Happy Halloween!

An update: my phone has gone into a coma. Living for two days without being able to communicate via speech to any of my family or friends away from Tallahassee has been surprisingly difficult. I mean, I know that we used to live like that until the last few decades - but I never did! So any kind of loneliness I might have felt beforehand is now exponentially stronger. It's just a little tough. :-(

But never fear! The Sprint people (as though they are a separate race of humans...) told me that I will be getting a new phone on Monday after 2pm. Why such a different answer than a few weeks ago when I complained of screen issues? Apparently they have a different opinion on phones with condensation under the screen. Hooray!

And it's Halloween!! Woohoo! I've learned to become a bit wary about 'parties' around these parts, what with underage drinking and skankiness always making a showing. So my big celebration ended up happening last night instead of this evening, when the FLYSAGA (FLorida Young Single Adults GeorgiA) group threw a Halloween dance at the Institute building in Gainesville, FL. The "Zombie Prom" as it was affectionately named was awesome, with dancing and food and fake blood and dead faces galore! But I must admit...I was a bit of a bum and didn't go in a costume (I've had a hard week, okay!). Thankfully, a friend of mine named Claire viciously applied eye shadow to my entire face - along with a few artful dabs of pomegranate Burt's Beeswax lip balm - and made me a zombie-fied college student! Hooray again!

I'll try to get some pictures from...um, well, I guess from anybody that was there, and then put them on here. It was a ton of fun! Even the 2 1/2 hour drive was a lot of fun (especially leaving Gainesville after 1am - and getting back into my own bed at 5am).

So here is my tribute to the Halloween spirit. After all, we must remember the reason for the season.


("Has Halloween Become Overcommercialized?" from The Onion)

I overslept! September's LONG over!

A lot has happened here in sleepy Tallahassee over the last month. Let me explain. No, there is too much - let me sum up. (Yes, that is a quote from The Princess Bride for those of you that caught it.)

I auditioned for the opera Serse (Xerxes in English), and have been cast as Arsamene. Woohoo! There goes my Christmas break, learning a role! ;-)

I have taught voice lessons now for a couple of months. Who knew that I would take to private teaching?

My truck has now been replaced with a green Honda Civic. Crazy! But SO MUCH BETTER in gas mileage. You have no idea.

Also, I have decided to plan my descent into the 9th Level of Hell by signing up to do National Novel Writing Month next month. There are a few people in my ward that are going to do it, and they explained the whole thing to me. The basics: I'm going to write a 50,000-word novel during the month of November. As in 30 days. That equals out to about 1,667 words a day!


When they (my "friends"...) first told me about this, I thought they were simply crazy and/or masochistic. A whole novel in 30 days? What are they thinking?! I mean, I considered doing it at the time...but along the lines of crazily considering what it must be like to get struck by lightning (sizzle/KABOOM!), get in a fight with a shark (poke it in the eye!!), or leap off the Empire State Building (it would be pretty windy). Those aren't exactly serious considerations here.

But then I thought, "Ben, you used to write all the time when you were younger! Why not search for that creative side of you again?" And I have to admit...I had a pretty creative and active imagination. Even now my id likes to play around with me, giving me intense dreams with Blu-ray detail and elegant plotlines. But to actually dredge that part of my brain out of the muck of mediocrity? It'd be difficult to do.

So I decided to do it on a whim. That's how these crazy decisions work, isn't it?