Catching-up personal stuff.
61 pounds. Ya take it one at a time, you know? But I'm only 21 pounds from my goal now, and it really is a great feeling. Sadly, I have absolutely nothing to wear, but I'm hoping to remedy that at Target this morning. My body mass index started out at 36.4, and today it's 25.9, which makes it .9 from the normal range. Whew. Losing weight hasn't fixed everything, believe me, but it has helped in a lot of areas, physically, and mentally I feel good about it, myself, and so on.
My dad's in for plastic surgery for skin cancer today. No one in my family is a stranger to skin cancers of various types, but my mom and I have not yet had it nearly as bad as my father. He has cancers removed very regularly -- no kidding, every month or two, multiple ones, but his poor nose is in bad shape. A combination of many, many surgeries and past radiation treatments (an irony if ever there was one), and a very aggressive particular cancer on the bridge of his nose that defies everything everyone does. Today's a scary day -- he's already had reconstructive surgery on his nose several times, and I don't know how big this one today will be. Stay out of the sun, y'all? Most skin cancers won't kill you, true, but oh, man, the impact of having your face operated on and scarred can be significant. ::sigh::
Speaking of my dad, my Father's Day gift to him yesterday was a project I've been working on for a week or two now. I've ripped some of my recital/concert cassette tapes to mp3s. (I win the Geek Award this week! I figured out how to do it! Yay me!) My dad's always been one of my biggest fans, bless his heart, and he was really pleased.
So here's a few files grabbed from those recordings. These are old -- I do not sing much these days, although I'm vocalizing a lot right now, seeing if the old pipes are still there (they are, actually, which pleases me). I'm more a writer than a singer at the moment, though. Still, for whatever it's worth, I was for a long time a very serious singer -- made my living with it, lots of times -- and it's sort of a kick to put a few files up.
First, a couple of artsy-fartsy French songs. These are from an all-French recital I did as part of my (never finished) doctoral degree. I was a little bit on crack when I planned this concert, and put three complete song cycles on it, among them the Ariettes Oubliees, by Claude Debussy. That one was by far my favorite, and I've loaded two songs from it. C'est l'extase and Il pleure dans mon coeur. I'm more a German/Mozart/Strauss singer, French never came very easily to me, but these, for whatever reason, entranced me, adored singing them and the rest of the seven-song cycle.
Next, a little German. Did a second doctoral recital, all German, and Botschaft was part of the Brahms section. Some Wolf: Storchenbotschaft (hmm, noticing a Botschaft theme here). And finally a screamer -- Amor is part of Richard Strauss's Brentano Lieder. Was the concert ender, and okay, yeah, pretty much just a high-note orgy.
For the hell of it, you know? Heeeee. Now, to shop.
My dad's in for plastic surgery for skin cancer today. No one in my family is a stranger to skin cancers of various types, but my mom and I have not yet had it nearly as bad as my father. He has cancers removed very regularly -- no kidding, every month or two, multiple ones, but his poor nose is in bad shape. A combination of many, many surgeries and past radiation treatments (an irony if ever there was one), and a very aggressive particular cancer on the bridge of his nose that defies everything everyone does. Today's a scary day -- he's already had reconstructive surgery on his nose several times, and I don't know how big this one today will be. Stay out of the sun, y'all? Most skin cancers won't kill you, true, but oh, man, the impact of having your face operated on and scarred can be significant. ::sigh::
Speaking of my dad, my Father's Day gift to him yesterday was a project I've been working on for a week or two now. I've ripped some of my recital/concert cassette tapes to mp3s. (I win the Geek Award this week! I figured out how to do it! Yay me!) My dad's always been one of my biggest fans, bless his heart, and he was really pleased.
So here's a few files grabbed from those recordings. These are old -- I do not sing much these days, although I'm vocalizing a lot right now, seeing if the old pipes are still there (they are, actually, which pleases me). I'm more a writer than a singer at the moment, though. Still, for whatever it's worth, I was for a long time a very serious singer -- made my living with it, lots of times -- and it's sort of a kick to put a few files up.
First, a couple of artsy-fartsy French songs. These are from an all-French recital I did as part of my (never finished) doctoral degree. I was a little bit on crack when I planned this concert, and put three complete song cycles on it, among them the Ariettes Oubliees, by Claude Debussy. That one was by far my favorite, and I've loaded two songs from it. C'est l'extase and Il pleure dans mon coeur. I'm more a German/Mozart/Strauss singer, French never came very easily to me, but these, for whatever reason, entranced me, adored singing them and the rest of the seven-song cycle.
Next, a little German. Did a second doctoral recital, all German, and Botschaft was part of the Brahms section. Some Wolf: Storchenbotschaft (hmm, noticing a Botschaft theme here). And finally a screamer -- Amor is part of Richard Strauss's Brentano Lieder. Was the concert ender, and okay, yeah, pretty much just a high-note orgy.
For the hell of it, you know? Heeeee. Now, to shop.