Monday, August 29, 2005

What are you doing Katrina?


Well, I am all moved in to my dorm room, and I await classes to start on Wednesday. All of the returning students (which is me, but since Sarah is a freshman here, I got to move in early) are moving in tomorrow, and I feel terrible for them. Hurricane Katrina is on its way over here, which will make it absolutely dreadful for move-in day. Not to mention that our campus floods at the slightest bit of rain, so tomorrow makes for an interesting day. Tornadoes are spinning off from from the hurricane I have been through 3 tornadoes since living here, so it's getting to be normal.

I have Weather Bug on my computer, and it keeps going off all day. We keep receiving flood warnings, and this was posted on Weather Bug:
"Do not drive through flooded areas. Turn around, don't drown".

Couldn't have said it better myself.

Tomorrow I have "Proclamation Retreat". Proclamation (proc) is the 25-member scholarship choir on campus, and we go out and sing at many churches and events throughout the year. We're trying to get a head start on our repitoire this year, because we have many early concerts ahead. It will be cool seeing everyone from proc. I have missed everyone and just being in the choir. I hope my voice is in shape for all of the singing ahead. I think I will have to take it easy for a while.

To Dave..yeah, the Cubs suck this year. Tell me something I don't know.

Tuesday, August 23, 2005

Union, dearest Union, honored be thy name.

First of all, I tried to download these pics from my files, and then I went to imageshack.us to download them, and I can't get rid of the white around them!! This is so frustrating, because I have tried for a long time. Links and pics aren't my forte, so can somebody help me?? I did my best!

The title of this post is just a taste of my school's almamater. I DISLIKE singing that song!!

I thought I would show you a few pics of some friends and other fun stuff, just to give you a few visuals of people I talk about often.


This is my friend Brian Spillman. He is a part of my favorite fraternity on campus, Lambda Chi Alpha. He used to have really long hair, but he decided to cut it, and where it as a mullet for a week. Sadly, the mullet is gone now.


These are my girls from Jones 7 from left to right: Rachel and Jo. I think we were taking a break from our dance** party to pose for a ghetto-like picture.


Last, but not least, The "Suede's Trio". All three of us are music majors, in the same choirs, and have many of the same classes. We already got to see each other everyday, so we figured, why not work together?? Leslie (left) started working at "Suede's" first, which is a restaurant that Carl Perkins opened (for those of you who don't know him, he wrote, Blue Suede Shoes which was made popular by Elvis). Fox (middle) and I went in for an interview together and got the job. Sadly, the owners of the restaurant decided to close "Suede's", but we will always have our memories there. "....I will ride the morning winds....."

There are some people that I left out, because I didn't have good pictures of them. I apologize for that. Maybe we'll get some good pics this semester!!

**I do believe that it is ok to dance, if it is done in a tasteful manner.**

Monday, August 22, 2005

"Don't you see, don't you see that the charade is over? And all the best deceptions and clever cover story awards go to you."
-Dashboard Confessional

Not in the mood to elaborate on that, just felt like quoting.

Here I am, packing again, and it seems so different. It's almost weird that I'm leaving for school. I haven't been there for so long that it seems so foreign to me, but I'm sure that when I get back, it will be like I never left. I get to move in on Saturday, which is really nice for a change. I usually do not get to move in until the day before classes (next Tuesday), but since my sister is a freshman and moving in for orientation, they figure it makes sense for us to both move in the same day.

It will be nice to get settled in and spend time with people before classes start. This school thinks I'm a freshman anyway...or at least a transfer student. Because I took a semester off, I had to fill out ANOTHER application to attend there. I did not take the application seriously, but miraculously, I GOT IN!! Yeah, I have an I.D. number at the school and a mailbox, but somehow, I wasn't a "student". My scholarships/grants were messed up as well. This has not been a fun couple of weeks trying to get everything settled.

One thing that I am really scared about is getting back into the routine of singing ALL THE TIME. I have truly been blessed to be able to sing after what seemed inevitable, but sometimes it gets so tired that I have to give it a rest. I know it will take some finess, and I hope I am up to it. I am going to have to start getting up really early, especially if I have to sing in the morning. I have found that ever since my surgeries, it takes my voice much longer to warm up than it did before. I can't just get up and sing like I used to. If I try, I will be singing bass!!

That's it for now.

Friday, August 12, 2005

The non-existant "C"

There I was, laying down on a bed you just sink into, a pillow under my knees and under my head, the lights were low, the temperature was warm but very comfortable, and there was a low humming of machines (from my relative pitch, sounding a low A(since I'm a dork, I try to figure that out when I'm bored)) that made the room very serene, in result, I fell asleep. I was having an ultrasound done on my neck, which was one of the tests I had this week at the Mayo Clinic. This test was done to see if there were anymore swollen lymph nodes, and if there were, there would be cancer left.

Well, tests concluded that the cancer is gone, and I will be declared "cured" in 5 years. I have to go back for tests every year, but that is definately the answer I was wanting.

I really want to thank all of the people who prayed for me, who have prayed with me, who have been there for me, who got me out of the house after surgery, who have called me from miles away, who have visited me both at home and in the hospital, who brought me a frappacino when the news struck me, who sent me care packages, and who have cared so much to try to keep up with everything that was happening. This has meant more to me than you could have known. I feel like I'm making an awards speech, but I feel the need to thank you, because I appreciate all of you.

Monday, August 01, 2005

Rafael Palmeiro--is he telling the truth??

Today, Palmeiro was tested positive for steroids. Just a few months prior to this, he testified to a congressional pannel saying that he could never have used steroids. Now he claims that he unintentionally took them. I guess some steroids can be found in protein supplements, so how many other times has he unintentionally taken them?? Why wouldn't you read the label very carefully before taking something like that? Maybe he is telling the truth. Why would he start/continue taking them now that they are really cracking down on them? And, if he isn't telling the truth, how come he is only suspended for 10 games? After all of this talk of steroids, shouldn't the punishment be harsher if he is indeed lying about it? I guess his punishment will be harsher, because if it comes out that he lied under oath, he has tougher times ahead of him. It would definately be a tragedy if he did end up intentionally taking them, because he just joined Hank Aaron, Willie Mays and Eddie Murray as the only players with 3,000 hits and 500 homers. I guess only time will tell.