WHA-AT?!

NOOOO!!!!!




This is like, the worst thing ever.

I kind of want to cry.

He's my Doctor.... Why does he have to leave?

Something relevant...

"Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting some sort of battle." -Philo of Alexandria

"A lot of these kids are just looking for someone who will treat them like a person." -My cooperating teacher.

Busy break... So a quick post...

Yesterday Rachel D. and I made a breakfast of pancakes and bacon. It was delicious! As we ate, we watched Heathcliff cartoons, which I haven't seen since I was about 5. Yay for the glories of 80s cartoonage!

Then I got the oil in my car changed.

Then I came back and we watched Young Frankenstein as a kick off to our Fall Break Movie-watching Extravaganza! It was hilarious. I had never seen it before, so I was very entertained. :-)

Then Rachel and I made dinner. We marinaded some chicken breasts in a garlic and herb sauce and then fried them in lemon juice on the stove. We also fried some potatoes with onions and cooked fresh broccoli. It was all very very delicious and we felt very domestic. For dessert we baked Ghirardelli double chocolate brownies. After we ate dinner we watched Nightmare Before Christmas, which Rachel had never seen before. After that we went to bed.

Today I had to get up for All-State auditions. After I got back around 2, I went and got my hair cut, and then Rachel and I bought pumpkins. We spent about 2 hours carving them as we watched Spongebob Squarepants Halloween. Then we ordered pizza, which took ages, and they messed up our order, but whatever. I'm pretty sure Rachel and I annialated that medium pizza in record time. We were both starving.

And then we watched Shawn of the Dead, which was really weird, crude, gorey and random. Sometimes funny. I'm glad I didn't spent a lot of money renting it. I liked Hot Fuzz better. After Shawn of the Dead was over it was only like 8:45 so we watched Abbott and Costello go to Mars and it was awesome. :-)

Then Rachel and I goofed off and watched Doctor Who "School's Out" for the ump-teenth time.

We don't want it to be Sunday... Have to get ready for class and all that...

Little life lessons....

Sorry I haven't posted for a while. Student teaching is keeping me crazy busy.

I just wanted to jot down that today in Wind Ensemble rehearsal a rhetorical comment was made that made me want to be a smart-alec. I kept my mouth shut, but a raised eyebrow to my stand partner confirmed that she was thinking the same thing.

What I have taken from this instance is what I was once told in Conducting II last semester:

Never ask a question in rehearsal that you do not want answered.

Ausflug!

Happy Outfly everyone!


... I'm off to student teaching....

Of band, birthdays, student teaching, ghosts, and Outfly...

So I don't currently feel like I have much to say, but I haven't properly blogged for a while so I feel I should change that.

I went home last Sunday for my birthday and that was nice. I got a lot of things that I needed and wanted. Like a hanging closet shoe carrier-thing, a new ivy plant, dubbed Charlie III, since Charlie II died, I also got some DVDs, a cool picture to hang on the wall and the soundtrack to Legally Blonde the Musical. I got to do cake and ice cream with my family and that was nice. :-)

Student teaching is going well. I am still really enjoying it, although 5:10 in morning seems to come earlier each day. I know all the names of all my students and I'm getting ready to conduct my first piece at the 7th-8th grade band concert on the 30th. Last Thursday I had the entire rehearsal to myself to work on my piece and it was weird and a little daunting. It was the first time we've played from start to finish, so I have a better idea of what needs to be done. I rehearse for a bit on Monday and I have all of Friday to myself. I hope the students aren't too squirrely. By the end of the month I'll also be conducting a piece with the high school, which I think will be the real challenge.

Wind Ensemble is going fairly well, I think. I'm very tired by the time I get to rehearsal, so sometimes it's hard to give 100%, but I do my best. We're playing this piece called Metroplex: Three Postcards from Manhattan, by Robert Sheldon. I can hardly play it, but it's my favorite piece. :-) Out of a scale of 1-5, with 5 being the most difficult, it's a 4.5. The music is meant to depict different aspects of New York City. It opens with broad, solid chords in the brass and a smooth, airy melody in the upper winds to depict the New York City skyline, with the tall buildings and iconic view. That section closes with an English horn solo that sets the mood for the second postcard, which depicts the jazz club nightlife of the city. That whole section is heavily influenced by Gershwin, and is really laid back. (I love it. It makes me think of those old jazz nightclubs that you see in old movies. The third, and final postcard is meant to depict a wild taxi ride through the city. In the flutes, it)'s full of crazy chromatic runs and syncopated rhythms, with bouts of 7/8 time. The high brass emulate the car horns and the low voices help move the music forward at a crazy break-neck speed. The parts of this movement in 7/8 time make me think of newspapers, hot off the presses, selling so fast that the demand is greater than the supply. Those measures have a Morse-code-like rhythm that adds color to the whole section. The rest of the piece sounds almost verbatim like The Knight Bus by John Williams, from the 3 Harry Potter movie soundtrack. It's really fun to play, but it's reeeeally hard. It's a fun challenge!

Next Saturday Rachel D. and I (and Rachel V. if her rehearsal gets changed) are going to visit my sister Mary in her play, and that will be fun. I'm really looking forward to it. :-) I just hope we can make it down there without getting too lost... Haha!

Currently, I'm reading, like 4 books at once... Which is kind of a record for me, while I'm at school... Usually I don't have time to read at all... I'm reading Anything Goes by John Barrowman, which is his autobiography. He plays Captain Jack in Doctor Who and Torchwood. (He was also the blonde, lead tenor in the movie version of The Producers, during the "Springtime for Hitler" bit.) I'm about halfway through and I'm really enjoying it. I'm also reading Sorcery and Cecilia or the Enchanted Chocolate Pot by Patricia C. Wrede and Caroline Stevermet. It's a kind of "what if" book. It takes place in England, during the Regency Period, and it's written as if there were such things as wizards and magic. It's entertaining. Mostly because, let's face it, I love fantasy books. And this books is basically Pride and Prejudice-time period, with magic. Lovely! :-) The third book I'm reading.... I suppose it goes into more of a *trying* to read category.... Is the fourth Stephanie Meyer novel Breaking Dawn. I'm finding it slightly hard to get through because the writing, in my opinion, is so poor. Compared to the other books in the series, this one seems like it was pull off of Fanfiction.net. It's kind of disappointing. The fourth book that I'm reading is something that my cooperating teacher assigned to me, but it's a pretty good book, so I don't mind. It's called Teaching Music with Passion, Conducting, Rehearsing and Inspiring by Peter Boonshaft. He writes about common misconceptions regarding different aspects that relate to being a teacher of music. He uses a lot of anecdotes that are entertaining and gets his points across. I find it really helpful, and I wish it was the text book for conducting. It would have helped a lot.

.... I really want sushi.... Mmmmm... :-)

So the rumors about Outfly are going around like crazy... A lot of people were speculating that it would be sometime last week, but no. Thursday there was a show booked in the auditorium, so they wouldn't cancel that. Some people think it'll be Monday, others think it'll be Tuesday... Or Wednesday or Thursday... Although I've heard it can't be on Tuesday because there's a speaker coming in or something. (And Outfly will never be on a Friday. No free 3-day weekends for us.) I think it's fun to tap into all the gossip. I'm going to give Rachel D. money so she can at least buy me a t-shirt. This year's theme is "Get a Clue" and they're doing a sort of mystery theme, like Clue, the board game.

So far Rachel D. and I have gotten along swimmingly, living together in our little single room. She's been great and really understanding when I have to go bed before 11pm, and does a good job of ignoring me when I get up at 5:10. I do my best to be quiet. :-) We both live for Friday nights, when we veg-out in front of the TV with lots of pillows and blankets. Rachel V. joins us after she gets back from rehearsal and we watch Most Haunted, which is always good for some laughs. :-) This Friday the team is going to Gettysburg for their live show, which should be pretty hilarious. They have usually have webcams and stuff for the live shows, so we plan on keeping up with the events in a multimedia fashion. :-)

Okay, there's the update! Hope you found it.... Entertaining? Informative? Haha... Whatever... I blogged.

Luke 18:9-14

I find it frustrating as well as amusing that everyone thinks their life is harder than everyone else around them. Myself included. Sometimes I just need to take a step back and just let things go. There are better battles to fight.

Plus, I'm tired of the drama, and am busy doing important stuff. Like helping a friend figure out their homework schedule and helping them study for a test. And reminding them to breathe. ;-)



Rachel D. made me a TARDIS cake for my birthday and I LOVE IT! :-D It is super cool and amazing! It was really sweet of her to do that. :-) I have pictures... I'll post them soon.