pretty overdue
Ack I'm very behind on this blog. Luckily, it's #8704 in my list of priorities. Here are some quick updates on what's going on!
Spring break
I'm on break this week. Over the weekend, Alex and I took a road trip over to Ann Arbor to visit my sister and brother in-law. It was a pretty fabulous weekend of chilling out and drinking tea and such. I had to tone down my flirting with Marc a bit, but I think he still understands that he will always be my one true love. :-P
I don't think I'm very good at relaxing. Amy had to remind me last night, "Spring break isn't supposed to be stressful." Even when I'm home, I still feel like I'm supposed to be doing something all the time, and I worry constantly about getting everything done - even if "everything" is just running errands and seeing my high school friends. Granted, I do have a ginormous portfolio to get through, but I should just trust myself that it will get done and let myself have a couple days to rest up and relax.
Teaching
I'm doing my field hours at Chiddix JH in town. I'm working with a seventh grade band and it is fabulous. Ryan throws children at me all the time and I get to work with them on their music and such. Seventh graders are quirky and funny and fabulous. Next semester, I'm student teaching in the DeeMack school system, which is about 35-40 minutes away. It's in 2 tiny towns, which is way different from the school system I grew up in, so that'll be interesting. I've already met one of the music teachers and she's pretty cool. I'm really excited that I get to do elementary music AND band AND choir. Also, I'm overall very very excited about student teaching. I'm sooo ready to be done with class and actually get to teach all the time. (P.S: I'm also terrified.)
The Boy
Is amazing. <3
My puppies
Pretty darn cute.
School
Somehow I got myself into the unfortunate situation of participating in 4 major ensembles. Nicole's phrase for it was "overcommitted to the point of death," which is unfortunately quite accurate. The plan was to be in band and choir. Then the directors asked me if I could play picc in the second band because there's a flute shortage. (Who ever heard of THAT happening?) So then I was in both bands and choir, which was slightly ridiculous, but no worse than doing band, orchestra, and choir last semester. And then, partway into this semester, it worked out that one of the flute players in orchestra was playing a saxophone part on Gershwin's An American in Paris. So who did they ask to step in? And who was foolish enough to say yes?
The problem is that I really enjoy all this. I just don't have time for it. If I had to go to all the orchestra rehearsals in a given week, (which rarely happens, as I'm only playing with them on one piece,) I would spend fifteen hours per week in rehearsal. Plus the time I spend in my lessons and accompanist rehearsals. That seems a little excessive to me.
Classes are fine. Instrumental conducting is kicking my butt, but I'm working really hard and I think I'm learning a lot. Methods is sometimes tedious, but also useful. Woodwind tech is pretty good, especially now that we're on bassoon. (Oboe and I didn't get along so well.) Baroque is a lot of work, but I love Dr. Press so it's all good.
When I practice for my voice lessons, I enjoy them a lot more. I also enjoy having him look at me halfway through a lesson (last week) and saying "You've been working!"
Colds
I had a pretty nasty cold towards the end of February that actually caused me to miss class (gasp!) and rehearsals (double gasp!) At the beginning of last week, I started to get sick again, and I was pretty annoyed because I felt like you should get a grace period after being sick during which you wouldn't get sick again. Then someone pointed out to me that maybe it was the same cold that I'd never let my body recover from, which may or may not have been a very good point. And now, home on break, I'm starting to feel like I'm getting sick again. Uncool, body. Uncool.
Blog entries arranged by subject
Best thing ever
Spring break
I'm on break this week. Over the weekend, Alex and I took a road trip over to Ann Arbor to visit my sister and brother in-law. It was a pretty fabulous weekend of chilling out and drinking tea and such. I had to tone down my flirting with Marc a bit, but I think he still understands that he will always be my one true love. :-P
I don't think I'm very good at relaxing. Amy had to remind me last night, "Spring break isn't supposed to be stressful." Even when I'm home, I still feel like I'm supposed to be doing something all the time, and I worry constantly about getting everything done - even if "everything" is just running errands and seeing my high school friends. Granted, I do have a ginormous portfolio to get through, but I should just trust myself that it will get done and let myself have a couple days to rest up and relax.
Teaching
I'm doing my field hours at Chiddix JH in town. I'm working with a seventh grade band and it is fabulous. Ryan throws children at me all the time and I get to work with them on their music and such. Seventh graders are quirky and funny and fabulous. Next semester, I'm student teaching in the DeeMack school system, which is about 35-40 minutes away. It's in 2 tiny towns, which is way different from the school system I grew up in, so that'll be interesting. I've already met one of the music teachers and she's pretty cool. I'm really excited that I get to do elementary music AND band AND choir. Also, I'm overall very very excited about student teaching. I'm sooo ready to be done with class and actually get to teach all the time. (P.S: I'm also terrified.)
The Boy
Is amazing. <3
My puppies
Pretty darn cute.
School
Somehow I got myself into the unfortunate situation of participating in 4 major ensembles. Nicole's phrase for it was "overcommitted to the point of death," which is unfortunately quite accurate. The plan was to be in band and choir. Then the directors asked me if I could play picc in the second band because there's a flute shortage. (Who ever heard of THAT happening?) So then I was in both bands and choir, which was slightly ridiculous, but no worse than doing band, orchestra, and choir last semester. And then, partway into this semester, it worked out that one of the flute players in orchestra was playing a saxophone part on Gershwin's An American in Paris. So who did they ask to step in? And who was foolish enough to say yes?
The problem is that I really enjoy all this. I just don't have time for it. If I had to go to all the orchestra rehearsals in a given week, (which rarely happens, as I'm only playing with them on one piece,) I would spend fifteen hours per week in rehearsal. Plus the time I spend in my lessons and accompanist rehearsals. That seems a little excessive to me.
Classes are fine. Instrumental conducting is kicking my butt, but I'm working really hard and I think I'm learning a lot. Methods is sometimes tedious, but also useful. Woodwind tech is pretty good, especially now that we're on bassoon. (Oboe and I didn't get along so well.) Baroque is a lot of work, but I love Dr. Press so it's all good.
When I practice for my voice lessons, I enjoy them a lot more. I also enjoy having him look at me halfway through a lesson (last week) and saying "You've been working!"
Colds
I had a pretty nasty cold towards the end of February that actually caused me to miss class (gasp!) and rehearsals (double gasp!) At the beginning of last week, I started to get sick again, and I was pretty annoyed because I felt like you should get a grace period after being sick during which you wouldn't get sick again. Then someone pointed out to me that maybe it was the same cold that I'd never let my body recover from, which may or may not have been a very good point. And now, home on break, I'm starting to feel like I'm getting sick again. Uncool, body. Uncool.
Blog entries arranged by subject
Best thing ever