Life from a cynical idealist's point of view.

New Blog!!!

2008-09-19T01:04:00.002-05:00

Ok, I"ve been toying with this idea for awhile now, and I"ve finally done it. I've got a new blog, themed around my love for cooking and experimenting with new recipes. Here's the url: http://elythra.wordpress.com/ I fully intend to switch over to this as my main blog, though I will still update all on random happenings here, with Jonathan and Chris. Let me know what you think!

Jonathan David...and TMI. :)

2008-08-11T19:50:00.002-05:00

Ok, it's been nearly one month since Jonathan David was born. He's adorable, exhausting, and wonderful. Labor was insanely difficult, but we got through it, without drugs. (Not my choice, but labor progressed too quickly for me to be able to have anything.) He was born, after three hours of active labor, at 4:48 am, weighing 7 lbs. 2 oz, and being 19.75 in. long. He's now about 8 1/2 lbs, and longer, though I don't know how much. He's a very skinny baby, and apparently much smaller than almost anyone else's baby that we've encountered, at least according to the other mothers. :) "He's so tiny!" and "That's a brand new baby!" comments follow him whenever we go out, to which I want to reply, (in good humor of course) "He's baby-sized! They're supposed to be tiny!" Anyway, we are loving having him home, and learning to take care of him.

Warning, what follows is a bit coarse and uncouth.

On another note, I've discovered what exactly women are going for in respects to their breasts. Whether they're wishing for these, or actually go for implants to get them, they want postpartum, nursing breasts. Enlarged past normal size, rounded out with swelling, and quite solidly firm. Women, it's not worth it! They are incredibly uncomfortable until your body adjusts, and they get in the way, catching more food and generally not really fitting right. Thankfully, for those having second thoughts, they do go back to normal size, or nearly, after finished nursing...or so I'm told. Anyway, ladies, learn to love what you have got, and you'll be much happier in the end. :)

MMM...

2008-07-04T22:59:00.002-05:00

Chris is an awesome husband. This morning, while I slept, he got up and made breakfast for us. He made eggs, and pancakes seasoned with nutmeg, cinnamon, pumpkin spice, vanilla, and filled with walnuts, topped with whipped cream and strawberries. DELICIOUS! Chris is such a good cook! Plus, he had a mug of my favorite (decaf) breakfast tea waiting for me when he woke me up. Yay!

2008-07-02T15:33:00.003-05:00

Well, I'm officially at full term today. Baby could be born anytime in the next month. For those of you confused, full term is different from 9 months, because if every month had exactly four weeks, there would really be 13 months in a year. I'm past 9 months, but I am at 38 weeks, which is full term (38-42). Yeah. Confusing, I know. Anyway, I don't really look any different than the last picture posted, so we'll leave it at that. I'll let everyone know when Baby is born, and post lots of pictures then. Any day now!

Flashback....

2008-06-17T16:19:00.003-05:00

Hi all!
So I got my hair cut again. I walked into the hair salon with pictures of me from high school, and said "Cut it like this." It's nice for the summer, and it's finally super simple. As in, I can wet it down and it will be fine for the rest of the day (granted I don't take a nap or anything on wet hair...then I have to start over). Chris took some shots of me with my new haircut, and I thought I'd share the one photo that actually shows my belly as well...I'm now at 9 months!

Hospital visit. (lots of details, be warned.)

2008-05-27T15:26:00.003-05:00

Well, Chris and I had an unexpectedly crazy day yesterday. During the night, I thought my water broke. I'm only 32 weeks along, so this is not good news at this point. We stayed up for another hour to see if contractions would start and to be sure baby was still moving and ok. Nothing happened (baby was fine), so we decided to go back to bed and call my new doctor in the morning. He told us to go to the hospital to have some tests done, basically to make sure my water hadn't broken, so we packed a quick bag and left. Turns out it wasn't my water breaking (big relief!) but I was having contractions five minutes apart...just so small that I didn't really even feel them. I was also 1 cm dilated, and baby was in position for birth. They gave me a shot to stop the contractions, but that didn't work, so I had to have an IV put in my hand, as well as take a muscle relaxant pill. That worked, for the most part, so we got to go home about 8 pm, with a prescription for the muscle relaxant pill in case the contractions came back. We got to the hospital about 12:30, so it was a very long day...
I'm not on bed rest, but I am supposed to "take it easy". This means I'm basically on bed rest, except I can still get up and get a drink, instead of making Chris do the little things. He's doing pretty much everything anyway, which is sweet, but I don't want to overtax him either. That's all for now!

We've moved!

2008-05-24T20:09:00.002-05:00

Hi all! I'm blogging from our new apartment in Lincoln, NE. It's way nicer than the one we had in Vermillion, though the office is a bit smaller....that's ok though, we have a third room now, and a much larger kitchen/living room. We even have a balcony now, on which we will soon be placing a new gas grill. (Lincoln has a ban on charcoal grills within city limits which "forced" us to upgrade grills...we just haven't purchased the new one yet.)
That's all for now, as I should probably keep unpacking, or be social with our family, or something. :)

New Haircut.

2008-04-25T17:41:00.002-05:00

So I got a new haircut, and I really like it. It's nice and light, but I still have length...well, sort of, anyway!

2008-04-20T16:21:00.003-05:00

We have an apartment! Chris and I signed the lease yesterday. I'm spending part of today packing up things that we don't need for daily use (my books, extra linens, etc.) to prepare for the move. Here's a link to see what we've rented. We signed for the "2 bedroom with den". If you click on the "HI/LO" links on the floor plan you can see the rooms. The den is bigger than it looks.

http://www.rentcip.com/NorthridgeHeights/floorplans2b.asp#996

Winding down.

2008-04-15T22:36:00.003-05:00

Well, the opera is finished, as is my recital. Both went reasonably well, and I'm glad to have each in the past. My days are much more relaxed now, almost to the point of boredom, (though I still have too many projects and things to do to be truly bored), and I am enjoying the break.

I began packing yesterday for our big move in May. We picked up boxes from the local liquor store this afternoon for more packing, and, consequently, Chris' car is full of all sorts of boxes. It's rather funny to look in the windows, really, as there's such a variety to the boxes that we really don't look very good. The guy at the liquor store laughingly said that we should tell our new neighbors as we're moving in that all the boxes are from our own collection and that we saved them from all the liquor we drink. While funny, probably not the best idea....

We are driving down to Lincoln, NE, on Friday to scope out apartments and hopefully have one nailed down by the end of the weekend. I've been setting up appointments with different places for the past couple days and Saturday is pretty full, to the point that we're packing a lunch to eat in the car in case we don't have any other time to eat. Hopefully, we'll be able to stop for lunch though, as we'll probably need the break eventually.

I'm avoiding homework tonight. I don't really have a deadline, other than the end of the semester, but I really should hand it in this week. The problem is, the work is just busy work, and I know it's going to take at least 2 hours once I begin. Because of this, I don't want to begin it at this time of night. I am justifying not doing it by saying that I"m going to stop now and get some chores and packing done, and do the homework tomorrow during my long afternoon break. Yeah, that sounds good. :)

That's all for now.

P.S. Baby and Chris are doing great. Baby is kicking like crazy, and Chris likes to watch him shake my stomach with his kicks. I don't mind this, as long as Baby doesn't kick a nerve, or my bladder!

Nerves.

2008-04-05T10:39:00.003-05:00

Well, it's the morning of my recital, and I have to say, I'm a little nervous. I haven't looked over my music again, mainly because I'm not looking for any confirmation that I've forgotten a line. I just finished cleaning up the living room, and the whole apartment needs to be vacuumed before my family arrives, and I need to do the dishes as well. I'm waiting for the shower, so I can continue to get ready, and so I almost feel like I'm stuck in limbo. There are menial chores to do, but otherwise I'm alone with my thoughts. Yay for that. :) I'm sure the recital will go well, and I'm sure that when it's all over, very little of this will matter, but it's hard to rely on a thought like that when it's not over yet. Yes, I do get nervous before performances, but you wouldn't be able to tell by looking at my face. Usually, you can tell by conversation, if you ask the right questions, but I decided not to wait for questions like "Are you nervous?" and just say, yes. I know it'll be fine, I know no one (except my professors) will know when I make a mistake, so it's like not making one, but I am still nervous.
After all of that, I am not really sure how to wrap this up. It is a beautiful day outside, and I am really looking forward to seeing my family again, so it should be a good day regardless. Wish me luck!

I'm back!

2008-03-29T15:01:00.002-05:00

Ok, so I've been back for a week, but at least I'm blogging again. One week from today, my recital takes place, and I"m somewhat more ready for it, though I've still got a ways to go...I'm goin got go study for it next. I've got a concert tonight as well, the last official concert of my college career, supposedly, though we're doing a Vivaldi's Gloria concert, (I think with the Sioux City Symphony? Maybe?) in about 3 weeks to a month. We haven't started working on that yet though, so that'll be what choir consists of for the next however many rehearsals till that concert. But I digress.
It's weird. Once my recital's over, and the opera is over the week following, most of my schoolwork will be done. Yes, I have other classes, but those two events have been taking up the bulk of my rehearsal time, and I don't know what I'm going to be doing after that. Probably packing for our move.
Well, I should probably go study for the recital. I've got 4 1/2 songs left to memorize...that's down from 10, but still.

Going off the grid.

2008-03-14T08:38:00.002-05:00

Today I leave for choir tour. Not that you probably would have seen a post anyway, but this is to let everyone know that I'll be unavailable for contact by any way except phone until Wednesday evening. Feel free to call me if you wish, though I may not answer immediately, as I'll have a crazy schedule over the next few days.

Talk to you soon!

It's a Boy!

2008-03-07T11:04:00.002-06:00

This one shows he's a boy!

This is his face...remember, the ultrasound mostly just picks up bones, not skin...

These are his big feet...he apparently takes after his dad! :)

Top view, head and knees to feet.

His arms, hands in little fists.

You can see, or maybe you can, that he is all there and very healthy. He was moving a lot during the ultrasound, so we weren't able to get a good full body shot, but that's alright. Yes, we have a name, no we're not saying...yet... :)

Warning: Recital Looms Closer.

2008-03-03T12:14:00.002-06:00

Yeah, so today I have to study for my recital a ton. It's in about a month, and I'm still learning my pieces...which is to say I"m not even comfortable enough with them to perform them in class, let alone for a grade as a performance. A month would be a long time, if it weren't for the fact that spring break is in the middle of it, with choir tour and then easter taking that time up. So I've got about two weeks before we leave, and then about a week when we get back....scary. I plan to spend most of the afternoon working on translations and notes. I'm posting here so I don't put it off and actually get work done....because, hey, even after all that, a month is a long time! :)

2008-02-26T09:58:00.003-06:00

Well, for all of my loyal readers out there who thought I gave up on posting, I'm back! Actually, you've all probably just figured out that you should check back once a month or so....I should be better at this by now!

Anyway, I found some more great pictures that I want to post, but I feel I've deprived you all so long of an actual update that I should do that first. So, here it is.

It hit me last night that I've got about a month until my recital, and I'm still learning notes on some, (read, most) of my pieces. Because of this, I actually chose to go to bed at a reasonable time so that I could get up and go to school before my first class and practice. I meet with my accompanist today to practice immediately after my first class, and I always feel terrible if I show up unprepared and she is, so I'm going to work for most of an hour to rehearse, so I can be ready. My first class is at 11 am, so as soon as I finish this post and pack a lunch, I"m on my way to school.

In other news, Baby is growing, and definitely kicking hard now, especially at night and during choir practice. (I think the loudness of rehearsal is getting through and Baby is protesting at being woken up, as I don't notice movement in the mornings and can only assume Baby is sleeping then.) We find out what sex the baby is next week, and I will take comments on this post if you all want to know. However, if anyone protests, I'll just have to figure out how to tell those that want to know individually.....since I probably should do that anyway. :) This is all dependant on Baby being cooperative for the ultrasound and sitting so the doctor can see, of course.

Ok, I really need to get to school to practice, so here are my pictures I wanted to load. I found them in a group on facebook called "Everytime you write parallel fifths, Bach kills a kitten." I am not a member, and yes, it is very much a music major joke. I still like the pictures though.

Updates and pictures.

2008-01-12T23:06:00.000-06:00

Ok, well, I think it's probably time for some updates. I've been on break from school, which has been somewhat of a blessing and a curse. I've gotten next to no work done, which was one of my goals for break, but the reason has been that I've been either sick or exhausted for most of break, partly due to my being pregnant. I finally figured out why I was so tired, and I've been doing better the past two days, but it was pretty ridiculous for awhile there. (I would sleep in till 11 or 11:30, then oftentimes take an afternoon nap.) The reason for me being so tired was because I'd lost all appetite for any food, not because I was nauseous, but just because I wasn't ever hungry, and so my body didn't get enough to keep everything going great and keep me awake at the same time...rather dumb on my part. I've started eating at regular intervals whether I'm hungry or not, though I still can't bring myself to eat much of anything even then. At least I'm staying awake now.
Also because of this craziness, I've now lost over 20 pounds. I'm supposed to be putting on about a pound a week now, but clearly that's not happening. Oh well. I suppose that should turn around soon enough. The weird thing is that some of my clothes are too big now, like my jeans, and I got rid of all my belts because they'd stopped fitting...I'm not used to having this kind of problem!
In other news, school starts Thursday, and I need to do some homework at least to prove I didn't waste my whole break, so now I'll probably be cramming for my last few days free. The good news is that I found a shortcut (totally legal and not breaking any school rules here) on the internet where I don't have to do forty pages of translating a public domain song...I finally found a legitamate translation. I can mostly read the german, since the words are simple, but I was having a very difficult time fitting the words to the music. Now I just have to get the translation approved by my profs at the end of the week, and I can finish thatwhole weird project.
Also this week I have my first real doctor's appointment for the baby. It should be nice to get some questions off the table and see how big "Jellybean" has grown. (We nicknamed the baby jellybean, because that's the size and shape it was at the first ultrasound, and it kind of stuck. Oh well, it's cute, and if it's a girl, we'll probably keep calling her that...if it's a boy, well, we're not that mean...)
Finally, I was bored tonight and I decided to edit another picture. I've posted the original first, so that you can see the difference. It's my sister Susan, for anyone who doesn't know, and I only changed her eyes. Click on the pictures for a really good look.

you will get an update soon, but not today.

2007-12-31T13:13:00.000-06:00

Found these "bumper stickers" on facebook, couldn't resist.... Amanda and Chris, I thought of both of you for the third one, for totally different reasons. Hope you enjoy!

Yay for Chris!

2007-12-16T09:53:00.000-06:00

My husband is amazing. Just thought I'd let everyone know. He got up this morning about two hours before me, and did dishes all morning while he let me sleep in. Now, he's in the kitchen making breakfast. He is great.

2007-12-02T23:28:00.000-06:00

2007-11-15T21:29:00.000-06:00

Ok, stress has been alleviated somewhat, as my recital review went well, and I passed. That in turn made me feel a bit more prepared for the actual recital too, which is good.

I've also finally picked a topic for that research paper that's due on Monday - Benjamin Britten. British composer, wrote weird songs about nannies threating the kids they were watching with lakes of brimstone if they didn't keep quiet (ok, that was one song, but still!). He was also somewhat of a pedophile, which is very creepy, especially with that previously stated song definition. Despite all of that, he wrote incredible music, even if some of it is creepy. He was also born in the 20th century, so that's something...he's at least somewhat recent...

I'm about a quarter of the way through arranging the first of my choir pieces, and it's going fairly well, although I'm not looking forward to showing this to my prof tomorrow...he tends to tear stuff apart and do it in such a demeaning way, like, what's wrong with you that you would arrange it this way??? Of course this doesn't work! Your singers will hate you if you do that! (The first two are implied, most times, the last one he actually says.) So yay for the prof and class I don't really like. :)

Also, there's going to be a mass meeting of the choral department at my school, without the choral teachers' knowledge (arranged by the dean, so he can get our impressions without them being colored by the interim professors standing right there...) This should be a good thing, since all except one person in my studio is having problems with our teacher...big problems. So we'll see what happens...

That's all for tonight, I need to get back to homework, and make my recital programs too...

Time for a real update.

2007-11-12T22:46:00.000-06:00

Ok, so here's my reason for lack of blogging (this time) and also what my life involves right now.

Tomorrow, I have to perform for the voice faculty various selections of my recital program, which is coming up in about two and a half weeks...unfortunately, I don't know which selections. I really should have my recital program perfected by now, but I don't, and whenever I'm under stress I begin to forget the words unless I'm über confident on them...which I'm not. Some of them, yes, but not all. The review is tomorrow at 3, and I have between now and then to memorize everything perfectly...that's four french songs, two german songs, four english songs, and three italian songs to have down perfect. Again, I really should have this done already, but I don't. I suppose after tomorrow maybe I'll feel a lot better. We'll see. See, if I don't do well at the recital review, they can decide that I can't do my recital this semester, which means I'd have TWO recitals next semester, and the second one is supposed to be way longer.

In addition to all of this, I have my every day homework, a research paper to write, a book review (same length as research paper), three lesson reviews to write, a student to teach (yes, I"m teaching lessons now too), two choral songs to arrange, and a couple tests coming up. I'm a little stressed, which is really oddly out of character for me to show any stress. Probably why I'm blogging about it and not really showing it too much otherwise.

The good side of all of this...
I've worked out my schedule for next semester, and instead of having 19 credits like I have now, I'll have twelve, and they're mostly easy credits, like choir and recital lab and opera class (we just learn parts and perform an opera). So, I'm REALLY looking forward to next semester. Plus I graduate then, so that's good. :) Then on to grad school, as long as I get in..........

Pumpkin fun.

2007-10-29T21:20:00.000-05:00

Ok, Chris and I invited our friends Matt and Heather over to carve pumpkins, and these are the results. The painted one is mine (I'm terrible at carving!) and the middle one is Chris's, the one on the end is Matt and Heathers. I believe that Matt and Heather named their's Wilma, though it was a guy, apparently, :), and Chris's was the Mac-o-lantern. I guess mine would be Cat Noir. (Yes, I know it says Chat Noir, but still...) Yay for pumpkin fun!

2007-10-26T21:19:00.000-05:00

Ok, Chris is probably going to blog about this, but we got Mac OS X Leopord today. I have to admit, it's pretty sweet. Brings out the geek in even me, a non-geek, (well, a non computergeek, that is). It's got a great way of organizing your windows, say if you've got iTunes, the internet, a chat, and a couple homework documents open...it's like having four, or up to sixteen, seperate computers to work with, since you can put them in different spaces...essentially, they each get their own screen space. You can still have music playing in the background as you're working on another screen, but you don't have to deal with that window unless you want to. It's difficult to explain, but really cool to see. There are bunches of other cool things that they did to the system too, including it's just plain pretty now. So yeah. Cool.

Visiting Pierre.

2007-10-07T14:32:00.000-05:00

Hi all! I know it's been awhile.
Well, I'm back in Pierre this weekend. I apologize to my friends from Pierre that I didn't let you know, as I honestly thought I wouldn't be having any downtime to hang out. As it is, it's both of my parents birthdays this week, as well as my mother-in-laws birthday today. Chris and I came home to celebrate with them. Unfortunately, my parents had a wedding to attend in Sioux Falls yesterday, so they've been gone, and should be back tonight. Thankfully, I've got tomorrow off from school, due to the holiday (columbus/native american day).

.......

Ok, so I didn't finish the post yesterday, and now I'm home. It was a great weekend, and I fully enjoyed spending time with everyone, despite being the ultimate loser of all four games my parents and Chris and I played together. I came in last on every one!!! Oh well, must have been an off day, because I've won all those games before.

:) Good to be home.

The Career Game

2007-09-16T23:13:00.000-05:00

Ok so I took the quiz recommended to me from Psychobunny's site, and here are the results. Remember, these are my suggested careers to go into.

1.Costume Designer

2.Special Effects Technician

3.Actor

4.Psychologist

5.Animator

6.Desktop Publisher

7.Potter

8.Cartoonist / Comic Illustrator

9.Fashion Designer

10.Craftsperson

11.Set Designer

12.Art Director

13.Casting Director

14.Artist

15.Graphic Designer

16.Comedian

17.Sport Psychology Consultant

18.Medical Illustrator

19.Composer

20.Industrial Designer

21.Stylist

22.Computer Animator

23.Musician

24.Marriage and Family Therapist

25.Magician (??????)

26.Addictions Counselor

27.Archivist

28.Jeweler

29.Editor

30.Public Relations Specialist

31.Critic

32.Print Journalist

33.Writer

34.Market Research Analyst

35.Picture Framer

36.Anthropologist

37.Sign Maker

38.Translator

39.Upholsterer

40.Furniture Finisher

2007-09-01T00:39:00.001-05:00

Hi all!
Well, school starts officially on Tuesday for me, when I have to go in for a choir audition, so I'm currently enjoying the last friday night before school starts. I'm really excited that Monday is my last day at work, though my boss didn't remember that until Thursday, which was the last shift I worked. I thought it was kind of funny, really. When I reminded him, he said that another girl was leaving the day before me and that he "felt kind of rejected". He said it with a smile on his face though. The other girl's a college student too, and we told him we were done when school started, he just forgot when that was. Oh well.

I'm taking 19 credits this semester. Hopefully I won't go crazy with it, but I'm preparing a half hour recital, on top of my regular school work. I also don't know who my accompanist is yet, though I did ask a friend and he's considering. I forgot to ask him a couple of key questions though, one of which is if he charges anything for his accompanying services??? Wow, that makes him sound like an escort. Completely off, but still amusing. I hope he gets back to me soon with a yea or nay. I need to know.

Also, there is an adorable black cat outside our building. Chris and I have both grown very attached, and (of course) we named her. Her name is Casper, and she seems to love it, because we have only to step outside and say 'Casper', and she comes running. She's a very snuggly lap kitty, though Chris has discovered he can't hold her anymore, as she was sitting on his lap, and fell in between his legs and dug in with her claws to hold on. She didn't break through fabric, or injure anything, (though I have to say the sight was nervously funny), but she did scratch his calf with her back claw and we're waiting to see if he reacts to it...he's allergic to cat saliva, cats lick their claws, claw scratch.....you get the picture. Hopefully nothing happens. In any case, I can still hold her, and we play with her almost every day outside. I know, too attached already, but it's like having a pet with no responsibility! Kind of nice. We know she gets fed, too, because not only are other people in the building feeding her, but we saw her chowing on a bird she caught the other day...that was gross.......

Ok, that's all for now. It's almost 1 am and I'm tired! I don't usually stay up this late anymore!! Goodnight.

Pigs on Parade, pt. 1

2007-08-06T18:41:00.000-05:00

This last picture was on the side of the last pictured pig, along with a few other "seattlesque" adaptions.

2007-08-03T12:57:00.000-05:00

Ok, so this is just a funny sign I saw in the fish market in Seattle. Never really liked the caveman commercials for Geico, but I find this play off of those quite funny.

This is me(obviously) with my hair down, which is a rare sight. This was our first free day in Seattle, and we'd gone down to the pier to take pictures. It was a lot of fun spending a week there, though if I were to do it again, we'd probably stay in a different district of seatle, since all the restaurants closed at six pm promptly, sometimes earlier, and we always had a hard time finding dinner that was affordable.

I got a haircut. This is the amount of hair that came off. Shocking, huh? Right now on my desktop is an image of flowers that I took a picture of in Pike place market. Soon I'll upload the parade of pigs pictures. That'll probably take awhile though, as there are a lot of them. A LOT of them. Ok, you ready to see me with short hair? Are you???

Ok, so I want to make you scroll a bit. In the picture below, I'm in the international district, in the giant chinese grocery store/mall. You can kind of see everything in the background...I think we're in teakettle land.

This last picture is the picture of Chris and I on our last night in Seattle. Also probably my favorite picture of the trip of us.

2007-06-21T13:06:00.000-05:00

My Nephew. :)

2007-06-21T12:41:00.000-05:00

My Niece. Soon to follow, my nephew. Made with Comic Life software. :)

Psychobunny, this is for you.

2007-06-14T12:53:00.000-05:00

I seem to remember you saying something about liking PC guy on the new mac commercials. This is a comic I read, heralding the release of Mac's new operating system, OS X Leapord. So anyway, here's the link.

http://www.applegeeks.com/index.php

P.S.
Issue #370

Shirley Temple.

2007-06-01T00:33:00.000-05:00

These are photos of me after I did my trial run for hair for the wedding. It was all pinned up, but this is after the pins are out. I kind of like it curly. I also like the 'glow' picture, but you can't tell as much that my hair's curly.

100 random thoughts.

2007-05-17T22:49:00.000-05:00

In order of thought:

1. I like the new Reese's crunchy bar, but it needs to be way smaller...kind of overwhelming.
2. I know by posting the aforementioned statement that I'll be hearing about how I don't eat right.
3. I have six champagne poppers on my desk, those little things that blow confetti with a bang? And I hate loud noises. :)
4. I used one anyway though.
5. I have an address book on my computer and as a separate book on my desk...I don't really use either.
6. I love buying school supplies. What am I going to do when I graduate?
7. I currently own two computers, since one of them has two funny faded stripes down the screen, and one isn't portable. They balance each other out.
8. Much of my life has been consumed by wedding planning. I have cake images in my file sorter, waiting for me to pick one, and I can't seem to decide.
9. I probably can't decide because in the long run, how important is a piece of cake?
10. I can't exactly remember the flowers I picked out for my bouquet, only the ones I picked out for my sisters.
11. I named two of the stray cats outside my apartment building. One is a Siamese looking cat, and one is a marmalade tomcat. The first's name is Oscar, the second's name is Ralph.
12. Oscar is a girl.
13. I am usually quite good at giving animals fitting names...Oscar answers to her name, and seems to love it, despite it not fitting. Ralph doesn't know his name yet, as I met him today.
14. I'm not crazy, really.
15. Despite my having named two of the many stray cats, I have yet to name the inanimate bears carved out of rock sitting on my computer.
16. I'll have to post a picture of them sometime, that's a terrible description.
17. I have eleven plants, including the one sitting outside my patio door right now.
18. One of my earliest memories is of my parents and my grandparents and I on my fourth birthday, in Arizona. My dad had a business trip and I got to go along.
19. I picked out my own cake, which in retrospect, probably tasted terrible, but I thought it was really pretty because of the giant white frosting roses on it, covering a dusky rose frosting.
20. I have a picture, or I probably wouldn't remember the exact shade of pink.
21. I want to name a daughter of mine Elsa, after my two grandmas, Elsie and Eva.
22. Chris and I both wanted to name our son Jonathan David, before we met each other.
23. I call my room clean right now, but in reality, while the floor is pristine, most of the surfaces are covered with stuff that I've simply run out of room for.
24. At least I can walk in here now...
25. I'm hungry. I need to get breakfast.
26. I've got to complete my english assignment.
27. I don't really understand my english assignment. She asks us to describe something in a phrase, and then extend it into a phrase or phrases. Extend a phrase to a phrase?
28. I'm doing it my own way, since she's going to correct them and we make another draft anyway. Maybe that'll explain it better.
29. My apple pie candle smells good, but I'm not exactly sure it smells like apple pie.
30. My desktop background changes pictures. I like the pictures, but since they've been on there since I got the computer, I'm getting kind of tired of them.
31. I don't like having people for my background though. I feel bad covering them with icons and windows.
32. I've watched certain movies in my collection too many times to count.
33. I watched 10 Things I Hate About You so much that I can quote almost all of it word for word, even the most obscure lines.
34. Such as "Yuppie greed is back, my friend."
35. I used that movie as a paper source once...legitimately.
36. The Cosby Show reminds me a lot of my family.
37. Cliff especially reminds me of my dad.
38. Denise reminds me of Sara...slightly...when she was in college, more so.
39. I have 20.25 GB of music on my computer right now.
40. That could be why I love shuffle so much.
41. It's going to be very hot at work today (73 degrees right now, 81 high).
42. Sunscreen makes it hotter, but it's still necessary, unfortunately.
43. I've got just a little over an hour till work right now, and I should be doing other stuff.
44. Like clean off the countertops in my room.
45. Or go to the laundromat to do laundry.
46. Gummies are good. (candy) (I know, bad for me.)
47. Lime green silly putty is fun.
48. I've officially lost the wick of my candle to the melted pool of wax surrounding it.
49. This is harder to do than I thought it would be!
50. Halfway.
51. All my plants grow at an angle, towards the window.
52. That's why I rotate them.
53. I have seven pictures of my little sister on my wall right now.
54. Three of them are in the christmas letter I've got tacked up there.
55. She's very photogenic.
56. I like dying our hair. Not really though.
57. 57 days till I get married to Chris.
58. Yes, that one was planned.
59. I currently have many cookbooks stacked under my desk, because I wanted to go through and type in recipes into the computer for easier searching.
60. I can't even remember how long they've been there...I think since Christmas.
61. I've taken to wearing my hair tight back in ponytails, mainly because it works for work.
62. I can hardly stand leaving my hair down anymore though.
63. I plan to get it cut after the wedding, but I don't want it short for the wedding, so I have to wait.
64. I refuse to have extensions to have an updo. Only my real hair.
65. I should own a library. There was that little one room library in the south somewhere, that I think I could compete with for number of books.
66. Probably not variety though.
67. Do you have any idea how many songs there are out there that consist of solely the word "Alleluia"? or "Hallelujah"?
68. There was a stamp sticking to the outside of my voice lesson binder. I think it was from inside my purse.
69. Apparently the continuing education school thinks that if you don't get their first e-mail, you might get their second, third, fourth, fifth, or sixth, if sent to the same address.
70. I got them all, and it says not to respond. How do you get them to stop?
71. I have lotion all over my room. All kinds of it! Scented, unscented, for feet, hands, elbows, face, whatever. I should not have to buy any for years to come.
72. It's all in bottles of course. :)
73. I should ride my bike to work today. It's nice out. Though hot.
74. If anyone gets the opportunity, they should listen to the portsmouth sinfonia, and be shocked.
75. They don't sound like it, but they are all professional musicians. They just traded instruments.
76. I paint my contact cases so I can tell left from right in the dark. Nail polish works great.
77. Shark actually tastes really good. They're selling it at Hy-Vee right now, but it's too expensive.
78. Honest Tea is so good! And it comes in a multitude of flavors. The first bottled tea I actually like.
79. I hate Lipton tea.http://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gif
80. That tea that Starbucks has is really good though.
81. I kind of want to watch a movie tonight....don't know which one though.
82. I'm back from work now, by the way.
83. I sold a lot of plants today. They're cool.
84. I kind of want cereal after reading Laurie's post today.
85. I enjoy working out, but yet I almost never get myself to do just that.
86. I like biking, and I may do that tonight.
87. I am a chapstick fiend. You would not believe how many I own.
88. You probably would, actually, if I took the time to count, but I'm not going to.
89. Despite the number of chapsticks I own, my lips are chapped right now from work.
90. Shrek the Third is good, but not as good as the first two.
91. I went to the first movie three times in the theater, first with friends, then with my sister Michelle, then to take Michelle and her friends.
92. I have twenty six picture frames on my wall, and five sitting on various countertops.
93. It's 8:40, and I have to go to the mcfadden office before 9, but since I need to shower since I just got off work, who knows if I'll go.
94. They probably don't care that I stink and am covered in dirt.
95. Actually, they should.
96. I'm 21, and I'm wearing a Veggietales shirt.
97. I like black cats. I don't think they're bad luck. They're too pretty.
98. I killed six fish in three days, accidentally.
99. I thought about only doing ninty-nine posts, but that would be cruel.
100. Yay 100!
Bonus 101. Someone had better comment. This took me a long time! ;)

2007-05-17T11:13:00.000-05:00

These are my plants. I know. Exciting post. I have been trying to post these, though, for about a month and a half, but I couldn't until all the students left vermillion and the internet got back up to normal speed again. I'm planning to do one of those "100 Things" posts soon though...working up to it. Check out Psychobunny's page to get what I'm talking about.

2007-05-16T10:35:00.000-05:00

I find this incredibly ironic, since I went on a stint in grade school trying to learn this language...I still remember, well, most of the alphabet anyway...

You Should Learn Swedish

Fantastisk! You're laid back about learning a language - and about life in general.
Peaceful, beautiful Sweden is ideal for you... And you won't even have to speak perfect Swedish to get around!

What Language Should You Learn?

Ok, so I totally thought it'd be romantic comedy....

2007-04-26T23:13:00.001-05:00

The Movie Of Your Life Is A Cult Classic

Quirky, offbeat, and even a little campy - your life appeals to a select few.
But if someone's obsessed with you, look out! Your fans are downright freaky.

Your best movie matches: Office Space, Showgirls, The Big Lebowski

If Your Life Was a Movie, What Genre Would It Be?

My Brother's Duel (title of song)

2007-04-25T13:14:00.000-05:00

Gabcast! My music #1

Ok, this is a link to a very poorly done soundbyte of a song I wrote. I'm sorry for the crudeness, I'm working on getting it improved.

Dealing with the Stress.

2007-04-18T01:05:00.000-05:00

Ok, so here's what's going on in my life. I've got a vocal competition I'm entered in on Saturday. I have a presentation to do in class thursday (this one's cake). I have a five page paper due Monday. I have a ten page paper due two weeks from Thursday. I have german homework nearly every night from a prof who seems to think we have nothing better to do than to bask in German. I have voice juries, essentially my major finals, in three weeks, and finals week in four weeks. In amongst this, I am planning a wedding, and I've begun working at Ace Garden Center again. The garden center opens friday, so everyone, including me, is putting in extra hours to make sure we meet that deadline. We are also apartment hunting right now. Life is fun.

Fortunately, my boss gave me tonight off, and I admittedly skipped german, but I called a friend to find out about the homework, and there is none. So tonight, I've had somewhat of a break. Yes, I should have spent some of it working on papers and my voice stuff, but it was nice to have recuperation time. Chris and I did look at some invitations, but we didn't get very far, which is ok. Tomorrow the craziness will begin again, and much too early I might add, for me to stay up this late, but oh well. I'm enjoying my breather. I'm going to read a chapter in my book, and then go to bed.

You get to vote!

2007-04-15T22:39:00.000-05:00

Ok, as you can all see, I've finally updated my blog. With this update, I've decided to change the picture of me from me in high school to me now. Here's the catch. I took a few in photo booth, with effects, that I may want to use. If enough of you vote, I'll probably listen to you on which one to pick. If very few vote, I'll pick it myself. So vote!

Y'all wanna see something funny?

2007-04-14T08:53:00.000-05:00

Ok, so first of all, I got a haircut. The haircut looks nice, I like it, but it's shorter than most people have seen on me in awhile. This fact, combined with the fact that I bought those overnight curlers just for fun, yeah, well, hilarity ensues. Apparently you are only to use these things when you have extremely long hair, as I did when I was younger. In any case, I thought I"d share the pictures with all of you before I wet my hair down to tame it and go to work.

Update: Ok, so I didn't feel like showering, as I showered just before bed last night, and so here's my hair after two bands and a bit of straightening balm. :)

Woody Woodpecker

2007-03-31T23:25:00.000-05:00

This is the woodpecker I saw outside my window today. There's a tree that grows maybe 2 1/2, 3 feet from my window, and he pecked at the base of it. When he saw me taking pictures of him, he started to play peek-a-boo, but at least this picture turned out!

Carter Burke

2007-03-30T15:04:00.000-05:00

Yay! This is my new nephew, Carter Burke! Isn't he adorable?? He's one week and one day old today. :) Top picture is him with Cody and Susan, his parents.

2007-03-25T16:37:00.000-05:00

Well, for all of you who didn't know, I was in an opera recently, and I thought I'd post a few pictures. The last show was last night, and while I'm sad that we won't be doing any more shows, I'm also relieved that we're done.

Also, I've got big news! I have a nephew! Susan had her baby on Thursday, March 22nd. His name is Carter Burke, after his father, Cody Burke, and he was 8 lbs. 3 oz. and 20 inches long. I haven't gotten to see him yet, but I can't wait!

Ok, here's some pictures of the opera...hopefully pictures of Carter to follow soon!

2007-03-16T12:21:00.000-05:00

Ok, I know it's been awhile, but I thought I'd post this quick. I thought it was hilarious, especially since I"m part of that nintendo generation.

Just so y'all know, wedding plans are pulling together. We have a caterer, and almost have the menu nailed down. We have narrowed invite choices down to a few different options, and all the other big stuff has been taken care of for now.

Classes are kind of crazy, but they're steady crazy, since not much changes week to week, there's just a lot. The opera premieres a week from today, so all next week we're rehearsing every night, building set, and getting costumes together. It should be very fun... we're doing Trial By Jury, if I hadn't mentioned that before (I"m sure I have), and it's in english, so yay! Ok, that's all for now, I need to go eat lunch and rehearse for my lesson.

I found this quite funny, given that the date doesn't exist.

2007-02-21T22:33:00.001-06:00

Your Birthdate: February 31

You're a pretty traditional person. If it's lasted, it's probably good.

You seek stability - both in your career and your romantic relationship.

In return, you're very loyal and predictable. Which is usually a good thing.

Without a partner, you feel lost. Being with someone is very important to you.

Your strength: Your dependability

Your weakness: You hate being alone

Your power color: Midnight blue

Your power symbol: Shell

Your power month: April

What Does Your Birth Date Mean?

Admission.

2007-02-08T12:14:00.000-06:00

Alright everyone, it's time I let you in on a not-so-secret secret. I have another blog, which I call my weight loss journal. It catalogues my workouts and random diets. I've had it for quite awhile now, but didn't want to make it public knowledge. Now it is. I'm making it such for accountability, so that I know more people are actually reading it, and I actually keep posting. I've been better recently, and I intend to continue on this trend, which is why I'm announcing this...you'll find the link over in my links menu, as soon as I finish this post and update it. Feel free to comment, good, bad, suggestions, tips, whatever you please. Whatever messages are left, I promise not to get upset or offended. :) Ok, there's my little intro to it. Check it out!

P.S.
Chris's link in the links column is now fixed as well...sorry it took so long!

2007-01-25T21:59:00.000-06:00

Happy Birthday Cody! Happy soon to be birthday Sara! :)

Yes I promised I'd update soon, so here it is.

Lately, I've been working on wedding planning. We've had to move the wedding date, yet again. This time it is finalized, and it is set officially for the 14th of July. We've booked a gorgeous reception hall, and the church is great as well. I made an appointment with Monica of Cakes by Monica. We go in Thursday at 3:30. Besides that, tomorrow I'm going to stop down to the flower shop that's doing our flowers and officially put down a deposit, or whatever I need to do to reserve their services. Hopefully tonight I can figure out what I want to have for my bouquet so I can just get everything written down. Once I figure out my bouquet, then we can get the corsages and boutonnieres worked out, since they'll probably be flowers from either my bouquet or the bridesmaid's bouquets. So yeah...that's my wedding planning so far.

On another note, I got another computer. My laptop was slowly dying. I couldn't do the basic functions I needed to for my classes, and since this will be a computer-intensive semester for me, this was a problem. I invested in an iMac, which is a desktop mac, and it's got a beautiful 20" widescreen display, and no tower! That was the cool thing to me. The entire computer is housed behind the screen, so it's nice and space saving, and I actually have room to do homework on my desk again. What a concept!

Right now I've pictures I took this summer of montana and seattle cycling through as the background on my desktop. It's pretty.

I should be reading my Music History textbook right now, but I really just plain don't want to. I will before I go to bed, because I basically just don't want to get more behind than I already am on reading. I'm ten pages behind. It doesn't matter all that much, because we aren't graded on reading, but it does help for me to pay attention in class more, because then I actually can follow what my prof is talking about.

I may work on Elythra tonight. I haven't done that in awhile. Y'all can comment or e-mail me if you want to know more about Elythra, I'm not going to go into that here, it'd take too long.

Right now, I think I'm going to change to pj's and clean up my room a little, maybe work out a bit. Goodnight all!

2007-01-21T17:47:00.001-06:00

Well, here we go again. Schools back in session, and I'm officially avoiding homework. Right now, I'm going to run to Hy-Vee. Groceries, etc. are a good excuse to avoid it for at least a little bit longer. :)

2007-01-07T15:52:00.000-06:00

So here I am, sitting in my parent's living room, watching You, Me and Dupree with my little sister and her boyfriend Charlie. I like the movie, but I really wish I was in Vermillion. I'm a little bit bored here, and I've got stuff to do in Vermillion...not stuff that can't wait, but stuff I'd still like to get done, nonetheless. Oh well...I'll just lounge around and do nothing for a bit longer.

Fishy! Wake Up!

2006-12-08T23:45:00.000-06:00

Fishy, Wake up! Why are you sleeping??

Ok, I feel like Darla off of Finding Nemo right now. Let me tell you about my recent pets. Well, you all remember Thekthi? Well, Thekthi died over thanksgiving break. I think I gave him a concussion when I changed his water, since there's a rock on the bottom of the bowl, and when I put him back in the tank after changing the water, he hit his head on it. He died two days later.

After that, I meant to get more fish, but I decided to go with goldfish this time around. I waited awhile, and I just bought them Tuesday night. I had not even named them before they were floating belly up. Chris told me that I could return them within 24 hours and get new fish in exchange, so that's what I did. I decided to go with larger fish, in hopes that they would be healthier and live longer. Chris and I named them Orange Juice and Coffee, since one was orange and one was black. They died within about four hours.

After that, I wasn't gonig to get any more fish for awhile, but I decided to try one more time. I got two more large fantail goldfish, and I named them Milk and Cookie. (One was white, one was orange and white.) They died by after about six hours.

Tonight, I returned my fish, and got the money back. After returning fish to Wal-Mart three times in four days, I've officially given up on fish for now.

Another Panda Dog.

2006-11-22T13:37:00.000-06:00

I found another picture of that dog...but I still can't find out what breed it is! Oh well...this one looks older than the last one.

2006-11-13T00:11:00.000-06:00

What American accent do you have? Your Result: The Midland "You have a Midland accent" is just another way of saying "you don't have an accent." You probably are from the Midland (Pennsylvania, southern Ohio, southern Indiana, southern Illinois, and Missouri) but then for all we know you could be from Florida or Charleston or one of those big southern cities like Atlanta or Dallas. You have a good voice for TV and radio.
The Inland North
The Northeast
Philadelphia
The South
Boston
The West
North Central
What American accent do you have? Take More Quizzes

2006-10-31T21:53:00.000-06:00

Free points to the person who finds the pic of a guy in my blog template. I didn't put him there, for the record...the guy who's picture it is designed the template...anyway, kudos to whoever finds it.

Exhaustion.

2006-10-20T22:46:00.000-05:00

Ok. I have to work in the morning, at 9 am, and I'm seriously considering staying up later. I'm exhausted though, and I have no reason to stay up. What is this? Is this just me missing freshman year when I could stay up as late as I wanted on Friday nights because I had nothing to do on Saturdays? I am such a slacker. I haven't even worked on my homework...though I have painted a pumpkin for the guy I'm a secret santa for in Choir...we all were supposed to paint a pumpkin. Anyway, I'm really tired, yet I'm staying up. Oh well...maybe I'll head to bed soon...we'll see.

New blog....and panda dog.

2006-10-19T08:41:00.000-05:00

As you all can tell, I decided to change the look of my blog a bit...I was going to do a different template, that I really like a lot better, but it had some bad code, so we're working on fixing that. Meanwhile, I do like this one as well, so it's here to stay for awhile.

Amanda, I saw these pictures, and I thought of you. Were you to get a dog, this would be the one to get. Yes, it really is a dog.

P.S. I don't know where the title of the blog went, but I'll deal with that later, when I don't have homework to finish. I'll add my links back in too...the links that are there are the default ones for this template....one's the guy who designed it, so if you like it, feel free to check it out...he's got some really incredible ones....be warned...template #50 is the one I had trouble with.

Fish....

2006-10-18T16:25:00.000-05:00

So, I have a pet fish. He was without a name for about the first month that I had him, but I"ve named him now...his name is Thekthi. I know, weird....say the name out loud...it's a joke. He's a really pretty red and blue beta...maybe I'll post a picture later...anyway, so I have a pet now, in addition to my many plants. :) Yay!

Much needed updates.

2006-10-04T09:27:00.000-05:00

Yay! My sister Susan is having a baby! I get to be an aunt...again! :) I'm very excited.

I'm currently sitting in my apartment, when I should be at class. I woke up late today, and since I know today in this particular class we're just doing group work, which means we sign the attendance sheet and then my group heads off to the library, while I don't necessarily like having the absence on my record, I won't be missing anything. I'll just have to be careful to give myself more time from now on to get ready.

Chris and I are talking about making the wedding invitations...we're both going to make up some samples and go from there. I'm looking at getting this stamp that's made specifically for invitations, that has event, date, time, etc. on it, and then you write beside it. I realize the writing will be time-consuming, but I can always do a few a day once we get started, and just write on the info later, once we've got everything worked out. We'll see.

I've got a big test coming up on Friday, so I think I'm going to go now and review for it. Wish me luck!

My most recent favorite pictures...

2006-09-22T09:44:00.000-05:00

The first picture is called Mafia Music. The second, Nerds Unite! These are both shirts you can buy on Threadless. Unfortunately, the Nerds Unite one is sold out right now, but if you request one, that'll add to the count, and they may reprint it sooner. You don't actually have to follow through and buy it just if you request it, but it helps those of us who want to buy it (hint hint!) to be able to do so sooner.

Hope you like the pictures!

Threadless T-Shirts

2006-09-13T09:06:00.000-05:00

Once again, I"m hanging out in my A&I class, before it starts, for once, and I'm bored. I have to say though, my shirt is quite fun. (Random, I know) It says "We'll be safe in this dark, creepy barn." You all have to check out threadless.com....link in title. It's so worth checking out! THere are a bunch of hilarious, awesome shirts....actually, Amanda? There's this perfect shirt for you called Pandemonium...but if you get it, get a guys size...all the girls shirts are baby doll tees and horribly uncomfortable...the guys shirts are nice.

That's all for now! Class is about to start.

Random stuff, halloween costume

2006-09-11T20:22:00.000-05:00

So here's just a random post. I'm sitting in my room listening to "Everything (Is Never Quite Enough)" by Wasis Diop. It's actually a pretty good song....it's off the Thomas Crown Affair soundtrack, which is a good movie, with the exception of the one racy sex scene. Chris is sitting next to me reading some mac forum. We're both eventually going to get to homework, but I think we're both avoiding it right now. I'll get to it within the hour for sure....I need to go over and practice tonight.

Oh, Amanda...Cynical Idealist halloween costume?
Let's see....
I'd have comfortable, open toed shoes, probably my new brown flip-flops, jeans, and a black shirt with a rhinestone pumpkin on it. I'm not much for rhinestones, or pumpkins for that matter, but that's probably the only "Halloween wear" that I would wear...I'd have funky earrings, probably big "chandelier" earrings, and I'd have my hair pinned back into weird curls with about 40 bobby pins. As far as makeup, I'd do black eyeliner under my lids (sounds weird, but it works and looks good) and mascara, maybe some eyeshadow and lipgloss if I feel like making more of an effort. I'd have my nails done cool...probably orange with the pumpkin faces on them, and I'd have my toes painted nice too, I don't know what color. Random other accessories? Some sort of a giant purse, with a book in it, probably Sense and Sensibility, since I'm trying to finish that now, and lots of chapstick and lipgloss, and my wallet and keys.

I think that's about it. I should really get to my homework now.....I don't wanna! Oh well, I don't think my profs care if I want to or not. :)

More about my homework blog.

2006-09-10T10:44:00.000-05:00

Hey everyone! This will just be a quick update, since I have to be to work at 11, and I still need to make lunch and change. I just wanted to let you know that I've made more updates to my homework blog. I'll be blogging there quite a bit, (at least compared to my track record with this blog....I'll try to improve that too...) since I have to have "a cultural experience" at least once every week and write about it. There are also links in that pages sidebar to go to other parts of the site where my class notes and papers are. While I know it's for class, none of it's been really boring yet, except the book review thing, so you all may actually enjoy the posts there. Just a heads up. Ok, off to work now!

Updates.

2006-09-08T09:40:00.000-05:00

Hey all! I know that I've been bad about blogging. I'm sitting in my arts and Identity class right now, and I just thought I'd all let you know that I have yet another new blog. elythrashomework.blogspot.com This blog is for one of my classes, the one I'm sitting in now, actually. I submit homework on there, and then my prof checks the archives at midterm and the end of the semester. I've got one paper on there....enjoy it if you can follow it...it's a book review.

My Wedding Website

2006-08-16T12:49:00.000-05:00

Hi guys! I can't remember if I blogged about this, so I just thought I would again, just in case. I have a website that talks about wedding details, and you can (eventually) RSVP to the wedding there. It's a fair assumption that if you read my blog, you are invited....with the exception of random strangers who happened across it. Anyway, here's the site...

http://weddings.theknot.com/pwp/view/co_main.aspx?coupleid=3268826752209664

2006-08-13T02:00:00.000-05:00

So I'm in Seattle rignt now, and I'm having fun wearing myself out. Today, we went all the way from the Space needle to Chinatown to Pike's Place to the university district to Volunteer park and back to the space needle. (Our hotel is about a block away from the space needle.) If you want to look that up on a map, that's pretty much all across town. Most of it, we walked. Not that I'm complaining...I really enjoyed it. I'm just explaining how we got around. So now I'm going to get ready for bed...it's late. We went to a play tonight, A midsummer's Night's Dream, in the park...it was very very well done...just late, so I'm tired. So, more details later, goodnight.

2006-07-21T21:01:00.000-05:00

I must say, I'm not blogging because anything interesting is happening. I'm blogging because it isn't. I spent the majority of the afternoon drawing henna tattoos onto my legs, which I may or may not post a picture of when they get darker. (Henna gets darker for a few days, then slowly fades, disappearing completely after three weeks.) Now I have homework to attend to, but I'm avoiding it. I'm not even avoiding it properly, by working on other things I genuinely want to do. I'm simply sitting here, in my little blue chair, blogging and watching the movie Gigi. I think I will do a bit of homework, and then go and work on this painting that's been stuck in my head for about a week now. Maybe I'll post a picture of that, too, when I finish it. Right now, my tea is hot, time to get it and get to work. :(

Daily Activities.

2006-07-03T23:15:00.000-05:00

Guys, I'm a little disappointed! I figured someone would comment on my shark dinner. Oh well. :)

My days have been a little meh. I'm working on my quilt a little each day...I'm up to 9 rows by 22? (maybe 26) columns. Anyway, it's just getting big enough for me to curl up underneath, were it not for the fact that it's only one layer of material thick.

I'm also in an English class, just a general...I read a bunch of stories, and then I write short essays answering questions about them. Exciting, huh?

I have another class starting next week, one that I actually have to attend, remarkably...two hours a day, four days a week. That one should be alright though, as it's in my major area. Forms and Analysis. Boring, right? Yeah, that's what I've been told it is anyway. Oh well, it'll be something to do.

I'm planning a trip with my mom to ride Amtrak to Seattle, with some stops on the way there and back. I'm really looking forward to that. With the exception that I feel slightly guilty taking that much time off of work.

I'm working at a greenhouse, as I've said before. It's a lot of fun, and it's getting easier. I'm learning more, and it's nice to just be outdoors.

Ok, well, currently, I'm making banana bread, and I think it's about time to take it out of the oven....mmmm.....so I'm gonna go. Bye!

Dinner...Dine Different.

2006-07-02T00:33:00.000-05:00

Those of you who know me well have probably heard me say at one time or another, "I'll try almost anything once." Well, it still holds true. Last night, I went out to dinner with Chris and another couple, and we went to Outback. I asked what the catch of the day was, not really planning to order fish, but curious nonetheless, and I ended up deciding to get it. It was Mako Shark. Pretty good stuff, really...I'd recommend it to anyone who likes fish. Considering the size of the animal it came from, you don't really have to worry about those pesky little bones like most fish. Just so you know the size, I'll upload a picture. This is only a medium-sized Mako.

Oh, we all also went to see the Superman movie...it was pretty good! I enjoyed it, anyway.

Yet another video.

2006-06-27T01:08:00.000-05:00

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=489221653835413043&pr=goog-sl

Ok, that's the link to a crazy-weird rap video done by some Stats TA's. Amanda, Chris, you two should especially get a kick out of all of this. Enjoy!

Musings

2006-06-21T00:57:00.000-05:00

I had a lady at work tell me that I should be a botany major. She seemed quite shocked when I said that I am not good enough at science to make it as a botany major, and I simply don't enjoy it as much. I should interject for all of you that don't know, that I actually work in a greenhouse, but I was hired as a watergirl, and simply picked up enough about most of the plants that they let me run the place on my own most evenings and weekends. I enjoy my job, but I don't think I'd enjoy all the extra crap I'd have to learn to major in that. Plus, greenhouses are fickle. I've learned that much at least. You're either extremely dependent on the weather, which can still destroy your plants, or you have an insanely high water bill. (At least in South Dakota summer heat you do...)

I told this lady that I am a Vocal performance major, and when she asked what I was going to do with that, if I was going to sing opera or what, I kind of fumbled with the answer. See here's my sort-of-not-so-secret fear about my major. This is not a very highly demanded career path I'm on. And I look around, and see all the other people majoring in the same thing, not just at my school but at others too, and I think, you know, we're all jockeying for elbow space as it is...what's it going to be like when we all graduate? I suppose the majority of us will find other jobs. I'd like to be able to get into a job where it wasn't minimum wage hourly crap....but who knows. I've always wanted to run my own business, honestly, but I'm not so sure I have the business savvy for that. My two ideas for that were either a coffee shop, or a studio...art and music, probably, or maybe just music, but preferably both. See, I would LOVE to own a coffee shop...one of those late night ones for college students with the overstuffed couches and the odd but cool artwork? That's one of the things I've always always wanted to do...but do I have enough business savvy to be able to ensure that I could take out a business loan, get this thing off the ground, and keep it going indefinitely? I've never worked in a coffee shop before! That would probably help...

The studio, honestly, fits into my major better. I've always had in the back of my mind that I could teach lessons in piano and voice, and maybe art...but just have this place for kids, junior high and up, probably, where they could go after school and be safe and non-destructive and have fun and still learn about the arts. It'd have to be in a bigger city, and I have no idea how I'd fund it...maybe I'd run it like teen daycare....I don't know...but I wanted to be able to do lessons for underprivelaged kids too, and maybe see if I can network and get other instrumentalists to teach other instruments, maybe even the older kids teaching the younger kids, if they're good enough. That is a plan that I think I would be estatic about doing, but I'm just afraid to attempt it. See, I could really do it now, but I'm just in too small of a town for it to work well, and I don't want to get it crushed and then be afraid to try again. Yeah....So I could do this studio, and maybe attach a coffee shop? :D Who knows...

Ok, that's enough for tonight. It was certainly long enough. Congrats on making it all the way through!

This was kind of a duh (I hope)...what with my major and all...

2006-06-17T00:26:00.000-05:00

You are a Rocker Girl!

If you don't have musical talent, you've got a talent for picking out great CD's.
Music rules your life - and you've got the best MP3 collection of anyone you know.
Many guys find you intimidating, but a select few think you're the catch of a lifetime.

What Kind of Girl Are You?

Motivation is overrated.

2006-06-14T01:09:00.000-05:00

So here I sit again, late night, not going to bed even though I'm tired. I don't know why...oh yeah....I'm supposed to be cleaning my room. Well, laundry's all sorted...I did dishes today! But those aren't in my room....went grocery shopping, also not room related.....ok so I'm avoiding finishiing! I need to make my bed, that usually motivates me to finish...but here's the irony. As soon as I finish, I'm unmaking the bed and sleeping in it! Ok, so I'm not very motivated right now...at all. Goodnight. :)

Late night updates.

2006-06-09T03:36:00.000-05:00

Hi all!

Ok here's the update. It's Chris's birthday today, (Happy birthday!) and we're heading up to soo foo to meet his parents, grandparents, and my parents and little sis. (And her dog Keya! Haven't seen it yet, sounds cute...black furry chihuahua...even though I don't like small dogs....cute). Anyway, before that, I have an interview at that restaurant that I applied at, Little Italy's...so hopefully that goes well. I don't know how much I really want to be working two jobs right now, but my job that I have now is soon cutting back my hours out of necessity...we're just not that busy anymore...and Little Italy's would continue till I leave Vermillion...unless I find something better. So yeah...hope the interview goes well...

On another note, my nice new camera that I was so excited about had three large areas of dead pixels, which basically means three very large white boxes with black outlines in the middle of my pictures, so I sent it in for repairs. Yay! I got it back today, and all has been mended.

Ok, that's about all I can handle for right now...it's way later than I'm used to anymore! (I've been going to bed at or before midnight regularly now...can you believe it?) Ok....tired.....sleep.....

Procrastination

2006-05-26T11:23:00.000-05:00

So, today is my first day off since I got hired last Friday, and I'm enjoying it, but I've got so much to do, before 4:30. (Chris and I are going to a movie in Sioux City tonight...good end to a day off!) But I thought I'd put a list out here to see if I could get it done...(Taking a cue from you awhile back, Amanda!) So here it is:

Call Little Italy's (possible second job?? They called me after all!)

Work on Math and English (good ol' correspondance, too easy to procrastinate...)

Clean up room a bit. (Not desperate, but it's got to be done sometime, right?)

Ok, so I thought I had more to do...who knows...maybe I'll remember the rest of it later.

Some jokes.

2006-05-09T01:52:00.000-05:00

I am not in any way against the US Military, but this stuff does make me wonder who exactly enlists. Oh well, hope you laugh as much as I did!

"Aim towards the Enemy." - Instruction printed on US Rocket Launcher

"When the pin is pulled, Mr. Grenade is not our friend." - U.S. Army

"Cluster bombing from B-52s is very, very accurate. The bombs are guaranteed to always hit the ground." - U.S.A.F. Ammo Troop

"If the enemy is in range, so are you." - Infantry Journal

"A slipping gear could let your M203 grenade launcher fire when you least expect it. That would make you quite unpopular in what's left of your unit." - Army's magazine of preventive maintenance

"It is generally inadvisable to eject directly over the area you just bombed." - U.S. Air Force Manual

"Try to look unimportant; they may be low on ammo." - Infantry Journal

"Tracers work both ways." - U.S. Army Ordnance

"Five-second fuses only last three seconds." - Infantry Journal

"Bravery is being the only one who knows you're afraid." - Col. David Hackworth

"If your attack is going too well, you're probably walking into an ambush." - Infantry Journal

"No combat-ready unit has ever passed inspection." - Joe Gay

"Any ship can be a minesweeper ... once." - Anon

"Never tell the Platoon Sergeant you have nothing to do." - Unknown Army Recruit

"Don't draw fire; it irritates the people around you." - Your Buddies

(And lastly)

"If you see a bomb technician running, try to keep up with him." -- U.S.A. Ammo Troop

Meet Talenyn!

2006-05-09T01:27:00.000-05:00

I adopted a new pet cat. (Scroll down to see her.) Her name is Talenyn, which means "little wren". I realize that's a bit ironic that I'm naming a cat after a bird, but I like it, so that's the way it is. :)

Other than that, it's finals week, which is a well shown by the fact that it's 1:30 in the morning and I am not studying, I'm posting. But at least I don't have class in the morning! Ok, off to bed....soon.

How outgoing am I?

2006-05-03T22:30:00.000-05:00

Your Extroversion Profile:

Cheerfulness: High

Friendliness: High

Sociability: High

Activity Level: Medium

Excitement Seeking: Medium

Assertiveness: Low

How Extroverted Are You?

More updates....to my iPod.

2006-05-01T11:01:00.000-05:00

Hi all! I'm sitting in my speech class, five minutes before class starts, waiting for my iPod to update songs. I had to restore factory settings, which basically means it erased my music off, and to give you an idea how much of a hassle that is, it's been loading the music back on, and it's only gotten 5 GB back on....I own 18 GB worth of music. This takes awhile. *sigh* I think I'm going to have to leave my computer hooked up during class, which I don't imagine my teacher will be very happy about. Oh well. I can't disconnect now or I'll have to start all over again.
By the way, an update on my speech, it went well...as did my juries...(my music finals). Now I've got a semi-slack week ahead. Yay! Gotta go now, class starting.

My level of evilness.

2006-04-29T00:06:00.000-05:00

***You Are 38% Evil***

A bit of evil lurks in your heart, but you hide it well.
In some ways, you are the most dangerous kind of evil.

How Evil Are You?
http://www.blogthings.com/howevilareyouquiz/

Speeches

2006-04-26T10:49:00.000-05:00

Well I'm sitting in the room where I'm to give my speech. I'm first up, which I hate being...I'd even take second, I just like having someone else go first. Oh well, people went on monday, so I'm not really first. My topic is College Illiteracy, and I'm speaking to a group of freshman. Wish me luck!

Girlie Gamers...

2006-04-24T22:46:00.000-05:00

Alright, so I'm avoiding homework....I need to get back to it, but I thought I'd post about this...
So I discovered this girl's gamers club thing....it's exclusive too...as if there are enough girls gaming that they can be....but obviously they can...I'm not good enough, BY FAR, to even attempt it, but it's cool to check out anyway. Oh, and they get paid by a gaming company, but they don't really have to advertise for them too much...they just get to be gamers....so yeah. Here's the site. http://www.fragdolls.com

Crazy weeks.

2006-04-21T12:12:00.000-05:00

Hi all! I just wanted to let you know that you probably can't expect a whole lot of posts for the next few weeks....not that I post often anyway, but still. The bulk of my assignments are due next Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, and then the week after that is finals. And then I move. So yeah...I'm going to be super busy...oh, and I still have to find a job!

As Chris said, Go Big Green, Michelle!

2006-04-18T00:48:00.000-05:00

Hey all! One more thing...I was playing with this picture of michelle and thought you'd like to see it! Not as real as me with red hair, but it's something... :)

Back home, and back to normal.

2006-04-17T23:33:00.000-05:00

Hi all! I'm glad to see you all read my blog enough to panic over my hair change....just so you know, my actual "About me" photo is still accurate...my hair is about that length and still that color. All the red was done in photoshop after a couple of hours work. It was fun. Hope you enjoyed it too!

2006-04-13T17:21:00.000-05:00

I thought I'd give you all an opportunity to see my hair. What do you think?

Just a quick note.

2006-04-12T12:43:00.000-05:00

Ya'll should scroll down and feed my new pet hedgehog! :D

Creepy poems.

2006-04-12T02:16:00.000-05:00

Hey all!

So life at the U. has gotten much more interesting recently. Mary (my roommate) and I have someone writing creepy notes on our board. Poetically. The first note began It's a silent murder, it's a grave that sings your song....and I can't remember the rest of it. But I took a picture of it for evidence, if we ever figure out who's doing it, or if it gets worse. There was also a drawing, before the two poems, but we erased it because we thought someone was just having fun with the markers. And the drawing didn't really look like anything anyway. I redrew it later for Chris and he said it sort of looked like one of those native american rock drawings. So that was rather odd as well. But we've contacted public safety, and they're going to be keeping an eye on our room and the floor, to see if they can figure out who's doing this. Yeah. But the poems are these little four line stanzas that are morbid and creepy.
Oh, and there's also been this same blond guy sitting in the lounge across from our door, who never used to study in there, really I've never seen him, or noticed him, before this, and now he's there constantly. I think it's him. So I wrote down a description of him, and if anything is written up tonight, I"m going to turn in the description and Public Safety can deal with it. Ok, it's late. I'm going to check the board one more time to make sure no one's written on it, then I"m going to bed.

Rehearsal

2006-04-07T00:38:00.000-05:00

So I had fun at rehearsal tonight. I'm not being sarcastic, I really did. I could actually see the director today, and she was understandable, despite there still being no mike. We got out about an hour early, too, which I won't complain about. (It was supposed to be a three hour rehearsal with a break in the middle somewhere, and she decided we weren't going to take a break and just finish in two hours.) I like the director, actually. She's really really good, and actually gives choir cues. It's wonderful.

I'm currently avoiding studying for the Biology test that I have at 10 in the morning, but I think I can avoid it no longer. So I'm just going to read through the study guide, and then get up early, (I'm meeting Chris for breakfast anyway), and finish studying. So off I go.

Life from a cynical idealist's point of view.

2006-04-06T00:44:00.000-05:00

So if you couldn't tell, I've updated my layout. I don't know enough about web text to be able to really change things, but I did figure out how to change the header picture, so that picture above this is one I've edited. The text over it isn't perfect, but I'm getting to that. :)

In other news, I've been working on wedding stuff, and the guest list, things like that are falling into place pretty well. Don't worry, if you know me well enough to know where my blog is in this world, you are invited. Well, if I know you, and the aforementioned applies, then you're invited. So yeah.

Ok, so it's pretty late, and I"m SOOO worn out by this overly exciting post that I'm going to bed now. More posts to follow! Someday! :)

A study in irony.

2006-03-29T23:49:00.000-06:00

Here's what I find ironic. Recently I heard a review of the movie "Failure to Launch". In it, the film critic was asking how truly believable the movie is, with Matthew McConaughey as a single man who still lives at home. Now, while I don't dispute this, I must say I think they've overlooked a few very important facts.
Fact #1: How many undesirable actors are there in hollywood? Based on looks, I mean. How many unattractive actors could they truly have cast? Besides, if they had, how many people would have come? Hey, I can be cynical about the critics and the fans as well.
Fact #2: How are they to know who should marry young, and who needs more time? Or for that matter, who should marry at all? Now, I know I'm being very critical of a movie, and a movie review, and taking it well beyond the parameters they intended, but this is still the message that everyone gets from hollywood. If you are young, fit, and beautiful/handsome, you must marry early, but not too early, oh, and by the way you will hate it, get divorced and marry again later on. You will have kids, but not too many, and they will be a pain and suck you dry but ultimately be rewarding. Now, not all of these things are good, or bad, but why can you not marry when you're older, or when you're younger (as I will be,) than society's "norm"? Why marry at all if you do not want to? If you don't have the desire, then you really are doomed to be unhappy in a marriage. Children are rewarding, and at this point I don't think I'll mind if they "suck me dry", I'd be perfectly happy with lots of them. But anyway, my point was originally that Hollywood shouldn't be able to determine who marries whom when. Societies norms, like all norms, were made to be broken.

P.S.
I personally loved the movie, with the exception that I saw much more of Terry Bradshaw than I ever, EVER wanted to.

Just a quick note.

2006-03-19T23:19:00.000-06:00

Just thought I'd answer a couple questions...

I am planning to get my masters, (doctorate? Possible, doubtful, though...) in Music ( and by that I mean vocal) performance. Right now I"m looking at different grad schools, just sort of scoping them out to know what I need to work towards...two that are plausible and still in consideration right now are USD Grad school, which is more practical simply because I don't have to wait a year between graduation and starting grad school. Another school is University of MInnesota, which would be very cool, very worth it to be able to attend there...it is somewhat expensive, but relatively cheap as the grad schools I've looked at so far go. It's around 7,000 for a non-resident, per semester, and most other schools that I've looked at are at least 12,000.

Amanda, I have no idea what tests you were talking about, to be honest, but now that I've got the heads up, I'll look into them. :)

The trip and future plans and such.

2006-03-16T00:03:00.000-06:00

Hi all! By popular request, I'm going to write about all that good stuff.

So the trip. Well, Chris and I, and three other people, went to Kansas City for spring break. It was fun. We did (Chris and I) decide not to attend seminary, after visiting it there and finding that it didn't suit nearly as well as planned. Which is ok. Because we have other future plans. More on that in a minute. We also went to this great place called Swagat Indian Cuisine. Authentic indian food, slightly expensive, but split a $45 bill four ways isn't too bad for 2 appetizers, 2 main courses, 3 orders of bread, and coconut soup for me (my favorite dish!!!). Definitely my favorite restaurant that we went to on the trip. We also went to an outdoor shopping mall, a movie, and hung out at sem. It was a lot of fun.

Future plans. Well, Chris is planning to get his Masters in Business Administration while I finish up my undergrad, and then when we're both done, I'm planning on grad school. Near future plans and such? Well, my good ol' 8 am class is in the morning, and if I get to bed now, I can get just over six hours of sleep. Goodnight!

All that Jazz.

2006-03-13T16:32:00.000-06:00

So tomorrow, I'm working at jazz festival. I have to be at Slagle auditorium, (I know that means nothing to you, but let it suffice that it's across campus) at 7:30 am to set up the concession stand. I'm working until 1:30, and all my music classes for the day are cancelled. I still have biology lab, but nothing else. I don't know if I'm happy or sad. I was actually looking forward to my morning class, because I really enjoy it, but oh well. I guess I'll just have to look forward to Thursday. And I guess I'm happy about the fact that I won't have had Music Theory for two days in a row. (Prof was sick today.) So I guess that's the exciting life that is Mine. Hope you've enjoyed my scrambled ramblings.

wow.

2006-03-02T10:45:00.000-06:00

So here I sit in U.Brew again. I got some interesting, and really cool, news this week. One of my roomies from Summit is pregnant! She's due at the end of the summer, about. She sounds really happy, so I'm happy for her. It's weird though, because I think I might be older than her...otherwise she's only a month older than me...it's something like that. And she's going to have a kid! Wow. I hope I get to play almost auntie and spoil the kid! :D

Housing

2006-02-23T07:20:00.000-06:00

Well, yay! I got into McFadden, the school owned apartments. The free-for-all signup opened at 7 am, and it is 7:18, and McFadden is officially full. That's how quickly it fills up. I even got on first floor, where I wanted to be, and I'm on the end of the apartment, so less noise from all my roommates will be heard! Yay!

Ok, so maybe getting up at 5 am was worth it after all.

Johari Window

2006-02-14T16:04:00.000-06:00

Amanda had this on her blog, so I had to copy. It's fun! Copy and paste this into your browser bar. http://kevan.org/johari?name=elythra Then you can make your own, after doing this. Seriously, try it.

The accordian. Why???

2006-02-07T12:13:00.000-06:00

Ok, so I'm sitting in U.Brew, again, (I'm here every tuesday and thursday, because I have most of my mornings free then...) and there is a guy on stage with an accordian. He wrote his own music. Now, as much as I enjoy original music, this is definitely not high on my favorites list. Oh dear. He's just attached a harmonica around his neck. His next song is about skeletons. He sings too, but you can barely hear him over the accordian. Scary. Why am I still sitting here? I guess because I have other things to do while I'm here. I'm just going to try to block him out now.

U.Brew

2006-01-24T11:52:00.000-06:00

Here I sit in U.Brew with Chris. We've both got our laptops, and he is of course checking out tech sites for news. I'm planning to meet with my friend, Jenny James, in a few minutes to go over plans for a new bible study that I'm planning to start, and also to have lunch. I'm looking forward to it, really. Partly to hack out the plans for this bible study, which I'm really looking forward to doing, and partly just because Jenny is fun to hang out with. :) Well, that's about all the time I want to spend on updates today. Hopefully sometime soon I'll be e-mailing people.

Ode to my friends. (The Group).

2006-01-13T02:15:00.000-06:00

So much potential, so much variety,
Wrought in different people.
All friends, all feed off each other,
But each unique to a fault.

While others discuss fashion, they discuss philosophy.
While others are picked up for DUI’s, they kick back pixy sticks.
While others fight to blend into the cool crowd, they choose to remain unique.
While others avoid “useless” knowledge at all costs, they thrive on it’s potential.

These are the theater kids, the band and choir kids, the debate and chess club kids,
Those that you knew and made fun of, or were friends with.
These particular people are my friends.
I was one of them, and they will forever be dear to my heart.

Blah.

2006-01-08T01:22:00.000-06:00

I don't have much new to report, I just felt like I hadn't blogged in awhile.

Chris and I went on a double date last night, which was pretty fun. We went out to Cattleman's, and then rented "The Exorcism of Emily Rose". I hate horrors, but surprisingly, I kind of liked the movie. I will say that that is the first movie in an extremely long time that made me feel uneasy about falling asleep. I think the last one was "It", when I was four. I didn't even watch all of "It", but I always came in on the creepy parts...(well, creepy to a four year old...I haven't seen the movie since...) You know, the part where the clown eats a boy, or blood starts coming out of the showerheads in the locker room...parts like that. But I digress.

So the movie was good, and then we played two games (with many hands making up one game) of UNO. The first game, I did not win a single hand. The second game, I won. Yeah. It was fun though.

Ok, so I was planning to be in bed about an hour ago, and while I could ramble more, I know I"m going to hate my alarm clock in the morning already. Goodnight!