Wednesday Wanderings

Today has been a day to indulge my inner child in some ways.  I went to Toys R Us for the first time in donkey's years to buy little presents for the grandnephew and grandniece.  (My sister's grandkids).  Found a stuffed bunny that just begged to follow me home. 
Matt and I went to Barnes & Noble to pick up his copy of Pacific Rim, Man, Machines and Monsters.  While there, I saw a talking plush Dalek toy that I HAD to have for my cubicle at work.  (I know several of the hourly staff who share the cubicle with me will also love it.)  I also acquired a 10th Doctor's Sonic Screwdriver that has a UV light and a UV ink pen, as well as a black ink pen.  Why? Well, because it's cool.  And fun. 

Been talking about cars with friends.  I am a Ford fan, of course, because my brother Walt brainwashed me from an early age.  He went on to become a Ford engineer, and only retired a few years ago.  He knows his stuff.  I love my current Ford, my 2002 Focus wagon.  (Still less than 28,000 original miles on it.)  It looks brand new. 

That's my Focus!  (Matt's Honda Hybrid is next to it.)

The first car I drove was my Mom's old '62 Fairlane that Walt had used as a "parts car" for his Fairlane.  It was driveable, but about worn out by the time I got it.  Got 10 miles to the gallon, and the gas gauge was busted.  You HAD to fill up every 100 miles, or it WOULD run out of gas and strand you.  It had a radiator leak that took forever to find and fix, and therefore I carried a 5 gal. can of water and a pot holder so I could add water if needed.  Also, the oil had to be checked frequently.  I got rear-ended in that car in 1980, and that was the end of it.  I then got a '75 Pinto station wagon with a V-6 engine.  Definitely NOT one of Ford's "better ideas".  That engine was crammed into that car, and with all the smog crap on it, it never did run right.  Finally sold it when we got orders to Germany in 1989.  In Germany, we drove an old Mercedes 123 retired taxi.  It was great, but we had about the last four good years it had in it.  When we got here, we bought a brand new Escort wagon.  Great car.  We ran all over the place in that thing.  Hauled an unbelievable amount of stuff home in it, including a large weightlifting bench AND all the weights!  I continued driving it to work after Matt bought a 2000 Taurus new that year.  In 2002, the Escort went over 100 K miles, and I got a big raise at work, so we traded it in on the Focus.  I have been VERY happy with the Focus.  Matt traded in the Taurus on a Honda Civic hybrid when gas started getting really expensive.  He has the longest drive to work, and the Civic gets over 50 mpg. (I get about 26mpg around town in the Focus wagon.  I only fill up once a month, and it isn't even below a quarter tank then.)  I don't drive a lot.  Just between here and the library, here and the base, and here and my voice lesson.  (Could walk to work if we had showers at work.  Would take about 25 minutes, but I'd get sweaty in warm weather, and muddy in cold weather.)  It takes me maybe 5 minutes to drive to work, if there's no train.

I had a sad duty at work today.  I had to pull the last blue bins of books out of the short sort checkin machine.  (We called it Shorty).  I also shut down its computer, and turned off the power to the whole thing.  Poor Shorty was never meant to live in a cupboard, but we made it live in one.  It gave us trouble once in awhile, and some of us called ourselves the "Handmaidens of the Short Sorter" because it seemed we were the ones always emptying it and restarting the software when necessary.  The reason Shorty had to be shut down is that we now have a new sorter.  It has lots more than 2 bins, and it is in the work area where we can keep a watchful eye on it.  It will never give us a "red light" to tell us it has to be emptied OR ELSE, and we should be able to keep most of the checkins moving on to be sorted on to carts and shelved much more quickly.  I will miss the days of "Code Roxanne on the Short Sort"  being called back to the work area.  (We even had a little graphic of "Roxanne, the Red Light Fairy"  based on the covers of those "whoever the whatever fairy" books the little girls are so enamored of.)  Sigh.  Shorty was the source of many headaches, yes, but we also had fun with it.  I was one of the very first to 'babysit' Shorty and teach people how to check their books in with it.  I was also one who had to restart it a lot.  I will miss it, but mostly I will be glad not to have to haul myself out there and change the bins every 45 minutes, and spend an entire shift doing nothing but checking in and sorting the books from Shorty. (Also will no longer have to worry if the blouse I wore  is too low cut to bend over and push the carts while still maintaining modesty.  Some days it was not possible.  Thankfully, nobody much notices me, they're too busy avoiding being run down by the bins I'm pushing.)

That's been my day, childish pleasures, automotive memories and melancholy over retired technology.  Time marches on here in Moore, OK.

As Ever,
Katie

A Whole Slew O' Things

I have been pondering today about words and expressions that are fairly common.  The phrase I titled this piece with, for instance.  In the South, that's a fairly common phrase for "a whole bunch of stuff".  It is actually of Gaelic derivation.  Makes sense, a lot of the settlers in the South were from Ireland, Scotland and Wales.  The Gaelic root, sluagh, (pronouced slewa, more or less) means 'multitude' or 'many'.  Hence, our expression, "a slew o' things" for "many things."

Other words and expressions common to places where exiles and immigrants from the British Isles have landed are things like "I reckon."  Aussies use that expression, as do many Americans.  It means, of course, "I think", as in 'in my opinion".  It is an old English word, used in this sense pretty much for ever.  Also means "to make calculations, add up an account or sum."  Used with with , it means "to take (or fail to take) into account."  (Oxford English Dictionary is my source.) 

"Up the creek" (without a paddle)  is an expression that describes being in a very unpleasant and awkward situation.  This is believed to have originated in the U.S. around the 1860s, and was also exported to Australia.  (Of course, it is usually "shit creek", but most people shorten it as they assume which 'creek' is known to all.)

Some words with Gaelic roots that I was not aware were Gaelic derivatives are:
glom, as in "glom on to something" grab or grasp.  This comes from the Gaelic glam  which means grab or clutch.

smithereens - smidirini in Irish Gaelic, smid, in Scots, means little bits. 

slogan - sluagh ghairm  - meaning a call to the multitudes.

slob  slaba - mud, ooze : a slovenly person-  same usage in Gaelic as in English - a slovenly person.

Shanty  seann taigh - means an old house.

dig or twig - from tuig meaning to understand

I got these examples from an article entitled Gaelic Words in English by Franz Andres Morrissey.  It is easily findable online.  You can download the PDF as I did.

Of course, some of our most colorful colloquialisms come from Cockney Rhyming Slang.  From Bill Bryson's brilliant book The Mother Tongue: English and How It Got That Way:  "The two most often cited examples of rhyming slang are apples and pears = stairs and trouble and strife = wife.  In point of fact, you could live a lifetime on the Mile End Road and not once hear those terms.  But there are scores of others that are used daily, such as "use yer loaf" (short for loaf of bread = head) "have a butcher's (short for butcher's hook = look), or "how you doin', my old china?" (short for china plate = mate).  A complicating factor is that the word that rhymes is almost always dropped, and thus the etymology is obscure.  Titfer means "hat"; originally it was tit for tat= hat.  Tom means "jewelry" .  It's short for tom-foolery = jewelry. "

Mr. Bryson goes on to mention some that are much more commonly used today such as "put up your Dukes",  as in Duke of Yorks = forks - hands.  There's also the perennial favorite name of the old Bronx Cheer: "raspberry".  It's from  raspberry tart = fart. (Bet you didn't know that!)
 One more goodie from Mr Morrissey's article:  Bun , which is spelled the same in both Irish and Scots Gaelic, means base or bottom.  From thence the expression "he has nice buns."

So, we owe a lot of our most fun to use expressions to our Gaelic and English ancestors.  Who would have suspected it of most of the English, and the Scots, who have a reputation for being serious and somewhat dour.  (The Irish, well, the Irish are full of good humor.  Scots are too, but they hide it better.)

That's my sluagh of word origins for today.  On other topics, I am overjoyed to once again have my singing voice.  (At least most of it.)  Never fails that when Karen (my teacher) finds a new resonance beginning to open up in my voice, I will get a cold and set myself back a little.  I have confidence that this will not be lost, however.  I never completely lost my voice this time, it was mostly my ears that were compromised, and they are clear now.  I really suspect it was an intense mold allergy, because it got worse on the day when the ground was wet and the sun had been very warm.  Prime for mold growing.   At any rate, I have either acclimated, or the spore count has gone down again, because this weekend I am MUCH better.
My sister has set the date and bought the tickets for our trip to Mom's.  A whole week with very little Internet access.  Pray for me.  (At least my phone can get to the web, but I don't want to run over my data allowance.  Will have to go hang out at the public library for free wi-fi!  Us library folk stick together!)  We are going in October like usual.  LOTS of yardwork to do for our Mom. 

That's about it from here this time.  Be well, and try to look on the bright side of things, even though the world seems bent on rummaging around in the dark.
As Ever,
Katie
In Moore, OK,where things are getting a little tiny bit closer to normal every day.

Fighting Monsters

One reason Pacific Rim seems to resonate so around here may be that we have monsters attacking us regularly.
Our monsters don't have bodies, they aren't trying to wipe us out to prepare the way for a new civilization, (at least, we don't think so), but they are just as deadly as any kaiju.
I tend to think of the storms that regularly threaten Oklahoma as monsters.  High damaging winds their foul breath, tornadoes for teeth and claws, they lay waste to our homes with no regard for us at all.  All we can do is hunker down and wait them out, or try to get out of their way.  Just like the people in Pacific Rim do when the kaiju attack. 
Jaegers might not be so effective against tornadoes, since tornadoes routinely throw objects around that one would assume were stationary.  The one in '99 even pulled pavement up off the streets it crossed.  Some houses were so thoroughly gone that even the slabs were no longer there.  I am sure that happened in a few cases this time as well. 
Still, the movie makes us all feel better because it shows humans fighting back against the monsters.  We do this with technology and warnings, but if something like the Jaegers could defend us against tornadoes, you can bet someone here would find a way to build some. 
Every time we have seen Pacific Rim at the Warren IMAX, the theater is either full almost immediately, or fills up fairly quickly after we are seated.  Everyone cheers when the Kaiju are defeated.  I don't think you'll find too many kaiju fans among the denizens of Moore, OK.  We have known too much destruction to cheer for monsters.  Yet, the tornadoes have their groupies.  Storm chasers, who seek to collect data and understand the storms, much like Newt.  They really admire the power of these storms, but don't really care to actually be IN one.  Not when they meet it face to face.

We also have our very serious scientists, like Hermann, who work both for the government and for private companies, studying the data from every possible angle, trying to find a way to understand these storms better in order to defeat them. Would that they were as easy to defeat as the kaiju.  Oh, I know, the kaiju almost destroyed the earth, but they could be traced to a single source.  Our monsters often seem to come out of almost nowhere.  They can strike anywhere, though they have their favorite haunts.  (Perhaps they hate country music, and that's why they target Oklahoma so much.  After all, LOTS of country stars have come out of here, and Toby Keith grew up in Moore.  Played football at Moore High School.)

There are even a few like Hannibal Chau here, who profit off what the monster leaves behind.  There are those who salvage destroyed homes, seeking the re-useable materials that they can sell.  Often they have permission from the city and the property owners, sometimes they do not.  We also have fly-by-night contractors who come out of the woodwork after storms trying to get people who don't need it to replace roofs or build shelters. Now, all of us need shelters, but it is better by far to sit on the waiting list of a reputable company that has been here for the long haul than to go with some jerk who shows up at your door with a slick sales pitch.

There is no real equivalent to Stacker Pentecost and his Rangers here.  Closest we can come are our professional storm chasers and meteorologists who keep eyes on the storms and give us enough warning to get under cover.  For most of us, Gary England is the one we trust to give us the best information.  We've all been through a LOT of storms with Gary, he knows what he's looking at, and rarely loses his cool.  Val Castor is the storm chaser to trust.  He's been through a lot of big ones, too.  I believe he would LOVE to have something like a Jaeger to meet those storms with.  He'd fight them to the death, no question.  He's seen too much of the damage they can do.  He and his crew stop to help people when they come along behind the tornadoes.  They make sure to do what they can until the local authorities show up.  Most of the storm chasers do, actually.  The ones who are dangerous are the ones treating these monsters like a tourist attraction.  "Tornado tours" are very popular, alas, and the number of vehicles out chasing makes it dangerous for the ones who are SUPPOSED to be out there giving warnings and collecting needed data.  Traffic jams on narrow country roads with tornadoes spawning are very, very dangerous.

Back to the movie.  It was so very satisfying every time one of the Jaegers smashed the kaiju around.  Helped us purge a little of the frustration we have with our own monster fight.  This story touches us in a very vulnerable place right now.  We are still recovering from our last kaiju attack.  Evidence of it is visible as you enter and leave the theater.  We really needed something like this movie to entertain us and also help us psychologically fight back. 
Mr. Del Toro, your beautifully crafted masterpiece is very much loved by many of us here.  We needed it, and now is the perfect time for it.  I know you never really thought about our storms as monsters when you were working on it, but for us, it strikes a chord that resonates very deeply.  Thank you so much for making this film.  Thanks for getting it to us now, because it has helped a lot.  In my case, anyway.  I have my own Gipsy Danger figure standing watch over my desk as I type.  Reminds me of our fighting spirit here in Oklahoma.  We get the snot kicked out of us, and yet we stand up, dust ourselves off, and rebuild, and keep fighting.  We always will. 
This film speaks to the frightened child in each of us and says that yes, we can fight the monsters, and we may take some pretty bad hits, but we CAN win.  We have to keep trying.
If you live in Oklahoma and you have not seen Pacific Rim yet, you need to.  See how it makes you feel.  Bet it makes you feel good.  

Here is Gipsy, standing watch for me. 

Anybody Seen A Guy Building A Big Boat?

We talk about the weather a lot in Oklahoma.  Only natural, the weather here can be deadly.  In more ways than one.  Giant monsters of storms can come out of nowhere and eat your whole town, sheets of ice can fall and make travel dangerous, heatwaves can come that will make you wish you were dead, and, on occasion, we get steady, unrelenting rain in the middle of freakin' July.
So, this blog post is also about the weather.  Mostly.
Today, it was so rainy, that my walks both took place in the rain.  I tried wearing the Wellies, but my ankles were too restricted by the boots, so trudged home and put the non-slip sneakers that were still wet from the morning walk back on for the evening walk.  Didn't get as soaked on the evening trip.  Still, had to hang my light jacket up to dry.  At least I didn't have to put it, my capris and my socks in the dryer like I did after this morning's walk.
On these walks, I had the soundtrack for Pacific Rim to keep me company.  Excellent music for walking.  The music was running through my head so much, I just bought the soundtrack to help get the little theme out of there.  Seems to help. Also fit the atmosphere of the day today.  I mean, in Pacific Rim, it seems to be cloudy and raining a LOT.  So it fit my very damp walks very well.

Everything here had gotten dry again, and my herbs and flowers were suffering.  We needed the rain.  Of course, I had just watered the yard around the foundations of the house the day before all the rain started.  I guess I had to guarantee our rainfall, but boy, that gets hard on the water bill.

Today had some positive notes as well.  I got to use the new digital audio recorder to record my voice lesson, and it worked just fine.  No more cassette tapes for me.  We will also be able to connect Karen's microphones to the recorder and make good quality recordings of some of my songs. 

Now it is Tuesday, and I have more to write.

Today, we actually see the sun!  Amazing!  My walk was reasonably dry.  As the sun came out, this came up on my Pandora mix.  So very appropriate, and uplifting after all the dreary wet weather.  In the middle of JULY, for God's sake!

Got all my errands run this morning, so we once again have fruit and other low fat things to nibble on in the house.  Also, filled up my car with gas, and found out I got over 26 mpg this last month.  For me, driving a compact station wagon all around town with no highway miles, that's pretty good.  It'll go down again because of the air conditioner use soon.  I was only down to about 1/4 tank.  I cannot let it get below a quarter tank.  Saw too many commercials on AFN while in Germany about preparedness and safety. Thank God we never had to do a non-combatant emergency evacuation, but we had to have all our ducks in a row just in case.  To this day, I get nervous if I have less than half a tank of gas.

About time to head for work.  Tuesdays are my Mondays as far as work goes.  Here's hoping we aren't too slammed with check ins.  It IS summertime at your library!  Glad to know the people love us and come see us so often.  The library is one of the busiest places in town!  (Though the cynics among us say it's because of unlimited dvd checkouts and free internet.  Though PLENTY of books circulate as well.)

Glad to report that it appears we won't be needing the Ark after all.  Hope all of you have a fabulous Tuesday!
As Ever,
Katie

Friday Night In A Suburb Of The Big Town - Pacific Rim Review

Greetings from Moore, OK.  Tidy little suburb of Oklahoma City that tornadoes try (and fail) to erase, home of one of the best public libraries in the whole universe, and home of the absolutely fabulous Moore Warren Theatre and IMAX Theatre. 
It was the IMAX theatre that got our attention this Friday Night.  (By the way, for those of you NOT from the 405, Friday Night In The Big Town is a favorite phrase of our local weather forecasting god, Gary England. )  Matt and I went to see Pacific Rim at the Warren IMAX.  It is absolutely gobsmackingly astounding.  This is one of the most fun movies I've seen in a long time.  Takes you back to the monster movies of yesteryear, when the good guys fought hard, came close to losing, but mustered the strength to go on. 
I HAD to see this movie.  Not just because I started watching Gigantor

(See picture right) when I was a little kid, but because Ron Perlman is in  it, and he is someone whose skill as an actor (and sense of humor) I admire. 
He plays a Kaiju parts dealer (on the black market, of course)  in the film.  For a girl who grew up loving giant robots, and who fell in love with Perlman's acting abilities in Beauty and the Beast, this movie is most definitely a MUST SEE. 

I loved the Jaegers.  They were such lovely tributes to the Mecha characters that had come before, while also being very new and unique.  My favorite, of course, was Gypsy Danger. A classic and beautiful design. The story was well developed enough to let you care about the characters and their world, but not overblown.  The movie was above all else, fun.  Perlman's character provides a lot of that fun, and so so do the two scientists.  Watching giant robots fight giant monsters is most of the fun, though.  The Jaegers are impressive.  The detail that Guillermo Del Toro puts in all his movies served this one best of all.  Pacific Rim is a feast for the eyes and the imagination.  There is more detail here than you will ever see in one viewing.  I wish I could afford to see it in 3-D IMAX again. 

It was a visceral experience.  Sounds you could feel, and I kept fighting the urge to duck objects flying toward me during the battle scenes.
If you want to feel like a kid again, to enjoy a movie just for the fun of it, you NEED to go see Pacific Rim. 

When we saw it this evening, so did a BUNCH more people.  There were all ages and all walks of life in there to see this movie.  And one of the most polite crowds you'll find anywhere.  (Hey, we are in Moore, OK, and  even the folks who drive up from Texas are nice when they're here.)  This town seems to do that to people.  Makes everyone feel closer and less like strangers.  Especially lately, and especially at the theater, where you can look across and see the wreckage of the hospital that the tornado ate.  The buildings are down now, it's just a big rubble pile that is being systematically sorted through and taken away, but still.  It is jarring.  There are few trees on that side of town anymore.  There are a few of what I call "Tornado trees" still standing.  They are broken off , few branches left, but still defiantly leafing out all over the ends of their truncated branches.  Still alive and daring the world to do something about it.  Kind of like the Jaegers at one point in this film.

There is a tornado tree at the right of this picture, taken 3 days ago at Veteran's Memorial Park here in Moore.  (By the way, go to parks.livepositively.com  and vote for Veteran's Memorial Park in Moore, so that we have a chance to win a $100,000.00 grant to help rebuild the park!  Voting ends July 15.)

That is about all for tonight.  It was one of the best and most entertaining Friday nights I've had for a LONG time.  It was kind of nice to see something besides weather bashing humanity around, and nice that humanity could actually fight back.  'Cause when the monsters came smashing through our town, there wasn't any way to fight.  I think this movie was very satisfying to many of us just because of that.  Thanks, Mr. Del Toro.  We needed this.

The "To Be Read" List

Reading is something I do a lot of.  I read a variety of things, non fiction, cozy mysteries, Science Fiction, Fantasy, comedy.  I have several books on the Nook that I have been trying to get around to finishing for a long time now. 
The only explanation I can give is that I haven't felt like concentrating that hard on anything lately.  I've read a lot of fan fiction online, and usually only short stories at that.  I am partway through a mystery from an author that I really like.  I usually fly right through the books, but this time I am going more slowly. 
In the "To Be Read" or "Currently Reading" lists right now:

To Be Read:
Redshirts by John Scalzi
Widow's Tears by Susan Wittig Albert
The Violinist's Thumb by Sam Kean
A Friendly Game of Murder by J.J.Murphy
Help Thanks Wow by Anne Lamott
Death of Yesterday by M.C. Beaton
Sweet Tea Revenge by Laura Childs
The Blue Bells of Scotland by Laura Vosika
The Minstrel Boy by Laura Vosika
Shadow Show  - various - Stories In Celebration of Ray Bradbury
Guy Noir - The Straight Skinny by Garrison Keillor


The "I'm reading a little at a time " list:
Lots of Candles, Plenty of Cake by Anna Quindlen
Shakespeare's Sonnets and Poems

Currently Reading
(and trying to finish at least ONE.)

The Sound of Broken Glass by Deborah Crombie
The Disappearing Spoon by Sam Kean
The Mole People by Jennifer Toth
William Shakespeare's Star Wars by Ian Doescher

The Sound of Broken Glass is another of Ms. Crombie's excellent Gemma James/ Duncan Kincade mysteries.  The plot so far is good and engaging.  I just have not been able to concentrate on one book at a time lately.

The Disappearing Spoon by Sam Kean is a wonderful and somewhat whimsical look at the history of the Periodic Table and the elements thereon.  The story behind the science is even more fascinating than the science.  Taking this one in small bits in order to digest it properly.  Been awhile since I have done serious reading.

The Mole People by Jennifer Toth.  I started this one because it is about REAL people living in tunnels in New York.  It is no fantasy, and these people have very difficult lives.  True, these are the stories of people in tunnels near the surface, not deep ones like the world Below is supposed to be in Beauty and the Beast.  It is interesting to read the stories of the homeless in this book.  It is also difficult.  Many of these people are addicts, or ill, or maybe just a bit insane.  As much as it interests me, I can still only take bits at a time right now. 

William Shakespeare's Star Wars by Ian Doescher is just plain silly fun.  It is the first Star Wars movie - A New Hope- told in the style of one of Shakespeare's plays.  It is very tongue in cheek, but true to the plot, and so far quite amusing.  Don't know if I would find this treatment of my beloved Star Trek to be as funny, but maybe, if it was the right episode and done the right way.  Star Trek has a lot more serious purpose to it than Star Wars ever did anyway. 
My mind has refused to settle much at all in the last year or so. I do a lot of reading, but I keep switching around what I read.  This is not typical of me at all.  I usually start a book, especially a work of fiction, and just keep reading until I finish it.  (And I sometimes can do that in  just a day or two, depending on the book.)   I have been working on The Mole People for about a year now.

I am hoping to discipline myself to get in the habit of reading at least a chapter a day of these four books until I get where I want to read a specific one first, and then just finish that one.
I have had no trouble reading Cleo Coyle's Coffeehouse Mysteries when the new ones come out, because those books just grab me and pull me right in from the beginning.  Got Billionaire Blend on preorder so I can read it as soon as it comes out.

Just putting all this here, in writing, so I can hold myself accountable for doing the reading I really WANT to do.  My girlfriends say my lack of concentration is related to my time of life, and exacerbated by the recent tornadoes, but I think it's just a phase I go through every now and then.  After several years of intense reading of book after book, my mind demands a vacation.  Happened right after college.  I got a degree in Liberal Studies, which meant I took a lot of literature classes, and that my history classes all involved a lot of reading.  So did sociology and psychology.  After I finished that very intense five year degree with teaching credential, I was tired of reading very dense material for meaning and insights.  I stopped reading so much, and once again read fan fiction or other short stories for a long time before my brain was ready to read anything long or intense again.

I am hoping to write coherent reviews of the books I am reading as I finish them.  I will endeavor to put those reviews on this blog.

Back to The Sound Of Broken Glass
As Ever,
Katie

Some Observations

Can't think of a coherent topic today, so little pieces of things I have gleaned over the last few days:



Every inanimate object in this house that gets in my way, acts up, or otherwise thwarts me is of illegitimate parentage.  (At least that's what I tell the world when said objects thwart me.) 
Though, sometimes these objects and the circumstances surrounding the thwarting of my purpose are said to be fornicating. 

I hate rolly-pollys.  Pill bugs, woodlice, whatever you call them.  They came in the house somehow and died in their hundreds along the baseboards on the north wall of our bedroom.  I spent several minutes this morning removing the corpses.  I have also now sprayed the exterior and interior surfaces at the base of that wall.  I better NOT see any more rolly pollys.  (Chemical warfare is on! I have my chem gear, bugs.  Do YOU?!)

While losing weight is very good, and important for my health; when my favorite pants are TOO BIG, it isn't so much fun.  These were nice trouser jeans that I got on sale, and I really liked them.  Now I can't wear them, and I can't find replacements. Also, replacing clothing that no longer fits is getting expensive.  Matt has lost enough to be back in his smaller set of slacks, but if he loses as much as he intends to, we're going to go broke buying clothes.  A lot of my stuff will still fit all right, but his slacks most definitely will not. (I don't even want to think about how much it will cost to get new brassieres.  I will have to custom order because of band size vs cup size.  Been there before.  Not cheap or easy.)

The cords on vacuum cleaners, extension cords, and garden hoses will tie themselves in knots the minute you unwind them, no matter how carefully and correctly they were wound up after the last use.  It's some kind of law that you must stop and unsnarl them from themselves every time you go to use them.  The same is true of ear bud cords.  I am looking forward to the day I can get Blue Tooth headphones.

Now that I'm older, I notice it more when I don't eat.  Used to be able to eat a couple of lettuce leaves for lunch when dieting and not have it really bother me.  Not so anymore.  The stomach rebels, and I get light headed.  So I keep fruit and low fat cheese and crackers in the house.  I also feel the effects of alcohol much more strongly on an almost empty stomach.  (No surprise there!) 

When one of your friends has a great experience, it can make you really happy, too.  Glad to share vicariously in a friend's OzComiCon adventure, mostly because she is so over the moon about it.  It is great to know that someone I really like and care about is having such a great experience.  Great to see other fellow fans being supportive and happy for her, too.  No griping and jealousy.  Renews my faith in human nature.  (And my faith in my own judgement about people. Especially regarding a certain actor.)

Though I have been kind of superstitious in the past, I haven't seriously had "lucky" clothes or items.  Not until now.  I now have a lucky shirt.  (2 actually).  Both have the same artwork on them.  One of Michael Ornstein's paintings called "Blue Sweater."  I really like the art, and every time I wear one of those shirts, good things happen.  So when I need a little boost, or I want to maybe send a friend a little good luck, I wear one of the shirts.  Has worked every time so far! :-)  I am going to have to order a third one soon.  I'm going to need a smaller size! 

Two adults can generate more laundry than you would believe.  There are only two of us here,  yet I end up doing seven or eight loads of laundry every week.  (Well, I do have to separate things that need special care, and we do have towels at least every other week.)

My throat will be perfectly clear all day until I start to do voice practice.  Then every little bit of phlegm in the universe comes to visit.  Very glad I only sing for fun.  Would hate to depend upon this capricious voice for my livelihood.   Singing is done for the love of it.  For the soaring, ringing beauty of great music.  To share with others when appropriate, but not for money.  For money, I do something I also love and believe in passionately.  I help keep our public library open and running smoothly.  Getting people access to the information they need to make decisions, or just finding a good book to read for fun, or a DVD to watch is important.  Freedom for ALL to access ANY information they need is important.  Helps keep a democracy going.  Helps people keep learning and growing their whole lives long.

Things are still shocking me as regards the tornado damage.  Intellectually I know they are tearing down what was left of the hospital.  Still knocks me for a loop every time I drive down there.  My landmarks in that part of town are just GONE.  Still grateful that our large retail areas are intact.  City could not have taken that big of a sales tax hit.
 Extremely grateful to Bill Warren for building his theater so well.  It is a beacon across the darkened parking lot and the highway from the book drop when I have to go empty it some Thursday nights.  Always cheers me up to see the Warren over there with its old school movie palace design.  So glad I am going to get to go see Pacific Rim on Friday evening in the IMAX theater at the Warren. 

Got to see Pacific Rim.  Not JUST because Ron Perlman is in it,  and I happen to love his acting,(Okay, I love HIM, too) but because it is about giant robots.  I LOVED Gigantor as a young child.  Always wanted my own giant robot.  In this movie, humans control giant robots to fight giant monsters.  All that excitement AND Ron Perlman!  You can't ask for better than that for a great summer movie. 

That is about all the random observations that I can come up with for now.  I happen to know there is a load of laundry waiting to be folded and put away, so I'll be on my way.
Thanks for reading. 
As Ever,
Katie

Musical Triumphs, Musical Frustrations

Last night was our studio recital.  My voice coach has these periodically so we can all see how far we've come, and get experience performing before an audience.  I've been at this for 11 years now.  Some recitals have gone better than others, but this last one went very well indeed.  This was the recital that was postponed twice before.  Once due to illness, and once due to a tornado.  We really never thought we'd get to do this recital  Feels like we've been working on the duet and I've been working on So Anch'io La Virtu Magica FOREVER.  Nice to get the recital on the books and move on to new pieces!  (Much as I LOVE that duet from Marriage of Figaro.  It is gorgeous.)
The frustration I was thinking about was the fact that we thought we were recording the duet, but the cell phone camera malfunctioned, and it was not recorded.  A great shame.  Adria and I did VERY well, if I do say so myself.  So Anch'io went better than I expected.  It actually sounded good.  I asked Matt NOT to record it, as that would have made me really nervous, given how much I have battled with that piece.
So, I cannot share the results of all that hard work with you.  Make no mistake, singing properly is very hard work.  Especially opera.  Very physical.  My weekly lessons with Karen are a real workout.  I feel it in my abs when I get done.  You see, to properly produce sound, you must use your abdominal muscles to help control airflow and support the breath.

There are some recordings I could perhaps share, but the voice recorder over modulates, so my high notes make the speaker crackle.  Not pretty.  There may be a recording of the duet to share, depending on whether Adria remembers to email it to me.  Also, I never sound right to myself on recordings.  I always think there's an odd quality to my voice that I just don't hear when I sing.  I have been told repeatedly by many people that I have a lovely singing voice, and in fact, I have a couple of "fans" who come to all of my recitals.  (They are friends, not relatives.)  I just don't believe it is true when I hear a recording and all I hear are the hesitations, the not quite in place notes, the odd intonations of my voice.  Perhaps I am just insecure and hyper critical of myself.  I have always had this need to be REALLY good at everything I do, so if I screw up, I have a hard time forgiving myself.  I have gotten a lot better about this with age.  Now, I figure not trying at all is a failure.  Trying and flopping is at least a learning experience. Sometimes you do better than you thought you would and end up glad you did it.  Like last night's recital.  I really was ambivalent about So Anch'io.  I was afraid I would really mess it up.  Instead, I did really well, and it made me feel fabulous.  I'd still rather sing Mozart, but at least I conquered this one.
 Working on Mozart right now, from The Abduction From The Seraglio.  (Durch Zaertlilchkeit und Schmeichlen).  It's a cute piece, and fits the voice right now pretty well.  Also working on two by Gilbert and Sullivan.  Learning Poor Wand'ring One from Pirates and The Sun Whose Rays Are All Ablaze from Mikado.  Like the Mikado piece better because it is shorter and easier.  Also, it is a lovely melody line.  (And really neat lyrics).  Poor Wand'ring One has a lot of pointless screeching in it.  (There is a point for a voice student, but for an audience, well, not much.)  Once I can sing it properly, perhaps it will be more enjoyable.  Getting from here to there is a LOT of trudging uphill against the phlegm and old habits. 

I have had quite a few triumphs at recitals, come to think of it.  When I made it through Les Oiseaux without killing myself, I was extremely pleased.  (Also known as the "Doll Aria" from Tales of Hoffmann.)  It is a fun piece, but exhausting.  Lots of trills, runs, high notes, and repeats!  Dove Sono was another that I really loved singing.  It is Mozart, of course, and my voice seems to love Mozart.
Vedrai, Carino was also well received.  Quando Mem Vo worked well, but I really don't have enough "attitude" to sing that one well.

There are some pieces that just take me out of myself and take me soaring with the music.  Dove Sono tends to be one of those.  So is Deh Viene Non Tardar, the one I used to sing to call Skye.  She loved that song, too.  The Sun Whose Rays gets me into that place, too.  When the conditions are just right, I can really make that one ring.  The duet I sang with Adria, the Letter Duet from Figaro, really is transporting, too.  Her voice is lovely, and our voices blend so well, it is all too easy to get lost in the music.  I missed entrances when we first started rehearsing together, because I would be too busy enjoying the music.
Singing with the choir at church is yet another transporting experience.  Our voices blend so well, we know each other so well after so many years of singing together, that the sound is phenomenal for such a small group.  The music we sing is often acapella, and the way we have learned to listen to each other make for some lovely moments.  The fact that we sing out of love and gratitude to God for our ability to sing adds a little something, too.

However, I must end this day with the frustration of being unable to get decent recordings of my singing to share with family and friends.  Matt is hatching a plot, and we shall see.  Future recitals may be sharable.
One good by product of recording is that it makes me determined to work harder and make the recordings sound more like what I hear from inside my head when I sing.  (Though some of the high notes ring and resonate to the point that I can't hear, really...)

Well, I shall leave this here for now, resolved to find a better way to record, and to practice more!
As Ever,
Katie
Lyric Soprano
And still insecure about it after ALL THESE YEARS.

P.S.  At LAST,  a triumph!  Here is a link to the Letter Duet from Marriage of Figaro