to knit or not to knit?

maybe I will just quit teaching and go into knitting full time. yeah. good idea. it's got to be more peaceful and less stressful, right? I made those adorable little car-booties for a friend-of-a-friend (and got paid! woo hoo!) and now it appears that there might be a market for such things on commission... hmmm....

Books

I finally finished Finding Faith, by Jodi Picoult. I'd read Becky's review of it and thought it sounded interesting, so I borrowed it. Well, yes, it was interesting... and somewhat bizarre, too. A little girl, interestingly named Faith, is convinced she is speaking with/interacting with God (in an imaginary-friend type of way)... and this actually gives her the power to heal people... and also curses/blesses her with stigmata... and she quotes Biblical things (including in Hebrew) despite all lack of any religious training... and she refers to God as a woman. Hmmm. Of course, there is the whole media frenzy associated with such things as well, including interaction with a character who is a "tele-atheist", and thrown in for good measure we have a case of marital infidelity and a nasty custody battle, in which one parent had been a psychiatric patient in the past due to a suicide attempt. Merky, no?

Interesting, from many points - controversial, definitely... which is what drew me to it. It is certainly not a "religious" book by any stretch, although it questions religions - namely Christianity and Judaism. It was a quick read, which was good - such subject matters could bog the reader down into really dark, troubled waters. I'd say read it and see what you think.

Tried starting a "chick lit" book this weekend - What A Girl Wants by Kristin Billerbeck. It was a gift from my aunt - but I am putting it away for now, since the main character is partially too familiar at the moment (depressed singleton in life crisis) and since I can already guess the inevitable outcome. I guess I'm not in the mood for formulaic happy endings. I guess I'll finish Things You Should Know By Now and then perhaps I will revert to an old friend, which may be the basis of a lot of chick-lit, but at least is more academic, complicated, and well written....

It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife...

Reflections on a trip to Manhattan

Yesterday, mom and I had some girl-time in the city. I have stayed away in recent months, hiding from some fond but now sad summer memories, but it was time to suck it up and face my demons. We took the ferry in, which is the best and most enjoyable way to go – and hopefully the company will not fold, as has been talked about in current weeks. The beautiful QM2 was docked across the river – lovely and depressing all at the same time, since there were no tickets with my name on them! Our main goal of the day was to visit the American Girl Place – and it is quite a production! Three floors of my childhood dreams come true, including a café and a theatre. However, with the enormous influx of people in the city, we stayed only briefly in the store, since it was hard to navigate through the crowds! (there are already plans to return on a quiet day.) We tried seeing the windows at Saks, but the line was huge. We took a look at the Rockefeller tree (ready to be lit on Tuesday) and the skaters, who always make me envious… I’ve grown up a stone’s throw from it all and never been skating there! Saw an enormous Rolls Royce in front of the Dahesh Museum – did not go in to the exhibit, but wandered through their museum shop. We had lunch at a little diner, looked at more shops, and wandered as far as Bloomingdales, whose windows have recreated scenes from the upcoming movie The Phantom of the Opera, complete with set pieces and costumes. I hope that the genre of film will make it better than the stage production, since they can do more with locations, effects, etc. It was a chilly day and we walked for miles in the concrete jungle, but it was some good bonding time.

Gobble gobble gobble...

Happy Thanksgiving to one and all!
It might sound cliche, but we really all do have so much to be thankful for - and I for one often tend to forget that. Despite my grumblings and gloominess, I really am quite fortunate and actually do need to stop every once in a while and count my blessings. And, dear ones, they include you.

So... don't forget what my college choir director always told us... remember, you are what you eat... you turkeys! :)

a little movie quote for Turkey day:
"Happy Thanksgiving.... you're supposed to say, 'Happy Thanksgiving' back."
"Happy Thanksgiving Back."
"Knock, Knock."
"Who's there?"
"Orange."
"Orange who?"
"Orange you going to let us zip this card through? Zip Zip?"

"... they make me think of fishing..."

Hola, personas locas. Yo soy loca tambien, y yo tengo tres frijoles en mi bosillo ahora mismo.

So. This weekend. It went tres fast. On Friday night, I actually saw Alisa for dinner... the poor girl was hit by a car (as a pedestrian!!) three weeks ago, and suffered a massive concussion and jaw issues. It was nice to catch up, poor sweetie. Saturday brought a church choir rehearsal (unfortunately, I succumbed to the "I'll sing just for the Cantata" scenario), followed by Becky arriving! :) Then it was off to a concert performance... at which I decided to try to be trendy and wear fishnet tights... and received a comment from one of the men in the show about the fact that they were interesting and made him think of... fishing. (I don't know if that's not creepier than some kind of dirty comment!) Anyway, the concert was followed by a pilgrimage to Ikea - where Bec and I collectively spent a grand total of two dollars and eight cents, if you can believe it! We decided to forgo the customary meatballs in lieu of California Pizza Kitchen for dinner, however. Mmmmm....! Sunday we trekked out to Jersey City to perform at the Loew's Theatre (a little confusing to get there, perhaps, but an amazingly beautiful venue!) - and we did a nice job, too - well, at least I think we did! Dinner out with the parents rounded out the weekend. Busy!!

I must say I am enjoying my stint as a fairy. Perhaps the costume isn't as fairylike as we'd all like (more 50's prom dress than woodland fairy) but with all of the hair and the wand and the wings and the glitter it becomes more plausible, and the sheer silliness of it all is quite appealing. And it's been good therapy to be doing this... you've all heard of music therapy and art therapy - roleplaying is a good separation from reality, and I find the 'happy-ending' scenario to be a nice diversion from the monotony of the everyday life of this disgruntled music teacher who is desperate for her life to change but is also monumentally afraid of failure in making said changes... if she only could figure out what it is she should be doing with her life, that is!

If you're tired, but you can't sleep...

...just count your blessings instead of sheep, and you'll fall asleep counting your blessings!

Oh, Rosemary Clooney in White Christmas. It's almost time for a movie or two like that! Especially The Miracle on 34th Street. Must be watched on Thanksgiving weekend.

I randomly found that song in my head for several reasons. One - it's one of Becky's favorite movies, and she is coming this weekend! "Now we are so happy, we do the dance of joy!" (can you reference that quote?) Another reason is that it is a gloomy, movie kind of a day, and I am quite the fan of old movies. Yet another is that in my trying-not-to-be-so-blue mode, I am looking for things to be thankful for - and the fact that it is Friday is a big one. Gloria Deo, this week is over. On to the weekend, complete with a concert and a performance, which is bound to be fun, especially with a friend mixed in! :) It will make the craziness of the next few weeks a little more bearable, I hope!

Question to people more knowledgable about cars... why does my Jeep sometimes roll forward even if I put it into reverse and hit the gas? Is it that it is not fully in gear? And also because my parking space has a slight dip in the front? It freaks me out when it does this... I feel like something is tremendously wrong, but then it drives beautifully. Hmm. **shrug**

Change of plans...

I was going to rant and rave about stuff at work and life in general, but I deleted it all. Instead I will say this, and hopefully remember why I thought it was important in the first place. It's something I really do need to learn...

We would never learn to be brave and patient
if there were only joy in the world.
-Helen Keller

Happy Happy

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MY MOMMY!
:) I love you! (:

And so it begins....

This weekend we had our first show, in Connecticut. After the awful dress rehearsal last week, I feared a disaster... partially my own, since I botched up several lines and am still riding out the end of this blasted sickness. But the CT show was good, with minimal glitches and an excellent audience. :) Yay. And then a concert performance on Sunday hindered only by the fact that we all went to the wrong place first (because of directions given to everyone!)... things get busy from here on out with most weekends double booked. And imagine my shock when I open up the community newspaper for the town I work in and find a picture of myself, all fairied up, with an announcement that the music teacher is in a show! (Hey - it improves my popularity - the kids all think I'm famous now!)

The musings of the disgruntled and damp music teacher

About 90% of the time, it's really frustrating to have your office out in an awful trailer. True, people don't know where you are so they don't go looking for you, but especially on days like today (rainy, cold and dark) it's far from ideal to have to lug loads of junk and remember your coat. And with no overhang over the door, you get soaked trying to open it. Add to that the fact that I was told that I would have to flip my entire schedule upside down in order to hold rehearsals for the first grade holiday concert, including rescheduling my lunch to 8:35am one day if I "want" to practice with the children. (no, of course he didn't use those words, but it was implied.) And being told that I could not have a full-day substitute one day as to have time to rehearse - I can have a sub in the morning, since I will be with my other kids for my other concert, and I can have coverage for the last class of that day, but not the rest. Does that make any sense? No, but it comes from the man who comments on the fact that you have a mug or water bottle with you in the classroom and tells you that you're not interacting with the students enough during lunch duty. (no kid wants to talk to you while they are eating, stupidhead!) And since you don't have a classroom, there is a large implication on behalf of some teachers that you are just there to cover their prep, not actually teach the students something. What you do isn't important - she just sings songs with the kids all day, right? grumble grumble grumble. I guess it's just affirmation that for once I made the right life-choice - that keeping this up would really drive me batty.

Oh, how I wish for Prince Charming to rescue the blue music teacher and whisk her away from such bureaucratic monotony. Hey - something as simple as a cozy couch, roaring fire and some hot chocolate would be heaven!

quote and other randomness

Well, I dragged myself through work today, very begrudgingly (sp). I totally resented being there. (16 more paychecks, 16 more paychecks...) I have really been trying to combat the grey cloud over my head, but with all of the sickness and whatnot it appears to have gotten darker and cloudier. I guess life is just giving me a real pothole-laiden road for a good long stretch... something which could be fun in my Jeep, but since I am walking... well, it's just not cool.

Oh yeah. here's the quote, before I forget:
"I ate the fuzzy mints. They tasted like keys."
-Lorelai Gilmore, in a very hungry mood on an old episode I watched while sick.


Ok. Off to watch Regency House Party. (too bad there is no Mr. Darcy!)

New Book

As horrible as it is to say, I stopped reading for a while. I was reading too many deep-thinking and relationship-self-help books that I was going crazy, so for now all of those books are put aside. So in my illness, I picked up a novel. Becky had mentioned something she read a while back that sounded interesting to me, so I borrowed it from her. It's ironic that its subject matter follows my old pattern in a way, but it is strangely intriguing. I'll talk more about it once I've finished.

sick, sick, sick, grumble, grumble, grumble.

Yeah. So it's official. I'm really sick. Called out of work today and went to the doctor, who said I'm on on the border of pneumonia. He's given me some real grown-up drugs (from Germany - maybe like my uber-pills?) which should hopefully make me feel like a new person in a day or two. No work for me tomorrow, either, which will throw off everything I need to do this week, but O well.

The big concern is Saturday - our first Iolanthe performance, up in CT. As of right now, I am in no condition to sing (and barely have a voice at all)... but I have worked far too long and far too hard for this, so I am willing myself well. And praying a lot. And stressing out.

Grumble. Cough. Grumble.

grumble.

Sick. On a blasted day off from school/long weekend. Just my luck... it figures.

Reading...

I actually had the time today to read the local newspaper, a rarity that I enjoy. Here's a recap of what I found inside...

Section A: The main section
People in the news: did you know that Brad Pitt and Jennifer Anniston bought Jamie Oliver’s house in London? They think Europe is a great place to raise children.
Section B: The business section (Didn’t open it up. Who cares about business?)
Section F: (Features) Thurs. is Shopping and Entertainment
“Turn of the Tied: Neckwear makes a comeback among the fashion-conscious”
Article obviously on neckties, and one guy mentions that he buys them as travel souvenirs from places he has visited. Pink is a hot color for ties this year.
Bill Ervolino: I didn’t know that people say that Ringwood Manor is haunted!! I’ve been there a million times! How did I not know this?!
Dear Abby: Scroll down to the very bottom of the column. How strangely ironic that Abby printed that limerick today. (I can actually remember the last time I heard it, too… April 30th of this year, in a playhouse in Montclair, NJ.)
Section L: Local (and Religion on Thursdays)
It appears that my hometown voted for Bush and not Kerry, even though we ended up being a "blue" state. They published vote tallies town by town, and here in Snobville, Bush got 2,758 and Kerry got 2,210. I think it’s funny that one local town only had 21 people vote – 7 and 14 votes, respectively.
I don’t ever read the Religion section, but for some reason I read the lead article today: Christianity’s future may lie in the ‘global south’. It talks about the Anglican Church primarily, and the fact that half of the world’s Anglicans are African. The thing about it that caught my eye, though, was the fact that the author heavily quoted some important guy from Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary. Their hill was the best for dining-hall-tray sledding at night in winters past.

Last thing of note: Today in Rome they were expecting clouds and a high of 72F, London was to get rain and a chilly 55. Prague was expecting clouds and low 60’s. Even though the temperatures aren’t tremendous, I’d take any of the locales in a heartbeat!

To Vote or not to Vote....

(don't worry. I did my civic duty. I just thought it would be an interesting title.)

It will be interesting to see how everything pans out with this insane election.... are we back to the land of the unknown winner, where we must recount and look for pregnant Chads? (do you know what "chad" stands for? I do!) At lunchtime, I went to my old elementary school today and voted. Some buttons were pressed for Democrats. Some for Republicans. I guess it's my perogative, considering I'm registered Non-Partisan. Who knows if any of the people I voted for will win or not! With the country in so much uncertainty, I guess we just have to hope that our new/current President will do a good job with the mess he's got, right? It's not like the Washington underlings don't have all of the power anyway....

It's sad that I am more interested in the fact that we got the day off from school! :)