An Unfenced Existence

So! I finally did it - I joined the Manassas Community Chorale for their 2007-2008 season. Well, sort of. I still have to audition, which is tomorrow night, but I'm sure I'll be fine. Even if I am audition with the Star Spangled Banner. (Oh, so not my choice, but since I don't think I could learn a show tune in a week, it's all I got.) But I went to my first rehersal yesterday, and it was a blast! We're doing a show called "Thanks for the Memory" and it's all show tunes like "All Aboard!", "Can't Help Lovin' Dat Man" and "Don't Sit Under the Apple Tree".First concert is in October. One of the concerts is at the Bruton Parish Church in Williamsburg. I'm really excited about that one.

This is my first time ever singing in a SATB chorale. The first time the basses hit a truly low note, I shivered. It's also the first time I've ever sung in a chorale this size - up to 80 people! And everyone that I've spoken to has been very nice.

ANYWAY - I FINALLY have an answer to my skin problems. It is allergies. But not to the ferrets (yes!). I'm allergic to shellfish (SUSHI, NOOO!!), artificial sweetener (COKE ZERO! NOOOO!), dustmites, and cockroaches. The moment I stopped eating sushi, crab meat, shrimp, scallops, calamari, you know, all the GOOD stuff from the sea, and stopped drinking Coke Zero and chewing sugarless gum and well, all diet soda really, the swelling and the horrific rash went away. IN LESS THAN A WEEK. I still have bouts when I forget about the newfound allergies and go out and get some Korean sushi (that was very very odd...) or eat some calamari the hives come back. Stress causes the hand eczema.

In fact, last night was a little get together to welcome new members to the MCC. There were some brownies and these really tasy chocolate chip/peanut butter cookies. And I had a few because I didn't get dinner that night. This morning I woke up swollen and my hands had new vesicles which tells me that one of them probably had Splenda in it. Lovely. I guess I can never trust a bake sale again. T.T Nor a sushi bar. Wah.

I'm also currently living at my aunt's house. Technically I'm house/cat sitting, but really, I'm enjoying the freedom of living on my own. Throw in the ferrets and it'd be a grand ol' time. It's really time to move on from where I live now and seek out greener pastures. Can't go too far, tho' cuz I just plunked 63 in the MCC so I should at least stay the year.

Still considering going back to school. But it took me a year to decide to join MCC so I figure it'll take me at least that long if not longer to figure out what I REALLY want to do. My current field is HR and I have to admit, I'm not really loving it. Practically speaking, I wouldn't mind going into real estate, but again, practically speaking, with the down turn in real estate this isn't the time (or the place) to be trying that sort of thing out. Be nice just to get a better paying job so that I could start making a dent in my student loans instead of just barely making the minimum (oh, hey, that reminds me...). My dream would be to go back to school for art and combine my mad history skills and not so mad art skills (it's something that I really need to work on) and draw stories for a living. First I think I should start taking art classes, especially anatomy. I suck at that like whoa.

But the real estate thing comes out of my love and true desire to own an old Victorian with a turret and a wrap around porch. The ones I remember best, and there are a few around here, there's one that I would kill to have (mostly to get the money to afford it, heh) and fix up, but the ones I remember best are up in New York. I loved driving passed those houses and wondering why we didn't live there. The answer to that question is all to obvious (uh, poor. And - Army brat). And watching a lot of real estate shows with my aunt. Seriously though, I think that would be an interesting and rewarding career. And I don't just mean financially, but personally. Helping people find their dream homes. Helping new families start out in a new house. Am I romanticizing it? Hell, yeah. Would I be nervous as hell all the time because I'm shyie-mc-shying-ton? A no brainer. But still something that I would dearly love to get my hand in. Don't quite know how to do it, but I would love to learn how to try.

But, as Denise may remember, my wishes and wants change like a cross dresser on speed, so who knows what I'll want in six months? I'm all kinds of crazy like that.