First off, Happy Birthday Mom!  I hope you have a great day

(last year’s flowers)

February Prompt:
One month into 2011, what question(s) are you living? Are there any prompts/questions that arose during #reverb10 that are still resonating in your life? Are you living new questions?

In December I participated in Reverb10, and at the beginning of February I got this prompt to continue on the creative path.  The problem is, I am reading this prompt and I don’t have any idea what it means, much less how to answer it.  What question am I living? 

I decided to refresh my memory on my reverb10 posts by browsing that category (available to you as well, at the very bottom of the page!).  I love the variety of topics that I wrote about…travel, community, change, happiness, lifestyle, love, friendship…I guess some of them are answers to questions, but I didn’t consider the prompts questions so much as, well, prompts.

The second part of the prompt about what prompts arose that are still resonating in my life?  I am definitely trying to keep up my “sense of wonder.” The other post that I really enjoyed reading again was “There is no do, only try.”  I wrote about trying new things, enjoying my city, and being less stressed over small unimportant things.  I love the idea of trying new things more than the act of it, but I have definitely tried many new things already this year…and I will continue to dream big and come up with grand ideas! 

Part three:  Are you living new questions?  Am I meant to substitute prompt for question?  I’m trying to keep up the daily blogging, first off, and sometimes I’m more inspired than other times.  Some nights I am exhausted and have very little to say.  Other days I am bursting with excitement.  Some nights I just want to post pictures of my cat.  I’m going to keep thinking about this though:  Are you living new questions?  Because…(like the beautifully different post)…I honestly don’t know what that means.  So I don’t know the answer.  Then again, I can assume that I am…

Any questions?

First I told my family and close friends

and then it became facebook official

I received dozens of congratulatory comments and some messages too!  Chris was a little slower to make it facebook official…

(from Chris’s page)

But then he made it facebook official too!

Probably not…I mean, not since LeBron left…

Enough said!

It’s been over a week now!  I still think my ring is pretty and I still want to get married!

Today I stopped by a bookstore on my way home from teaching and ended up picking up a few wedding magazines and a wedding book.  I was a little embarrassed to buy them, but it ended up being okay…as I am wearing an engagement ring.  After all, NOW is the time I actually can legitimately buy these things and not feel weird or creepy.

I haven’t spent much time thinking about my wedding in the past—I have never been one of those women who dreamed of her perfect wedding.  Now, don’t get me wrong.  I have thought about my wedding, but primarily I have thought about it while I was playing at other ceremonies and thinking about what I didn’t like about those ceremonies.  So I have lots of ideas of things that I definitely don’t want (and I won’t say here as I don’t want to insult people who might love those things!) but not as many ideas of things that I DO want.  Hence the books and magazines…I need to brainstorm. 

That’s me tonight…

By the way, evidently Friday’s performance of La Traviata is sold out, but Sunday is still available.  It’s going to be a great show!

I’m tired.  I’m definitely going to bed early tonight.

I had an exhausting (though very exciting) weekend.  For those of you who are behind on my blog (or living under a rock), I got engaged!

I’ve had 9 hours of opera rehearsal so far.  La Traviata is going well.  The St. Louis Woman’s Club is a lovely venue.  Perhaps a good place to get married? 

I didn’t do too many (none, actually) workouts over the weekend so it was great to get back to the gym today and run then workout with Mike.  He was girlishly excited that I had gotten engaged.  I feel silly getting so much attention…but I guess it’s nice…and well-deserved?

I made a new recipe tonight—Spicy Sweet Potato Wedges.  They were tasty, but I don’t think I cooked them as long as I should have.  The 500 degree temperature frightened me.  I do like sweet potatoes though.

I had lunch at a new (to me) restaurant today—Nora’s in Dogtown.  It was great—I had a pork/applesauce/brie sandwich (“For Pete’s Sake”)with tomato basil bisque soup.  Delicious.

Now to watch a show or two on tv and then rest up for a long day of teaching and more opera tomorrow. 

(Last note:  the students loved their Valentine’s cookies yesterday.)

Well, I didn’t get a blog post in yesterday because there was a lot of excitement.  I also didn’t make it to my race this morning…

That’s because yesterday I got engaged!  Chris proposed before dinner—I was so surprised.

We are going ring shopping this afternoon.  I’m hoping to have a picture of the ring soon.