Amanda, The Mute October 29, 2008

Day 4 and still no sign of my voice….  😥  I went to the health center today to see if they had any suggestions for meds I should take or things I should avoid.  All they told me was to keep doing what I was doing (get lots of sleep and fluids) and hope that it will go away soon…

Today I only went to IHON and choir… I decided to sleep through French and Brit Lit. (French because I was tired from IHON, Brit Lit because I wanted to have some energy for choir (we only have 15 or so rehearsals before our big Christmas concert…)).  I’m not used to being this tired… All my life I’ve always been on the go with millions of things to be doing…. This week I barely seem able to sit through an hour-long class…

My mom and I have always said that we were “two heads, one brain,”  but I guess my body has channeled her body and is making me slow down and sleep all the time, too.

zzzZZZZzzz October 28, 2008

This was me most of the day…. I woke up to Elizabeth’s alarm clock at 7:15 this morning and found that swallowing really hurt…. 😦  I took some meds and went back to sleep.  I didn’t wake up until 11:15, just in time to get ready from my Jazz dance class.  I was feeling ok at that point and decided that getting up and moving a bit would be good.  After class, I had soup and oyster crackers for lunch and then came back up to my dorm to take my shower.  I went over to the music building to tell my harp teacher I was sick, then came back and went to sleep.  I set an alarm to wake me up about an hour later so that I could go to choir if I was feeling up for it, but when the time came I was still really exhausted, so I just slept instead of going to choir.  I didn’t wake up until 7:50…. 20 minutes after the cafeteria closed. 😦  Luckily a girl on my floor had some chicken noodle soup that she made for me. 🙂  I also woke up to find a pomegranate on my desk from another girl on my floor. 🙂  I went down to the 4th floor kitchen to have my soup and prepare my pomegranate which took, if possible, even longer than usual.  Now I’m tired again…. And I still have no voice….. Not just I can’t sing… I can barely speak audibly.  😦

Rick Steves! October 27, 2008

Now that I have a TV in my room, I can watch Rick Steves again!! Yay!  I’ve missed his fun, geeky travel adventures!  And tonight there was a new one!! 😀  He went to Dordogne, France.  It was gorgeous. 🙂  Apparently the area is known for fois-gras, so he had a segment about some people who raise geese and force-feed them the food to make good fois-gras.  That would be a very noisy job I’m thinking….

Today was ok… I’m pretty tired, and I’ve been trying to say as little as possible since I don’t really have a voice.  I was sad it choir. 😦  I love singing… It made me sad to sit all by myself, as far away from others as I could get, trying not to get them sick, and unable to sing. 😦  Hopefully I’ll be feeling better soon…

There’s a swing dance tonight.  They have an actual dance once a month.  I think I’ll go for a little bit, at least… We’ll see how much dancing I’m up for.

Bleck! October 26, 2008

You’d think that someone would come up with cold medicine that didn’t taste disgusting… I mean really… People who need it feel miserable enough already, do they really need nasty tasting medicine to add to their misery?  I think not. 😦

This morning at church I felt the worst I’ve felt in a long time… We had to stand up for quite some time at the beginning of service, and during that time, I’m not really sure what happened, but my legs felt shaky, I felt a bit dizzy, my ears seemed plugged up, and my eyes went kinda fuzzy… Luckily after I sat down I started feeling a bit better.  It wasn’t fun, though. 😦  After church I went home and slept for a while and took some cold medicine after Mom came back from the store with it.  I felt a lot better after taking it and getting some more sleep, and was able to function somewhat normally.   I also kept going between feeling really cold and really hot.  Hopefully this will pass soon…   At least I didn’t get sick last week… That would have been bad.

Anyway… I’m going to take some more cold medicine now and then get some sleep!

Breeder’s Cup October 25, 2008

Today we went to the grand opening of the new Costco here in Covington, and only had a few issues with moving around.  When we got home, mom went to lay down from all of the exercise she got walking around, pushing the cart in Costco, and I watched the Breeder’s Cup (horse racing world series, basically, for those of you who don’t know).  I love horse races… Someday hopefully Mom and I will go to Santa Anita, where the races were held this year, and will be held next year.  I would love that…. Anyway… there were lots of really good runs, and several major upsets, including the Breeder’s Cup Classic, the big race of the day, which had last year’s Breeder’s Cup winner, and heavy favorite this year, in it.  It was a major upset, though, and he ended up coming in 4th.

I’m pretty sure I’m getting sick… 😦  My roommate has been waking up with sore throats, and this morning I did, too.  I also woke up really sore and have been cold most of the day with on-and-off headaches… 😦

Fa-la-la-la-la October 24, 2008

Yesterday in choir we got (most of) our music for the chirstmas concert.  I love Christmas music. 🙂  It always makes me nostalgic for cold, blustery nights snuggled up on the couch with a nice, warm blanket, a fire burning, and a bowl of soup or cup of hot chocolate. 🙂  I was really excited when I saw the title of one of our pieces, “O Magnum Mysterium,” because it was one of my favorite pieces we ever did in my years with the Zion Lutheran adult choir.  But… this is a different version. 😦  We haven’t worked through it yet, so I’m not sure if I’ll still like this one, but I really don’t think it can compare to the other version…. You can hear a recording of it here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GnMYokAsWTI&feature=related

I’ve officially made it half-way through the semester!  Woo Hoo!  I think we register for our J-term class (1 class for the month of January), and our Spring semester sometime next month….

“Practically Perfect in Every Way” October 23, 2008

Squeee!!! So I just got back from my conference with my IHON professor, and that’s what she had to say about me!!  She grades really hard, but my mid-term grade (highest quiz grade + essay grade x 4) is 92%, which, for her class, is REALLY good. 😀  She also said that she wants me to consider majoring in religion.  I could see myself enjoying that…. 🙂  I could be a religion editor somewhere. Anyway…. It made me really happy, so I thought I’d share. 😀

Note: I think my grade should actually be a 94% or a 96% by that calculation… I’ve e-mailed her to check.

Update:  It is a 96%! 😀

One Down October 21, 2008

We had our first choir concert of the season tonight, and I think it went really well. 🙂  I’ve gotten nothing but positive feedback declaring that we were wonderful. Yay!  It was nice to finally be able to hear the other choirs.  The last piece that University Singers (the all-girl choir) was really cool.  I also liked several of the pieces that Choir of the West sang. They were very good, especially with diction and dynamic contrast… Tomorrow night we will be performing the concert again and my feet will, I hope, be more comfortable… Standing on my feet without moving is really hard on my cyst… which makes it hard on the rest of my foot because I try to take the weight off of the outside of my foot.

Oh, so there’s a girl in COW (Choir of the West), who seems to be just like me… She’s short, about my body type, plays harp, is a soprano, plays an orchestral instrument (violin, I believe), and was standing between two very tall guys in the back row.  Also, if I’m not mistaken, her harp lesson is right before mine on Tuesdays, and her voice lesson is right after mine on Fridays…. Kinda freaky.

Not much else to report… We had a sub for Jazz today… I think she’s a student…?  It was fun.  I liked her teaching style and the moves she had us doing.  My harp lesson went well and I think I’m finally getting to work on something new.

Sleepy…. October 20, 2008

I got very little sleep last night, so I’m going to do a quick post and then go to bed….

Today really hasn’t felt like a Monday… It hasn’t really felt like any day… Just A day.  I think it’s because I didn’t have IHON… This week is mid-term week, and since we don’t have a mid-term in IHON, we aren’t meeting this week.  Instead, she’s having one-on-one meetings with each of us to discuss our work and our progress in the class.

We had our mid-term in Brit. Lit. today.  We had to turn in an essay that we wrote outside of class, as well as write an additional essay in class.  I hate in-class essays.  😦

Choir went well today… I’m excited for our concerts tomorrow and Wednesday.  They should be good. 🙂

I went to a lecture tonight on Kristallnacht by a professor of Holocaust studies in Vermont, I believe.  He looked at what he considered to be myths about the participation of German citizens in the violence, as well as the motivation behind the actions.  It was very interesting.

But now… it’s time for sleep.  Buona notte!

Sing a Jubilant Song October 19, 2008

(Title of one of the songs we sang in the Zion Lutheran adult choir a couple years ago… The songs we sang frequently find themselves playing in my head.)

*On Tuesday, October 21, and Wednesday, October 22, the PLU choirs will be performing their fall concert at 8 P.M. in Lagerquist in the Mary Baker Russell music building, and I would love it if you were able to make it. 🙂

**Also, tickets for the PLU Christmas Concert will go on sale soon (November 3).  The dates are Dec. 5 (Portland), Dec. 6 (Seattle), and Dec. 7 (Olson Auditorium, PLU).    Tickets for these concerts sell out fast, so be sure to order them quickly if you want to come to the concert.  You can order them online, by phone (253-535-7787), or from the music office at PLU.

In other news, it’s my dad’s birthday today.  Happy birthday, Dad!  We went to church today and Pastor Shaw was preaching (yay! :D), and we went to Shari’s for breakfast, since Mom has been craving pancackes all week. 🙂  Hopefully one of these times I come back the choir will be singing… I haven’t heard them yet this year.

Other than that, I’m just working on homework and getting ready to go back down to PLU.