Hi again, folks. As promised, I'm catching you up with what's going on in my world. (I have so much in my head, I don't know where to start, lol.) I guess Sunday is as good a place as any. Well, actually, Saturday. Well, actually, the UC Choruses concert. I'll start there. We had an orchestral rehearsal for the UC Choruses concert on Sunday. Then we had dress rehearsal on Tuesday, regular rehearsal on Monday and Wed, and the concert Wed night. It was busy and hectic, but fun. We did a very beautiful piece for the finale, one of Beethoven's Opus 80. It is gorgeous, but very long. (There are almost fifteen minutes of music by the orchestra before the chorus even opens its mouth. It's beautiful, but still you have to listen and be engaged in the music or you look like a dork standing there.) I love the piece, and it came off really well, but I had a little problem with it. All of dress rehearsal was standing, and most of orchestral rehearsal was standing as well. I managed, but then when it came time for the concert, I was a mess. I had to sit down on the riser during the first part of the Beethoven, because my right knee was shaking so badly. So during the orchestral rehearsal for Feast of Carols, I sat. And during the dress rehearsal, I sat. And during the combined rehearsal, I sat. (Do you see a pattern here?!?) And the first concert was on Saturday night. It went really well, but I was really sore at the end of it. I went home and soaked in the tub, then took a sleeping pill and went to bed. (Well, I did chat with Dani on messenger for a bit in between. But not for too long.) I had to get up early the next day because of the football game. My brother's friend Rusty invited us (Amy and I) to tailgate with them. I was a little bit nervous, but if I can handle talking in front of a class of thirty, I figure I can surely handle eight people or ten or even fifteen tailgating, right? Well, I woke up at nine AM on Sunday morning, and was absolutely in agony. My back had tried to go out on Saturday before the concert, and I refused to let it. But after sleeping a full night, it had tightened up on me and it was extremely painful. So I begged off. I watched the game from home (they played badly and lost, but I like Dallas so it wasn't too bad) while sitting on the cornbag. (For those of you that don't know, corn holds the heat really well. It's sort of like sitting on the heating pad.) I did go to the concert on Sunday night, cause I needed to for the grade. It worked out all right, though. I was sore and in pain afterwards, but not in agony like I was in the morning. I was happy about that. I was pissed cause I missed the game, and I cried about it all morning. I laid on my bed and had a good cry, and then was teary all day. I teared up when I told my friend, Rebekah, that I didn't get to go, too. It was awful. Amy went, and gave the other ticket to a friend of hers and David's. He apparently had a good time, and so did she. (Not in a getting together type of way, in a getting drunk kind of way. Amy was apparently sloshed when she got home, lol.) So it all turned out all right, but I was really disappointed. And mad. Mom says I must really be hers, cause when she was little, she used to often have that happen to her. Not the same malady, but that she got sick whenever she was supposed to go somewhere. We say that a lot, lol. That I must be hers. It's actually kind of funny, when we say it. Oh, I must really be yours. I'm gonna try again, of course. Someone told me about stubhub.com, and I was able to find good seats there at great prices. So maybe sometime before the end of the season, I'll get to go to a game. I'm hoping, anyways.
And I have some more stitchy progress to show, too. I have another ornie to show you. 
I'm working on ornies pretty much all the time now, lol. (Well, not all the time, but a lot.) I have Amy's done, Mom's done, and several of mine done. Rosa's is also finished. I still have Cathy's to do, and David's, and I'm working on Jim's atm. It matches Cathy's, but they're both gonna be very large. Mom picked them out, as I've never seen Cathy's tree. They're both roses, and very pretty, but… I didn't read the instructions, and so they're gonna be huge. They're supposed to be stitched on twenty eight count fabby, over one. I'm doing them over two. So they're gonna be nearly six inches in diameter, which is quite large for an ornie, imo. D'oh, lol. But, on the plus side, they're pretty. Thanks again, Vicki, for getting me the Anchor floss. I appreciate it. (The floss came in the mail on the day I finished up Amy's ornie, so it was like fate!) It's coming along, but there's a lot of confetti. I don't help matters, cause as I work I sometimes skip a stitch here and one there, so then I have to go back later, and fill those in. I like the way it's looking though, so that's good. I've got a leaf done, and a large part of the rose, as you can see. I'm filling in as I go now, instead of looking all over the place to see if each color has any more stitches that aren't done, which can totally be a pita. Eventually, I'll get all the little holes filled in, and boy will I be happy then. I'm pretty sure I'm not gonna finish up all the ornies for Christmas this year, so they will have to wait till next year. I'm okay with that. (Mom has yet to make up the ornies that I stitched for her several years past, lol. I'm not rushing these.)
And next up, I'm gonna talk about my grades. I should have straight A's for this first semester, which I'm very proud of, but not. Let me explain, lol. I've learned a lot from my first semester in school. I learned I can pay attention to homework the same way I pay attention to stitching and playing and whatnot. (By that, I mean I can do one kind of homework for an hour, then switch to another kind of homework, and even though I'm still doing homework, I feel like I'm doing something different. So my attention doesn't wander, which is really good to know. I often switched off between stitching, and playing, and blogging before I started back to school, and I'm so pleased that the principle applies to homework.) I learned I do have some discipline. (Not a lot, but more than I thought.) I can harness the smart that's in me, which is also good to know. I'm more confident when I have to speak in front of people, and I know that comes from having to raise my hand and ask a question in class. I'm more flexible than I was when I started school, and I've lost over twenty pounds. (Hopefully, I won't gain it all back during the break.) I feel better physically, and that helps me out quite a bit. So it's been good for me. Next semester, I'm taking more classes, and so it will be more of a challenge. These are the classes I'm taking next semester, in the order that I take them.
- UC Women's Chorus
- College Algebra
- Database Management I
- Fundamentals of UNIX
- Implications of IT
And lastly, Vicki has asked me to share her wordsearch on my blog. She created it with the names of thirty of her patterns in it, and to three lucky winners will go a free card pattern. (Her cards are lovely, so this is truly a really cool prize.) If you want to compete with me, you can go to her blog here. Good luck finding all the words! (And wish me luck as well. The letters look all tiny and such, so I'm putting off doing it atm. They really aren't, but I'm usually wearing my glasses when I’m not looking at the screen, so…
Anyways, that's all I can think of for tonight. I hope you're all having a great morning (it's five thirty AM, holy crap. I need to get to bed, lol), and I also hope you all have a great day!! See you around!