Right. Blog.

I forgot I had one of these. Quickie update, then:

I’m getting married! The planning continues, as it will until the very last minute, and I may very much regret this in the coming weeks but at the moment I am totally looking forward to making the invitations (mostly) by hand. I get to play with fonts, wording, and pictures, and last weekend I spent an inordinate amount of time in a paper store picking out the perfect combination of colors. I even got a fancy hole punch and a tape gun. I was a crafty child (I liked making things, too), so my inner 12-year-old is downright giddy that I get to play with paper and shapes and glue and even a paper cutter (which I was never allowed to touch as a kid). My outer 29-year-old is pretty thrilled, too…or she will be until the first paper cut. Pre-emptive ow.

I’m a member of the arts community! Well, so things were getting better after the disastrous choir rehearsal a couple of weeks ago, but then I skipped rehearsal two weeks ago because I felt vaguely crappy, and then I got way sicker the following weekend and barely made it through half of the next rehearsal (as an observer, even, since there was no voice for singing) before I had to go home and crash. The choir’s probably getting better, but I’m still at square one in terms of sightreading. Sigh. (Cough.)

I bring home the bacon! (Well, I bring home some bacon, but much of it gets paid out to various college loan agencies. Meh—worth it.) Work continues to be work, but I seem to be gaining some traction with other groups thanks to a well-placed friend who is awesome about passing along job postings. Even if the possibilities currently on the table don’t work out, it’s nice to be considered (seriously) and I’ll have made connections who might think of me next time. We’ll see how this one works out.

Three things happened this week

I’ve been feeling the urge to blog but haven’t had anything significant (that I wanted) to blog about, so I’ll just give you a snapshot of vaguely interesting things that have happened this week.

1. Choir rehearsals started again this week after a holiday hiatus, and it was great to see the group again but learning new music is tough. I’ve always struggled with keeping my confidence up when sight-reading, and this rehearsal was no different. Our repertoire last fall was quite easy, so it’s been quite some time since my brain has had to work so hard. It’s a good workout, but very frustrating. My fingers are crossed that we can turn last Tuesday’s mess into enjoyable music by early April. We will see.

2. Work is…work. Back in “ugh” mode. I was looking into this one thing a few weeks ago and was holding on to a little bit of hope that it might work out, but I got the official no Sunday night. So…back to square one.

3. I’m rocking a brand-new (and my first!) pair of Tom’s shoes today. They’re not the most attractive shoes I’ve ever owned (including some monstrosities in college…ah, the late nineties), but man are they comfortable, plus I get the added selfish benefit of knowing that a poor child somewhere in the world is getting their own pair because of my purchase. I noted a few days ago that Payless is starting a similar program with (what else?) Tom’s knock-offs, and I’m still trying to decide how I feel about it. I mean, it’s great that even more kids will get donated shoes, but did Payless have to directly copy their model, and (of course) charge less? It’s one thing when they copy shoes from a big company like Nike (and I’m sure I’ve bought some of those knock-offs), but I feel like the smaller companies—especially philanthropic ones—should get a break. Anyway.

It’s after 5pm on a Friday and I appear to be the last person left in the office, so I’ll end this here. Happy weekend!