Pi Girl

I am definitely losing my mind. I’m starting to forget things, like when I’m supposed to dress up for a Crystal Chords rehearsal. We taped our group singing Christmas carols for a local show, “The Senior Notebook.” We were supposed to dress up in our “casual concert” attire.

In my own defense, I was very rushed when I got home from work and a million and one things to do before going to rehearsal; and I only had time for one. So, I didn’t check my email (which would have reminded me of the taping) and just did the stuff I absolutely needed to get done (and I only partially finished those). I will also choose to blame the antibiotics … because I can.

So, I showed up to rehearsal in the shirt I wore to work - a very lime green shirt. It looks very good on me, but not when everyone else is wearing a white shirt with a red festive-type vest. I felt so bad and tried to opt out of appearing on camera so I wouldn’t mess up the shot. But apparently that was not an option.

There were 2 other people also not in correct attire. But they had white shirts on, so it was easy for them to stand in the back and go unnoticed. Did I mention my very lime green shirt? Brigid came to my rescue, offering her red raincoat so the red would blend in a little better. And Brigid is the only person in the chorus whose coat I would be able to wear.

Picture this - a lovely chorus of women in white shirts and red festive-type vests. And then, in the back row, using the person in front of her as a shield, is me with lime green peeking out of a red coat and holding up my music so as to cover as much as possible.

It’s a good thing I don’t know anyone who actually watches “The Senior Notebook.”

So Thanksgiving was a success at the Cassidy/Whong house. I say success because I didn’t have to cook. Therefore, dinner was very good. Mom and Jim traveled down to Elmira, and Michelle and her family came over and we had a very nice time. We saw kids riding their lawn mower down the street, the dog and cat entertained us, the house was filled with the sound of football and the smells of really good food. I think the only “oops” moment was Jason’s coffee and since I don’t drink the stuff, I did not have to endure that faux pas.

In case you’re wondering, my infection is healing, or so I’m told. It’s actually grosser than it was on Monday, but at my check-up yesterday, I was told it’s making very good progress. Even if they did poke and prod so much, I never did make it to work because of the pain. I’m not due back again until Saturday, so I should be able to make an appearance to work tomorrow. I might even be able to attend the hockey game with youth group tomorrow night.

I just thought I’d share how I’ve kept myself amused all day. If I have to sit here bored, I’m taking you all with me. Hopefully, I’ll have enough to keep me occupied tomorrow so I don’t post every blog quiz I really do, but refrain from actually posting.

TV
I love my soaps, really I do. But I’m used to watching them dvr’ed, not live. Which means, I fly threw the boring story lines and commercials. It is not easy to watch them live, and not hit the fast forward button. Fortunately, the story lines are 90% really good right now (thank you, sweeps) so I only had to suffer through the commercials.

What was up with those dancing boys behind Hilary Duff on the American Music Awards??? I have no idea what she was singing because I was trying to decide if the dancing was serious or satire. Maybe that’s how she suckers people into buying her music. “I will entrance you with my dancing boys.” I will say, I need to download Cyndi Lauper’s remixed “Time After Time” duet with Sarah McLachlan - that was fantastic.

Web
These tidbits come from Best Week Ever:

- Car crash live on TV - remind me never to drive near that intersection. I don’t even know where it is.

- Chinese students take on BSB - I can’t say I have ever willingly repeated a BSB tune, until I saw this.

- This remixed Shawshank Redemption scene certainly puts a whole new spin on the movie.

I’ve also been catching up on Clientcopia.com quotes. This is a site of stupid clients quotes, mostly from people in the techie business, but there are some good zingers for anyone to enjoy. My personal fave is this one.

So, I had a small problem with my insulin pump the other day that resulted in me taking a trip to the emergency room. It mostly involves an infection and a lot of gross details that I won’t get into. But now I am home and on antibiotics and trying not to move too much.

And I’m going nuts. I was told I needed to stay home and rest. I had to cancel youth group, couldn’t go to work or Crystal Chords rehearsal. I’m just sitting on the couch, looking around at all the cleaning I need to do before Turkey Day and wishing I could do something, but it hurts too much to move. I can do some stuff, but mostly I need to clean dishes and leaning against the sink is especially painful.

I suppose the rest is good for me, but it’s almost easier when I’m actually sick and sleeping through most of it. No, I’m just hanging out on the couch with a dog sleeping on my legs and a cat crawling all over me (and hitting my infection area a little too frequently).

I definitely need to give shout-outs to Amy and Michelle, who went way out of their way to help me out, like running errands and driving Jason to the hospital to pick me up (I probably shouldn’t have driven out there by myself).

And, of course, I have the best husband in the world. Jason made me call the dr, took care of me last night and helped get situated on the couch. He even jumped out of bed before I did this morning to let Kelsey outside. He’s so cute, because everytime I ask for something, he kind of stops, looks at me, smiles and then does whatever I asked without question. I love him to pieces; he is so good to me.

Stole this from Valerie …. had to.

Open iTunes or Windows Media Player to answer the following. Go to your library.

How many songs? 3480

Sort by song title:
First: ‘97 Bonnie & Clyde by Tori Amos
Last: Zor and Zam by The Monkees

Sort by time:
First: Horn Effects by Modest Mouse (0:09)
Last: Affinity coaching session with Dave Carr on Sentimental Gentleman (1:23:05)

Sort by album:
First: ‘Cause I’m a Blonde by For Heaven’s Sake (…What a Wonderful World)
Last: Mind Games by George Clinton (Working Class Hero: A Tribute to John Lennon)

Sort by artist:
First: Voices Carry by ‘Til Tuesday
Last: Stay by the Zodiacs

Sort by Genre:
First: Put it Out for Good by Amy Ray (alternative)
Last: 6 Underground by Sneaker Pimps (techno)

Top Five Most Played Songs:
1. Devotion by Indigo Girls
2. Starkville by Indigo Girls
3. Laramie by Amy Ray
4. Become You by Indigo Girls
5. Tether by Indigo Girls

First song that comes up on Shuffle: Escape by Enrique Iglesias

Find “sex”, How many songs come up? 5
Find “death”, How many songs come up? 15
Find “love”, How many songs come up? 249

Ok, so now that I’m done griping about the hotel and recalling the Veterans Day memorial, I can focus on my weekend that was Harmony Inc. International Convention and Contest. I am so glad I went up Thursday this time because I got to experience so much more of the contest than I did last year. That, and I was following around the “cool” kids all weekend.

Some of the highlights:

- Listening to the queens perform at the Parade of Champions. I learned so much about performance and music from them. The oldest quartet won in 1977 - the Villagers. I mostly remember that because I noted they won the year I was born.

- The quartet competition was very interesting. I took notes and tried to mark who I thought would make it to the finals. I marked 8 quartets; 6 of them went on to the finals. I wasn’t confident enough to attempt placing quartets, but of the top 10 quartets, 3 of the 4 quartets I picked won a medal (medals are given to the top 4 places) or were crowned queens.

- Desra and I had the honor of sitting with Betty Costello at the medalists reception. She was crowned a queen in 1965 and was a founding member of Harmony Inc. in 1959. She was so wonderful to talk to and she was so excited for all the winners. You could tell how much she loves barbershop and sharing it with others.

- The chorus competition was good. The Crystal Chords worked so hard on stage, and I am so proud of our performance. Even if we did place 8th. I hope we continue to progress and gain momentum going forward to next year. And my hair looked good, too.

- Not everything was all fun and games. Debbie popped her knee out on stage getting off the risers. Michelle sprained her ankle falling down the stairs in the auditorium. I heard of a few other slips and falls from other choruses too. Not good.

- Singing around the hotel Saturday night :) - it was so much fun to listen to quartets and then go out and sing too. During the weekend, I was introduced to people as “the lead singing with Anne, Donna and Michelle” and I was starting the freak out that I wouldn’t live up to the reputation. But after we sang for Synchronicity, the 2004 queens, and they seemed so jazzed about our sound, I stopped worrying and started to enjoy myself. I actually have pictures of all the quartets we listened to.

Toward the end of the night, the hospitality rooms were getting shut down, so people were gathering on the ballroom floor, which was right outside of a dance club. All kinds of interesting characters had to walk by us to get their coats and gave some weird looks to all the barbershopping. Of course, we threw some weird looks back, I’m sure - and we taught Jessica that you could tell which girls have a man by how much clothing she wears.

After a bottle of wine and hours of singing, I went to bed around 4:30 in the morning. It was a fabulous way to end the weekend and I so can’t wait for the next contest. Which is in May. And it will be in Buffalo, if anyone wants to swing by and watch Affinity compete.

The only good thing about the Ramada Hotel was that we had to walk back and forth to the Sheraton, where the convention was. It was about 5 blocks away, so we got to see some interesting sights along the way. I had some really cool pics, but idiot that I am, they are all gone. You’ll all just have to wish you were there.

Anyway, if we hadn’t been walking back and forth, I would have missed a really cool memorial service for Veterans Day. In Canada, they don’t get the day off from work for Veterans Day. (Actually, neither do I but I pretended I did this time around.) They do all get about a half hour off to remember Canada’s veterans though. Everyone wears flowers on their coats and at 11 am on 11/11, they remove the flowers for a moment of silence, then put them back on.

In downtown Hamilton, there was a memorial where people gathered for a service and to remember. The city shut down the street so the crowd would be safe. We watched a bagpiper play, members of the Canadian military guard the memorial, a band played hymns and the national anthem. The coolest thing, without question, was the flyover by a military plane. I don’t know what kind of plane it was, and it came too fast for me to get my camera back out (not that I’d have it now, but if I had deleted that, I’d be even more upset).

The speaker led us in several prayers and gave us some great reflections for the day. He had us remember V-E Day and V-J Day and that in the past year, we celebrated their 60th anniversaries. He noted that to a young person, 60 years is an unreachable number. To a middle-aged person, 60 years is uncomfortably not too far away. And to someone over 60, it goes by way too fast.

What hit the closest to home, though, was a Canadian soldier in the crowd standing behind us. Out of the corner of my eye, he looked just like my brother-in-law, Chris, who is fighting for us now overseas. Even though it was obviously not Chris (that whole he’s not Canadian thing…and this guy was shorter), I found myself looking over at him alot.

It was definitely nice to take time out of my vacation to remember our veterans, whether they be American or Canadian.

It’s a good thing International rocked this weekend. Because the hotel I stayed at did not. We were not able to get a room at the super nice Sheraton where the convention was (at least, not a room without a murphy bed!) so we opted for the cheaper Ramada down the street that also had 2 beds for the 3 of us staying there.

Now, normally, I wouldn’t be writing the name of the company, but in this case, the experience was so bad, I need to tell everyone: don’t stay at the Ramada in Hamilton. One thing, I wouldn’t have minded. Two….easily forgivable. But this was just plain bad.

- First of all, I mentioned there were 3 of us, right? Well, the tiny bathroom was only stocked with 2 towels. And by 2, I mean no hand towels, no washcloths, just 2 towels. Not the end of the world, we called for more towels and got them. But Friday morning, the maid service replaced all our towels and washcloths with the same 2 towels. We called again. Saturday morning … 2 towels again. Um, hello? Do you think only 1 or 2 people could possibly have that much luggage? Or like to hang 3 of the same costume in the closet?

- Then, there was the technology. When I called the front desk to ask for more towels, they couldn’t tell who was calling - they had to ask me for my room number. Then, the service book said there was wireless internet. Oh yea, I can blog from the hotel. Well, Jason’s laptop found a network, but the network wouldn’t let me on. I asked the front desk for help, and he tried but he couldn’t answer any of my questions. I don’t think he knew what a mac was. Then, there was the tv. Which had a remote that couldn’t turn the tv on or control the volume. Ok, that’s not a big deal, but after a while, it was just one more annoyance. Then, there was the alarm clock. Desra and I decided to take a nap before singing all night at the hotel and we set the alarm for 9:30. The shuttle driver was going to be at the hotel at 10 for us. The alarm went off, I hit snooze (instinct) and assumed it would wake me up in 6-9 minutes. Next thing I know, it’s 9:57! Where did the snooze go? What kind of alarm clock is this?

- Then, there was the scheduling. The chorus rented a room for breakfast and rehearsal. Except it was hard to rehearse with the tables in the room, so they had to move us to clean up after breakfast, then they let us come back. Then another chorus came in the next room over. And our rooms were separated only by a partition that couldn’t close all the way. We tried to move to another room, but got kicked out by a group there. We tried the original room again, but it was so warm and distracting. Finally, we just had to cut our rehearsal.

- And that’s not even the worst of it. I didn’t have to deal with the worst of it; that was saved for our 1997 queens, Images. One of their members was on the toilet and had water dripping on her head from the toilet in the room above hers! Ew! They had to change rooms 3 times for all kinds of reasons.

I think I made my point. I didn’t even mention the nasty sink, the broken bed, the moody elevators or the key card that never worked the first time you tried it. argh.

You’ve been warned - don’t ever stay at the Ramada Plaza Hotel in Hamilton, Ontario.

I’m back. International was a total blast this weekend. I’ve already got several posts planned (because they all need their own entry) and I’ll get them up soon. The Crystal Chords did so awesome on stage - we were on and we rocked the house. Unfortunately, for us, so did a lot of other choruses. We took 8th place at the competition (out of 25 choruses).

I am very tired - I took a wrong turn driving home and went a whole hour and a half out of the way (it might have helped had I printed directions for the whole way from Elmira to Hamilton, not just how to get around the city - my guessing worked driving up, not so much driving back). That last hour driving home was a little hard and I was starting to hallucinate. But I got home safely and without incident.

I’m just all mad now because I took some great pictures on Friday and then accidentally erased them all on Saturday. I didn’t even realize I had done it until I downloaded my pics and found all the cool ones from the Veterans Day memorial service are gone. I will post what I have later, when I get some sleep.

Harmony Inc International Convention and Contest is upon us. Yea! I leave tomorrow for Hamilton, Ontario for lots of singing, wine and getting away from Elmira for a while.

I am so excited - the Crystal Chords have been on fire the last few weeks and I think we could do really well if everyone works as hard as they have been in rehearsal. I love what we have done to our package and cannot wait to show it off. Affinity will be singing too. We aren’t competing, but we’ll sing around the hotel and get some experience in.

I will have the camera with me so I can put up a photo gallery next week. I’m hoping to figure out the movie function on the camera too so I can put up some video clips.

Your prayers and thoughts are greatly appreciated this weekend - especially around 1:30ish on Saturday (when CC takes the stage.)