Having a cold sucks rocks. Anyone care to take it away?
Most recent medication: a generous shot of scotch. :-)

[rant]
The dryer in the laundry room of the apartment building sucks rocks. The first time I used it, I thought it didn't do a very good job, but attributed that to the fact that there were some heavy things in the load (towels, blue jeans). Today's load was much lighter (t-shirts and dress shirts, mainly), but after two cycles, everything was still damp. So there are shirts hanging from every available place in my apartment. Over doors, from doorknobs, on hangers on teh shower curtain rod...it looks as though the dryer exploded in the apartment.
[/rant]

Had a high school student come in for her first violin lesson after school today - she signed up for orchestra, but has never played before. She already plays piano, which makes my job much easier (don't have to teach note-reading, counting, etc.), and is also in choir...and has a good ear. At one point, she said, "That doesn't sound quite right. What am I doing wrong?" Her whole hand had slid about ¼ inch closer to the bridge, so all of her notes requiring fingers were a bit sharp. Zipped through the first ~30 pages of the lesson book...and she didn't seem to have any trouble understanding how to do any of it. She's gonna be a good violinist. Great kid to work with, too - asks good questions, tries before saying "I can't"...

I have regular internet access at home again!

Now...to catch up on tons of email. And reading a bunch of blogs. And TT.

There are a gazillion flies in the apartment today. And they're stupid ones, too. I've caught at least a dozen - as they land on one arm, I swipe at them with the opposite hand...and then deposit the ones I catch in the plants. Well...there aren't plants yet. They're still seeds. Am trying an (admittedly rather strange) experiment...my brother mentioned that it would be cool to have corn on the cob for Thanksgiving. So - I have 30 kernels of corn planted in greenhouse plant containers sitting on the windowsill. It'll be interesting to see what happens if they all sprout - could be almost like a field in the living room.

Same cell phone number - because I had to get a landline in order to get DSL. They haven't gotten around to running cable to this corner of town yet.

Time to go whittle down the email backlog...

Hmm...over a month since I updated here...

Highlights: job hunting, subbing, more job hunting, barbershop district contest (in Sioux Falls), even more job hunting, annual barbershop show (Saint Cloud), an education job fair, and a couple of interviews.

Interview last week went okay - until the last question. Apparently the school has a very high-powered marching program. So much for that. They're interviewing another 4 people this week, too, so I'm definitely not going to hold my breath waiting for a job offer there. Oh, well. It isn't as though I don't have 50 other applications out. (And no, that isn't an exaggeration...might be off by a couple, but it's close. $35 on postage, plus 15 online apps...)

Worked a softball doubleheader last Thursday - has to be the easiest $110 I've ever earned. First game took just under an hour; second game about 1:15. The home team won both games...10-0 and 14-2 (or something like that). In the first game, the losing team didn't get a girl past second base - and she only got there because she was hit by a pitch, and then went to second on a little dribbler that didn't even get back to the pitcher. The baseball game on the diamond just a bit beyond the fence finished up just shortly after our second game.

Have games to work on both Monday and Tuesday this week. Monday is in Ladysmith, Tuesday in Hayward. Will have to drive like a madman to get to Hayward in time, since it's a little over an hour's drive from where I'll be subbing. School ends at 3:12; game is scheduled to start at 4:30...and we're supposed to be on the field at least 20 minutes before game time. I don't think I'm going to make that...but will let the AD know that I'll be there in time for the game to start on time.

So I stopped in to pick up the 1st violin book so I could get all the cuts and other miscellaneous stuff marked in before last night's rehearsal, I got a bit of a surprise... "Did Mr. W. tell you about the little twist we've come up with?" (Mr. W. is the pit conductor, and is also playing the role of Sitting Bull.) "When he's on stage, we'd like to have you conduct." Umm...okay. Let's hope my conducting sight-reading skills haven't disappeared in the past few weeks - especially since there are quite a few spots that we have to follow the kids on stage...or I have to give them cues! Sheesh...I really hope there aren't any other surprises in store...

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update after the rehearsal...

Major project: taking the books for violin 1 & 2 and mashing the parts together to make sure all the solo bits are covered, while not giving myself an impossible-to-learn-in-2-days part.

Translation of "when he's on stage, we'd like to have you conduct" -- "You get to conduct Act II."

Why is it that there is never a policeman around when people go flying past me as though their vehicles were shot from a cannon, yet when I go 11 mph over the limit, a state patrolman shows up? Grr. I am not a happy camper...and my travel fund isn't happy, either.

Back to Block tomorrow...last time for a while, since it has slowed down considerably. I'll be on an every-other weekend schedule through the end of tax season...unless it gets really busy. (I don't think that will happen.)

Had a definite "thumbs up" moment today. Was standing in the hall during the four-minute passing time between classes, and the superintendent walked past, then turned around and came back to talk to me. He asked how I was doing, and if they were keeping me busy enough...and then added that he had told the principals to make sure that "I got called any time we need a substitute." Can't beat that kind of a recommendation!

Did a ride-share with a couple of guys from this side of the river to GNU rehearsal last night... On the way back, one of them asked when I thought I'd be "riser ready". Apparently, there have been a few conversations about getting me to join, because the membership guy asked me if I was ready to start the audition process, too. The only thing holding me back is that I don't know where I'll be teaching next fall...but you can bet if it's within a reasonable driving distance from the MSP area, I'm joining! (Roughly 85 guys there last night...14 tenors!!)

Have a college job app all but finished - have to add in some details (street addresses & phone numbers) of the schools where I've taught, and it's good to go. It's a community college, so a doctorate isn't a requirement, which is nice. Would be teaching music theory, appreciation, and directing the chamber orchestra...nothing I couldn't handle!

So much for getting on other sub lists today...the phone rang at 5:45. "Are you available to sub in the elementary SpEd room for Mrs. D?" Gee...lemme think. Since I haven't had a chance to contact anyone else at any other schools about being available again... Was more of a resource room than actual SpEd - and there's a student teacher, too, so she ran the show, and I did little helpful things. Easy day.

Apparently I have developed quite a fan club in the past three days that I haven't been doing elementary band. (Was in the HS end on Monday & Tuesday.) I lost track of how many of the band kids stopped to ask if and when I was going to come back and take over band - "We hate Mr. L. He talked for almost 40 minutes, and we only had time to play one song. You have to kick him out." Three kids came screaming across the cafeteria as I was headed out after school, with the mom of one of them trailing behind. (The mom is their DI coach, and they were supposed to be working on their DI.) Half an hour later... Based on their comments, there are at least a dozen of the 6th graders and "probably all" of the 5th graders who want to see Mr. L. disappear. The mom is not afraid to rattle cages, either, and said she'd probably make time to stop in to talk to the superintendent, principal, and any school board members she can buttonhole.

Nice to know there's support - even if the chances of me actually stepping into that job are practically nonexistent.

Yet another in the bits-and-pieces category...

Snow day today - only about 2 or 3 inches overnight, but there's enough wind to make some pretty nasty drifts. Just talked to my brother, and he said that a neighbor got stuck in the middle of the road near his driveway - got "high-centered" on a drift. (i.e. the drift was tall enough that it lifted the wheels off the ground when he tried to go through it...)

Ran into my kid Tuesday night at the Cenex on the south side of SC. We stood there and talked (and D probably froze) for at least 20 minutes. I think the people inside were a little irritated with me...they're supposed to close at 10, and it was nearly quarter after by the time I walked in to pay. Oops. But hey - it isn't every day I get to see and talk to my (not-so) little girl.

First rehearsal for school musical pit earlier tonight. Right now, I'm playing French horn, although that will change if they can find another horn player. Actually, it might change regardless of whether they find another one. Apparently, the high school chick who said she'd play her violin in the pit thought it was going to be only 4 or 5 songs, so she's panicking a little bit...so I will probably end up being "promoted" to pit concertmaster.

Undergraduate student loan remaining balance due will be under $500 once they get the payment that is going out in tomorrow's mail. I can see the light at the end of the tunnel!

Forgot to write down a check that I wrote sometime between last week Monday and today...and I have no clue what it could be. Have eliminated a few possibilities, but not enough to figure it out. Grr. Means I won't be able to balance my checkbook until it makes its way through the bank and I can find out who it was written to/for. Oh, well. There's still plenty to pay this month's rent bill.

I love winter! It's cold enough this morning that when I stepped out side and took a deep breath, my nostrils froze shut. It's also cold enough - below -40 with the wind chill - that we don't have school...a fact I didn't find out until I had walked in, through a completely quiet building, and checked with the secretary to see if it was a one- or two-hour late start. Oh, well...

Will be headed off to Block shortly, since it's a fairly busy day scheduled there. Could turn out to be a dud, though, if people just hole up because of the cold... I'm not going to turn down the chance to pick up some hours at Block (even if they turn out to be bookkeeping and not tax prep), since no school = no pay.

Less than a week until KVSC trivia contest! Random trivia question for all 2 of you who bother to read this: Name the first US airline to hire a female flight attendant.