magnificat

I wanted to punch people (read: coworkers) in the throat much less today than yesterday, which I take as a sign that my mood is on the upswing. I hope. I do fear that the rest of the year will be a roller coaster of emotional extremes for me, but I'm not sure there's much I can do about that.

Except write. Writing helps. I need to make more time for more writing.

Right before Halloween, the bell choir found out that we were losing a member of our already sparse group. Last week, the eight of us that remained had a bit of trouble with the songs, trying to take new bells and figure out how to fill in the gaps. This week was a complete turnaround; we acquired three new members! Two of them had never rung a bell before tonight, and one is a returning member from long ago. One of the brand, brand new ones happens to be my bestie and roommate. She saw us perform at our Halloween concert and was instantly delighted with the bells. She'd never heard nor seen a bell choir before, and we dazzled her. So I convinced her to join, and so far, I believe she's having oodles of fun!

Having convinced her to join bells, it was only a small, tiny step to convince her that she should also help the choir out with our big Christmas number. We're always low on altos, see, and I happen to know that she enjoys and misses music. And it's so convenient - choir practices right after bells, and she only has to come one extra Sunday in December to sing this one piece!

And that's how I got Jess to come to church. Bwahahahahahaha!

Ahem.

This Christmas piece we're doing, by the way, is amazing. The Magnificat, by Pergolesi. We have a small-ish choir, but our director is so good at whipping us into shape and making us sound huge. This is only the second Wednesday we've practiced, and it's already sounding awesome. PLUS there will be a string quartet with us! I love strings so much. I miss being surrounded by them all the time. I think I need to start going to symphonies.

Random perk of my job: I get to be in photos for the catalog and videos for the website (recognize anyone in this one?). Today I hung upside down on an inversion table, transformed it into an ab blaster, and did a little workout. Tomorrow I get to take a trip to Wisconsin to have some backyard BBQ fun for a photo/video shoot. I hear there will be a koi pond, and actually barbecued foods that someone will have to eat!

In the meantime, I should have gone to bed ages ago. Jess and I were too busy harmonizing. ... #notaeuphemism.

Aloha, Stitch!

Mabel had to go to the vet to get a booster shot today. She hates the elevator; I think it smells like dog near the carpet. She also hates PetSmart, being full of strange animals, noises, and scents as it is. She growls a little and shakes a lot.

She tried curling up and hiding in a corner of her kennel; yeah, good luck with that, Fatty McEats-a-Lot. We took her kennel bed out of her kennel so she could sit in it instead of on the metal vet table, and she curled up as little as she could (not very little), tucked her paws and tail, and burrowed her face into the edge of the bed. So sad. So, so adorable.

My wife made breakfast burritos for dinner. They went really well with my screwdriver. And then we watched Lilo and Stitch, which is even cuter/funnier than I remembered. Now we watch My Fair Lady. Again. While I procrastinate doing my laundry. Again.


Do you ever get in a mood where everyone and everything annoys you?

Alternatively, do you ever notice that once you vocalize a thought or emotion, it takes hold and grows ever stronger?

Very frustrating, that.

Champagne bubbles.

Alex and Liz, my newly engaged friends, came over tonight for celebratory dinner, drinks, and games (games, obviously, because we're nerds). (I love parentheses.) 'Twas a lovely time, and I continue to be so ridiculously excited for them. Turns out, Alex has had the ring for weeks, including while we were at their place joking about surprise weddings last week! Hilarious.

It's hard to blog every day when you have limited time each day to blog. I have much to say, and much to ponder, but little time to devote to writing said muches.

It's also hard to write when you're sitting on a loveseat with both Aron and Alex. Very distracting, those two.

I guess I'd better go pay attention to them, then! Or maybe just eat some more sprinkles.

Sprinkles.

I found out today that two of my dear friends just got engaged. Considering we've been making jokes about surprise weddings for quite some time now, it was very exciting news to get! I'm so incredibly happy and excited for them, it's ridiculous. :)

I got to play with a Kinect for the first time this evening. It made it's way onto my Christmas list immediately. I don't know the songs on it very well, but the dancing is crazy and fun. Plus, you just have to admit that it's an amazing piece of technology.

It's day 6, and I've blogged every day so far. Technically, I'm doing well. However, I do apologize for the entries not being very exciting, meaningful, or thoughtful so far. I'll get one or two of those in this month, I'm sure of it.

In the meantime, I have to go see if Mabel has used her new litterbox today yet. That's right. Be jealous.

CarcaPWND

I played Carcassonne three times today. It was awesome.

I also got improportionately excited about a new litter box I bought for Mabel. Who, by the way, is the cutest cat on the planet.

In three weeks, I'll be in Arizona with my parents, aunt/uncle, grandpa, sister, and Aron. We're going to the Grand Canyon! I'm so excited.

Maybe my blogs will get more exciting then.

Then again, maybe not.

Too dark for socialization.

I love it when my cat lets me spoon her. It's very rare, but so delightful. Until my mouth and nose are filled with cat hair.

Which is, granted, better than the current state of Jess's mouth and nose, which are...prohibiting her from breathing, which is the opposite of what they are supposed to do.

My sweet boyfriend took me to Benihana for dinner tonight. Filet mignon and tuna steak? Yes please. Sangria in a cat-shaped cup? Obviously. Chef throwing shrimp tails into his own hat? Bonus!!

Bedtime at 10 on a Friday night? Wooooo winter hibernation!

The rain in Spain

I got an email at work today from my coworker, Eric's stepmom. She's in a community theater production of My Fair Lady, and tonight was the last dress rehearsal, to which she had two tickets for me, if I cared for them.

Um, obviously that's a YES!

I love My Fair Lady. It's so linguistic and phonetic and funny! And I just love theater in general, especially musicals. Watching community theater makes me want to be involved in community theater. I was so shy and quiet in high school, I never had the courage to be in shows. Now I wish I had. Watching them makes me want to sing and dance.

We had a Halloween Howl concert at church last Sunday, during which my sister and I sang "What is this Feeling," from Wicked. I need to do that more often, and get less nervous.

Day Two

Why do they call them sixlets? There's almost never SIX in a package. Eightlets? Tenlets? Never-enough-lets? Better than M&M-lets?

Tonight at choir, we started practicing our big, epic Christmas number. We're going to have the organ and a string quartet backing us up. It's going to be beautiful and impressive.

It was free vending-machine-coffee day at work today, AND yesterday. Super delightful. And an excellent addition to all the candy I've been eating.

My cat is so adorable it sometimes hurts me. She's been following me around ever since I got home, waiting for me to go to bed. I guess it's about that time, then.

Oh, I just bought this shirt. Aw yeah.

Remember, remember.

It's that time again. November. National Novel Writing Month. Time for Cindy to rejoin the world of blogging and attempt a feat of utmost difficulty: daily blogging.

If you'll recall, last year I attempted CiPeBleMo - Cindy's Personal Blogging Month. If you'll also recall, I failed. But I did better than I expected to, and decided even then that I wanted to try it again this year. So here I am. Back again.

Good timing, too; it's going to be a difficult season, methinks. It will be nice to blog again.

Summertime

Three months, it's been. I do apologize for that, dear readers, if there are any of you left. There is, as always, much to say. Here we have it in a nutshell:

+ Love my job. Love it so, so much.
+ Had one of the best birthdays I can ever remember. Wonderful cabin weekend.
+ HP7.2 is amazing.
+ Moved out. Signed a lease at a beautiful place. Then it burned down. A few weeks of terrible apartment hunting ensued, and then we managed to find an even better place. I live there now. It's amazing. We have a washer and dryer. We have a balcony. I have a garage. And I have a master suite. A master suite!!! We painted two walls extremely BLUE. Love my apartment. Love it.
+ An old friend turned into a new boyfriend. My feelings are sometimes jumbled and mixed and weird, but ultimately? I have never been happier. I have never had someone better. I can't stop smiling. I am not getting nearly enough sleep, because neither of us ever want to part at night, so we stay up way too late, just so we can stay together.

I'm in love with the whole world lately.

And apparently I don't blog as much when I'm happy? It's a decent problem to have, really.