Okay...

I have no one to squee with.


Been listening to The Gathering Storm.

And...


HOLY CRAAAAP IT'S SO BAD ASS!!! I keep jumping up and down in excitement. SOO FREAKING AWESOME!


Anyway, in case any on the flist don't want spoilers...

!!!!

I'm only on Ch. 40 somethingth or so, but... !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (-:

Note to self:

When one wants students to shush and sit, it is not a good idea to say both at the same time.


*blush*

Last night, Oystein Baadsvik came to UNH to perform a concert.

...

Ummm. All I can say, is YOUTUBE HIM. Here, I'll do it for you!


The piece: Winter, from Vivaldi's The Four Seasons
That video is from UNH LAST NIGHT Yes. That's a live recording, and I WAS THERE IN THE SECOND ROW!
I shook his hand.

Basically, ... um. yeah.

Things in life have been oscillating between very good and oh-golly-don't-make-me-go-back-PLEASE!

Probably should have documented everything-- the highs, the lows, the in-between. What's working and what's not. Haven't, though... Just too darned tired.

And I never practice. I've got a tenuous at best grip on my brass quintet (in fact, I think they tried to replace me a few years ago. They failed. HA to them, I guess.)
I'm fairly certain they all hate me, and I can't fully blame them.
But seriously, they (and by they I think I might actually just mean one of them, I have no idea about the others) pulled the most absolutely assholey thing on me a few weeks ago:
Decided at around 4-5PM to move rehearsal from 8 to 9:30 at night, KNOWING that I had to be at school by 7 the following morning. Totally lost it on them. WHAT THE HECK WERE THEY THINKING? if we only rehearsed for an hour (which is rarely the case), I'd have been back home around 10:45.

Now, I've got two 9PM rehearsals in the next several weeks. *sigh* Whatever, I still love playing with them, even though I know I'm the weakest link, and they're getting sick of me. Wish they'd just say it out loud.



This morning was a master-class... I sound awful, but it was fun and gratifying to know I was already doing some of the things he talked about. Got into a friendly power-breath competition with one of my first-ever tuba kids (JUNIOR SYMS 06 or 07, can't remember which)... I think we TIED! (-:



Been an icky day; Bari's a bit annoyed with me because I failed to take him for a long walk today.... he just keeps forgetting that he's the one that doesn't like getting wet; I don't mind it in the least!

Probably going to go to bed early so that tomorrow's productive. Goodness knows, today was useless after 1:30.


Tomorrow, I launder, homework, lesson plan, walk the dog extensively, and fix the door on the bathroom counter.

Chances are I will only actually accomplish one of those tasks, but I'll try...

I finally made it to the library!
... four hours later than planned.

But whatever, I'm here! And I parallel-parked quite terribly, if I do say so myself. still, I'm here, sitting in a weird chair, surrounded by weird people who are, by and large, not actually getting any work done. 'Course, I'm one to talk... LJ, you know, they grade me on this thing. Getting a C-.

Anyhoo. I have this big project, but I didn't want to have to cart tons of stuff up here, so I compiled a few of my binders and managed to squeeze what I thought was everything useful into a bag.
Fifteen minutes later, I finally get around to finding the papers for said big project, only to realize that... guess what?!
I left them at home. Wooo, go me.

Grrreeeat I tell myself proudly. Now I've driven out here, wasted probably forty minutes parking the darned car, only to go straight back home to spend another several hours re-getting ready to come back to this stupid place.
But wait, I tell myself. Maybe I can figure out what I need to do based on what I've already done.

I open up this document I haven't looked at in weeks, and what do I find?

For some inexplicable reason, I had decided to TYPE UP, WORD-FOR-WORD, EVERY SINGLE PART OF THE ASSIGNMENT, and then organize it into categories.

So yes, folks... Occasionally, OCD really pays off.

and now for a word from our sponsors:

I HATE LJ's rich text posting thinger. Everywhere else, I can use Ctrl+i to manipulate my text, and with this thing? It's actually easier to just write in the HTML myself. Pssh.

 Due to recent ridiiiculous events, I decided I'd share a few snapshots of my personal life... what it's like to be me

(Sorry, this is stream-of consciousness and I feel it completely misses the point at times, but the pattern dictates that today is a good day to update, so I might as well):
( you don't actually want to read this... )

I would love to spend this entry talking about the nuances of student teaching, how exciting/fun/terrifying/exhausting/exhalerating/stressful it all is... about the intraschool dynamics and always feeling like I act too overbearing or disinterested...
but I don't have the time. Been up for forty five minutes already, and all I want to say is:

5AM is beautiful. The sky was this gorgeous dark blue; with the light of the crescent moon (not full, sorry Roxanne you need to find something else to blame) just enough to brighten trail of two jets that must've flown by hours ago, with no other clouds in sight. Just stars. Orion's Belt was enormous. 

And, have you noticed that everything's so much louder? Bari has this retractable 30-foot leash for when he wants to run, and it makes the most obnoxious click-claaang noise EVER, that never bothered me until this morning. 

Good thing I had it, though, because some sort of littlish animal went streaking by us and the Booperkins (yes, I have stupid lame nicknames for my dog) temporarily forgot that he's afraid of pretty much everything. 

Anyway, I must end the entry now, otherwise I'll have gotten up early for nothing: Need to come up with a standalone rhythm lesson plan for 7th grade general music. Elementary stuff is too childish, secondary methods was all about not!generalmusic, and I find myself for the first time rueing the day they gave Dr. DeTurk that class.

 Thursday (or Wednesday if I find I have a second of free time and the inclination to write) will provide a real update to those of you who are curious as to how I'm faring... but for now:

The Wind Ensemble went on a recruiting field trip to local elementary schools today. All went well.

However, I was provided a situation I had not prepared myself for:

A few students asked me if "fetish" was a word. 

... 


The girl who asked the question uses the word like this:

"OMG, that's so fetish."

Again,

...

Somewhat related news: 
My cooperating teacher is 99% positive that our bus driver for the day was a retired soft-core porn star. 



aannnnnnnnnd

...

 Alright, so... a hypothetical question.

Let's say you signed up for a class that meets from 7-9:30PM on Mondays, and you want to switch to another night. There's a large probability that you will be able to switch. 

Should you still go to the class, just in case you end up having to stay in it? Or should you skip it, because it's a waste of 2.5 hours of life. Should you show up in the first ten minutes and drop?  What if then you end up being unable to drop the class in the first place, and your cavalier premature ditching of the class puts you on a bad side with the professor? 

I'm leaning towards just not showing up at all in this hypothetical situation, because if I end up having to take it anyway, I can just say I got confused/was busy (I'm a very busy person and I haven't got all day; it won't cost much, just your VOICE! YOU POOR UNFORTUNATE SOULS! ... *cough*) and it will count as one of my absences, at worst. 




So, friends list: sway me, please! 


Side note: Bari was acting completely bonkers for several hours today, and I have no idea why. He's FINALLY relaxed enough that he's just sitting down... but earlier he tried to claw my arm off. 

ANOTHER SIDE NOTE: I LOVE BROCCOLI!

SIDE NOTES SIDE NOTE: These actually appear BELOW, and not to the side. FAIL! 

and finally...

PS: Tomorrow is my first day at CMS (where I'm student-teaching), and I'm so nervous I spent 20 minutes trying to pick an outfit... anyone who knows me will understand why that makes me feel even more freaked out. I mean, really! How many of us reaalllly thought about what our teachers were wearing? Were they even thought of as PEOPLE in middle school? I think not. 

Tags: teaching
Current Location: MY APARTMENT!
I claim to be listening to:: ... I think you can tell from the post

This morning, at 7:30, was an all-district meeting, to be held at Exeter High. My cooperating teacher informed me that I didn't need to go, but I told him I wanted to (as per suggestion of my advisor, so as to FEEL like an actual teacher)

I was so nervous that I woke up at 5AM (thus getting around four hours of sleep). I picked out an outfit... about eight times. Did my hair... Looked very professional, if I say so myself. Walked Bari for twenty minutes. Then I made a lovely breakfast (bacon and scrambled egg sandwich, mmm) and lunch, looked up the address to Exeter high school, kissed Bari goodbye, and made my way out.

Put the address into my GPS navigator. IT didn't work... so I looked up Exeter high school. Found it! Yaay, followed the directions, had ten minues to spare.


The address it sent me to was someone's house.



 I spent twenty minutes driving around in circles in Exeter, trying to find the damned school I called my parents to ask them to look up direction, and failed. 


So, here I am, back at home. Bari acted like I had been gone all day, instead of an hour. 



Annnd, if this seems like a relatively calm entry, I'll have you know I ruined the pattern by posting this today. 



*RAGE RAGE RAGE RAGE RAGE*


The worst part is that now that I've lost inertia, I'm exhausted. Thus, I'll waste this whole day sleeping. GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR! 

As promised, I have some apartment pics for you!
...and one from a visit to Cambridge that I meant to post months ago.

( PICS! )

So anyway, things are going alright, I guess. Bari's doing well. I finally actually met someone from my apartment building. as in, we shook hands and exchanged names *gasp* She's nice, and has a dog named Fred (that's how we met... Bari and Fred wanted to play.)
My air conditioner seems to be broken a bit...

The other day, Lindsey visited, and that was pleasant. We ate cheesecake.

Tomorrow I have a day of teacher meetings, and also on Friday. I'm realllly worried. So much that as soon as this is over, I'm going to do all my laundry and then spend 20 minutes trying to pick out an outfit... knowing full-well that probably all the teachers will show up wearing jeans and t-shirts. But whatever.

And then I'll finish organizing all the stupid paper I have laying around the floor. And spend another twenty minutes trying to figure out what to do with my ridiculously long hair.

Coming soon: a bunch of apartment pics and an actual update. However, in the interim...

Your Name Comes from Saturn

You are a hard worker, and you take your responsibilities seriously. Some people may find you to be cold, but your sense of humor is hard to pick up on at first. You have always been an old soul, and you tend to be the teacher in most relationships. You are often too hard on yourself but only because you are trying to be the best person possible.

Seriously, I have to give props to the people who come up with these things... they do a bangup job of making pretty much ever result speak to every person.