See You Around
Monday, April 23

Well, this is it - crunch time. Only one week of real school left. This means that you should not be surprised if this is the last update for a week or two, because quite frankly I will have plently of more important things to do. Things like taking those Theory and Spanish tests, singing in the Voice Studio recital, writing those two research papers, singing in the choral concert, doing those cd and music journal reviews, coming up with some hardcore SI sessions, memorizing all my music for voice juries, and not failing those Theory and Diction exams. Things like that.

On a lighter note, we celebrated Shanna's birthday Saturday. And I took some pictures. In the yard, of course! The better ones are up on flickr if you'd like to see them.

And speaking of music, our Voice Studio Recital is this Thursday, 7:30, in Fine Arts. The Spring Choral Concert is this Sunday, 3:00 at Fine Arts. Both are free, so you have absolutely no excuse not to come. Also, Saturday, May 12 is UT night at the Diamond Jaxx. The discounted UT price is $4.50 per ticket, and the New Pacers (or at least some of us) are singing the national anthem. This is the same day as commencement, but that's in the morning and this is at 7:00, so no conflict there.

Also, I've added one item to my birthday list. If I think of anything else I'll stick it on there too, so check back sometimes. Lately, I haven't really had time to think of anything...

- Karen

The Friendly Stingray
Thursday, April 19

Guess what? My camera cable is here! You know, the one that is required to transfer pictures from my camera to my computer? The one that vanished without a trace? That one. And now I can take lots of pictures without them sitting around on my SD card for a month.

Guess what else? My Matt is here! He was in Chattanooga at a terribly exciting GIS convention, but now he is back. Apparantly the Chattanooga Aquarium has lots to do with Geography, because he got to spend a good deal of time there. He even had enough time to bring me a new friend, who I took a picture of just to use my shiney new camera cable.

This is my new and friendly stingray, gliding along my bathroom rug, because he's just good like that. The Chattanooga Aquarium has a new "ray petting" pool like the one at Ripley's. This seems to have brought back memories in Matt's mind of having to drag me away from the friendly stingrays the last time we were at a Ripley's, so he got me my very own, um, furry stingray. I recall them being more soft and slippery than furry, but, whatever. At least he's friendly; aside from that incident last night in which he glided down from the top of my bed and suctioned himself to Matt's face.

- Karen
- (and the friendly stingray)

Almost Done
Sunday, April15

Well, the opera is over. That's one less thing I have to worry about these last couple weeks of school. Both performances went well, and we had a lot of fun! I simply do not know what I will do with myself on Monday and Wednesday afternoons. Write my two research papers, I guess. And try to pass Theory. Here are some pictures my mom took of the opera today to keep you busy until next time.

Bob and Letitia	Miss.Todd and Miss.Pinkerton	Bob	Bob, Letitia, and Miss.Todd
The cast bowing	The cast after the show	Me and Matt	Dr.Roberts, Dr.Yeung, me, and Matt

- Karen

A Quick Announcment
Thursday, April 12

I've come up with a grand total of 3 things that I might like for my birthday. So...come and look!

-Karen

Dang...You'll get the pictures later.
Wednesday, April 11

You guessed it — I'm stuck in the middle of another busy week.

However, I do have several pictures.

The opera is Sunday and we have dress rehearsals every night this week, alternating between casts. Our cast has still has one rehearsal to go, but our first one went pretty well. So, If you're not busy at 3:00 Sunday afternoon stick $3 in your pocket and come to see "The Old Maid and the Thief" starring ME, Sarah Jenkins, Matt Cook, and Linzie Tedford.

Theory is "fun" lately. We've been working on figured bass, which I'm not too bad at. However, Dr. Anonymous felt that he should give me bad grades on both homework sheets in minor keys — because he didn't like the way I wrote my lowercase letters. Perhaps if these sheets had contained a combination of major and minor keys where he might have had trouble distinguishing between the letters these grades would have been more justified. But marking half of my answers wrong when the entire worksheet is in minor just seems a bit...overzealous to me.

When you're a music major, this is what your homework looks like:

Coincidentally, when you're a music major, this is what your pajama pants look like:

On a different note (how punny...) I had an interesting Easter. Last Saturday was somewhat of an all-day shopping escapade, in which I found some very cool shoes. Several very cool shoes, to be exact. Ones like these:

And while I have your attention, I'll mention a couple new things you might see around here. I've added a link to The Pacer up there in the top right corner. I've also uploaded quite a bit of new music, with lyrics soon to come. And in the near future there will be a temporary birthday list page. Seeing as how my birthday is in less than a month and I've already gotten a few questions concerning what to get me, you can simply check right here for ideas. At the moment I've only thought of a couple things, so the list is still in progress. But rest assured that it will arrive soon.

That's all I have for now, with the exception of these words of wisdom:

If you leave a bag of dark chocolate Easter Mnm's on your desk while editing your website, it will be considerably emptier by the time you are done.

-KaREEE

Whoah!
The fun things that happen when you accidentally hit caps lock!

Surprise!
Friday, April 6

You never saw it coming, did you?

It seems that whenever Matt and I have a free day we make all these great plans to play Zelda and watch M*A*S*H and the like. When we make such plans, it always turns out Matt plays Wii and I work on the website.

Well, today just so happens to have been that sort of day and, consequentially, there is now a real, live, shiney, new music page! Bear in mind that only some of the music is up right now, but hey, it's better than nothing. So when you start feeling bored, or deathly, or what-have-you in the future, just run over and listen to Eleanor Daley's Requiem.

-Karen

I'm Not Catholic Either
Thursday, April 5

Here comes Peter Cottontail
Bringing us a cold spell...

You know, I thought that Easter was supposed to mean nice, springy, Easter-egg-hunting weather. Guess this proves me wrong. Maybe that's why Shanna was smart and hid eggs in her yard a week early. Someone by the name of me found eighteen, and someone by the name of Matt found...one.

Remember how I became vegetarian for Lent? When I tell people that I'm not eating meat I tend to get these crazy looks from them, like why would you submit yourself to that kind of torture?! Like not eating meat eliminates ahything that is remotely edible. Then I add that it's just for Lent, to which the most common responses are as follows:

1. A sigh of relief.
2. Oh, I'm not Catholic.
3. Lent?

A lot of people seem to be under the impression that vegetarian policy is to eat only boring food, all the time. Or only salad all the time. Or that fish is okay because, obviously, fish are not animals. Regardless of all the misconceptions and strange reactions, I've found out that I *gasp!*like being vegetarian. It's not torturous or boring; I don't eat more salad than I did before; I've found a lot of new foods that I like; and it is undeniably much healthier.

So, vegetarianism is sticking around for a while.

-Karen