The Big Break

Hello world.

Guess what?

I'm officially logged out of facebook for the remainder of January.

It might kill me.

But, by golly, I'm gonna do it.

So here's to chats with good friends face to face,

being uber productive and purposeful with my time,

and living real life to the fullest today,

and at least for a month.

Who knows,

maybe I'll like living away from the cyber world enough to pick up a new hobby or 8,

make a few new friends,

learn about 4 hours worth of music,

make a dent in that reading list of mine....

the list goes on and on.

Oh yeah,

but to compensate for the dejectedness that I will undoubtedly feel,

I shall keep up my blog a bit more,

and let you know how I'm getting on.

Tout d'Amour!

Annie :)

Long Absence

Hello world!

I have been away from you for far too long, it seems. SO much has happened in my life since mid-May; too much to tell right now, but I'll just give a few highlights real quick-like. Here goes:

June-July I went to Peru on a missions/humanitarian aid trip with my Church called The Light here in Baltimore. We went 15 hours boat ride up the Amazon to a small village, where we stayed a few days, dug a well, and got to know the people. We also got stuck in that village because the 28 surrounding villages decided to rope off the river and not let anyone in our out as a way of striking against a larger oil company. Us in our boat + Them in little boats with guns= HIGHLY exciting. I also went on a 5 day mountain hike to Macchu Piccu with my friends Marie and Mark, which was greatly rewarding. Gorgeous views. Altitude Sickness. Pressing on. Wonderful.

On The Amazon At Sunrise:

Strikers With Guns Patrolling the Barrier:

My God-daughter! Sheyla-Estrella

Baptisms In The Amazon:

Neighbors Passing By In Their Boat:

Enjoying The Amazon In The Rain:

Mark enjoying the view before we began our 5 mile afternoon trek of the first day of hiking:

Our View The Morning of Trek Day 2:

Marie and I after reaching our summit of more than 15,200'!!!

Definitely the scariest moment of the trip- crossing over rapids at least 50' in the air, on unstable boards... terrifying. And yet, still invigorating.

Whew! Made it!

Me And Marie :)

A'crossin' a bridge:

Overlooking Macchu Piccu :) Amazing that I got to see one of the Wonders of the World!!!

Caroline came to visit me in my new house with Sawyerand got fancy with the picture taking for the next few pics. At Starbucks enjoying my drug of choice:

Sweet baby nephew:)

Me in a door frame... obviously...:

Sawyer and I in front of my house, a.k.a. "The Manor"

Rachael and I while waiting in the E.R. till 4 am with our friend Mark who was very ill. He's fine and dandy now, but that crazy, scary weekend made me more thankful and grateful for my Baltimore family than ever :)

I went camping with Emily and Rachael (roommates) I think I was singing "Matchmaker, Matchmaker" while collecting firewood...

The Roomies gettin' fancy with the camera while starting the campfire:

I got fancy and made us dinner one night. Yummo. Yes, this is how girls go camping. In style :)

That's all for now! Life is good. Opera rehearsals are many, busy and great, and Baltimore is cold. ha.

Love you all! It's nice to be back :)

Annie

Heat Wave

So you know how,

when you've been baking and left something in the oven for a while,

you open the oven door and that burst of heat hits your face?

I usually don't mind it, since it's nice and warm.

But, after almost a year of living here,

and using this oven,

I never remember that because the oven's so low,

and I have to bend over to open it,

the burst of heat is quite hot,

and nearly always scorches my eyebrows off.

Well, tonight I forgot that little tidbit of info again.

So as I leaned in to save my burning bunsies,

still wearing all my tons of make-up

and diamondy earrings from my afternoon singing engagement,

the blast of heat hit me in the face,

I shut my eyes tight and

felt my over-mascara-ed eyelashes curl together,

melting in the heat,

making it hard to open my eyes again....

Seriously the funniest thing that's happened to me in a long while.

My neighbors probably think I'm nutso,

but hey,

when you've gotta laugh loud, you've gotta laugh loud.

Even if you're the only one in the room.

Which I do frequently.

And since I'm on a mature rant:

"I'm an angel..."

"...sent by God."

Oh Roma Downey, how you changed our lives.

Bon nuit, mes amours.

P.S. I'm officially done with my first year of grad school!

Fin, as the frenchies say.

I can't believe this year's flown by so fast.

:)

Done. Almost.

So I've finally finished up all classes and finals for my first year of grad school! How CRAZY is that?!?!? This year just flew. Now all I have left to do is polish up my ten pieces for my jury next Wednesday. Just one more week......

i'm going home for a visit on Kohen's birthday! I'll finally get to meet little Judah! I can't wait! Check out these pictures of my little boys- they could be twins!

Kohen at 1 mo. old:

Judah at 1 mo. old:

9 days.... 9 days....

The Beauty and The Beast Library

The perfect place to hide away from distractions.

The dusty smell of old, well-loved books;

the antique desks and chairs with their wooden curlicues;

the extension chords snaking their way across the floors

from ancient outlets sporadically placed years and years ago,

currently connected to my computer so that it won't die

as I sit here for an eternal day of writing.

My eyes burn as I'm sure they slowly begin to turn rectangular shaped.

I tend to be very easily distracted.

Not to the point of having clinical A.D.D.,

but I suppose that I'm a fairly active person,

and sitting on my derrière for hours on end,

looking at the glow of a computer screen,

trying to make mature, educated sentences flow together

in research-paper format

is enough to send me over the edge.

But if I have a nice quiet place,

in a nice atmosphere,

then I can focus well for a longer period of time

without being distracted,

even by the hundreds of books surrounding me.

So I'm taking a 10 minute break from paper-writing

after 2 hours of studying

to do a little blog-writing.

Way more fun.

Way.

And I've told myself that I have 2.5 more hours

before I can give my sore petite derrière a break

from sitting on this rather uncomfortable chair.

And now that I've given myself a small break,

I realize that the section of books behind me

is the entire history of each county in England.

"East Sussex Land Tax 1785"

And the whole row in front of me is

papers and records of American history.

"War of the Rebellion/

Official records of the Union and Confederate Armies/

Series I, Vol. II"

Sheeshaloo.

My paper doesn't seem half so tough anymore.

I guess this was a successful study break.

Now back to the grinding stone.

The Journey in Winter

So I'm studying right now.

No surprise there, as finals are upon me.

But I thought I'd share with you a fun dance between the early 1800's and the late 1900's

Franz Schubert wrote a

wonderfully tragical cycle of art songs called

"Winterreise"

(vin-ter-rise-uh)

about an old, though not yet grey haired man,

who makes a winter journey

and sings about his old sweetheart,

and the hardships that he meets on his long journey.

Schubert wrote this cycle in 1827,

and it remains an extremely well-known and -performed cycle today.

Here is the first song, called "Gute Nacht," as Schubert wrote it in 1827:

And here is "Gute Nacht" orchestrated by Hans Zender in 1993:

Isn't that so interesting?!?!?!

I thought so! I love the inclusion of accordion

and all the various percussion

and use of wind instruments to bring out the wintery setting of the cycle.

Hope you get a little culture and enjoyment of these songs, as I have!

Cheers friends.

Treading Life

On my "To-Do" list,

there are 15 things

still to be done

before I can

be finished

Monday

10th.

I think that I

just might

live to see

Texas one

more

time.

m

a

y

b

e

.