I know I'm lucky. I actually love my job. And I also know it baffles some folks why I love what I do.
If you didn't know, I teach elementary music to kindergarten through 6th grade. No band or orchestra. Not even a choir. Just general music.
This is a half note. This is an eighth note.
I teach singing skills, music history, (yes my students can give you a detailed story on any number of composers' lives.) and music theory.
And yes, I teach recorders. But I refuse to teach them the song "Hot Cross Buns." If there's one thing I don't want it's for my students to grow up and have the only recollection of their elementary music days be that they could play "hot cross buns."
Ew.
But I love what I do because I love knowing the fact that I'm helping inspire the next generation of musicians and music appreciators. And maybe the occasional future music teacher.
Every once in a while, music makes it into something the students are doing in their regular classroom. The teachers are kind enough to share with me.
The first grade has been reading "The Caterpillar." Then they had to write a story using the same style and structure.
Today, a first grader personally handed me an autographed copy of his story.
What follows is a slightly edited (there were some words I had to have him translate) version of his story.
By: Wyatt
On Sunday Wyatt sang one song but he stil wonted to be a moosikel teacher.
On Monday Wyatt played two songs on peanow [piano] but he stil wonted to be a moosikel teacher.
On Tuesday Wyatt got to play three songs on the drums but he stil wonted to be a moosikel teacher.
On Wednesday Wyatt played four songs on the floot but he still wonted to be a moosikel teacher.
On Thursday Wyatt played five pop songs on a radeyo but he stil wonted to be a moosikel teacher.
On Friday Wyatt got to play six toons on the orgen but he still wonted to be a moosikel teacher.
On Saturday Wyatt did a hole moosik show with his kids and he WAS a moosikel teacher.
So, Mr. Makes-10-times-the-money-of-a-teacher-Bigshot, how many kids did YOU inspire today?
Monday, April 28, 2008
Tuesday, April 15, 2008
buy me
Just when you're getting up, life kicks you in the nads. (and I'm not referring to that ingenious Australian hair removal syrup)
The main source of income, Dustin's job, disappeared last week when they let him go.
Within a couple days we called a fabulous real-estate agent named Deb Mcfarland. This is the woman who sold our last house out from under us for a ridiculously high price. We're hoping she can do the same for us again.
Like the last house, we've updated almost every detail of this house. There's literally nothing else to do to this house except start doing major renovations like a new kitchen.
Here's my little list of upgrades that I've done:
New-
outlets and switches w/ dimmers (the gays need soft light)
plantation blinds
draperies
every ceiling and wall painted in decorator colors (to perfection, I might add, you should see how perfect my wall/ceiling corners are.)
faucets
door handles and hinges
cabinet pulls and hinges
ceiling fans
lighting fixtures
toilet seats
shower heads and handles
garage door opener
Italian ceramic tile in the entry, back hall, laundry and 1/2 bath
Turkish travertine on the fireplace and in the master bath
breast plate on the fire place
Refinished all the hardwood floors and trim throughout the house.
Refinished deck.
TO BE DONE:
Landscaping front yard
Mudjacking the driveway
Replacing a rotting window.
The realtor sent out a lackey to take pictures. But she didn't know angles or lighting. And we hadn't "staged" the house yet. (which is a remarkably difficult thing to do.) So I took some new ones to send to her.
Tell me if you think anyone will pay $199,877. We're basically asking for our money back on what we did and a little more to cover the realtor fees.
Here's the link to the realtors listing. With the old pictures. She hasn't put mine up yet.
The main source of income, Dustin's job, disappeared last week when they let him go.
Within a couple days we called a fabulous real-estate agent named Deb Mcfarland. This is the woman who sold our last house out from under us for a ridiculously high price. We're hoping she can do the same for us again.
Like the last house, we've updated almost every detail of this house. There's literally nothing else to do to this house except start doing major renovations like a new kitchen.
Here's my little list of upgrades that I've done:
New-
outlets and switches w/ dimmers (the gays need soft light)
plantation blinds
draperies
every ceiling and wall painted in decorator colors (to perfection, I might add, you should see how perfect my wall/ceiling corners are.)
faucets
door handles and hinges
cabinet pulls and hinges
ceiling fans
lighting fixtures
toilet seats
shower heads and handles
garage door opener
Italian ceramic tile in the entry, back hall, laundry and 1/2 bath
Turkish travertine on the fireplace and in the master bath
breast plate on the fire place
Refinished all the hardwood floors and trim throughout the house.
Refinished deck.
TO BE DONE:
Landscaping front yard
Mudjacking the driveway
Replacing a rotting window.
The realtor sent out a lackey to take pictures. But she didn't know angles or lighting. And we hadn't "staged" the house yet. (which is a remarkably difficult thing to do.) So I took some new ones to send to her.
Tell me if you think anyone will pay $199,877. We're basically asking for our money back on what we did and a little more to cover the realtor fees.
Here's the link to the realtors listing. With the old pictures. She hasn't put mine up yet.
Wednesday, April 9, 2008
yea
University of Kansas (KU) won the NCAA national basketball championship.
Whoopee.
I admit that I am glad that this win means that the nation will be mentioning Kansas in a positive spin. It's better than hearing about Fred Phelps picketing another soldier's funeral (it's OK if he still pickets gay funerals) or about how our state board of education admonishes the teaching of evolution in Kansas Schools or how our state legislature is trying to make sure that the state spends more money on coal-fired power plants rather than wind energy.
Have you been to Western Kansas? It's freakin' windy out there. But there's more money in coal.
And I appreciated that I don't have to hear my collegues complaining about a loss for weeks on end. When the Jayhawks win, they talk about it, slap eachother on the back (they really do believe that their yelling at the TV helped win the game) and move on.
I teach in Lawrence, home of KU, but I could care less about KU or it's sports. KU hasn't done a whole lot for me besides make a drive across the little town take 20 minutes. And I have little interest in sports.
This shocks my co-workers.
"How can you NOT support KU? How could you NOT watch the game? Are you really that gay?"
I keep telling them, "I JUST DON'T CARE."
"HOW???"
I ask them, "Did you catch the Met's highly anticipated new production of 'Die Zauberflote' by Julie Taymore starring the brilliant and dashing Nathan Gunn on PBS?"
"Um, no."
"How could you miss that? It's one of the first German languange productions that the Met has actually done in English!"
"I'm not a fan of opera."
Exactly. I don't talk to you about opera. Don't talk to me about sports.
Instead of spending my weekend getting drunk and watching some boys dribble a ball, I refinished six deck chairs and a six-foot table.
I bought the set 5 years ago. And it hasn't really been taken care of since then. It's been sitting outside the whole time and besides the finish flaking off, it's held up remarkable well.
We bought a little electric palm sander last year just for this job. But I just got around to using it.
It's amazing. What would have taken days to sand by hand took a mere 8 hours with the palm sander.
The only problem is that for the last three days my hands have been tingly. Like I'm still holding the sander.
Weird.
I'd show pictures, but it's all still in the garage. Once we removed the table and chairs from the deck we realized that the deck needs repainting. And until Mother Nature decided we've had enough rain, the deck shall remain naked.
Whoopee.
I admit that I am glad that this win means that the nation will be mentioning Kansas in a positive spin. It's better than hearing about Fred Phelps picketing another soldier's funeral (it's OK if he still pickets gay funerals) or about how our state board of education admonishes the teaching of evolution in Kansas Schools or how our state legislature is trying to make sure that the state spends more money on coal-fired power plants rather than wind energy.
Have you been to Western Kansas? It's freakin' windy out there. But there's more money in coal.
And I appreciated that I don't have to hear my collegues complaining about a loss for weeks on end. When the Jayhawks win, they talk about it, slap eachother on the back (they really do believe that their yelling at the TV helped win the game) and move on.
I teach in Lawrence, home of KU, but I could care less about KU or it's sports. KU hasn't done a whole lot for me besides make a drive across the little town take 20 minutes. And I have little interest in sports.
This shocks my co-workers.
"How can you NOT support KU? How could you NOT watch the game? Are you really that gay?"
I keep telling them, "I JUST DON'T CARE."
"HOW???"
I ask them, "Did you catch the Met's highly anticipated new production of 'Die Zauberflote' by Julie Taymore starring the brilliant and dashing Nathan Gunn on PBS?"
"Um, no."
"How could you miss that? It's one of the first German languange productions that the Met has actually done in English!"
"I'm not a fan of opera."
Exactly. I don't talk to you about opera. Don't talk to me about sports.
Instead of spending my weekend getting drunk and watching some boys dribble a ball, I refinished six deck chairs and a six-foot table.
I bought the set 5 years ago. And it hasn't really been taken care of since then. It's been sitting outside the whole time and besides the finish flaking off, it's held up remarkable well.
We bought a little electric palm sander last year just for this job. But I just got around to using it.
It's amazing. What would have taken days to sand by hand took a mere 8 hours with the palm sander.
The only problem is that for the last three days my hands have been tingly. Like I'm still holding the sander.
Weird.
I'd show pictures, but it's all still in the garage. Once we removed the table and chairs from the deck we realized that the deck needs repainting. And until Mother Nature decided we've had enough rain, the deck shall remain naked.
Friday, April 4, 2008
long time gone
OK, I know. It's been forever since I updated.
I've never understood folks with Seasonal Affective Disorder. It's never seemd to "affective" me.
But that flooded basement must have put me over the edge. It hit me big and bad after that. The weight gain was the biggest sign that something was up. Even though I'm not back to previous weights, it's up and all my new clothes don't fit anymore. And that just sucks.
But since it's been warming up and we officially have 12 hours of sun again, it feels like things are picking back up.
So I'm back to the home projects front. The biggest project I've been putting off is the master bath. I thought it might take me a week. It took two. I had completely forgotten how much sitting around and waiting there is. And how freaking hard it is so stay bent over for hours at a time.
The demolition was the fun part. The linoleum and it's luan-wood backer came out in one big piece. The tile around the tub came out in big chunks because they'd just put the tile onto drywall. And the drywall under the towels (which had no tile) came out in one big piece.
Easy stuff. One day.
Then I started cutting the concrete backerboard that would go under and behind all the new tile. Cutting the stuff can be therapeutic. I'm sure there's some kind of electric saw that will whiz right through the stuff. But I'm cheap. So I used the scoring method. You have to make repeated marks on the board before you can snap it. And by repeated, I mean HUNDREDS of marks. I looked like someone with OCD. And the only way to fall asleep was to make this scratch 100 times.
That was Two days.
Now onto the tile. I found an awesome deal on travertine, (the same stone they used to build the pyramids and Roman aquaducts) for the floor. But I wanted a brick pattern 1"x2" travertine mosaic for the wall. And I couldn't find anything for less than $10.00/sq. ft. And with 50 sq. ft. to cover that was way above my budget.
Then I found Oracle Stone on ebay and they got me the stuff for $4.50 sq. ft. plus shipping. The final costs were $6.00 sq/ft.
Since we're not made of money and that's still expensive, I decided to liquidate some assets on craigslist. I sold a desk, desk chair, coffee table, scanner, dog kennel... well, the list is long.
Here's the bonus: The craigslist sale paid for all the tile.
OK. So floor tile cutting: One day.
Wall tile installation: Three days.
Waiting for everything to cure: Three days.
Waiting for grout to set: Three days.
My mini-spa.
Ahhhh.
I've never understood folks with Seasonal Affective Disorder. It's never seemd to "affective" me.
But that flooded basement must have put me over the edge. It hit me big and bad after that. The weight gain was the biggest sign that something was up. Even though I'm not back to previous weights, it's up and all my new clothes don't fit anymore. And that just sucks.
But since it's been warming up and we officially have 12 hours of sun again, it feels like things are picking back up.
So I'm back to the home projects front. The biggest project I've been putting off is the master bath. I thought it might take me a week. It took two. I had completely forgotten how much sitting around and waiting there is. And how freaking hard it is so stay bent over for hours at a time.
The demolition was the fun part. The linoleum and it's luan-wood backer came out in one big piece. The tile around the tub came out in big chunks because they'd just put the tile onto drywall. And the drywall under the towels (which had no tile) came out in one big piece.
Easy stuff. One day.
Then I started cutting the concrete backerboard that would go under and behind all the new tile. Cutting the stuff can be therapeutic. I'm sure there's some kind of electric saw that will whiz right through the stuff. But I'm cheap. So I used the scoring method. You have to make repeated marks on the board before you can snap it. And by repeated, I mean HUNDREDS of marks. I looked like someone with OCD. And the only way to fall asleep was to make this scratch 100 times.
That was Two days.
Now onto the tile. I found an awesome deal on travertine, (the same stone they used to build the pyramids and Roman aquaducts) for the floor. But I wanted a brick pattern 1"x2" travertine mosaic for the wall. And I couldn't find anything for less than $10.00/sq. ft. And with 50 sq. ft. to cover that was way above my budget.
Then I found Oracle Stone on ebay and they got me the stuff for $4.50 sq. ft. plus shipping. The final costs were $6.00 sq/ft.
Since we're not made of money and that's still expensive, I decided to liquidate some assets on craigslist. I sold a desk, desk chair, coffee table, scanner, dog kennel... well, the list is long.
Here's the bonus: The craigslist sale paid for all the tile.
OK. So floor tile cutting: One day.
Wall tile installation: Three days.
Waiting for everything to cure: Three days.
Waiting for grout to set: Three days.
My mini-spa.
Ahhhh.
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