Singing, shopping, testing, dog-sitting, reminiscing...

I have been meaning to post some nice pictures on here from Bar Olympics (bean bag toss/karaoke/pool/foosball competition at a couple St. Paul bars = good times!) a couple weeks ago and also from a hike in Taylors Falls a few weeks ago with Stacy, Taylor, Eric and Indy. I will do that at some point soon cause I'm pretty sure I got some good pics. I know some people (mainly Stacy) like me to update more often, so I just wanted to give a heads up and say "I know! It's on my to-do list!"

Anyway, things have been busy lately. Here are some highlights from the past few weeks:

- Sang with the Twin Cities Women's Choir at a U of M Nursing School conference last Monday -- funny side note: the choir director moved my friend Karin and me (former Alto 1s/Soprano 2s) to sing the Soprano 1 part. I laughed out loud when she told us to try it out. However, I decided that I like singing higher and not straining to hit the super low notes. The bad thing is: my voice is not used to trying to sing the super high notes either. I think I'm truly a Soprano 2 who likes to sing the Alto 1 harmonies, but who is now singing Soprano 1 because the choir needs more help in that section. You want to know a secret? I jump down to the Soprano 2 notes when it gets too high! Shhh.....

- Went Halloween costume shopping at ValuThrift (quick side note: I love huge thrift stores! I got almost my entire outfit at one store, including knee pads and wrist guards. What more could you want?) last weekend with Eric. I am going to be a roller derby chick, complete with a black and silver outfit, complemented by some hot pink (mainly in the form of a tutu). I just need to find some fake tatoos and some black shoes to make look like roller skates and I'm all set. A bunch of friends and I are going out on Saturday night (my bday) and everyone's dressing up. I love Halloween! Eric's going as a lumberjack -- my fav part of his ensemble is a) the fur hat and b) the thick red suspenders. Stay tuned for some pics from this Saturday night! PS If you haven't seen what the recent roller derby chicks look like, I would recommend going to one of these sites to check out the outfits: http://mnrollergirls.com/teams/ or http://www.nrgfanclub.com/girls.html. Little-known fact: the nrg fanclub site was created by a couple friends of mine who are HUGE fans in Indianapolis. They are also dating, and I believe they met at the derby.

- I survived my first round of midterms and did pretty well. Then I had one week with no exams, and now I'm back for round 2. Joking? Nope, but I wish I was. I have one test this Friday, one next Thursday, two the following week and then one more the week after that. Then, it's pretty much Thanksgiving. I will be giving thanks for no more tests (til Finals).

- Last weekend, I house/dog/cat sat for my friend Angie. She and her husband went to San Fran, so I got to have a mini-vacation and stay at their house to take care of Tonka (the 160-lb Newfoundland) and Calhoun (the 8-lb orange furry cat). Indy got to stay with me as well -- she got in a lot of wrestle and hump time with Tonka and enjoyed licking Calhoun a lot too.

- Small world story: So yesterday I was talking to my boss at work and we found out that we both lived and studied in the same small French town (Aix-en-Provence)! It is the quaintest little town you've ever visited and I just loved it there. So we kind of bonded over that, and now I am getting the itch to go back again sometime. Oh how I wish I could go live in France again for a bit. I wonder if my language skills would up to par?