hats

I've never been a fan of hats because they've made my head look even bigger than it already is, but I think I finally found one that doesn't do that. What do ya think?

crazy times

What a week. I was sick with a bad cold from last Thursday to this past Wednesday. I missed a day of work as well as some class in order to see a doctor on Monday. The doctor was running about 45 minutes behind schedule and in a hurry, so I never got to know exactly what was wrong with me; just that I needed antibiotics. Two of them. And a steroid. I love it when they ask, "You're not opposed to shots, are you?" Now, my answer is, "only when they make me want to vomit immediately after you give them to me and then proceed to make me feel very, very cold."

Things are happening so fast around here that I don't feel like I've had the time to process everything that I've been through or the things I'm learning. I'm dressing up on Tuesdays and Thursdays to drive fifteen minutes north to a middle school in a small town where I am playing with the 7th and 8th grade bands on a secondary instrument. Right now it's alto saxophone. I'm taking turns with my class to lead some warm-ups, teach some pep band music, teach some mini lessons, and assess their proficiency on scales (mainly C, Bb, F, and Eb as well as chromatic). Some of these kids can really play--I was impressed. Texas is amazing. Is whole other country.

My career as a music teacher is starting to become a reality and I'm feeling a bit nervous about it. I met with Dr. Ramsey who is in charge of student teaching about my placement for the spring on Wednesday. The result is that I'll probably student teach in a rural town at a high school and middle school. These schools are class 2A or 3A, though a 3A band in Texas is like a 4A or 5A band in Colorado. I asked to be placed in a smaller school because I wanted to get a better idea of what it would be like to teach band outside of Texas. I want to know what it might be like to have to do a lot of the teaching and administrative stuff by myself instead of having tons of staff and money to do things, which is typical for Texas. I'm hoping for a smaller staff so that I can have more face time with my mentor(s), too.

Ok, I started this on Friday and am just now publishing it. L8r.

tour

Here's the video tour of our apartment, as promised. I'm sorry the audio quality is so low, you may want to turn it way down or turn your bass down at least. I hope you enjoy it!

Edit: Thanks for bearing with me. The video is no longer listed as private, so you should be able to view it now.

@#$%ing Verizon

Time for an old-fashioned rant.

Dawn and I recently moved to a new apartment which is about 3 miles away from our old one. We had Verizon DSL and the most basic land-lined phone service for something like $38 per month.

When it came time to move, Dawn called to have our exact service transfered to our new address, where Verizon is the exclusive telephone and internet provider. They even offer their new FiOS here, but we didn't want to pay that much.

The problem is that they not only took down the wrong address, but they didn't have the correct callback phone number, either. They finally called us on our land line just before we moved to say that the address they had didn't exist, so Dawn spent a couple hours on the phone with them trying to get the correct address. She even had the woman repeat it back correctly to her three times. It was supposed to be installed yesterday.

Mind you, we were getting calls for the previous resident here until yesterday, as well. We also could use her internet service (I think she had FiOS because I had a 2MB/s download speed on her connection). I think this might have contributed to the problem, though this woman supposedly moved out on August 31.


Anyway, I called them this morning and they determined that my phone and internet service had been cancelled because they still had the wrong address (2016 instead of 2060). I couldn't figure out why it was cancelled. Maybe the tech guy was like, "duh, there is no 2016, so they must want to cancel their service." So the tech support guy referred me to another Indian woman who referred me to a local agent who could only sign me up for new DSL service. However, I realized that if I don't have Verizon phone service, I can't actually get the DSL. If I need to order new phone service, I probably won't get to keep my old phone number! ARGH!

At this point, I have three options:

1. I could try to get my old phone number back which would involve hours on the phone and perhaps some yelling, or

2. I could cancel my newly ordered DSL service for the phone number that was cancelled and order fresh, probably FiOS. However, when I went to their website to get a quote, it said that there was existing phone service on the address that I gave them. Bloody hell.

3. I could wait a couple of days to see if my phone magically starts working, and then wait until the 25th for my "new" DSL service to be activated.

Did I mention that the tech support hold music is the most annoying elevator music imaginable?

@#$%ing Verizon.

OMG new apt

Biz-ee-ness

A couple of weeks ago, I decided that my computer had too strong of a hold on me and that I should take a break from it. Since then, I have gotten extremely busy, so I haven't blogged.

I wanted to take some time to reflect on busyness. I wasn't busy all summer and now I find myself almost near the end of an extremely busy period. In the last week I worked 31 hours, been in class 19 (12 credit hours, go figure), spent at least 5 hours packing, 3 hours being stranded and replacing my car battery, and several more hours practicing, doing homework, and trying to stay involved in recovery. Tomorrow Dawn and I move into a new apartment and I'm very excited. That will take time, too.

I think the difference is that, by God's grace, I've remained more present emotionally and spiritually than in any other busy time. I've started to learn how to function without having to numb out. Pretty awesome.

Otherwise, I am starting to notice a few trends; I wonder if they'll last. First, I've discovered a new diet. It's called TBD: Too Busy Diet. Dawn made the most excellent burritos the other day and, after enjoying one, I wanted seconds. But there wasn't enough time, so I had to save it for lunch the next day. Pretty effective, if you ask me. Ahem. Secondly, I realized that it takes me often as much as double the time to do things as I think it does. Having three hours of free time seems to go by really really fast now. It seems like a lot of free time, but it just slips away from me. I wonder if this means that I'm getting older; getting more perspective. I can certainly get a lot more done with the time I have, which is a big deal for me. Shame has kept me from being very efficient in the past. Maybe I'll go into detail on that some other day.

The big news is that I had my clarinet auditions a couple of weeks ago and I made it into the University of North Texas Wind Symphony, which is the top ensemble here. Last semester I was in the Symphonic Band which is the second highest, so this is an improvement. I am really excited to play in Wind Symphony and I feel really humbled and privileged to sit next to these people, many of whom will win professional orchestra, band, teaching, and solo gigs in the next couple years. Hell, I'm just doing it for fun. I don't really have a desire to be at the top, I just want to have fun and enjoy playing clarinet. Or maybe that's just what I tell myself so that I don't feel totally intimidated when I walk into rehearsal. ;-)

Wish us luck on our move. Next time you see me, I'll be writing from another IP address!

UNT Setting Records

You know how some college football teams set records for winning games, or winning them in certain ways?

University of North Texas is not one of those teams. We set records for how badly we lose:

Sooners wide receiver Malcolm Kelly caught two touchdowns in the game, both in the second quarter. His first was a 65-yard reception,his longest catch of the day. His second touchdown grab came at the end of the first half, giving OU a 49-0 halftime lead. The 49 points is the largest halftime deficit for the Mean Green in the modern era. Texas scored 44 first-half points against the Mean Green in the 2004 season opener.

Thanks Gloria, for the tip. I didn't even know there was a game last night.