Jessicup of kindness

By now I'm sure you probably figured I don't exactly get my blog done before midnight every day. Nope, I fix the time and date on a regular basis, actually. However, usually when I post I'm on my way to bed shortly thereafter. Well right this second it's 3:36am, January 1st and I'm not in bed, not home, and have no plans to head that way any time soon. Hmmm...must be an epic party, right? Yup. Can you say 'lock in?' Yup. Pretty stinking fantastic, actually. Jason and I came out around three this afternoon to get in one last music practice before we went live this evening. The hour long set went really well, actually. I had at least fifty teenagers in front of me, grooving, while I stood front and center at the edge of the stage under the bright lights, singing my heart out into a microphone. Did I feel like a legit rock star? Yes. Yes, I did. Jason and I were planning on taking off after the set, doing our rounds at various friends' houses then maybe heading downtown, but we were having so much fun we decided to stick around and formed a dodgeball team with a few of our friends. Our team, The Crushinators, went all the way to the semi-finals! That's really saying something, considering the squirrely little guys and the aggressive jock types we competed against. At any rate, I don't know how long we're going to stay, but I don't intend to leave anytime soon. Just hiding out in the office with a laptop to get my fifth wind on. Aw yeah.

Resolve and Accomplishment

Today began hardcore promotion for KC Crossroads Comedy. I helped make a ton of tearoffs to stick to the posters then took off and taped a bunch of them to various windows in locations throughout downtown and the Crossroads. It took a lot of time and effort and my Chicago-worn feet were doubly sore by the time I was done, but it was worth it. The opening night shows are already well on their way to being sold out, and that's just paid for tickets. I'm not including reservations and Facebook event confirmations. It's an extreme sense of accomplishment when you can see a dream coming to fruition and knowing it's going to be every bit as incredible as you thought it would be, and then some. I'm super proud of me and everyone else on the team. It's too early for congratulations, but I can be proud, right? Nevermind your affirmation or lack thereof, I'm going to go ahead and feel proud anyhow.

Backseat drivers suck.

This is what boys look like when they wait for girls outside bathrooms! Yay! We slept in (yay for noon checkout!) then got everything packed up at our leisure, then made our way to the airport, had some lunch, and flew home. Bye, Chicago! Thanks for a good time! I came home just in time to get things together and head out for rehearsal. Since the kids are at my mother in law's this week and finding rehearsal space on Sunday evenings has been tricky during everyone and their dog's Christmas break, we decided to fall back to our Tuesday night schedule just for the week. We had a great rehearsal, too! I applied some stuff I saw in Chicago (although more like a kid dabbing her toe in a wading pool than an expert surfer off the coast of Australia. They're the surfers, btw.) during our longforms and I liked how it felt. A little more subtle and polished. Hopefully I learn how to properly utilize my shiny new improv tools hereafter, but the breaking in process is pretty great. We decided to grab a bite after rehearsal so we went to Chipotle. I totally killed Zak with a snowball. He totally deserved it.

The most epic date in the history of awesomeness.

Since the kids are at Sheila's, Jason and I debated about various things to do tonight since it's the last night of his weekend. We were going to see a show in town, but then it hit me....why stay in town? We have flight benefits! So we decided to look for a direct flight to ANYWHERE that wasn't full up and had plenty of options for getting back tomorrow, and guess what? Chicago won. Oh darn! So this morning we went to the airport and flew to The Windy City. Woo! We wandered around in the cold and had lunch at Giordano's (nice.) checked into our hotel (hey...last minute, in winter, non-peak times=uber cheap! Just sayin'.) then went out for some warm up coffee and headed out to IO to see The Armando Diaz Experience! Julia lives in Chicago so we invited her to come to the theater with us. We laughed our butts off, it was such a phenomenal show! Oddly enough I ran into a few people at the theater who I have only one degree of separation from via other improvisers I know from various cities! Sweet! We are having an absolute blast!

Vulture Mullet

Oh yeah, did I mention Sheila got a puppy? She got a puppy! This is Roxy, she's six weeks old. *squee!* She's SOOOOOOOOOOOOO cute and lovey! After tearing a second round of wrapping paper into an unrecognizable pulp, the girls tuckered out the poor pooch and she fell asleep in the midst of the maelstorm. Aww! We had a good second Christmas, complete with ham and mashed potatoes, then Jason and I said our goodbyes to everyone, including the girls, and left. That's right, Jason's mom is awesome and volunteered to watch the girls for a week! The week New Year's Eve happens in! Yeah boyeeeeeeeeee! We got back into town and unloaded things, I checked in with a couple friends, and we left again. I love being out and about with just my guy, nowhere to be, just shooting the breeze. Especially at night, a rare and lovely treat. Daytime the kids are in school and we get to go out all the time, but never at night. Sweet. We went to McCoys and giggled at each other. I love getting to be THAT couple.

Let's get it right this time.

Right. So. This morning Jason took the work truck to get a copy of the key made, but the copy didn't work. Arrgh! So he called up parts places and our friend, Richard, who is also an aircraft mechanic. Richard suggested talking to the Toyota dealership, having experienced something similar with a Toyota he used to have back in the day. So Jason went with his advice and they told him they could make a dealer copy of the key which would be more exact. It cost about $1o but it worked! Note-any friends who drive Toyotas, don't ever get a key made from Wal-Mart or Lowes or anywhere, go to the dealer. Something about their keys just doesn't copy right, apparently. But yay, they key worked! Jason left the car running until he got it home, where he proceeded to turn it off and on about twelve times to be on the safe side. Satisfied, we packed up our things and headed down to Sheila's place. We got in around five and had dinner and decorated sugar cookies (thanks, Pillsbury!) then checked out the new barn. Tim and Aaron are out here too, we're doing second Christmas tomorrow morning. Let's hope this one runs a little smoother than the last one.

Christmas misgivings

Our day started out like any typical heartland American Christmas. Kids get up early, we have a meal of waffles that no one really bothers to taste due to excitement, then everyone piles around the Christmas tree to begin shredding layers of paper from much desired objects. The resemblance ends there. Last night while Jason was at work his childhood friend, Casey, came in on the last flight. Casey is a flight attendant with the same airline Jason works for. (it's actually a really interesting story how we found out about this....ask me sometime) Casey's flight out wasn't until this afternoon at four, so Jason suggested we get together for lunch since we don't have any family close by to go to. Fast forward to today. We pile in Jason's 4 wheel drive vehicle and head into the mounting piles of snow. We made it all the way to the airport Hilton just fine, met up with Casey, and had a delicious meal. We said our goodbyes and called ahead to our next destination, Dustin and Alanna's. While standing by the glass doors in the lobby, Jason takes note of the visibly cruel weather and offers to bring the car around, which I readily agree to. The girls and I stand in the lobby and wait......and wait........five minutes go by and I get a text that says, "Having an issue, it'll be a minute." Okay then. We wait another five minutes. I take the girls to the bathroom and we come back...no Jason. We sit down in the lobby and begin watching 'A Christmas Story' on TBS. Another fifteen minutes go by. Ralphie looks about how I feel at this point, except I don't have a bar of soap in my mouth. Finally I call Jason. "Uh....what's going on?" "Erm......my key doesn't work......" Buh buh wha? "What?" "My key doesn't work. It won't turn." "Did you try moving the steering wheel?" I ask, painfully cognizant that I'm talking to an AIRCRAFT mechanic. "Yeah. I've already taken apart part of the cylinder but I can't seem to get it to go. I might need a new key or I may need a new key cylinder." Yup. Aircraft mechanic. Realizing that we're not going anywhere in our own vehicle for the foreseeable future, we call Dustin again to see if he can give us a ride to a place that makes keys. Oh yeah, did I mention it's Christmas day? 'Cause it totally is. We managed to find a CVS that was open, but the only triumph there is that Dustin and Alanna were out of milk and they sell milk at CVS. Score. We decided to just cut our losses and head back to their place. Fortunately they live North of the river so it wasn't too far. We arrived at about five (having left Casey around three) and had an amazing dinner of mashed potatoes, ham, applesauce, and baby Jesus birthday cake. We hung out, talked, laughed, and watched a Christmas special on TV. About an hour before Jason had to be at work we headed out into the blizzardy night again. The van got stuck trying to get out of their driveway...not a good sign. Fortunately we made it to the airport without a hitch and dropped Jason off, then Dustin began the trek back to my place. It took a good hour to get there, but we made it unscathed. I told him to not bother trying to get in the driveway for fear of getting stuck again, so the girls and I giggled as we bounded our way across the lawn to the front door, mid-shin deep snow for me, knee deep for Brianna. We peeled off our snow encrusted footwear and jammied up, safe at home at last.

Dustin, Alanna, I can't possibly thank you enough for your hospitality and willingness to help us out today!

Behold

Christmas Eve. The tree is up, the stockings stuffed, all presents under the tree and accounted for, and we went to a candlelight service at church. Still doesn't feel like Christmas. This year is just different, I guess. I know that on this evening, two time zones away, my family sat by my grandparent's Christmas tree and read a story, or stories. I miss them. This evening at church when I finished singing 'Silent night' and walked off the stage I sat with my girls in the darkened room and just thought about everything that's going on and how lucky I am to have them. Jason put down his bass and joined us as the rest of the congregation left and Dustin kept playing on the keyboard. It was nice to just have that moment of just being together like that. Just us, in the dark, the girls with candles, and the soft music playing. We left to find that the sleet of the day had, as predicted, given way to snow. We're in a blizzard warning, in fact. We were only at church for an hour but by the time we left there were already a couple inches on the ground. Poor Jason had to leave for work not long after we got home. He texted me to let me know he got in safe. I wrapped presents, watched some TV, took a bubble bath, and as the clock displayed midnight, I whispered to myself, "Merry Christmas."

That must be going in there!

I spent a good chunk of the day at Alanna's. It's SOOOOO nice being out of school and getting to catch up with friends! I feel like a marathon runner at a rest station. Yeah, I've got a ways to go, but hooray for ice water! Just knowing that I'm in the running at all is a good feeling. We had music practice tonight and David (one of the guitarists) is back in town over Christmas, so he brought his stepson, Garret with him. I get along well with him and his sister, Chelsea. They're pretty rad. Anyhow, Garret brought his bass along and was messing with it alongside Jason this evening. It was super cute to see Jason walking him through songs and stuff. Leigha has expressed an interest in learning guitar at some point. Hopefully she follows through with it, we could totally be the Partridge family, only with more awesome and less '60's. The lack of Shirley Jones would be made up for in cookies. And we wouldn't have a bus. Have I mentioned I really don't know much about that show beyond they were a band, Shirley Jones was in it, they had a bus and it was in the '60's? Yup. Definitely blew through the extent of my knowledge of that show TWICE in one blog posting. And the posting really had nothing to do with the show.

Wow.

It's not what you think

Gwahrrr! It's ZOMBIE PICKLE! Accidentally created in a lab by scientists when they switched vinegar with worcestershire sauce! I had to fight for my lunch, stabbing him with two toothpick stakes just to be able to finish my sammich! ZOMBIE PICKLE, GWAHRRRR!!!!!!

Yeah. So today was the last day of school for the girls before break so Jason and I had a daytime date to celebrate the fleeting quiet of our house. We went downtown, had awesome deli sandwiches then went to a coffee shop. Perfect. This evening I took the girls to the Exit 16 Alumni show. (Tommy Todd, yay!) Every time I see them I'm really impressed by what they can do and have to keep reminding myself that they're high schoolers. I do wish I'd had that kind of outlet when I was that age.

All the king's men

My poor laptop. It's having 'fan issues.' Hans came over tonight (ironically when he was frustrated when installing a bathroom fan) to help Jason with it. I sat there, nervous, the whole time. They kept making jokes about 'Hey, go get me a hammer, would ya?' Not funny, guys, that's open heart surgery on my baby we're talking about!

Don't you point that gun at me unless you're gonna marry me!

Aren't the dresses amazing? My mom did a great job with the girls' Christmas dresses this year! Every year, in fact, but look how pretty they are this year! My mom is super! Today while I was singing (it was the first song, in fact) I saw something fall from the ceiling and felt it go down my dress. I was holding the mike and couldn't very well squirm so I thought to myself, "I'll get to it later." A song and a half later I felt something on my chest so I nonchalantly brushed it away, only to see the thing fly onto the music stand and start crawling around. It was a lady bug! A lady bug flew down my dress during worship! *squirm, squirm* Thank goodness it wasn't a spider or something. Project Improv didn't meet today due to it being Winter break and all, but AO had a great rehearsal! We had a blast running through our format 'The Office,' which is the one we premiered at the Imp last week and we intend to run again at KC Crossroads Comedy (on it's opening night! Whee!) and then we did a little workshopping of a new format that popped into my head today. It ended up being really interesting. Hopefully we can flesh it out. I seem to be full of new ideas lately as far as formats go. Go go Gadget improv brain! Since I only had the one rehearsal (instead of two back to back, yay!) I was home all evening long! It was great. Jason and I watched a few episodes of Kids in the Hall and treated ourselves to a little Taco Bueno after the kids went to bed. Sweeeeeeeeet.

I'M a horse!!!!!

Jess is part bee! She flits about the sky hopping from this activity to that, prancing and buzzing as only a bee can do. A busy, busy little bee! Today our little bee had meetings and band practice and happy fun times. Just another day in the life of a bee!

For the record....she is also a tired bee who is running out of Mountain Dew steam. Bzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz..........zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz........

Your dad

I had lots of potential pictures for today that I could have posted, but this one is great 'cause everyone just looks so gosh darned happy to be doing exactly what they were doing in this moment. I love pictures that capture a moment like that. The Project Improv show was tonight. It was really, really good too! We did have one casualty, in the form of a chair destroyed during an unfortunate incident during 'Sit/Stand/Lean.' At least it died for a good cause. *salutes* A few theater kids were there and asked how they could get involved...I consider that to be a major complement to the show tonight. Better yet, some of the members of PI asked how they could get more improv into their lives! Mua ha ha! The bug is taking hold! I have done my job, and done it well.

I'll be in my bunk.

I could not have chosen a more perfect day to go Christmas shopping on the Plaza. It was nearly 50 degrees today! Gorgeous! And uncharacteristically sunny for the Midwest in December. I did pretty good, too. Yay! I met up with Eric and Dustin for lunch so we could talk about the setlist for New Year's. We had fun discussing the hypothetical possibility of replacing us with 'Rock Band' and playing 'Sweet Child of Mine' at the Christmas service. Nice. Brianna got to celebrate her half birthday at school today. Quite an ingenious setup to deal with all the kids who have Summer birthdays.....although in Bri's case her half birthday would fall on the day after Christmas, so she'll never be able to celebrate her real HALF birthday in school either! We got to send treats to school. Bri demanded cupcakes. We sent cupcakes. She came home with a 'It's my 1/2 Birthday!' sticker on her chest. (the '1/2' written in with sharpie) She walked in the kitchen and nonchalantly ripped it off and started to throw it away. Jason said, "Whoa, Bri....don't you want to save that?" She rolled her eyes and said, "Daaaaaaaaaad, I wore it all day and it's ripped. Right there." And then she threw it away. Not sentimental, that one.

Cyclicality

History repeats itself in incredibly predictable and short term ways sometimes. Just check out this picture from last year for proof. I spent the day making eight (eight!) shepherd costumes for the children's program. I was asked to do so last week but with finals and such I didn't have any time at all until today. It went pretty fast but I did have to switch machines halfway through due to a broken needle. I'm hardcore, yo. "Man down? Bah! We keep going." The program went well this year, only three crying shepherds! Leigha and Cora got to sing a duet of 'We Three Kings' and Brianna spent more time waving than singing. Too cute. Oh, funny story, my mom sent me a package via UPS and it arrived today...in a Budget rental truck piloted by a UPS guy. Are they seriously that busy out there? It was fantastic.

Sparkly and productive, that's me!

My final final was this afternoon. Hooray! I celebrated by selling my books back to the school, taking advantage of the free H1N1 shot clinic the school offered, making sure I was good for Spring with the financial aid department, then pre-ordering all my books. Aw yeah! There's no stopping butter when it's on a roll! (Yeah, I dunno. Shaddup.) This afternevening (it was five-ish. You tell me what time of day that is!) we had a bonus Project Improv rehearsal in preparation for our show this Friday. Everyone's getting excited and the energy in the room was palpable! We ended up having a fantastic rehearsal and everyone played for keeps! Hooray! I love that we instilled the improv bug in people who have previously never even tried it, and it's taking hold! They have come so far in the short time we've been doing this, and this is my first time trying to teach..............anything! (Formally, that is) For a task I feel so ill-fitted to it has really been a treat to watch them grow and come to love the art form, knowing I was one of the hands that guided them there.

You should have gone with the bullhorn.

Brianna is not a phone person. Not at all. There have been times when my older sister, Lynette, is on the phone with her and Brianna will describe what the cat is doing for ten minutes, mumble something, then say, "My dad wants to talk to you." and shove the phone at someone and walk off. Tonight I called my parents to catch up and talk about Christmas plans and I handed the phone to Bri. She literally sat there for a good solid minute with us going, "Brianna, say hi. Say ANYTHING." Rotten stinker. I get the feeling that ten years from today I'm going to take a nearly identical picture to this one, except I'll be complaining about how I can't seem to ever get her OFF the phone.

Three more wise guys

We had a band practice this afternoon for New Year's. Everything is coming together really nicely! I love singing and it's super cool when you get to do so with a live band behind you! Can't wait for the show! Project Improv rehearsal was this evening. We have our first show coming up this Friday, it's going to be sweet! We timed the show well, as it falls on the last night of the semester. Everyone will be done with finals and looking for an excuse to cut loose. Plus, it's on campus and free. Win to the win to the win! After AO rehearsal I went out to my car to, you know, drive home, and found out that I had locked my keys in the car. Brilliant. Fortunately Jen and Tom were still there so we called a locksmith to come out and save my sorry self and I didn't have to wait out alone in the cold by myself. Hooray for friends!

Larry, Curly, Moe, and Jess

Anomaly Orange had a show tonight. And apparently my face had a seizure which it shows no sign of recovering from. *Yucch.* I had an incredibly busy day that was awesome for the most part. The show went well, especially the longform. I was super nervous about it because it's a brand new format that was my very own brain baby. I think it went well. It's always scary when you invent something new artistically and present it for a crowd, but then that's what improv is, so......yeah. Kind of in the job description I guess. I came home with a stomach ache, unfortunately. I think it was caused in part by this week being so RAWR! Among other things. Blah.

What a big shadow you have...

Every so often I have a picture that just doesn't need explanation. Just a short one or two line caption to sum it up and call it a day. I feel if I did that with this picture, I just might leave a good percentage of my readership with indigestion. So here's the backstory: Today I decided that instead of staying in when Jason went to work, I would take the girls to the 7pm family friendly show at the Imp. John has recently implemented the use of his projector to put announcements up on the wall of the theater before (and between) shows. I was talking with my crew after the evening's show when Tom came over to say hi, standing directly in the beam of light. I started laughing because he looked like he was trying to be Godzilla or something, so he started posing his shadow to look increasingly more like a monster until Hans suggested, "Hey....what if I hold up Brianna and we make it look like you're eating her?" So we did. It's not as crazy as it sounds, is it? Oh well. For the record, Brianna was very pleased with herself. She took my camera and was showing the picture off to anyone who would look.

I live in the basement so I have all the nails

She's not being surly, she's being nervous, I swear. But first things first, I got an A in Western Civ, woo! The other final I took today was for Voice and Speech, but I don't know my grade in that class yet, so I can't report in. It went all right. At any rate, the important thing is that it's FINISHED now and I'm half done with finals. Whew! There was a Christmas thing at the school tonight. They did a 'holidays around the world' celebration. God bless 'em...........they tried. But come on, a table of international goodies and they had a sign up that said "Japan" right next to the FORTUNE COOKIES. For the record, China was not represented. Unless you count the fortune cookies. Which are probably from American culture more than anything. Leigha's class sang a couple songs, but it was really informal, so she opted to wear jeans and reindeer ears. I applaud her choice and think it was just right.

Brotherly love

Hectic day. Crazy day. Seriously. Not bad, though. First of all, the girls lost the snow day plea, and in fact our school district was one of the ONLY in the area to not cancel, ironically. I found out that I AM getting an A in German, woo! I'm super proud of myself for that. I stayed at the school for a couple hours after class to finish my remaining projects from other classes, I'm finding myself horribly distracted and running out of steam. Thank goodness all that's left now is my finals. Wait........ Yeah. Ick. The good news is that by this time tomorrow I will have half of my finals completed. The bad news is that I have two finals tomorrow. Yeek! Can't wait for tomorrow late afternoon. This evening I went to church and found out I have to complete six shepherd costumes for the Christmas pageant......by next Wednesday. In fact, that's what the above picture is-unassembled shepherd costumes. *cracks her knuckles* Okay, sewing machine, let's BRING it.

The white stuff

The girls are hoping for a snow day tomorrow, so they went to bed with their pj's on inside out (and Brianna's are backward........for good measure?) and a spoon under their pillows. I am hoping for a not snow day. I'm taking no special precautions unless you count the fact that I'm doing homework in bed. We'll see who comes out ahead tomorrow, I guess.

Stresstacular!

If I had my choice, this picture would have been exactly what I did today and nothing more. Unfortunately, it would be a lie to tell you that it's an accurate depiction of Jessica's Monday, so allow me to have a picture of my wishful thinking if nothing else. I felt awful today. I didn't sleep well at all last night and woke up feeling sick and sore, but as mentioned previously.....several times.......we're coming into finals week now. I can't afford a break just yet. One last push and I'll be fine. Today would have been just great if I hadn't been feeling so ickable, in fact. We got to watch a movie in German class today, which was great! I have the choice whether or not to opt out of the final, but I haven't made up my mind yet. We'll see what my grade is I guess. I also did some studying for a Western Civ test (tomorrow morning) and I feel pretty good about it. These last few readings were pretty easy compared to some of the stuff we'd been reading, so it should be a pretty simple thing to knock this one out of the park. I did some homework this evening, like a good girl, before finally indulging myself in watching some episodes of The Office with Jason. Thank you, Netflix, for being an enabler.

Eat dirt

Improv today had an incredibly playful atmosphere surrounding it. Zak spent an entire scene wrapped around a chair (pictured) doing the most amazing contortions and acrobatics around it as he flipped over it on the floor and back up to a standing position. During our break time we broke out into a spontaneous wrestling match fueled by Sweet Tarts that ended in a ton of giggling and bruises for all. At one point during AO rehearsal I noticed our energy was starting to flag, so, inspired by the evening's mischevious nature, I suggested a game of tag to get us back up and, quite literally, running. It worked! We leapt over chairs and tables trying to get away from each other, completely forgetting that we are all over the age of twenty five. Sweet. I came home zonked and coughing from a slight asthma attack, but it was totally worth it. Finals start this week, and I can't think of a better stress reliever than playing with my friends.

I'm a rock star!

Interesting, hectic, breathless with exhilaration kind of day. Love it! I started out by caroling with Shannon at a craft fair. She asked if I wouldn't mind partnering up and singing with her for four hours, which I was all over even before she said it was a paying gig! So for four hours we wandered around singing, getting applauded, treated to a delicious lunch, and then we got PAID. Nice. From there I came home and had about an hour to chill before we all left for band practice for New Year's Eve. We worked on some songs and fleshed out the set list a little better. I can't wait, this is going to be a blast! Jason usually plays bass but for New Year's he's playing rhythmic guitar, which takes an entirely different skill set. We got a lot of good work in and called it quits around six. During my hour of resting up time I checked my Facebook and found out that my friend Clay (AKA 'DJ Clay) was doing a Radio Disney promotion thing really close to our house, so we decided to take the girls. We showed up and he was surprised to see us, but then said, "Oh! Here, let me get stuff for you guys!" And gave the girls reindeer antler headbands, stickers, buttons, etc. The event was neat, basically a little dance party for the under tween set. Leigha and I won a game and she got a Christmas CD and goody bag out of the deal. Nice! It pays to have incredibly cool friends.

Editing the scene

This evening Leigha spent the night at a friend's house and Jason went to work, so Bri and I had a very Christmas-ey themed girl's night out! The new performance space we've booked for improv had a live reading of 'A Christmas Carol.' It was really cool! The Repertory Theater here in Kansas City does 'A Christmas Carol' every year, so the cast of the reader's theater was done by former members of the cast who happen to be taking a break from the show this year for one reason or another. It was neat getting to hear new life breathed into Dickens' brilliance without the angle of a playwright or movie producer. There's something to be said for the pure work without the watered down influence of others. (Hence the slogan 'don't judge a book by it's movie.' It's true.) Bri seemed to have a good time, especially after she discovered the cookies and cider. You can always count on the five year old mind to have one track, and it's usually directly correspondant to sweets in some way.

Studious expressions

Our house is being run by the homework monster. Leigha is studying states and capitals, Brianna is studying numbers 1-100, I am studying German. My homework is all on the computer, which is pretty cool (we get to hear snippets of speech from native speakers and stuff. It's pretty sweet!) but I have a test tomorrow, which makes it REAL. You know? It's more urgent so I don't get to take the time to enjoy the different qualities in their voices. Oh well. Jason kind of hung out and waited for the inevitable call of "Daaaaaaaaad?" And helped them when they needed it. He's a classy guy like that.

Dream a little dream of me

I take my voice for granted. Seriously. I pin so much on it, with my chosen major being theater, with my massive quantities of improv, and the huge chunk of time I spend singing, and I just don't take care of it near as well as I should considering how much I use it and what I use it for. Shame on me! I need to do better in the future. At any rate, we didn't talk about finals so much today because my only class was German and I haven't missed a single class and have the choice to opt out of the final. Hmmmm.......I'll have to see what grade I'm getting before I decide, but what a luxury! I did spend some time working for my voice and speech final, however. That one will be tricky. I have to adopt another person's accent and deliver a monologue in it. Yikes! I already know the monologue, though, so hopefully I can work the rest into place. I had music practice at church tonight. Funny how microphones are so intimidating if you're not used to them.....it feels like a natural extension of my hand at this point. After church I went to Shannon's and practiced music with her. We have a paid caroling gig this Saturday (YES.) which is just too much magic sauce for me to contemplate. I love being paid to do what I love! Lucky me!

I need you

We put the tree up today, which prompted the annual 'pretend you love your sister for five seconds' picture. Isn't it cute, if not sincere? Aww! All day long at school talk was of finals. Finals, finals, finals. Gnuuuuuuuuuuurrrrrgghhhhhhhhhhhhhhh......I can do this. Like my dad said, if I don't know the material by now, it's not going to matter. I know the material. I'm getting good grades. I have already passed all of my classes by now, in fact. At this point, it's just about bumping the grade up as high as it can possibly go! It's just about the follow through now. But oh man.......my first college finals! *deep breath* I got this.

P.S.-To my mother: yes, Brianna is still wearing those dresses. However, it really hasn't been cold yet here except a couple weeks in October. Plus, I make her wear long sleeves and tights underneath when she goes to school. As long as we're around the house I don't mind if she takes them off. You may now sleep easy.