blast from the past, npr, themed parties
friday evening was a very emotional one. my mom called me wednesday afternoon at work after reading an article in the san jose mercury that was about my first piano teacher. he was a coworker of my mom's and, at the time, was teaching a few of his coworker's kids the piano. he's an extremely gifted artist. he's classically trained and has worked with his church for the last quarter century composing music and coordinating the music program there. he taught me piano for about a year and a half to 2 years before having to quit giving lessons because his other activities were becoming too overwhelming. out of his students, he referred me to his mother, who had been giving lessons for a very long time and had many many students. i was 8 at the time. but, he was an awesome teacher. when he first was giving me lessons, he would come to our house to give them (this didn't last long as he was allergic to cats and it was getting a little too much to handle). i had an exercise book and all of the exercises had names of physical exercises. one of them was called "cartwheels" and the little illustrations in the book had stick-figures doing them above the bars of music. essentially, your fingers are meant to look like their doing cartwheels as you play broken chords up and down the keyboard. in order to give me a visual to help learn the exercise, he asked "do you know how to do a cartwheel?" i wasn't a very good gymnast and said "not really". he then took me outside and, in a suit and tie, proceeded to show me how cartwheels were done on our front lawn. sadly, i still can't do a cartwheel to save my life, but with that aside, it just showed how energetic he was and how playful he could be. he was diagnosed with ALS, or lou gherig's disease, a year ago. he's lost all feeling in his left side and his right side is slowly deteriorating as well. i called my mom friday afternoon to ask how his musical, "noah's ark," was, as she saw it on production night thursday night. she said it was very cute, but that it was really difficult to see jay in a wheelchair. she told me, though, that since i don't ever seem to have a problem with people in wheelchairs that it wouldn't be a problem for me. she failed to mention, though, that he can hardly speak a word or two without taking another breath. THAT'S what got me. the wheelchair - that's fine, but when he could hardly speak? that was tough. i saw him from afar when we got to the church on friday, but i waited until after the show to go up and say "hi". there were so many people that wanted to speak to him and say hi, so our conversation was kept short. he did, however, recognize me right away and kept looking back at me, even as numerous well-wishers cut in front me to give their congratulations. i haven't seen him since junior high school. when i finally got up to him, he gave me a hug. he smiled big and said "hi". i jokingly asked him "so...how've you been?" ;) he smiled "oh, doing just fine" he replied. i did want to joke again and say "so, do you feel like you're the luckiest man on the face of the earth?" but i didn't have the strength. he asked what i had been up to; i told him i graduated from college 2 years ago and i've since been working at a publishing company producing college textbooks. he asked if i enjoyed it; knowing my time was short, i didn't want to start discussing how i'm not enjoying it as much as when i started, so i simply said "yes, i'm having fun." he congratulated me on having a fun job and he said "as for me?", he gave a quick glance to his dr. seuss pj pants, "i think i'm going to retire." during our visit, his mom, my piano teacher, came up to congratulate him. she has alzheimer's, she still looks the same though, albeit with a slightly vacant look on her face now. not sure whether or not she'd recognize me, i decided not to say hi. i had enough emotion for one night and didn't have it in me to try and jog her memory for one that probably wasn't there anymore. but it was really great to see him again. i just only wish it had been under different circumstances.
i need to start playing the piano again. even before seeing jay, this has been nagging my brain for a while now.
i've started, once again, to listen to NPR in the car. i even got marshall hooked on it. since the radio hasn't played decent music in a while now, i'd rather hear people who are, at least, intelligent talk. i started listening to NPR sometime last year, but stopped after i got somewhat bored with it. i started again this year because i got so used to hearing talk on the radio after listening to harry potter on tape. i love listening to "fresh air" and "forum". the best show, though, unfortunately plays on saturday mornings (replays saturday nights, but i'm never listening then). "wait, wait, don't tell me!" is a great radio program. it's the news trivia show. they have a panel of 3 people and usually a celebrity phone-in guest. i got introduced to it when the panel was mo rocca, paula poundstone, and tom bodett (yes, the motel 6 commercial guy). it was hilarious. there was another show that broadcasts on the weekends, called "says you". it's like a trivia show, but with like balderdash type questions and really difficult trivia questions. i was just amazed at the contestants' knowledge. there was a "which one doesn't belong" question - out of these states, which doesn't belong: alabama, maryland, louisiana, idaho, and north dakota? you get points for getting the immediate question right and another set of points for saying why it's correct. the correct answer is alabama. why? because the other states all have capital cities that all start with the letter "B": baltimore, baton rouge, boise, and bismark. alabama's capital is montgomery. i was wracking my brain and this one guy immediately gave both answers. there were others that just blew me away. for someone who loves useless trivia, this is my kinda show. yeah, it broadcasts on sundays. i'm hoping that, like "fresh air," there are downloadable podcasts i can get!
i have attended 3 themed parties within the last 2 weeks. last friday night was marshall's company's summer get-together: a 20s-style casino night. they rented a casino company to come out and deal blackjack, poker (3 different kinds, btw), roulette, and craps. they asked people to come dressed in their 20s best. the marketing group got all gussied-up and their CEO got all dressed-up, too. marshall originally wasn't going to get dressed up, but i made him. i went out that afternoon and picked him up a cigar, a tommy gun, and a black tie. i found myself a red feather boa and a cigarette holder. personally, i thought we were a pretty good-looking couple. we both lost at the costume competition. the girl who won, a member of the QA department, had on a flapper-girl dress and since a good number of people knew who she was, i guess it isn't hard to understand why she won. anyway, we had a good time, even though we didn't win anything in the raffle. they were giving away some awesome prizes: a wii, PS3, x-box 360, a limited edition pacman golf bag, just to name a few. at the end of the night, you turned in your game chips for raffle tickets. even though i was up almost $1500 that night, there were others who just kept playing craps and ended up with gobs of tickets. i stuck to what i play best - blackjack. oh well. i think by the end of the year, we'll have a wii. although, since the naruto RPG fighter game is coming out in november for the 360, that might be on the horizon, as well. not sure, though. anyway, that was themed-party #1. yesterday afternoon was theme party #2 (just for me, though, marshall had to work). the home my grandma lives in now, had a summer cowboy-themed bbq. i went out to winchester western wear shop and got myself a black cow-boy hat. sadly, my head's too small for the smallest adult size hat (6-7/8"), so the owner suggested a child's hat. hell, it fits great and even has an elastic band on the inside that makes it really stay on my head. i was having some difficulty finding an appropriate-style shirt. my last resort was the levi's store. i didn't really want to go there because i knew their stuff was going to be expensive. i found a great-looking shirt and even though i paid through the nose for it, it'll definitely be used again. the bbq was nice and i looked quite fetching in my cowboy get-up. my aunt even said i looked really cute in a cowboy hat. i thought i looked nice, too. it was a fun party and my grandma seemed to have a good time, too. out of all the people that live there, we had the most people. after the bbq, came theme-party #3: nicole's b-day party. it was dress up and when i told her what marshall and i wore the week before, she said "oh! you can wear it to my party!!" we did and looked very coordinated. marshall bought 2 new shirts last week and i picked him out an awesome red tie. chandani took our picture, while we were sitting on the hearth in front of the fireplace and said "that's such a christmas photo!" the theme parties were a lot of fun. it's got me all excited for halloween this year. this year's theme - futurama. i'll be dressing up as amy and marshall's going as dr. zoidberg. so excited!! anyway, i'll leave you all with a photo taken at the casino night. it's so far, one of my favorite photos ever taken.
i need to start playing the piano again. even before seeing jay, this has been nagging my brain for a while now.
i've started, once again, to listen to NPR in the car. i even got marshall hooked on it. since the radio hasn't played decent music in a while now, i'd rather hear people who are, at least, intelligent talk. i started listening to NPR sometime last year, but stopped after i got somewhat bored with it. i started again this year because i got so used to hearing talk on the radio after listening to harry potter on tape. i love listening to "fresh air" and "forum". the best show, though, unfortunately plays on saturday mornings (replays saturday nights, but i'm never listening then). "wait, wait, don't tell me!" is a great radio program. it's the news trivia show. they have a panel of 3 people and usually a celebrity phone-in guest. i got introduced to it when the panel was mo rocca, paula poundstone, and tom bodett (yes, the motel 6 commercial guy). it was hilarious. there was another show that broadcasts on the weekends, called "says you". it's like a trivia show, but with like balderdash type questions and really difficult trivia questions. i was just amazed at the contestants' knowledge. there was a "which one doesn't belong" question - out of these states, which doesn't belong: alabama, maryland, louisiana, idaho, and north dakota? you get points for getting the immediate question right and another set of points for saying why it's correct. the correct answer is alabama. why? because the other states all have capital cities that all start with the letter "B": baltimore, baton rouge, boise, and bismark. alabama's capital is montgomery. i was wracking my brain and this one guy immediately gave both answers. there were others that just blew me away. for someone who loves useless trivia, this is my kinda show. yeah, it broadcasts on sundays. i'm hoping that, like "fresh air," there are downloadable podcasts i can get!
i have attended 3 themed parties within the last 2 weeks. last friday night was marshall's company's summer get-together: a 20s-style casino night. they rented a casino company to come out and deal blackjack, poker (3 different kinds, btw), roulette, and craps. they asked people to come dressed in their 20s best. the marketing group got all gussied-up and their CEO got all dressed-up, too. marshall originally wasn't going to get dressed up, but i made him. i went out that afternoon and picked him up a cigar, a tommy gun, and a black tie. i found myself a red feather boa and a cigarette holder. personally, i thought we were a pretty good-looking couple. we both lost at the costume competition. the girl who won, a member of the QA department, had on a flapper-girl dress and since a good number of people knew who she was, i guess it isn't hard to understand why she won. anyway, we had a good time, even though we didn't win anything in the raffle. they were giving away some awesome prizes: a wii, PS3, x-box 360, a limited edition pacman golf bag, just to name a few. at the end of the night, you turned in your game chips for raffle tickets. even though i was up almost $1500 that night, there were others who just kept playing craps and ended up with gobs of tickets. i stuck to what i play best - blackjack. oh well. i think by the end of the year, we'll have a wii. although, since the naruto RPG fighter game is coming out in november for the 360, that might be on the horizon, as well. not sure, though. anyway, that was themed-party #1. yesterday afternoon was theme party #2 (just for me, though, marshall had to work). the home my grandma lives in now, had a summer cowboy-themed bbq. i went out to winchester western wear shop and got myself a black cow-boy hat. sadly, my head's too small for the smallest adult size hat (6-7/8"), so the owner suggested a child's hat. hell, it fits great and even has an elastic band on the inside that makes it really stay on my head. i was having some difficulty finding an appropriate-style shirt. my last resort was the levi's store. i didn't really want to go there because i knew their stuff was going to be expensive. i found a great-looking shirt and even though i paid through the nose for it, it'll definitely be used again. the bbq was nice and i looked quite fetching in my cowboy get-up. my aunt even said i looked really cute in a cowboy hat. i thought i looked nice, too. it was a fun party and my grandma seemed to have a good time, too. out of all the people that live there, we had the most people. after the bbq, came theme-party #3: nicole's b-day party. it was dress up and when i told her what marshall and i wore the week before, she said "oh! you can wear it to my party!!" we did and looked very coordinated. marshall bought 2 new shirts last week and i picked him out an awesome red tie. chandani took our picture, while we were sitting on the hearth in front of the fireplace and said "that's such a christmas photo!" the theme parties were a lot of fun. it's got me all excited for halloween this year. this year's theme - futurama. i'll be dressing up as amy and marshall's going as dr. zoidberg. so excited!! anyway, i'll leave you all with a photo taken at the casino night. it's so far, one of my favorite photos ever taken.