Benefit concert

A theater friend has organized a small concert with silent auction as a fundraiser for a local charity.  She's invited me and a few other women she's performed with to sing and has lined up a wonderful accompanist as well.  She has asked all of us to wear black dresses so she can call this an LBD benefit.

We've had individual rehearsals with the accompanist, and we had a run-through yesterday with all of us.  The program has a very interesting assortment - broadway, opera, G&S, cabaret - lots of variety, well presented.  I just hope people come!  (I'm nervous about that only because I live far enough away from the church hosting the concert that none of my church choir, for example, would want to go.)

I'm a little sad about the line-up, only because my pieces (1 solo, 1 duet (from G&S' Patience), 1 trio ("Three Little Maids from School") are all in the first half.  Then no more singing for me!  However, there's plenty of great music to listen to; that'll have to console me. :)

I took my dress with me yesterday because I wanted some input on which jewelry to wear with it.  As I was putting it on, though, the zipper broke.  I mean, really broke, as in broken teeth!  (It's a lovely vintage dress and this is the original zipper.)  I plan to take it to the cleaner's tomorrow to see if their alterations person can replace the zipper by Friday.  The dress' bodice has a lot of shirring and a waist seam, though, so this would be even more problematic than a "normal" zipper replacement.  Yesterday I went out and bought a back-up dress.  Managed to find a Jones New York dress for just $20!  Not fancy, but it'll look great with pearls, so if I can't wear my first choice, I have a good back-up.

Just in time for Ash Wednesday

Found this on someone's Facebook page. If you need ideas for a more meaningful Lent, this is a great source of good ideas: http://www.nicksenger.com/csc/101-practical-fasting-ideas-for-lent

Beautiful definition of success

To laugh often and much;
to win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children;
to earn the appreciation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of false friends;
to appreciate beauty;
to find the best in others;
to leave the world a little better, whether by a healthy child, a garden patch, or a redeemed social condition;
to know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived.
This is the meaning of success.

-- Ralph Waldo Emerson

"Drowning doesn't look like drowning"

This blogger wants everyone to know that the symptoms of drowning look nothing like what you see on TV or in the movies. With pool/lake/beach season here, please be sure to read this so we can keep each other safe.

http://mariovittone.com/2010/05/154/

Donate miles

If you've got frequent flyer miles you can't use, put them to good use. Fisher House provides free on-base housing to family members traveling to visit a loved one in the military who's recuperating in a military hospital.

The Fisher House Foundation also administers several other programs supporting military families, including the Hero Miles program, which provides free airfare to military members traveling for medical treatment and for their families' travel to visit them. The way Fisher House can do this is by having individuals donate their frequent flyer miles.

Different airlines have different donation procedures, so the Fisher House website has made it easier to donate by listing links to each airline's process here. It even includes instructions for donating miles you earn with a credit card. If you can't use those miles yourself, donate them to someone who needs them rather than let them go to waste. And if you can use them but would rather donate, well, even better!

Six Ways to Help Haiti

Dooce posted this link to a post by Chris Sacca on Six Ways You Can Help in Haiti. God knows they need all the help we can send them!

Update: Several commenters on Mr. Sacca's post have provided links to other charities working on Haiti relief, and Habitat for Humanity (habitat.org) is also gearing up to provide housing there.

Why is this so complicated?

I've wasted a bit of time this weekend trying to find someone who'll cut my hair for my Locks of Love donation. The first two times I donated, I just went in, got my hair cut, and done. This time? Not so easy, for some unknown reason or reasons.

Attempt #1: Called the salon around the corner, which I haven't patronized in lots & lots of years. I thought I had made a 4pm appointment w/ Matilda, but when I got there, I was told Matilda had already gone home for the day. I took in the spanish-language program on the tv, looked around & realized I was probably the only person there not a native speaker of Spanish, saw how many people were waiting (for their turn? for the person they'd brought there?) and realized that perhaps the person who took my name didn't understand "appointment", only the time I was asking about.

Attempt #2: Called the salon I used last time, where the woman had done a particularly good job (20 miles away, which is why I didn't call them first). I was told that donation cuts are done on a walk-in basis only; probably because they do it for free, so paying customers get first dibs. Fair enough. So I drove over there after church this morning only to find a different salon there! I tried to reach TW to have him check the address (which of course I'd left at home, along w/ the phone number), but no luck, so I went into the salon anyway. The gentleman working alone had obviously never heard of Locks of Love and couldn't take me anyway, so I drove back home, having wasted nearly 2 hours in the process. Once he realized what I was trying to accomplish, he did say that what I was trying to do was nice. I wish now that I'd had the presence of mind to give him the donation instructions I'd printed out.

Plan C: Call the place again, find out exactly where they are, landmarks and all, and try again next weekend.

More FreeRice and other good sites

I checked in at FreeRice.com again today. I got all new words, and it seemed to remember my vocab level from last time. The words were a lot harder this time; I got 40 out of 42, but only because they give you 4 fairly different options for each word, making it easy to rule out at least 1 or 2 right off the bat. Some of the words I'd never even heard of before - delict and hyson are just 2 examples. I'll have to go back every so often and play again, if only to collect new words and stretch at least my recognition vocabulary. And the fact that I can help donate rice is a nice perq, too.

I think I've already mentioned the site where you can click to help fund mammograms. Turns out there's a related site that works similarly, but this time you click to fund food programs. This click-and-donate stuff seems almost too easy and painless to be for real, but snopes.com says they're legit.

And of course Locks of Love is another unusual charity in that it takes donations in the form of hair. I'm about due to make another donation, probably after the holidays when things slow down a bit.

Free rice and free vocab

Found FreeRice.com on Shelly's blog. She's a librarian, so we share a love of words. FreeRice is a funny little site - you take a vocab quiz which keeps feeding you questions as long as you want to keep answering. For every so many you answer correctly, you donate 10 grains of rice. I don't know how many questions I answered (I got 'em all right; it pays to read a variety of genres set in different historical periods), but I donated 500 grains.

Check it out - have fun testing your vocabulary and do good while you're at it.