8:31 a.m. - 2006-03-16
new jobness!
Well, it's been a bajillion years, blog. And probably you're feeling neglected...I'm sorry. But life handed me a big bunch of WOO HOO!, and I just had to run with it.
Some background. I taught for several years in Pennsylvania, and then went to grad school. While I was in grad school, I realized that I loved to sing [MM in opera] but didn't love the lifestyle...being away for 4-6 weeks at a time, auditioning and being judged on a 10 minute excerpt...not for me. But I love the art form and all those crazy people who are brave enough to live their lives on that avenue. So I've been cobbling together admin, stage directing and music directing experience with the hope that many years down the line I'd be able to benevolently and masterfully run a small company.
I graduated in the spring of 2004. My hubby started grad school in the summer. Wifey needed a job! I looked into teaching again, and was offered a job at a great private school the VERY SAME DAY THAT I INTERVIEWED. Does that ever happen? So, while I wasn't 100% into teaching again, it put my hubby's mind at ease, and the school and community were lovely. It was a great choice.
But this January I received an email from a woman that I had interned for in grad school. She was leaving her position at a small opera company, and wanted to let me know just-in-case. AAAAUUUGGHHH! Great job! BAD TIMING. Leaving a school in the middle of the academic year isbad, bad, bad. Bad for the kids, bad for the school, bad for you should you ever want to teach again.
But these positions don't come up very often. I mean, I waited 2 years for something like this.
So I gave school 2 weeks notice. Told my students about it my last Tuesday. Played the musical performances on Friday and Saturday. Lots of hugs and tears from kids. Which made me feel so great to be loved, you know? But also made me feel totally guilty. [go Catholicism!]
Anyone else made a big life switch and lived to tell about it?
10:48 p.m. - 2005-10-26
Slacker McSlackerson
Holy moly has it been a long time since I posted! Here's the recap; am in the throes of an academic year, surrounded by middle and high school students [oh ye that procreate, BEWARE!] of who I adore 10% and towards 90%feel indifferently or disgust. Am directing my first tiny opera - a project that I should execute confidently, but one that I have slacked on mightily because I'm so afraid of totally sucking. [I can handle sucking at any number of mathematical tasks, or cleaning chores, any number of events, really, but I hate sucking at something I'm getting paid to do. ]
And, coolest of all, my dad was in town this evening. He's crashing at Chez Dan [dh] this evening before heading back to Pennsylvania. Let me just say that it's so incredible to spend the evening with someone who really knows you and likes you anyway. Love you Dad - thanks for taking the time to see your daughter.
More this week [hopefully] ...about this little opera gig, about school, about DH's grad school experiences, and about the ways in which red wine makes the end of the world seem more imminent and desparate.
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9:22 a.m. - 2005-10-09
Sunday paper!
I love the sunday paper.
i love walking outside in my bare feet to collect the HUGE bundle of stories that comes right to my door. God bless the newspaper delivery folks!
Sunday is my day to work on getting the dent in my couch cushions to conform perfectly to my backside. The morning consists of numerous cups of coffee, reading the paper. Lingering over the style sections, tossing out the sports section unless there's mention of the Steelers. Saving the best part 'til last...the sunday crossword. Aaaahhhh...license to sit even longer, figuring a six letter work for "saloon workers of yore". Yes, 'tis bliss...
Except for this morning.
This morning the guts of the paper, the comics, style section and crossword did not arrive.
I can't decide whether I should steal a neighbor's copy [too dangerous], run up to the gas station and purchase a copy [my husband's suggestion, to which I reply "we have home delivery so I don't have to drive up to the gas station with my bed head in order to get a crossword!!!"], or go back to bed and hope that there's a copy by the time I wake up again.
When I think about it, I am a bit of a newspaper nazi. I like to read it first. [Sorry, D.] I don't like to share it. I like to do the puzzles in pen, more because I like the feel of pen on newsprint than because I'm an expert puzzler. I just about had a fit in the faculty room a few weeks ago because I had my copy of the paper on top of my briefcase, and a colleague, instead of reaching to the table to get the community copies, grapped the front page off of my pile. Granted, I had finished reading it, so the transgression was not as large as it could've been, but I got pretty steamed! The nerve of this man to take MY PAPER! And then I got steamed at myself for being so petty. I wonder where that all came from.
Anyway. I'm going to download the crossword puzzle from the paper's website. HAH! And then go for a nice long walk in the cool [finally!] air. Maybe I'll start some stew for supper, too...
Hope you're having a lovely day, with some room for relaxing!
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7:52 p.m. - 2005-10-07
first date thread
I was reading Karin's blog [three-part-harmony] where she asked for first date stories. Here's mine.
I met my hubby D. at a bar. Yep. We used to tell people that we met when he tripped on the sidewalk in front of my house, but it was totally transparent. I had given a recital, and was GOING OUT DANCING with 2 girlfriends, the fact that I was starting to feel a little under the weather unimportant to our plans. D and his buddies were at the bar, and we danced and drank. D drove us home like a gentleman, but I ended up getting sick and losing my voice. [He had a new Jeep wrangler, but in the dark - and in our state, we couldn't get the top up. And 1 AM in September is a mite chilly!] Couldn't call to tell him - I sounded like a prank caller!
So, by the time I got my voice back and called him it had been a few days...[ask D and he'll say it was anything from a week to two months - the length of time gets longer with every retelling] and we had been, well, pretty schnockered. We agreed to meet at a coffee shop near my house. I must've changed my clothes a million times, I was so nervous, so wanting to make a good impression. I guess he was, too; he didn't drink coffee, but he was sitting there, waiting for me drinking a huge coffee.
We talked and talked. Hours.
He didn't tell me about having the shakes and a caffeine headache until months later. I kept the costume changes to myself for a long time, too.
So yes, kids. It is possible to meet a great person at a bar. [Together for 6 years, 2nd year anniversary in 2 weeks!] Maybe not probable, but definitely possible!
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6:49 p.m. - 2005-10-05
pedi-hell!
I love getting a pedicure.
Well, that's not really the truth. I LOVE to make the appointment, the anticipation of sitting in a vibrating chair while someone else concentrates on making an inherently funny-looking part of my body look halfway decent. I got my first pedicure in Las Vegas at the Flamingo hotel when I was 31...my girlfriends took me out there for my bachelorette party. [...a whole different post...] The aesthetician was gentle and good, and my toes were gorgeous!
D., my best buddy from high school, and I go about once a month to get our toes done. We pick a different salon and then rank them to see where the mani/pedi home base will be. And because she is innately sweeter and kinder than I, D. gets friendly, gentle aestheticians. While I know that she's the nicer one, I don't know how the pedicurists always figure it out right away. [I know, I know...I really shouldn't be surprised, but I AM!] And the one that flips the loosing coin gets my nasty feet and decides to dig in. It's a little like torture, although I'm starting to realize that it's not really a pedicure unless I'm bleeding.
The true miracle [or stupidity] of this little non-story is that I keep going back. Shelling out thirty bucks to have someone abuse my feet. I could get any of the neighborhood kids to jump up and down on my toes for thirty bucks, I feel sure. And they'd come to my house.
What's your favorite bit of masochism?
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8:25 p.m. - 2005-10-04
who pulled the alarm?
Today we had a fire drill at the middle school. Whee! I wish the kids knew how much the teachers enjoy a good ol' fire drill on a pretty autumn day! The kids were singing "build me up, buttercup" when the alarm went off. My last class of the day cut short.
Again, I say WHEEEEE!
I do enjoy teaching, and I like having both middle and high school students. Some days it's exhausting, but I really am psyched when they do something great. For example, the baritones in the high school ensemble are really figuring things out. Not only are they singing well, but they can tell that they're improving and are really proud.
As am I.
7:00 p.m. - 2005-10-02
Clean house, sweep, whatever...
I am addicted to home improvement shows. Is it the size [TINY!] of my house and my daydreams of more space.? Is it from the rose-colored memories of rehabbing Victorian houses with my parents when my brother and I were little? (Rose colored because we did very little actual remodeling... mostly tried to keep out of Mom's hair while she stripped woodwork and wallpaper and spoke in tongues.) Or is a wish that a psychic designer would walk into my house out of the blue, know my deepest desires, change our WHOLE living environment and [most importantly] include magic dust that would keep everything clean all the time?
Door number three, Bob.
The best part is that I can watch these shows for hours without feeling the slightest twinge of guilt at making my husband live in a sty.
I wonder how that designer is going to fit the grand piano in here....
6:42 p.m. - 2005-10-02
birthday birthday BIRTHDAAAY!
Happy birthday blog!
Eat all the cake you want!
[And help yourself to the adult beverages, too. After all, it IS your birthday!]
Rock on.
