A few thoughts for an early Friday morning ...

Considering I stayed away from blogging for the week, I have a few thoughts to share.

1. It was really nice to see a few of my high school friends join Facebook. I hadn't heard from most since having graduated high school, and it was really nice to catch up with them.


2. I auditioned for the Choral Society of Durham last Monday. My friends Jane Lynch and David Arcus encouraged me to audition. I will admit that I don't feel like I did all that well. Really, what this audition told me was that I definitely lost my upper range due to my extended bout with laryngitis. What used to come to me easily now doesn't, and I was not able to hit a high A during my audition. I think I passed the sight-reading test though. They had me read the alto line, and I think I did fine. I even managed to hit accurately an octave jump, which they admitted most missed. I'll find out if I passed the audition the middle of next week. And ... I won't mind singing alto. Perhaps I really am more of a mezzo-soprano than I am a soprano anyway, but still, it was a bit distressing to me to be presented with tangible proof of the damage sustained as a result of the laryngitis.


3. I decided to start up a LiveJournal page dedicated to my writing endeavours. My stories, both fan fiction and original fiction, will be posted there, and I am in the process of copying my writing-related posts from this blog to my LiveJournal page. Any posts to do with writing will now be posted there. Feel free to friend me over there.


4. I will admit to not having paid much attention to the weather reports lately. Perhaps I should ... people in the coastal areas of North Carolina are bracing themselves for a pair of storms. Tropical Storm Hannah is expected to make landfall this weekend. My friends in Wilmington are a bit more nervous about Ike. A good site to track storms is the National Hurricane Centre.
   
   Whilst checking local sources for news of Hannah, I noticed a side discussion ... most of which seemed to be very critical of North Carolina Governor Mike Easley. Why were they critical: they seemed to think his declaring a state of emergency in advance of the storm was overkill. Frankly, I don't see what the big deal is. Since when did "better safe than sorry" become subject to criticism? As I mentioned above: more of the concern seems to be over Ike than over Hannah. But still - a storm reaching landfall still has the potential to do damage. The students at the Episcopal Centre at Duke University were supposed to have had their annual beginning-of-the-school-year retreat at the beach this weekend, but chose to cancel that, thanks to Hannah. Again, a better safe than sorry approach. My thoughts and prayers go out to friends at the coast, praying for their safety and well-being as they weather the impending storms.


5. Last thing. My turn at hosting the next Catholic Carnival is coming up next week. I am already receiving submissions for it. Click here for a reminder of what the Catholic Carnival is, courtesy of the Carnival Keeper, Jay at Living Catholicism. A handy-dandy submissions form may be found by clicking here. In addition, a list of past and future Carnivals may be obtained by clicking here.
   
   I look forward to reading your submissions!