From the sick bed of Lydia...

I slept for over 10 hours last night, which tells you how good I was not feeling.  I called the PCMO (Peace Corps Med. Office) to find out what I should start taking because I had a feeling my lack of a voice was not going to cure itself.  I also have a pesky cough that I am trying to keep under control too.  I feel pretty good except for the fact that my voice comes and goes every hour...and the annoying cough.

Dan and Vicki (the married couple that now lives in K-grad, part of the newest group of volunteers) came by to pick something up at my apartment, and also brought me some great homemade pasta salad :)  I needed to get out of the apartment though, so I made the trek down to the post office and to pay my internet bill (all $10 USD!).  I am still waiting on Christmas/birthday packages to arrive, so every day I hold my breath that one of them will arrive.  None were there today, but I got an unexpected envelope, complete with handwriting I instantly recognized!

That, my friends, is the handwriting of one of my sweet interior design friends who was brave enough to try Russian cyrillic letters!  Out of all of my friends and family back home (besides my parents who can write in Russian cursive), Kristen would be the one person whom I would guess would try her hand at the handwriting!  All of the hours and hours we spent working on our handwriting in college finally paid off.  

Side-story: In our freshman year of college, we would get graded on our handwriting.  No joke.  I can remember hovering over my drawing board with a 60 degree triangle, practicing my slant of letters.  If you got a C on the weekly writing assignment, you had to re-do it to make you practice more.  Let's just say that I got to practice mine a LOT.  I would spend a few hours writing an excerpt from Harry Potter, only to get it back the next day with a note to re-do it.  You eventually develop your own style of architectural handwriting, but man does it take some practice.  I love my architectural handwriting now...and when people over here learn the story that I got GRADED on it, they think I'm nuts.  Thanks, Dave and Janet...for making me keep practicing :)  

Moving on, inside Kristen's wonderfully written envelope was her and Grant's (always adorable) Christmas card.  This years design did not disappoint!

Their adorable pup, Dexter

Sorry for the grainy pic...I was lazy with my iphone :)

I'm 99% sure Kristen designed the whole thing.  That's one of her talents :) and Grant is a pretty mean photo-shopper too!  He might have helped with the process!

After my walk downtown, I took a marshrutka up to Phil's apartment to give him a receipt I need turned in for reimbursement.  Then, it was time to curl up in bed again and watch a movie.  I treated myself to Something Borrowed earlier today. Now, I'm about to finish up Crazy, Stupid, Love.  That's a record for the number of movies I've watched in a good while...especially in one day!  Both movies were recommendations from my number one movie go-to advisor: Miss Kendall Haney.  She never disappoints me with things that I'll like.  After all, she's the person who introduced me to Glee.  Enough said. I've also been watching Passion conference stuff live...which you can do here.  Pretty amazing stuff.  Stay tuned for a special post tomorrow about Passion...

So, I'm still lacking motivation on doing a giant entourage of pics from vacation and celebrations.  But, I'm slowly getting them uploaded to my laptop.  Which means, you'll get little teasers here and there until I finally bite the bullet and just start uploading like crazy!  Without further ado, I give you a performance from my work.  This performance was last Tuesday, December 27, 2011.  This is in our performance hall at work and features dancers from our studio.  I have tons more video footage...so get ready.  They definitely liked rockin' out to old America tunes.  Enjoy!!