Memorial Day
Monday, May 28

Today Matt and I went on an adventure to Land Between the Lakes. We stopped by the Homeplace, went to the Elk and Bison Prairie, and ended with a horseback ride (Matt's first one). It wasn't a terribly eventful day, but the weather was nice, we had fun, and we got a few good pictures out of it! Here are mine at flickr.

- Karen

Gardening Adventure
Friday, May 25

I've had this idea for quite some time that I would like a container garden on the balcony. For my birthday I got a banana pepper and some thyme and basil, which have been doing quite nicely. So after we got off work Tuesday, Matt and I went to Rural King, which is kind of like a place to buy...you know...rural stuff. Like horse saddles. And whiskey barrels. Rural King inhabits the old WaI-Mart building, since we've recently been blessed with a Supercenter.

I thought I would make use of the railing on the balcony by getting some climbing plants, so I bought somewhat of a miniature roma tomato and some cucumber and pea seeds. A climbing cucumber, that is. However, Rural King didn't suppose they needed to sell any pots to go with their plants (who needs potted plants here? everyone has farmland!), so a trip to Wal-Mart was required.

We finally got back to the apartments — plants, pots, soil, and all — at about 8:30, and I scampered onto the balcony ready to get started. I was just about to open the bag of soil when some big red letters on the back of the bag yelled NOT FOR USE IN CONTAINERS!!! I'm not sure what the big difference between garden soil and potting soil might be, but the bag seemed pretty adamant. Back to Wal-Mart we went.

After a fiasco over gardening soil at the return counter which involved at least three Wal-Mart associates and wild hunt for gardening gloves which ended with me investing in Mr. Clean's latex variety, my plants eventually got potted close to 10:00.

Today I used one of my plants in something for the first time — I made pesto. The sort that I deemed "chunky pesto". Like chunky salsa, but not quite. The kind of pesto you make when you don't have a blender; only a really big knife.

These are my freshly picked basil leaves looking green and pretty, completely oblivious to the fact that they will momentarily be hacked into tiny pieces. (In the background is the super cool sushi cookbook that Rachel and Blair gave us. Too bad you can't buy sushi ingredients in Martin.)

If you would like to try my "chunky pesto" (because I already did, and it was tasty) come over for pasta tomorrow night.

- Karen

Newsflash!
Tuesday, May 22

"Hey, did I park my bike somewhere different than I always do?"

"I don't think so. Why?"

"Cause it's not there."

Between the hours of 8:30 and 1:00 today, two bikes have reportedly run away from home. Matt's was last seen outside the library and mine was sleeping in its favorite spot by my apartment. We reported our missing friends to head of campus police, who plans to send out a search and rescue squadron shortly.

Has there been a sudden rash of bicycle thefts?
Have the Magma and Mt. Fury eloped?
Have we been punked?

If you happen to see pair of teal and silver bikes rolling around town together, please try to entice them to come back to us. It's a long walk across campus.

- Karen

Wisdom Teeth and Blue Jeans
Monday, May 21

It's been kinda busy around here since last week. Mainly I've been taking care of this:

Matt got his wisdom teeth out Thursday morning, so we spent most of Thursday and Friday laying around and watching M*A*S*H. Before all the anesthesia had worn off, he decided I could take his picture. Afterwards, he didn't remember most of the morning up to that point.

We had somewhat of an adventure on Saturday. We drove to Bethel Springs for Dustin and Grace's wedding. That ended up not taking nearly as long as we thought, so when we got back to Jackson my mom talked us into going to Memphis. (We've been wondering when we'd have a chance to get down there to get my ring resized.) So, we took off on our spontaneous trip to Memphis around 5:45, and decided to eat at the Macaroni Grill once we got there. We figured pasta was a safe bet for someone with temporarily impaired eating abilities.

We then dropped off my ring at Helzberg, since they have to ship it off to a jeweler to have it resized. So if my finger looks kinda lonely (and believe you me, it feels kinda lonely) it is not just because I decided I don't like Matt any more.

After that we wandered around the mall for a bit and went a grand total of 2 stores. One of those was the awesome Fossil store, in which I *gasp* found a pair of jeans that fit! While I was looking at jeans I turned around and was shocked to see that Matt (otherwise known as He Who Will Not Be Seen in Anything Other Than Khaki Cargo Pants) was looking at jeans too. I went over and inquired as to what he thought he was doing, and he said something to the effect of trying on some jeans to make me happy. Indeed, this made me very happy, since it was the first time I've ever seen him in jeans.

And he refuses to believe me, but he looked pretty good.

- Karen

Officially Summer
Monday, May 14

Matt and I walked into his kitchen last week and suddenly realized that we no longer had a microwave, any pots and pans, or half of the dishes. Apparantly, his roommates moved out for the summer and took half the kitchen with them. We came to the conclusion that most everything we usually cook had been rendered impossible, and we went out to eat.

So, when we went down to Jackson on Thursday, one of our first stops was Target, where we invested in a microwave. A really awesome microwave. A red microwave.

We opened it up and tried it out today. It now sits on the counter looking very red and very awesome.

The main reason for our trip to Jackson was to celebrate my birthday with my family. And to show off the engagement ring. Matt and I went with my mom to Sakura, which has the best sushi in town. I made an executive decision to include sushi in being vegetarian, and we decided to be adventurous.

We ordered a caterpillar roll — eel wrapped in the usual rice and seaweed topped with avocado, tempura crumbs, and a sweet eel sauce. I now have a new favorite sushi. We even talked my mom into trying the crunchy roll that we ordered just in case the caterpillar roll was scary, and now she can say that she's eaten both sushi and fish eggs — and liked them!

The second reason for going to Jackson was the Diamond Jaxx game on Saturday. Erin, Kim, Matt, Tony, and I sang the national anthem, and it went really well. We looked up to see that Dr. Simmons had bought one of those big green pointy-fingers. He amused himself throughout the game by pointing out various people and picking his nose. At one point he came to sit by us — since we looked like we weren't having enough fun he decided we needed the finger.

So, after an eventful few days back and forth to Jackson, I'm back in Martin. And it's officially summer. Whoot.

- Karen

Wrong Number
Wednesday, May 9

Me: Hello?

Black woman: Hello?

Me: Hello?

Black woman: Ooh, Diane, this mornin I was in Kroger an saw this man dressed up like a woman!

Me: Oh, I'm sorry — I think you have the wrong number!

Black woman: Oh my goodness, this isn't Diane?

Me: No, it's not...

Black woman: Oh honey, I'm so sorry.

Me: It's all right!

Black woman: Well honey, I was in the Kroger on Lentwood this mornin; the one in Jackson?

Me: Mmhm.

Black woman: An I looked over in the aisle and there were all these women standin around. And there was this black man dressed up like a woman! He was squatting down like he was gonna get somethin off the shelf and he was wearin this black skirt, and honey, he didn't have nothin on underneath it!

Me: Oh no!

(The next part of the conversation has been omitted to keep this site g-rated...)

Black woman: Well, I'm gonna call Diane now and tell her. You have a nice day, honey. Bye!

Me: You too. Goodbye!

Happy Birthday to Me
Tuesday, May 8

I was awakened this morning by a pix message that I couldn't see on my dog-eaten cell phone, but I could tell that it said happy birthday. Matt later informed me that the picture was balloons.

Today I turned 20! (which somehow sounds much better than 19) We had somewhat of a party at Matt's parents' house that involved pizza, homemade icecream cake, and finishing up a Phase 10 game we started a couple weeks ago.

icecream cake!

Rachel gave me a super-awesome book that she made herself entitled "The Many adventures of Stick Karen and friends!" (otherwise known as Stick Kanen, because she accidentally used an n instead of an r...). Chapter-by-chapter installments of my crudely-drawn adventures will be coming soon to a website near you.

Matt gave me a super-awesome birthday present too. In fact, I think I might be justified in saying that it very well may qualify as the best birthday present in the ever.

Contact me for more details...

- Karen

Dr. Jekyll and Dr. Hyde
Saturday, May 5

Only one more thing to do, and I'm free!

We had our Theory exam yesterday, and it wasn't too bad. Then again, none of them ever seem too bad, until you get them back and they look like they might bleed to death. Spacing error! Voice crossing! Improper resolution! Parallel fifths! Even when I double check my part writing I can't catch everything. But believe you me, nothing gets by Dr.Obsessive Complusive. So, I won't really have any idea how I did on that exam until he posts the grades. Using his own gradebook program. That he wrote. To show off his skilz of a programmer.

The one more thing I have to do is the Diction exam, which will be super-easy. As in, requiring next to no effort on my part. I phoneticize a song, I speak some French, Dr. Almost-made-me-laugh-during-my-jury tells me I sound like I'm from Paris, and off I go. It's true - in the middle of "Die Forelle", at the part where the heartless fisherman comes along, Dr.Gatwood suddenly jerks his imaginary rod and procedes to reel in the trout with a look of utmost determination on his face.

- Karen

Winding Down
Wednesday, May 2

I'm back! I handed in my last research paper about an hour ago, so now I'm pretty much done! All I have left is studying for the Theory final, which promises to be hideous. I'm just happy to have a B, and hope that I still do when all is said and done.

A lot of things have happened since my last post, but mostly boring things. Not-so-boring things include the voice studio recital, the choral concert, voice juries, and the BCM banquet. Both the studio recital and the choral concert went really well.

Voice jury, on the other hand, went really-really-really well. And maybe a couple more reallys. I finally caught Matt's cold the day before so I was a little worried about how I would sound. But I sounded just fine, and, at least according to Dr. Simmons, pretty amazing and super-better-than-last-year.

In case you don't know how upper division juries work, here's how it goes: you pick 6 songs that you have memorized and have been working on the whole semester, fill out 3 jury forms (with information about you and your songs), and sign up for a 20-minute time slot. Then you show up, looking so spiffy, hand your forms to the 3 judges (Dr. Gatwood, Dr. Simmons, and Dr. Yeung) and announce your first selection. After that, the judges pick 2-3 more selections for you to sing, all, of course, accompanied by Delana "The Mudmeister" Easley. All the while the judges are writing down comments on their forms and trying their best to look intimidating. After you're all done they say something like, "That was pretty good!", or, "That was really flat!" and send you on your way.

If, for some strange reason, you fail your jury, very bad things happen.

Last night we went to the BCM Banquet, which involves dinner, recognition of everyone who played on the BCM's intramurals teams, saying goodbye to the old council, and welcoming in the new. Afterwards there is a "Foot Fellowship", because somehow, Baptists are morally opposed to dancing. Matt and I went to the danc...I mean, "Foot Fellowship" for a little while, but soon remembered why we didn't like dances and left. Matt has some pictures on flickr.

On a different note, we finally got our cd's from choir tour! I will be replacing most of the music from the fall concert due to the MUCH better acoustics we had on tour. But be forewarned: Dreamweaver has been acting up lately, so this might take a lot longer than it should. I'll let you know when the old songs have been replaced.

And guess what else? In a week I will turn 20! If you're still looking for something, the link to my AE birthday list might help you out. So if you've been slacking off and haven't bought anything yet...you should get on that. Or at least have good intentions of doing so. It's the thought that counts.

- Karen

Just So You Know...
Tuesday, May 1

My voice jury was awesome. That is all.

– Karen