How to make Wednesday morning interesting . . .

10. Bring in chocolate alligators for the staff to munch on (thanks, AW).
9. Burn out the bathroom light. Call for maintenance.
8. Have toilet in said bathroom back up.
7. Bond with coworker over plunger.
6. Experience the *soothing* sounds of loud yoga music. Coming from the gym downstairs.
5. Type fedex labels on the typewriter. And pull out your hair.
4. Listen to your boss freak out in her office. Loudly.
3. Re-type aforementioned fedex labels, due to wrong contents of fedex envelopes.
2. Forget to take your allergy medicine. Try to type and sneeze at the same time.
1. Rinse. Repeat as necessary.

It's a small, small, world

Is it just me? Or do you guys notice that the world is shrinking, too? I realize the Bay Area is small, indeed, but still. It's cool and weird all at the same time.

Exhibit A:
Wednesday before Thanksgiving. I'm on an flight from SF to Denver, and I notice the girl kinda keep looking at me, like "Do we know each other?" It's not until we end up at DIA 'round midnight, that we finally connect, and she's like..."I think we go to the same church in SF, and we met once, like months ago". Crazy! Isn't that random?

Exhibit B:
Fast forward to tonight. One of my coworkers received some tickets to a recital at the Herbst this evening. She gave them to me, 'cause who else in the office is going to go hear an opera singer give a recital? Anywho . . . there actually IS one other singer in the office, N, and I asked her if she wanted to come along and hear Sari Gruber this evening. N immediately perked up: seems that she and Sari went to Yale together, and were friends! CRAZY!


Exhibit C:
At the aforementioned, I'm sitting in front of this people who are talking "shop" about singing blah blah blah. We get to chatting, and next thing I know, I might be able to make an easy $100 this weekend. For 1.5 hours of rehearsal/singing. Not to shabby. Turns out the guy saw Schicchi in January, etc. etc. Small world (especially when one starts getting into specialized areas...)

And now for something completely different

You must check out this site. Or I will particle-ize you. Seriously. I now know how, thanks to Cow Chip and Lance.

I can't believe I've never used different colors and fonts before.

In the words of Fabio:

I cahn't beliehve I hafen't seen Harry Pottah yet. :/

Thanksgiving 2005

I have had a wonderful weekend, full of friends and family (see left) and FUN. Here are some highlights, and some pictures!

I know some of you have been anticipating a report on Will's new girlfriend, Shanna (pronounced Shauna), who came out to Colorado for the holiday. Report: She passes. We all really like her. She's a smart one, funny and is totally in love with my brother (and vice versa). She's a yankee, so that proved for some funny times, as we were at a mainly Southern Thanksgiving feast. Nevertheless, she won us over with her wit, laughter, and kindness. Go, Will!!

We went up to Grand Lake for a quick trip. It was beautiful there in the ice and snow. We decided to go for a short hike, which was a little dangerous, due to the aforementioned ice and snow, but it was well worth it, as we got to see Adam's Falls. The top layer of the falls was frozen over, and you could see the water running underneath the blue-white ice. Amazing.



We also made Candy Houses. This is a tradition in my family which dates from...well, since I can remember. I think we only missed a couple years here and there. But we used to have huge candy house making parties with our friends - anywhere from 10-20 houses being built. In fact, Will learned to count by helping dole out the candy to each respective house-maker.
(Grand Lake, to the right).

My candy house




Will & Shanna's house (below)
All in all, we have much to be thankful for!!

I'd like to thank

my boss for letting us out of work early today!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!!! Love to you all!!!

La plus ca change . . .

merde. c temps d'ecrire une tirade en francais, et pourkoi? une fois, une amie m'a dit qu'il faut pas vivre par des sentiments. on peut les controler et pas etre controler par eux. mais, avec qq personnes, ca c impossible. il ya une heure, j'etais heureuse, contente et entrain d'ecrire un email a un nouvel ami. c tout. et maintenant j'approache mon point d'ebullition. ca c la verite. pourkoi donne-je tant d'importance a cette personne et ses pensees et sa comportement? ca veut dire koi de moi??? est-ce que c pourkoi il me reste des sentiments? ou bien que je fais tres attention a lui? mais c fou, ca. bien sur je suis capable d'aimer, mais suis-je destiner a vivre par des sentiments? ca c dangeureux, n'est-ce pas? a la meme fois, j'ai peur de ne PAS vivre comme ca. Mais c comme ca: je ne pense pas a lui sans le voir - je ne lui contacter pas, je ne lui parle pas, je ne fais rien. c lui qui le fais, e je me trouve pris dans les anciens sentiments. chaque fois. merde.
j'ai besoin de prier, probablement. mais prier pour koi exacte, je ne suis pas sur. pour etre heureuse? pour qu'il etre heureux? pour l'amnesie de ma part? c'est impossible, mais quand meme, c pas mal comme idee, ouais?!!! bon. maintenant je voudrais jouer de piano, mais je ne peux pas, il y'en a trop de monde ici et c impossible.
et, au meme fois que je me sens la colere, je me sens un peu triste et compatissante et je m'inquite de plus. Pourkoi cette reaction de brusquerie de sa parte? j'ai RIEN DIT (voir le post precedent...). Je sais qui'l est stresse, qu'il a des inquietes en ce qui concerne l'argent et le chant. et je ne peu pas le reparer. c Dieu seulement qui peux le faire. a apart de ca? j'ai peur qu'il serait "reparer" et j'ai peur qu'il ne serait pas "reparer".
mon dieu. je me sens un peu meilleure. ca m'aide d'ecrire comme ca. sans penser, sans reflechir, sans corriger, sans lire les phrases precendentes, sans jugement, sans prendre d'avis des autres, sans s'inquieter des pensees des autres, sans rien que les sentiments qui a lieu dans mes mots. ca me donne bcp de liberte, d'audacite, je me sens vraiment "moi"...la version la plus reele de moi-meme. pour que dieu me donne de patience, de tranquilite, du sang-froid et de foi...

-fin-

WTF?!?!?!?

Why did I just get the following series of emails:

1. "Hey. I want to see you. Are you around town December X? Please?"

and upon MY reply of "Ummmm...call me and we'll talk about it [cause I have some afternoon plans, and I wanted to a time frame...]

2. Response to the above: "mmmm. forget about it. Just wanting to talk about it means it's a big deal. See you next year".

?!?!?!?!?!?!?! Someone is having a bad day and taking it out on me. I'm all for listening to someone; in fact I enjoy it and I am a good sounding board. I am empathetic and honored and humble to be thought of as someone to turn to in time of need.

But I am not the whipping post.

7:45 A.M.

That is what time I arrived at the DMV this morning, book & iPod in tow. I was ready to wait in line.

After a mere five minutes, I made it to the front of the vehicle registration line and was expecting the worst. I explained the situation (see previous post) and the woman behind the counter said "Here is your number, wait over there, hon". What? She called me "hon"? And not in a weird way, but in the way that older waitresses at a 1950s themed diner call you "hon".

I was just turning on my iPod, ready to wait it out, when not 2 seconds after jeans met plastic chair did my number get called. WTF? I approached the window, received a pleasant greeting, explained the situation and -voila!- paid (with no extra late fees!), and took my receipt to the next window and got my sticker.

How much time did this take?

As I walked out the door and looked at my watch, it was !gasp! only 7:55 A.M.

10 minutes. Anyone know Guinness' phone number??

Making my father proud

...yet another one for the books.

I have to renew the registration for my car. Of course they sent me the renewal about three months ago, right before my big vacation. And, of course, I put it "away" for safe-keeping until my return.

It's now 5 days overdue. I totally lost the letter. So, tomorrow, I get to go to the DMV for 7:30 tomorrow morning. *yay*

In other news -

It is t-minus 6 days until I head home to Colorado for Thanksgiving. I am terribly excited. N0t only do I get to see my family, good friends, snow, and the mountains, I also get to meet the sibling's girlfriend! Wow. And when I say "get to meet", what I'm really saying is that we get to share a room and talk about Will all night. Heheeheheh. Whew. It will be a memorable weekend, for sure!

Breath of fresh air in this PC-cloistered city

So, I've been going to physical therapy for my foot (plantar fascitis) twice a week for the last three weeks. I LOVE the people at the clinic I go to; the doctor, J, is great. And her aide, M, is great. Their office is very welcoming and encouraging while at the same time they push us to do what they know we can. I look forward to going every time.

So, while I was being iced down at the end of my exercises today, M says something about Tom Cruise, scientology, weird stuff, blah blah blah. Then, out of the blue, he stars talking about Creationism vs. Evolutionism, and how he was in a fight with his brother about that the other day and what did we think?

I was impressed, just because for the most part, people here are so afraid to talk about ANYTHING having to do with religion - especially in "public" places (of work, etc).

So, M asks Dr. J, who replied (quite candidly) that she was agnostic. Her parents are buddhist, and she went to a methodist church for a while; now she believes something is up there, but not sure what. I asked M what he thought, and he said "I'm not a monkey" and from there went into saying how he believes in Adam and Eve, etc, and how he got in trouble during anthropology class at Berkeley for stating his creationism beliefs to the pro-evolution professor. He asked me what I thought, and I told him I believed the creationism side.

It was just an interesting night, and I'm glad the subject came up. Because in that type of "professional" situation, in rarely just "comes up". I think M might be muslim, but I'm not sure. Interesting, indeed.

Sad but true

I was reading an article by Greg Sandow in this weeks' SFCV newsletter about the disconnect which occurs between audience members and musicians during classical music concerts. I loved his last quote, pulled from Christopher Small's book Musicking:

This is the great paradox of the symphony concert, that such passionate outpourings of sound are being created by staid-looking ladies and gentlemen dressed uniformly in black and white, making the minimal amount of bodily gesture that is needed to produce the sounds, their expressionless faces concentrated on a piece of paper on a stand before them, while their listeners sit motionless and equally expressionless listening to the sounds. Neither group shows any outward sign of the experience they are all presumably undergoing.

I loved how he worded this: it's the perfect image. I hate it, because unfortunately, it is true.

Check out Greg's "book-in-progress" and his blog at ArtsJournal.

Bunny Suicides

Does the fact that I find this freaking hysterical make me sick and twisted?

sleepless in san francisco

That amazing Illy cappucino I had earlier? Should've made it a decaf . . . oh well

Music

A lot of people, upon finding out that I am a classically trained musician, ask me what my favorite song or piece of music is. The following 10 speak to me - for various reasons - and I just love them. So, for all you fellow music nerds:

Barber's Adagio for Strings - though I have a particular recording in which this is sung as an Agnus Dei, which is heart-breakingly beautiful

El Amor y la Muerte by Granados. Solo piano piece. I will never forget the first time I heard this: Alessio Bax at an SMU recital. I had never been so moved by a piano performance before.

Una furtiva lagrima from L'Elisir d'amore by Donizetti. Especially as sung by Placido Domingo or Jussi Bjorling.

Je dis que rien ne m'epouvante from Bizet's Carmen. I don't have a favorite recording of this, although some of my friends sing the hell out of it!!

In Your Eyes by Peter Gabriel is probably my favorite pop song; with Bridge Over Troubled Water (Simon & Garfunkel) and U2's Love Rescue Me tied for second.

Chantilly Lace by the Big Bopper I LOVE because it reminds me of time spent at my grandmother's house.

La vida es un Carnaval as sung by Celia Cruz is my favorite salsa.

Amazing Grace. As sung by Gloria, my grandmother's helper for years and years. She sung this at my grandmother's funeral when I was 15, and it left its' indelible mark on me.

Chanson d'automne

Les sanglots longs
Des violons
De l'automne
Blessent mon coeur
D'une langueur
Monotone.

Tout suffocant
Et blême, quand
Sonne l'heure,
Je me souviens
Des jours anciens
Et je pleure

Et je m'en vais
Au vent mauvais
Qui m'emporte
Deçà, delà,
Pareil à la
Feuille morte.

*Paul Verlaine, Poèmes saturniens (1866)

"Keep out of reach of children"

Yesterday was Halloween. And, of course, I couldn't just let that slide by.
I got up, dug out my vampire teeth and threw them in a cup of Hydrogen Peroxide (they'd been sitting in my medicine cabinet for a year). I then drew an amazingly life-like (death-like?) vampire bite on my neck, using lip liner and three shades of eyeshadow.

Off to work!

I snuck around the office, creeping up on coworkers, and got some great reactions. I live for this stuff, man!

So, I get home, rush to Albertson's for eggs to make pumpkin bread, return home, get the bread in the oven and decide to go full out vampiress. Even though I'm just going to Bible study. I just really wanted to dress up!

Out comes the black shirt and cape-like wrap; the looong blond wig; bright red lips; pale, pale skin; dark, dramatic eyes. What is NOT to like about this costume, seriously?

I am running late. The pumpkin bread is taking to long. I'm supposed to be there at 7pm. It's 6:55.

I run in the bathroom, remember that I never took my medicine that morning, and grap my pills. I see a mug of water next to my sink and take a glup to wash down the meds......and it tasted NASTY!!!!

Slowly, and yet almost immediately, to my horror I realize that I have just taken quite a large swig of hydrogen peroxide. Yup. My fangs were soaking in that mug this morning.

I FREAK out and run to the living room where my roomate and his girlfriend had just sat down. I told them what happened, and I was like, 'what do I do? do I need a doctor? what??" The bottle says "Keep out of reach of children. If swallowed, contact a poison control center IMMEDIATELY". This did not help my state of mind, you see. Ryan was like, drink some water. And I did. And he tried to convince me that since the H2O2 had been sitting out, exposed to the air, all day, that I was going to be fine. I was kinda convinced, and left for Bible Study.

In the car, I called home. Mom answered, and I was like "I need to talk to Dad. Please. Now." He picks up, I tell him my story, and he calls the poison hotline and then calls me back. I am going to be fine. Did you know that sometimes vet's give dogs H2O2 to drink, because the bubbles induce vomiting? Well, I never got sick, so I guess I was okay.

I can just HEAR my father's comments to my mom after he hung up the phone with me. Something along the lines of "Well. Only [MezzoSF] would accidentally drink the hydrogen peroxide she was soaking her fangs in and call us for advice about the situation while dressed as a vampire on her way to Bible study with half-baked pumpkin bread. That must be your daughter."