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.....

New poll everybody!

AAAAARGGGGHHH

there they are! stay. good blog.

Now where did my archives go? I'm so bad at this!!! I got one of them back..
...

FAITH IS:

Faith is unutterable trust in God, trust which never dreams that he will not stand by you. ~Oswald Chambers~

Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, and the certainty of things unseen. ~Hebrews 11:1~

[Faith] is the change from being confident in our own efforts to the state in which we despair of doing anything for ourselves and leave it to God. ~C.S. Lewis~

I've noticed that no one is updating blogs these days in the circle I frequent....must be that time of the year again...everyone's busy. No one's leaving comments anywhere either. Welcome back to school everyone!

So Matt and I got blizzards and went to the cemetary to entertain ourselves. Sounds morbid, right? But this one is the old Jewish Cemetary in Waco, and it's gotten mellow with age. They put lots of interesting stuff on tombstones back then, Where they came from, who they married, how old they were when they died (in the case of children, down to the week and day). Can anyone tell me who the statue of a woman in robes (maybe greek) might be? There's no name -- we were guessing perhaps Sarah (Sarai) since she's the matriarch....but is there anyone else? Or maybe it's just a greek goddess -- strange for a Jewish cemetary, but fitting for the age of the tombstone (They liked Greek revival at the turn of the century). Anyway -- I mean to go back. To visit the other parts of the cemetary, find some other stories, of course, this will all happen when it gets cooler....

In keeping with my new pact, I am going to finish all of my current projects before buying the stuff to make any new ones. Last night I finished one pillow and a pillow sham. This morning, I finished the other sham to match. This evening I was digging around and found a pillow I had started, but never finished. All done! I have one more pillow to finish -- and a cross stitch. And some curtains. After that I'll have to dig through and find the next one....but those are the top priorities. And just so you don't think I'm a flake -- one can only work on one excruciatly detailed project for so long before one cannot stare at it for a moment longer...so I keep several going. But now I have dozens, not several.

OH, and I'm not seeing anyone's favorite crayon color.....

It has been the worst day. Amazingly I'm not that stressed out (I was for a bout a half hour when my dad called and implied the my car dying was somehow my fault since every time I touch a car somehting goes wrong with it). I'm starting to learn that in situations like this being stressed out just makes your day that much worse -- may as well sit back and enjoy the holiday. Here's the story. Baylor's website has been down all weekend, which leaves the majority of the campus in the dark as to what classes they actually signed up for 5 months ago. I sure didn't know. So this morning I fought with the system for an hour -- ultimatly making to the sign on page, clicking on the "class schedules" button, only to get told that the server was down. No kidding. (But then how DID I get to that sign on in the first place). So I hunkered down to relish the fact that I was missing the first day of class -- and I could blame it on Baylor HAHAHAHA. So I was good. I cleaned my apartment. I picked it all up. Then I pulled out the vacuum and found - ta da - a "Fall Schedule of Classes" booklet that had gotten buried in my closet. So having only missed one class -- I now had the key in my hands to the rest of them. I got out my new notebook, wrote out my schedule, (finished vacuuming) and went to my car, only to find out that ..... my car woudln't start. So I called my dad. (Hence the above comment). I called the Ford dealership, then got a phone call, in the middle of which my cell phone goes dead. For those of you who don't know, I opted to stick with a cell phone, and not get a land line because I'd be paying 40 a month for the use of an answering maching given how much time I actually spend at home. So, now I'm stuck with a dead car and a dead phone. I can't find my plug in charger because its been lost in the move. My other charger is, of course, in the car that won't start. Luckily I remembered that I had last minute stashed misc. stuff in my backpack -- and it was there....the one bright spot. AAA came and jump started my car, my cell phone charged, Dad called back and wasn't blaming me for the problem anymore, and for the good news, all I needed was a new battery. On the downside, I just missed the first day of all my classes. Oh well. By the way -- that convenient "shop while you wait" policy that Walmart's automotive department is great for them. With nothing to do for an hour and a half I ended up buying way too much stuff. 3 cannisters of bath salts...why? 5 pairs of earrings ... again -- why? (actually they're very pretty -- and I've lost the majority of my earrings to date). And a puzzle. Impulse buying leaves you with a ton of strange stuff. Anyway -- now I'm making pillow shams since they didn't have any at walmart, and I have some extra lace and bleached muslin lying about. Later!

Tomorrow back to the grind. I noticed something tonight as I went back to school shopping (usually one of my favorite activities other than buying christmas presents). Usually I spend a great deal of time debating ball point over gell, blue ink over black, picking out my neon post-it-notes that are the only way that my life stays in order, find yet another set of highlighters that don't run out of ink by the third sentence, and finding the perfect notebook -- with enough dividers for all my classes, folders for the syllabi, and an acceptably cheerful color (preferably yellow -- easier to find on the floor at 6:30 in the morning.) Something tells me that I put way too much thought into this in the past. Oooooh -- and those wonderful little 3/4 inch letters to lable everything. Yep, definatly a geek. Right out of "Miss Piggle Wiggle." This year I went to Wallmart, grabbed three composition books of different colors, and a multipack of cheap blue ballpoint pens. That's it. And somehow I don't care. I just want to pass my classes and graduate. Could it be....senioritis? But isn't there something kid-ish about back to school shopping? When you still got to buy fun stuff like scissors that cut everything BUT paper, glue sticks that dry out the first day because you open it and leave the cap off after gluing your fingers together, oh and the ever popular box of 96 crayons. None of those little boxes of 8 mind you. I love crayons. Coloring is an activity that even the most "grown up" person can still enjoy. One time backstage ET and I had the entire cast and chorus sitting around discussing favorite colors while filling in precious moments and kitty cats. It was great! I did splurge and buy a little tin of "The most popular crayon colors" at HEB yesterday. I can't wait. I hope Robin's egg blue is in there. And wisteria. And tumbleweed. Enough rapsodising ... I need to go figure out what classes i'm taking tomorrow. Night -- oh, and leave comments on your favorite color of crayon

Oh why oh why are my archives blue?

Had a great day. Went shopping with Mary -- we got WAYYYY too much stuff at Tuesday Morning. At least I did. Mary stayed within her budget. Then we went to hobby lobby (I got my pictures of my sisters framed), and then to Magic Nails to get pedicures. Then I went back to Mecca (aka Hobby Lobby), and browsed....bought some elmers glue. Then I had dinner at Aaron's house -- good thing since my garbage disposal is backed up and I won't be cooking for a while. Now I'm going to go put away my groceries that are sitting all over the living room....Milk. It does a body good.

I went to see Audio Adrenaline tonight -- not expecting to enjoy it as much as I did. I haven't been to a concert before (sure I've been to opera, theater, musicals, and symphonies -- but the ettiquete is completely different). I yelled, I jumped up and down, threw my hands in the air and waved them back and forth, sang lyrics to songs I didn't know -- it was a blast. My first inclination as always was to stand back and wallow in how out-of-my-league the whole thing was...but thank Goodness I acted less like a spoiled two year old for an hour and really had a good time. I loved it. Afterwards the exhaustion from my trip caught up with me, and we all went to Eric's house to suprise him. Aaron and Mary suprised him that is. I fell asleep on his couch for two hours watching them play video games. It was a lovely nap. Can't complain! SO now I'm going to go revel in the comfort of my OWN BED -- which I've missed more dearly than chicken fried steak with WHITE gravy (they serve it with brown in CA -- so gross) and Sweet tea.

Alright, I'm back -- finally...it was a really long drive. Now I'm trying to unpack my car and the dozen boxes I brought in it. On the plus side, I paid all of my bills today between now and May. It feels good to not have to worry about that anymore. Now the question is, do I get a little job for some extra -- or just relax a bit now that I'm finally somewhat self sufficient. Unless something horrible happens to the car (Heaven forbid) I shoudln't have to call my parent in a panic at all this year...and hopefully from now on. Drea however only saved a few hundred -- so next year should be an eye opener for her on how much things cost. (kind of like last year for me....) Now all I have left is to put my clothes away -- and clean up the petrified banana on my counter that I somehow neglected to throw away before I left...

Now I have a two day break from packing the antique shop -- because I have to help the parents move tomorrow. So we're packing. The people who bought the house decided that since they won't put on a new roof (they knocked 25,000 off the house to compinsate) they have to be out by 3 tomorrow. Nice people. Tomorrow will be frantic..but that will make the "goodby, see you at Christmases" much shorter. I hate goodbyes. I love my family -- I wish there was a way to see them more than two or three times a year. But then again, I wouldn't want to be one of those people who live with their parents until they're 30 years old either....I also wish they weren't going to be living in a tent trailer for the next two months until they can buy a house. It'll get cold out there by October. Anyway my main concern is getting back in one piece to waco on thursday....may not be able to blog until then...so if I don't update until then..see you soon. Pray for 'safety in travel' (Always Friar Tucker's sunday prayer) and give me a call on Wednesday or Thursday to keep me awake. See you soon!

So, 7 more hours shoveling out the antique shop. Now they've decided to replace the whole carpet..so we have to pack up everything. Every nicnack, every dish, ever dumb vase and lamp. Don't get me wrong..they're wonderful vases and lamps -- but not when you have to pack everyone of them in individual bubble wrap. At 4 I decided that I'd had enough and was going home. This evening I sang for the last time at the Fess Parker soiree. I sang three songs. Cheryl Ladd was there (I didn't tell her I was wearing her suit) and sang two...Marcy (Parker) of course was wonderful. She has the lowest voice I've ever heard on a woman. she knows some former broadway singer that is from texas and asked that I'd leave my information so she could send it to whoever her contact is. She told me that if I ever need anything, to give them a call. Cheryl Ladd said I was wonderful. It was fun -- and I sang "I enjoy being a girl" just for Bill, since it's his favorite...a good ending to my stay here. Only a few more days. now I'm going to bed. I don't know what they put in my daquiri -- but it was way too much for one glass...and I have to be at the store to pack at 10 tomorrow...Night!

So I went in at 9 this morning. Packed boxes for 6 hours straight...no lunch break (Lynde did order pizza). So tired. Packed somewhere around 40 boxes of dishes and glass and breakables. I've been trying all summer to avoid packing my folks house. Just desserts I suppose...:-)

Guess who was in the bar tonight? Cheryl Ladd. Of the original Charlie's Angels. Last starring in "annie get your gun" on broadway. I sang for her....not specifically for her, but she heard me nonetheless. It was kind of karioke night (with showtunes and jazz of course -- good old bill). A slightly inebriated gentleman came over and told me that I kicked Cheryl Ladd's .... posterior region....but he was drunk, and there's no accounting for taste. that's my third celebrity since my parent moved here. I'm still holding out for Johhny Depp.....

Today I spent 5 hours scraping wet drywall off of $20,000 worth of antiques. Turns out we have an alcoholic tenant in the apartment above us. At some point last night he came home soused, and the toilet didn't work. So he beat it until the bottom half of the reservoir broke off. He the proceeded to pass out, and the toilet drained for 6 hours. Lynde came into work at 10 and found water pooling all over our shop, the ceiling caved in, pictures falling off the walls. She called her husband (a fire chief) who called the sheriff. The two went upstairs where the still drunk tenant refused to answer the door, and when they broke in they found him on his hands and knees mopping at the mess with a towel. He says he jiggled the toilet and it fell off. right. So at 11 I came in and found Lynde alone, taking pictures of the wreckage. I then got the distinction of cataloging everything that got damaged. Clothes destroyed. Bottles broken when the ceiling fell. Pictures and frames soaked through. Furniture warped...and the most heartbreaking; a complete bedroom set from the 1920's, formerly in perfect condition, now has the veneer buckling off in sheets. Then, we discovered that the walls were soaked, and the shelves holding a $6,700 doctor's medical collection were coming away from the wall. We raced against time and gravity -- and managed to get the 200 piece collection off the wall before the shelves came down. it's still a mess. We worked for hours. The amazing thing was that we had the gates closed, and the locks in them, and still tourists kept coming into the courtyard. And stranger, even though we had all the interior lights off (there was water in all the fixtures), the ceiling was falling down in places, antiques in piles to keep them out of the water, and carpet torn up in places, people had the audacity to look surprised when we told them the shop was closed. Strange. I did get to use a chamber pot for the first time. Not for that. When we took down the fixtures, water came pouring out -- so I had to find somehting to catch it, luckily we had chamber pots handy. See--antiques do serve a purpose! Anyway. Tomorrow I go in at 9 instead of the usual 11....maybe it'll look better tomorrow when we can turn the lights on...or maybe not.

Just got off work. I've got to find a more creative way to begin a blog. Only 9 days more to work. The end is in sight, and I'm getting antsy. I don't care about doing a good job as much. When the lady sends back two bottles of water with two glasses of ice because it was supposed to be two bottles of SPARKLING water with LEMON and NO ICE. Its then that I'm tempted to bring back the sparkling water in a brandy snifter, but I refrain. Instead I bring back two bottles of sparkling water, two glasses of sparkling water WITH lemon and NO ICE. And an orange juice. And amazingly, this nearly full tray is all for one kid. He had the same thing last night -- over half of the glass content for the entire table. However, I digress. What I meant to say was that I don't much care anymore...and besides its August . The Witching hour for all service industries. Summer is almost over, people are bored and have nother better to do than entertain themselves by running waiters ragged. Not all of them. The french family are actually very nice. Especially when they apparently thought that they were in Spain, because they were speaking to our very-non-hispanic waitress in neither French nor English. Halfway through the order they apologised and translated for the rest of us. As we all felt very dumb. Well, not our bilingual bussing staff -- but I certainly did. I used to speak French fairly well. An now I'm hard pressed on how to say hello, goodbye, and how are you doing this evening. At one point I could have carried on an intelligent conversation about wine. Now, no. And so i didn't butcher the little french I did know...I just let them translate. Even the stuff that I understood. Well, obviously I'm very tired. Too tired to write a coherent blog on a single topic. So instead I will go to bed. Goodnight all!

So I had my first celebrity sighting at work. I was doing a wine order at another table, and turned to the two-top next to them and asked...can I get you anything.....? And there he was. The groom from "father of the bride." He IS as cute in real life as onscreen. Still holding out for Johhny Depp.

Adding to the book talley. I went into the bookstore attempting to buy only the complete illustrated guide of European costumes. It's in color -- the rest are in black and white. Hard to tell what costumes to put people in for opera scenes when you can't see the fabrics. However, I digress. I walked out with 5 books. Couldn't resist. I bought; The field guide to American Victorian Furniture, The encyclopedia of Antiques, The dictionary of Antiques, and When I am old I shall wear purple (for my mother who loves the poem). So there. My dad gave me the idiot look when I walked in with another stack having just packed two boxes of them. But there are only two things in the world that I buy without regret -- books and shoes. In that order. You can never have too many of either. Now I'll go back to being frugal again -- until the next book sale, or Nordstrom's half-yearly.

Explain to me why rich people don't tip. They have the money. They spend thousand of dollars to come to the ranch. What's so hard about leaving an extra couple of bucks to make our lives easier? And then, I sing 5 or 6 songs in the bar with Bill the accompanist, and they tell me how wonderful I am, and how much they're rooting for me, and good luck on my career....and they still don't leave anything. Don't they realise that if they REALLY wanted to help me out they could..I don't know...GIVE ME MONEY SO I CAN STUDY NEXT YEAR INSTEAD OF WORKING THREE JOBS??? Strange people. They act all astonished -- "why on earth are you HERE instead of out singing somewhere?" Well, one has to raise money to be able to afford to sing...its not really lucrative right off the bat. So, to all the rich people out there who refuse to put their money where their collective mouths are...If you mention the Alisal should you happen to see me at the Met, don't expect an autograph based on "you knew me when." So there. I'm done being bitter now.

Alright, so another fine day in the world of insanity. The insurance company declared my car totalled...looks like I'll be driving my mothers van back to texas. Well, it's the perfect "soccer-mom" car to match my "soccer-mom" purse. (thanks matt -- I actually found a bigger one and bought it...much easier to fit a book or two in there). And if I find an amazing antique that I absolutly must buy, I can actually haul it -- instead of trying desperatly to meet someone with a truck. And between Aaron and I, we can now fit approximatly the entire youth group and their various sundries into two vehicles (congrats on the new minivan -- we match!) So tomorrow I have to go kiss my car goodbye, and remove anything I have left in it. Poor thing! In memoriam.....

Got paid this evening. Should pick up my other check tomorrow. That brings me within $400 of my "absolutely necessary" goal, but I should end up with a $1000 extra when all is said and done. Of course $250 of that will go to releasing my car from the shop, $200 will get my back to Waco, almost $300 will buy books for next semester, and whatever is left will buy groceries. So much for my extra money....but at least I'll have all my bills paid. No worries about being evicted or having the electricity turned off.......I'll have to sing for my supper...but that's the worst of it.............

Alright, so Victoria secret was only part of the shopping experience. Went to Nordstrom -- and bought only 1 pair of shoes....Steve Madden strappy white sandals with a high heel....so very cute. We love Steve. Then I found my father's Christmas present at specialty store -- which of course I can't post here on the offchance that he reads this...and mother and I went into the fabric store for a "walk through" and I ended up with $80 worth of material -- half for my sisters' christmas present, but a gorgeous piece of gold embroidered velvet for a dress, and another cute piece of fabric either for my room, or to embellish a jean skirt. Then back to Nordstrom for a bathroom stop, afterwards I got diverted by a sweater set -- got them in 3 different colors. So that was my day. Then I got called into work -- so much for my evening off....but I had a blast shopping. Now all I need is the perfect jewelry!!

So the amazing buy of the day. I went consignment (fancy word for second hand) shopping today and bought my back to school outfits. Several skirts a couple of cute dresses, some shoes, and the buy of all buys, the mother of all clothes, and ITALIAN-MADE, LINEN SUIT (originally $800) for ..... another drumroll please..............$78. I'm thrilled. On top of that I got a fur lined wool coat (I should be animal rights and all that, but fur is soooo pretty) ....$25; two designer pleated wool skirts....2 bucks each; and a $115 pair of shoes for $18. It was a great day. I'm all shopped out, except for a trip to Victoria's Secret tomorrow.

So my dad goes to the doctors today because of a funny little pimple like thing in his mouth. This is the third time he's gone in about it, and they keep saying "its not a tooth thing." Turns out its an allergy thing. My dad is allergic to .......(drumroll please)............citrus, and wine. DAh TAH!!! Good thing he's getting out of California. IF we needed any more proof that God wants him back in Washington, that was it. No orange groves there!