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| Me in Florence, Italy, 2010 |
Awww, aren't I just too cute? And look at the fascinating foreign locale, I must be so interesting! Well, sadly for me this picture is almost 3 years old, and I'm currently stuck in the beautiful landscape of Denton, Texas. For those of you who have never experienced northern Texas, it is absolutely gorgeous...for about two weeks in late February. I guess I can't complain too much, because after my 18 years in Minnesota and 6 years in Michigan, the Texas winter is pretty nice (but I do miss snow!).
So what am I doing in Texas you ask? Oh, you didn't ask? Must have been one of the cats... Well, I am in the second year of my doctorate degree in vocal performance at the University of North Texas. That is the fancy way to say I didn't entirely know what to do with my life when I finished my master's degree and I didn't want to start paying student loans back, so I decided more school was the answer. I study singing, and I also teach undergrad students. I still don't really know what I want to be when I grow up, but I'd like to try to do some performing in opera, and find a steady teaching job, hopefully with good health insurance!
You likely all associate the fat lady with horns and an iron bra with opera, and while that costume truly does exist, the fat lady is soooooo last century! Opera, too, has fallen prey to the cultural ideal of skinny. Let's face it, when given the choice between a size 26 with a great voice, and a size 6 with a pretty good voice, the size 6 is going to win almost every time. This leads me to my on and off relationship with dieting. I've been on some sort of diet or feeling guilty that I'm not on some sort of diet since I was 10. I finally found a good fit with Weight Watchers but I just don't know a good thing when I see it so I keep wandering away. Maybe this blogging business is just a plea to the internet gods to help keep me on track.
The other important thing to know about me is that I like cats. Like, a lot. So much so that at the ripe old age of 25 I am a certifiable cat lady. But I promise I don't hoard cats, I foster them! I love my work with a local cat rescue group and I usually have anywhere from 1-3 foster cats and/or kittens in my house. As crazy as it might make me sound, working with the rescue group really keeps me sane. It's so wonderful to step outside myself once a week at adoption events and do something that makes a tangible difference in lives of the kitties and the people who adopt them.
So that is me in a rather large nutshell. Hopefully I haven't bored you too much. Although if you're still reading at this point I guess that's a good sign! Now get off the internet and be with real people! Go! Well, I suppose you can watch a few cat videos first...
