To appease the masses, I bring to you . . . an update.

Yes, I have been a very sucky blogger the past few months. Grad school + job = NO FREE TIME. Pity me, please?

OK, so last I spoke was when Nana passed away. I was in Georgia for about a week helping with funeral arrangements and the like, then I came back to North Carolina.

My kittens did great while I was gone (AJ watched them for me), and they also gained names! I named the one with more white on his face Oscar (for Oscar Peterson) and the other one is Miles (for Miles Davis). There will be more pictures to come, though they haven’t grown AT ALL since I got them (which, I shouldn’t say that too loud - they are precious and adorable, I like their size now, LOL). They love to cuddle with me and they are SO GOOD together - I can’t imagine ever seperating them. I feel bad because I am gone so much of the day, so I don’t get to spend nearly as much time with them as I want to, but since they have each other, I know that they’re doing just fine. They just really like to cuddle when I come home!

The next week was utter chaos because it was holiday at Starbucks, so crazy busy, and I also had one week to get ready for Christmas. AJ and I had a lovely Christmas on the 21st, and on the 22nd I had Christmas with his family. On the 23rd I drove to GA, had Christmas with MY family, and then drove back on the 26th.

On the . . . 29th? . . . I woke up at about 3:30AM with really intense pain in my lower right abdomen. I could barely stand up, and it made me throw up it hurt so bad. I was able to get to the computer, saw that the right side is the appendix side, and decided I didn’t want to risk it. I called AJ and woke him up and he got me to the ER. It turns out that I had a ruptured ovarian cyst, so the next week I was off my feet a bit and then taking it pretty easy. I feel much better now, but man that hurt!!!

Classes started back on January 4th, and it has been NONSTOP since then. At the moment my rotation is in the development office, and it’s very time intensive. My schedule most days is something like this:

Rotation: 8AM-9:30AM
Class: 10AM-2PM
Rotation: 2PM-4:30PM
Work: 5:45PM-11:45PM

Note that I get about 8 hours off . . . and those are the sleeping hours . . . try fitting homework and sanity time in there. I’m exhausted. Luckily, there are only about 4 more weeks of this rotation and then I switch to something a little more laid back, so if I can just hang in there.

I’m getting really tired of school. As I go through all my classes, I realize that I’m not really learning a ton. I don’t say this to be cocky, I just got a really great undergrad education, and my instincts are usually pretty good. If it weren’t for the darned three letters that I need to get a job (MFA), I probably would be just fine to have skipped all this. I just have to keep reminding myself that I’ve only got about a year and a half before my internship, and while that’s technically still school, it’s really a job too, and it will be in an office somewhere (or something . . .)

I have missed being able to be online. I feel like I’m losing a little bit of myself because of all the craziness. Summer will be a welcome time. How is everyone else doing (is anyone even reading my blog anymore)?

OK, you might be asking where I’ve been all week. Things have been a bit crazy.

A co-worker of mine was diagnosed with lung cancer this past spring. She has had a very difficult treatment period, and I (along with 3 or 4 others) have been coordinating meals for the family, getting the word out about her progress, etc.

On October 12 Charmaine was taken to hospice, and she passed away around 10:30 Saturday morning. This has been a difficult week because she was very cautious about letting people see her during her treatment, so there were a lot of people who were unable to say good bye to her before she moved on. I have been working with a few others to facilitate funeral arrangements (flowers, getting the info out, financials, etc.), and her funeral was this past Thursday.

It has been an emotionally exhausting week, though I can’t be thankful enough that she is no longer in pain. Now I pray for her husband (who has MS) and her daughter (who is my age), that they may be able to find some kind of normalcy and be able to eased of their pain.

Hopefully I will resume a bit more regular posting this week - things have just been too hectic this week.

On a bit more of a positive note, I have an interview in an hour with our district manager - hopefully I will soon be a shift supervisor at my store! Yay Starbucks!

Rent

Rent is a play that I have always loved. Though I may not agree with all the things that this play idealizes, I do think it was a truly revolutionary piece of theatre and the music is phenomenal. I first saw the play when it toured in the late 90’s, early 00’s, and I saw it on Broadway in the summer of 2004. I have the entire soundtrack memorized.

I tried to go into the movie without any expectations. I really had no idea if putting this play onto film would actually work, so I figured that if I didn’t think about it much that if it was bad then I wouldn’t be disappointed.

Needless to say, I certainly wasn’t disappointed. The characters became so alive, it took me by surprise. All but two of the characters (Mimi and Joanne) are portrayed by the actors who originated the characters. It’s quite obvious that the actors love their characters, and now that they have 10 years more experience on them than when they first acted these parts, it’s quite obvious that the maturation has developed stronger, richer actors who were able to bring these characters into a real existence.

It was great to be able to see the play take place in its actual setting - we get to see the apartment, the CatScratch Club, the life support meetings, Angel’s funeral.

I’d describe the music, but there’s much better review than I could ever write on Amazon.com. It’s the user review by M J Heilbron Jr. “Dr. Mo”, who wrote this review based only on the soundtrack two weeks before the movie was released. The review is currently the first one that you see when you visit the page for the Rent soundtrack.

SPOILER ALERT - MILD SPOILER BELOW!!!!!!

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Minor complaints (let me stress MINOR):

Joanne’s parents were OK with her sexuality, and in the play they were most definitely not OK with it. I think that added an extra dimension to Joanne’s character that we were missing. However, I think Tracie Thoms did an EXCELLENT job acting the part!

Also, Roger’s walk through the desert was a bit much. I wish they’d picked a slightly less cheesy location for him to sing from.

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Well, I’m back at school now. Things are pretty crazy here - we’re right in the middle of sorority rush for my sorority, Phi Mu. It’s a lot of fun, but it’s a lot of hard work too, so I’m pretty exhausted (which explains why I haven’t gotten to the IncrediMail letters that I’ve been planning on putting up).

Things went well at the funeral - we all feel much better after seeing her. She looks peaceful now, and we know that she’s in a much better place! Please continue to pray for my family. Thank you so much!!!