas elf shoes. Kind of like clogs with pointy toes and really high heels. I was so inspired by my cute shoes that OBVIOUSLY needed adorable socks to go with them. So I bought four pairs...white wooly, red and black large stripe, winter color small stripe knee socks, and my favorite -- a pair of fuzzy chenile pink socks! They're so comfy. They don't feel quite like socks...more like a footbath...I just agreed to sing at church without resistance -- something I've hardly ever done in my recollection...it must be the socks. Oh, and I bought a new pair of jeans because my other ones all have rips in them..oh dear, I have a listening test tomorrow. Probably should go study! Night!

I went to see Harry Potter II last night. Wow. That was really violent. Sorcery aside, wow. That was a LOT of violence. More than Lord of the Rings. And more spiders, and snakes...Wow. (maybe not this particular upcoming Lord of the Rings which promises to be mainly fight sequences) but still. A children's movie. Wow. It was entertaining, some humor, cute lines...but wow. That's all I have to say about that..

Ahhhh! 11 hours of sleep later I'm feeling "human again." Tonight is the dress rehearsal for opera scenes. It will be nice to have it all over with. Oh yes...the early rise story I promised. So yesterday morning I was rudely awaken by my alarm clock blaring that I only had 10 minutes to leave for class. I checked my watch, and it was at least an hour off (but it's a wind up, so I figured I had forgotten to wind it last night) So I rewound my watch, beat my alarm clock up and pulled myself together in a hurry -- skipping a shower. I got in my car, flipped on the radio for my morning program! But somehow my show wasn't playing....and then I realized...My alarm clock still hasn't been changed over from daylight savings. Every morning before I had been coherent enough to remember to subtract an hour....but this morning I had forgotten....so I went to the coffee shop for a Vanilla Steamer....It was a yummy mistake!

So tired. I can't complain too much about the all-nighter sewing marathon the night before last becasue last night was a late night of my own accord -- Lord of the Rings can't wait you know. And tonight instead of sleeping, I went to Four Feathers. SO GOOD! I loved it! I love the characters, I love the fact that Heath Ledger isn't merely a chic flic actor anymore...I love the fact that he wore a beard. It was all good! Great costumes...just enough violence to enhance the horrors of war without being merely gory (Saving Private Ryan had to be that way. I know that....the opening scene is far too realistic...well done, but aaaahhhhhhh) Anyway -- going to bed now. I'd tell you all about my mistaken early rise this morning when I'm coherent enough to type complete sentences...

The novelty hath worn off. I'm so tired of making costumes, and my director has delivered an ultimatum: Either the costumes are done by rehearsal tomorrow, or we don't use them at all. Well. That cramps my style a bit. I was planning on much more time. Well, more time -- not much sincefinal dress rehearsal is thursday night, and Scenes opens friday. So..looks like an all nighter for me. yay.

In the Immortal Words of Patsy Clairmont:

Jason, our youngest, has two goals in life. One is to have fun, and the other is to rest. He does both quite well. So I shouldn't have been surprised by what happened when I sent him to school on fall day. As Jason headed off for the bus, I imediately busied myself preparing for a full day. The knock on the door was a surpise and disruptive to my morning rhythm, which is not something I have a lot of. I flew to the door, jerked it open, only to find myself looking at Jason.

"What are you doing here?" I demanded. "I've quit school," he boldly announced. "Quit school?" I repeated in dispelief and at a decibel too high for human ears. "Why have you quit school?" Without hesitation he proclaimed, "It's too long, it's too hard, and its too boring!"

"Jason," I instantly retorted, "you have just described life. Get on the bus!"

Well, I cannot tell you how many times the Lord has had to echo the counsel back to me - times when I've questioned, "Lord, You say You never give us more than we can bear. You must not be looking. This is hard, very hard! And by the way, Lord, it's been lasting a l-o-o-o-o-o-o-ng time. And if you want to know the truth, it's getting bo-ring!"

About that time, in the recesses of my mind, I hear the refrain, "It's life; get on the bus!"

Find of the day -- a book from 1834. I now own it. Thanks in large part to the "Friends of the Library" fund raiser.

I'm costuming. Forever. And a day. Mr. Aslanian didn't like a scene, but unfortunatly there are no costumes in the theater department to be had....so I'm making them. From scratch...three days from dress rehearsal. So I'm not going to be blogging much. And I have a test on monday. blech. So anyway -- back to the sewing machine. See you guys when the dust settles. My apartment looks like a fabric tornado went through it.

Success!!!! I have survived day one of the book hunt....oh it was a thrilling race -- hundreds of people stood in line eying their maps and picking their gameplan. Upon entering the building I fought off the little kiddies in the children's section, then dashed to the antique books, and made a beeline for the religion section. Somehow people were much politer there -- "Who was looking for latin? I found one!" We had quite a choreographed dance going, with people heading both directions, weaving around each other -- it was an 18th century line dance around a table, with nearly as much small talk. I found myself between a young seminarian and a pastor grappling for the new testament commentaries, and darting in between for Catherine Marshall. C.S. Lewis was not to be found, but I did find "God uses Cracked Pots" by Patsy Clairmont. I won't bore you with a complete total -- actually, yes I will. This is my blog and I want a record before I head back on sunday for the "everything-you-can-stuff-in-a-bag-for-$5" sale.

1. A Wrinkle in Time -- Madeline L'Engle

2. Peter Pan -- J.M. Barry

3. Wolf by the Ears -- Ann Rinaldi

4.Daddy Long Legs -- Jean Webster

5.Saddle Club Book #14 (for my sister)

6.Matilda -- Roald Dahl

7. Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle -- Betty MacDonald

8. Hello, Mrs. Piggle-WIggle -- Betty MacDonald

9 The bells of Heaven, the story of Joan of Arc -- Bick

10. Something More -- Catherine Marshall

11. Adventures in Prayer -- Catherine Marshall

12. To live again -- Catherine Marshall

13. The Helper -- Catherine Marshall

14. Beyond Ourselves -- Catherine Marshall

15. God Uses Cracked Pots/ Normal is just a setting on your dryer/Under his wings -- Patsy Clairmont

16. Navpress bible study on 1,2,3 John

17. Navpress study on Colossians and Philemon

18.Navpress study on Proverbs

19. Navpress study on Joshua

20. Emily Post's book on Etiquette

21. Is there life after Housecleaning -- Don Aslett (hoping to be inspired)

22. Commentary on the Gospel of Matthew

23,24., Commentary on the Gospel of Mark 1&2

25. Commentary on the Gospel of Luke

26,27., Commentary on the Gospel of John 1&2

28. Do-it-yourself needlepoint

29. Making Sunday Special -- Karen Mains

30. A Present Day Challenge to Prayer -- copyright 1922

31. Kept for the Masters Use -- Havergal, copyright 1908

32. Jubilate Deo -- Hymnbook copyright 1900

So that's it -- that's all. Now I just need to go find room on my shelves for them all

Thank goodness its thursday. In the middle of weekday madness, only having one class, and at 2 at that, is such a relief. Today there is a book fair fundraiser for the local library. Every book except a few is a dollar apiece. HEAVEN!! $5 to get in as well. I think I'll take 20. Surely I won't need more than 15 books to add to my collection. I'd take 40...maybe I'll take 40 -- maybe I should go rearrange my bookcases and figure out exactly how much room I have to put them. There's always room for more. I'll just build some wall shelves or something! More news on this when I get back from the hunt!

I really do not want to go to class today. Why should I...I'm having a perfectly wonderful time reading sappy love stories. Not romances -- those are rediculous. But Pride and Prejudice will suffice, and Jane Eyre, and Emma, and Little Women. What is wrong with a book that imposes a moral? Some consider it Victorian and old-fashioned. OH well...There's something refreshing about a method of entertainment that takes its influence and responsiblility seriously. One of my favorites (I keep trying to spell it with an "ou" -- too many british novels) is "An Old Fashioned Girl" by Louisa May Alcott. It goes to great pains to instill the idea that values and morals are much more important than being fashionable. All of her children's books have a second half that shows them making adult decisions, and all of her later characters are my age. I think C.S. Lewis was wise when he said that any book that is good for children should be equally applicable to an adult. What is wrong with morals and values and sacrifice and virtue being good and proper. I turned on my television last evening, something I rarely do anymore, and I was reminded WHY I don't watch television -- the majority of it isn't worth watching. Anyway -- I must get off my soapbox and into the shower. More on this subject later..

I'm very tired. Why? No clue. I'm sleeping...taking evening naps and everything. I've become the smoothie goddess. I bought a new blender -- give me anything and I'll puree it. It's very fun. My current favorite recipe? Take 5 icecubes, 6 frozen strawberries, one banana and a healthy splash of banana/strawberry/orange/pineapple juice. Blend until creamy -- enjoy! Very good. Once I get tired of strawberries, I'll experiment with the raspberries and berry blends in my freezer. Oh, and who knew how many varieties of "cream of" soup they have. I had "cream of shrimp" the other day. Very tasty -- even little bits of pureed shrimp in there. I highly recommend -- don't leave it warming on the stove though -- it develops a personality and subculture of its own in remarkably short time (like 20 minutes and it was shrimp gelatin). Makes you wonder what its doing in your stomach...

Term Paper Madness

I wrote my term paper, handed it in on time and everything, It's official title: Claudio Monteverdi: Il ritorno d'Ulisse in Patria. What was it really about? Not so sure anymore. It was a case of -- I checked out all of my resources weeks ago, and they proceeded to sit around my apartment so that I felt like I was actually doing something. Wednesday I finally went and checked out some scores (ie: printed copies of music for the full opera), recordings and videos -- in the hopes that they would help narrow the topic down. Thursday: my class is cancelled, which leaves all day to write paper. Time spent watching video - 2 hours. Time spent putting clever little post it notes all over book to use as quotes: 3 hours. Time I actually started working on the research project now due in less than 24 hours? 9:00pm. Procrastination works for me. At 1:00am I decided that I was too tired to type anymore, and that I just needed to lay down for a sec....which turned into about 7 hours. Amazingly I spent the whole night curled up on my couch -- which for those of you who know my couch, not such an easy proposition. So I woke up, skipped a class and finished my term paper at 12:35 -- jumped in the shower while it was printing, and got it to class on time....yay me. Now I can have my weekend. I'm glad that's over. Now all I have to do is get ready for finals...ooh and study for one more blasted italian vocabulary quiz.....

I'm so happy that I voted. Apparently Texas was one of those states that decided whether the republicans control the Legislature or not. Woohoo -- like one vote in a sea of republican votes is going to count. But I'm glad I did anyway. Sorry Daryl...but I'm really hoping that if the congress gets their act together they can pass the partial birth abortion ban. Maybe they can do something about human cloning, and keep the institution of marriage and family a priority. On the downside, we do have a greater chance of going to war now -- and we can forget about the environment. (The prevailing attitude here in George Dubleya's state is "Air Pollution? What air pollution? sniff...sniff..Smells fine to me -- besides the wind currents blow it all to Mexico anyway.") Oh well...the ups and downs of politics. And best of all...now that the elections are over, we can go back to tv without "Rick Perry SAYS he supports gun control.....but last term, instead of voting....he was out SHOOTING ANIMALS AT THE ZOO WITH A MISSILE LAUNCHER! Rick Perry. Not as good as he seems. (paid for by the committee to elect Tony Sanchez)" I hate political commercials. By the end of the last few months I didn't want to vote for either of them. I would have voted for a ficus tree had one been running this election. But, c'est la vie. Thank heavens we'll go back to car commercials. The volume is slightly lower than that of political ads

I'm tired. I really have nothing profound. I did vote. That took bloody forever -- I went 4 different places to figure out which precinct I'm now in (I've moved three times since I registered here). When I finally did vote I got a sticker. I want 3 stickers. One for each polling facility I visited.

Hi everyone again. Isn't November a wonderful month? It means that school is within sight of being out! Christmas is coming, going home for Thanksgiving...and I've actually studied some for my polisci test tomorrow. Not enough, mind you -- but some. I hate that class. If I pass, I'll be happy. Actually so far I have a B. No problem. In fact...I have a B in everything. Except Choir and Voice -- but that's 5 credits there. Should be more than enough to keep my GPA up. I hope. I just want this semester to be over with so I can get on with my easy semester and graduate. I have senioritus, can you tell?

I went to see "THE RING" last night. It was after all, Halloween, and one must see a nerve thrilling, spine tingling, hair-standing-on-end movie for kicks now that we're all to grown up for trick-or-treat. (Or at least we like to tell ourselves that). It was not bad. I'm more of a 6th Sense, or The Gift kind of scary movie fan...this one was borderline -- not enough gore to be a slasher, but not enough plot to be a suspense in the above sense. But it was fun to be all screamy, and having a full house of shreaking Baylorites didn't hurt the mood at all. I did find a few nits with it. (I won't put any spoilers in for those that havne't seen more than a trailer). How exactly does the lady falling off the cliff come into the "dream" images, when the lady was clearly alive when...oh wait, I cant' tell you that. Ok...so how exactly does the psychotic dream get on tape in the first place. And thirdly....my biggest problem with the movie...(Ok, people who are planning on seeing the movie had better stop reading right now, because what I'm about to say will clearly ruin the ending for you. So you are now properly warned. I'm not kidding....stop reading....no really stop...ok, if you insist) What ever happened to clear cut horror movies where the main character figures out how to ward off evil, fight off the bad guys, seal the mummies back in the crypts, the ghosts back in the tombs, kill the murderer, lock up the psycho, and throw the chalice down a chasm, thereby saving the world no matter what the sacrifice? Apparently we aren't doing that anymore, because the main point of this movie seems to be "oh well, who cares how many people end up dying from this thing -- as long as we're still safe."Huh? So much for archtypal heros. In a previous life, the heroine would have gone -- oh my gosh this thing is killing off everyone I love...I"M GOING TO STOP IT SO NO ONE ELSE GETS HURT. Nope. Not here. Uh-uh. In fact they're going to make darn sure to keep the evil spirit thing happy so they don't end up in the same boat as everyone else. Actually, that pretty much fits into our current thought process. One might get into an interesting discussion about this -- the "every man for himself" trend. Anyway -- no preaching...no preaching. But anyway -- go see it. Tell me what you think. Leave a comment (you read that? what's with all the non-commenting these days? -- not you Daryl...I saw yours :-) Anyway -- Going to take a hot bath and try not to dream of being trapped in a well. Oh dear....my tv just went static.....

Amazingly enough, a stuffed animal may be my biggest seller of anything I've sold on ebay to date. It's up to 10.50, and there's still half a day to go yet. Is that exciting or what? I need to list more stuff. Seriously. But Taz? Why is he so popular all of a sudden? Anyway...

TGIF! Which means tomorrow I get to sleep in....no wait, King's Club at Mission Waco. But then I get to come home and ..... write a research paper! But sunday I can .... get up and go to church, study for a Political Science test, Go to youth group and then.......in all my free time between 8 and 12 I can....write a research paper! Wow -- my weekend is suddenly very depressing. I was really looking forward to it..ah well

Alright.. we all survived another Wednesday! The rest of the week will be downhill from here! Speaking of weather (Teri) its was strange here. I walked to choir this morning, and it was clear and cool and sunny -- but by the time I'd gotten out of the class, it was overcast and threatening to rain. Strange how quickly it changed. I love cool weather! I have tons of winter clothes (being from the North). An another interesting thing...why is it that I'm always cold when the weather is warm, but as soon as it drops below 65 I'm all toasty. Northerners do know how to dress for the element -- and how to do it so you aren't too bulky to be comfortable. Here are some tricks, as long as the weather stays this nice:

1.Wear nylons/hose underneath your jeans (old ski trick)

2.Wear silk -- a thin knit silk shirt is twice as warm as a cotton sweater

3. LAYER -- its much easier to take stuff off if you're too warm!

4.Two pairs of socks...closed toe shoes.

5.Wear a hat...you lose more than half of your body head through your head...

So, I guess I'll go to sleep now that I've sent the rest of you there with this diatribe! Happy cold weather everyone!

Alright, so back to wine people. After a 6 course wine tasting meal with a glass of wine for each course, they all decide to come up and tell me how wonderfully I sang. And then they add the one that makes every legitimate singer cringe.."you sound every bit as good as Charlotte Church" (or Sarah Brightman -- or for guys I assume Andrea Boccelli). And you try to remember that its a compliment. At one point I too loved Sarah Brightman. And fought for the right to call Phantom a TRUE opera. And now I am older and wiser. I realise that Phantom is not an Opera because they use mics. And there is no way that Sarah Brightman could be heard singing those lovely falsetto high notes over the sound of the falling chandelier. But I digress.....It was lovely of them to compliment me. But the same lady who was so nice....five seconds later was complimenting the bus boys...and the pianist...and the winemaker...and I think I even heard her thank the table....

drunk people -- there's no telling

I made it back from california. Why are wine people nuts? Californians are nuts to begin with (excuse me ... does that salad have legumes? I'm allergic. Could you give me some tofu instead?) The question on my mind is...isn't tofu made of soybeans? And aren't soybeans by definition a legume? I mean really people.

Here I am in California! Yay! Not in Waco this weekend. I sing this evening...right now I'm up and recovering from the flight. It was a long flight. One little girl that is every traveller's nightmare -- she talked and screamed and yelled and protested and whined all three hours of the first flight. I was far enough away that she didn't bother me too much -- but I could feel the people around her cringing at ever "but mommmmmyyyyyyy!" They took my sewing scissors. I should have known, but I figured it was worth a shot so that I could sew a bit on the plane, but no -- they decided that my little gold handled scissors are the perfect way to cause damage on an airplane. Lots of people complain about these little confiscations -- but I figure, as long as I'm getting searched, surely people that need to be searched are having their TNT confiscated too. I hope someone's wife enjoys my sewing scissors.

Wonder of Wonders! Miracle of Miracles! Donald Swann wrote an opera based on C.S. Lewis' book "Perelandra." Is that cool or what!?! Must find a copy...must find a copy!

I'm searching for music for my recital next semester. What to do -- I didn't even know where to look for anything (quite honestly I could care less about art song.) So I did my usual trick of meandering through the art song book section of the library and picking out anything that looked interesting. I just happened to see an orange book with interesting decorations...so I picked it up -- the title:The road goes ever on. "Intriguing" I thought to myself, "isn't that a song from Lord of the Rings?" And it turned out that the book is a collaboration between Tolkien himself...and a composer that wanted to put his words to song. Some of the melodies were actually hummed by tolkien and transcribed to music! YAY!!!! So excited...except for the epic poems which are long, wordy and strophic.... Come to my recital everyone! I'll be singing Tolkien....now if only someone has set CS Lewis to music!!!!

Interesting incident today. I went shopping yesterday, and as a gag I bought a vintage 70's dress. It's brown gingham, empire waist, with plenty of crochet lace and last but not least a little built-on apron -- very popular in the peasant vintage look. So I was in a bookstore this evening attempting to find books 4 and 5 of the Chronicles of Narnia that I've somehow misplaced. So I was meandering around the humor section on the way back from the ladies room, and a man stops me and asks if I'm part of a religious order. He wasn't speaking english too well, so I thought He was asking about my cross necklace. I have this great moment of "God is sending me someone to witness to!" and then he finished his sentence with, "your dress, it is so...unusual." He thought I was a part of a group that rides in wagons, and lights candles for actual illumination...and grows wheat for their on consumption. Yeah. It was great! I think next time I'll make up a story -- bring out a shawl and drape it over my head....then say that I'm a nun in the order of who-knows-what. Mary Beth seems to think I should just play it like a hippie commune leftover -- talk about the sisterhood of daisies or something. I'll have something worked up! Anyway -- try explaining to a foreigner that I wore that dress for fun!

So, fall break is 2/3 over, and I haven't accomplished much on my list. But, my friend's quilt is coming along nicely. She's doing all of the sewing -- I'm doing the pinning. I hate pinning...but its the most crucial part of this whole process...so I think its coming along nicely. My house looks like a fabric shop puked all over my living room. Ah well...I think we'll all be happy when we put all of the zillions of squares together and hand quilt the thing. For a first quilt it isn't turning out too badly! Anyway = I'm off to bed. Church come before you know it

The apartment is clean -- with the exception of the kitchen floor and counters which will get done tomorrow. Sleep will be accomplished shortly..and I am currently reading "So I send you/Workmen of God" by Oswald Chambers. Oh, and I went to Hobby Lobby today, and they were having a half-off of flowering bushes today, so I bought one to keep in my pitcher in my bedroom. So, 4 down! We'll see how tomorrow goes. Maybe I'll even get cracking on my research paper!

Top Ten Things To Do While On Fall "Break"

1. Clean apartment -- if nothing else gets done, this one must.

2.Sleep

3.Keep sewing Jen's recital dress

4.Bake actual food-not involving Ramen, Soup or Pasta

5.Read....something

6.Memorize Little Red Riding Hood for November Performances

7.Hobby Lobby!

8.Write research paper due in November because you know you won't have time to write it the day before.

9.Learn Pieces for Wine Party gig next weekend.

10.Relax -- oh wait, not if I have everything else on this list to do!

Randomness

I'm really very tired and sleep deprived today, as a result of staying up half the night studying for my two tests today. Or rather, I should have been staying up to study. In actuality I read 1/2 of Little Women, 1/2 of Perelandra, and did approximatly 40 minutes of actual Political Science review. I did get up and do another hour and a half of polisci, and I'd studied for Italian on Saturday, so it wasn't a complete blow off. And frankly, as long as I pass that class I'm happy.

In other pressing news, I went shopping today. The weather (Thanks be to Maleldil -- read Perelandra, you'll get it) has reached well below 70, so I got inspired to go shopping. Consignment of course...who can afford to buy clothes off the rack...and I got a new pair of jeans, corderoys, and 4 tops - one of which says "I wish I was skiing." Which I do. I love skiing. Its the only sport I'm even remotely good at. I cought a frisbee last night at youth group sheerly by accident. I clapped my hands because I was excited and a well aimed throw landed between them. It was delightful -- and everyone was very happy for me. However I didn't notice anyone throwing to me when the real game started. Which was good because my team would have lost by the third or fourth time I ducked.

I have two more tests this week. I can't wait to be done with undergrad. This whole semester has been test after test -- not as bad as Matt who's taking 21 credits and making up all of his finals from last semester when he got a gig in California and had to leave early. Now what to do about grad school. I'm really trying not to pu the cart before the horse and take matters into my own hand. God's done pretty well steering my life when I didn't know it, I'm sure he'll keep it up -- but I wish he'd fill me in this time. Oswald Chambers says we should thank God for times of apparent silence, because its in the silences that we learn to Trust him best. I hope so...because some days I feel panicky. Like a kid in a dark basement who's dad has let go of his hand to turn on the light. And the kid starts yelling "daddy where are you?" And the Dad says "I'm still here! Trust me -- nothing's going to happen to you!" Oh for that kind of faith!

In other news, I'm making a quilt. Well, I'M not making the quilt per se. But I happen to have the sewing machine...and a basic knowledge of how to use it. Anyway -- I'm a commodity.

I took a spiritual gifts test today. I'm great at doing stuff, lousy at mercy. I have very little. But I'm a good administrator -- "Martha" if you will. That's ok. I can deal with that - it takes all kinds to make a church...and someone has to clean up after everyone, and take care of odds and ends. Although I usually forget the odds and ends, so I guess I should focus on the teaching aspect of my skills. Or something!

Well, thats it for my randomness. Did I mention I love CS Lewis? I think his writings are brilliant. How could one man think so much? And for the curious, go read some of his fiction opposite JRR Tolkien. You can see where they met to discuss theology and mythology, and even some philology. It's great-- there are some places in his fiction that are very similar to Lord of the Rings, and vice versa. Go read it. You have my permisison! Goodnight all!

God is so amazing! I went tonight to see Shane Bernard in concert -- and it was awesome! I didn't know any of the songs, and usually that makes me so self-conscious that I can't enjoy anything. But it's ok -- I didn't even understand the words most of the time..I just prayed that they would play one song that I knew so that I could join in the worship. And not only did they play not one, but two -- they were my current favorite (I'm desperate for you) and one from childhood that I haven't heard in ages! It was wonderful, and the opening band was from Seattle! So exciting! And God sent someone to pray for me...and what was prayed was exactly what was on my heart -- isn't He wonderful? On that note -- I'm going to bed! Must be up early for church...

Going through books like a weavil in a library

I have two tests on monday. Polisci and Italian. How do teacher do that -- its a conspiracy! Its probably because of our pending "fall break." (Actually a glorified three-day weekend). Here you go kids! Live it up! If they really wanted to help us out with a whole day, they should have stuck it to an actual holiday (ie thanksgiving) so we'd have one more day to travel without missing classes. Ah well, the idiosynchrisies of Baylor never cease...and God wants me to stay here longer? Well, actually I have no word on that one way or another....We'll find out soon enough I guess -- but if wanted to send down fire from heaven and burn up our music school -- fine by me. It would be the fastest way to get rid of the rats..kill em with burning asbestos.

I have a canker sore. Ouch. And so I coudln't get the numby stuff open, so I bit on the tip of the tube to get it unblocked. And it squirted everywhere. So now the left side of my mouth is numb. Kind of fun really...

Coaching with Kathleen Kelley (no seriously that is her name)

For my first real coaching, I think it went very well! I sang Beth's Death Aria from the new and wonderful opera Little Women (for those of you who I subjected to a lecture on the merits of this opera already, I'll spare you a repeat). I was very worried, because I forgot to get the coordinator the music ahead of time, and this accompaniment is not easy...but I showed up, and she looked at the music and said, "Little Women! Oh wonderful! I love that opera!" It was so much fun! We made it all the way through the aria (odd for a coaching), and she had so many suggestions! I'm the only person here that even knows the show, so no one could tell me what to do with it! Oh so cool -- told me to change my characterization in a few places -- and it WORKED! For most of the vocal stuff it was things that my voice teacher has told me over and over -- but did I do them? no. Now I will. Anyway! It was great -- my voice stayed with me (after all that hell yesterday I didn't have much of one this morning) and I learned a lot. It was a great way to get my feet wet in the field of master classes and coachings. Next time maybe I'll have one in front of an audience!

My time in Hell

So we had the dumbest choir concert last night! May I just stress ho dumb it was. It was all hymns and church anthems for some symposium. Now, I must say, I like hymns. I love the message, and the content, and the melodies. But did they make us sing the good ones? No they did not. They made us sing the dumb, homophonic ones. And the one good one we sang was an arrangement (aka -- we took away the melody, changed the harmony, and shamelessly conformed the whole thing to our own melody that has nothing to do with the original song). I hate those. There was a high point -- we got to learn an African summons by rote (I love doing that -- even if I am a good presbyterian and can't clap and sing at the same time). Then we had to sing choir anthems. Not the good, moving, stirring, passionate ones. Of course not. We sang the cheesy, overemotional, sappy "Marching to Zion" ones (more on that later). Anyway, the music was all easily sight read-able. Were we allowed to sight read? NO. We had to rehearse it. During choir (fine). Then we had to meet at 5 to rehearse it some more. The concert didn't start until 7:30. Then did we get to sit -- NO because we're doing the whole darn show standing up. So, instead of just telling us that we'd be standing up the whole time.....we PRACTICED standing the whole time. And every time we stopped, some idiot choir police had to open their big trap and say "Um....there are some (key word -- some = everyone but me) sopranos on measure 34 that are singing an F, and it should be an F# . I could have killed them. The rest of the choir would have helped at that point. And after a two hour rehearsal, they gave us snacks (the least they could do I'm sure)...and the cheese crackers weren't the peanut butter kind. (That really isn't that bad in and of itself, but it capped off the misery). The concert itself was agonizingly long. Every tempo was slow to begin with (Randall Thompson's alleluia alone took 15 minutes). Then having the whole "congregation" joining in slowed the tempo even more. And in the end, we weren't "Marching to Zion" -- we were trudging, plodding, limping to Zion. Anyway --that heavens that is over. And do we get a day off from choir after a 5 hour night last night? no........

I'm so homesick! I don't know where it all came from, but BAM! Here it is! My mother thought that she might be able to come down sometime in the next few weeks, but now can't. I'm not going to be able to afford to go home for thanksgiving unless Ebay picks up. I miss my family. Is that absurd for a 21 year old? Probably. But I've always loved hanging out with my parents. They were chaperones for my Senior Party, and I hung out with them when my friends got dull (one of them got depressed and hung around the prize table all night begging to win so that "something would go right in her life"). I envy people who can go home for weekends. For the last four years its been "bye folks, see you at christmas." My little sister almost got me crying two days ago. She got all excited because I'm graduating and can come home and go to the fair with her next fall. I had to tell her that I'm probably going to be back in school again. (excuse my while I grab kleenex) Anyway -- I'm now going to go drown my sorrows in the new veggietales movie. I've been wanting to see it for a long time!

I'M IN CLASSES!!!! Finally! I went to the financial aid office today and fought with the lady. She tried to convince me that one of my classes was full, and I was going to have to get permission from both the music dean and the instructor to get in....but it wasn't the polici class I'm signed up for. I kept trying to tell her that it wasn't my teacher or section, because it would have conflicted directly with another class, and the teacher was wrong. Anyway -- she got on my case and got defensive until she realised that she'd typed in the code for fall semester 2001. Aaargh. Then i played musical departments for a while, and I think I'm finally back in! YAY! So I do indeed get to take my finals legally! Yay! Now I actually have to study

I am feeling very domestic today. I have chicken and dumplings on the stove, and I'm baking fresh bread. I think I'll make cookies too -- needing a dessert-y sort of a thing. I didn't know I could cook. It suprises me every time something comes out right (although there are lots of times I kill things too -- for example, who besides me can kill a DiGiorno?) I need to clean my house too -- and study for an italian quiz, but that's the great thing about bread. It has all of that "rise time." Which leaves plenty of time where you are house bound, and have nothing else to do but study or clean or read. Oh, and make a bible study. I'm leading my very first. Surely Mary Beth or Mary would be much better at it than I am...I'm afraid that it'll be trite, or that the kids won't understand it, or that they'll laugh or think its dumb. But, where would Israel be if Moses had kept whining, so I guess I'll just shut up and do it...and beg God to supply words. Raarrrrgh. Anyway -- off to make bread!

Masterclass

I was apparently nominated by VC (my voice teacher for those who don't know) to be in the pool for those chosen to have an hour private coaching with some lady from the Metropolitan Opera. The Baylor Faculty picked me! I'm so suprised -- I never would have expected it! And the kicker is that the thing is next tuesday. That gives me a week to whip myself into shape...and I won't have a voice lesson before the coaching -- so I'll have to work extra hard with Matt or Glenn or somebody. I have no clue what to sing to fill up 50 minutes worth of time. Well, I guess that will all work itself out. I'm so excited!

Ebay Update

I have 15 brand new (to me) items on eBAY these days. It hasn't turned into the cash cow that I was hoping, but so far I've sold $67 worth of stuff on it, and even after I've subtracted the fees to put the stuff on there in the first place, its still better than nothing. I have hopes of making a relatively lucrative income off it. As long as I keep getting up early enough on Saturday Mornings. 5:45 is a ghastly hour to be up!

Financial Aid Madness

I went to the financial aid office again today. Now, my money hasn't all come through yet -- but I'm still short $5,500. So I had to take out an extra student loan. Why didn't they know this a month ago, when I asked them if I had enough finaid to cover it all? And I have to take another stupid sheet of paper around to my teachers to assure the financial aid office that I have been GOING to my classes all this time. What do they think I've been doing? Standing around waiting for them to get their act together? There's not enough time in the world!

So, tune in next week for "ADVENTURES IN HOOP JUMPING"

BOING

Boing

boing....

Another evening of crafts for Rachel! I finally got around to finishing off the cushion for the new chair I bought for my porch -- and just in the nick of time too -- I can read again tomorrow (or rather at midnight tonight -- may be worth staying up for). It turned out far better than I'd hoped -- after some rather stupid technical difficulties. Since I know that no-one in my audience can sew, I'll just say that fabric stretches the more you mess with it, so one piece had become considerably longer than the other -- and trying to match the pattern was a mess. But I did it! It looks so nice too. When I bought it it has obviously been bought in the 70's, as the orange and brown paisley leaf pattern proved. So it is now pink and green quilt square material. So country cute - - normally I hate country cute (my mother loves it, I'm rather a purist when it comes to Victorian decor). But what Victorian apartment would be complete without wicker on the patio? (For the record, I've been claiming to hate wicker forever....but it's really...*stand back for the lightening bolt*...adorable) Anyway -- enough rhapsodising...I can hear Aaron rolling his eyes -- but now there will be a place to sit in my house that doesn't have wheels!

Ok, what is wrong with this picture? I just had my first midterm. I'm still not registered for classes. Odd?

And why is everything in bold all of a sudden?

Weekend with the Grandparents

So for those of you that didn't know, in the interest in healing the numerous and massive tears in my familial tapestry, I went to Oklahoma this weekend to visit my Dad's parents. It went very well. I still have yet to see Grandma smile, but she did laugh at my humor (she'd better like it -- it came straight down the genepool from her!). Grandpa was a sweetheart as ever!

We went antiquing saturday morning, to the fair in the afternoon, and then to Hobby Lobby and out to Wagoner (prounounce Wag-ner) to visit Mary's childhood home. Sunday morning we went to their Lutheran church. It was a church. Lots of church functions, and small groups, and emphasis on becoming a holistic body -- not much doctrine. Going by the fill-in-the-blank sermon outline, the St. Albans Youth Group Staff has all four marks of a healthy small body! Their Choir was terrible. 8 people. Then we went to Luby's for lunch, Grandpa left from there to go golfing, and we went to one more antique store before we had to leave town. It was nice. I got an antique folding rocking chair out of the deal (Happy Birthday and Merry Christmas, Rachel!)

Favorite Quotes From the Weekend

Grandpa: "Well, after 52 years I can't kick her out."

Grandma: "Well if they'd sank the Titanic in port, less people would have died!"

Illegal Curry

I would just like to know what illegal narcotic goes into Bangkok Royale's yellow curry that makes it so addictive. I'm eating it for breakfast. I ate it for dinner last night. I took some to go and ate on it all last weekend. I think they've put something in it -- because usually one gets bored of eating the same dish over and over....but not this one. Marjorie in Houston has to binge every time she comes back into town, and they know us so well at the shop they don't even bother to give us menus anymore, and taking our order is more of a formality than anything, since Pom just lists off our orders, asks if anyone wants anything different, and brings our food out. It's comforting really, having an "our place." And they have us all connected...if I walk in alone they want to know if Matt is coming, and if I'm ordering for Jen they always remember whether she has soup or salad, and does she want Iced Tea too? And yesterday I was cold, so I told them I'd sit in my car and come back in when my order was ready, and Pom brought it out to my car. Isn't he nice? Anyway -- since one can't eat and type and the same time, I'm going back to my curry. yummmmyy. cuuuuuuurrrrrryyyyy.

I really stink at praying out loud. I can trace it back to those horrible prayers we had before Melody Lane concerts, "Dear God, make us do well, and please let the people like us, and please help us remember our parts. Amen." And I got nominated to pray -- I can't even remember what I said -- and they laughed at me. Anyway -- we were praying at our youth meeting tonight, and since I'm much better writing than speaking, I thought I'd put my praises down here.

I thank God for Aaron, our youth leader, who brought us all together into a Christian Community, which I so desperately needed at that time of my life. I thank God for Mary, who irritated me by implying that I should be going to church (when I was falling away). Who invited me to go to her church, and who welcomed me when I finally did...and who has stood by me not allowing me to go back into my shell when youth group forces me out of my comfort zone. I thank God for Dr. Claybrook -- who invited me to sing at his church, even though I put it off for a whole semester...he didn't give up. I thank God for putting me at St. Albans...and for sending Janne to nurture and minister to us. I thank God for Mary Beth -- even though I don't know her well, for being a comforter and an encourager. I thank God for all of them, that they put up with my shortcomings, and overlook how lacking I am in spiritual disciplines, and accept me even though I'm just taking baby steps back into faith. And I thank Him for overlooking my breaking into giggles at the wrong moment of every prayer, service, and worship....

Another $2! Yay! I'm rich! Well, not yet....but its a start! Once I get a feel for things maybe I can make this worth its while!

Celebrate! I have just sold my first item on ebay! Only $5, but its a start! I say that's not bad...plus -- maybe I'll sell enough this weekend to make up for my furniture binge shopping spree! Laverties has everything half off -- so I had to go look. I only bought a doily guys, but the sale goes on all week! Plenty of time to go back and find pieces of architectural gingerbread! Plenty of time to decide that I really DO need a 19th century sideboard! Plenty of time to decide that I really could sell that on ebay and be set for life! I just got paid -- wouldn't that be an investment? HAHAHAH! Anyway -- see what $5.00 can do? Makes on greedy!

Teri has just informed me that I misspelled Jane Austen in my bidding world. How embarrassing. I vaguely remember wondering if she and Steven F. Austin were related....

Bad day for the poor eyes. Matt was driving with the windows down, and I got something in my eye. Hurt like crazy. And I coudln't do my usual in-emergencies-only trick of popping my contact out, sucking on it for a second, and popping it back in, because I'd just had Curry and a Peppermint, neither of which my eye approved. So I finally pulled the visor down and looked in the mirror -- and its one of those darn long fuzzies. I don't know where they come from -- but they're finer than hair, and somewhat curly, and they stick to your mascara and then wag about in your eye wreaking all sorts of havoc. So there mine was, floating peacefully. Usually in a case like this, you find something absorbant (like a napkin) and try to get the hair to stick to it. I take my contact out and look for a napkin. No such luck. So I have an epiphany -- I can just reach my fingers in and pull it out (those with contacts can't be squemish about stuff like that). So I make an exploratory dab, and the car hits a bumb. Now I have a tiny gouge on my eyeball that is bleeding, AND a happy little floater. So I start tugging on my eyelash trying to dislodge the thing, and i finally manage to catch a bit and pull it out, but my poor eye looks like it's been through a war zone. And it has. And then I had to put a peppermint and curry soaked contact back onto it. My eye may never forgive me. If I'm blind tomorrow, you'll know they've gone on strike.

I'm so excited! People are bidding on my stuff! I may make a living off of this after all! In other news, my apartment is finally clean. I kept promising to do that -- and its been a week since the opera ended, so I have no excuse. It's so pretty! I even vaccuumed! Let's see how long I can keep it clean this time! Speaking of which, I have bathmats in the dryer. I shall go retrieve them now!

TWO! TWO people bidding on my Moriage Teaset! Ah! Ah! Ahhhhhh! (sound of thunder)

Alright, so, very excited here! Three of my items on ebay are being bid on!!!! And 70 people have looked at my fantastic little moriage teaset! Now if they'll just buy it -- that would be grocery money. I figure I have to make at least 35 cents an item to cover the cost to me to post it online. But regardless. My books are selling, some lace is selling. I have one lady who would like to buy the whole lot of my eyelet stuff -- good for her I say! And I have a few more yards of one lace, and I've said that I'll post it online where she can "buy it now." I know other buyers sell directly after an auction -- but I'd prefer to play by the rules (rather than have ebay kick me off).

I'm really have too much fun doing this. Tonight I think I'll post all of the rest of the stuff I bought -- especially since I won't be garage sale-ing next weekend. I'll be in Oklahoma. Why am I going to oklahoma you ask? To visit my grandparents. I'm long overdue. And I'm taking Mary along. IF she's there maybe Grandma will be on her best behavior -- I hope. We're going to go to the tulsa fair. And maybe Grandma and I can go antiquing on sunday...she and I both like that.

Well, I have to go flunk a Polisci test now. Oh please let me know enough to pass! That's all I'm asking -- I just want a C. Well, I actually want a B. And A would be nice -- but there's wishful thinking -- especially since we have to memorize dates....blech!!!! Hylton v. US should have just thrown himself in a lake prior to 1796 (ha).

Not much time to blog. I have two tests to study for, neither of which I really want to take. I hate Polisci. I took 2 classes of it in Junior College, and liked them for my teacher's sake, and passed with A's/B. But is that good enough for Baylor? No. Because some horrible rich guy decided that he would only give money to our school if we used the badly written book of his choice. So now I have to take Polisci again -- and you know what else. They wouldn't transfer in my other American Government class because then it would look on my transcript like I'd already taken it. So they also jacked me of my junior class standing upon entering. Now I'm a senior. I've put off this darn class as long as I possibly can, and I can't any longer. And it's dumb. Not the topic itself. I like history. But the court cases and dates. WHO CARES. Why couldn't the fractious people just go and have a freaking DUEL and get it over! Marbury should have shot Madison. That's all there is to it. Same for Martin and his "Lessee." All of them should have duked it out and buried the loser in the swamp for all I care. And that's only two of them....and we have to memorise all current supreme court justices. And the year they came in, and the president who nominated them. BLECH!!!! Anyway. I am now five minutes past my "-you-must-get-off-the-computer-now-and-go-study" time, so I'm going to go do just that!

Garage Sale-ing was an adventure this morning. Since Aaron seems insistant that we have youth group on Saturday mornings at un-godly hours, I've had to plan my shopping around being at the church at 8:30. Which means I have to be out by at least 5:45 in the morning, which allows me to hit five before I have to be at St. Albans. (To make things even more fun, I got done watching a movie with Aaron, Carlton, and Marybeth at about 2am, so rather than dragging myself out of bed after 3 hours of sleep, I cleaned my house and did laundry instead.) Today was not an amazing day -- no notions, no sewing stuff, but a whole batch of toys with their tags still on them. I'll list them in a few days. That's the cool thing about garage sales. You can't ever go into it saying "this is what I intend to buy today." Otherwise you can get very discouraged very quickly. The toys for instance I found at the first garage sale of the day. (sidenote: it's horribly hard to see anything at 6am. Very dark, even with a full moon.) I was looking for home decor, or maybe some collectibles or antiques....not today -- but I did also find a handmade vase, a couple of grapevine wreaths, and some childrens' clothing -- always a good seller. My mother buys allison things off ebay all the time.

I did meet an interesting guy at the second to last one. He picked up a Genii doll (from Aladdin) and started talking about how much he loves the movie, then he started singing. And heck, it was early and we were the only ones there, so I joined in on the refrain. And after some Pocahantas, and I think Little Mermaid too, we took our show on the road. Not really. But we did sing for the lady running the sale. She seemed to enjoy it. It turns out that the man is the pastor at a little non-denominational evangelical church downtown. They meet Thursdays and Saturdays so that they don't interfere with other church services that their members want to go to. I got a flyer. Maybe I'll go one of these days. They have a biblestudy and then worship services. I'm not sure how well I'll fit into that church, especially after being episcopal for a while. I'll have to practice my hearty "Amen!"

I have eaten FAR too much Thai food this evening. My favorite restaurant in Waco is Bangkok Royale -- right off campus. We go there for lunch if we have time. Which we did today --and ate our hearts out.

Then Marjorie came back into town...and it just so happens that this is her favorite place too. So we ate more.

Then I ordered Yellow Curry to go...

Thanks to Daryl and Teri for their suggestions on how to put my ebay page on my website! I'm so happy! Thanks a lot! And teri, I didn't have to call you and make you put it on my site for me this time. Aren't you proud?

Although, considering how few people actually read my blog (relatively speaking -- compared to say, Annawho has whole hoards of people who not only read, but are active participants. Well, I'll admit, she is much funnier than me! So perhaps instead of Night all, I should say: Goodnight you(plural) -- as we learned in italian today. Why is English the only language not to have a word for you (guys/all/whatever)? That means you have to say, most conveniently, "y'all" which I still only use in moments of extreme carelessness -- or exhaustion, when my nonexistant drawl comes leaping from nowhere. Anyway -- A domani

I now have 9 items on ebay...several people are looking at them, but unfortunatly none are buying any. There was a beautiful sunset tonight -- absolutely fabulous in the part of the world! I got a picture on my new camera....very excited about it!

I wish I could write more, but I'm too dog tired from staying up half the night playing on the computer! Night all!

It's 3am. Do you know where your Rachel is? She's sitting at a computer immensely pleased with herself for not only putting three more items on eBay all by herself, but after accidentally deleting the icon from her desktop that takes you to the photo editing process, figured out how to fix it.

On an interesting sidenote -- why is it that my pictures will not transfer from my camera unless I'm doing something else -- like checking my hotmail account. All evening I'd plug in all of the cords to connect the two .. and the computer would sit there going <> And I found that if I calmly opened another file, it was the technical equivalent of Mom walking in the room and saying "now, what is it that you are doing exactly." And suddenly my pictures would transfer like crazy. No telling with this computer. It really has a mind of its own.

Still no one bidding on anything. My mother told me to calm down -- it hasn't even been two days yet. Well yes, but I'm hoping that of the four items, at least one of them will sell the first time around. One can always relist of course, but it costs each time. The object here is to make money, not pour it endlessly down the hole as an excuse to play with my new camera. Anyway -- I think having listed my items for the evening, I will go to bed. Tomorrow I must buy a paper and plan my garage saling strategy! (Oh, another thing -- Rachel also found herself tearing through her apartment looking for things to sell....perhaps one should notify the proper authorities and have her shipped off before her exitement gets the better of her)

No one has yet bid on my item on eBay. I'm going to be obsessing now. Not really -- there are still 6 days left. Surely someone will want to make me rich...

And in the same day I figured out how to enter paragraphs into my blog!!!

watch out world

now

I'm going

to start putting paragraph

breaks in every other

word. Just to prove that I

can!

I have just listed my first item on ebay. I am feeling very proud of myself.

Like the first caveman who rubbed two sticks together and invented fire.

ugh!

Its a Kodak "easy share" zoom digital camera --um...cx4230. If Anyone actually cares about that kind of stuff...I certainly don't -- but I didn't want 47 "what kind of camera is it" comments :-D

I got a new toy today --- that's right...I finally bought my digital camera -- let the EBAY selling begin!!! I'm so excited. Now If I can just figure out how the darn thing works...

My friend is composing a new song for piano...it is called "Sonata with a dead soprano." It calls for a singer to walk onstage, crawl under the grand piano and lay there playing dead for the entire piece. Towards the end, she starts making ghost noises. Sounds like a blast, huh? I volunteered to sing the premier...

Something to ponder this week. Why is it that we know that God is in control, and knows all, and sees all, and heck, created all, and yet we still allow ourselves to get dragged down in fear. Personal confession time. I had a huge faith crisis upon coming to Baylor. Here I was at a Christian University, and all of a sudden I was put into a position where I was surrounded by people who lived lives that were totally foreign, yet they still professed to believe the same things I did. Then I went through a relatively traumatizing relationship (dated a gay man...sort of, its a long story), at which point I decided that my beliefs were going to cost me my friends...so I stopped standing up for them. I didn't want to be the little ignorant naive girl, so I covered up my beliefs. I joined in on conversations that I shouldn't have, began joking around about things I had no business joking about (laughing about somehting somehow makes it acceptable), hoping that somehow if I became worldly enough, I wouldn't ever have to go through another relationship like the one I'd just been through. Thankfully, God was looking out for me. He brought me back to church--involved,not just present, surrounded me with amazing Christian mentors and friends, and is slowly putting my priorities back where they should be. But I still have to live with the consequences of my decision to act like I was "cool" with it all. In my mind all relationships and motives became sullied. Even God couldn't possibly change anyone. And so I was afraid. Afraid of being rediculed for my beliefs, and conversely afraid that I woudln't live up to them. And I believed in God, but doubted that he could really do anything to fix the mess. And worse, maybe everyone else is right...or at least right in the sense that this is all there is, so we may as well enjoy it. So life has been bleak. And then tonight, we were discussing hope. And I've had none. I knew what I believed, but I'd sold out more often than I care to remember. Not in big ways -- more by what I didn't say than what I did...laughing at bad jokes, and not standing up for the truth when people were discussing their views of god (with a small g), but saying nothing when you know you should is the same as denying that you know Him. So I was despairing, because I've been feeling like I knew the truth, but couldn't grasp it in my own life. My beliefs are based on doctrine, but not a relationship -- and doctrine without relationship is a hopelessly bleak prospect. But we were discussing hope, and read the passage in Titus where Paul is speaking of "a faith and knowledge resting on the hope of eternal life which God, who does not lie, promised before the beginning of time." (Titus 1:2) That phrase, "who does not lie" struck me. His words are true. There is no other view of the world...because he created it. He knows everything, and sees everything and he does not lie. What he tells us is true, and if he promises that we won't be given more than we can bear without being shown a way out, then He means it. If He promises he will be with us, and that he is THE TRUTH, then He is. And if we can believe that, then there isn't any room for fear of being wrong, or overcome anymore. And so, I guess this elementary rambling is old hash twice warmed...but it brings together lots of loose ends I've been fritzing over. Now if I can take the theoretical and apply it.......

The opera is over. Thank goodness. That means I'll have a whole evening free this week -- monday! Yay! Tomorrow night I'm going to veg out, get out my cross stitch, and finish yet one more project so I can start a new one! I have to do something quickly because silk floral stems are on Sale at Michaels this week -- and I have two lampshades that are begging for flowers. And I have another verse to turn into a pillow...and walls to paint -- that alone is a big enough project for a weekend or two. I'm thinking about moss green....or perhaps a nice sage (for the color challenged, moss has slightly more yellow in it, but they're both pale). And on top of that there's so much bread to bake, so little time! I'm going to have some free time again!!!! I'm so excited! I've got it all spent up already...

I saw My Big Fat Greek Wedding this evening. Very funny. I highly recommend it to everyone (although, in the past tense, since I'm the last of my set to see it). The opera went well tonight, at least from a costuming angle. The man who hired me is trying to back out of paying me...weasil. Last year I got $500 flat, and that was with an additional $100 split between my four costume crew members. This year I have no crew, was still making $500. Now he wants to pay me by the hour. Fine. I've worked....um...50 hours. At 10 dollars an hour. Pretty good estimate, don't you think? Plus all the gas I bought going back and forth between rehearsals. And the $400 I've spent out of pocket buying things for this show. Not too shabby. I should get an extra hundred dollars for doing everything myself...but I think that might be pushing my luck. We'll see. Oh, and the official word -- I'm not auditioning for the opera.

Still tired. That's going to become the theme this year. I don't think I'm going to audition for the mainstage opera this year. (Don't quote me though -- as auditions get closer, my competative streak my burst out and kill random passersby) For one thing, my parents can only come to one performance this year -- my senior recital (The week of april 7th -- mark your collective calenders), so they woudln't even get to see it. For another thing, the only role I could get is a bit part that is only on 2 scenes or so. That's a lot of time for 2 scenes(I'd have to be here most of Christmas break). For a third thing, I'm in Little Red Riding Hood in November, Opera Scenes in December, and a heavy load of academic classes. Do I really need to have less freetime than I do now? Added to that, working all summer prevented any sort of R&R. I'm burned out already in the 3rd week of school. Not a good sign. Anyway, feedback would be welcome from anyone who cares to give it. Maybe I should start a poll. And on top of that, my devotional life is finally starting to become a regular part of my life -- not hit and miss as formerly. When I'm that exhausted, thats the first thing that falls by the wayside (and the very last that should). We'll see in a couple of weeks....

Everyone check out the new link! Blogtree.com. The place to register your blog, and who inspired it "ie-your parent blog" to start a blogger family tree! Go for it!

I'm tired. Really tired. La Boheme came way sooner than I was expecting...and the rest of the semester does not appear to be slowing down any. I'm costume coordinator. That really means that I don't make the costumes, I just run around trying to keep the chorus IN them(why do they always feel like they don't really need to put anything on until 5 seconds before they walk onstage. It drives us CRAZY), and keep the real costumer happy. Which is hard to do. This man is very knowledgable, and very nice, but he could talk the hind leg off a donkey. And since somehow they're under the impression that I'M the one making the decisions around here, they have no qualms about complaining about them in front of him. He takes that very badly -- so I get to run around trying to field all questions and concerns before they get to him. For example. CHORUSTER: This hat doesn't fit. I think they got the names mixed up, so... HIM: Every hat has a name. Go in there and find the one with yours in it. CHORUSTER: But you see, this is my name, but... HIM: Well I get everything off a list, so if yours doesn't fit it's not my problem... CHORUSTER: Never mind. Forget it. (at this point he leaves the room, so it's my turn) ME: What's the problem? HIM: They gave me the drum major hat. I'm not the drum major. ME: Well here, trade hats WITH the drum major, and then everything's fine. So, see, another catastrophe averted. Unfortunatly, I'm left with almost no ability to speak in coherent sentences after doing that all evening. After tomorrow night's dress rehearsal, I should be a be a blithering idiot. Wish me well...

Things that stink about living alone: 1) coming home to an empty apartment after dark. 2) Endless meals for one. 3) No one to say goodnight to.

Things that are great about living alone. 1)Knowing exactly where all the food is going. 2)No roommate to wake you up at all hours. 3)Decorating however you want. 4) Being able to pay all bills ahead of time. 5) Your clothes are only worn by you.

I thought I was losing my mind today. I have this pair of hot pink beaded flip-flops that I've been putting in my car recently. I love wearing rediculous shoes to school, but got tired of killing myself trying to walk across campus in them. Hence the flip-flops. Last night I thought I remembered leaving them deliberatly in my car so they'd be there in the morning. This morning I was digging through my closet looking for a good pair of scuffy shoes to wear with my ratty jeans, and underneath my vacuum cleaner I came across a pair of hot pink beaded flip-flops. ??? So, naturally I assumed that I'd forgotten bringing them into the house. So I walked out to my car, got in, and sat down next to a pair of hot pink flip-flops..identical to the pair I had on my feet. So I wracked my brain trying to decide who most likely wants me in the nuthouse (I knew some sopranos had their knives out over auditions, but I had planned for a direct assalt). Then I called my sister. Turns out mother had bought her a pair of identical flip-flops to wear as dorm shower shoes. Somehow they ended up with my stuff when I came back to Texas. But really now, what's the chance that my mother and I would buy identical shoes from halfway across the country? (Twilight zone music)

I just saw Signs this evening. Right now I'm rummaging about my apartment looking for pieces of scrap lumber to nail over my doors and windows. Not that it will help apparently. I'd considered a guard dog -- but they didn't seem to do much in the movie. Why oh why don't I learn. Never go to scary movies when one has to go home to an empty house. I had a scary moment when I walked in, flipped the switch and my lights didn't come on. (And another as I was writing the last sentence because someone across way slammed their door with a loud crashing sound. Followed immediatly by my air conditioning coming on -- with air filtering through the vents. I want my daddy). That's ok. Since Aaron recommended it...he can just deal with it when I call him at 3am. So there. Very good movie by the way. I highly recommend it for the main plot line. Awesome ending! Just, don't watch it alone. And then spend the night at someone else's house afterwards. Goodnight! I'm going to go find a large kitchen knife....

anthropophuism
the ascription of human nature to God or to the gods.

I did it. I gave up reading for pleasure until October 1st. The very thought makes me stomach turn and my skin itch. I did manage to get 16 chapters into Genesis during lunch. I always read when I eat (unless I have company of course). In fact, I had just finished saying "ok, I'll do it." when the timer for lunch rang, and I went and got my pot pie, a big glass of milk, and reached for my favorite...oh I can't do that can I. So I decided to treat the bible like "pleasure reading" and start it at "In the beginning." We'll see how far I can get in a month......

I got up this morning (saturday mind you) and started garage sale-ing at 7:00. I've visited parts of Texas I didn't know existed. Eddy. Ross. Spiegleville. And Bruceville. I'm very excited. After a year of this, I should be getting pretty good at Waco shortcuts and cross streets. Imagine that...I'm actually planning for an (albeit short term) future in Waco. Now for the plan. I'm going to start selling things on ebay for a while (since I'm financially secure for the moment) as my way of making extra money, instead of trying to keep a minimum wage-baylor associated job this year. We'll see if its profitable. There's more to the plan...but that's enough for now. As a performer one never curses oneself by talking about the future. What is that joke? "What makes gods laugh?" "Plans." Where on earth did I read that...must have been in one of the six new books that I shouldn't have bought. Anyway...I'm going to go measure the zillions of yards of lace I bought in a grab bag. Talk to you later! Oh, does anyone have a digital camera I can borrow? They're really expensive!

And to start off my proposed early lent, I went to the bookstore and bought no less than 6 books. Some of them weren't for me. That's how I justify it. Two others were for my soon to be new money making plan (more on this if it kicks off well). And one was unexcusable...I bought crayons last week, but had nothing to color. So I splurged for a coloring book. I'm off to a great start already!

It's the weekend! Finally! I may get to direct an opera scene (Little Women -- my favorite opera in the world), or else I can choose to be in it....choices....choices. I have way to many things to do this weekend. I think we should have four days on and three days off. More fair, isn't it? I find that three day weekends are about what I need to catch up from all the things I didn't have time to do during the week. That's my theory anyway. I think my big plan for the evening is to take a nap and then read a book while I still can. I'm seriously contemplating giving up books for an early lent. One of my biggest problems with devotions is that I'd far rather read a commentary on the bible, rather than the Bible itself. C.S. Lewis, Oswald Chambers, G K Chesterton...and even reading Christian fiction (well, I'm reading ABOUT God, right? Surely reading This Present Darkness counts as devotions). So maybe it wouldn't be a bad thing to cut out all reading that isn't biblical (except textbooks...I don't think my teachers would accept the excuse that I didn't do my assignment because I gave up extraneous reading for a pre-seasonal lent -- ha. That ranks up there with "the dog ate my homework at a christian university). We'll see. Obviously the beginning of the month would be a good time to do that -- but then at only gives me the next two days to read everything I might possibly want to read for a month. AAAAH! I'll let you know. Knowing me, I forsee that textbooks will suddenly become interesting reading...wall posters, bumper stickers, the odd billboard.......cereal boxes.....