The Singing Bowl! :)

Gratitude 85

This afternoon at Relay for Life, my yoga instructor, Gail Spirit Sky, had a little mini yoga session, and she let me clang the singing bowl! tehehe! It pretty much made my day. I told her I needed to get me one of those to keep on my desk so that I could give it a tap to bring me back in check whenever I started to freak out. ;)


Last night was Sigma Alpha Iota and Phi Mu Alpha's annual formal. (Phi Mu is the men's music fraternity.) It was pretty sweet. I took my friend Isaac along as "my date." haha! He is such fun! He's a brilliant dancer, too.

Except for the probably all of 5 couples, most of us took friends as dates. It is so much more fun that way. We all danced and laughed the night away. I got ready at Katie's (aka Bryan's), got to wear my pretty "Doris-Day"-style dress with my cute "silver box" purse and great-grandmother's pearls, danced to "Benny and the Jets," and swing danced with Isaac. Good times with my sisters. ;)

my opera buddy, Katie! ;)

my girls! ;)


Hannah and Adam (one of the few actual couples) are so silly!


And...the cheesy "prom" picture! haha! We couldn't resist!

Directly following formal, we were signed up for Relay for Life. I got there about midnight with some of the girls but was about to fall over because I was completely exhausted. I don't know how I had made it all day. I got about four hours of sleep the night before because I was studying for my music history exam that I had neglected to get an a headstart on studying for last week, and then we went to Panera Bread at 6am to study, eat bagels, and drink coffee before the exam. That was fun. I am glad we did it, but I don't normally function well on little sleep. Also, I do not drink coffee very often, so I get extra giddy and start talking a lot faster than normal. Jaj! I think the exam went pretty well, though. There were some things I had to throw some guesses on, but I feel pretty good about it. We'll find out Monday I hope.

Anyway, for me to have been as alert and have as much energy all day and evening that I had yesterday was very surprising. I ended up staying at Relay for about an hour and then went back to my apartment for a shower and some sleep. It was necessary. We had split up in shifts, so I returned for the last shift at 11am. I am still super tired but doing better. I am going to do absolutely nothing tonight but be a vegetable and go to bed earlier than usual for a Saturday night.

Tracy and I had Rachel and Sarah put in jail at Relay! haha! It was a fundraiser but so hilariously done. ;)

I ought to practice, but it is best not to push it. The voice is easily strained when you are very tired and/or exhausted. Not healthy. Oooh! Yesterday, I took a look at "Ah, non credea" from La sonnambula! Lynn wants me to work on it! Eek! It is such a brilliant piece! When I learn music now, I start with solfa only (using my tuning fork, not the piano, if possible) and only begin to take it away when I am absolutely secure with it. I refuse to be a parrot; I am going to learn my music the right way.

Lynn has me looking at all sorts of fun stuff. I get to play around with Queen of the Night stuff but just as an exercise of the voice...too young to be serious about performing that...the F's came so easy yesterday...and I wasn't even nearly in best voice because I was tired. There are some Mozart concert arias in store, perhaps "Poor Wand'ring One" from Pirates, "Qui la voce" (Eek again! More Bellini!) from I puritani, The Doll Song from Hoffmann, the list goes on. We are just going to do some playing around for a bit. I seriously want to do some of Pauline Viardot's settings of Chopin's mazurkas, too. They are sweet! Ah! I love singing! And such beautiful music to work on! There are the moments when it feels like nothing but work, but so many more times I feel like this is nonsense...I seriously get to do what I love and [hopefully] one day get paid to do this?! This is crazy yet absolutely amazing!! :)

P.S. I flipped on the tv before I sat down to write, and Mannequin is on. haha! '80s trip! This came out in '87, the year I was born, but I remember numerous occasions growing up when we watched this. :)