10hours19minutes.

well folks, in a few short hours, i will be on my way to vancouver, my home away from lethbridge, and i can hardly believe it's true.

what a surreal feeling -- to be leaving one home to return to another.

i've been listening to a lot of country songs, about going home, or being from a small town, and how that's always who you are. well, i'm not really definitively from anywhere. marsden, richmond, now lethbridge --

in the most sincere way possible, i think that my home is love. HA! CHEESE!



but seriously, home is where i feel at home. there are things about everywhere i've lived (even townsville) that i really liked, and there are things about living in vancouver that have been hard to live without (here), but honestly...when i think about home, or where i might "settle" one day, it's the people who i hope will be there that really matters to me.

yep.

CHEESE. SINCERITY. HOME SOON. SO CALL ME.




ps close to lethbridge is VULCAN -- it's quite the experience.

there are times i lose my worried mind.

what the --

oh right. i didn't sleep last night.

NOT A WINK!!!

the sun is rising, and i'm all suited up for a run, with a powerbar and the necessary amount of water in my belly.

just waiting about 10-15mins, and i will head out...running.

hopefully that will make me tired, so maybe i can nap when i get home.

i guess the bonus is that i packed for the last 3 hours, so my desk and my shelves are pretty much ready to move when julie or anyone else comes over.



yesterday, deanna was looking at my birth certificate (a reissue, i've had it since April 2004), and she noticed that my first named is spelled "MEILINDA".




my-linda?
may-linda?

i prefer melinda.

jack black says...

"It was a lame gig. I learned a valuable lesson. Never do a lame gig."

profile. texture. art.

me. ben. sunglasses.

i know i will get up before 7am at least once this month.

April 30, when I drive home.

But today, I woke up @ about 10.40am. Naturally, I reached over and turned on my radio, to listen to the Saturday morning CBC Radio 2 set...The Vinyl Cafe and I Hear Music.

SO good.

This morning on I Hear Music, we are exploring the music of Hoagy Carmichael, who wrote The Nearness of You, Skylark, and I Get Along Without You Very Well (just a few of my favourites, and also the only ones I know the titles of).

Actually, those three would be a nice little set for a recital. They're all three quite slow, but...beautiful.

I felt pretty jazz savvy though -- Chet Baker's version of I Get Along... is the "definitive" version, according to the radio guy, and I AGREE! I listen to that song at least a dozen times whenever I decide to listen to my Chet Baker album on this here computer.

Yeah.

Jazz Savvy.

So many doubles of obscure letters.

Radio guy said that to get a Carmichael song, the singer needs a vision and an ear for the structure of the entire song. Yeah. I could do that.

oooh new pictures!

i uploaded a bunch of pics from deanna's compy today.

thank you verbatim store-n-go.

these are some snapshots of my life in lethbridge, over the last couple weeks or so.


DONATING BLOOD.






LAST CLASS BASH.









POST-DONATION TATTOOS.





and that's all...for now.

just to clarify..

friends are really important.

it's not always easy to find friends who stay with you through your UPS and DOWNS.

good moods, bad moods -- it's such a gift to have friends who see through it all and just love you.



thus, today, i am specifically tributing deanna, because i was just grumpy with her on the phone...but i know that she will still love me. because she's awesome.


(and no, this isn't a guilt trip post. at all. but i hope she reads it and knows that i, through my moods, never intend to direct GRR at her. ok? yes. well. goodbye).

mmmm sunny wednesday.

oh, dear ones, how the mood is an ever-changing thing.

i wrote my lieder exam yesterday -- very well could be a disaster in the marking, but that's oookay.

why?

today i sang my jury (voice final). oh, it was glorious. hands-down, my best jury ever (out of 4).

then, i came home, had some lunch, and have been napping on my porch in the WARM, warm sunshine for 2 hours.

oh what a day.

waaaaaaaaaaaah-mbulance. come to me.

(the post is not posting, i am even more sad now, booooooohooooooo).

i do not feel well.

i have a voice lesson in 1 hour and 29 minutes, and i'm writing a history (lieder) assignment, and my exam is at 2.00pm, and i don't feel prepared, so i am blogging (the ever so obvious choice).

and seriously, i don't feel well. i do feel ill. i don't know why. i think that maybe i gave myself some minor, minor food poisoning when i let meat thaw for too long this weekend...


waaaaaaaaaah.

it's as if, the world, she is upon my shoulders.

AH!

Well, today, my hair is a gong show. Even though it's short, there's enough of it to beat me on the grounds of fashion and style.

That made no sense.

I swear to you that I studied for 5 hours today, pretty much straight on through, and for the one exam I have to write, but I don't think I know too much more than I did before.

I'm getting that panicky feeling so common to me @ exam time, when I can't quite breathe (which has been a persistent symptom since I donated blood on Thursday), and I just want to get out and enjoy the stunning, southern albertan sunshiney warm days.

I have to go to an ivcf meeting now, or soon, something like that, which means just a few hours of talking and discussing and some worship/prayer, but I just feel like I can't handle it.

Who watched LOTR 3 last night? Oh, that was me?

SO who's to blame for all this?

...



...


EVIE!

when i was a spy...

i disguised myself as a backpack.

connumdrum?

So here's the thing.

It's 8.02pm here in Lethbridge. It's still light out, and warm, basically the ideal spring evening.

What am I doing posting this post, you ask?

Well, I'll tell you.

I'm on pae 6 of my 20 page paper. I have to sing @ noon tomorrow (recital), and my paper is due @ 3pm.

I basically...am...in one of those moments where school seems to be an impossible and foolish (impossibly foolish?) undertaking.

TAG!

No, no, no, no, no.
Not graffitti. Grafitti. ???
Jo tagged me to do a list of four's, which is good, because darcee did too, and now I can't find the list.

SO...

FOUR JOBS I'VE HAD:
1. countergirl, Broadmoor Bakery.
2. Home support, Portland Hotel.
3. Daycare provider, YMCA, General Currie.
4. Assistant Cook, Keats Camps.

FOUR MOVIES/SHOWS I'VE BEEN ADDICTED TO:
1. Billy Elliot.
2. EverAfter.
3. Withnail & I.
4. The Incredibles.

1. party of five. (no joke, it made the 90's for me. which leads me to...)
2. LOST
3. ER
4. Gray's Anatomy (I find myself cheering for debauchery, and against marriage...!)

FOUR PLACES I'VE LIVED:
1. Marsden, Saskatchewan.
2. Richmond, BC.
3. Townsville, Australia.
4. Lethbridge, Alberta.

FOUR COUNTRIES I WOULD LIKE TO VISIT:
1. Denmark.
2. England.
3. France (provence).
4. New Zealand.

FOUR POPULAR FALSE ASSUMPTIONS ABOUT ME:
1. I'm super confident around new people (I'm totally shy. Silence = please talk to me).
2. I must have lots of free time because all I do for school is sing.
3. You can borrow my guitar.
4. I'm younger than I am (I'm 23, 24 on May 16..bring on the presents).

FOUR PEOPLE I LOOK LIKE (according to some):
1. Elizabeth.
2. My dad.
3. My aunt sophie?
4. Britta Fluevog.

FOUR THINGS I HOPE TO DO BEFOE I DIE:
1. shave my head for cancer.
2. climb a mountain.
3. have a family.
4. play my music for the world!
(read: achieve self-actualization in every way possible. go psych 1000).

FOUR PEOPLE I TAG NEXT:
1. mary-ann.
2. skakes.
3. andrew.
4. lil dee.

GO YE FORTH AND LIST!

happy easter ya'll.

because i love you.

sad.

today, i left my voice lesson and almost cried.
it was a great lesson, i was just feeling sad.

oh, feelings.

lauren, kayleigh and i were making dinner more or less together tonight, and we sat down to eat together. it was like having a family meal, with natalie and her dad and kasey sitting in the living room (which is open to the dining room, like @ my richmond house).

anyway, our other roomie came in and started yelling at us because she "couldn't get in the door" because our shoes weren't on the rack.

well, thanks grumpy stepmom. thanks for ruining the whole family atmosphere. thanks for dragging us into your pissy mood. thanks for being such an emotional rollercoaster that we're all nauseous.

i can't handle it. especially when she launches into tirades about "having respect for the other people in the house."

ugh.

20 days.

new stuff.

this one is going adventuring in England and the world.

with her wonderful husband.

am i excited?

sad?

scared?

happy?

full of...joy?

yes.

anna, dave...i will be missing, loving, praying for, cheering for, writing to, thinking of, and looking forward to seeing you.

it's about time.

for a new post.

the question is, what to post about?

now, often one logs into blogger.com or xanga.com or myspace.com, with an anecdote, thought, quotation, song, video, picture, etc.. to share with the world.

today, i don't really have any of those things. i just thought it was time to post.

time according to whom? you, faithful reader?

perhaps.

do i really care?

not particularly. that is, i'm not really tortured over my motivation to post.

i mean seriously...why be tortured over things that don't really...matter.

now, earthworms dying all of the sidewalks of lethbridge, that's something i'll hold up a sign to!



here is laurell, singing protest songs to save the earthworms.

(i was googled earthworm pics but they were too gross -- besides, pics of my house show are WAY COOLER!)

kasey glenn.

my newest house-mate.

here she is!

EVERYONE!

I would love for you to meet, the beautiful, wise, witty, intelligent and very dear to my heart, Mikael Bingham.

Seriously, she's amazing.

And yes, her name is Mikael. (I'll give you a moment to come to terms with that).

Ok.

I met Mikael very briefly @ keats one summer -- she came to my cabin and wanted to borrow a vaccuum. That week at keats was awful for me -- and I've always wondered what it would have been like to be in her cabin. However, had I never gone to keats, I probably wouldn't have met her (or Jessica, Anna, Jenny, Ted, Aaron, Sarah, Ange, Dave and Nola, etc) at all. That is someting I can hardly imagine -- I can't really imagine it at all. Mikael has been (and continues to be) one of the most important people in my life.

She lived in Mexico for 9 months, and when she came home, spanish would flow in and out of her sentences.

She's got this gorgeous, naturally red hair -- seriously, people pay for that.

She's got superb taste in music, without being a snob, and she can sing. Also...she'll play ukelele on my next album...I hope.

Umm..she's got 4 siblings, and her parents are wonderful and hilarious and bizarre, and I love them.

She's got a door that's always open, and I love to just walk in and grab a snack or a cup of tea from the kitchen.

Her boyfriend (pictured here) is Aaron Braun, also quite amazing.

Actually, they've both, in their own ways, been examples of grace and forgiveness to me. And Mikael -- well, she's been with me through some stormy times. Hence, I've taken to calling her my best friend. Hard to categorize that, but in so many ways she is.

Anyway, here she is -- the pink-wearing red head (and once, someone I was with told her she didn't have red hair -- that was...weird).

26 days...