I am exhausted.....

It has been a long and crazy week.... Monday started with my having a tickle in my throat that turned into no voice by the end of the day. After work, I had a text message from my dance instructor saying that she had fallen and hurt her hip and she asked me if I could teach class that night. So, without a voice, I taught two hours of belly dance class. Tuesday, I woke up, had no voice, and was completely stuffed up and had a horrible cough. Knowing that I had to get better and had dance rehearsal every night this week (we had a HUGE performance today - - which I will get to in a minute), I wasn't sure what I was going to do (oh, plus I stayed at work an extra hour and a half helping in another classroom on Tuesday night).

Wednesday, there were extra teachers in the building and I decided to leave early. Yes, me, I left early!!! I went to the store, picked up some cold medicine and then went home to take a nap. After setting my alarm (since I had dance class Wednesday night), I woke up and felt a little bit better. I needed to go to dance class since it was our dress rehearsal for our performance today (it was my opportunity to try out my Mom's awesome latest costume creation - - everyone LOVED it!).

Thursday night, after work, I had choir practice (there was dance practice but I went to choir.... turns out I should have gone to dance because one of our performers opted out of our performance and was replaced at the last moment) but I only stayed for the first hour out of two. I figured that even though they would be working on other pieces, they would mainly be working on the piece to sing at church today and I didn't go to church today due to our performance. I also figured that I was just starting to get my voice back so why put additional strain on in.

Friday night, even though I should have been at home in bed, I went out for dinner with some friends from work. It was fun at the restaurant but after we left the restaurant, one of the girls and I went to a little coffee house where there was live music. I had never done that before and really enjoyed listening to one of the guys sing and play his acoustic guitar. I may have to go back to the coffee house one of these days...

On Saturday, I went to dance class for our final rehearsal. We were doing a run thru of our performance for today and I did something to my knee (a knee that I have had trouble with in the past but haven't had a flair up for about 3 years). So I was given strict instructions to come home and rest my knee for today's performance. Since I was just sitting here, I worked on a jacket to wear to the belly dance festival we participated in today. I used a line drawing of a dancer my Mom had drawn and put it on the back of the jacket (using 200 crystals - - yes, I was bored and counted them) and then used crystals to spell out "shimmy diva" on the front. =)

So, that brings us to the festival today. It was SO much fun!!! I haven't been to a belly dance festival this large before. We had a great time with a great performance (even with our last minute replacement). Everyone was very impressed by our performance (and I got several compliments on my costume - - we saw the DVD and I definitely stood out in the troupe! =) ) and we enjoyed ourselves. After our performance, we had time to watch other performers and wander around a look at what the vendors had to offer. It was almost overwhelming how many different items were for sale; regardless, a great time was had by all. =)

But as you can see, I have had a very busy week and I should probably go to bed. I hope everyone has a great week! =)