Magic

Ahh, Christmas. The gifts, the snow, the people, the egg nog, the music, the waiting up Christmas Eve...It's a pretty magical time of year.

When I was a young lass (imagine me as a grumpy old man reminiscing about the good ol' days) the magic of Christmas used to start in early December, maybe even late November, and lasted up till I finished opening my presents and getting dressed in the new clothes I would inevitably get. I practically peed my pants with excitement and anticipation about what sorts of presents I would get. The magic of Christmas existed simply because it was the Christmas season. I didn't need anything else to be excited about.

But the older I got, the less excitement this season held for me. It's kind of hard to be excited that it's Christmas Eve when you're busy researching Hitler's generals for a huge paper you have to write. So I realized something this year: the magic of Christmas is totally in the people! For me at least. Maybe you get excited just seeing a Christmas tree, or eating a candy cane, but for me, what makes this season so great is that I get to spend it with friends and family. So if I've spent time with you this December, you should feel pretty special, because it means you're magical! You made my Christmas awesome! Thanks all y'all.

Oh, and just because I'm super excited...I GOT A GUITAR! And it's beautiful! And I love it! Any suggestions for songs to learn?

Blech

So on Friday my throat started feeling a little iffy, but nothing too bad. By Sunday my voice was a bit scratchy and dry, then bam! Yesterday I woke up and could barely talk. It got better after lots of water and a good hot shower, and then got kind of angry at me again last night. And this morning it's even worse. Nothing is helping. This stupid inversion especially is not helping. If it would just snow already and clear the air, I would get a white Christmas (which I've been dreaming of, y'know...), and it would also make this darn cold go away. But somehow I don't think that's going to happen.

Also, is it a bad idea to go to the dentist when you have a horrible cold? I don't know whether it is or not, but I've had this appointment for forever, so I'm going no matter what. Woohoo. Just what I need to make this day better.

The bright side is, at least I finished up with chorale season before getting sick! Yes, it's true, I have sung my last (Christmas) song as a member of chorale. Over thirty performances in just over two weeks, people! That's a lot of singing! But it was pretty rad.

Anyways, my apologies for the slightly whiny post. I promise the next one will be sufficiently chipper. In the meantime, what are good ways to kick colds?

Happy Christmas

'Tis the season to have at least two chorale performances every day. Today there are four! And it's pretty great. We just started performances on Friday, and already it seems like there have been so many of them. Probably because there have been. Some of the highlights so far...

• Arriving at a performance half an hour early
  
• Getting lost on the way to a performance, and arriving late
• Singing at my grandparent's ward Christmas party, and getting to introduce all my friends to them
• Recognizing some of the people at various old folk's homes from last year
• Changing seven times in one day (pajamas to normal clothes, normal clothes to a'capella dress, a'capella dress to chorale dress, chorale dress to gym shorts, gym shorts to chorale dress, chorale dress to a'capella dress, and a'capella dress to pajamas)
• Having various items of clothing (belonging to me) spread out between two cars, the seminary building, and my person
• Changing from one floor length dress to another in the back seat of a car, with lots of people milling about the car (that was an adventure)
• Seeing the sweet, toothless little old lady on the front row crying as we sing, because she loved it so much
• Dancing with a sassy kindergartener
• Having my pearl necklace break the first time I wear it! Grr. But it hasn't broken for quite a while now!
• Skipping around parking garages
• Dancing in the aisles of Whole Foods Market
• "A few fond embraces." That's a line from one of our songs, and also an excuse to creepily hug people
• Seeing a'capella's drastic improvement between their performance in the middle of the day and their performance at night today
  
• Bacon...if you know what I mean...which you don't, but I think it's funny
  

And so far it's just been four days of performances! I'm quite looking forward to the rest of them. It'll be a partay. Not just a party; we're so cool we get an extra vowel!