It's ma birfday! (almost)

Today the fam is coming up to help me celebrate my 22nd birthday (early). We're going to go to Bucca di Beppo's for some giant meatballs and then have raspberry truffle cake from Coldstone. So excited! This week was so long and crazy that I really didn't get to blog, but I'll give you some of the highlights.

1. Taught an African hand clapping lesson in general music that didn't totally suck. Yes!

2. Taught a breathing lesson to the choirs that didn't go as well as I had hoped, but I know now that I really need to be more firm about nipping talking and goofing off in the bud. I am scared to give warnings/detentions at this point, but I think it will get easier after I've done it a couple of times. 

3. Led warm-ups with the choirs... fun!

4. Helped judge musical auditions! This was probably the best part of my week. The kids did SUCH an awesome job and they are SO talented. Some of the auditions (no joke) almost brought me to tears because I could see little pieces of myself or my friends in them. Most of the kids were incredibly nervous but totally rocked their auditions with a little bit of encouragement from our end. This is why I love being a teacher. You get to give kids that extra little nudge in the direction of their dreams. Corny? Yes. True? Yes. We were at school until 7 on Wednesday and 8 on Thursday. Totally worth it, though. I was a new kind of tired on Friday. 

5. Getting better at learning kids names, but still struggling. This is harder than I thought!

6. I still LOVE my school, my fellow teachers, and my students. I am already thinking about how difficult it will be to leave at the end of the semester. 

7. I think I want to live in Indy after school. 

Friday night-- returned to the Blu Martini and got to see the lovely and talented Margaret. Got hit on by the bartender who is twice my age. Awkward turtle... I hope he was kidding.

Saturday-- went shopping at Castleton mall. Didn't buy a thing... good girl!

Saturday night-- went to see the Naptown Roller Girls (Tornado Sirens) defeat the Fort Wayne Bomb Squad at the Roller Derby. Awesome! Ate way too much junk food.

All for now! Love!

I am a piano wizard!

Anyone that knows me knows that I play the piano... but only kind of. I have taken lessons since I was four, but I still can't manage to play anything with more than three flats (hate sharp keys!) or anything that moves much faster than andante. What can I say? It's not my gift. I discovered yesterday, however, that I play more piano than anyone at my school which means (lucky me) that I get to accompany rehearsals this semester. I may also be accompanying the choirs at ISSMA, the musical rehearsals, and at least one soloist at ISSMA. Today we are rehearsing Ching-A-Ring Chaw (check it out on youtube) and it is such a bear to play! Copland. I practiced for at least 2 1/2 hours last night and still can't make it through. I can play the whole thing at a tempo about half as fast as it's supposed to go. Additionally, I wrote two lesson plans last night... TEACHING MY FIRST FULL LESSON EVER TODAY!!!... so I worked pretty hard. By bedtime, I was so ready to crash. I just keep telling myself that I will, hopefully, be a better pianist at the end of the semester for this experience. My fingers hurt.

Funny story: Yesterday we were having lunch in the teachers lounge and watching T.V. when all of the teachers started yelling "Shut up! Turn it up! Please, God, please!" and I was like, "What happened?" and my mind is thinking terrorist attack, a shooting, something awful... It was the weather report. They wanted school to be cancelled. Just thought it was funny that teachers want it as badly as the students.

In related knews, it's going to snow a ton while we are in school today and I don't know if I'll be able to drive home. Zippy sucks in the snow. Grrrr... Oh, Zippy is my car btw.

In unrelated knews, I still think many of my general music students strongly dislike me. I introduced myself yesterday and just kept getting that line from Elf stuck in my head: This place is like the North Pole... except it smells like pee and everybody looks like they want to hurt me.

:-) All for now.

I Love the Weekend!

So this has been the greatest weekend EVA. Fishers is really growing on me, and so is Indy as a whole. On Friday night my cool aunt and uncle took me out to The Blu Martini, a martini/sushi bar in Carmel. California rolls, Philadelphia rolls, and French martinis. I also sampled the Thin Mint martini and HAVE to go back to get one. The decor is so fab that I seriously can't say enough. The bartender, John, is a good friend of ours. He coaches golf at a university in Indy and knows a guy who I went to high school with and had a huge crush on in first grade. I put two valentines in his mailbox in V-Day. Big deal. He texted this guy and told him that I was a Ketel One vodka girl and was at the bar trying to convince him I was smart in high school. This guy texted back like, "No way! I am so baffled by everything you just said right now." Come on, is it really that unbelievable? Was I truly that hopeless in high school? Okay, maybe so. Then we rented a movie and snuggled with the pugs until I crashed around 11:30. I am getting old. That used to be when the night was just getting started.

YESTERDAY I CHOPPED MY HAIR OFF! Yep. I was so fed up Friday afternoon because the kids kept asking me if I was one of the high school interns. So I went to a spa and took the day to re-create LT. I have a bob that's layered forward with side bangs. :-) So happy. Probably the best hair cut I've ever had. Everybody needs to visit Dream Weaver Spa and Salon and ask for Angela, the manager. She's awesome. She also informed me that, due to chronic hairspray usage and Garnier Fructis shampoo, I have managed to coat my hair in a thick layer of silicon that will prevent me from being able to dye my hair someday if I want to. SOOO I bought some super expensive organic shampoo that will hopefully strip away the silicon so I can dye my hair when these children turn it grey.

After I got my hair cut, my aunt and uncle took me to see TRON in 3D. Best. Movie. Ever. I was skeptical going in because I haven't heard much about it, but it seriously blew my mind. And the lead guy is hot with two T's... HOTT. We came home, ate some yummy chicken with couscous, and watched the Colts game... waa waa waa... we won't talk about that. But I did wear a jersey and cheer for a football game! I made it to the fourth quarter without falling asleep. And then I crashed.

This morning (Sunday), I practiced piano for an hour (10 songs to learn because I'm accompanying 3 groups at ISSMA!) and then the pugs and I snuggled whilst watching Bridalplasty, my new favorite TV show. It is so wrong, but you just can't look away. My favorite scenes are when the girls come back from their surgeries and look like all kinds of hell. Hysterical. So this afternoon I got on the elliptical and nearly died. I am so out of shape. Then I did some dishes and NOW I'm gonna shower/ clean the bathroom. I try to help around the house so I don't feel like such a freeloader.

All for now. Enjoy the rest of your weekends everybody. Miss you guys!

TGIF

Today was basically more of the same at school. I helped some kids with their auditions for the musical, both vocals and dance. I was pleased to find out that I remember a lot more tap than I thought. The old dance team captain in me came out when I found myself screaming out counts and yelling "I need sharp arms!" and "Pointed toes, ladies!". It was pretty fun. I love school SO MUCH and am still so excited to wake up and go every morning. I hear this wears out relatively quickly, so I'm definitely going to enjoy it while it lasts! Side note- I'm having a really easy time connecting with the girls. They seem very excited to have me there and frequently ask for help/advice. The boys, on the other hand, treat me like I'm a total dork... not so much in musical rehearsals/choir but more in my general music classes. Seriously, I can't crack a joke without one of them rolling their eyes. I tried to talk to some of them about sports this morning, but they weren't having it. I know that I shouldn't be concerned about whether or not my students "like" me, but I am such a people pleaser that I really can't help it. Grrrrr... I need to get over this.

I love my "job". Can I say that enough?

Baptism by Fire

So today was seriously like the best day of my life thus far. My host teacher let me lead a musical audition workshop after school and almost fifty kids came! I was so scared when they walked in that I seriously thought I might pee in my pants. I was actually left alone in the classroom for a couple of hours and really felt like a real teacher. It was awesome. My students are so cool, and I am really enjoying getting to know them. There is an unbelievable amount of talent in this school.

High of the day: Musical rehearsal and the possibility of being even more involved than I had ever thought.

Low of the day: I am so bad at filing music. I accidentally filed some SATB stuff in SAB and then had to re-do everything. fjaklsdfj;daks

First Day of School! First Day of School!

Today was my first day of student teaching and all I'm really going to be doing (with a few exceptions) for the next week and a half is observing. So I've made some observations:

1. Middle school girls need to stop dressing like they're 21 and going out for a night on the town.

2. Most girls are taller than the boys, so it's totally adorable.

3. Teachers cuss like SAILORS in the teachers' lounge.

4. It feels wrong to be able to hang out in the teachers' lounge and use the teachers' bathroom. I still feel like a kid inside.

5. My host teacher and I are pretty much the same person. It's crazy!

6. My school is AWESOME and I LOVE it.

7. Our musical, "Guys and Dolls" is going to ROCK.

El fin for now.

Move-In Day

Hello all!

Yesterday was the big move-in day, so Dad and I made the four hour journey to my uncle's house. I think I've managed to create what I call a "ball of sunshine" in the chorus of their bonus room... bed, piano, bookshelf, Rubber-made dresser, cardigans hung in a row, and a ton of shoe boxes in a nook next to the cats' (2) litter box closet. The whole set-up is actually larger than anything I ever had in college (Hoghetto... what what!). AND I really love living with a branch of my family that I haven't been able to spend a whole lot of time with because they've almost always lived so far away. Phoebs and I played GLEE karaoke on the wii after dinner last night, and I even got my uncle to sing! All in all it was a great (but terribly stressful) day. I think I-465 is the worst road EVER. Seriously, the traffic made me start praying for my life. I am glad that I probably don't have to drive it again for a couple of weeks.

Now to the exciting stuff... Would you ever imagine that there was a cat out there I might not like? Well guess what... I've met him... and his name is Strychnine... like the rat poison. My aunt and uncle have two cats, two dogs, and two children ages 10 and 13. The dogs, two pugs named Vicky and Rhino, are adorable. They are always so excited to see you through their wrinkly little faces and will fall asleep in your lap with their tongues out. The cats, Ike and Strychnine are, as my aunt says, "dinosaurs." They are the two biggest cats I have ever seen in my life and weigh so much I can hardly pick them up. Ike is super lovey-dovey and generally stays out of your way unless you want to hold him. Strychnine, however, demands your attention via force. Last night, he jumped up on my bed about eight times. At first, I let him lay there... but then he took up like half of the bed! So I pushed him off. Over and over again. Eventually, he got the idea. At about three a.m., I awoke to the sound of a cat puking. I turned on the light to find Strychnine yakking all over a decorative throw pillow that I had tossed off my bed and my stuffed animal tiger, Toby. *Blargsfhm* Strychnine totally hates me and wanted revenge, so he barfed on two things that I have no idea how to get cat barf out of! Both cats puke pretty much everywhere all the time. Not hairballs, barf. And I have NEVER seen cats that puke like this. I need to find some kitty antacid and a screen to keep them out of my corner at night. Because for once in my life I've decided: No kittens allowed. There you have it. A cat I don't like.

Today my plan is to explore the town (ha... I always manage to get lost) and try to locate my school. I will hopefully be going in for my first day of work tomorrow if my host teacher gets a chance to email me back. If I get to go in, I will have some more exciting stories to share soon! Buh-bye!