fall break!

For the past week I was in NoVA. It was a great time. I had way too much to do and didn't get to do it all, or see everyone. But it was great nonetheless. Plus, Mom got me a bunch of fall clothes (always a plus).

Now it's time to go back to work. Okay... it's not yet. Man, I love a two-week fall break!

Other than seeing some awesome friends and spending some time with the rents, I got some quality sleeping-in time a couple mornings, I went walking solo or with Mom for an hour to an hour and a half every day, and went down to VA Beach to help Chris' family celebrate his sister's awesome graduation from massage therapy school. And I got to read some magazines I put off during the school year.

Hopefully I'll be able to get back to NoVA over Christmas break to do some more stuff I didn't get to do, like going to see some friends' houses, going to church at Reston Town Center, eating at Big Bowl, and visiting more people.

Maybe a two-week fall break isn't as long as I thought it'd be...

chugging along

Things at school are basically going well. I wish I had a more supportive administration. Chimes meets after school on Mondays, chorus meets after school on Tuesdays, and starting next week the musical rehearsals will be after school Wednesdays and Thursdays.

Chris has been super busy working part-time as a school photographer (think picture day and yearbook stuff including sports teams) and doing his own photography stuff on the side. Last weekend he shot a horse show for the whole weekend and I helped out on Saturday and Sunday. I had an awesome time. I do have to admit I'm not the biggest fan of dressage (where the rider has to make the horse do certain things like walk and canter and turn with the least amount of movement as possible). I'd much rather go to a rodeo (something I still haven't done out here). The best part was that I got to pet a bunch of horses. It made me realize even more how I'm completely happier when I have animals around me (nice animals, that is). So I've decided I want to take some horseback riding lessons for a month or so just for fun. Hopefully my friend Katie, who owns some horses, will be my teacher. I really hope it works out.

Also, I've joined the Nashville Race for the Cure. I'm running (err, walking... err, crawling) in honor of my mom's mom, my granny, Alene Bohanon. She had breast cancer when I was little and had a mastectomy. I'm on the Wilson County Educator's Association (county my school's in) team, so I'm hoping I'll get to know some other teachers and people working in the county. And I'm hoping to raise some money for breast cancer research. If you would like to help me reach my goal of $1,000, you can go to my website for the race. I'm super excited about this!

stupid finale registration

I just spent about 6 hours working on some hand chimes music. I basically had to take 4 songs and cut them apart (musically/notationally... if that's a word... speaking) and rewrite them all in Finale NotePad. I would have loved to use the version of Finale I bought back in college, but I loaned it to too many people and can't register the software on my newish laptop.

I will probably never want to hear Jolly Old St. Nicholas, Jingle Bells, Up on the Housetop, or We Wish You a Merry Christmas after the chimes group is done with them.

We're working on getting the musical approved by our principal. I hope it's approved. My team teacher really wants to do it (and I don't really but that means I'll be able to do the one I like when I'm teaching solo). It's a new kids' musical called Dreamcatcher. The teacher I work with is all into Native Americans and ghosts (she says she can communicate with ghosts and wants me to go with her to the Bell Mansion to see if she can communicate with the Bell Witch Ghost... on halloween). Last year's musical was some spinoff of The Wizard of Oz and it was almost not approved because there's a witch/evil/scary stuff. Mostly evil. I mean, this is the first year where if the chorus sings a Christmas carol (We Three Kings, for instance), we also have to sing a secular Christmas song (Jolly Old St. Nicholas). We weren't even allowed to sing any songs with the words Christmas or Jesus when I was in elementary school. (Sidenote: apparently this school system drove out the ACLU a couple years back, and when we do the moment of silence we actually have to bow our heads and close our eyes.)

Next week is my first observation and I'm not too excited. The state of Tennessee has so much paperwork for observations that it's taking me longer to do the paperwork than prepare for the lesson! And I don't know what this administrator wants so I'm not positive what kind of lesson will make her happiest. From what I can tell, anything that connects to other subjects is good. Basically involve as little music as possible, and as much social studies as possible.

But I'm finished for the afternoon, so that's good! I learned that a new teacher spends an average of 70 hours per week working. So it's great to have a little break!

so it's been a while

I've been SO tired with my new job. It's been pretty exhausting but a great time. Even though I'm at school for 12 hours at a time, I don't feel as, well, depressed as I did with my previous job. We'll see how it goes for the rest of the year. I do know, though, that Wilson County Schools doesn't have appreciation for the arts like Fairfax County (but really, most school systems don't).

I'm getting over the 2nd week sickness. My team teacher (there are 2 general music teachers for the school since we have over 1,000 K-5 students) has been sick as well. Turns out the school's ventilation system has no air filters. We asked them to come in and clean our vents, so some guy showed up, put plastic bags under the vent (on top of the desk directly below the vent), and swept it with a broom. The end. He didn't even take the bags up. Oh well. Like my team teacher, Emily, says, it could be worse!

Now I'm ready for my first full weekend off. Not this weekend though. I have my second full-day Saturday In-Service. Ugh. At least I'm having a good time with a new 2nd grade teacher at my school.

I'm going to save my money throughout this school year so I can take an Orff I certification class that will be a week long in the summer. It'll teach me more about general music, which is especially great since I didn't have much coursework in it and I only subbed for a music class for a few weeks after I graduated.

I'm excited to go back to NoVA for 8 days in October. I guess one good thing about working for this county is we start with the kids in late August, but we have 2 weeks off for fall break and then 2 weeks off for spring break and are finished with the kids on, like, June 1 or something crazy.

That's about it from me. I'm just, well, it's my bedtime.

everyone has one

I want a scooter. But I don't know where I'll be living in the next few years, so I've decided it's not the best investment. I don't want to end up living in Hermitage and riding my scooter downtown.

Our gift shop manager has one (blue with red/yellow flames). One of our gift shop employees has one (red). One of our food/beverage people has one (blue and silver, I've heard, although I haven't seen this one). And somebody else that works here has one because I keep seeing a light silver one by the "bike rack" (photo on right).

But for the record, I wanted one first!!!

today is lisa's birthday

HAPPY BIRTHDAY LISA!!!

tires

So I have a screw stuck in one of my tires. Luckily it's stuck straight in with nothing on the screw head sticking out. And it's stuck on the "fleshy" part, not in a tread or anything. I noticed it on my way to my car this morning. Since that last time I drove my car was last night around 7, and it's now after 8 am and still looks okay, like it hasn't lost any air, I'm going to stick out the work day and take it to a place after work.

A couple (other than the obvious) things suck about this. 1) I'm going to some end-of-the-season party being thrown by a coworker tonight and I have food to make (antipasta salad; got the recipe from the Real Simple Magazine website). 2) I've never had any experiences with car repair places out here so I have no idea where to go. 3) I've never had any experiences with something stuck in my tire, so I basically have no clue what I'm doing. But I did call Dad and he asked me questions about how it's stuck and whatnot and seemed pretty positive I'll be fine to have it parked out here. And at least I have AAA, so if it does turn into a flat I'll give them a call and have them put the spare on (hey, I pay for AAA, I'm not gonna put the spare on myself!).

On another mixed note, yesterday my supervisor told me I need a suit for a meeting today. So I think, "Okay, I'll go home and try on my suits to make sure I can wear one of them." After all, I've gained about 20 pounds in the last few months, so who knows. So I got home and... couldn't find my suit pants! The other suits I looked at were definitely not working. Awesome. So I drove out to the mall, went to Dillards, found the petite sale section, and tried them all on in my size. Usually it takes a good 6 hours or so to find one or two good suits that fit well and don't cost a fortune. But I found one. Yay! AND, yesterday morning I found $50 in a purse I'd never used that my mom gave me. So that paid for almost half the suit. Suits are expensive!!

At least it's Friday!