I hate allergy season

If you've been around me at all in the past couple of days, you'll know what I'm talking about. I still don't know what I'm allergic to, but apparently there's a whole lot of it right now. My sinuses are all congested, which leads my ears to fill with fluid if I don't keep taking the extra sudafed. Yes, extra. I OD on sudafed every stinkin' day just to keep my head clear and uninfected. But, yeah, all the phlegm (sorry if this disturbs you) makes my throat rough, and can even upset my stomach. So, basically, it's like being sick without an actual treatable cause. And of course it would hit me the worst on the weekend of Hymnfest. My voice sounds absolutely terrible. I just pray I can sing tomorrow.

In other news, my parents took me to Plato's Closet today, where I found the coolest new shoes. (Yes, Jesse, more shoes) I am definitely going to have to go back there sometime.

And I would just like to say that my violin teacher, Maria Peters, is pretty much the coolest person ever. I've learned so much since I started taking lessons from her. She tells me clearly what I need to fix, and she's so supportive in everything. And she gives me all sorts of new music. Right now the piece I'm learning she calls "gypsy music." It has three difficult sections, but it all sounds really cool. At the begining I play over an octave's worth of nots all on the G string. That's 6th and 7th position! (If any of you understand what that means) And then there's one place that's almost all double stops (two strings at the same time) and another that's all harmonics (sorry, there's no simple way to explain this one). I should be able to get this one ready for one of the earliest departmentals next semester.

Well, I think all that's left is a preview of tonight's events. We're going to see Emily in the play tonight, which should be pretty cool. And then it's the Sulli Party Dating Game. I'm sure we'll have a lot to blog about after that. So, until later.

-Kim

Jury Duty

"I don't always thank You for the rough days and the hard times in my life, even though I should. 'Cause every single moment, whether sleeping or awake, is Your creation, and what You've made is good." -O.C. Supertones, "Jury Duty"

Okay, so the title tells you one of the main things that's been bothering me lately. I got called for jury duty today, so I had to miss class. And the class this caused the most trouble in was choir, of all things. You see, my director, Krause, has a policy of only allowing 3 absences a semester. That's fine, but he also says there is no such thing as an excused absence. Several of us were already upset that a school activity (the Neobel Conference) counted as one of our absences for the semester. But when I talked to him yesterday about my jury duty, he wouldn't even excues that. Which makes absolutely no sense. It's not like I could just skip out on the court--they'd haul me in for my own trial. So I've been worried about this for the past couple of days, as I am taking choir for credit this semester and can't deal with getting a bad grade because of jury duty. This is a big deal, because today would have been my last allowable absence until January.
Well, now that i've gone and told you I got out of it, I should explain a bit more about how it happened. Audrey gave me a ride this morning and after I got checked in we just waited in the jury room for what seemed like a very long time. There were nearly 40 prospective jurrors. Then they called us in to the court room and drew our names from what looked like a Bingo drum and made us sit in the jury box to be questioned. There were the standard questions of, do you know anyone involved in the case, are you in any way related to law enforcement in such a way that you would be biased, and so forth. Then the lawyers started asking questions and I finally got to speak my piece when he asked if any of us have some reason we would not be able to give our full attention to the case. So I explained that my grade was in danger because my teacher would not excuse my absence, and the judge though that was the stupidest thing ever. He took down Krause's name and said that he would call the president of the university if my being called in for this and future cases made me go over my allowed absences. So I felt a lot better knowing that the judge was on my side on the whole Krause issue. At any rate, I was one of the many that the lawyers decided to eliminate, so I got to leave the courthouse two hours after I first got there. I missed Psych, but I'm really not worried about that.

And now on to happier news. The variety show on Friday night went really well. The mic on my violin didn't work the way it was supposed to, so the audience couldn't hear all of it, but we played well nonetheless. I'm just so thrilled that David, Adam and Joel put so much into that song for me. They are basically the most awesome guys I know.

Oh, and I'm never eating at Burger Time again. Saturday night I went there with Grandma and her friend Joan, and I felt just awful later that night. I was supposed to be studying with Lindsey for philosophy, but I just couldn't concentrate. But as soon as I threw up I felt better, which tells me it must have been the food. We were able to finish our study session, and I know it really helped me with the test on Monday. There is one question that I'm just kicking myself for forgetting, but I'm pretty sure I nailed the essay, so it's all good.

Sunday morning the choir sang for all 3 services at First B, and that went really well. I actually had a lot of fun, in spite of having to wear that hideous black dress. Next sunday is Hymnfest, at which we'll be performing with the Augie choir. And we'll be singing the piece I play bells on, so that should be fun.

Well, I think I'm all caught up now, have a wonderful day.

-Kim

No Proper Update

I suppose I'm supposed to catch you up on everything that's been going on in my life for the past several days. Actually, I think I skipped over pretty much all of homecoming week. I seem to have trouble finding time to blog since school started. I guess it's because I basically run around like a chicken with my head cut off. Lately I've been able to live life more than watch it, which gives me less time to write and more to write about. But now that I take the time to compose online again, I can't remember what it was that was so important that I had to broadcast it across the world.

It's Homecoming Week...

Well, I am now officially going to be home and working at Hy-Vee during fall break. I called Deb this morning and arranged my hours. She says the new bar is working out great, so it should be alright.

Let's see, in other news, it's becoming increasingly complicated to make my variety show act work out. David, Adam and Joel are the best guys I could have playing the parts they're on, but it is almost impossible to find them all free at the same time to practice. Tonight is supposed to be when we'll figure out if we can pull it off. Cross your fingers and send up a prayer.

-Kim

Serenity Spoilers

So, yeah, I should probably tell you all about the Einstein thing sometime, but I have got to get this off my chest first.

Warning! If you have not yet seen and intend to see Serenity and care at all about the characters, DO NOT READ THE REST OF THIS POST! I don't know how to make the text invisible, so you'll just have to rely on your own self-restraint.

First off, I must say that the movie as a whole was everything I expected, and then some. The "and then some" didn't all have to be there, in my oppinion, but I wasn't terribly surprized. Although, none it concerned Inara. Kaylee did most of that talking, and Jayne was his usual self. It all was rather more bloody than I had expected, which was most of the reason for the rating.

One of the best things, in my oppinion, was that the movie did not stray from the series in tone. No matter how serious a scene was, there was always a one-liner or an exchange that had the whole theater laughing. Going opening weekend with all the other psycho fand really helps, in my oppinion. If I see it again, which I'm open to, I will only go with someone else who understands.

Okay, now for the part that hurts. I will again repeat my warning: if you don't want the movie to be spoiled DO NOT READ THE REST OF THIS POST!



They killed off my favorite character! They killed Wash! How could they kill Wash?! He was married! And he was the coolest one on the whole boat! I mean, I love them all, but Wash was my absolute favorite. And they killed off Shepherd Book, too. Now we'll never be sure what his secret was. I thought the whole point of this movie was to get interest back up to continue the series. But how can they do that with two dead characters? It's like they don't actually want it to go on. Terribly sad.

-Kim