theyellowhobbit

I got in! I have to miss the first 2 rehearsals since they're while I'm in New York, but I got in! So everyone who thought I was going to get in, you were right.

I'm going to be singing again! I might get my upper register back! Whee!

I really need to learn how to sing high notes, since it felt really weird when I was trying to do that yesterday, like I couldn't open my mouth correctly and stuff. This is what happens when you are out of practice for 5 years.

So I just e-mailed hKC to thank him for making me less stressed, and helping me to remember that most of HRSFA is in noteables, and they, too practice for 4 hours a week. And for making me realize that missing the HRSFA meetings isn't such a big deal (though I would like to be at elections. I guess if I tell people a month in advance that I'll have to miss the rehearsal, I might be able to do that.) And that I don't really need to be at the Vericon meetings, since most of my job is done right before the Con. (Though I liked being able to give people useful ideas.)

Then I called dsKC to tell him the good news, because I figured he'd want to know, even if I was just talking to him a half hour before that.

Also, I just called JB, and he's okay with me missing the Vericon meetings, since I don't really need much guidance, and I can check in with him and stuff.

I'm wondering if there's anyone else I should call. Maybe I should call my parents...

*Called the parents. Of course, now this means they'll come to the big performance, considering they're only an hour away and can easily do so. And I should call Grandma tomorrow*
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I guess the more stressful thing is work, and whether or not I can do it. I like having a source of income, and I really like my job, but I'm not sure if 10 hours a week will destroy me. Granted, these 10 hours cannot possibly conflict with HRSFA, since the office is only open 9-5, and HRSFA things don't start till later than that (except writer's SIG, which was always during class...) but it's still 10 hours a week.

I guess the important thing is to know my limits, and if it ends up being that I don't have the time to work, that I be able to admit it rather than trying to go insane, and leave my job if need be. (If I could work only 5 hours a week it could be doable, but I'm not sure that they'd let me do that.) We'll see. I'll try the 10 hours a week and see how it goes.

Also, if I'm allowed to only take 3 classes, I might do that, considering there aren't that many classes that look interesting this semester, and I do have the 2 credits from Greek. I could even take 3 classes next semester!

So I had my callback today, in the same place where the audition was. Or it would have been there, except there was a fire alarm that went off. We first moved to a nearby room that I found alright, and then as a group walked somewhere else with a piano. Before we left, I asked them if I should grab my bike, so I would have it afterwards. They said no, because it was only a 5-10 minute walk to where we were going, and thus only a 5-10 minute walk back to my bike.

Indeed, it is only a 5-10 minute walk. If you know where you're going.

I took a wrong turn somewhere, ended up in a place where I didn't know any of the buildings, and eventually found random students, asked where building 4 was, and they said, "you can follow us." And they got me there. Once I was back in the building I was fine, I grabbed my bike, and went home.

So I didn't get lost getting there, I just got lost getting back. Go me!

Also, if it comes up again that we move, never again am I leaving my bike. I don't care how close our new location is, there's still a chance I'll get lost when I'm on my own.

Also, MIT needs to have more campus maps around. At Harvard the maps are plentiful. Is MIT really just a giant labyrinth meant to trap people in order to feed them to giant carnivorous plants? Because that's what it seems like to me.

I think the audition went well, though the alto part was at the top of my range. (Can't I just sing tenor? I learned your part, too...) It's also sorta hard balance blend and needing to be heard while you audition. And all the other auditionees were freshmen, so I felt old.

So I find out tomorrow night, since some other people still need to audition. I think I'm going to write out my hypothetical schedule, to see how everything looks, and whether or not being in Techiya will work if I get in. I'm a little panicked right now, so maybe having everything visible before me will make me less scared about theoretically committing to the group.

Unlike last week's Shabbat dinner, this one went smoothly. I started cooking much earlier in the day, and as a result was almost ready for dinner when people started coming. Also, there were only 4 of us. And it was a dairy meal, so I didn't have to worry about tablecloths and paper plates. And I didn't break anything. (I broke a wineglass last time. I forgot to mention it.)

I also ended up with leftover latkes, because I made a ridiculous amount (two baking pans full). But I had some for breakfast and the housemates ate some tonight, and now they are all gone.

So now I've regained confidence in my meal-making ability. Though I shouldn't do it every week because it gets expensive. And soon I'll have schoolwork, so I don't know how much time I'll have to make meals. Also, once HRSFA returns I'll probably be on campus most Friday nights for gaming.

Your result for The Perception Personality Image Test...

NBPC - The Daydreamer

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Yesterday night was Greek Night Out_TM for our Greek class, where we met at a Greek restaurant in Porter and people shared appetizers and our professor provided the drinks. Of course, I couldn't eat anything since nothing was kosher, but I did get a ginger ale. And I had planned on not being able to eat anything, but was there more for the company.

When the main course came, I was asked to say Grace, since I had "the most theological training" of the group (the other students there were all first years). Unfortunately, I had to decline, since you can't really make a blessing on food that you're not eating, and it would have just been Baruch ata Hashem Elokeinu melech ha olam...[specific blessing for specific food(s)] which translates to "Blessed are you, ruler of the universe, who made such-and-such food." Not so profound. It's the blessing after the meal which has actual substance. Not that I can say it in English from memory, since I can't. But I can say it in Hebrew.

I like the way that Judaism has a short blessing before eating and a long[er] one afterwards, (different blessings for different foods, and they vary in length) when you're done eating and aren't going crazy waiting for food. It avoids being put in the uncomfortable situation of not having eaten in 5 hours and the person saying the blessing goes on a 10-minute rant about the glory of God or something. (Though there was one time at JitW where the person saying hamotzi thanked the people who grew the wheat and the people who processed it and the people who transported it, etc. It was about 10pm, and I hadn't eaten since noon, and was in physical pain. I was about ready to either fall over or throttle someone. But that's the exception and not the rule. And technically that might be too much of a break between washing and the blessing that you're not allowed to do that. I'm not sure.)

Also, people were asking me a lot of questions about Judaism. I mostly had answers for them. ("Do you still identify as Reform?" "No. Definitely not." "You're not training to be a rabbi, are you?" "No, I'm the opposite of a rabbi, if there is such a thing. The anti-rabbi.") There was a discussion on bar and bat mitzvahs, and intermarriage and egalitarianism and kashrut and all sorts of things. There's another religious Jew in the class, but she wasn't there last night, so I really was the only one who could answer such things. Also, I get the feeling she doesn't really like talking about her Judaism in terms of answering basic questions and stuff.

And people felt bad about the fact that I couldn't eat anything, even though I told them that I do this all the time and that I knew I couldn't eat anything.

I forgot to mention that I got a 93 on the second midterm. I mostly knew my paradigms but I made a few silly mistakes, though I think most of the points I lost came from the translations oddly enough.

I've been trying to study for tomorrow's quiz. It seems like there's deceptively little material to study. Maybe I'm finally getting it, and at this point a lot of things are repetitive and I just need to memorize where they are different. Or maybe I'm going to do badly on this quiz. I would like one perfect score. Maybe, just maybe I'll get that if I spend enough time studying.

I'm reading the 3rd chapter of Eicha/Lamentations¹ which has a different tune from the rest of Eicha. I've never done it before, but 2 years ago in Israel I heard someone do it and she had a very pretty and haunting melody. I tried to remember it, but inevitably didn't remember it in its entirety. However, the woman who read it was at Koach Kallah last year, so when we were ice skating I talked to her, and asked her to sing it for me again.

I thought this time I knew it, and could easily learn chapter 3. However, things didn't seem to be lining up. It goes in sets of 3 verses, and it fit the first 2 verses, but I had to stretch it for the 3rd verse. And I shouldn't have to stretch it, it should fit.

It turns out if you google "Eicha Trope" the first link actually has the melody that I was taught, as opposed to the one that other people around here know. So I could learn it again from there.

However, it's too high for me. So I called timmypowg:

Me: Can you do me a musical favor?
Him: Sure
Me: I'm reading the 3rd chapter of Eicha, and I have a recording of the melody, but I'm having trouble transposing it for some reason. Can you transpose it for me?
[some discussion about computery stuff]
Him: Download audacity. It will let you change the pitch. If it won't read it then I can transpose it for you, but this will be easier.
Me: Ok. Thanks!

So then I downloaded the software, fed the recording in, got rid of the first few seconds where the lady introduces it, and then lowered it a few steps. Now I can sing it!

And elfsdh is going to help me go over the pronunciation when I know it better to make sure I didn't learn it wrong.




¹It's called "Eicha" because that's the first word in the Hebrew. Eicha literally means "how." Hebrew names for books and chapters and stuff can be quite fun sometimes, since they pretty much always name something after the first important word in it. Thus Exodus is "Shemot" in Hebrew, which means "names" and Deuteronomy is "Devarim" which means "things." The 5 books of the Torah translate to In the Beginning, Names, and He said, In the Wilderness and Things. Gotta love Hebrew.

So we have a summer campaign, which has been running for 3 weeks now. There are 4 players and one DM. dsKC is DMing (I've mentioned this before) because he is made of awesome. Also in the campaign are JTB (adding a middle initial so as not to confuse him with either JB of swing and salsa dancingness or JB from Penn who gabbais CJC) JM (who is a different JM than JM who is in HRSFA and was in my last campaign. Actually, that JM can be JTM now. Why does everyone have to have the same initials?!?!) and N. N was a relatively late addition, in that I was visiting him during swing dancing the Wednesday before the campaign started, when I asked if he was interested in joining the campaign, seeing as we hadn't started yet, we only had d3 players, and there was still plenty of time for him to come up with a character. He was very excited by this, and joined our little campaign.

( D&D! )

The session went for almost 8 hours, and afterwards JM, N, dsKC and I went to see the Batman movie, which JTB had already seen but highly recommended. We all enjoyed it.

We might not be having a D&D session next week if the Greek midterm of doom destroys dsKC and I. I messed up a few things on the quiz on Friday, despite the crazy amount of studying I did. Though I do better on midterms because they also have translations in addition to the paradigm memorization, and I can get translations right or mostly right.

And I'm meeting with the professor tomorrow, so hopefully that will help.

I totally thought I did horribly on the Greek midterm. Like a C. Like a B would have been a wonderful grade to get. As a result I was feeling a bit depressed this afternoon before class, and was dreading getting the midterm back. It would totally be my fault for doing badly, since I didn't study enough.

I got a 92.5. As in an A-. Not a C. Not a B. An A-.

WTF?

The professor was very generous with partial credit. Though I did get one sentence 100% correct that not too many people got, because the verb had two separate subjects, and the second was implied. I figured it was the only way to translate it that made sense, and lo, I was right.

Here I was thinking this would be the test that I'd do badly on which would serve as a wake-up call, telling me to study further ahead of time and not cram. This was going to be it. But no, it was not. I can stick to what I've been doing, though I do need to figure out the accents, which I sometimes got right and other times did not. On the next midterm he will start to take off points for them.

I've been a bit loopy today, and after class was no exception. dsKC and I got ice cream. And we talked D&D. And I got a message from cynara_linnaea who called while I was in class. I'll see her at swing on Wednesday (though I'll be there late because of Greek, as usual). Whee!!

I'm still sick. Last night I had considered going to gaming after dinner at navelofwine and elfsdh's house, but decided it would be better to go to bed. I had felt dizzy during the meal and initially thought it could be the wine, but I hadn't even had half a glass. So I was confused.

On my way back I ran into my housemates. currentlee gave me some drugs, (Mucinex, which is an expectorant) since my sinuses hurt and my ears were blocked up. So I took the drugs, drank some water and some tea, and went to bed.

I woke up at 7, went back to sleep, woke up at 8 when my alarm went off, went back to sleep again, and properly woke up at 9:30. I had been planning on going to services, since afterwards there was a potluck lunch MZ had planned and leftyjew was going to be there, visiting from DC. But my roomies and I decided it would be better for me to sleep more and try to recover.

So after a small breakfast I went to bed again and woke up around 1:30. I showered, which helped a little, got dressed, and went downstairs. I had some ginger ale since I felt dehydrated and was afraid I wasn't retaining any water, and also I was having trouble drinking the water, but for some reason the ginger ale was easier to manage. (Unfortunately that was my only can. I could use some right now.) I eventually forced myself to eat a few rice cakes, but I wasn't feeling very hungry.

At 6 I set out for campus, for D&D. I met dsKC at his place, and he gave me some orange juice before we set out for the quad, which is where D&D was. Also, dsKC carried my backpack for me, which was nice of him.

There was D&D. I'll do a proper update when I'm feeling less sick. It was enjoyable, despite my sickness, and I'm looking forward to being able to explore the world.

But my ears are back to being blocked up, and I've been feeling dizzy all day. dsKC was impressed by the fact that I walked all the way there.

I should be in bed. Yay bed!