There was a fun article on CNN.com about various 5k races that are out there. The race I am doing in June is the last set of pictures. The Color Run 5K is the next one I want to do... That one looks really fun. :-)
So it's time for another periodic update where I ramble about the stuff that is going on in my life.
I am currently training for a 5K race. It will be June 2nd, in Minneapolis. The race is called "Run For Your Lives" and it's really a 5K Obstacle Course Zombie Race. Runners wear 3 flag football flags and people dressed as zombies (full hollywood make-up deal and everything) chase the runners trying to take their flags. Obstacles throughout the course include cement pipes, creeks/streams, hay-bale hills, mazes, cargo net ladders and a variety of terrains. It is going to be super muddy and messy and awesome. There are prizes for time and if you have any flags left your time is marked as "human" and if the zombies manage to take all of your flags, your time gets set as "zombie" because you were "bitten."
Rachel D. is running it with me and we are both really excited. She is training for a marathon, so she is already way on the way to being fit and ready to dominate this race. I, on the other hand, am working my way through the Couch to 5K program, a nine week running schedule that builds each week for nine weeks. I am currently on week 4 and I have about 7 weeks left to get up to running 5K straight. I downloaded an awesome app for my phone that tells me what to do for each part of the program. It tells me my pace, the distance I run for each set and shows me the map that I run and my heart rate. It's pretty sweet! Today I ran for 3 minutes, walked 90 seconds, ran for 5 minutes, then walked 2 minutes 30 seconds and then once again. I survived. I'll probably be a little bit sore tomorrow, but I feel really accomplished. Rachel and I have registered under the team name "Nerdfighters." :-)
I have started an additional part-time job at Hy-Vee in Waverly. It was nice not working an extra job (read: waitressing), and I was basically making all of my bills, but I'm not making enough to put money into any sort of savings account/emergency fund. I want to repay my parents for the tires on my car, start paying for my own cellphone bill and start saving so that Dan and I can get married. During school I'm working about 18 hours a week in the evenings and on weekends, and then I can work full-time over the summer. It's nice to have a stable hourly income that is not dependent on tips and I like not getting hit on by drunk people. It is a little hard going right from teaching to running the register and stocking shelves... My feet hurt pretty well at the end of the night, but that's why there's ibuprofen and sleep. It won't be so bad during the summer, because then I won't be working 15+ hours some days.
Teaching is going well. My spring concert was last week and now that it's over I feel like I have better control over my life. I was definitely running around like a crazy person, trying to coordinate 209 students, all their songs, all the instruments needed, all the speaking parts, and all the solo parts. On top of that, I also had TAG classes to teach, and the senior play at the end of March. Needless to say, I have survived. Many parts of it was not fun, but everything came out fine.
On a side note, I am totally FOR starting school after September 1st. I am really annoyed with how we are starting school earlier and earlier. I also love going to the Iowa State Fair and it would be nice to be able to go on a WEEKDAY. I like having a last little bit of summer vacation. Starting after September 1st would mean students who take livestock to the fair would not miss school. The temperature in the school would not get SO HOT like during August. The next person at school who complains to me is gonna hear my actual opinion. That is one part of the education reform stuff that I LIKE.
Yesterday, I took the 5th grade class to see the Waterloo-Cedar Falls Symphony Orchestra perform a youth concert. They played Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition. It was a super excellent concert and my students behaved so well. (As well they SHOULD. I drilled concert etiquette into them.) I actually had a couple students (who are NOT in band and have showed no significant interest in "classical music") tell me that the orchestra was awesome and they thanked me for taking them to the concert. :-D
I am still actively looking for a band job. It's incredibly frustrating, since I am playing a terrible game of Catch 22. I want to teach 5-12 band (or any combination of those grades. I just wanna teach BAND.) but I am gaining more and more experience in K-5 general music, which is NOT 5-12 band. This is my 3rd year teaching and now it seems like my experience in general music is slowly working against me. These concerts and students at Tripoli do so well because I work my tail off getting all of this stuff together, but that's working my tail off for something that I merely enjoy. Imagine what I could with something I love...
... I am really tired of applying for jobs, though. It makes me really anxious and stressed when I think about it. I also have come to really not enjoy socializing with the other directors at the honor bands my students are in... Because it becomes such a reminder of the dream I haven't achieved yet. It's painful... I can't really describe it. I usually just sit in rehearsal and read. I have too much trouble controlling my bitterness and jealousy towards my lack of a band job to be able to "talk shop" with the other directors.
I am working on the slow process of saving pictures from my Facebook account to my computer. I still have plans to delete my Facebook and just use twitter, (maybe Google+, because they seem nicer and less creepy.) I just have about 600 more pictures to go. Facebook just stresses me out too. Their privacy policies and forced changes are uber lame.
Thanks to Mary, I was able to read The Hunger Games. At least the first book. I need to start the 2nd book, but as you can read, I've been busy. I also feel bad for jumping on the bandwagon so, so so so sooooooo far after this book has sailed onto popularity, although I have read her Gregor the Overlander series, so I at least know her OTHER works. Anyway, Dan and I went to see the movie last weekend. The movie was good overall. I mean I liked it, and I'm really glad that Suzanne Collins was on the screenwriting team, but the TWO things I SUPER LOVED about the book were NOT IN THE MOVIE. (Are you surprised?) Lame. Super lame. Also, AGAIN there were people talking and whispering throughout the movie until I told them to shut up. And I actually used those words too. Am I sorry? Not in the least. If you are there to watch the movie, it's probably because you've read the books. If you haven't read the books, you are probably seeing the movie with someone who has. WHY ARE YOU EVEN TALKING DURING THE MOVIE???
Honestly, I think if I keep going to movies in the theatre, I am going to get arrested for assault after I punch someone for being stupid. I'm gonna either have to wait until the very, very, very tail end of a movie's run and suck-it-up and pay the evening ticket price for the latest movie time, or save my money and invest in a super awesome sound system and create a kick-butt super awesome personal movie-watching lair.
I can't stand rude people.
Over the weekend the Des Moines Register had an article on student debt. However, NONE of the people who they interviewed about their student loans had an amount even CLOSE to mine. I *wish* my student loans were $25,000. I wanted to tell those people to stop complaining. My loans won't get that low for another 20 years. Their $25,000 will be well payed off by then. $25,000? Hah. Try $60,000+. And I know I'm not the only one with crazy-high insurmountable student loans, Jessica, the Rachels and I have all had long, depressing conversations about our amount of dept. ("Can you imagine how much money we'd have if we didn't have student loans?" "I know... I can't even FATHOM that notion...")
I just want to get married to Dan and start a family. I will happily teach full-time and work part-time to make that happen. My nights and weekends were pretty open anyway. We'll deal with the fact that we can't afford children anytime soon until after we're married.
