Start spreadin' the news...

I'm leaving today....to visit my favorite city in the continental United States: New York! I'll be going for business, but staying for an extended weekend of pleasure. A few items about this trip:

A. My hotel room in Manhattan for one night cost more than my round-trip flight.

2. I get to hop a train down to Baltimore after my meeting to go see the little sis-in-law at school!

3. Mason doesn't get to come with me and it's slowly making my excitement for the trip dwindle. I suppose I'll get over it though once I walk into Barney's.

D. HELL HAS FROZEN OVER. I'll be taking a certain novel with me to read on the planes, trains, and in the automobiles. It's a novel I swore I'd never read, simply because I sometimes take unfounded stances against things because they are popular and/or mainstream. Yes, it's true, ladies and gentleman, I've gone to the dark side.......

The non-ugh Ugg

Let's face it. While Ugg boots--and all of their generic brand copycats--may be the warmest, coziest, comfiest, most weather-repelling, and the easiest-boots-to-pull-on-before-making-a-peppermint-mocha-run manufactured in all the land, they sure are Uggly. The utility and convenience of these boots have caused me to throw my better instincts to the wind and buy a couple of pairs in winters past, I'll admit it. The Ugg boot, after all, is "the flip flop of winter" (TM, copyright, and patent pending to Morris) . And when you live in Salt Lake City, finding a winter equivalent to the flip flop is CRITICAL.

But this year, when sliding on my sand-colored, horribly lazy, sloppy, clompy off-brand Uggs, I thought to myself, "Self, this is unacceptable. You are better than this. Remember who you are and what you stand for."

So my friend Google and I did some investigating and found these bad boys. Still cozy and perfect for winter? Yes. As Uggly? No.

These particular buttoned-wonders are Kenneth Cole Reaction, but there are many brands, yes, including Ugg, making some really cute alternative choices to the traditional Ugh/Ugg. Hopefully these will arrive on my doorstep soon, saving me from clomping and stomping my way through the winter season.

Choir Nerd Alert!!!

Ever since my choir's first Christmas concert last Saturday, I've been an IMMENSE choir nerd. Listening to choir CDs (dating all the way back to Skyline High Highlites '98), devouring the MoTab's Christmas albums from generations past, actually enjoying rehearsal on Sunday and Wednesday nights, and anxiously awaiting our next holiday gig.

Saturday's was uber special because it was in the Tabernacle on Temple Square. We sold out our 7:30 performance, so we had to book a 5:30 one as well. Yeah, we're kind of a big deal. I've seen so many concerts and events in that historic building, but never from the choir seats. Let me just tell you people, the soft, red choir seats are about 79 times more comfortable than those bloody wooden benches. Sitting on those things for any time period longer than 30 minutes will surely lead to a severe case of DBS (Dead Butt Syndrome).

Besides the plush seating, the other perk was how amazing the organ sounded from that proximity. It rumbled the seats and shook our sheet music. Our rehearsal actually ended up sounding better than both performances that night, but that's just the way the cookie crumbles sometimes. I wish everyone could've been at the rehearsal to witness "Come Thou Long Expected Savior" (a Christmas rendition of "Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing, a.k.a. MY FAVORITE HYMN EVER IN EXISTENCE). David was pounding on the organ, the band joined us for the first time, and all 280 singers have never been more responsive to our conductor. I just had chills up and down.

Ever since that moment, it's been so obvious that for me, Christmas just isn't Christmas unless I am singing in a choir like that. I sang in choirs every Christmas in high school, but there has definitely been an unfortunate seasonal void in my life since then. This new choir has finally filled it. And I don't expect any non-choir nerds to really understand what I mean when I say that. It probably just sounds like a bunch of hogwash, but people, until you've felt the satisfaction of hundreds of voices (or even just 24, like my Skyline Madrigals) come together on that one perfect chord that could bring you to tears, you just won't get it. So maybe you'll just HAVE to take my word for it. Take that, Lavar Burton.

My other favorite part of choir is that I'm sitting next to my mommy the whole time. If you ever need to learn how to sing parts, or find a harmony in a certain song, I recommend sitting yourself down on the pew, right next to my mom. As far back as I can remember, she would sing the alto part of the hymn for one verse to help me find it, then she'd move back to the soprano line, encouraging me to find and sustain the alto harmony on my own. Then on the third verse, we'd try the tenor line together, which always lead to a gigglefest when our voices would hit the low "manly tones." She's the only reason I have my long-standing love affair with harmony. She's the one who made me audition for Highlites, the all-girl barbershop choir. She's the reason I can listen to a melody line that Mason has written and write a harmony on top of it or underneath it. She's the one who found and joined the choir, I just tagged along.

So thanks for letting me tag along, Mamacita. You are the ORIGINAL choir nerd, and this apple didn't fall far from the tree. Luckily, I see that as a good thing.