augh, I am feeling an odd sense of displacement. my favorite style bra ever has been redesigned… now it forces me to stand up straight, and pushes me way up and out, and my back is hurting a lil bit. also, they vanity sized it! For the last 3 years I have bought a 38 H, and when I ordered the same size, the cups were pointier and I didn’t have the volume to fill it out! I went in to the store to return it (big cup sizes are special order) and they had an F cup in store, so I tried it on, and it fit - I haven’t been able to buy a bra in a store since before my children were born. o.O Anyhow, I am mourning the demise of the ultra comfy microfiber balconette I loved, and am hoping against hope that as I break this bra in, that it will not hurt my back. I think that the old style of bra was the only thing keeping me from seeking a reduction, because it gave me support without pain! Oh well. Change is good, right?

just woke from a really weird dream. everyone in my fb friends was performing something at my end of year recital I throw, paul/pablo of wapsi square was our school teacher, I was emcee. he had me give everyone a pep talk right before hand, then lead everyone in stretches before the show, and I came up with a new stretch that seems like something I should do as a dance warmup. wide stance squat, take your arms around and behind your bum, hands clasped under you. apply tension by ’sitting’ on your vlasped hands (or if you are less flexible, grasp bottom of thighs with hands and pull) - kind of a yoga cat feel in the spine, while squatting, keeping shoulders dropped and shoulder blades aligned with the flat back. this would stretch shoulder, back, and thighs all in one go. does anyone know if this is a real stretch, and if so, what is it called? in my dream I called it the monster squat, and I just tried it while not asleep, and it popped a million sore bits in my back….

so, twitter/facebook status seems to be taking the place of blogging. why? not sure. regardless, I need to convince myself of getting back in the habit of blogging more often, and in more than 240 characters! oh, and I finally figured out how I want to do my webcomic without being too much like every other comic out there. keep an eye out, I will make an announcement once I get it moving. inspiration has struck, and I am hoping that it will be interesting to others…

yeah, so I had a choir rehearsal tonight, and I noticed something. I can sing in my nice mixed voice for hours (2 hours tonight, and I could have kept going for a good while longer), but then when I go back to speaking, my voice gets kinda husky until I get my throat really clear (loads of swallowing/water). this isn’t something I ever paid attention to while still at school because I was still developing a good strong mixed voice then (inconsistent at the time). any ideas about why this happens? too much chest in my mix? but my singing tonight was free and easy, even up to b or c above the staff(before I have to flip into my head voice), no pushing or straining? I did have a hard time hitting A below the staff by the end of 2 hours, it came out awfully whispery. I know some of my bloggy friends also sing, and teach singing as well… I request a brain picking!

oh and I forgot, happy birthday to me, first year in forever that I don’t get an actual birthday party, thanks to this stupid virus. I would rather be sick at thanksgiving than over the last 2 weeks of october. at least my husband is taking me out to dinner to Tucano’s tonight - he even said he would let them sing in brazilian at me and bang their drums, if it made me feel better. still not my annual costume party, but just about as good.

stupid virus made my son miss his first kindergarten field trip, and his turn at show and tell. it means my daughter misses her first preschool halloween parade… stupid stupid virus. my kids have to miss another day, even though neither one is still contagious, because they are still coughing so much it’s gross.

so, o forgotten blog of mine… I am pretty sure I have some form of influenza. my doc doesn’t do the test to see if its swine flu or not, so I have no clue what strain I’ve got. but needless to say, I feel super-crappy. last night was the worst, my fever was around 103 and I all weird and dizzy until my meds kicked in, but I am not sleeping well thanks to massive coughing, lung congestion, and sinus blockage. it makes my apnea seem like nothing! My hubs says I sound like a freight train… at least I have gotten some reading done - Ursula K LeGuin’s Lathe of Heaven was a good read, and meshed well with my fever dreams! At least I have my phone with me, if I fall asleep while reading, I don’t lose my place, plus I can check facebook and post to my blog with it. oh, and a couple nights ago I sliced a piece of my thumb off with a cheese grater, and now every time I wash my hands, the thumb hurts for half an hour (which pretty much means it hurts all the time). I have been debating an attempt a knitting - somehow I think whatever I work on now will end up being taken apart and re-done, thanks to the lack of a coherent attention span…

just catching up on dancing with the stars, and my kids absolutely loved shawn johnson and mark ballas dancing the quickstep… tink even tried to do a quickstep for me, after it was done. :)

well, tink and I had a blast at the faire, even if it was so hot and sunny my necklace started to burn my chest! I was all done up in a close to accurate ottoman empire getup (based on a miniature painting I like), except when I dance I loaded up with a jingly bra and big necklace. I tried playing music for tips, but after 20 min and no takers, I decided to take tink to the gas station for lunch instead of making her wait for people to give us cash. we danced twice, and the second time, tink dance the whole set with me! she was super cute. I also did a scimitar dance, and it was pretty popular and got a bunch of people to stop and watch our show. I just wish I had remembered my camera! it was too bright for the camera on my phone to do much, so I will just wait until the other girls email the photos they took. I burnt my arms, but everything else was fine. the car ride home was brutal though, because tink slept and didn’t talk to me!

so, I know I haven’t been posting a lot lately - I’ve been a bit busy! Saturday a dog kind of fell into our laps, and all week he’s kept me going… Anyhow, this lady posted in a local online classified section that she had 2 dogs that really needed a good home, and they just happened to be Australian Shepherd mixes (the kind of dog my husband and I had decided would be a good fit with our family). This lady was about to go on a trip, and basically we knew if we didn’t get this dog, we would miss out and probably end up putting off getting a dog altogether. So we went to visit, and the dog was wonderful! mild, playful, and gentle with the kids… just a lot bigger than we expected. We brought him home (I sat in the back of the car with him to keep him calm), and he settled in really quick. He came to us completely untrained, an 11 month old dog who spent his entire life in a small pen. We kept his name (Jax), but soon discovered he didn’t even know it was his name. He learned it pretty quickly, and almost always comes when we call. He started out terrified of cement, glass, collarsl and his leash, but now he’s comfortable with everything but the leash… that will come, and then I can take him to obedience training. Tuesday we got him fixed, and boy was that an ordeal. Getting him there was fine, but coming home, he was mad at me and would NOT get in the car. He practically ripped out his fresh stitches repeatedly jumping out of the car, so I ended up having to call Matt to come help me get my grumpy, doped up pooch in the car. He’s been in an e-collar ever since, and hating every minute of it. This morning while I did my paper route, he apparently got the collar off and chewed up the straps to it… it’s back on, sealed with packing tape, until the pet store opens and I can get him a new one to wear. And yes, he was chewing his stitches. Poor guy. Luckily he only needs it for about 3 more days, then he’s free! And just a side note - my son is hilarious. The other day he said to me ‘Mom, you are mustard.’ I looked at him funny, and then he said, ‘and mom, I am ketchup!’ and then he leaned over and hugged me. Awww! He is also obsessing over this swine flu thing, and shouted yesterday, ‘I see them! I see the swine flues!’ I keep explaining to him that the germs are tiny and invisible, and his chance of getting sick is slim to none right now anyhow. He doesn’t believe me.