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kazI KNOW my mother sent me a straw wreath base for my first Christmas in the UK, but it appears to have got lost in the many many moves since. I've spent the last *hour* or something googling these things and turning up NOTHING. Except, occasionally, "you can get straw rings in any crafts store" - how funny, I am panickedly perusing the inventory of all the crafts stores in my areas I can Google and turning up NOTHING.
Advent is tomorrow and it looks as if I won't have a wreath. Nor do I yet have candles, nor will I be allowed to *light* them if I do - was thinking of faking flames out of yellow paper but I have no idea where to get that. Nor do I have an advent calendar, for that matter - I have no idea where to get the paper kind with the pictures here, I might be forced to buy a chocolate one and most of *those* are incredibly ugly and have MARS or CADBURY'S written on them in big letters and makes it clear they think you're only buying them for the CHOCOLATE!!! (who effing cares about the chocolate?! I really really really prefer the paper kind, ty. The chocolate ones start looking more and more ugly the nearer you get to Christmas, which I do not think is the point.) I take my cultural Christmas traditions very very seriously, and this is the first year where I will not be able to celebrate *any* of the four advents at home, so I really cannot articulate just how dreadful this makes me feel.
And I have chorus rehearsal for the concert tomorrow in an hour and I'm seriously contemplating just not going. I'm going to drop out after Christmas anyway because the rehearsals are set at a horrible time and for some reason the conductor hits every "annoying person" button I seem to have - I often wind up fighting tears and/or the urge to stand up and yell at him SHUT UP AND LET ME SING. I'm not entirely sure what it is; I think part of it is that he talks too fast, so I have a hard time understanding him, he doesn't pause enough and so I often wind up lagging behind because he hasn't given me the time to parse "what did he say? where did he say we were starting from? Oh right, there. *flips to there*". Similarly, if he wants to stop us while we're singing to tell us something he'll just start. Talking. About that. Instead of doing something like "Stop!", then wait for us to stop, then start talking. Which hits my "not given enough time to switch tasks" button.
Oh yeah, and it seems like every single criticism of his is about how we articulate the words - I don't think there's been a SINGLE thing he said about the dynamics, or the rhythm, or *anything* other than "World IS known, not Worl DIS known, it sounds like you're singing about Disney!" or "make 'inspired' sound as if you're actually INSPIRED!" And, uh, when people are singing stuff like this, I would not be able to tell the difference between "world is known", "worl dis known" or "la la la". Seriously. I'm not against working on my articulation a bit for people who hear that kind of stuff, but when every. Single. Thing. He asks us to work on is something where I couldn't hear the difference as a member of the audience and often can't hear the difference while I'm singing it? I get pissed off.
This probably all wouldn't be such an issue if it weren't for the aforementioned HORRIBLE TIME business - rehearsal is between five and seven on a day where I have two hours of lectures and three of tutorials (including one where I am *giving* the tutorial) starting at nine, so by the time it rolls around I am hungry, tired, running seriously low on spoons and my mental dialogue is along the lines of "please let me go home please let me go home." I still enjoy the singing bit but anything else is like sandpaper on my nerves.
OH YEAH and I know I ranted about this a few weeks ago, but. Singing everything a semitone lower? Is a uniquely bizarre experience when you have perfect pitch. And apparently they do this - scores not set in the key we actually sing in - regularly.
...aaand you know I'd like to go to the concert just because hey, I forced myself to GO to the damn rehearsals didn't I?! but I'm sitting here about to cry because of the failed advent business and I really don't know if I can take two hours of him. And if I don't go to the Saturday rehearsal, I'm going to have to contact... someone... to tell them that I'm still in the concert so they have a seat for me and I don't think I can manage that in my current state either. And. And.
MY ADVENT. D:
Advent is tomorrow and it looks as if I won't have a wreath. Nor do I yet have candles, nor will I be allowed to *light* them if I do - was thinking of faking flames out of yellow paper but I have no idea where to get that. Nor do I have an advent calendar, for that matter - I have no idea where to get the paper kind with the pictures here, I might be forced to buy a chocolate one and most of *those* are incredibly ugly and have MARS or CADBURY'S written on them in big letters and makes it clear they think you're only buying them for the CHOCOLATE!!! (who effing cares about the chocolate?! I really really really prefer the paper kind, ty. The chocolate ones start looking more and more ugly the nearer you get to Christmas, which I do not think is the point.) I take my cultural Christmas traditions very very seriously, and this is the first year where I will not be able to celebrate *any* of the four advents at home, so I really cannot articulate just how dreadful this makes me feel.
And I have chorus rehearsal for the concert tomorrow in an hour and I'm seriously contemplating just not going. I'm going to drop out after Christmas anyway because the rehearsals are set at a horrible time and for some reason the conductor hits every "annoying person" button I seem to have - I often wind up fighting tears and/or the urge to stand up and yell at him SHUT UP AND LET ME SING. I'm not entirely sure what it is; I think part of it is that he talks too fast, so I have a hard time understanding him, he doesn't pause enough and so I often wind up lagging behind because he hasn't given me the time to parse "what did he say? where did he say we were starting from? Oh right, there. *flips to there*". Similarly, if he wants to stop us while we're singing to tell us something he'll just start. Talking. About that. Instead of doing something like "Stop!", then wait for us to stop, then start talking. Which hits my "not given enough time to switch tasks" button.
Oh yeah, and it seems like every single criticism of his is about how we articulate the words - I don't think there's been a SINGLE thing he said about the dynamics, or the rhythm, or *anything* other than "World IS known, not Worl DIS known, it sounds like you're singing about Disney!" or "make 'inspired' sound as if you're actually INSPIRED!" And, uh, when people are singing stuff like this, I would not be able to tell the difference between "world is known", "worl dis known" or "la la la". Seriously. I'm not against working on my articulation a bit for people who hear that kind of stuff, but when every. Single. Thing. He asks us to work on is something where I couldn't hear the difference as a member of the audience and often can't hear the difference while I'm singing it? I get pissed off.
This probably all wouldn't be such an issue if it weren't for the aforementioned HORRIBLE TIME business - rehearsal is between five and seven on a day where I have two hours of lectures and three of tutorials (including one where I am *giving* the tutorial) starting at nine, so by the time it rolls around I am hungry, tired, running seriously low on spoons and my mental dialogue is along the lines of "please let me go home please let me go home." I still enjoy the singing bit but anything else is like sandpaper on my nerves.
OH YEAH and I know I ranted about this a few weeks ago, but. Singing everything a semitone lower? Is a uniquely bizarre experience when you have perfect pitch. And apparently they do this - scores not set in the key we actually sing in - regularly.
...aaand you know I'd like to go to the concert just because hey, I forced myself to GO to the damn rehearsals didn't I?! but I'm sitting here about to cry because of the failed advent business and I really don't know if I can take two hours of him. And if I don't go to the Saturday rehearsal, I'm going to have to contact... someone... to tell them that I'm still in the concert so they have a seat for me and I don't think I can manage that in my current state either. And. And.
MY ADVENT. D:
Also not to try and -fix- everything, and not listen, but, if technology can help you feel calmer:
Free Software
http://rbytes.net/software/advent-revie
http://www.downloadthat.com/windows/Scr
Printables
http://www.janbrett.com/christmas_treas
http://howaboutorange.blogspot.com/2
If you don't have a colour printer, maybe you can colour in with markers?
With international shipping times it might not get there until well into Advent though. :/
(We traditionally made our own advent wreaths by sticking small candles into a decorated margarine tub - when I couldn't have fire I used different colored candles for lit and unlit. It's not the same, though.)
Sunflower