Again - why am I doing this????
Oh that's right - I love it.
Or most of it.
I love music. Since I was a little girl. I have memories that go back to when I was 3, singing "O come all ye faithful" with my family.
I really think that I am on the right path for me both career wise and passion wise. I love what I do any which way.
But still the question posed itself last night in an unusual situation. For me at any rate.
There is one group that I sing with occasionally. I am ringer for them. And when I am there, I carry the entire Soprano section. I am by far, 20 + years, the youngest in the room.
This year, they are singing the Haydn Lord Nelson Mass and The Rossini Stabat Mater. I was asked to be understsudy to the Haydn and take the Soprano II solo and a tenor solo in the Rossini. I gladly obliged. But had been singing ALL the solo's and the choral parts for every rehearsal since December.
Last night the 5 paid soloists arrived. All of them people I had worked with before. Very nice, Very cool VERY talented people. It's a thrill to be in their company really.
But I still had a tough time NOT singing the parts I had been singing and working on for 2 months. I left early because I was still not feeling my best and the concert is this weekend. Since the director wasn't going to run my solo's again that night, I asked permssion to take off. As I was leaving he mentoned that the Alto was going to do the Second Soprano Solo and that's fine with me. So I left graciously saying goodnight to all. I wasn't angry or upset, I certainly left on a professional note. I was home in bed by 8:45 but still this nagging feeling of possession of these solos lingered.
The director called at 10 PM. I was actually taking a hot bath as it 19 degrees here. I was sitting in the bath with my book and my hot chocolate, resting and relaxing. The phone rings, and I have the coolest phone on earth. It announces who's calling in addition to displaying it on screen. It announces my vocal coach first and I decide I am not taking the call as I am in the bath.
The second call, literally seconds later, was from the director. I take that one. He changed his mind and I am now singing the second soprano solo in the Rossini and would I please call his board president and give my bio info to her. He thanked me for covering all term for him and felt that my diction was amazing. He really was pleased with the tenor solo that he only gave me a week to learn and feels it will be beautiful on performance. I didn't know what to say. It was certainly a surprise to me. It almost always is these days. I get so much criticism that its really hard to know that you might be sort of good at it.
I still felt weird about the other soprano who has a stunning voice and I feel there are parts of the Haydn that I do better, but its her gig and I wish her well. She is not only a talented person but a really nice woman to work with. In fact, that goes for all of the soloists. This is going to e fun for me in that regard, but I am moving my seat to sit amongst the soloists on Saturday. The director doesn't want me in left field away from them.
It's just tough to be understudy, learn everything to performance level and KNOW you aren't going to ever perform it. I've never been in that position before. I think I handled myself well. I didn't whine ( except to you folks!), I didn't pout or act inappropriately. The turmoil was entirely internal and I shoved it hard out of the way so it wouldn't infect others.
I know why I do this. I love it and I'm good at it. But there are still some lessons to learn along the way.
Wednesday, January 17, 2007
Monday, January 15, 2007
THIS is what I am talking about
Now, I know you all sympathized with my plight on the Ipod.
What happened to me tonight not only vindicates me but will gain me further sympathy points.
I hooked up my new Toshiba Bi-directional Dubbing DVD-VHS player. In doing that I eliminated three boxed under my TV AND color coordinated the whole entertainment center to Silver which goes with theme in my living room which is pewter.
It took me exactly 20 minutes to unpack, unhook, rehook AND program the thing and it works PERFECTLY. The only thing I didn't do was the dubbing or recording onto a DVD because I didn't have any spare discs in the house right now. But everything else works.
The book was 30 pages long, detailed and complete on how to hook this up with one page per sub title ( Your Remote, setting the clock, etc). Clearly written - NO FREAKING PICTURES. More than 4 words and was at a 16-18 year old reading level.
THANK YOU TOSHIBA!
It also illustrates my point about Apple. Their target market is a third of my age. Which is fine, but most adults that I know who have recently gotten an Ipod ( and I know three for this year and we all got the exact same one in the same color) have run screaming from the room with frustration.
I will address this to customer improvement at Apple, though why I bother is a mystery to me. They aren't going to change. They have made a career out of not changing and being ridiculously proprietary.
I am not knocking Apple - not by a stretch. The people who have them love them and I am thrilled for those people. Being a former director of IT, its a technology I find infuriating. Because it's very stable but when it breaks it TANKS. Its also not a common platform in the industry that I work in so not really something I care to change to. Makes life too difficult.
Having said that, I still respect the niche they have. They just frustrate the crap out of me.
I spent most of yesterday and today in bed with some weird illness that caused me to have a fever but no other major symptoms. My mother will tell you that I have always been predisposed to fevers with no other symptoms. I don't feel warm to the touch, but I get glassy eyed and tired. My mom used to tell me that the pediatrician used to tell her it was my bodies unique method of fighting an illness before it blossomed into the actual illness.
Let's hope so.
Having spent nearly 24 hours in bed with roughly 18 of it sleeping, I am feeling kind of punchy. I want to do stuff, but I really get tired quickly. I am grateful that the DVD player only took 20 minutes because that's about all I had steam for.
I sat in bed though, with my Ipod functioning well and learned the tenor aria that I am singing in performance next week. I am singing it in my range rather than tenor range ( though I actually can which is weird.) It's gorgeous and I am sad that our tenor isn't doing it because I love his voice. ( Bernie you would kick some butt on it too!).
So I learned that, watched TV but I don't think I saw any show all the way through with all the naps I had. My cats crawled under the covers with me and we had a glorious sick day.
Seriously - I took an entire sick day today. Even I was shocked. I usually drag myself to the computer and work whether I feel like or not. I had a friend who had a very serious life threatening disease who worked through it until she truly had to be hospitalized by using a baby monitor for those times that she had to lay down. I kind of like that and may get one.....
I remember a time I was baby-sitting for Bernie's son. He couldn't have been more than 2 or 3 at the time. His Baby monitor had died so they got a brand new one. I have been going to their house for visits since before his son was born, but this was the first time that I was going to be alone in the house until very late. Bernie and his wife were going to a Concert and I was watching a courtroom drama movie that had been recommended to me. It was dark, it was quiet and though they live on a main road, traffic had died down. There must have been an accident because I heard the siren on the baby monitor before I heard it on the road. Then I heard it racing down the road. I can't tell you how all of sudden hearing something like that coming out of dead silence from multiple sources can freak you out. By the way - that's the only babysitting story that I have after the age 20. But that family has a very special place in my heart and babysitting was always fun.
I am starting to ramble just a bit and get off topic so I'll end where I began.
God Bless Toshiba and their detailed instruction Manual!
What happened to me tonight not only vindicates me but will gain me further sympathy points.
I hooked up my new Toshiba Bi-directional Dubbing DVD-VHS player. In doing that I eliminated three boxed under my TV AND color coordinated the whole entertainment center to Silver which goes with theme in my living room which is pewter.
It took me exactly 20 minutes to unpack, unhook, rehook AND program the thing and it works PERFECTLY. The only thing I didn't do was the dubbing or recording onto a DVD because I didn't have any spare discs in the house right now. But everything else works.
The book was 30 pages long, detailed and complete on how to hook this up with one page per sub title ( Your Remote, setting the clock, etc). Clearly written - NO FREAKING PICTURES. More than 4 words and was at a 16-18 year old reading level.
THANK YOU TOSHIBA!
It also illustrates my point about Apple. Their target market is a third of my age. Which is fine, but most adults that I know who have recently gotten an Ipod ( and I know three for this year and we all got the exact same one in the same color) have run screaming from the room with frustration.
I will address this to customer improvement at Apple, though why I bother is a mystery to me. They aren't going to change. They have made a career out of not changing and being ridiculously proprietary.
I am not knocking Apple - not by a stretch. The people who have them love them and I am thrilled for those people. Being a former director of IT, its a technology I find infuriating. Because it's very stable but when it breaks it TANKS. Its also not a common platform in the industry that I work in so not really something I care to change to. Makes life too difficult.
Having said that, I still respect the niche they have. They just frustrate the crap out of me.
I spent most of yesterday and today in bed with some weird illness that caused me to have a fever but no other major symptoms. My mother will tell you that I have always been predisposed to fevers with no other symptoms. I don't feel warm to the touch, but I get glassy eyed and tired. My mom used to tell me that the pediatrician used to tell her it was my bodies unique method of fighting an illness before it blossomed into the actual illness.
Let's hope so.
Having spent nearly 24 hours in bed with roughly 18 of it sleeping, I am feeling kind of punchy. I want to do stuff, but I really get tired quickly. I am grateful that the DVD player only took 20 minutes because that's about all I had steam for.
I sat in bed though, with my Ipod functioning well and learned the tenor aria that I am singing in performance next week. I am singing it in my range rather than tenor range ( though I actually can which is weird.) It's gorgeous and I am sad that our tenor isn't doing it because I love his voice. ( Bernie you would kick some butt on it too!).
So I learned that, watched TV but I don't think I saw any show all the way through with all the naps I had. My cats crawled under the covers with me and we had a glorious sick day.
Seriously - I took an entire sick day today. Even I was shocked. I usually drag myself to the computer and work whether I feel like or not. I had a friend who had a very serious life threatening disease who worked through it until she truly had to be hospitalized by using a baby monitor for those times that she had to lay down. I kind of like that and may get one.....
I remember a time I was baby-sitting for Bernie's son. He couldn't have been more than 2 or 3 at the time. His Baby monitor had died so they got a brand new one. I have been going to their house for visits since before his son was born, but this was the first time that I was going to be alone in the house until very late. Bernie and his wife were going to a Concert and I was watching a courtroom drama movie that had been recommended to me. It was dark, it was quiet and though they live on a main road, traffic had died down. There must have been an accident because I heard the siren on the baby monitor before I heard it on the road. Then I heard it racing down the road. I can't tell you how all of sudden hearing something like that coming out of dead silence from multiple sources can freak you out. By the way - that's the only babysitting story that I have after the age 20. But that family has a very special place in my heart and babysitting was always fun.
I am starting to ramble just a bit and get off topic so I'll end where I began.
God Bless Toshiba and their detailed instruction Manual!
Saturday, January 13, 2007
A new size
I bought Clothes online for my trip to FL at the end of the month, one top I was hoping to wear to a party last night.
They were delivered WHILE I was at the party so that required a quick costume change but all looked good in the end.
The cool part is I bought them while thinking I was one size and in reality I was another.
A smaller one.
2 sizes smaller.
We call it a fat brain.
Now bad enough that there is fat on my body but to have a fat brain that isn't even literal is just damn tormenting. Tthat means I have to train myself to look in the mirror and see my body for what it is not what it was or worse what I THINK it is!
Yeah.... Good freaking luck with that one.
But the fact of the matter is - certain clothing items I really needed to get. I didn't own a long sleeve white blouse. Isn't that odd? But I don't think I ever did except in college for choral performances ( I might still have that one which most assuredly is no longer white or my current size!). So I bought a silk chiffon white tuxedo blouse - I could fit myself and my readers into it - so it's going back for the right size. It was advertised with a gorgeous black skirt - that's going back too. Same reason.
The light blue Chiffon blouse I bought in the largest size they had for small people. And that one fit. A full 4 sizes smaller than the tuxedo blouse.
Go figure. Something to do with cut I would imagine - but not enough to warrant 4 sizes.
It was damn encouraging.
I was trying this one AFTER a party of feasting and revelry. I got to sing Anything you can do I can do better, People will say we're in love and Fugue for tin horns from Guys and dolls as nicely nicely johnson. Since it's a man's role, I will probably never have that opp again so I grabbed it and ran. I sang with my two tenor friends and it was a blast!!!! We were a hit with one rehearsal.
Then I went to Weight Watchers this morning.
You won't believe this, but I showed a GAIN of 2lbs!!!! 2 POUNDS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I lose 2-4 Dress sizes and I gain 2 LB S!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I know that the 2lbs is superficial gain - I just keep chanting that to myself. Because given the fact that I was at a party eating foods I don't normally eat, drinking wine which I don't normally drink and eating a family cherished recipe for Schwarzwald cake, the weight was bound to show up the way it did.
2LBS though. And to top it off, I was forced to fish or cut bait on something I was hoping would just go away. I activated a part of the plan and when the meeting was over, rather than stay and socialize with one of my friends and another person, I decided to leave. I am not going to expend any further energy trying to make this other person like me.
When this started a couple of months ago I got really upset about it. But I noticed that this person would bring subjects up that would not include me in the conversations, she would interrupt me, cut me off and generally only include our mutual friend in conversation. Well hell, I don't need a big sign to tell me that I am not wanted around, so today, though I would love to have stayed and talked with my friend, I decided that I could speak to her during the week and went out to get my lunch. I didn't make a big thing out of it, I didn't storm off and I am not trying to make any kind of point to anyone. But I made the point to myself that I am not going to chase someone down to like me. I am fabulous and like it, don't like it - but don't be exclusionary about it. So no additional energy will be expended there. I will be nice and polite but that's it.
Please don't misunderstand me, she's a fantastic person, bright, funny, driven, energetic. A person that I clearly wanted to be friends with. But alas it is not to be so. A conversation about it would be awkward only because we really aren't friends.... we are somewhere in that no-mans-land between being friends and acquaintances so what would one say? Why are you treating me like a third wheel? No - if we were closer I could bring that to her attention. It's easier to just let it go at this point.
So my voice lesson was great - recital is shaping up now nicely. February 11th 4PM! Directions and an email to be expected shortly!
They were delivered WHILE I was at the party so that required a quick costume change but all looked good in the end.
The cool part is I bought them while thinking I was one size and in reality I was another.
A smaller one.
2 sizes smaller.
We call it a fat brain.
Now bad enough that there is fat on my body but to have a fat brain that isn't even literal is just damn tormenting. Tthat means I have to train myself to look in the mirror and see my body for what it is not what it was or worse what I THINK it is!
Yeah.... Good freaking luck with that one.
But the fact of the matter is - certain clothing items I really needed to get. I didn't own a long sleeve white blouse. Isn't that odd? But I don't think I ever did except in college for choral performances ( I might still have that one which most assuredly is no longer white or my current size!). So I bought a silk chiffon white tuxedo blouse - I could fit myself and my readers into it - so it's going back for the right size. It was advertised with a gorgeous black skirt - that's going back too. Same reason.
The light blue Chiffon blouse I bought in the largest size they had for small people. And that one fit. A full 4 sizes smaller than the tuxedo blouse.
Go figure. Something to do with cut I would imagine - but not enough to warrant 4 sizes.
It was damn encouraging.
I was trying this one AFTER a party of feasting and revelry. I got to sing Anything you can do I can do better, People will say we're in love and Fugue for tin horns from Guys and dolls as nicely nicely johnson. Since it's a man's role, I will probably never have that opp again so I grabbed it and ran. I sang with my two tenor friends and it was a blast!!!! We were a hit with one rehearsal.
Then I went to Weight Watchers this morning.
You won't believe this, but I showed a GAIN of 2lbs!!!! 2 POUNDS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I lose 2-4 Dress sizes and I gain 2 LB S!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I know that the 2lbs is superficial gain - I just keep chanting that to myself. Because given the fact that I was at a party eating foods I don't normally eat, drinking wine which I don't normally drink and eating a family cherished recipe for Schwarzwald cake, the weight was bound to show up the way it did.
2LBS though. And to top it off, I was forced to fish or cut bait on something I was hoping would just go away. I activated a part of the plan and when the meeting was over, rather than stay and socialize with one of my friends and another person, I decided to leave. I am not going to expend any further energy trying to make this other person like me.
When this started a couple of months ago I got really upset about it. But I noticed that this person would bring subjects up that would not include me in the conversations, she would interrupt me, cut me off and generally only include our mutual friend in conversation. Well hell, I don't need a big sign to tell me that I am not wanted around, so today, though I would love to have stayed and talked with my friend, I decided that I could speak to her during the week and went out to get my lunch. I didn't make a big thing out of it, I didn't storm off and I am not trying to make any kind of point to anyone. But I made the point to myself that I am not going to chase someone down to like me. I am fabulous and like it, don't like it - but don't be exclusionary about it. So no additional energy will be expended there. I will be nice and polite but that's it.
Please don't misunderstand me, she's a fantastic person, bright, funny, driven, energetic. A person that I clearly wanted to be friends with. But alas it is not to be so. A conversation about it would be awkward only because we really aren't friends.... we are somewhere in that no-mans-land between being friends and acquaintances so what would one say? Why are you treating me like a third wheel? No - if we were closer I could bring that to her attention. It's easier to just let it go at this point.
So my voice lesson was great - recital is shaping up now nicely. February 11th 4PM! Directions and an email to be expected shortly!
Friday, January 12, 2007
I hate my Ipod less now
"I've crossed over to the dark side" I said into the phone... "I got an IPod for Christmas".
"Really ? I got one for my birthday - a silver Nano" said Eeman
" Really??? You sat on my couch and swore an oath over wine that you would NEVER get one! What made that change? " I exclaimed.....
Before he could answer....
"Do you like it?" I asked - tentatively - one never knows the reaction one will get to such a question.
"It's OK and since I didn't buy it, it doesn't qualify as going over to the dark side...." He said
"I don't know - I bought mine with a gift card as a Christmas gift - that might not qualify either" I offered.
"Oh yes - you knowingly purchased it so it counts. Do you like it?" he asked
" Like is such a strong word. I wanted to run it over with my car yesterday. I don't understand how a 12 year old can set this thing up with the 6 2 inch high pages of pictures with 4 words or less per page successfully! The damn thing froze yesterday after everything on the same freaking song!!!!! (Side note- Bernie - you'll love this - it was Sue me from Guys and Dolls - I SWEAR that song will be the death of me! I'm such a nogoodnick).... If it weren't for the fact that Jax was on the phone with me and gave me the reboot command that is evidently SO secret that they can't be bothered to tell you about it anywhere useful, I would be screwed right now!!!" I said peevishly.
"I'm loading all my between-sets music onto the thing after my nephew kind of screwed it up. I had to re-install after I got home. Otherwise it's ok. The jury is still out."
After this conversation I reviewed my comments on yesterdays post where I was declaiming the Ipod in a peevish manner. I have to say that all of you have been really helpful and supportive. So here's the progress I made today.
Bernie's comment:
"Have you tried "add to library" in the File menu? Also, if you let iTunes manage your library (preferences) it will gather all the music on your hard drive and put it in your iTunes library. for the Rhapsody stuff, you may have to burn it onto a CD and then import to iTunes. A lot of these music services don't play nice with one another. I know when I buy from iTunes, the first thing I do is burn a CD, just in case I lose the files or I have to use it on another device. Welcome to World 2.0! "
And I took his advice, I took my purchased Rhapsody tracks burned them on CD's. Then I transferred them to the Ipod through Itunes by loading the CD - long winded but accomplished the immediate need for those tunes without costing extra. Rhapsody uses Proprietary WMA files which means Itunes cannot convert them - yet another shining example of Apple not playing nice with the rest of the world. But the advise on burning was invaluable and I can't believe I didn't think of it myself. thanks Pahtner! ( I kept O Holy night on there though cuz I like it ;-) )
MapleMama:
What a pain in the iButt! Here is Rhapsody's iPod support page - it does look terribly complicated. Sorry! It will be worth it once you get it all figured out!! In the meantime, enjoy "O Holy Night!"
All I have to say here is bless you for finding the detailed instructions. They didn't work although I did see behavioural changes leading me to believe that it was at least trying. I think I am a step closer and will wok with tech support over the weekend to fine tune it.
Post- Doc: All I can say is appreciate your empathy here! I needed that most yesterday when I wrote that post.
I have hung in there per her words of wisdom and today I was happily listening to the Lord Nelson Mass ( I am the understudy for 1/21) and the Rossini Stabat Mater ( understudy and Soprano II Soloist). I also happily drove along singing Fugue for Tins Horns from Guys and Dolls as I am performing the role of Nicely Nicely JOhnson on this song only at a party tomorrow night ( I also get to be Annie from Annie get your gun and Laurie from Oklahoma!). I forgot that no one else could hear the tunes and was singing it in the hallway - I am sure my neighbors are thrilled to death with me!
So it's Slowly returning to "toy" status and leaving the " I need to run this thing over with my car" status.
Itunes also tends to run cheaper on album prices but more on tune prices. It'll be a crap shoot. I hate to pay more when I pay a monthly subscription. I am hoping they will find mutual ground in the sandbox so I can truly benefit from the two technologies.
Thank you again to everyone for your wonderful display of the Isupport!!!! I needed it!!!
"Really ? I got one for my birthday - a silver Nano" said Eeman
" Really??? You sat on my couch and swore an oath over wine that you would NEVER get one! What made that change? " I exclaimed.....
Before he could answer....
"Do you like it?" I asked - tentatively - one never knows the reaction one will get to such a question.
"It's OK and since I didn't buy it, it doesn't qualify as going over to the dark side...." He said
"I don't know - I bought mine with a gift card as a Christmas gift - that might not qualify either" I offered.
"Oh yes - you knowingly purchased it so it counts. Do you like it?" he asked
" Like is such a strong word. I wanted to run it over with my car yesterday. I don't understand how a 12 year old can set this thing up with the 6 2 inch high pages of pictures with 4 words or less per page successfully! The damn thing froze yesterday after everything on the same freaking song!!!!! (Side note- Bernie - you'll love this - it was Sue me from Guys and Dolls - I SWEAR that song will be the death of me! I'm such a nogoodnick).... If it weren't for the fact that Jax was on the phone with me and gave me the reboot command that is evidently SO secret that they can't be bothered to tell you about it anywhere useful, I would be screwed right now!!!" I said peevishly.
"I'm loading all my between-sets music onto the thing after my nephew kind of screwed it up. I had to re-install after I got home. Otherwise it's ok. The jury is still out."
After this conversation I reviewed my comments on yesterdays post where I was declaiming the Ipod in a peevish manner. I have to say that all of you have been really helpful and supportive. So here's the progress I made today.
Bernie's comment:
"Have you tried "add to library" in the File menu? Also, if you let iTunes manage your library (preferences) it will gather all the music on your hard drive and put it in your iTunes library. for the Rhapsody stuff, you may have to burn it onto a CD and then import to iTunes. A lot of these music services don't play nice with one another. I know when I buy from iTunes, the first thing I do is burn a CD, just in case I lose the files or I have to use it on another device. Welcome to World 2.0! "
And I took his advice, I took my purchased Rhapsody tracks burned them on CD's. Then I transferred them to the Ipod through Itunes by loading the CD - long winded but accomplished the immediate need for those tunes without costing extra. Rhapsody uses Proprietary WMA files which means Itunes cannot convert them - yet another shining example of Apple not playing nice with the rest of the world. But the advise on burning was invaluable and I can't believe I didn't think of it myself. thanks Pahtner! ( I kept O Holy night on there though cuz I like it ;-) )
MapleMama:
What a pain in the iButt! Here is Rhapsody's iPod support page - it does look terribly complicated. Sorry! It will be worth it once you get it all figured out!! In the meantime, enjoy "O Holy Night!"
All I have to say here is bless you for finding the detailed instructions. They didn't work although I did see behavioural changes leading me to believe that it was at least trying. I think I am a step closer and will wok with tech support over the weekend to fine tune it.
Post- Doc: All I can say is appreciate your empathy here! I needed that most yesterday when I wrote that post.
I have hung in there per her words of wisdom and today I was happily listening to the Lord Nelson Mass ( I am the understudy for 1/21) and the Rossini Stabat Mater ( understudy and Soprano II Soloist). I also happily drove along singing Fugue for Tins Horns from Guys and Dolls as I am performing the role of Nicely Nicely JOhnson on this song only at a party tomorrow night ( I also get to be Annie from Annie get your gun and Laurie from Oklahoma!). I forgot that no one else could hear the tunes and was singing it in the hallway - I am sure my neighbors are thrilled to death with me!
So it's Slowly returning to "toy" status and leaving the " I need to run this thing over with my car" status.
Itunes also tends to run cheaper on album prices but more on tune prices. It'll be a crap shoot. I hate to pay more when I pay a monthly subscription. I am hoping they will find mutual ground in the sandbox so I can truly benefit from the two technologies.
Thank you again to everyone for your wonderful display of the Isupport!!!! I needed it!!!
Wednesday, January 10, 2007
I hate my Ipod
I probably won't in the future, but for the time being....
I hate my Ipod.
I seriously considered running it over with the car this morning. I didn't. I couldn't justify 150.00 under the wheels of my car. And it was too cold. I didn't feel like going out.
I was up until 2AM working on this thing and for all the music I own on my laptop - do you know what song it found? O Holy Night performed by Bernie. First off, I don't know how or when it ended up on my drive, second, I love hearing that song sung by him ( he can sing anything and frankly I would love it). So there's the questionable with the good part.
So I finally get Itunes working properly. I finally get some settings on this thing that make sense.
I already subscribe to a music service that supposedly allows me to transfer any music that I have already purchased through them onto my ipod.
It's a major tease though, because it shows the ipod on the screen, it tells me all I have to do is drag and drop the tracks onto it and that's it.
Alas But no. This is now looking bad. I have killed the software for the music service I belong to. So bad. So costly in terms of time.
This morning I call in and get a nice young man to help me through this. YAY this takes 5 minutes ad works perfectly.
Software works again. Ipod still cannot accept transfers but I happen along some additional information on this and I re-configured Itunes, Rhapsody and the Ipod itself, and it would seem that I am stsill clearly doing something wrong.
I will be calling technical support again tomorrow.
It's embarassing to be honest. The fact is I have worked at technical jobs most of my life. I am more than capable of doing these things. And it irks me to no end that a 12 year old has no problem with this thing and the little pictorial with 4 words or less instruction booklet that comes with it.
All in all I think I will like it, but I have to get this software crap ironed out because it's making me nuts and I KNOW the answer is there. I JUST KNOW IT.
So meanwhile I am adding my CD's that I want on there.
Oh and I added Bernie's World ( first! well after O Holy Night) .
I hate my Ipod.
I seriously considered running it over with the car this morning. I didn't. I couldn't justify 150.00 under the wheels of my car. And it was too cold. I didn't feel like going out.
I was up until 2AM working on this thing and for all the music I own on my laptop - do you know what song it found? O Holy Night performed by Bernie. First off, I don't know how or when it ended up on my drive, second, I love hearing that song sung by him ( he can sing anything and frankly I would love it). So there's the questionable with the good part.
So I finally get Itunes working properly. I finally get some settings on this thing that make sense.
I already subscribe to a music service that supposedly allows me to transfer any music that I have already purchased through them onto my ipod.
It's a major tease though, because it shows the ipod on the screen, it tells me all I have to do is drag and drop the tracks onto it and that's it.
Alas But no. This is now looking bad. I have killed the software for the music service I belong to. So bad. So costly in terms of time.
This morning I call in and get a nice young man to help me through this. YAY this takes 5 minutes ad works perfectly.
Software works again. Ipod still cannot accept transfers but I happen along some additional information on this and I re-configured Itunes, Rhapsody and the Ipod itself, and it would seem that I am stsill clearly doing something wrong.
I will be calling technical support again tomorrow.
It's embarassing to be honest. The fact is I have worked at technical jobs most of my life. I am more than capable of doing these things. And it irks me to no end that a 12 year old has no problem with this thing and the little pictorial with 4 words or less instruction booklet that comes with it.
All in all I think I will like it, but I have to get this software crap ironed out because it's making me nuts and I KNOW the answer is there. I JUST KNOW IT.
So meanwhile I am adding my CD's that I want on there.
Oh and I added Bernie's World ( first! well after O Holy Night) .
Monday, January 08, 2007
Baby it's cold outside
It FINALLY got cold.
I didn't get the memo, but it did finally get cold.
I was running around in leggings, nike's a tank top and a denim shirt. Oh and a scarf around my neck in deference to the possibility of wind.
But WoW it suddenly dropped in temperature and the crazy thing is it was almost 70 this weekend.
I had a wonderful day yesterday. A person, Fair weather friend, called me and asked if we could get together. I didn't really want to as I was tired but I found myself saying yes.
When she got here, we just sat in the living room and talked. About everything. Subjects we like, subjects that bother us, subjects that are painful and some that are just weird. I invited her to my recital but asked her to please not share it wth Diva as I would rather not have her there.
The sad reality is she will find out about it anyway, but why make it easy for her? I am ust hoping that by the time she find out, she will be busy.
So Fair weather and I talked about the chorus we sing with, things we like about different choirs - mostly church- things we don't. We talked about exercize, she wants to get stronger so she can go back to work. She has had a kidney transplant, a pancreas transplant and bypass surgery in 5 years. She walked to my house, not that its far, but she did it.
She spent 5 hours here, and we had a great time. We created a couple of plans for parties and postions on a board should she have to vacate for health reasons. Personally I think that was her major reason for coming over. But that's OK - I'm happy to do it and it's an easy one for me.
I can't remember the last time she and I had a lot of fun like that without some hidden agenda getting in the way. She was even able to carry it through to our rehearsal last night and that's a big step for because Diva is there gracing us with her presence. We talked about that too. I saw an interview with Ellen Degenerous and Barbra Streisand 2 years ago who said that she didn't sing EVER unless she was paid for it. That's Diva's attitude. It makes me sad as she is a talented musician who has made a small name for herself by pushing others down instead of making herself better. She also has made it politcal. All this is within her rights, but it makes me sad to see a musician who no longer enjoys their craft and just does it for the publicity, power and control. It's very dis-heartening. As a student of my dad's, I can only imagine how sad that makes him. Well, would make him.
I made a decision today too. I am dedicating my recital to the memory of my dad.
I think he would like that and I know he would be so proud of me for accomplishing what I have accomplished. He would urge me to move forward with it as long as it was making me happy. And it does.
So Dad- my recital is for you. I love you and I miss you!
I didn't get the memo, but it did finally get cold.
I was running around in leggings, nike's a tank top and a denim shirt. Oh and a scarf around my neck in deference to the possibility of wind.
But WoW it suddenly dropped in temperature and the crazy thing is it was almost 70 this weekend.
I had a wonderful day yesterday. A person, Fair weather friend, called me and asked if we could get together. I didn't really want to as I was tired but I found myself saying yes.
When she got here, we just sat in the living room and talked. About everything. Subjects we like, subjects that bother us, subjects that are painful and some that are just weird. I invited her to my recital but asked her to please not share it wth Diva as I would rather not have her there.
The sad reality is she will find out about it anyway, but why make it easy for her? I am ust hoping that by the time she find out, she will be busy.
So Fair weather and I talked about the chorus we sing with, things we like about different choirs - mostly church- things we don't. We talked about exercize, she wants to get stronger so she can go back to work. She has had a kidney transplant, a pancreas transplant and bypass surgery in 5 years. She walked to my house, not that its far, but she did it.
She spent 5 hours here, and we had a great time. We created a couple of plans for parties and postions on a board should she have to vacate for health reasons. Personally I think that was her major reason for coming over. But that's OK - I'm happy to do it and it's an easy one for me.
I can't remember the last time she and I had a lot of fun like that without some hidden agenda getting in the way. She was even able to carry it through to our rehearsal last night and that's a big step for because Diva is there gracing us with her presence. We talked about that too. I saw an interview with Ellen Degenerous and Barbra Streisand 2 years ago who said that she didn't sing EVER unless she was paid for it. That's Diva's attitude. It makes me sad as she is a talented musician who has made a small name for herself by pushing others down instead of making herself better. She also has made it politcal. All this is within her rights, but it makes me sad to see a musician who no longer enjoys their craft and just does it for the publicity, power and control. It's very dis-heartening. As a student of my dad's, I can only imagine how sad that makes him. Well, would make him.
I made a decision today too. I am dedicating my recital to the memory of my dad.
I think he would like that and I know he would be so proud of me for accomplishing what I have accomplished. He would urge me to move forward with it as long as it was making me happy. And it does.
So Dad- my recital is for you. I love you and I miss you!
Saturday, January 06, 2007
Pre-performance Stress and new purchases
So that Karma thing is back.
But I get ahead of myself.
Today I had my lesson. It was a good lesson except I noticed that little things are starting to make me crazy. Tripping crazy.
I am working on Shepherd on the Rock by Shubert, its neat piece but Its 12 pages long and I don't normally judge a tune by how many pages it is, but this feels long. I am told by others it's not but we'll see.
So I am singing this LONG song and my coach is picking on the little stuff which is his job. He has this thing where he starts singing with me, which usually means I am doing something wrong. OK. So he starts that. But I usually know what I do that's not wrong. And I don't know at this point. So I stop singing to figure out what he's doing that's right vs what I was doing that wasn't. YOu know what? HE JUST LIKES TO SING THIS SONG. I was doing it right. I internally went nuts. I would never say it to him because he's programmed differently than lots of people and it would be mis-interpreted.
So we go on to discuss some other things. Then we start back on the Schubert. Now he's singing the Clarinet part. Weirdly. Trying to make me laugh. So of course, I do. Then I turn around and say loudly ....
" You can't DO THAT while I am SINGING" ( Nathan Lane, The Birdcage. )
He responds, "Thank you Nathan - can we can continue?"
That's when I realized I was starting to lose it on little things.
My recital is 4 weeks from tomorrow. Those who have lived through my undergrad recitals can tell you how crazy psycho I get right before. Not usually this early in the game though, I generally save it all up and dump it on the poor soul (you ALL know who you are! and you know I don't mean a word that comes out of my mouth in those final hours) who had the nerve to say "Hey how's it going" an hour before performance - or worse - "Wow you look great" Good Lord - DO NOT COMPLIMENT ME!!!! HOW THE HELL AM I SUPPOSED TO KNOW WHAT TO DO WITH THAT????? What if I suck??????
So the fact that I am starting to get edgy now has the possibility of making me a real problem figure for the next four weeks OR making me bearable the day of. Four weeks, by the way, that include a business trip that I DO NOT want to go on, but am required to. I can't even use budget to get out of it, because they cleared the budget already! How freaking absurd. It's warmer here today than it is down south where they are sending me.
So to make myself feel better, and because I needed them, I bought clothes, a new laptop case, an IPOD Nano ( silver) and a DVR/VHS combo. Everything is here but the clothes and the Ipod. OK I probably didn't NEED the laptop case. I have a perfectly good one. But it's brown and I am a black and silver girl. Sorry. Yes I needed the DVR. My DVD player broke. Clothes because, well, I"m a girl I don't need a reason, an IPOD because if you have been reading for awhile, I've been thinking about this for awhile and I got really pissed at the individual who had the NERVE to spike me on ebay for the one I wanted.
Yes. I FINALLY bought an IPOD. I was shocked that I did it, but I used a gift card for that and the DVR ( shockingly there is still money there - go figure).
I have the feeling I will love the IPOD. I have a digital recorder and I LOVE that. I use it for practicing, lessons all kinds of things. Now I can take things off that and transfer them to the IPOD. That's cool. I even have software to edit out the background noise. LOving this. MOre ways to waste time. Ha
So I am starting to try and formulate my program for this recital. I have more rep choices now, but I would love to NOT sing some of it to be honest. Some I like, some I don't, some I am ambivalent about. I wish I had more choices to cut and replace with. None of this stuff is EASY and none is really HARD. Just enough to keep me occupied.
I had a wonderful surprise today too, I got an email from an old friend I hadn't really heard from.
who said there was no such thing as Karma?
Maybe it's a good sign that my recital will go OK.
I hope so.
But I get ahead of myself.
Today I had my lesson. It was a good lesson except I noticed that little things are starting to make me crazy. Tripping crazy.
I am working on Shepherd on the Rock by Shubert, its neat piece but Its 12 pages long and I don't normally judge a tune by how many pages it is, but this feels long. I am told by others it's not but we'll see.
So I am singing this LONG song and my coach is picking on the little stuff which is his job. He has this thing where he starts singing with me, which usually means I am doing something wrong. OK. So he starts that. But I usually know what I do that's not wrong. And I don't know at this point. So I stop singing to figure out what he's doing that's right vs what I was doing that wasn't. YOu know what? HE JUST LIKES TO SING THIS SONG. I was doing it right. I internally went nuts. I would never say it to him because he's programmed differently than lots of people and it would be mis-interpreted.
So we go on to discuss some other things. Then we start back on the Schubert. Now he's singing the Clarinet part. Weirdly. Trying to make me laugh. So of course, I do. Then I turn around and say loudly ....
" You can't DO THAT while I am SINGING" ( Nathan Lane, The Birdcage. )
He responds, "Thank you Nathan - can we can continue?"
That's when I realized I was starting to lose it on little things.
My recital is 4 weeks from tomorrow. Those who have lived through my undergrad recitals can tell you how crazy psycho I get right before. Not usually this early in the game though, I generally save it all up and dump it on the poor soul (you ALL know who you are! and you know I don't mean a word that comes out of my mouth in those final hours) who had the nerve to say "Hey how's it going" an hour before performance - or worse - "Wow you look great" Good Lord - DO NOT COMPLIMENT ME!!!! HOW THE HELL AM I SUPPOSED TO KNOW WHAT TO DO WITH THAT????? What if I suck??????
So the fact that I am starting to get edgy now has the possibility of making me a real problem figure for the next four weeks OR making me bearable the day of. Four weeks, by the way, that include a business trip that I DO NOT want to go on, but am required to. I can't even use budget to get out of it, because they cleared the budget already! How freaking absurd. It's warmer here today than it is down south where they are sending me.
So to make myself feel better, and because I needed them, I bought clothes, a new laptop case, an IPOD Nano ( silver) and a DVR/VHS combo. Everything is here but the clothes and the Ipod. OK I probably didn't NEED the laptop case. I have a perfectly good one. But it's brown and I am a black and silver girl. Sorry. Yes I needed the DVR. My DVD player broke. Clothes because, well, I"m a girl I don't need a reason, an IPOD because if you have been reading for awhile, I've been thinking about this for awhile and I got really pissed at the individual who had the NERVE to spike me on ebay for the one I wanted.
Yes. I FINALLY bought an IPOD. I was shocked that I did it, but I used a gift card for that and the DVR ( shockingly there is still money there - go figure).
I have the feeling I will love the IPOD. I have a digital recorder and I LOVE that. I use it for practicing, lessons all kinds of things. Now I can take things off that and transfer them to the IPOD. That's cool. I even have software to edit out the background noise. LOving this. MOre ways to waste time. Ha
So I am starting to try and formulate my program for this recital. I have more rep choices now, but I would love to NOT sing some of it to be honest. Some I like, some I don't, some I am ambivalent about. I wish I had more choices to cut and replace with. None of this stuff is EASY and none is really HARD. Just enough to keep me occupied.
I had a wonderful surprise today too, I got an email from an old friend I hadn't really heard from.
who said there was no such thing as Karma?
Maybe it's a good sign that my recital will go OK.
I hope so.
Thursday, January 04, 2007
Day 1 of the plan
So here's how the first day of the plan worked out:
Situation 1: Health - Day 1 overview. Ate OK, could still be improved. Groceries - good healthy one's bein delivered tomorrow. Did not exercize today but intend to tomorrow. Journaled as usual. Took meds as presribed today - no change yet.
Situation 2: Job - First day back. I spent a good deal of time catching up. I did not actually speak to that many people but did "chat" via email and IM. I shut my email and IM's down at 5PM and went about my evening. I took my hour lunch during the day.
Situation 3: Home - No time to attack this one today. Have plans for the weekend though
Situation 4: Finances - No special work to be done here today.
Situation 5: education - Lesson is Saturday. Shepherd on the Rock is really shaping up well. I have 5 regularly scheduled lessons left before the big day. I'm starting to get nervous. I worked on Juliette's Waltz today too. Each day I am picking 2 songs and working the hell out of them. That should put me well over the top for the recital. If I don't die of nerves before-hand. FEBRUARY 11th for those who are local at 4PM at Abiding Presence Lutheran Church in Fort Salonga NY. I have stage fright already so you will all have to just smile and work with me as I work through this. This is my first major vocal recital of this magnetitude.
Situation 6: Family and Friends - reviewed Pet Insurnance policy for 2007. No major changes. No major cost increases for both cats. Spoke to step mom today for 10 minutes regarding student whose home burned down. They have moved into a rental home 2 blocks west temporarily and will let me know what is needed by the end of the weekend. I put their account on hold until next week when they are ready to resume lessons. Called College Roomie to thank her for lovely Christmas gift. Left Message for Voice twin, spoke to co-worker friend and Voice coach.
Situation 7: Self Esteem - This was not really worked on specifically today although I did read Minor Revisions today and a neat anecdote written there did remind me that People who have a tendancy to brag about themselves or make jokes at their own expense ( meaning me), really don't have a high opinion of themselves. People who do have high opinions of themselves rarely give it a thought. When you know you are good, you don't need to convince others. I have spent a lot of my adult life apologizing to certain family members for being smart and/or talented ( fill in the blank) . Is that not the MOST RIDICULOUS thing you have ever heard? I was appalled at myself! The fact is that the person who made me feel as though I should apologize for that has a lower opinion of herself than I do. Not that I am competing - hello. So now that I really have a grasp on that kind of behaviour I am working on changing it. I am also working on taking a compliment and just smiling and saying a gracious Thank you.
First day back to work and on the plan was exhausting. I am seriously ready for bed. But I take a moment to thank Post-Doc for granting me the priveledge of using her plan. As a project manager, it's never good to re-invent the wheel unless you have to and Post-Doc's templates are always good. It is good, however, to get the author's permission first or simultaneously. ( I really didn't think she would mind.!) .
Thank you again Post Doc. I am liking this plan thus far and will only modify as needed.
Situation 1: Health - Day 1 overview. Ate OK, could still be improved. Groceries - good healthy one's bein delivered tomorrow. Did not exercize today but intend to tomorrow. Journaled as usual. Took meds as presribed today - no change yet.
Situation 2: Job - First day back. I spent a good deal of time catching up. I did not actually speak to that many people but did "chat" via email and IM. I shut my email and IM's down at 5PM and went about my evening. I took my hour lunch during the day.
Situation 3: Home - No time to attack this one today. Have plans for the weekend though
Situation 4: Finances - No special work to be done here today.
Situation 5: education - Lesson is Saturday. Shepherd on the Rock is really shaping up well. I have 5 regularly scheduled lessons left before the big day. I'm starting to get nervous. I worked on Juliette's Waltz today too. Each day I am picking 2 songs and working the hell out of them. That should put me well over the top for the recital. If I don't die of nerves before-hand. FEBRUARY 11th for those who are local at 4PM at Abiding Presence Lutheran Church in Fort Salonga NY. I have stage fright already so you will all have to just smile and work with me as I work through this. This is my first major vocal recital of this magnetitude.
Situation 6: Family and Friends - reviewed Pet Insurnance policy for 2007. No major changes. No major cost increases for both cats. Spoke to step mom today for 10 minutes regarding student whose home burned down. They have moved into a rental home 2 blocks west temporarily and will let me know what is needed by the end of the weekend. I put their account on hold until next week when they are ready to resume lessons. Called College Roomie to thank her for lovely Christmas gift. Left Message for Voice twin, spoke to co-worker friend and Voice coach.
Situation 7: Self Esteem - This was not really worked on specifically today although I did read Minor Revisions today and a neat anecdote written there did remind me that People who have a tendancy to brag about themselves or make jokes at their own expense ( meaning me), really don't have a high opinion of themselves. People who do have high opinions of themselves rarely give it a thought. When you know you are good, you don't need to convince others. I have spent a lot of my adult life apologizing to certain family members for being smart and/or talented ( fill in the blank) . Is that not the MOST RIDICULOUS thing you have ever heard? I was appalled at myself! The fact is that the person who made me feel as though I should apologize for that has a lower opinion of herself than I do. Not that I am competing - hello. So now that I really have a grasp on that kind of behaviour I am working on changing it. I am also working on taking a compliment and just smiling and saying a gracious Thank you.
First day back to work and on the plan was exhausting. I am seriously ready for bed. But I take a moment to thank Post-Doc for granting me the priveledge of using her plan. As a project manager, it's never good to re-invent the wheel unless you have to and Post-Doc's templates are always good. It is good, however, to get the author's permission first or simultaneously. ( I really didn't think she would mind.!) .
Thank you again Post Doc. I am liking this plan thus far and will only modify as needed.
Wednesday, January 03, 2007
A request to borrow material
This post is somewhat long overdue and I put in pieces here and there in fits and spurts.
What I decided today is I really need "the plan". But, of course, with some rights reserved, I do need to ask permission from Post-Doc to borrow parts of it.
I will go ahead right now, assuming that she will be kind of enough to grant me the lee-way to have "the plan" of my own. ( I will leave Blitzen for her though! great idea by the way! we call that short term goal planning in my profession).
So here goes my version of the plan:
Situation 1: Health.
What I decided today is I really need "the plan". But, of course, with some rights reserved, I do need to ask permission from Post-Doc to borrow parts of it.
I will go ahead right now, assuming that she will be kind of enough to grant me the lee-way to have "the plan" of my own. ( I will leave Blitzen for her though! great idea by the way! we call that short term goal planning in my profession).
So here goes my version of the plan:
Situation 1: Health.
- Exercize: To do 10 minutes power walk video first thing in the morning then the 30 minute extended play version sometime after lunch but before 4 PM.
- Food: To be eating more dairy, more vegetables and balance the carbs and protein better. Need to eat better breakfasts and smaller meals throughout the course of the day.
- Journal: I am already keeping a pretty consistent food journal so I will continue on that and add my activity to it.
- Will manage my allergies better through diet and more routine allergy management with meds and homeopathic remedies. Consistency is key
Situation 2: Job
- Manage my time better: I will not be working overtime unless it is situational only. I do not want to get the old behaviours back that I have worked so hard to get rid of.
- I will not be stressing and worrying so much about what others are or aren't doing unless it affects my ability to do my job.
- I will be handling as much on my own as possible. Management will not be called in unless I have no additional resources left.
Situation 3: My home
- I will be organizing my closets slowly but surely. I have my bedroom done and the kitchen cabinets completed. I will slowly continue that.
- Get rid of the extra furniture and move in the pieces that I want.
- Paint the kitchen cabinets until I amass the money to redo that and the bathroom.
Situation 4: Finances
- Start Special Savings account
- Finish the payment plan on 401k loans
- Finish paying off the last 10% of the debt that I have.
Situation 5: Education
- Continue Voice Lessons and learn learn learn
- Continue Performing and get past stage fright.
Situation 6: Family & Friends
- Keep taking the cats to the Vet once a year for checkups
- keep communicating with my immediate nuclear family often. We live close but not that close.
- Work on those relationships that are healthy to make them stronger and work on those that aren't to make them Healthier or cut them out altogether.
Situation 7: My self esteem
- While improving it still needs work. I know I am a worthwhile person and I have a lot of God Given talents.
- My communicating that to myself sometimes sounds like bragging, but it's not intended to be that way. I am trying to pump myself up to a normal level. So I have to work on the delivery of that both to myself and in front of others.
- Learn how to take a compliment. that's a big one this year.
- Keep repeating to myself that other people do not decide how valuable I am.... I do.
- Stop listening to negative soundtracks playing in my head. Create new GOOD ones.
this plan brought to you in part by Minor revisions
***************************************************************************************
So this is my new plan. Post-Doc, I hope it's ok with you! Please let me know......
Tuesday, January 02, 2007
vacations
I heard an interesting line from a sitcom of all places.
"everyone has their own version of what a vacation is. Mom meditates, Edward and Kitty go on their cruises and Larry "leaves" too. Greg just left for awhile to re-charge his batteries"
That last part is what I like - the re-charge of the batteries.
In my youth, I was a classic work-a-holic. Look up the definition in any dictionary and you see my smiling face right there.
I truly believed that the world would stop on it's axis if I didn't go to work. I worked nights, weekends, birthdays and holidays.
I lost my 20's to my job. Through my own decision.
One that I regret today. Oh I have some great memories from my 20's but there is so much more that I missed. And the funny part is that I am more accessible now than I was then.
I work on a high profile account. My customer is very demanding BUT reasonable. You have to know your target audience, but they are largely trustworthy with personal phone numbers and cell phones etc. They will not use them unless instructed to or a true emergency ( Fire flood, that kind of thing.). I have a company issued pager that is text and numeric and looks like a mini laptop. Very cute. Goes in the fridge when I am not on call ( once every 6 weeks).
I work for a man who for the past 12 months that is an even bigger work-a-holic than I ever was. He has shown my entire team new heights to this. He wants constant and total access to us 24 hours a day. He has even gone on an actual vacation - taken the plane to the island, hotel, wife, the whole deal and STILL called in from there under the guise of making dinner reservations.
This person uses our cell phones whenever the mood strikes him. I have actually been sitting next to my office phone and will hear his personalized ring come in from my cell phone in my bag. I will listen to it ring the theme from Jaws until it goes to voice mail. Then I will wait for the call on my landline. You see, the principle of the thing is, the company, while I do have a phone by this company, doesn't actually PAY that bill. I do. I gave my phone internally to my team for true emergency use ( power outages and such). Not to be on call 24x7x365. I love my job, but this is the fastest road to burnout and I don't plan to spend a lot of time on this road.
My boss, while a wonderful man and very well meaning, well, frankly we are concerned for his health. This is how heart attacks happen. I would love it if he would slow down a little bit. We still get the same results without the frenzy. The customer loved us before him, they will be OK. But Each person has their own demon to battle and this job and the approval from above means a lot to him.
This past week has shown me that I have grown out of my work-a-holic tendencies by and large, however I know for a fact they are still in there. You know how I found out? I slept almost non stop every time I sat down the minute I walked out of the virtual door of my office. The relaxation was total and complete. And it continued to go like this for thirteen days. Normal people get that out of their systems in a couple to a few days. But not this crazy. It takes me thirteen before I can resume a normal life. Now I don't consider my primary job to be the only cause to this. I have a tendency to burn the candle at both ends and I am busy all the time. So it's a mixture of things.
At the end of the day or 13 days as it turns out, I am feeling super rested, very healthy, very relaxed. I spent an uncounted amount of time sleeping, in my bed, on the couch - whatever. I ate healthy food. I just feel great. My batteries are just about re-charged enough for me to jump back into my life on Thursday.
But for my last day, I will be practicing, teaching an unbelievable amount of kids, and cleaning my house and organizing closets and making preparation for my new DVD player.
Then it's back to our regularly scheduled craziness called...
Life.
"everyone has their own version of what a vacation is. Mom meditates, Edward and Kitty go on their cruises and Larry "leaves" too. Greg just left for awhile to re-charge his batteries"
That last part is what I like - the re-charge of the batteries.
In my youth, I was a classic work-a-holic. Look up the definition in any dictionary and you see my smiling face right there.
I truly believed that the world would stop on it's axis if I didn't go to work. I worked nights, weekends, birthdays and holidays.
I lost my 20's to my job. Through my own decision.
One that I regret today. Oh I have some great memories from my 20's but there is so much more that I missed. And the funny part is that I am more accessible now than I was then.
I work on a high profile account. My customer is very demanding BUT reasonable. You have to know your target audience, but they are largely trustworthy with personal phone numbers and cell phones etc. They will not use them unless instructed to or a true emergency ( Fire flood, that kind of thing.). I have a company issued pager that is text and numeric and looks like a mini laptop. Very cute. Goes in the fridge when I am not on call ( once every 6 weeks).
I work for a man who for the past 12 months that is an even bigger work-a-holic than I ever was. He has shown my entire team new heights to this. He wants constant and total access to us 24 hours a day. He has even gone on an actual vacation - taken the plane to the island, hotel, wife, the whole deal and STILL called in from there under the guise of making dinner reservations.
This person uses our cell phones whenever the mood strikes him. I have actually been sitting next to my office phone and will hear his personalized ring come in from my cell phone in my bag. I will listen to it ring the theme from Jaws until it goes to voice mail. Then I will wait for the call on my landline. You see, the principle of the thing is, the company, while I do have a phone by this company, doesn't actually PAY that bill. I do. I gave my phone internally to my team for true emergency use ( power outages and such). Not to be on call 24x7x365. I love my job, but this is the fastest road to burnout and I don't plan to spend a lot of time on this road.
My boss, while a wonderful man and very well meaning, well, frankly we are concerned for his health. This is how heart attacks happen. I would love it if he would slow down a little bit. We still get the same results without the frenzy. The customer loved us before him, they will be OK. But Each person has their own demon to battle and this job and the approval from above means a lot to him.
This past week has shown me that I have grown out of my work-a-holic tendencies by and large, however I know for a fact they are still in there. You know how I found out? I slept almost non stop every time I sat down the minute I walked out of the virtual door of my office. The relaxation was total and complete. And it continued to go like this for thirteen days. Normal people get that out of their systems in a couple to a few days. But not this crazy. It takes me thirteen before I can resume a normal life. Now I don't consider my primary job to be the only cause to this. I have a tendency to burn the candle at both ends and I am busy all the time. So it's a mixture of things.
At the end of the day or 13 days as it turns out, I am feeling super rested, very healthy, very relaxed. I spent an uncounted amount of time sleeping, in my bed, on the couch - whatever. I ate healthy food. I just feel great. My batteries are just about re-charged enough for me to jump back into my life on Thursday.
But for my last day, I will be practicing, teaching an unbelievable amount of kids, and cleaning my house and organizing closets and making preparation for my new DVD player.
Then it's back to our regularly scheduled craziness called...
Life.
Monday, January 01, 2007
Happy New Year to me
I spent a lovely day at home.
I slept late because I have a little bit of a lingering cold.
I made Starbucks Christmas Roast Coffee with a dash of raspberry flavored cocoa and had some toast with French jam.
I watched the only cooking show that I really like, the barefoot contessa - ( no relationship to the blog title incedently. That title was bestowed on me personally by my next door neighbor many years ago.... he knows nothing of how much I like Ina Garten at all.). I rested on the couch and watched movies all day. I saw the Da Vinci code - the book was better in most respects but I did like some of Ron Howards vision on the book's images. I also saw Rumor Has it which is so funny and really made me laugh despite the fact that I don't care for Jennifer Aniston as an actress.
I made myself some Boeuf Bourgenon with penne for dinner using an entire bottle of red wine and flaming it to burn the alcohol. That was kind of fun actually.... It was yummy!
Then I found all the gift cards from Christmas and decided it was time to replace the DVD player that died. It took me most of the day to research that and price it down. I got the preferred brand and model fo 218.00 which made me happy as it's a combo DVD / VCR with write capabality and is the same brand as my TV which is only 1 year old. YAY me.
Then I went looking at Barnes and Noble and I really don't like their website a whole lot. It's not conducisive to finding the things that I want or need. I am looking for additional music for my recital in 6 weeks that won't break the bank and won't be a killer to learn. I am considering something from Wicked( NO, not POPULAR thank you very much) and something from A Light in the Piazza (Possibly Beauty is or the title track. I have to see. ). I may pull a few standards out and I am doing a couple of things in 2 weeks and I may be able to pull one of those together for the recital too - we'll have to see.....
I nested and rested and watched movies and spent money. It was a wonderfully relaxing way to spend a rainy New Years Day.
I slept late because I have a little bit of a lingering cold.
I made Starbucks Christmas Roast Coffee with a dash of raspberry flavored cocoa and had some toast with French jam.
I watched the only cooking show that I really like, the barefoot contessa - ( no relationship to the blog title incedently. That title was bestowed on me personally by my next door neighbor many years ago.... he knows nothing of how much I like Ina Garten at all.). I rested on the couch and watched movies all day. I saw the Da Vinci code - the book was better in most respects but I did like some of Ron Howards vision on the book's images. I also saw Rumor Has it which is so funny and really made me laugh despite the fact that I don't care for Jennifer Aniston as an actress.
I made myself some Boeuf Bourgenon with penne for dinner using an entire bottle of red wine and flaming it to burn the alcohol. That was kind of fun actually.... It was yummy!
Then I found all the gift cards from Christmas and decided it was time to replace the DVD player that died. It took me most of the day to research that and price it down. I got the preferred brand and model fo 218.00 which made me happy as it's a combo DVD / VCR with write capabality and is the same brand as my TV which is only 1 year old. YAY me.
Then I went looking at Barnes and Noble and I really don't like their website a whole lot. It's not conducisive to finding the things that I want or need. I am looking for additional music for my recital in 6 weeks that won't break the bank and won't be a killer to learn. I am considering something from Wicked( NO, not POPULAR thank you very much) and something from A Light in the Piazza (Possibly Beauty is or the title track. I have to see. ). I may pull a few standards out and I am doing a couple of things in 2 weeks and I may be able to pull one of those together for the recital too - we'll have to see.....
I nested and rested and watched movies and spent money. It was a wonderfully relaxing way to spend a rainy New Years Day.
Sunday, December 31, 2006
For old acquaintance be forgot and never brought to mind....
New Years is a time to wipe the slate clean. All wrongs are righted, all slights forgotten.
Right?
Well even if it's not accurate - I believe that.
With each new year I try to change one thing about me for the better. I try to change one thing about my environment for the better.
This year I bet you all think I am going to say that my personal change is going to be to get to goal weight don't you?
Ha ! Gotcha WRONG.
That's probably going to happen or get close to it, because I am already on that road, comfortably and happily and refuse to put a time limitation on it. If it happens in 2007 - excellent. If it takes me into 2008 so be it. A time limit just adds stresses to the situation and causes setbacks. So no, not this year.
No this year, my goal is to go through my personal inventory of people in my life and keep all those that are good solid healthy relationships or work on a plan to modify the relationship so that it is mutually beneficial to both people or cut that relationship out of my life. With no guilt or anything like that.
Now to be honest I have already started that process. First of all, I am not ruled by pride. I took a lot of time to offer the peace to a dear friend with whom I had a falling out right before my dad died, but I did it. We both know that we are stubborn and we both know we didn't behave admirably but at the end of the day we are good people whose motivations were only for the best, we just acted on them stupidly. hell - we aren't perfect. But we are a road to recovery.
The second thing that I need to do this year is not sweat the small stuff. I have a tendency to grab onto a little thing and roll it, like a downhill snowball, into a huge thing. I tried to exercise this plan this morning in church.
We have a member of our choir who is a cherished person in my life. I have known she and her husband for most of my life. They are brilliant people and valued musicians. But they have had their share of musical trials in terms of post retirement employment. Peg was our interim organist and choir director after my father passed leaving the vacancy. She was not the best at it to be honest and fair, but we love her and we supported her 2000 %. So it was not the huge surprise that my new priest ( with a degree in music prior to seminary) asked for her resignation in his first year. He hired another choir director organist. Peg decided that she would remain at St Judes and sing in the choir as this was now her spiritual home. We were delighted but knew the transition would be tough on her. Now sitting firmly in Soprano 2 section of our choir, she creates her own descants on every hymn at will whenever the mood strikes her. This makes me crazy. Unless our director tells us to do that, I don't think we should be just arbitrarily creating things on the fly - what if the whole choir did that? There would be no melody and other than the words, no one would have recognized O come all ye faithful or any other hymn!
Today I chose to practice some anger management techniques with this one. yes it drives me crazy, but if it makes her feel more important to do that, after all she's been through ( that's not the first church to let them go by the way), isn't it worth it to keep her a little bit happy? She's an amazingly wonderful albeit quirky person, so is this really important? Is it going to really alter my day? NO. So I had to let it go.
A stupid story, but it begs the point about me holding on to things that do not matter in the grand scheme of things.
So I am working on letting the little things go. Some little things can't be let go because they create a precedent which isn't right either, or that little thing can rapidly snowball into a big thing if not reacted to quickly. The trick for me is to know which is which. this year I reacted ( or overreacted in many cases ) to everything to make sure that nothing slipped by. that really wasn't the best plan. So this year I am going to pick the battles differently. Perhaps with more wisdom. I may not react at all immediately I may just wait on it, think on it and pray on it.
This year is also about getting my allergies and immune system tanked up again. It's important for me overall but I have a ulterior motive in my singing. So - weight loss certainly plays a part as does exercise and intelligent food choices. Regulating meds and what not. I know what to do an I certainly just have to keep doing it and keep reading on it.
So this year the three important things that I resolving to are:
1. Review and restore / recycle the relationships in my life
2. Don't sweat the small stuff
3. Get Immune system pumped up.
Happy New year to my oldest, bestest friends Lena, Maple Mama, Bernie, Jax, Jenna - I Loev you all!
Happy New Year to my newer friends - Post-Doc, Jules, Lori, Val....
"Make new friends but keep the old, one Silver and the other Gold"
Right?
Well even if it's not accurate - I believe that.
With each new year I try to change one thing about me for the better. I try to change one thing about my environment for the better.
This year I bet you all think I am going to say that my personal change is going to be to get to goal weight don't you?
Ha ! Gotcha WRONG.
That's probably going to happen or get close to it, because I am already on that road, comfortably and happily and refuse to put a time limitation on it. If it happens in 2007 - excellent. If it takes me into 2008 so be it. A time limit just adds stresses to the situation and causes setbacks. So no, not this year.
No this year, my goal is to go through my personal inventory of people in my life and keep all those that are good solid healthy relationships or work on a plan to modify the relationship so that it is mutually beneficial to both people or cut that relationship out of my life. With no guilt or anything like that.
Now to be honest I have already started that process. First of all, I am not ruled by pride. I took a lot of time to offer the peace to a dear friend with whom I had a falling out right before my dad died, but I did it. We both know that we are stubborn and we both know we didn't behave admirably but at the end of the day we are good people whose motivations were only for the best, we just acted on them stupidly. hell - we aren't perfect. But we are a road to recovery.
The second thing that I need to do this year is not sweat the small stuff. I have a tendency to grab onto a little thing and roll it, like a downhill snowball, into a huge thing. I tried to exercise this plan this morning in church.
We have a member of our choir who is a cherished person in my life. I have known she and her husband for most of my life. They are brilliant people and valued musicians. But they have had their share of musical trials in terms of post retirement employment. Peg was our interim organist and choir director after my father passed leaving the vacancy. She was not the best at it to be honest and fair, but we love her and we supported her 2000 %. So it was not the huge surprise that my new priest ( with a degree in music prior to seminary) asked for her resignation in his first year. He hired another choir director organist. Peg decided that she would remain at St Judes and sing in the choir as this was now her spiritual home. We were delighted but knew the transition would be tough on her. Now sitting firmly in Soprano 2 section of our choir, she creates her own descants on every hymn at will whenever the mood strikes her. This makes me crazy. Unless our director tells us to do that, I don't think we should be just arbitrarily creating things on the fly - what if the whole choir did that? There would be no melody and other than the words, no one would have recognized O come all ye faithful or any other hymn!
Today I chose to practice some anger management techniques with this one. yes it drives me crazy, but if it makes her feel more important to do that, after all she's been through ( that's not the first church to let them go by the way), isn't it worth it to keep her a little bit happy? She's an amazingly wonderful albeit quirky person, so is this really important? Is it going to really alter my day? NO. So I had to let it go.
A stupid story, but it begs the point about me holding on to things that do not matter in the grand scheme of things.
So I am working on letting the little things go. Some little things can't be let go because they create a precedent which isn't right either, or that little thing can rapidly snowball into a big thing if not reacted to quickly. The trick for me is to know which is which. this year I reacted ( or overreacted in many cases ) to everything to make sure that nothing slipped by. that really wasn't the best plan. So this year I am going to pick the battles differently. Perhaps with more wisdom. I may not react at all immediately I may just wait on it, think on it and pray on it.
This year is also about getting my allergies and immune system tanked up again. It's important for me overall but I have a ulterior motive in my singing. So - weight loss certainly plays a part as does exercise and intelligent food choices. Regulating meds and what not. I know what to do an I certainly just have to keep doing it and keep reading on it.
So this year the three important things that I resolving to are:
1. Review and restore / recycle the relationships in my life
2. Don't sweat the small stuff
3. Get Immune system pumped up.
Happy New year to my oldest, bestest friends Lena, Maple Mama, Bernie, Jax, Jenna - I Loev you all!
Happy New Year to my newer friends - Post-Doc, Jules, Lori, Val....
"Make new friends but keep the old, one Silver and the other Gold"
Saturday, December 30, 2006
A true holiday miracle
I got a call today from the father of one of my students.
I missed their lesson this week to unforeseeable circumstances. It turned out to be the best thing for all.
Their home burned the ground on Tuesday.
They lost literally everything but what they were wearing.
I love this family dearly. They are just fabulous people. Gorgeous home, not pretentious by any means. Well behaved kids and good family values. I so enjoy going there and spending time teaching the daughter and once in awhile I get to enjoy a glass of wine with parents.
So when they called me and told me what happened today, I was in such shock, literally, that I couldn't even speak. Then I was afraid to because I thought I would cry.
What most amazed me, though really it shouldn't, is the positive attitude that this father had. He was just sure everything was going to come up roses for them. He wants to make sure that his Little girl continues the music lessons and they will be in a rental home shortly and will let me know where that is for the interim while they re-build.
I'm so stunned. I immediately offered the support of Kiwanis and I will get more details down stream as soon as I know what more they need.
Kenny, the father, told me that he got the best gift this year.
His family, safe and sound.
That is a holiday miracle for me.
Friday, December 29, 2006
Some personal revelations
I spent today in bed. Most of it at any rate. I slept a lot, returned phone calls, watched movies, drank hot cocoa with marshmallows.
Now, unless you count Marshmallows as a food group ( and until tonight I was) I had eaten absolutely no solid food today and didn't even miss it.
Life is strange like that.
I got myself up and went to teach my kids and then headed over to a memorial service that I was singing for. I had a slight headache but didn't attribute it to anything other than my cold.
insert mental Headslap here.
I felt flu-like symptoms throughout the entire service. I couldn't get into any of the tunes we were singing. We did a lot of Golden Oldies. It was a Presbyterian memorial service for a woman who died suddenly in an accident. The service was something like this:
Niece of deceased sings Amazing Grace ( no opinion)
Choir Sings "I come to the Garden alone" which for all the rest of us who don't know better ( myself included) has the refrain "And he walks with me and he talks with me....."
Minister says some words
choir sings "Abide with me"
Minister says some scripture lessons
Family and Friends insert their joys and memories here ( some nice letters and poetry were read- she was a well loved person)
Choir sings "Just as I am"
Closing prayers and the Lords prayer
Choir sings "The old rugged cross" which other than time-life commercials on PAX TV I have never actually heard before.
I should add here that we weren't using hymnals for these hymns an I have to tell you that having only the words in front of me is crippling to me. It's like asking someone to read Braille but it wasn't written correctly. Something was missing.
it was a lovely ceremony really. But I felt awful throughout the entire thing.
I hadn't eaten. Afterwards a couple of us went to the diner and had a late dinner. Honestly, I felt like that Campbell's soup commercial with the snowman that defrosts into a child. My Bacon Cheeseburger with fries and an unsweetened iced tea brought me right back almost immediately. I haven't had a cheeseburger in forever.
I feel sooooo good right now. I came home to practice because I have a lesson tomorrow, a recital in 6 weeks and a performance with a duet and a solo in 2 weeks that I am not at all ready for. I worked on it using my handy dandy new digital recorder.
You know what I discovered?
I hate my voice on tape - digital or any other kind! But it's an awesome practice tool so I really just need to get over it.
So I will have start eating like a normal person again. I feel better when I do and I have a lot of singing work to get going on with a lot of singing engagements coming up so I'd better get a grip on my voice on tape! I love my recorder though - it's small and perfect and easy. I LOVE it.
These are my personal revelations.
Stay tuned for my new years resolutions.
Now, unless you count Marshmallows as a food group ( and until tonight I was) I had eaten absolutely no solid food today and didn't even miss it.
Life is strange like that.
I got myself up and went to teach my kids and then headed over to a memorial service that I was singing for. I had a slight headache but didn't attribute it to anything other than my cold.
insert mental Headslap here.
I felt flu-like symptoms throughout the entire service. I couldn't get into any of the tunes we were singing. We did a lot of Golden Oldies. It was a Presbyterian memorial service for a woman who died suddenly in an accident. The service was something like this:
Niece of deceased sings Amazing Grace ( no opinion)
Choir Sings "I come to the Garden alone" which for all the rest of us who don't know better ( myself included) has the refrain "And he walks with me and he talks with me....."
Minister says some words
choir sings "Abide with me"
Minister says some scripture lessons
Family and Friends insert their joys and memories here ( some nice letters and poetry were read- she was a well loved person)
Choir sings "Just as I am"
Closing prayers and the Lords prayer
Choir sings "The old rugged cross" which other than time-life commercials on PAX TV I have never actually heard before.
I should add here that we weren't using hymnals for these hymns an I have to tell you that having only the words in front of me is crippling to me. It's like asking someone to read Braille but it wasn't written correctly. Something was missing.
it was a lovely ceremony really. But I felt awful throughout the entire thing.
I hadn't eaten. Afterwards a couple of us went to the diner and had a late dinner. Honestly, I felt like that Campbell's soup commercial with the snowman that defrosts into a child. My Bacon Cheeseburger with fries and an unsweetened iced tea brought me right back almost immediately. I haven't had a cheeseburger in forever.
I feel sooooo good right now. I came home to practice because I have a lesson tomorrow, a recital in 6 weeks and a performance with a duet and a solo in 2 weeks that I am not at all ready for. I worked on it using my handy dandy new digital recorder.
You know what I discovered?
I hate my voice on tape - digital or any other kind! But it's an awesome practice tool so I really just need to get over it.
So I will have start eating like a normal person again. I feel better when I do and I have a lot of singing work to get going on with a lot of singing engagements coming up so I'd better get a grip on my voice on tape! I love my recorder though - it's small and perfect and easy. I LOVE it.
These are my personal revelations.
Stay tuned for my new years resolutions.
Thursday, December 28, 2006
A visit an discussion of schools
" Did you know the post road is backed up to one lane" My friend asked at 9:45AM
"nope, I'm still in bed" I replied - thankful to be there.
"well I know another route so I'll still be there by noon-ish." she said
" OK call if you get lost" I said and dozed back off
My Friend from New England ( the really SOUTHERN part) was on her way to see my "not so new" home. And Bringing a toy to test drive with my cats. They are so spoiled those boys.
She got here, I gave her the tour including the the horrible GRAY bathroom, the bedroom that charms me to know end and my Living room with my new tree!
We had some tea and tortured my cat with a remote control mouse. He finally got tired of chasing it and picked it up in his mouth and carried it around. He's such a brute!
Then we went to a local Hibachi style Japanese restaurant that I LOVE. We had a great time. She didn't stay for long, but I showed her around town and some of the historical buildings and odd things that make up the town that I lived in. The fiber of the town if you will. I have lived in this town on and off for most of my life and I can say with certainty that, other than a major city, there isn't a town in suburbia quite like this one.
When I call it a melting pot, that would be an understatement. We are a community that celebrates Christmas and Hanukkah, but also boxing day and Three Kings day ( known in the US as epiphany) just to name a few. The PR day parade is not just limited to NYC either. We have one here. We have a large Hispanic, black and Caribbean culture in this town. I am the minority.
We have so many varying degrees of income here too across all cultural sections. From the very wealthy ( less than 5%) to the average ( about 70 %) to the impoverished ( less than 5%) and then we have the odd thing, 20% of the school taxes are based on kids that do not live in the community and attend our schools il-legally for lack of a better word. They attend our schools by putting an address down that's valid and then having someone pick them up and drop them off at that address or they take the train in.
The reasons are somewhat valid although I can say for sure that I do not agree with them. Most of us in town don't as a matter of fact. Our school system provides a Bi-lingual Kindergarten. Which I think is very important and a stroke of brilliance. What a great way to help these children integrate into a new life in a new country. But it doesn't end there. Our schools offer the full curriculum up to graduation in the alternate language. Here is where I disagree. It pigeon-holes kids so they have no opportunity to improve their language skills and go on to college and have a career that might give them a better life. I really have an issue with a school district that segregates kids and the programs that they initiate are actually fostering the segregation than tearing it down.
Additionally our district belongs to the un-official program "no child left behind". No funding for this program, a great idea in theory, but when you can't even clearly identify the children that actually live in the district versus those are attending subversively there really isn't a way to get this program off the ground. This program makes sure that no child gets left back. It's largely based on the standardized tests for the State. I don't understand how you can take a bell curve and skew it so that all children fall into the same categories. I am no statistician ( ask anyone!) but something seems rotten in Denmark. I love the idea but I don't think my district's execution is truly benefitting the children.
Part of the "busing in the bad element" issue has been corrected. Now the HS in the town directly north of us has re-opened and that is supposed to relieve us of some of the "bad element" that was coming from the Corridor. I do have to say that either I have learned to turn a blind eye ( which I doubt) or else I really don't see that element here like I did in the past. There was always a concern as the corridor is not that far away and it can always seep back in if we aren't vigilant but I do happen to know that most parents are crazy vigilant about those elements and education about that kind of element and dare I use the word (shhh we don't speak the names aloud) is happening in the home now. Most importantly the signs of that kind of activity have gone by the way side. I simply don't see it like I did in my childhood. I am ever vigilant as a precaution but it's really improved.
Due to the major cultural diversity here, we get school grants way above and beyond what most districts get and slowly our schools are improving. But I don't see any effort being made to make life for the children easier from an integration standpoint. I did see a major renovation done to the school administration building. it's gorgeous. and if 10 kids per year grace it's doorstep I would be shocked. To be fair to those folks who work there that place was run down when my dad had his office there 25 years ago - so it was overdue but still not to the degree it was done. Italian marble? I have to be seriously concerned at what they are using that money for. I do realize that you have to use it up to get more. But like that????
We give speeches to the student bodies now in two languages in the High School. Most recently for a scholarship. If you want to be fair about it - it's necessary but I don't think that we should make things this easy. Yes I think a translator is neccessary for anything involving the parents, but just the kids? No. I think that we do them a dis-service at learning the language side by side with what's spoken at home if we use translators in every day life.
In my tour around town with my friend today, we talked about this. In her sleepy New England town ( near Martha Stewart by the way), this kind of thing doesn't go on. But in the town where she grew up and lived until 7 years ago it still happens to this day. She has the same feelings that I do and commented that my town looked very similar to that one. She also mentioned that by busing kids in and having those kids subversively brought in, their parents are trying to pave the way for a better life for them.
On the one hand I agree with her, but on the other hand I beg the question - at whose expense? I have no problem paying tax money to help my community educate the children. I have no problem donating additional time and money to help kids who have a need. Hell, I am Kiwanian - that's what we DO. Our goal is to help the children of the world one child at a time. But I think people who are taking advantage of the system are really putting a lot of additional pressure on the economy of this incorporated village and the grant money that we get does get chewed up much faster than I think it aught to.
Most of my friends with kids send them to catholic school in the next town after kindergarten. That to me speaks louder than anything else. I want to see this district improve so that our parents are comfortable sending their kids here. I want to see the kids that need help learning english get that assistance and I want to see this community work together to bridge over these gaps. Education-wise, while we have the right idea, we have the wrong execution and while it makes things easier for the ids NOW, they pay in the long run. Community-wise, our kids are paying dearly for being bused in and out, snuck in and out via train or what have you. They don't get to participate in their community, they don't get to be in after school activities and they are leading separate lives - one home life and one school life with no bridge between.
It was a fun visit. We had a great time. Our chat's really brought this particular issue to light for me in a very specific relief. It's tough to be an educator AND a tax payer at the same time.
But it made me really think about these situations and the ramifications of them.
"nope, I'm still in bed" I replied - thankful to be there.
"well I know another route so I'll still be there by noon-ish." she said
" OK call if you get lost" I said and dozed back off
My Friend from New England ( the really SOUTHERN part) was on her way to see my "not so new" home. And Bringing a toy to test drive with my cats. They are so spoiled those boys.
She got here, I gave her the tour including the the horrible GRAY bathroom, the bedroom that charms me to know end and my Living room with my new tree!
We had some tea and tortured my cat with a remote control mouse. He finally got tired of chasing it and picked it up in his mouth and carried it around. He's such a brute!
Then we went to a local Hibachi style Japanese restaurant that I LOVE. We had a great time. She didn't stay for long, but I showed her around town and some of the historical buildings and odd things that make up the town that I lived in. The fiber of the town if you will. I have lived in this town on and off for most of my life and I can say with certainty that, other than a major city, there isn't a town in suburbia quite like this one.
When I call it a melting pot, that would be an understatement. We are a community that celebrates Christmas and Hanukkah, but also boxing day and Three Kings day ( known in the US as epiphany) just to name a few. The PR day parade is not just limited to NYC either. We have one here. We have a large Hispanic, black and Caribbean culture in this town. I am the minority.
We have so many varying degrees of income here too across all cultural sections. From the very wealthy ( less than 5%) to the average ( about 70 %) to the impoverished ( less than 5%) and then we have the odd thing, 20% of the school taxes are based on kids that do not live in the community and attend our schools il-legally for lack of a better word. They attend our schools by putting an address down that's valid and then having someone pick them up and drop them off at that address or they take the train in.
The reasons are somewhat valid although I can say for sure that I do not agree with them. Most of us in town don't as a matter of fact. Our school system provides a Bi-lingual Kindergarten. Which I think is very important and a stroke of brilliance. What a great way to help these children integrate into a new life in a new country. But it doesn't end there. Our schools offer the full curriculum up to graduation in the alternate language. Here is where I disagree. It pigeon-holes kids so they have no opportunity to improve their language skills and go on to college and have a career that might give them a better life. I really have an issue with a school district that segregates kids and the programs that they initiate are actually fostering the segregation than tearing it down.
Additionally our district belongs to the un-official program "no child left behind". No funding for this program, a great idea in theory, but when you can't even clearly identify the children that actually live in the district versus those are attending subversively there really isn't a way to get this program off the ground. This program makes sure that no child gets left back. It's largely based on the standardized tests for the State. I don't understand how you can take a bell curve and skew it so that all children fall into the same categories. I am no statistician ( ask anyone!) but something seems rotten in Denmark. I love the idea but I don't think my district's execution is truly benefitting the children.
Part of the "busing in the bad element" issue has been corrected. Now the HS in the town directly north of us has re-opened and that is supposed to relieve us of some of the "bad element" that was coming from the Corridor. I do have to say that either I have learned to turn a blind eye ( which I doubt) or else I really don't see that element here like I did in the past. There was always a concern as the corridor is not that far away and it can always seep back in if we aren't vigilant but I do happen to know that most parents are crazy vigilant about those elements and education about that kind of element and dare I use the word
Due to the major cultural diversity here, we get school grants way above and beyond what most districts get and slowly our schools are improving. But I don't see any effort being made to make life for the children easier from an integration standpoint. I did see a major renovation done to the school administration building. it's gorgeous. and if 10 kids per year grace it's doorstep I would be shocked. To be fair to those folks who work there that place was run down when my dad had his office there 25 years ago - so it was overdue but still not to the degree it was done. Italian marble? I have to be seriously concerned at what they are using that money for. I do realize that you have to use it up to get more. But like that????
We give speeches to the student bodies now in two languages in the High School. Most recently for a scholarship. If you want to be fair about it - it's necessary but I don't think that we should make things this easy. Yes I think a translator is neccessary for anything involving the parents, but just the kids? No. I think that we do them a dis-service at learning the language side by side with what's spoken at home if we use translators in every day life.
In my tour around town with my friend today, we talked about this. In her sleepy New England town ( near Martha Stewart by the way), this kind of thing doesn't go on. But in the town where she grew up and lived until 7 years ago it still happens to this day. She has the same feelings that I do and commented that my town looked very similar to that one. She also mentioned that by busing kids in and having those kids subversively brought in, their parents are trying to pave the way for a better life for them.
On the one hand I agree with her, but on the other hand I beg the question - at whose expense? I have no problem paying tax money to help my community educate the children. I have no problem donating additional time and money to help kids who have a need. Hell, I am Kiwanian - that's what we DO. Our goal is to help the children of the world one child at a time. But I think people who are taking advantage of the system are really putting a lot of additional pressure on the economy of this incorporated village and the grant money that we get does get chewed up much faster than I think it aught to.
Most of my friends with kids send them to catholic school in the next town after kindergarten. That to me speaks louder than anything else. I want to see this district improve so that our parents are comfortable sending their kids here. I want to see the kids that need help learning english get that assistance and I want to see this community work together to bridge over these gaps. Education-wise, while we have the right idea, we have the wrong execution and while it makes things easier for the ids NOW, they pay in the long run. Community-wise, our kids are paying dearly for being bused in and out, snuck in and out via train or what have you. They don't get to participate in their community, they don't get to be in after school activities and they are leading separate lives - one home life and one school life with no bridge between.
It was a fun visit. We had a great time. Our chat's really brought this particular issue to light for me in a very specific relief. It's tough to be an educator AND a tax payer at the same time.
But it made me really think about these situations and the ramifications of them.
Wednesday, December 27, 2006
The most wonderful day of the year
"But I'm exhausted!" I whined.
I had a total of 6 services to sing for church in 26 hours. I was wiped out.
I actually took two naps on Christmas eve to get me through. I took one on Christmas day.
Christmas eve was amazing though. Better than ever. Better than I even imagined it would be.
"will you forgive a stubborn German?" I asked
"Only if you forgive this stubborn Git." She replied.
she thanked me for calling her and bridging the gap. She said it meant a lot. We'll be in touch after the holiday.
I felt fantastic. I was as high as a kite. I am barely down on earth now.
Then came Christmas day. We went to my brothers and he had a huge crowd there - it was largely family. It was wonderful. Mari was there with Will and the kids , Al and Matt. Al is at that wonderful age where everything is charming and fun and he loves to give kisses and hugs and he laughs at everything. We had so much fun with him - I adore that kid! largely because he liked my cookies that I made for my brother.
We had so much fun - the food was wonderful, the company was fantastic, the presents were a blast! My brother got me a digital recorder with software and everything just so I could practice my singing! I did put it on my list - but the one I got was far better than I expected and it is fantastic!
Mostly what this holiday did for me was that I had two major reunions with old friends that I missed dearly. I initiated one and D initiated the other. It was a uniquely special year for me. I wish they could all be that way.
The best gift, aside form my new niece, was a flock of ducks by Heifer Int'l donated in my name by MiniMaple. His new word is Ducky and I LOVE that. Maple mama has the most creative gifts. When my dad died, Maplemama sent me a Japanese red maple. So the FLock of ducks was not only not a surprise but a treasured gift from my little buddy, Minimaple.
This was one of the best holidays I can remember. My brother put a good day together at his home and I loved spending time there. I spent some time with my vocal coach and his family. I spent time with two of my dearest friends. I can't even imagine what else could be better?
I had a total of 6 services to sing for church in 26 hours. I was wiped out.
I actually took two naps on Christmas eve to get me through. I took one on Christmas day.
Christmas eve was amazing though. Better than ever. Better than I even imagined it would be.
"will you forgive a stubborn German?" I asked
"Only if you forgive this stubborn Git." She replied.
she thanked me for calling her and bridging the gap. She said it meant a lot. We'll be in touch after the holiday.
I felt fantastic. I was as high as a kite. I am barely down on earth now.
Then came Christmas day. We went to my brothers and he had a huge crowd there - it was largely family. It was wonderful. Mari was there with Will and the kids , Al and Matt. Al is at that wonderful age where everything is charming and fun and he loves to give kisses and hugs and he laughs at everything. We had so much fun with him - I adore that kid! largely because he liked my cookies that I made for my brother.
We had so much fun - the food was wonderful, the company was fantastic, the presents were a blast! My brother got me a digital recorder with software and everything just so I could practice my singing! I did put it on my list - but the one I got was far better than I expected and it is fantastic!
Mostly what this holiday did for me was that I had two major reunions with old friends that I missed dearly. I initiated one and D initiated the other. It was a uniquely special year for me. I wish they could all be that way.
The best gift, aside form my new niece, was a flock of ducks by Heifer Int'l donated in my name by MiniMaple. His new word is Ducky and I LOVE that. Maple mama has the most creative gifts. When my dad died, Maplemama sent me a Japanese red maple. So the FLock of ducks was not only not a surprise but a treasured gift from my little buddy, Minimaple.
This was one of the best holidays I can remember. My brother put a good day together at his home and I loved spending time there. I spent some time with my vocal coach and his family. I spent time with two of my dearest friends. I can't even imagine what else could be better?
Tuesday, December 26, 2006
Christmas Lawn Ornaments
"OH my God. What a train wreck!" I say as I round the corner of Hunter Avenue in the town I grew up in.
I HATE lawn Ornaments.
I look at the split level dark brown shingled ranch on the corner. Not a square inch of lawn is available.
There are lit up soldiers along the walkway.
A white lit up sleigh with a single reindeer
A snowglobe
there are candy cane lights strung around the yard.
A large bear in a Santa hat
more lit up reindeer
A large plastic santa
A large plastice snowman
Some Dickens Carolers from the days of yore ( LITERALLY).
the house was fascinating in it's awfulness. A little bit comforting too.... but largely facsinating.
My best friends parent's home has not changed much ever. Nor have they. Her mom answered the door - she looks the same and wonderful. Her dad gave me a big bear hug while he took a break from his video game with his grandson.
D looks fantastic. I haven't seen her 4 years. Since her littlest girl was in a carrier. Aimee is 6 now and quite the little girl. Mary is 10 and gorgeous. A bit of a tom boy. But remembered why I was funny and nice which was cool.
Chris looks the same and he and D make me laugh with their parenting. They are super at it. But so much themselves. It was as if no time had passed. literally. We caught up in the kitchen in the banquet which we both agreed had to go. We sat their picking on leftovers from Christmas dinner and drinking water and sodas and whatever was left around. I looked Aimee's drawings and Mary's stuffed animals. I laughed at chris' forcing the girls to go to bed and then needing Mary to get up and help him get out of his video game because he couldn't figure it out.
I laughed at D's parents going to bed while we were still sitting there yapping - every Christmas of our lives has gone like that and many many many other kinds of non event days.
I left at 11 and drove home exhausted. But happy. D and I had a good time.
I HATE lawn Ornaments.
I look at the split level dark brown shingled ranch on the corner. Not a square inch of lawn is available.
There are lit up soldiers along the walkway.
A white lit up sleigh with a single reindeer
A snowglobe
there are candy cane lights strung around the yard.
A large bear in a Santa hat
more lit up reindeer
A large plastic santa
A large plastice snowman
Some Dickens Carolers from the days of yore ( LITERALLY).
the house was fascinating in it's awfulness. A little bit comforting too.... but largely facsinating.
My best friends parent's home has not changed much ever. Nor have they. Her mom answered the door - she looks the same and wonderful. Her dad gave me a big bear hug while he took a break from his video game with his grandson.
D looks fantastic. I haven't seen her 4 years. Since her littlest girl was in a carrier. Aimee is 6 now and quite the little girl. Mary is 10 and gorgeous. A bit of a tom boy. But remembered why I was funny and nice which was cool.
Chris looks the same and he and D make me laugh with their parenting. They are super at it. But so much themselves. It was as if no time had passed. literally. We caught up in the kitchen in the banquet which we both agreed had to go. We sat their picking on leftovers from Christmas dinner and drinking water and sodas and whatever was left around. I looked Aimee's drawings and Mary's stuffed animals. I laughed at chris' forcing the girls to go to bed and then needing Mary to get up and help him get out of his video game because he couldn't figure it out.
I laughed at D's parents going to bed while we were still sitting there yapping - every Christmas of our lives has gone like that and many many many other kinds of non event days.
I left at 11 and drove home exhausted. But happy. D and I had a good time.
Saturday, December 23, 2006
Aunts and Santa
"I'm an Auntie!" I cried to no one in particular.
I was in the car at the time and had just hung up with my step-father who announced that he was a grandpa again.
Only this time it will be different.
This kid will see us and know us and call us "Aunt" or "Grandma" or "Nana" or whatever it is they choose.
My youngest brother is the nicest sweetest boy in the world. Well, Man I guess now. Hard to imagine him old enough to have kids, but the boy is a dad now. He has a beautiful little girl named Anna Guilianna. After both grandmothers.
I love her already and am so thrilled that my sister-in-law didn't have a C-section but delivered naturally and both mama and baby are doing well!
So I am an Auntie and I cried tears of happiness and joy on my way home. Her birthday is today. Happy Birthday Anna!
On Santa.
I had to call Santa today to put someone on the Naughty list. For poor listening skills and temper tantrums.
She wasn't listening to her mother at all. Or me - or anyone for that matter. She wanted to sing a Christmas song for me, but was not allowed because she was told several times not to touch somethings in the house and she continued to touch them. That generated a full out tantrum on the floor with crying, screaming, kicking and both her mom and I ignoring. Until she took it too far. Her mom suggested I call Santa, so I picked up the phone and called my answering machine and left a full blown, one-sided conversation with First Mrs Claus and second Santa himself.
In the middle of this, she sat up looked at me and said she was crying because she missed her boyfriend ( she's 4 - has a more active love life than I do.) which was hilarious as his name hasn't been mentioned in 2 weeks easily. Then she ran out of the room and yelled that now she was mad at ME. ha - like I care. It's going to be short lived any way.
so I wrap the conversation with my answering machine. She's in the other room now, quiet. Her mom looks at me and says "Your good!".
"My mom didn't call me Sarah Heartburn for nothing!" I said.
The munchkin makes her way back into the room and we play with her Carebear for a few minutes. Then She is told to turn down her bed. She starts in with getting fresh again. So we pretended that the Carebear went home with me ( it's in a kitchen cabinet incidentally).
She did let me put her to bed and asked me to read her a story so the sweet little girl I know did finally come around.
But I will tell you - her mom has a halo and wings and an express ticket to heaven because this is a more common experience than I knew. Her kids are wonderful though and the history proves that they grow out of this.
she still deserves that express ticket and to be thin, young,. beautiful and eat whatever she wants forever as far as I am concerned!
My machine cracked me up to no end when I got home though. I almost wish I could save it.
I was in the car at the time and had just hung up with my step-father who announced that he was a grandpa again.
Only this time it will be different.
This kid will see us and know us and call us "Aunt" or "Grandma" or "Nana" or whatever it is they choose.
My youngest brother is the nicest sweetest boy in the world. Well, Man I guess now. Hard to imagine him old enough to have kids, but the boy is a dad now. He has a beautiful little girl named Anna Guilianna. After both grandmothers.
I love her already and am so thrilled that my sister-in-law didn't have a C-section but delivered naturally and both mama and baby are doing well!
So I am an Auntie and I cried tears of happiness and joy on my way home. Her birthday is today. Happy Birthday Anna!
On Santa.
I had to call Santa today to put someone on the Naughty list. For poor listening skills and temper tantrums.
She wasn't listening to her mother at all. Or me - or anyone for that matter. She wanted to sing a Christmas song for me, but was not allowed because she was told several times not to touch somethings in the house and she continued to touch them. That generated a full out tantrum on the floor with crying, screaming, kicking and both her mom and I ignoring. Until she took it too far. Her mom suggested I call Santa, so I picked up the phone and called my answering machine and left a full blown, one-sided conversation with First Mrs Claus and second Santa himself.
In the middle of this, she sat up looked at me and said she was crying because she missed her boyfriend ( she's 4 - has a more active love life than I do.) which was hilarious as his name hasn't been mentioned in 2 weeks easily. Then she ran out of the room and yelled that now she was mad at ME. ha - like I care. It's going to be short lived any way.
so I wrap the conversation with my answering machine. She's in the other room now, quiet. Her mom looks at me and says "Your good!".
"My mom didn't call me Sarah Heartburn for nothing!" I said.
The munchkin makes her way back into the room and we play with her Carebear for a few minutes. Then She is told to turn down her bed. She starts in with getting fresh again. So we pretended that the Carebear went home with me ( it's in a kitchen cabinet incidentally).
She did let me put her to bed and asked me to read her a story so the sweet little girl I know did finally come around.
But I will tell you - her mom has a halo and wings and an express ticket to heaven because this is a more common experience than I knew. Her kids are wonderful though and the history proves that they grow out of this.
she still deserves that express ticket and to be thin, young,. beautiful and eat whatever she wants forever as far as I am concerned!
My machine cracked me up to no end when I got home though. I almost wish I could save it.
Make the Yuletide gay
I had a party this evening at Jenna's house.
I have been looking forward to this night for a month.
Yesterday at 4:29 I realized that I had not reserved my normal grocery delivery time and in a blind panic went online and reserved the very next window available which was 3:30 - 7.
This is bad. Normally I am 11:30-3, and that error screwed up my time mgmt for the entire day.
On top of which my entire team left at 2 and no one freaking told me.
So I look at the web site and they have updated my window for grocery delivery to 3:48-5:48.
Now Murphy's law has clearly shown us that there is no way in blue hell my groceries will be here at 3:48 right? Correct. they arrived at 5:15.
To counteract this, I showered early and got my hot rollers heating up. I laid my out fit out and made sure that all the things that needed to go with me were packed up.
Then I set about to baking and putting away groceries at the same time. No easy feat as the cupcakes I was baking were baking faster than the 20 minutes prescribed and the next batch SLOWER. Make me nuts. I finally get them out and they are supposed to be red velvet cake but sadly they look like a darker pepto bismol color. The easter bunny has the wrong season.
So while they cool I put most of the groceries away - the perishables. Then I set about to making the frosting. this looked like St Patrick's day in the wrong season again.I KNEW I should have tested these first!
Lots of compliments but now I am so rushed and tired that I am not going to enjoy myself. NO. THat's not the attitude!!!! YOu have been wanting this for over a month!
So I smiled to myself - set my hair in rollers and set about making the icing. I finished up in wondeful time, I was tired, but pressed on.
I got to Jenna's and spent a wonderful few moments with Judy he daughter. She was ready for bed, but "Santa" ( Chris ) was coming to the party. We were trying to keep her up for that. She was wearing her snowflake hat and Pj's and looked like such a cute Munchkin. She showed me her newly pierced ears ( she's 3 and a half) and then I made the mistake of picking her up. She went to sleep in my arms. So cute though.
Pam took her from me and put her in her bed. Then we started putting some of the food out. People were starting to arrive. It was a great party and a good night overall.
I drove home and dwhen I walked in I realized my first mistake. I didn't put away all the food.
I left two bags of Marshmallows out and one was on the floor, opened and a stray marshmallow under the dining room table. CATS!!! and I know who the mastermind on this one was too!
Wolfi.
I have been looking forward to this night for a month.
Yesterday at 4:29 I realized that I had not reserved my normal grocery delivery time and in a blind panic went online and reserved the very next window available which was 3:30 - 7.
This is bad. Normally I am 11:30-3, and that error screwed up my time mgmt for the entire day.
On top of which my entire team left at 2 and no one freaking told me.
So I look at the web site and they have updated my window for grocery delivery to 3:48-5:48.
Now Murphy's law has clearly shown us that there is no way in blue hell my groceries will be here at 3:48 right? Correct. they arrived at 5:15.
To counteract this, I showered early and got my hot rollers heating up. I laid my out fit out and made sure that all the things that needed to go with me were packed up.
Then I set about to baking and putting away groceries at the same time. No easy feat as the cupcakes I was baking were baking faster than the 20 minutes prescribed and the next batch SLOWER. Make me nuts. I finally get them out and they are supposed to be red velvet cake but sadly they look like a darker pepto bismol color. The easter bunny has the wrong season.
So while they cool I put most of the groceries away - the perishables. Then I set about to making the frosting. this looked like St Patrick's day in the wrong season again.
Lots of compliments but now I am so rushed and tired that I am not going to enjoy myself. NO. THat's not the attitude!!!! YOu have been wanting this for over a month!
So I smiled to myself - set my hair in rollers and set about making the icing. I finished up in wondeful time, I was tired, but pressed on.
I got to Jenna's and spent a wonderful few moments with Judy he daughter. She was ready for bed, but "Santa" ( Chris ) was coming to the party. We were trying to keep her up for that. She was wearing her snowflake hat and Pj's and looked like such a cute Munchkin. She showed me her newly pierced ears ( she's 3 and a half) and then I made the mistake of picking her up. She went to sleep in my arms. So cute though.
Pam took her from me and put her in her bed. Then we started putting some of the food out. People were starting to arrive. It was a great party and a good night overall.
I drove home and dwhen I walked in I realized my first mistake. I didn't put away all the food.
I left two bags of Marshmallows out and one was on the floor, opened and a stray marshmallow under the dining room table. CATS!!! and I know who the mastermind on this one was too!
Wolfi.
Friday, December 22, 2006
I am NOT a morning person
But today I am.
in fact - this is the second time this week.
I woke up at 7AM ( unheard of unless I have to go to my offices) and heard the school buses picking up children for their last day of school before the Holiday break and the garbage trucks doing their job.
And a funny memory came to me.
My younger brother used to wake up early as a little kid and rush to the living room in our parents home the minute he heard them start up our street. He would kneel on the couch and look out the drapes surrounding the picture window eagerly.
No Not for Santa.
For the Garbage Men.
He wanted to be one when he was that age. ( 3 or 4 at the oldest).
I woke up with that memory and woke up literally laughing and smiling. What a hoot.
Then I wrote a note to a friend of the family in Paris France. I wrote as much of it in French as I Could on the little bit of caffeine I had in me.
Then he called me back!!!! I wasn't expecting that - I figured a note in french that I could sit with my dictionary and translate - but no I got a phone call!!!! It was so wonderful to hear from him. I can't believe he has sons old enough to WORK. Wow. What a wonderful surprise this morning!
I was able to get some things done this morning in the peace and quiet. I started my laundry , Maria is here now cleaning the house for me. I had my pumpkin spice coffee ( a gift from a kidlette) as my breakfast.
all this was before 9AM. Something unheard of at this time of year for me.
Today is my last day of work until 2007. I am looking forward to visiting with friends and spending time with my family and just being lazy in my own home, napping and having a PJ day.
I wrapped some gifts this morning also. I still have to fold and put away the laundry that just finished.
I have a party tonight and I still have to bake for it. This has turned out to be a great day!
in fact - this is the second time this week.
I woke up at 7AM ( unheard of unless I have to go to my offices) and heard the school buses picking up children for their last day of school before the Holiday break and the garbage trucks doing their job.
And a funny memory came to me.
My younger brother used to wake up early as a little kid and rush to the living room in our parents home the minute he heard them start up our street. He would kneel on the couch and look out the drapes surrounding the picture window eagerly.
No Not for Santa.
For the Garbage Men.
He wanted to be one when he was that age. ( 3 or 4 at the oldest).
I woke up with that memory and woke up literally laughing and smiling. What a hoot.
Then I wrote a note to a friend of the family in Paris France. I wrote as much of it in French as I Could on the little bit of caffeine I had in me.
Then he called me back!!!! I wasn't expecting that - I figured a note in french that I could sit with my dictionary and translate - but no I got a phone call!!!! It was so wonderful to hear from him. I can't believe he has sons old enough to WORK. Wow. What a wonderful surprise this morning!
I was able to get some things done this morning in the peace and quiet. I started my laundry , Maria is here now cleaning the house for me. I had my pumpkin spice coffee ( a gift from a kidlette) as my breakfast.
all this was before 9AM. Something unheard of at this time of year for me.
Today is my last day of work until 2007. I am looking forward to visiting with friends and spending time with my family and just being lazy in my own home, napping and having a PJ day.
I wrapped some gifts this morning also. I still have to fold and put away the laundry that just finished.
I have a party tonight and I still have to bake for it. This has turned out to be a great day!