Jardín Martín

Catch-Up

2012-02-15T22:26:00.001-05:00

I meant to write a bit more this year but January got completely away from me, and obviously half of Feburary. Juan Carlos gave me a lovely camera for Valentine’s Day this year so today we walked around the neighborhood and took some pictures that I thought I would share. (I believe most of them will just make you glad you don’t live where we do. Well, maybe not if you like baseball.)

This is McCoy Market, which we call Don Vicente’s. We call it that because Juan Carlos had a small store like this next door to his house growing up and his neighbor’s name was Don Vicente. So Don Vicente lives on here in Pawtucket.

Now this is a diner that is literally across the street from where we live. Sadly enough we have never been there. I bet the Hot Wieners are a real draw…what is wrong with us!?

We live next to (and I do mean next to) a baseball stadium. We watch the fireworks outside our bedroom window. We don’t even have to pay for tickets because we hear the whole game just sitting in our living room. The Pawsox is the feeder team for the Boston Red Sox so sometimes we get a famous pitcher in for a game or two. The stadium, streets and parking lots are all packed when there are games going on.

The stadium parking lot does make a good place for Luna to run around, and play tug-of-war with her daddy. Here’s to my two beautiful loves!

When I actually learn how to use this camera you will probably hear from me again. Let’s all of us hope that is not next year sometime.

2012

2012-01-01T15:28:00.001-05:00

So last year this scripture was my focus:

"Do not run faster or labor more than you have strength and means provided to enable you...but be diligent unto the end."
D&C 10:4

Well, without going into all the details, there was a lot more labor in our lives this year. And this coming year there will be more. Surprisingly, although it shouldn’t be, there was also more strength and more means. Interesting how it works out that way. My husband and I both agreed that the best thing we did this year was go to Moon Lake with my family for a reunion. It was truly the most happy and magical week of 2011, and I am so grateful for it.

This year I have chosen a more simple focus.

James 5:11 “Behold, we count them happy which endure.”

This year I only have a couple of goals.

1. I want to write a little more often in this blog.

2. I want to keep on keeping on. And I want to do it without falling to pieces. That’s where the endurance/happiness comes in.

May 2012 bring you many fulfilled hopes and dreams.

Proud To Be An American

2011-12-09T14:59:00.001-05:00

Today Juan Carlos became a United States citizen. After so many years (and soooooo much money, but let’s focus on the positive!) as a permanent resident, he finally became an official American!!!

The oath-swearing ceremony was a surprisingly lovely event—particularly since we have been dealing with Homeland Security for more than ten years and lovely is not the word I would ever choose for any Homeland Security procedure. There were about 35 people from 19 different countries at the ceremony and it was great to see the amazing diversity of countries represented in the state of Rhode Island. There was even one person from a place called Dominica, a country I didn’t even know existed!!! (It’s in the Caribbean, for those of you who don’t know, either ) Juan Carlos was the only Spaniard, though, and he represented well!

Everyone took the oath of allegiance and then received the certificate of naturalization:

Then we all said the Pledge of Allegiance. Early this morning we were frantically practicing the pledge, although after studying for the citizenship test the pledge should have been a breeze.

Since he is now an American we had to go to a real American place for an American lunch…what better than Johnny Rockets? And what is more American than a chocolate milkshake?

He even chose a song from the jukebox to commemorate the event:

During the ceremony I was thinking about how beautiful the United States is and what a lucky thing it is to be able to live here—and we have lived in a few different parts of the country, so that makes us doubly fortunate. I surely do appreciate other countries, and I know that the US isn’t perfect, but there is a whole lot to love and be grateful for about America. I know Juan Carlos is still very much a Spaniard and will never lose his love for his homeland, but I am proud that he wanted to be a citizen of my country, as well.

Christmastime Is Here…

2011-11-28T20:14:00.001-05:00

And JC could not be controlled in his decorating frenzy…

This is what I got to decorate:

I still do love me some bubble lights.

Mostly the reason we did all this already is because we won’t have time before Christmas actually arrives to do anything remotely Christmas-related. Sad, but true. The good news is that when school gets out that means Mom and Dad and Sue and Josh and their five kiddos will be coming. I call that something to look forward to!!!

Invasion

2011-11-23T20:03:00.001-05:00

So this is going to be my Christmas present this year:

But wait...there's more!!!

Plus their parents and my parents! I have no idea how we are all going to fit in our condo and still come out of it loving each other at the end, but I don't even care, I am just counting the days!!!!

9th Grade Love

2011-09-23T08:38:00.000-05:00

Here it is, I know you've been waiting for it, that yearly email I write about how much I love 9th graders. Every year I wonder, "Am I still going to love them?" Well, I still do.They continue to be one of the highlights of my life. With 9th graders there is wonder, humor, innocence, intelligence, awkwardness, and angst. You see the first adult glimmerings of what they will become. They have brought lightness to what is otherwise quite a difficult time for me--and for that I have no end of gratitude.

Remember That Blog I Was Writing?

2011-07-11T18:24:00.000-05:00

My second semester and the beginning of summer reached unbelieveable levels of busy and my poor blog fell by the wayside a bit. It's not that I didn't have anything to say, just no time to say it! And I am soon to be on my way to Ohio to spend time with my sister and her five children so I am not sure my time for writing is going to increase anytime soon.

I have a lot of music to memorize this summer as well. Fortunately the first batch is over:

I loved, loved, LOVED the Bellini. Lovely, artful Italian opera that sounds as light as air but is technically demanding. Fortunately the chorus parts are pretty straightforward, but oh, how I did love listening to the soloists! Except for the one part where a huge moth the size of a bat decided to fly straight into the back row of altos and hang out awhile. Ah, the joys of outdoor singing!

Now the Requiem, on the other hand, just about did me in. The Latin was not so much an issue as was the way-too-high range of the female voices. It was like Extreme Singing for Altos. This made it feel very heavy and by the end of the rehearsals we were all pretty exhausted, not to mention the actual performance. Now that I have had my grump, I have to say that it is one of the most spectacular things I have ever sung. At one moment I actually choked up listening to the men sing the Tuba mirum and had to pull myself together before my next lines. So to sum it up, Berlioz: Stressful. Punishing. Hell on the voice. Sublime.

Now for the rest of the summer--Gershwin's Porgy and Bess and Beethoven's 9th Symphony.

I sang some of Porgy and Bess in college, and thankfully have memorized the Beethoven already, so that will be just a brush-up, but I didn't realize quite how big Porgy and Bess was. I listened to the whole production on my way home from Tanglewood yesterday (3 hours) and realized there is a bit more to it than I thought. One song I remember from college brought me a hilarious memory--we sang this for some big BYU celebration in the Marriott Center (Homecoming?) and Ariel Bybee was the guest soloist. I think it was like 1993 or 1994. When we were singing the chorus for the picnic song "Oh, I Can't Sit Down" there is a line that says:

Sure is dandy, got de likker handy

We had to substitute "hamper" for "likker". Ha, hah! Of course you can't have a bunch of Mormon kids singing about how much alcohol you have on hand! But remembering it made me laugh. All my choir friends from back then will remember that! I am hoping it does not work it's way into this performance, You know how your brain is about memorizing sometimes!

Just so you can see how many pages!!!!

Anyway, hopefully I will be able to keep up a bit better in the future...hopefully.

True Love

2011-03-03T20:16:00.001-05:00

Surpasses all boundaries: my laundry folding, Juan Carlos post-soccer-wound-treating, and any of our needs to walk through the room.

My Valentine

2011-02-16T11:41:00.001-05:00

Juan Carlos asked me what I wanted for Valentines Day—mostly I hate that question because really, he makes every day Valentines Day. But I did want to see a smile on HIS face, so I said I wanted to go see our dog breeder’s new litter. I see this smile on Juan Carlos face only on certain occasions: when he is in Spain with his family and friends, when Barcelona or the Spanish national team wins, and when he plays with dogs. This was the best Valentines Day ever—the only thing that would have made it better would have been to take one home.

Luna didn’t know QUITE what to do with all of these small, eager creatures wanting to play with her…

Uh…More Snow

2011-02-05T14:11:00.001-05:00

We have lived in New England since 2006 and this is the first year we have seen any snow. And by snow I mean stuff that stays on the ground for more than a day. There has been a great deal of it this year, and the temperatures are staying low so it doesn’t melt. Now where I grew up this was just part of life, but here it causes chaos, mostly because there is nowhere to put the stuff, and it is in huge piles along the sides of the already narrow streets of Providence. In Utah there is lots of space and there are places to park your car other than on the street. Add to that that snow removal is not something that has to be done fairly often here. As one of my colleagues said, “this is Providence, we have two snowplows and a salt shaker!”

I was dumbstruck on Thursday, watching the maintenance crew hacking away with shovels at the inch of ice coating the courtyard at school. It’s definitely a view of the school I have never seen.

Anyway, for the first time I am wishing that the sun would just come out and melt the stuff already. We went for our walk with Luna today and it was more of a half-walk-half-skate around Lincoln Woods.

But….it is February, which is usually the coldest month of the year here. Which means the snow may not be going anywhere.

Snow Day

2011-01-12T19:08:00.001-05:00

We had a real nor’easter last night and got a decent amount of snow. Since my school was closed for the day, I got caught up with my grading and got some much needed rest. However, I couldn’t resist going out with the video camera to film Luna having fun with the snow in the way that only Berners can! Well, maybe Berners and Juan Carlos. It’s been nice to see some real snow again.

Shoveling makes Juan Carlos feel manly—or maybe it’s because he’s manly that he feels like shoveling snow…I hope it will stop snowing at some point so he can stop going out!

Rhode Island Greenways: East Bay Bike Path and India Point Park

2011-01-08T19:22:00.001-05:00

Today we took a walk around the India Point Park and part of the East Bay Bike Path. This area is right in the middle of Providence heading over to the East Side, so it was much more urban than the Blackstone. However, it was a lovely day and we learned some interesting things about the area.

Here is the view from our car back towards the bridge that connects I-195 West to I-95. As we explored the park we noticed this guy checking us out:

I half expected him to say “Mine!”

Here is Luna checking out the seagull!

This is the Seekonk River and since we do not have a boat there was only one way across….

The bike path actually runs along I-195, but fortunately we were separated from all the traffic.

Luna wanted her scenic view, too! As you can see, this is a pretty high traffic area and a lot of people seem to feel a need to write on a bridge when they cross it.

After we crossed the bridge we skirted the waterfront until we were directly across from where we parked. You can see the bridge we crossed in the far left of the photo behind the trees.

After we got back to the car it was time for a rest and for Luna to have a nice long drink. Then we went home and washed those dirty paws!!!!

Virtual

2011-01-05T19:37:00.003-05:00

For the last year or so Juan Carlos and I have been supplementing his Spanish courses with a program called Second Life, where we hold lab activities and help sessions. This all happens online, so students can attend even if they are at home hanging out in their bedrooms. It is a lot of fun and helps the students feel more comfortable speaking the language.
Meet Eliza:

Eliza is my avatar and she looks somewhat like me, if (gulp!) a few pounds lighter. And I admit readily that she does have better hair and a much better wardrobe than I do in real life.
Here is Eliza with Tanausu (i.e., virtual Juan Carlos)

Juan Carlos is actually better looking in real life, but we can’t all be gorgeous in real life, I guess, can we?
Here we are with some students:

More students:

It has been an experience learning how to teach in a virtual environment, and it is definitely an intriguing way to practice the target language. But I do have to admit that it’s also just fun to wear cute clothes and not worry about getting chalk dust all over them, and to wear shoes that are not sensible and not have to worry about how my feet will feel at the end of class!

Just That

2011-01-01T18:47:00.000-05:00

"Do not run faster or labor more than you have strength and means provided to enable you...but be diligent unto the end."
D&C 10:4

Since I am mostly continuing my goals for this year, I have decided to focus on this scripture and try to incorporate it more fully into my life. I think this means prioritizing the things that are important and giving my energy and attention to the things that are most important. In other words, it's time to cut out the rif-raff, because a person can only do so much. Some things I cannot cut out and they are going to be my focus this year:

1. Church stuff. Just can't cut it out. Don't really want to cut it out. So it stays.

2. Work. Must be done. (secretly love this, too)

3. Singing. All other activities get suckier if I don't do this.

4. Health. Can't get away from it, and I'd like to stave off the aging for as long as possible.

5. Husband. This one's REAL easy to focus on, and good thing since #1-4 are going to be hard enough.

I often wonder how other people do resolutions, or how they don't do them. What do you plan for 2011?

Resolute

2010-12-30T22:35:00.004-05:00

2010 has to have been one of the busiest years of my life. And while keeping resolutions has never been one of my strengths, it’s something that I like to do because at some point, I do actually make some progress. This year the progress was good in some areas, but unfortunately I regressed in some areas. I have been thinking about what I want to focus on in the next year, but in the meantime, here is the recap of my resolutions for 2010:

#1: Paying off our debt: a
I have to say that the only way I could be happier about this resolution is if somehow we managed to not have a house payment. However, all things considered, knowing we don’t have anything else out there hanging over our heads makes a huge difference in my peace of mind. And we have been very very lucky in that we are both gainfully employed and have never been in danger of losing our jobs. The way things are going these days, we are very grateful, believe me.

#2: Hiking all the Rhode Island Greenways: a-
Next time I make a resolution like this I will look more closely at the map! We did a lot of hiking this year and made it through The Blackstone River Bikeway, the Ten Mile River Bikeway and parts of the East Bay Bike Path. We also did some walking and running trails around Newport. However, there are a lot more to go! So this one is going to be a continuing resolution, because we really enjoyed getting to know Rhode Island this year.

#3: Going to bed by 10:30 at night: r
EPIC FAIL!!!!!!!
Now, I knew there would be nights where this wasn’t going to happen. Like anytime we were in Spain or someone from Spain visited us, for example. I don’t know how they do it. However, the rest of the year was not great, either. Not only did I fail to get to bed on time this year, but I ended up staying up later than I had in previous years. The bottom line is we just plain bit off more than we could chew and we paid the price in tiredness. I haven’t decided whether or not I will make this a resolution for 2011. Maybe. Maybe not. Since it is now 10:34pm, I think I will sleep on it!

Newport News

2010-12-28T20:08:00.003-05:00

This week our good friend Scott came to visit us. Scott lives in Newport News, VA, and so we HAD to take a trip to Newport so that he could say he had been to Newport in two different states.
First we went to the Brick Alley Pub for lunch, which is one of our favorite places in Newport. If you ever go there, be sure to visit the bathrooms. It’s an experience! As always, there is a lot of laughter and a lot of walking around fun places when Scott comes to visit.

Then we went for the obligatory run on the beach, and you can see that Luna found a friend but even that wasn’t enough to keep her from her wild dash!

Finally, too tired to run!

Sometimes that fur does come in handy!

We love Scott and can’t wait till our next visit.

And To All A Good Night

2010-12-27T19:24:00.000-05:00

This Christmas season has been wonderful, but very busy! Most of my time was spent here:

All in all the Pops and the chorus did this concert thirty-seven times over three weeks, of which I did ten. You might think it would get old, but seriously, for me it never did. I did start to feel a bit vocally tired during week three, but I still felt very festive and excited for every concert. While I am glad I don't have to keep up the pace anymore, I will miss the sparkling, joyful Christmas music of the orchestra until next year. And I have to admire Keith Lockhart, who pulls off almost every single one of the 37 performances with the same routines and same jokes and same visits from Santa and still likes his job (although he does give us a good crusty look now and then when we miss an entrance).

Now I am ready for a few day's break before school starts again. May the rest of 2010 be joyful!

Kickoff

2010-12-06T21:12:00.000-05:00

Obviously the sports terminology is infiltrating my brain. However, there is no better word for the carol-singing activity that we did this weekend at the Prudential Center. The idea was to break the Guiness World Record for amount of carolers. It didn't happen and I am not even sure it COULD have happened in the space that was available. But all that aside it was completely fun and a great way to kick off the concert season. Wednesday is the beginning of the Pops Holiday Concert series and therefore my next three weeks are going to be crazy.
But they are going to be fun!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

5-0

2010-12-01T09:13:00.001-05:00

So Barcelona played Real Madrid yet again in the never-ending rivalry that has JC locked in it's grip. I have to say I never heard of or cared about these teams before I married him, but now I am intensely interested in how things play out whenever these two teams play, because the result affects Juan Carlos' mood for days. There was a huge amount of hype on all the Spanish networks, so there was no way this game was not going to be big.
Juan Carlos is a Barcelona fan. Now, he is not a fan like myself. For example, if in college BYU lost a game and the University of Utah, their arch-rivals, won and went to a bowl game or a championship, I would root for Utah, of course, because they were the next closest thing to home. Real Madrid is the arch rival of Barcelona and JC hates them. Hates them with a capital H. It doesn't matter who is playing them, he wants them to be beaten. Even if they make it to the end of the Champions League and the other team is Italian or German or whatever, he will root for another country rather than root for Real Madrid. And the feeling for Real Madrid fans is mutual, they hate Barcelona with a passion and like nothing better than to see them go down.
I do not understand this, but over the years I have come to accept that Juan Carlos just needs Real Madrid to lose. I have even become a Real Madrid hater myself, but most of this has to do with the fact that I dislike some of their players, and that they just can't seem to help acting like jerks.
Real Madrid came into this game undefeated this season, and Barcelona had lost one. This was going to be the year that Real Madrid took Barcelona down.

It didn't happen that way. I have watched a lot of Barcelona games, but this one was completely beautiful, from start to finish. Barcelona won this one 5-0 and sent a very clear message to Real Madrid--they were not giving up that top spot in the standings.

Juan Carlos is the happiest I have ever seen him, apart from when Spain won the World Cup. We watched replays for a week afterwards. But I feel like I have done my wifely duty, because I have watched this Barcelona/Real Madrid game five times. Yes, five times, one for each goal. And while it's not what I would choose to watch, I have gained an appreciation for the skill and athleticism of soccer players. Seriously. Beautiful. I really love most of the Barcelona players and they played amazingly well.

http://sports.yahoo.com/soccer/photos?slug=834097fabfb06700d7ababaab4bbe07d-getty-fbl-esp-liga-fc_barcelona-real_madrid-clasico&search=barcelona

If you feel like watching first class soccer, they have been replaying it for two days on the Spanish affiliate on ESPN, or you can watch the highlights here.

Whether or not you like soccer or you are just a supportive spouse, this was one for the record books, and pretty much means I will have a happy Juan Carlos for some time.

Thanks List

2010-11-28T14:06:00.001-05:00

I know, I am a bit late to be posting on this one, but better late than never, right? Also, being married to someone who is not American kind of gives you a different spin on this holiday. Thanksgiving is probably my favorite holiday though, so I have had to work really hard to get him on board. Here are a few reasons why.

1. Turkey: (Of course one reason had to be food) This is the only time during the year that I get to cook a turkey. JC is not terribly big on turkey, but he’ll go for it once a year. There are only two of us, so we freeze half of it and eat the other half for the week following Thanksgiving. Then I hoard the turkey and eat it bit by bit over the rest of the year. Tomorrow is soup day, hooray!!!!

2. Fall: Of course this HAS to be my favorite holiday because it happens during my favorite season. I love fall. I wish fall lasted six months. I like Halloween, but that seems to be more about the candy, the costumes, the ghosts and goblins. Thanksgiving for me is more about family and the joys of the season.

3. Holiday Season: I have never been big on the whole shopping aspect of the holidays. It’s just not that much fun for me. But the caroling, the time spent with family and friends, the concerts and the lights make me enjoy this time so much. Thanksgiving is the time that kicks all that off. We don’t have small children of our own but we so enjoy seeing and hearing about what everyone else does with their families. It is one of our favorite things about this time of year.

Juan Carlos and I have a tradition that we follow every year as we eat our turkey. We talk about the things we did during the year that made us the happiest and we talk about why they made us happy. Here are the top three from our list from this year. There were lots more but these were the ones that stuck out in our minds:

Annie:

1. Celebrating 10 years with Juan Carlos at the top of the Birigoyo volcano in La Palma. How beautiful. I will remember it for the rest of my life.

2. Seeing a new part of Spain and Portugal with my mom and dad for the first time. I am so grateful my parents could share this trip with us.

3. Visiting the Rey family, who I met when I was a missionary in France. I had not seen them in over 12 years and I bawled my eyes out when I saw them again. They are also some of the people I love best in all the world, even though we live so far apart.

Juan Carlos:

1. Okay, really, do I need to say anything?

I think this was the most grateful moment in Juan Carlos’ whole LIFE, not just this year. You ever want to see a bunch of grown men crying and hugging each other, hang out in the country where they win the World Cup for the first time.

2. This was also the year that Juan Carlos’ family and friends visited him here in the United States for the first time. It was so wonderful to have them and for them to finally see what it is he does over here, haha!

3. Visiting Acadia National Park in Maine. These were about the only three days we had to ourselves this year, and this was definitely a highlight of our year.

I hope your holiday was as wonderful as ours, and that you took a moment to think about the things that make you the happiest and most thankful.

A Random Act Of Culture

2010-11-10T10:53:00.000-05:00

Usually I am not one to get obsessed with the holidays the moment Halloween is over, and this year in particular I have thought about the holidays in more of a "Oh yeah, Christmas, when I dig out from under everything else that is going on, I will think about that" kind of way, but this year I had a concert run in November and on the last night we were handed our music for the holiday concerts with the Boston Pops. So the season has come a little earlier this year. That, and one of the chorus members forwarded this to everyone in the chorus today:

I always love seeing these things. And this one had the side effect of making me fully in the mood for celebration.

So let the holidays begin!!!

Bittersweet

2010-11-07T22:23:00.002-05:00

For the last three and a half years it has been my honor and pleasure to serve as Young Women’s president in the Central Falls Ward. For my non-Mormon friends, that just means that my “job” in my church congregation is to work with the young women ages 12-18 who live in the same area as I do, to teach them gospel principles and life skills and also have all kinds of fun with them. I was very nervous when my bishop called me to do this, since I didn’t know the area, the girls, or even very many people in the ward, since I had been working in the Primary (3-11 year-olds) since moving into the ward. . My bishop is an inspired guy, though, and knew what he was doing, because the young women are possibly the coolest people IN the ward.
I have to admit that sometimes the responsibility was a lot to handle and sometimes when I was supposed to be running the weekly activity for the girls I really wanted to be grading papers or prepping lesson plans or taking care of one of the other thousand responsibilities in my life. I mean, that’s life, right? Add to that that these girls are living in a world that is the polar opposite of the world I was raised in, so what on earth could I possibly have to offer them? But the kicker is that I was always so happy after those activities, and somehow all the papers got graded and lessons planned (and don’t forget music memorized!) regardless.
A couple of weeks ago we had an activity at my house where the girls came over and learned to make cake. It had been a long day, a long week, a long month. (More about that in another post) I was tired and discouraged and not really looking forward to it. At 7:30pm there was a knock on my door, and seven lively, giggling young girls swept into my house and their optimism and their cheerfulness blew in with them. It was a really fun night, and as usual, I was so glad that I hadn’t let anything take priority over them. The girls gave me my weekly lesson on what the latest lingo is around school, and hey, there was cake. How could it not be fun?
In the beginning I looked at this as a calling in which I was supposed to be serving and working for these girls, but the truth is that they have blessed and brought as much to my life as anything I was able to do for them, and very possibly more.

Of course there is a lot that probably wouldn’t have gotten done without my awesome counselors Becky and Kelly. They love these girls so much and it shows in everything they do. Kelly is taking over in Central Falls now and in my opinion there is no one better for the job. The girls are so lucky to get her and Becky.
I’ve been asked to work with the stake Young Women’s presidency, which is sort of doing the same job, but on a more regional level, working with young women from all over Rhode Island and Connecticut. Again, I am a bit daunted, but I have already worked with some of those girls at Girls’ Camp, so it won’t be a total unknown. My life is teenagers, what can I say?
I will miss my Central Falls girls so much; even though I will still be seeing them, I won’t be working with them regularly. So, to Flora, Agatha, Myra, Cassandra, Victoria, Loriana, Lucia and Lucilia, thank you for being the most awesome girls ever and for bringing me so many smiles. Remember how special you are and how much I have loved working with you.

Mo' Music

2010-10-12T12:57:00.000-05:00

Last week I went up to Boston for rehearsal of a new piece (for me) that we are singing with the Boston Symphony in November. The piece is Atlántida by Manuel de Falla. I was feeling pretty good about this because it is a Spanish composer. They speak Spanish in Spain, right? Well I got my music in the mail and it looked like no other Spanish that I have seen. Turns out it's in Catalan. Nice. Enough like Spanish that it doesn't sound totally foreign, but unlike Spanish enough that it gives me a major headache.

We had a two hour rehearsal last week to go through the pronunciation of the language and it was pretty grueling. Today I have surfaced from a super overloaded week and checked the rehearsal calendar. These sixty pages of Catalan have to be memorized by November 1st, which freaked me out in the extreme.

Also, last week I went up to Revere and went to a movie theater to see the Metropolitan Opera´s Live in HD broadcast of Das Rheingold. It. Was. Amazing. I can´t wait to see the next production. James Levine is back conducting after surgery and there is rejoicing among all musicians. Here is a review:
http://markronan.wordpress.com/2010/10/10/das-rheingold-metropolitan-opera-live-relay-october-2010/

Adéu per ara!

Getting High

2010-09-28T15:52:00.000-05:00

In a recent conversation with one of my friends it came up that I didn't drink or smoke or do drugs in college. (I didn't do these things before or after college, either, but it was college we were talking about) This sort of thing comes up often since my alcohol/drug knowledge is spotty at best. My friend had a silent, flabbergasted moment and then he asked asked me quite seriously, and I quote: "Well what on earth did you DO then?"
After a somewhat terrifying moment where I thought I might start laughing, which I did not want to do because I didn't want to make him feel bad for asking, I told him I did a great many things in college, and the conversation topic changed and life went on.
After thinking about it for a few days, I realized something. Just because I was never interested in alcohol or drugs does NOT mean that I never got high. I did. Regularly. And there were a lot of us in the "get high without controlled substances" club where I went to college.
If you read my blog at all regularly you might imagine that I majored in music, which is actually not the case. I majored in Spanish, because I did not have the talent for a music performance major. That was a thorn in my side for many years, but turned out to be a good thing. But anyway, the music is what got me high in high school, college and beyond. I have to be grateful for choral directors who let me into their groups even though I wasn't totally amazing.
I really believe that music affects people both emotionally and physically. In college I sang in choir every single year, even though we had to meet every single day for rehearsal instead of three times a week like most classes. I did it because I loved it and it made me feel great. Sometimes after rehearsal a bunch of us would walk out as high as kites because of the amazing music we had just made. And there were roughly about 500 other students who did the same thing in the various choral groups on campus. And that's not even mentioning the instrumentalists. I guess the big difference is that that kind of high never caused us to lose control of ourselves or have hangovers (although there could be a serious debate about how much we embarrassed ourselves!). Seriously, we may have been the biggest nerds on the planet, but we were happy.
One benefit of this (besides the obvious health benefits) is that I have recordings of the music we made and I can revisit those lovely moments. I don't think I could say the same for other methods of mood-alteration. I came upon a CD that a dear friend of mine in college made of many songs that we sang together as a group. It has been more than ten years since we sang together and while I can hear that our voices sound a bit young, the intonation and the musicality are all there and it is still a pleasure to listen to, even after all these years. And it still makes me a little bit high.

A fellow singer with the Tanglewood Festival Chorus sent around a link recently to a speech given at a welcome meeting for parents at the Boston Conservatory a few years ago. It really resonated with me. He mentions the events of 9/11 and how people responded almost immediately with music. I sang the Brahms Requiem that very night with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir in memory of the people whose lives were lost that day, so I knew personally what he meant. It's worth a read, though, whether you are a musician or not.

So, while I may have missed out on some traditional mood-altering experiences, many others missed out on mine. If I had to make the choice again, I would choose the same thing, because it was the right one for me.
It made (and still makes) me happy. It's a pretty good benchmark to go by.

Here are a couple of songs from the CD that my friend made, for your listening pleasure. They are both called "Alleluia"; very aptly named in terms of the feelings they generate in both performance and listening.

Alleluia #1:

Alleluia #2

Music Nerds

2010-09-11T23:23:00.003-05:00

It has been a very busy few weeks for Juan Carlos and I as school has gotten started, and I haven't been posting as much. Plenty has happened, but by the time I get to this blog I either am either too tired to write about things or can't remember what I was going to write. This week I was taking pictures of my classes (so cute!) and came upon some pictures of my week at Tanglewood this summer. So here you go!

For the last week of summer I spent five days out in the Berkshires for some concerts with the Symphony. Tanglewood is such a gorgeous place, but it was crazier than last year because I was trying so hard to memorize my Bach. And that's what I did, morning, noon, and night.

One of my friends took this picture while I was trying to zone in on the German. Most of the week was spent like this or walking around the grounds chanting in German--and I do mean chanting. A woman stopped me after one of my rounds and said maybe I didn't realize how loud my voice was and could I please stop it! I had to work very hard not to shake my score in her face and ask her how she thought I should memorize the Bach by TOMORROW if not by practicing, but I got ahold of myself and took my offending voice to another area. But hey, it's Tanglewood and if you can't walk around caterwauling there, where can you?

I was not alone in my panic. Most of us who were working on the Bach were having fits.

T. (T. really wasn't working on the Bach, I just wanted to put her in because she's so pretty! That's Poulenc, actually.)

In the end we all managed to get the thing memorized and it was gorgeous. Of course as soon as the concert was over we all felt like NOW we were ready to go out and perform it. And now I remember every single German word without even trying. Even with all the exasperation I still think it was one of the most fun weeks of the year and I was sad to not have more music to memorize at the end of it. But I will definitely be memorizing much earlier next year so that when I get to hang out with these ladies again there will be more fun and less panic!

boston.com

That Other Place

2010-08-28T20:11:00.000-05:00

Remember my last post about heaven? Well, listening to Bach is a different story entirely than memorizing and singing it. I have memorized sections and then gone back a bit later and it's like I never saw it before! And since the concert is tomorrow, I should probably have it learned, right?

I really should have studied German in school.

So I correct myself: Listening to Bach is heaven. Getting it ready for performance is much more reminiscent of that other place! Until I get it memorized, of course. Four more pages until it's heaven again!!!

Heaven

2010-08-19T21:14:00.006-05:00

Bach has always been one of my favorite composers. I have loved Bach for different reasons throughout my life—order, beauty, drama, richness, detail, you name it, he’s got it.
I am singing Jesu, Meine Freude next week at Tanglewood, and over the last four weeks I have been in an utter panic to memorize the German (and the music, since it is a pretty complex piece). Also having the Poulenc Gloria to memorize adds to the hysteria. Plus school starts next week so I am trying to get lesson plans, etc. ready for that. So this week is crunch week and I am spending most of my time sitting with the Ipod and my copied-out German trying to force it into my German-disabled brain. What I have learned is that this is a breath-taking piece and I love it.
This section is one of my favorite parts and as I was working on it tonight I actually stopped singing because I just wanted to listen to how beautiful it was. And here's what happened:

For 3 minutes and 50 seconds, everything in the world was perfect.

The Maine Attraction

2010-08-10T19:41:00.002-05:00

Juan Carlos and I are always saying that Maine is the place that we would live if we didn’t have to worry about things like making a living or paying bills or things like that. Now, Juan Carlos has never spent a winter there, so he might change his mind about that, but nonetheless, Maine is one of our favorite places to go. We have “maine-ly” visited the south coast (ha-ha!), but this week we decided to head a little further north. I have always wanted to go to Acadia National Park, so we thought this would be a good destination.
Of course every hotel was booked solid, so we decided to camp. We went to a little place in the southwestern area of Mt. Desert Island, called the Bass Harbor Campground. We loved it there, and it is apparently a very popular place for families, since we got to hear lots of hilarious game-playing and song-singing around campfires at night.
The first day we were there we took the Island Explorer on the loop bus around the park. I forgot to take the camera with us, so I didn’t get any pictures of this. You’ll just have to go and visit yourself. On this trip we discovered how to be the center of attention:

The bus lets you take your dog, as long as they behave themselves. I don’t know if it is because she is big, or friendly, or both, but everyone on the bus went crazy over Luna and we met a lot of really cool people from all over the world. She did great with all the people grabbing her and being in close quarters. We were very proud! Some of the folks on the bus were locals and they showed us how to get to the secret beaches and swimming areas on the island. When in doubt, take a big, goofy dog with you wherever you are going. One of those secret places:

We stopped here to have our lunch and do some fishing. Don’t you want to have lunch here?

There are tons of hiking trails all over the park, like this one in Ship Harbor:

One of our favorite things about camping is cooking yummy food on the campfire. My personal favorite is campfire popcorn. It also happens to be someone else’s favorite. Can you guess who?

I myself feel the same desperation for popcorn at times, I must admit.

Today we got home a little tired and a little stinky (especially Luna), but having had a wonderful time and looking forward to the next opportunity to visit our favorite place. Ah, now we have to get back to reality…

Girl’s Camp

2010-08-05T09:04:00.002-05:00

Last week I went with five of my girls from church to Raymond, NH for girl’s camp. It has been a lot of years since I went to girl’s camp, and I must say that it was better and much more fun than any year that I went to camp as a teenager. Well, I am not a teenager anymore, so obviously anything is going to be an improvement, right? Also, things are done a little differently here and I think most of them are improvements.

1. Grouping by level: Instead of camping with their own wards , the girls camped in groups according to what level camper they were. (1st year-5th year). For my friends who are not Mormons, a ward is like a local congregation of people who attend church together based on their geographical location. My ward attends church in Central Falls since we all live in that area. I was in charge of the 3rd-year group, or all of the 14-year-olds in Rhode Island and eastern Connecticut. Aren’t they cute?

This way of doing things gets all the girls in the region of the same age together for all activities, like orienteering (so much fun!):

I really liked this, because my own girls were able to reach out and get to know girls like themselves from outside Central Falls. When you don’t live in Utah and you don’t have other church members everywhere you turn, it is easy to think that you are very isolated if you are a young person who believes in God and participates in your church group. If we had camped in wards, they might not have had the opportunities to form those relationships outside their own congregation. And I think some drama can be avoided when you are not in closed quarters all week with the same girls you go to church with all year long.

2. Inter-level activities: In the above photo, the 3rd years were using compasses to create a course for the 1st years (12-year-olds) to follow so they could find a prize hidden at the end point. This was great because they had to think about how someone else would read their instructions, and also show the 12-year-olds how to use a compass. This is not a skill that is taught very much these days, but I think it is still a very useful skill, because you just never know when you might be lost without your GPS! It was great for these girls to develop leadership skills and friendships with the younger girls.

3. No cooking over a campfire by wards: Although I always thought that cooking as a ward was a lot of fun, it is a huge and onerous task to take enough food for 12 girls for a week when you have no refrigeration. I give major props to my own camp leaders for pulling this off year after year. This camp has a dining hall and members from the region volunteer to cook for the week. I think these people have got to be the best people in the world. One of them was Dorothy, from my own ward in Central Falls, and she worked like crazy all week long! We love you, Dorothy!!!!

This whole dining hall idea is definitely camping on a wussier level, but in our defense the girls did have to cook a couple of things on the fire so they did learn some skills. And since the critters here are extremely brazen, we couldn’t have food at our campsites, anyway.

4. LOTS of activities: I remember having a lot of free time at camp, and I actually loved that and have some great memories of plants and animals observed while wandering around in the wilderness. However, there are dangers out there and also, teenaged girls are teenaged girls and they can get into trouble unsupervised. I remember one incidence when I was 12 involving a very scary fire in the woods where a fire had no business being started. I’ll say no more, but I will just reiterate that busy girls are girls who are not getting into mischief!

5: The Waterfront: There was a pond, of sorts, where I went to camp as a girl, but we weren’t allowed to swim in it. The most we could do was canoeing. That was fun, but the waterfront at our camp went quite far beyond what was available when I was a girl. Again, the waterfront was staffed by volunteer members from the Rhode Island/Connecticut area. They had to give a swim test to everyone in camp before they could swim out into the deep area of the lake. They were also available to teach girls how to swim, canoe, kayak, and row. They also served as lifeguards. I have two girls who could not swim when they arrived and by the last day they had learned the basics and had made real improvement.
At the end of the week the girls (and I!) were totally exhausted and they slept the whole ride home in the car. And apart from a few minor issues the girls came through unscathed. They did such a great job and I am very proud of them! I loved sharing the experience with them and can’t wait for next year, although I may have to be reminded that I said that next summer!

Better Late Than Never

2010-08-02T18:23:00.001-05:00

A long, loonng time ago I sent out a plea to my friends to help me with my Nothing Wall. Well, here it is, a year and a half later and only now have we finally hung something on the wall. Behold as I hang my head in shame.

We wanted to take the advice of all the people who said we should put up something meaningful to us. And there were some great ideas, so we wanted to explore the options. We already have a lot of photos, so we looked all over for paintings or other artwork that we both like, and that would be large enough for the NW. We did not find anything, although we did not give up hope and kept searching. We went to Spain this summer and I was really hoping to find a nice print or watercolor of La Palma, but no such luck. Maybe next time. The point of all of this is, I just cannot decide what I want. Anyway, it has been a year and a half. I mean, come on. Once we got back from Spain we decided we had to do something with the wall. We went to look around at various stores and found some okay things but not anything we loved. Then JC said we should go to Pier 1, which is his favorite store. (I know, I am a lucky woman.)

Of course we went nuts the second we enter the store, but I kept the goal in mind!!! Towards the back and hidden behind a shelf I saw these:

Juan Carlos took one look and that was it, there was to be no considering of anything else. I thought they were pretty and since I didn’t have any better ideas that were actually feasible, we went for it. We have lamps that share a similar pattern so it worked out pretty well.

A few months ago we dog-sat for a friend of mine in the Tanglewood Festival Chorus while she went on a trip to China. She brought us back this lovely hanging tapestry/watercolor:

We loved it, but our lives being what they are I stuck it on a shelf and forgot about it until today. Once we got the wrought-iron frames on the wall the empty space on the right hand side really jumped out at us. Juan Carlos happened to see the box for the tapestry on the shelf and asked “Why don’t we hang up this Chinese thing, it’s very nice!” So we did. And it is. One day we might frame it, but for now we left it just as it is.

It’s not what I had in mind, but Juan Carlos likes it and I think it’s pretty nice, too. Now, I offered a prize for anyone who gave me an idea that I ended up using, and one of you DID happen to mention a tapestry. So Kelly, check your email for your prize!!!!

Thank you everyone who gave me ideas. If I need advice or ideas in the future, I know who to ask!

Sea Struck-La Cueva Bonita

2010-07-18T10:26:00.001-05:00

You would think that having a husband who was raised on an island would mean that when we visit said island some water time would be forthcoming. We have visited the beach a couple of times but really that has been it. We have been running around visiting family members and also visiting friends and their family members, so there hasn’t been as much beach time as I had hoped for. Last week, however, we got the chance to go out on a boat for a trip to a grotto that can only be reached by sea. About four months ago our friend Pedro came to visit us in Rhode Island and we had a great time with him. His brother Ricardo has a scuba diving business in La Palma and Pedro arranged for him to take us out to visit the cave.

I am a pretty strong swimmer and I love swimming, but I am extremely afraid of deep water and scuba diving holds zero attraction for me. This is also why I have never been out on a boat in the ocean, apart from a short day trip on Prince William Sound in Alaska, and that was like being on a lake. So when Pedro offered to take us out on his brother’s boat I thought we were talking about, you know, a boat. Well, it turns out it was a Zodiac, which looks to me like a glorified blow-up raft with a motor. I was skeptical; this is the Atlantic we are talking about, after all. But it turned out to be completely up to the task. Some pictures of trip and the cave:

After we went by the cave Ricardo took us to see Pirate’s Bay, where these dwellings are built into the side of the cliff. There is a gorgeous pool here and someone has actually run electricity down from the top of the cliffs above. Talk about an exclusive community, only reachable by sea!

On our way back Ricardo told us we would have to wait a minute because he had to run an errand on the way back. It turns out that his family keeps wine in a cave under the ocean! Apparently the water pressure and the darkness speed up the aging process of the wine. Who knew? So he strapped on his diving gear and disappeared for about 10 minutes. When he came back he started handing bottles of wine up to us on the boat. As non-wine drinkers we thought this hilarious, but also very cool.

On the way back we passed the entrance to the Caldera del Taburiente, which forms the northern part of the island of La Palma. When this volcano collapsed, it must have been quite a show, although I am not sad that I was not there to see it!

On our way back we were going pretty fast and it really felt like we were flying, albeit a bit bumpily! For about fifteen minutes I forgot about everyone and everything and enjoyed the sun and the wind and the water. Now I understand how the ocean can hypnotize you. It was also a huge relief to know that I don’t get seasick, at least for the couple of hours I was out there.

First step, boat trip, next step scuba-diving?

Hm, maybe next year.

Almost A Goal

2010-07-14T10:45:00.000-05:00

Being in Spain for the World Cup has been quite an experience! Fortunately for me, Spain won. You may have seen the reactions of the Spanish people on the news; and people were no less excited here. Unfortunately when Spain scored their winning goal I was not filming, as I was jumping up and down screaming with everyone else. However, the Spanish team almost scored many goals during the course of the game. Here is one "almost goal".

Happiness

2010-07-12T05:25:00.000-05:00

Need I say more?

Green Things Growing

2010-06-20T19:45:00.001-05:00

For people who are planning to be away for a large part of the summer, we sure did plant a lot of stuff.

We planted a lot less this year, but still more than we will be around to use. We planted one tomato plant, one zucchini plant (it’s turning out to be a gorgeous green and yellow striped variety, we love it and are jealous that we will not be eating it) and one pepper plant. We also tried an experiment and planted some potatoes to see if they would grow. Well, they are growing! My friend Evie is taking care of our plot for us and so will reap the culinary benefits. It will be interesting to see what things look like when we get back a month from now. Since we have our garden plot at the Wheeler community garden, we also planted these purple and gold flowers in honor of Wheeler. I took this picture with my phone so it’s not great, but you get the idea.

It would have been a perfect day if Luna had not decided to run off into the trees and find some other animal’s dung to roll all around in! She came out of the woods completely covered in orange poop. Disgusting creature! I had to go up the hill to the caretaker’s house and ask for some soap to give her a bath before she could get in the car to come home. Then of course when we got home JC had to give her another bath, ‘cause that’s just how he is.

Hopefully in the next month I will have much more fun (and less scatological) things to post about!

The Seven-Year Stitch

2010-06-01T19:34:00.002-05:00

In 2003 I began a needlework project that was meant to be a gift for my mother-in-law. It was the most difficult project I had undertaken to date because instead of using cross-stitch fabric I went ahead and used linen, so that I had to count the threads that are woven into the fabric to figure out where each stitch square was supposed to be. It is a lot harder to do this way, but it looks so much prettier than when you do it on cross-stitch fabric that has the holes woven into it. Next time you have a linen shirt on look closely at it and try to count the threads and you will see what I mean. Anyway, it took me awhile to get the hang of it, but I liked how it was turning out. Enter Master’s degree, full-time job, moving to the Northeast, finding and settling into two different teaching positions, and buying our first home. This poor project fell by the wayside many times. Every now and then I would pull it out and go crazy for a few days only to have to put it away for another year (or two L)
Anyway, this year I have been working a little more diligently on it and finally a couple of weeks ago I realized that it was really almost done except for some backstitching. So I finally finished that up during the slumber party I had at my house with the Young Women of my church the other night. And here we are, voilà!

Now I just have to get it washed, ironed, and framed. I was looking through some books to see what I should start on next…I’m definitely crazy. Maybe I’ll see you in another seven years!

Show Me The Music

2010-05-22T16:10:00.001-05:00

This year we are going to be traveling for most of the summer so I thought that I might not get to do as much singing out at Tanglewood as I had hoped. Was I ever wrong! I was assigned to 4 concerts, two of which I had to opt out because we will be in Spain visiting Juan Carlos’ family. However, there will be no shortage of music memorizing this summer! I have until August 20th to memorize the following:

Beethoven’s 9th Symphony (Thank heavens I did this last year so it will be just brush up work!)

Poulenc: Gloria

Bach: Jesu, Meine Freude

Holst: The Planets

When I first got the music I was not feeling too happy because I opened up and saw Jesu, Meine Freude, and the German made me have a few moments of panic…not again!!!!!

Well, I learned my lesson with the Mendelssohn earlier this year—I need to start memorizing and start memorizing NOW.

Next, the Poulenc Gloria. Now isn’t this beautiful?

Ah, Latin. Lovely, simply pronounced, intelligible Latin. How do I love thee? So very much! It’s about 60 pages long, but what is 60 pages of Latin after 200 pages of German?

And THEN………….

Holst: The Planets

Your eyes do not deceive you! There are NO WORDS!!! Now this is my kind of piece! Plus we only sing about five minute’s worth of music, so I am feeling considerably better.

But still, I have 28 pages of German to memorize. And 28 pages of German is 28 pages of German!!!

Here we go again…

Things I Don't Blog About

2010-05-15T13:47:00.001-05:00

This blog is primarily a journal keeping tactic for me. I have always been awful about keeping journals. I just can't think of anything interesting to write about. That must mean that my life is very boring! Anyway, it all started with the first journal that my mom bought me, where I wrote some of the most inane things ever to cross a human's mind. When you get older you think you remember what it was like to be a kid and how you felt about things. Well based on my journal that is a total delusion. It is enough sometimes to make me wonder if that was really me. I kept a journal very sporadically throughout my youth, (i.e., hardly at all) so there is not much for me to look back over and remember about myself. And I have come to the following conclusion:
I am glad I didn't write much down.

I read it all now and my primary thoughts are either about what a brat I was or how embarrassed I am because obviously I have always been a total moron. This always makes me feel like I must still be a total moron, because it is still me, right? Some examples:

I wrote detailed explanations of daily events when I was little, including all of my siblings bodily functions.
I wrote about the bugs that I found in the garden and in the window wells. There is even a picture of one insect that I attempted to draw, although I am not sure anyone living could identify it as such.
I wrote quite a lot about boys. I accept that this is normal, but what a waste of a lot of time, paper and ink. Now there were some very nice boys, don't get me wrong. But there were a lot who simply weren't.
I wrote about how much my mom hated me, and how much I hated my older sister. (whom I do not hate one bit, actually)
I wrote a lot about singing--singing with friends, with school groups, with church groups, problems with singing...hm, could I have been a bigger nerd?

There was only one time where I kept a journal reliably, and that was while I was a missionary for my church in France. I was 21 and pretty clueless about things, I have to say. I met a lot of very different people and I wrote about my reactions to them and about living in a place so extremely different from the one I where I grew up. I also had some angry journal entries. I don't get angry very often, but I got pretty angry in those journal pages and it makes me sad to think about it now. I got angry over stupid things.

None of this inspires me to be a better journal keeper; in fact, I never want ANYONE reading what I wrote in those journals. But since blogging has been as close as I have come, I am trying to keep it up. But some things are off limits.

Bodily functions-nobody needs to know, and I don't want to remember. I departed from this one a couple of months ago with my sister's foot injury. What can I say, the morbid fascination was too much for me. Sorry.
Complicated family relationships. They are private and no one needs to know about it but me and them.
Our childless state. Trust me, it gets talked about all the time, I certainly don't want to write about it.
Anger. Anger just does not work for me, and it's never worth the embarrassment you feel when you go back and read what you wrote when you were angry. (Although anger does get teenagers to move their backpacks out of the walkway very quickly.)
My body shape and size. I am what I am. Nobody needs to hear about it; not even I want to hear about it most of the time.
Work frustrations. Everyone has work frustrations. But they are almost always temporary and it's better to remember that you yourself may be someone's work frustration, so don't write about it for anyone else to read about. Would you want to be written about that way? Besides, it's hard for me to be happy if I am knowingly causing discomfort to someone else. (The exception being giving homework and tests. Discomfort? Yes. Cruelty? No.)

Some people have argued with me that it's good to see where you came from so that you can measure your growth. Maybe one day I will be able to look at it like that. That's probably a much healthier angle. So maybe. But not yet!

School Colors

2010-05-04T11:21:00.001-05:00

Every year I make a graduation card for my seniors. Since I teach AP Spanish I almost always have at least one class of seniors, so for the last four years I have kept up the tradition. I don’t have a lot of graduation paraphernalia, so they almost always look something like this:

Our school colors are purple and gold, and while it’s very festive, it has never been a favorite combination of mine. In the past I have used a paler yellow and hoped everyone would just imagine that it was gold. However, this year I ran out of the pale yellow and the only thing I had was, incidentally, the actual gold that is one of our school colors. So that’s how it went down, although I have to say I am not a fan of how they turned out this year.

School colors are fascinating to me. In junior high and high school my school colors were maroon and gold. Very unattractive--and if you ever saw us in PE class with our gold shirts and maroon shorts you would understand why. I hope you never did. Maroon and gold tend to be very popular with schools. Why, I ask you?

Some schools manage to get school colors right. BYU had the classic combination of blue and white. Now blue and white is nice. It is classic. Blue and white does not cause retinal damage when you look at it. The first school I taught at also had school colors of blue and white. And I might add that any shade of blue goes well with white and looks very nice.

The two Catholic schools where I taught both had school colors of green and gold. I also got my master’s degree from a school whose colors were green and gold. Okay, not fabulous, but at least a combination that you do see in nature, and again, very traditional colors. And green and gold makes a very nice graduation card!

So, I conclude:

It it is fun to dress up and even paint your face in purple and gold, and since I am on the purple team, cheer for the purple team in all school events.
I like blue and white.
For crafty items (and for my optical health) I believe I will be going back to pale yellow. Sorry, gold!

Fun Stuff

2010-05-03T21:22:00.001-05:00

I am really bemoaning a good lens these days, since there are so many fun things to take pictures of. And the things always seem to be so far away!!! Why must this be?!?!

On our walk today we noticed that the swans are starting to congregate on Central Pond again:

We have actually seen some swan-on-goose fights over nesting areas. Usually there are tons more geese than swans, but not in the springtime. And swans are mean. I kid you not.

We also saw a turtle party on our walk today. I am sorry the picture is not that great but we thought it was too funny to pass up!

Hope spring is bringing fun stuff to your neck of the woods!

Can You Do This?

2010-04-30T22:23:00.001-05:00

Sorry they are a bit blurry, I was quite far away. I was still amazed, though.

I know I sure can’t! In fact, I don’t believe I ever could in my whole life, having always had disproportionately long legs. I was always jealous of flexible people. And guess what? I still am. But at least I get to take him home with me.

Dogtown

2010-04-20T19:24:00.001-05:00

We like dogs in our house. Well, condo, really. And we like big dogs. Really big dogs. Big dogs come with big requirements, though, and we have learned that the hard way. It was pretty overwhelming for us when we got Luna, and realized that we can’t just go gallivanting off whenever we feel like it. Fortunately we have wonderful friends who also have a big dog and who really like Luna, and they take care of her for us when we have to go away. Luna is big, but these guys make her look petite.

It can be a source of stress, trying to figure out what you are going to do with your dog. All this notwithstanding, we would really love to have another dog. Not realistic while living in a condo, but we can dream, right? Sometimes we do look at each other and remind ourselves what the first year with Luna was like and then we are happy to wait a little bit more. However, opportunities do come along for additional reflection.

Enter Scout:

Scout belongs to a friend of mine from the chorus who had planned a trip to China and at the last minute the person who was going to keep Scout backed out. So she put out an APB for someone who could keep her for them. It wasn’t very nice of me, but I said we would keep her and then promptly left on a four-day school trip and left my husband alone to deal with two dogs. It’s a good thing he is amazing. Scout is a nice little thing (little=40 lbs.—it’s all relative) and we have enjoyed getting to know her. She has enjoyed going for walks:

Riding in the car: (we think it’s hilarious that she can actually fit on one seat)

And snuggling with the girls in bed. (Scout is not as picky as I am about where she rests her head!)

Some things we have noticed about having two dogs around:

1. Twice the dogs means twice the poop, hair, barking, and attention seeking behaviors.

2. An extra dog in the house throws a wrench into the dynamic. Everyone needs to be in their place and I always have to be top dog! This is hard.

3. We are having a great time. Two tails wagging is better than one---it’s a lot of happiness.

So hopefully one day we will be a two-dog family. But in the meantime, we’ll take visitors!

Dank Sei Dir Gott

2010-04-07T14:34:00.003-05:00

A few months ago I posted that I would be memorizing 204 pages of German fabulousness in three months. I have to say, this has got to be one of the hardest things I have ever done in my life. 3rd quarter is generally the time that I am the most out of my mind during the school year, and whenever I did have free time, do you think I wanted to spend it memorizing German? Definitely not. Fortunately in February we had a run through rehearsal so that we could hear what the thing sounded like in person and not on a CD. Helpful, but still, one run through? Puuuuhhhhllleeeaaase.
So the middle of March rolled around and I only had about 1/2 the thing memorized. Amidst major panic I started asking around and sure enough the rest of the chorus was feeling overwhelmed, as well. As one person said, “no problem! I will have it memorized for sure by April 6th!” April 6th, of course, was the day AFTER our last performance. I always feel like this, that if I just had one more concert it would for sure be perfect. On the day of the first performance we were not at all solid, and John Oliver (our director) mentioned that we might just use our scores, and we all cheered. We had absolutely forgotten it was April 1st. In the next breath John said “April Fools!”
John’s jokes usually go over well, but I think our silence expressed how unfunny we thought it was.
Anyway, once you don’t have your score and your cheat sheet (this is only one side)…

…it’s surprising how much you do have memorized. That is not to say that the first night was that great. Well, it was, but there were definite scary moments and one awful moment where I came in on a major entrance with the tenors. I did it again the second night! The third night and at Carnegie Hall I finally got my act together.
Since I was in New York less than twenty four hours, I don’t have many impressions of it, other than that there are lots of tall buildings and an excess of taxis. What did strike me as crazy was going through the flooded out portion of Rhode Island on the train. Sometimes the water was actually on the tracks and we had to slow way down. These are not the best pictures, but I was, after all, on a moving train.

The concert at Carnegie was great, what a gorgeous place! While there were a few scary moments due to the really loud organ right behind us that we weren’t expecting, it was a very cool experience. Some people were starting to get sick but there was no way they were skipping the concert after all that memorizing. But after four days in a row we are all pretty vocally exhausted, so perhaps it’s just as well that it was our last performance. I mentioned that we couldn’t possibly do anything more difficult than this in the chorus, and some of the other ladies just patted me on the back and told me to go on thinking that.
Our New York Times Review (can you find me in the photo?) http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/07/arts/music/07elijah.html

Joe Kohen for The New York Times

It was a marvelous experience, but I am not sorry the memorization is at an end. Now I can actually concentrate on something else, like my day job!!!!
Pages Memorized: 204
Pages to go: 0
Dank, sei dir Gott!

OK, You Got Me

2010-04-02T15:21:00.003-05:00

I love singing choral music. I loved it in my elementary school chorus, I loved it in junior high, I loved it in high school, I loved it in college, while I was doing graduate work, etc. It’s just so wonderful to make great music with other people. There is really and truly a physical high that you get when it goes really well. My feeling was who needs drugs when you have choral music? I have been pretty lucky in my choral experience, starting way back in junior high with Mr. Blackburn, who was a stickler for discipline but an absolute genius for teaching not only music but musicality and technique. In high school I worked with a director who taught me what great choral music sounds like and it was in his classes that my addiction for the “good stuff’ in choral works began. Sometimes this nerdy passion of mine did get a little over the top, like scheduling all my classes in college so that they wouldn’t interfere with choir, even though normal classes only met three times a week and I had to go to choir every single day.

I am not a great singer and I never will be. But I am good enough for choirs and I am grateful for that because I never get tired of choral singing and it always makes me happy (even if temporarily I have breakdowns because of memorization pitfalls). This past year has been a great year musically. I joined the Tanglewood Festival Chorus last summer and have done a few concerts with them and with the Boston Symphony. From the first time I sang with them (Beethoven’s 9th) out at Tanglewood, I could barely contain my joy. The music is just so incredible, and every time I hear the Boston Symphony play I am astounded by their skill and I do a yay dance inside (and sometimes outside, too, it’s just what it does to me).
Many people know I have not been extremely thrilled about living in the Northeast. My first few years here were pretty hard. If it hadn't been for my husband and a truly wonderful place to work it would have been a lot harder. A couple of weeks ago I was talking with some friends who just got a teaching job at BYU and so are moving back to Utah. I admit that for a couple of minutes I was a little bit jealous, not because of Utah per se, although I do love Utah, but because family is there and there is a lot of opportunity for great music-making.

Then the following thought popped into my head:
“Wait. If I leave this area it means no more singing with the Boston Symphony.” And then I thought “There is NO WAY I am leaving this area!”

So it wasn’t the allure of the East Coast that has made this home. It certainly isn’t the best place to live economically speaking. The community where I live has taken some getting used to. I will say that Rhode Islanders are very nice once you get to know them. There are lots of reasons why I have felt that this was a temporary exile for a few years, which I won’t go into here.
But now it IS home, because my husband, my dog, my great job, and my music are here. Never underestimate the music.

boston.com
(of course I am on the back row so I am not in the photo, but two of the most amazing female vocalists I have EVER heard are and so is Rafael Frubeck de Burgos, whom I adore. Christine Brewer, soprano and Stephanie Blythe, mezzo)
http://www.boston.com/ae/music/articles/2010/04/02/mendelssohns_elijah_makes_rare_showing_at_symphony_hall/

How was YOUR Spring Break?

2010-03-24T07:58:00.001-05:00

One fun part of mine was spending the day at CCRI with my school’s Academic Decathlon team. We were there last week for an all-day competition that involves a bunch of kids taking 7 different objective tests centered around the main topic of the French Revolution and also competing in Speech, Interview and Impromptu competitions. It does take a special kind of kid to think this is fun, but it really is. Next year we will be studying the Great Depression. An interesting topic, considering the times, wouldn’t you say?

Newport and An Operation

2010-03-19T13:03:00.001-05:00

My sister Sue came for a visit this week, and yesterday we went to Newport and walked a big section of the Cliffwalk. The day was beautiful and sunny, which made us very happy because it has been raining non-stop for about a week. It was still windy enough for a jacket, though.

Now, aren’t these in-laws cute?

No seashell top and no fins, but Sue definitely wishes she could be part of this world (and has better hair than Ariel, too!)

Of course, what is a post without a sexy Spaniard pose?

Hm, less sexy, but definitely more romantic!!!

DO NOT PROCEED IF YOU HAVE JUST EATEN OR ARE ABOUT TO EAT. OR IF YOU DON’T LIKE GRUESOME SIGHTS.

Some of you know that Sue smashed her toe with the leaf of her table last week. It has been terribly painful for her and when she arrived she had to wear a special boot because it hurt to wear shoes. It was really bothering her, so Juan Carlos, with all his practical medical knowledge, told her she needed to stick herself and let all the blood that was built up under the nail get out and she would feel better. So she did that and some came out and it felt much better!!!!! Unfortunately, she REALLY smashed her toe and there was part of it that she couldn’t get to under the toenail. So JC said he knew how to take care of that. What you do is you heat up a needle or a pin and then burn through the nail and make a hole and then the blood can get out. I was writhing in horror just thinking about this, but apparently not letting it out is super painful so Sue was willing to give it a try. So here is the procedure!

Heating the pin:

Sue had to look away, but she said it really just felt like when you get pricked for a blood test, so not that bad. Luna was very interested in the whole thing. Once the hole was made all the stuff that shouldn’t have been in there came on out and her toe felt better. And she got to wear shoes on both feet today! Juan Carlos is definitely a handy guy to have around, but you can bet I am going to be careful what I drop on my feet!

Sue went home today and I am sorry to see her go but I am sure her kids, husband and relatives can’t wait for her to get back!!!! Anyone else up for a trip to Rhode Island? I can’t guarantee an operation by Juan Carlos, but I promise it would still be fun.

GARI: Blackstone River Bikeway Day 3

2010-03-06T20:19:00.001-05:00

Today it was 50 degrees outside. Definite cause for joy and jubilation. So of course we got out into it! Today we finished the northernmost section of the Blackstone River Bikeway up into Woonsocket, RI (about 9 miles round trip). For those of you to whom that means nothing, here is the general area:

It was a super gorgeous day, so we weren’t the only ones out enjoying the sunshine!

This part of the trail goes through Cumberland and Woonsocket, and there are a couple of dams along the river. This is the Manville Dam:

All that water is pretty impressive! You can see that spring has not gotten a firm foothold here yet, but it is on it’s way. There is a little bit of green starting to show!

We got to this marker and we knew that the trail ended at 17 miles but there was a bit more pavement further along—we just kept on going until we reached the end of the road.

On our way back we stopped at a local park and had our lunch. It was nice to sit a while in the sunshine and eat JC’s killer chicken salad (although it must be said that anything JC makes is generally killer):

Replenished and refreshed, we made our way back down to Cumberland and headed home. It was a beautiful day and we can’t wait to finish up this bikeway! The only stretch we have left is from Lincoln down to the end, which, incidentally, is in downtown Pawtucket, where we live. So we don’t even have to drive anywhere for that one, we can just hike up and then right back to our house. How cool is that?

Till next time!!!

Rehearsal Partner

2010-02-28T18:09:00.001-05:00

Now wouldn’t this be helpful to anyone slogging through a bunch of German?

She also lets me know when the caterwauling gets to be too much! Better get back to it.

Truly Pathetic

2010-02-26T22:37:00.001-05:00

This morning I was in a panic because I knew I needed to be at work by 7:30am. I knew it was terribly important, but I could not for the life of me remember why. I knew I had to return the field trip bag from the day before so I did that when I first got in, but I was convinced there was something vital that I was forgetting. I thought maybe I had set up a review for a quiz I was giving that day, or maybe a meeting with a student or an advisee. So I got to school and went to the office to pick up some forms for my AP class and the dean of students came out of the principal’s office and said “ Hey! Glad you could make it!, We’ve just gotten started!” I arrived just in time for a major appointment with school administration. Was it on my calendar? Yes. For some reason, though, it didn’t show up on my Outlook when I checked it in the morning. How could I not remember that? I had been thinking about it all week! What on earth is the matter with me?!?!!?

It continues…

For the last two days I have been searching for my work keys. I have a filing cabinet I can’t get into unless I have them. I have gone through every pocket that I have. I have torn apart my desk. I have gone through every drawer and closet in the house. It looked like I was going to have to send out a memo to the whole school asking if anyone had seen my keys.

Well, after this crazy week we came home to take care of some much needed catch-up chores. We were working in the kitchen and JC was putting some dishes in the dishwasher and all of a sudden he said “Guess where your work keys are?”

Here is where they were (no judging, please!):

Now I am going to sleep for 12 hours and then see if I can put myself back together.

Use Your Imagination

2010-02-24T22:31:00.002-05:00

It has not been a good couple of weeks for me physically. Normally February is crazy and this year is no exception. There is so much to get done that I sometimes get into task completion mode and don’t pay attention to what I am doing. That is a bad thing for my body. Here are the top 3 maimings of the last two weeks: (I do have pictures of all of this but will spare you—just imagine what it looks like)
#1. One of my students left a backpack in the doorway of my classroom. Of course I came through the door at top speed and said “¡Buenos días!” like I do every day, promptly tripped over the backpack and fell flat on my face after throwing my computer across the room. I now have green and purple knees and a cracked computer casing. But for once my Spanish 2 class was speechless! You probably would have been, too.
#2. One thing we dream about is having a house with enough closet space. We keep a lot of stuff in the closet, so it gets complicated when we have to dig under some things to get at other things. Our closets have textured plaster walls. I was after something last week and was in a hurry as usual, and as I pulled what I needed out from the bottom of the closet I lost my balance. I didn’t let go of the box I had grabbed (it took me too long to find it!) but it did scrape along the textured wall and so did the knuckles of my right hand, hard enough to leave some of my hand behind on the wall. Owwwwwwwww.
#3. Pedro went back to Spain last Sunday, and I rushed home from church to get lunch ready so he and JC could eat before they headed out to the airport. I was cutting bread with vim and vigor, not paying enough attention, and managed to cut the middle finger of my left hand with the serrated bread knife. And of course there was not a Band-Aid to be found in the house, since we don’t even have time to go to the store, so we were trying to bandage it with tape and toilet paper. (We did eventually find a Band-Aid in the first aid kit in the car)
Honorable Mentions:
Playing with Luna and getting smacked in the face by her occipital bone. Tripping over Luna on the stairs and twisting my ankle. Burning myself on the steam from the casserole dish in the oven.

4 more days of February to get through. Hopefully I will live to post again.

Boys in Boston

2010-02-21T23:05:00.002-05:00

Yesterday we went to Boston to see the sights and go to the New England Aquarium. We drove to Forest Hills and took the subway in, just because when we drive in trauma usually ensues. Besides, riding the subway is fun. Most of the time. Here you can see Pedro and Juan Carlos at the wharf in Boston Harbor, just outside the aquarium, and also by the Custom House clock tower.

We had to wait in a really long line to get into the aquarium and the place was packed. I guess we weren’t the only ones that thought the aquarium was a good idea! Here are some pics of the beautiful animal life at the aquarium. The first couple of pictures are of the Leafy Seadragon, which we were suprised to learn was not a piece of floating seaweed. Unbelieveably cool.

Of course they were obsessed with the piranhas—boys will be boys! (Although I did also find them quite fascinating myself) The seahorses are in the next picture, Can you find them? They camouflage very well!

These Rockhopper penguins were feeling a little warm so they were standing (or sleeping) in front of a fan. In February. Well, I guess if you are a penguin it makes sense.

Here we are outside the Quincy Market and Faneuil Hall. We went to see the Great Hall but it was closed for maintenance! Wouldn’t you know!

And of course Pedro couldn’t go home without the obligatory photo with Norm!

It was great to have Pedro visit and great for JC to spend some time with one of his oldest friends. It also got us through another week of February. Only one left! We are actually feeling much better because the sun is out until about 5:30 now and we can walk and run outside again. It makes a difference, but we are going to be glad to see March arrive.
Next time I will be posting about all the ways I have maimed myself in the past week. Yes, maimed. Just in case you think I am too negative about February.
Till next time!

February

2010-02-16T11:52:00.000-05:00

We have had a very cold month so far but we have tried to get outside and not be big wimps. This week one of Juan Carlos' friends from Spain is here visiting so we have been out and about. Yesterday we went to the outlet malls and his friend went crazy because he couldn't believe how much cheaper things were here:

He got lots of stuff, and we got a few things, too. (Come on, you can't go to the outlet malls and come away empty handed!) That afternoon we went for a walk in Slater Park. Do we look cold enough? In this picture, JC and Pedro are both wearing the exact same jacket that they got at the Nautica outlet, but they are reversible so it can be either blue or red. Both of them thought this was the most amazing thing ever.

Yesterday we went to Newport. There are only four of the Newport mansions open in the wintertime, so we went and saw the Breakers. I have been pestering JC since we moved here to go see the mansions and he never would, but once he saw it he said he didn't realize how amazing they were, he thought they were some nice bigger houses and that was it. We had a good laugh about that!

From the Breakers we got Luna out of the car and took the Cliff Walk back to Easton Beach on Memorial Boulevard. Luna ran around like crazy and had a moment of confusion when she couldn't drink the water. (It doesn't matter how many times we go to the ocean, she still tries to drink the water!)
We headed back to the car on the Cliff Walk and look what we saw:

Some people from Portsmouth were walking their Berners so we said hello. You can't tell from the picture but these two boys were gigantic and very muscular. Luna looked like a puppy next to them. They were gorgeous. People walking by us were laughing and stopping to pet the dogs and one lady said she didn't expect to see such a sideshow. One Berner is a conversation starter anytime, but three is a circus!

Today I am having some work friends over and Juan Carlos and Pedro are making a paella. The flan is already in the refrigerator, mmmmmm, can't wait! It has been fun to listen to the boys talk about when they were in college together and I am learning all sorts of things about which alcoholic drinks make you the most drunk! Apparently college back then was not appreciably different than college now. I guess you never know when that information might come in handy!

15 days of February down, 13 to go!

Not The Most Wonderful Time Of The Year

2010-01-31T20:43:00.001-05:00

January and February have always been, for me, the time of year where I get a bit down. This is probably due to the fact that the festivities of the holidays are over, and that there is still a long stretch of winter ahead of me before spring arrives. But then, wintertime is probably my second favorite season after fall, so why do I hate January and February so much? Especially February. I can’t think of any childhood trauma that is linked to this, and the sun is staying up longer every day, so it’s not seasonal affective disorder, either. Maybe it’s because it’s around this time of year that I reflect on my life and see how much I have not achieved as yet another year has ended. Perhaps it’s because I look ahead to the year and become overwhelmed with all the things that I am going to have to do. Anyway, this manifests itself in my being moody, introverted, and totally pessimistic in my attitude about everything. It’s hard to fight, and I am sure JC finds it less than amusing to live with, but sweetheart that he is, he never says anything and lets me have my bad mood. Whatever the reason, it just happens, so it will be a few more weeks before I start to feel cheerful again. In the meantime I try to focus on the positive things in my life.

#1: It’s cold. Positive, you ask? Well, yes, I like the cold weather, as long as I have a good coat and good socks and boots. There’s just something that makes me feel alive and happy about being outside in the cold. And no, I do not feel happy when it’s hot outside. Yuck. We have been spending quite a bit of time outdoors this winter and there are some fascinating sights. Yesterday on our walk with Luna we went to a favorite place of ours, Lincoln Woods State Park. This week it has been colder than normal, so we haven’t been as happy about it as we usually are:

It was so cold that the lake was totally frozen over. There were quite a few skaters and ice fishermen out there, but we did not venture onto the ice ourselves. The area where we live is weird in that we don’t get much snow, but we get lots of ice and cold, spitting storms. I had to pull out my storm trooper mask so my face wouldn’t freeze:

And JC busted out the full on winter parka. Luna is probably the only one of us that was happy about the temperature:

#2: The Young Women of my church had an activity yesterday where they started taking lessons on how to use a sewing machine.

Look at that great old machine! The girls did well and learned how to sew their first straight line—something that I still have a hard time with after all these years! They were so proud and now they can’t wait until the next lesson. It was great fun.

I am still working hard at bringing cheer into the season—I’ve still got all of February to get through! Until then, my snarly self is ascendant.

GARI: Ten Mile River Greenway: Day 1

2010-01-27T19:15:00.001-05:00

The sun is still going down pretty early for us, so mostly our walking/running has to happen on weekends. There is, however a small stretch of bikeway in Slater Park in Pawtucket. It is pretty close to where we live so yesterday we thought we could cover a 3-mile stretch that goes through the park before dark. We had a bit of a storm on Monday and it got rid of most of the snow and ice, but we are still definitely in the grip of winter. The Ten Mile River runs through Pawtucket and East Providence and, incidentally, follows the railroad tracks. This has been true of every trail we have been on so far, so I think we will find lots of connections between the Greenways and former or present-day railway lines.

So here we are:

It is pretty cold these days but we saw a huge amount of waterfowl on this walk, and it doesn't seem to bother them! Luna might have had a feast if she had not been leashed! Usually we see vast numbers of Canadian geese and we did see some but we saw mostly ducks and swans. Swans are not friendly creatures, as we learned on our walk last week, so we did not get close enough for photos. At this point it was starting to get dark so the images did not come out as well:

These two photos are taken going south on the pathway with Central Pond on the left. In the wintertime you can actually see a lot more of the pond than you can in spring and summer when the trees all have their leaves on.

A little information about the area:

We have always liked the Rumford area because it is out of the main area of East Providence and out of Pawtucket but not quite in the country. There is still quite a factory presence here, and though you are 10 minutes from the capital city, it still feels like a small town.

We actually don't know where the rest of the Ten Mile Greenway is, and it might be that we just have to follow the river wherever it goes. It has always been a mystery to us, but we will put our investigative powers to work--we know it is out there to be found!

GARI: Blackstone River Bike Path Day 2

2010-01-23T20:18:00.004-05:00

Today we hiked   a 4.5 mile section of the Blackstone River Bike Path. Well, walked really, hiking infers some kind of incline and there wasn’t much of that.We started in Lincoln at the Blackstone River State Park and went up just past the Albion dam in Cumberland. We took shameless advantage of Luna and made her carry all her own water, since we had to carry our own!

It was a lovely day, although a bit colder than last week. Some parts of the river are frozen over, but other parts run too quickly to freeze. We passed some interesting places on the way. First, the Martin Street Bridge in Lincoln. Hmmmm, how appropriate!

Continuing on down the trail, we passed this gigantic mill-looking building next to a gigantic bridge.

The mills around here are usually pretty run down and abandoned-looking so this one made us wonder what was going on, since none of the windows were smashed and it looked like it had been kept-up. We soon found out why:

After reading the sign we looked across the river at the mill again and sure enough there were some people hanging out behind the giant mill with their dogs. I don’t know if I would ever want to live in a former mill, but I bet the view from the windows is spectacular.
Across the river from the mill is the Kelly House Museum, which is dedicated to the different types of transportation used along the Blackstone river. Pawtucket, RI, where I live, is called the birthplace of the American Industrial Revolution. So there are a lot of old mills and factories in the area. This museum talks about what part the Blackstone Canal, the railroad and the highway system played in the industrial history of the Blackstone River Valley.


You can see how it might be difficult to transport anything on the canal in the wintertime. Anyway, at this point we crossed into Cumberland, on the other side of the river.

The path got a bit more rural here, and we got to see some of the local residents.

We finally made it to the dam, but it was a bit anticlimactic, after all the signs we had seen. We weren’t actually sure this was the place so we kept on going for awhile until a lady told us we had passed it awhile back. So now we know.

After our discovery it was time to have our lunch and head back. We wanted to get back before dark and it gets dark early here so by 2:45 we wanted to be on our way, since we had to get all the way back to the trailhead. I don’t think chicken salad sandwiches ever tasted so good! We did note, however, that next time a thermos of soup or something warm might be a bit more appropriate, since our hands were frozen solid after peeling oranges.

Luna was pretty hungry as well, working dogs need their strength! Oranges and bananas are her favorite and she got a little bit of both today. (Someone’s daddy is a big softie)

We made pretty good time back to the car and were able to get out of the park by 4, and the sun was still up. It was starting to get colder, though, so we are glad we made it.


Of course we needed some water after all that—although we did ruin the moment a bit by starting the car to get it warmed up. Luna kept sniffing the air wondering what the stinky stuff coming out of the exhaust pipe and into her face was. Poor dog!


We moved her bowl so she could drink unpollutedly, and all was well.
We still have about 9 miles to go to finish the route up to the Massachusetts border. We are all very tired tonight and will probably get a very good night’s sleep!!!! Till next time!

Elijah

2010-01-18T14:42:00.002-05:00

This week my score for Elijah came in the mail. The Tabernacle Choir sang selections from Elijah regularly, so I am not starting completely from scratch on this one. The symphony is doing this concert Easter weekend, and lest you think that three months is plenty of time to learn a piece of this size, let me just add that we are doing it memorized, and in German.

Now, in general I think languages are good, and have made a career of teaching them. But German has always stymied me. Memorizing Beethoven’s 9th last summer was excruciating , and I only succeeded in memorizing it with about a thousand circuits of Lincoln Woods and my Ipod. Elijah is four times as long. Couldn’t we do something in Latin or Italian or something? At least then you can tell what it’s talking about and that helps solidify the word memorization. With German it’s just gibberish, lovely though it may be.
We are doing three performances of Elijah (or I guess I should say Elias, let’s just begin the torture now) in Symphony Hall and one in Carnegie Hall. I have never sung there before and have never actually been to New York City, so it is exciting. It petrifies me, though, that I might get there and totally flub the German on stage in Carnegie Hall!!! I suppose there are worse things, but that one is one of my worst nightmares. Potential embarrassment is a HUGE motivator for me, so it’s time to get to work.
Pages of German memorized: 0
Pages to go: 204
Ich muss helfen.

GARI: Blackstone River Bike Path: Day 1

2010-01-16T17:58:00.005-05:00

Today we began our 2010 resolution to hike/run all of the trails (or at least as many as we can) of the Greenways Alliance of Rhode Island. It was a gorgeous day today, around 40 degrees. (Yes, 40 degrees IS gorgeous, when the norm is 20.) Some hold-over ice on the ground from a storm a few weeks ago has made hiking a little treacherous, but most of it had melted by this afternoon.

The Blackstone River Bike Path is currently under construction and the plan is for the trail to run from Providence all the way up to the Massachusetts border. There are about 7-10 miles of trail complete at this time, and today we kept to the area around Lincoln and Cumberland, RI. This is the Blackstone River:

The river has a pretty fascinating history and was an integral part of Rhode Island’s industrial economy. More about that will be forthcoming! It was surprising that we have lived in Rhode Island for 3 years and never knew this was here. Luna in particular was thrilled about the discovery, since it provides more opportunities for walks!

One interesting thing that we noticed was that this trail runs right through an urban area—right around that bend in the road lies one of Cumberland’s main streets, complete with shopping center, gas stations and a McDonalds. At least we won’t go hungry on this trail! Luna was enthralled with the river, as she is with any body of water. She jumped right in—not something we would do even if it is forty degrees outside. She also ran through a patch of cockleburrs so we had to have a bit of an extraction process at the end of it all.

You can see some old factory and other outbuildings in the background on the other side of the river. The stone steps we are standing on may have had some purpose way back when or maybe an enterprising fisherman just liked the spot and decided to make things easier for himself. Just one of those things we want to find out about now!

We met quite a few other people who were eager to get outside after the cold weather we have been having. When we moved here from North Carolina we thought Rhode Islanders were a little bit unfriendly (who ISN’T unfriendly compared to Carolinians?), but all you have to do is get a big, goofy dog and go to where other people go to walk or run. Then people never stop talking to you.

Next time we are going to follow the river north through Lincoln up to the Albion Dam. That one is going to be more of a day hike, our first big one of the year. Hopefully the snow will be all melted by that point, but this is New England, so you truly never do know. Till next time!

We Love Dogs

2010-01-11T21:37:00.002-05:00

Last weekend JC and I went to visit the breeder from whom we got our girl Luna. Luna's mom just had another litter of puppies, so we decided to take the opportunity to visit 6 dogs instead of the usual three. Now, we didn't believe it until it happened to us, but never EVER take your checkbook when you are going to visit Berner babies. They are absolutely too adorable to resist. We ended up with Luna because we did not follow that rule! Fortunately it all turned out well, because we had planned on getting a dog, but we just got her a little earlier than we were ready for.

JC loves dogs. LOVES DOGS. He loves puppies, older dogs, ugly dogs, beautiful dogs. If it's canine, he loves it. He has been known to make chamomile tea for Luna when she has an upset stomach. Yes, it goes that far. He is completely in love with her and it is mutual. And I am nearly as bad. So you can imagine the fun JC had when we got to visit Luna's mom and dad and brothers and sisters. Well, see for yourself.

It's a good thing Berners like to be hugged about as much as he likes to hug them. But seriously, don't you want to take this home?

I did. Are we abnormal because we get dog hungry the way some people get baby hungry? Must be. But at least we are limiting ourselves to one until we have an actual house with an actual yard. And that will be awhile. So in the meantime, we will go dog visiting and leave that checkbook at home!

Opera IS For Everyone

2010-01-05T10:20:00.002-05:00

I wish there was publicity like this in the United States. Seriously, who wouldn't want to go see the opera after this? It brings a whole new meaning to the term "marketing".

At the end the sign they hold up says something to the effect of, "See, you like opera, don't you?"

Um, that would be YES.

Resolutions: Easy, Medium, Hard

2010-01-01T19:21:00.005-05:00

This year I had a hard time deciding what I wanted to resolve upon for the new year. It's not like I have completely fulfilled all my resolutions from last year, although I did make quite a bit of headway. I always seem to find myself needing to work on the same things all the time so I wondered if I should stop making resolutions and just do a yearly update, but I quickly realized that would take away all the fun and excitement of the beginning of a new year, so Juan Carlos and I put our heads together and decided we would come up with some new resolutions that would (directly or indirectly) tie in with all those things I am constantly working on.

Resolution #1: EASY: First, we are going to eliminate all our debt except for our mortgage. We chose this one because it will be relatively easy. We don't like debt and have worked hard to stay out of it. In fact, one of our Christmas gifts to ourselves this year was to pay off our second car. A great feeling. But we have let ourselves keep a few things out there and we feel that it is not a good time to be financially compromised. So that one will be fulfilled very, very soon.

Resolution #2: MEDIUM: I have been increasing my running a bit lately, but because of the season, most of it has been at the gym, since by the time I get home from school it is usually dark, and I don't run in the dark. I have experienced some of the nice things about treadmill running. You don't have to layer your clothing, you can control the speed and incline, and you can watch tv (or in my case my Ipod) while you run. This last has proven to be invaluable to me since I get bored really fast on the treadmill. But anyway, the winter solstice has passed and the days are getting perceptibly longer, so it's back to running outside.
My school has been developing a place-based education initiative and one of our activities was to go on a walk around Providence and see some of the waterways in the downtown Providence area. Rhode Island has been putting a lot of effort into creating bikepaths and pedestrian walkways, and they call these Greenways. There are many paths out there already and they are working on more all the time. So I checked out the map:

...and decided that I am going to run/hike all the Rhode Island Greenways this year. Some of the trails are long (75 miles), and some are not so long (1-3 miles). They include bikepaths, hiking trails, nature conservancies, and federal and stake park trails. I can't even make a guess as to how many miles that is. We have been looking at the different areas and we are getting really excited about really getting to know the parts of the state we don't know (which is a lot). This is going to probably take the whole year, but it is the resolution I am the most excited about.

Resolution #3: HARD: Juan Carlos and I both decided that we have to start sleeping at night. There is just no good reason why we aren't doing this, and it has become obvious to us that we NEED to be developing better sleeping habits. (Can we say cranky?) We are up at 6am no matter what time we go to bed. So, we are going to be in bed by 10:30pm nightly. Of course there will be exceptions but for the most part there is just no reason important enough to compromise our sleep time. And it's not like we have children or anything, although if that ever happens we will probably wish we had slept while we could! Our difficulty will be accepting that there is no reason important enough.

I am sure I will have plenty more to say about this as the year progresses. Happy New Year everyone!!!

Give Us This Day Our Yearly Bread

2009-12-28T23:53:00.000-05:00

A little over a year ago, I finally figured out how to make real bread. The kind with hard, crusty deliciousness on the outside and warm, chewy goodness on the inside. The kind you only get if you buy it from the bakery. It's not easy unless you have a special oven (as most bakeries do). It was a milestone and a cause for much rejoicing in our household, since my husband is European and misses his bread almost as much as he misses his family. Unfortunately it is very time consuming as well--one loaf of lovely bread takes about 12 hours minimum to make, and more if you really want the taste of the bread to be fully developed.

Ironically enough, JC and I decided to start restricting carbohydrates in our diet just a few months later to see if the hype about low-carbs diets is true. It is, by the way (at least for us). But oh, do we miss our bread! Anyway, we have been looking forward to Christmas because we decided we were going eat bread as one of our Christmas presents. And of course, if you only get to eat bread at Christmas, it HAS to be the good kind. So we made our Christmas bread and it was thoroughly enjoyed, if not terribly long-lived. And yes, it tasted as wonderful as we remembered. We thanked the geniuses who first took flour, water and yeast and made this fabulous creation. We sang our praises to gluten. And we ate the whole loaf in one day. Now we have to get back on the bandwagon, so we are a little depressed. However, we have decided that this will be our new yearly tradition and now look forward to that great loaf of bread that we will devour next Christmas.

Keeping Busy

2009-12-13T14:17:00.001-05:00

My dad always told us when we were feeling tired or depressed that the best thing to do was get moving and do something and that you would feel better. Of course I gave him dirty looks when I was younger and he said something like this, but he was, as usual, right. So, since JC and I are are trying to stay jolly and festive, we are doing our best to be involved in community goings-on.

This morning we ran the Christmas 10K for the Women and Infant's Hospital and although it was a little cold we thought it was worth getting out and supporting the cause!!!!! It was in Newport and it was a gorgeous run. Next time we do this we will take a small camera because we got to run for 6 miles along the coastline and it was really beautiful, even if it is wintertime!!! Afterwards we drank hot chocolate and ate the obligatory New England clam chowder, a necessary part of every New England event. I am not sure where the race coordinators get their volunteers but they had a bunch of teenaged girls screaming and cheering at different points in the race, and it was very helpful, especially on the hills! I will also say that cold water can still hit the spot, even if it is cold outside. But it's Newport, after all, so it wasn't THAT cold.
We didn't finish first, but neither did we finish last! (And yes, I was worried that we would be dead last. JC said I wouldn't have to be last because he would let me finish before him. What a sweetie!) We made it home and stretched and now I have to go get ready to do a show tonight in Boston.

Here we are, tired and sweaty but feeling very festive!!!

Now it's back to memorizing my music--my brain keeps spitting out random lyrics to holiday music, which is good when they are in order and set to the correct tune. Unfortunately they are mostly not at this point. :-)

Happy Holidays!

What I Am Doing This Holiday Season

2009-12-10T13:54:00.004-05:00

This year I am not going to Utah for Christmas. I am bummed about that because my whole family is going to be there except me. It's hard to be so far from family--I would say one of the hardest things about living on the East Coast, since everyone else is west of the Mississippi. There are several reasons why I am not going, but one of them is that this year I am doing my first run with the Boston Pops for the holiday concert series. Interestingly enough, this program will be performed 32 times. I am not sure it would be humanly possible for one chorus to do that many performances and be alive at the end of it, especially since sometimes there are 3 concerts in one day. We are split up into four teams and each team is assigned eight concerts. Mine start this Friday, but the festivities began last night with a different team, and it looks like it is going to be a fun season. Eight performances is more than I have ever done for any program anywhere, with exception to maybe the Tabernacle Choir tour. So it is looking to be a very busy season! This week I am still teaching and trying to get tests done before school lets out, running a 10k, helping cook for the ward Christmas party and doing three Pops concerts. And that is just from now until Sunday. Things will be easier once school lets out next week, but they are absolutely crazy right now. Now, as crazy as things are, I have noticed how much more festive I feel this year just being part of some kind of holiday event. After all, the holidays are all about being with people, right? Well, I am getting plenty of that, and although I may not be with my family, I am definitely appreciating the season.

Pops toast the season with glee, tradition - The Boston Globe

http://wbztv.com/video/?id=84144@wbz.dayport.com

http://www.necn.com/Boston/Arts-Entertainment/2009/12/10/Boston-Pops-prepare-to-kickoff/1260453532.html

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Stick To Your Plan

2009-12-07T12:15:00.002-05:00

I am the Academic Decathlon coach at Wheeler. (My assistant coach and I are competing to see who the biggest nerd is, which just proves that this is the right job for us to be doing.) This year our topic is The French Revolution, so this weekend I took the team to Boston to the Museum of Fine Arts to see some of the 18th century French paintings and just to go over Art fundamentals in general. It all started out well at Providence Station that morning and our train ride there was very uneventful. We arrived in Boston and had lunch at Betty's Wok and Café, which is like a 50's anglo diner but that serves Chinese/Hispanic food. We had hoped for a French restaurant, but we were on the wrong side of town. We visited the museum and saw some beautiful artwork and sculpture.

It was all working out to be a great trip. However, Evie (my assistant coach) and I noticed that on the metro map there was a closer train station than the one we had planned on using to get back. So, when we were done at the museum, we asked the museum guide how to get to the closer train station. Well, he sent us in the OPPOSITE direction from the station. I knew we were lost when we started wandering around the Wentworth Institute of Technology. So we started back towards the museum and asked some people on the street how to get to Ruggles Station. Do you know every single person gave us different directions? Oh, yes, and right about now it started snowing. Finally we found a street map and located the general vicinity of the station. At this point we were close to missing our train and had to make a mad dash across the campus of Northeastern to finally find the right road. I am sure we looked like some kind of weird running team with backpacks. But find it we did! Unfortunately we arrived at the train station seven minutes after the train had already left. We had an hour and a half before the next train so we hung out in the Northeastern student center and drank hot chocolate and had some dinner/snacks. We DID make the next train and the evening ended well. The team is mostly boys this year and they are extremely chill so it actually made things more fun to have time to sit around and chat.

Anyway, the moral of the story is stick with your plan because trying to make things faster doesn't always make things faster and sometimes makes things much slower! Here is a picture of everyone at Betty's before we changed from the Wheeler Academic Decathlon team to the Wheeler Night-time Track Team:

The novel the kids are reading for the competition is Tale of Two Cities and after our experience we decided that our motto for the year should be:

"It was mostly the worst of times."

Do I have a fun job or what?

Feeling Proud

2009-11-24T16:32:00.000-05:00

Yesterday the copies of Juan Carlos' first book arrived in the mail. While it's not a book that will top (or even make the bottom) of the bestseller lists, it is still quite an accomplishment for him and one that I think he is still a bit surprised about. As someone who has lived with JC while the manuscript was being written and who watched him go through the editing process, I find it incredible that anyone has the patience to write books, let alone try to make a living doing it. It is grueling, painstaking work. And the editing! Oh, my friends, the EDITING. So here it is:

I have mentioned before how extremely lucky I was to marry JC, for just about every reason imaginable. But one thing I have always admired and envied is his motivation to work and to set aside what he wants in order to do what needs to be done. I don't think I have ever had to ask him to do anything, he just gets things done. There are only two people that I have seen work like JC works, and one of them is his mother. So I guess he comes by it naturally. At times I can get in a mood and complain about how much work I have, but then I just look at Juan Carlos and it makes me shut up immediately.

Juan Carlos is in Spain right now doing a presentation for a university that has an exchange program with Stonehill, and when he arrived they surprised him with a newspaper interview. He was pretty nervous but it turned out to be a good experience for him.

http://www.granadahoy.com/article/ocio/570662/entre/la/historiografia/y/la/memoria.html

This has been such a trial for him and such a ghastly amount of work, but something that has helped him grow and develop as a scholar and a writer. I am not going to say I am in any hurry for him to start another book, but I appreciate what an accomplishment this is for him. And I am very proud to be his wife.

Model UN

2009-11-21T16:37:00.001-05:00

It was my singular opportunity to travel with a group of Model United Nations students to a conference this weekend. It has turned out to be a fun and enlightening experience! We had a bit of a complication because the state of Rhode Island has decided that any child that wants an H1N1 vaccine has to get it through the school and only on the day that the state decrees for the distribution of the vaccine. You don't show up that day, you don't get it. Our day was the day after we were to have left for the conference. So of course half the team had to stay, get their shots, and join us halfway through the conference. It has been a great exercise in resiliency. We had a few frustrated moments with the kids who arrived late and didn't know what was going on once they got to their committe sessions, but most everyone has caught up now and is having a good time. We did get to take a tour of a nearby university yesterday, which was very nice. Can you tell where we are from this picture?

It has been fun to watch the kids as they reenact the International Criminal Tribunal in Rwanda, discuss and propose resolutions to world issues, and deal with legal issues involved in international dispute. They even have sessions where they wake them up at 1 in the morning and they have to go deal with crisis situations, like wars breaking out or political assassinations and their aftermath. I have never been remotely interested in politics, domestic or otherwise, but I have to admit that it's great to see that there are young people around who are. And now I know why when kids get back from the Model UN trips they are always totally dead in class. Well, we are going home tomorrow and at least there are only two days before Thanksgiving break.

Emotional

2009-11-10T13:54:00.003-05:00

Most of my friends know I am not a very emotional person. I always say I got it all out in my teenage years and early twenties. It's not to say that I don't have emotions--I just don't like it when they take control. Mostly I keep them on the back burner. However, every few years those pesky feelings do come out and force me to acknowledge them. I am having one of those times right now. One of the things that has always affected me emotionally and also helped me to deal with emotion has been music, and in particular, participating in music making. Maybe it is the control you have to have to create something beautiful with your voice or with an instrument, but it has always been an emotional outlet for me and something I have loved for as long as I can remember. The holiday season is coming up and I am getting ready for the holiday concerts that I will be doing with the Boston Pops. I think it will be good to get into the spirit of the season; however, most of my holiday performances in the past have been more religiously focused. I think this one will be less so, although I plan to enjoy it regardless. I have also been spending a lot of time at the piano lately going through many of my favorites, and it is wonderful to get in touch with them again, like spending time with old friends.
I have been listening to some pieces lately that have really touched me emotionally over the years and are very healing music. The first is O Magnum Mysterium, a Christmas piece by Morten Lauridsen that I sang in college. No matter how terrible I feel, this piece always makes me feel better, and usually more peaceful. This version is the Brussels Chamber Choir and they do a lovely job for such a small group.

Latin text

O magnum mysterium,

et admirabile sacramentum,

ut animalia viderent Dominum natum,

jacentem in praesepio!

Beata Virgo, cujus viscera

meruerunt portare

Dominum Christum.

Alleluia.

English translation

O great mystery,

and wonderful sacrament,

that animals should see the new-born Lord,

lying in a manger!

Blessed is the Virgin whose womb

was worthy to bear

Christ the Lord.

Alleluia!

The second is called The blue bird, by Mary E. Coleridge and C.V. Stanford. The choir at my school is learning this one right now and we always hear them practicing during my Spanish 3 class. It is particularly nice to listen to while taking a quiz! This version is the Boys Air Choir. This song is gorgeous and boys' voices just add another dimension of ethereality. The words are not life-changing or sentimental, but the combination of voice and words is very calming.

"The blue bird"

Mary Coleridge (1861-1907)

The lake lay blue below the hill,

O'er it, as I looked, there flew

Across the waters, cold and still,

A bird whose wings were palest blue.

The sky above was blue at last,

The sky beneath me blue in blue,

A moment, ere the bird had passed,

It caught his image as he flew.

Be aware that neither of these pieces are going to motivate you to get up and go run a marathon or change the world, but they may bring you a sense of peace and tranquility for a few minutes, as they do me. And these days I really need it.

The Things You Learn

2009-10-22T10:59:00.001-05:00

Today in one of my classes the kids had an assignment to speak for two minutes in Spanish about one of their most memorable days, without using any notes or prompts. Their grammar and pronunciation is graded as well as the content and the development of their topic. Usually this assignment causes quite a bit of consternation and nerves, and today was no exception. However, this year I have a group of kids who, for the most part, really like to talk and share. They are all good friends with each other and feel little to no hesitation talking about themselves and their lives. I am really enjoying them and we have had some amazing talks about everything from swine flu to whether it is possible to love someone too much, or even debating immigration policy in the United States. I look forward to that class every day.

Anyway, back to the assignment. When you teach school you do get to know the kids pretty well, but you do only have them for 50 minutes a day, and there is a lot that goes on in their lives that you are not a part of (and that is generally a good thing!) So today I learned some things about my students that really expanded my vision of who they are as people, and not just as students.

1. One student talked about going to the baseball game where the Boston Red Sox finally won the World Series after 86 years. He talked about sitting and cheering with his dad and how everyone went out into the streets afterwards and were hugging and kissing each other. We asked if he kissed anyone and he laughed and said "posiblemente".

2. Another student talked about visiting Israel and climbing the plateau to visit Masada. She talked about how much it meant to her to be in Israel and to explore her Jewish heritage. She mentioned how difficult the climb was and what a spectacular view it was from the top and how it was an experience that would affect her whole life.

3. One girl shared her experience of writing and directing a Christmas Eve play for her church and how it was so hard for her because she is not a playwright or a director and how she did not have a lot of support. She wanted to do something nice for the children of the congregation and so she took the initiative to write and put on this play, which was very well received and will be repeated this year.

4. Another of my students is a very gifted musician and he talked about giving his first full piano concert at the Blithewold mansion in Bristol. He talked about how nervous he was and shared the worst thing that happened that night--a piano duet in which his partner turned two pages of the score at once and so they had a little bit of a crash and burn. It was such a success, however, that he has done repeat concerts every subsequent year.

5. A girl talked about a time when she was younger when she and her mother and three brothers left Rhode Island to go on vacation to Florida. She knew something was off about it and sure enough they stayed in Florida for two years. She talked about living in a one-bedroom apartment with her three brothers and mom because living in Rhode Island was too expensive. She talked about how she did not feel the economic difference and never thought twice about wearing the same clothes over and over again. The climate in Florida was not good for her health, though, and eventually things improved enough so that they could rejoin her dad in Rhode Island. I think this was something that a lot of people didn't know about her.

These are just a few of the experiences I heard about today. Now, I can complain a lot about teaching and sometimes I think I chose a very difficult career path. And some days I feel like I should have gone into a field of work that doesn't take over your life so totally. But on days like today I look at who these young people are and who they are becoming and I am, frankly, enchanted.

Still In Love...

2009-09-23T13:27:00.001-05:00

I wrote about 9th graders last year at around this time and how awesome I think they are. I have two classes with a lot of 9th graders again this year and I started off the new year thinking that maybe it was just a nice group of kids that I had last year and not so much the age.

Well folks, it is confirmed, I just love 13 and 14 year olds, which is weird because my mother swears 13 is the year she wanted to slit her wrists with all of us when we were growing up. It must also be said it was not the best year to live through, however, I remember being a much bigger brat at 15.

Anyway, the first day in class we go over tips for doing well in class, and number one is always "Lose your fear!" The biggest challenge for a language teacher is to actually get the students to speak voluntarily. The first few days are awkward and I swear they all think I'm a lunatic with all the playacting I do in the first few days, but after a couple of weeks everyone gets into the swing of things. After all, if the teacher is acting like an idiot, then it must be ok, right?

Going back to 13....do you remember being 13? How awkward, how uncertain, how hyper-conscious you were about what everybody thought about you? I do. Think back...if a teacher had told you "Lose your fear!", you probably would have thought, "this teacher is obviously psychotic"; at least, I know I would have, just before collapsing into a pile of tormented social anxiety on the floor.

Anyway, my 9th graders last year did a great job losing their fear, which is why I loved them so much. I am happy to say that this year's 9th graders have embraced the motto as well! They speak in Spanish to me all the time and when there is a massive breakdown in language (and there are a lot) they don't let it get to them. Sometimes it sounds like gibberish, sometimes they get halfway through and get stuck and have to finish in English. But they are not afraid. They stick with it, they have fun with it. They TRY. And they laugh when they make mistakes and then they try again.

That's why I love them.

My Not So Relaxing Summer

2009-08-31T19:41:00.004-05:00

So, as a teacher who finished the last school year at the beginning of June I should be feeling totally rested and rejuvenated and ready to go for a new school year, right?

Since I have had 10 weeks of no teaching, I should be excited and anticipating the new year with alacrity, yes?

I wish.

Today as I was wildly putting together AP binders and student-parent contracts and syllabi I wondered where on earth my summer went. It was supposed to be the first summer I didn't do any major travel, so it was going to be nice and relaxing. At least that was the plan.

June 9th-June16th: I went to Cincinnati, OH and graded about 800 AP Spanish tests. Ok, maybe not 800, but it felt like that many, at least. Eight hours a day of grading for 7 straight days. Now and then some very funny stuff, but mostly listening to bad Spanish and rethinking my career choice!

June 17th-30th: I found out that a colleague and I received a grant from the Rhode Island teacher's association to create a teaching unit. So we started creating forms, setting up interviews, begging for equipment and mapping out the plan project.

July 7th-14th: Lovely trip to North Carolina to visit friends and see if it is really as wonderful as I remember. It is.

July 15th-21st: Non-stop filming for teaching unit project.

July 22-August 4th: Visit from my mother and four sisters from out west. We had a great time and gallivanted all over New England. Made the vow that I will never drive through Boston again.

August 5th-14th: Catch up interviews and review of footage for project. Realization that our primary interview footage is totally unusable and that we need a new video camera to redo some of the interviews.

August 19th-23rd: My first performance at Tanglewood. I went to rehearsal Thursday and drove back 2.5 hours to meet Juan Carlos, who had been in Spain for the previous month. Spent Friday the 21st together, then I drove back 2.5 hours again to Tanglewood for the orchestra rehearsal and performance on Sunday.

August 25th: Went back to school for pre-year meetings.

So it turned out not to be the summer I had envisioned, and I face the school year a little less rested than I had hoped. Since I am trying to focus on the positive, though, I just look forward to next summer and tell myself it's not as far away as I think.

A Post In Which It Is Revealed How Pathetic I Am About My Dog

2009-05-14T08:47:00.008-05:00

May is an unbelievably crazy month for both JC and me. Final classes, final exams and final grades all make an appearance and all the extracurricular stuff is going on so we never know who is actually going to be in class from day to day. Add on top of that test makeups and extra help and by the end of the day we have no recollection of any of our actions. At home we are trying to write said exams and reevaluate lesson plans to fit the smaller amount of time that we now have in class due to all the craziness. JC is editing his book manuscript as well, and our church callings take up a large amount of time, so we are pretty much spoken for from 6am to 10pm every day. Our house looks like a bomb hit it and last night I found myself washing dishes at 11pm because we had run out of silverware. Don't even get me started as to why we needed silverware at 11pm. We look at each other sometimes and ask each other did we really choose to do this as a career? If so we were stark raving mad.

What does my dog have to do with all of this? Well, she is around all day, wondering why she is not getting the walks that she usually does and why we are not giving her the attention that we usually do. I have a great dog. A really great dog. The other day a Verizon repairman stood on our doorstep with the door open to the street for an hour (while we were simultaneously trying to listen to him, eat dinner, feed the dog and get ready to go to a church activity) and she just sat there, cool as you please, for the whole hour, not even thinking about jumping on him or running out the door. My dog also sleeps most of the time (awesome) and never chews on ANYTHING except her chew toys. She never gets up on furniture unless invited, even when we are not around. She stays in her bed in the morning until we are good and ready to get up and take her out (it must be said we are almost always ready before she is). She is always eager to meet another person or dog, and generally is happy all the time. So you can see why we might feel like she deserves a lot more time and attention than we are able to give her in May and selective other times during the year.

We have tried really hard to do everything dog-related ourselves in order to save money and not turn into those crazy dog people that treat their dogs like people, but we finally gave in and took Luna to a doggie day care this week, because she does have needs that we were obviously not taking care of.

The day care is in Attleboro, MA, where we lived for a year. We were not too happy in Attleboro when we lived there, but then we moved to Pawtucket and now we WISH we could move back to Attleboro. It is a little out of the way for us, but well worth it. The staff is wonderful and they even carry the hard-to-find dog food that we give Luna. That alone is worth the price. They have an indoor and an outdoor play area and a large dog and small dog enclosure. And the best thing of all is that they have a streaming webcam so you can check on your dog any time. (Maybe I should say the worst thing, because who would want to do work when they can watch a room full of dogs playing?)

Yesterday was Luna's first day and when she came home she lay down and conked out for the rest of the day. Astonishing! Once I finished my 11pm dishwashing she finally looked at me like, "What are we doing still up? It's bedtime!" So I finally feel like even though we had a crazy busy day, so did she, and hers was considerably more fun than mine!!!

What I Wish The World Was Like

2009-04-22T15:58:00.003-05:00

My dad always gave me a hard time about watching musicals. He actually secretly likes some of them too, but I guess he thought it was his responsibility to let me know that people don't really go around bursting into song. What? They don't?! Why ever not? I always laughed it off and continued watching and loving musicals. Well, I guess there are some people like me in the world after all, and they are trying to fix the problem. Believe me, if the world were like this, I would already be in heaven.

Getting Back to Singing

2009-04-18T09:10:00.003-05:00

I was feeling sad after the LDS General Conference a couple of weeks ago, because the Mormon Tabernacle Choir is doing such great things and I wish I could still be with them sometimes. Also, one of my friends from BYU Concert Choir was just appointed to be the assistant director, so he is leaving Boston and going back to Utah and I have been feeling a little bit jealous. I don't like having bad feelings but I did get into a bit of a bad mood over all of this. Juan Carlos said exactly what I needed to hear: music should make me happy and not miserable. He was right and I decided that I really needed to start singing again and do it here and not live in the past. Unfortunately all the choirs around here want you to pay to sing with them. I am also prideful enough that I don't want to sing in a crappy choir. (I know, it's a bit snobby!)

Anyway, I decided to try out for the Tanglewood Festival Chorus, which is the chorus that sings with the Boston Symphony and the Boston Pops. It was a crazy drive into Boston, but JC kept his cool and we got there in time. As I was listening to the other auditionees I was wondering what I had gotten myself into, because it was obvious these were serious singers. All I had to do was sing the song I had prepared--which is easy compared to the Motab audition! But it has been three years since I did any real singing so I still had plenty of nerves, and those of you who know me know my nerves are of gargantuan proportions when I am singing solo. I chose a Brahms for my audition and I felt like it went well, although I am not sure how good my German is! Afterwards John Oliver (the conductor) started asking me questions about the song and he said he had played it before and how it was one of his favorites of Brahms. I hoped that was a good sign. But still, it's the Boston Symphony! So I didn't really expect to get in.

Well, yesterday I found out that I DID!!!! It's a little unbelieveable at this point but I am sure the rehearsal schedule will bring me back to reality soon. The summer season was just published and looks wonderful. I seriously can't believe it. I am excited to get back to singing. And while it's no Motab, I think it will be a close second!

boston.com

Still working on it...

2009-04-11T20:47:00.009-05:00

Believe it or not, I really am still trying to work on my nothing wall. Unfortunately it takes a lot of time to try and find the right thing, so it is still moving very slowly. My friends know how indecisive I am, so I think this is why Lara took matters into her own hands and just sent me what I needed, at least for one part of my living room. I am so grateful to have such an inspired and thoughtful friend:

Aren't they awesome? I was so thrilled to get these miniature opera posters in the mail--all I had to do was frame them! I would never have found anything as perfect--I can't even find sheet music in this area so I wouldn't have even dreamed something like this was possible. Anyway, Lara wins a prize even though this was not for the nothing wall. Lara--watch your inbox for your fabulous prize....

Now I bet you are all REALLY hoping I pick your idea for the Nothing Wall!!!

The Nothing Wall

2009-02-25T22:21:00.004-05:00

Okay, so almost TWO years after we moved in, we are finally getting around to decorating our house. We got all the painting done at Christmas and a few other things going in the last month or two:

Pardon the pile of trash on the table!

Sue, there is a special something for you in these two!!!!

Anyway, here is the problem. I have no idea what to put on walls in the first place, so I copied things from other people's houses that I like and so far, so good. But I have one big, empty wall and no idea what to do with it. More sconces? Pictures? Paintings? Leave it empty? Hang a plant? Something more creative? This is where I am a total incompetent. I just don't know. And if I don't do something, it will be Christmastime again before I make a decision. (And don't think I don't know how much like my Mom that makes me!)

So, to the point!!! I am in need of decorative genius and I am calling on all of my friends and acquaintances for assistance. What do YOU think I should do with my Nothing Wall? Post an idea in the comment section below before next Wednesday (3/4) and if I use your suggestion you will win a prize!!!!! And I promise it will be better than the ¡Fantástico! pencils I give my students. I can't wait to hear your ideas.

How I Know I Did Not Marry An American

2009-02-09T20:36:00.006-05:00

Tonight we were watching the Westminster Kennel Club Dog show while we were grading papers. We were watching the hound group and one of these came up to be judged:

Juan Carlos promptly said:

"Look! The Wipe-It!"

My First Blog Award

2009-01-26T18:14:00.005-05:00

I got this award from my friend Lara this week:

I was so surprised because I know my blog is pretty boring most of the time--I don't have cute kids or interesting hobbies that I write about. So I feel very proud, especially since Lara is the blog meister. Anyway, with this award I have to talk about 5 things that I love and tag 5 other blogs that I love. So here goes:

1. Middle school literature. I love love love it. Maybe it's the freshness and open possibilities, but I just can't get enough.

2. Science fiction/Fantasy movies or books. Again, can't get enough. Maybe I have problems with reality.

3. My 13 nieces and nephews. I continually harrass my brothers and sisters for photos.

4. Fleece. I am really and truly obsessed.

5. My job, where I get to act like a total idiot every day and get paid for it. (Except for when grades are due, and then I hate it passionately)

I am bequeathing this award to the following blogs:

1. Daily Symphony by Erin Leithead. I met Erin in North Carolina and she was such a good friend to me. She moved back to Utah and I was very bummed. It turned out great for her, but not so great for me! Erin has so many interesting things that she posts about, from life with her two adorable little girls to programs that she finds online or recipes that she recommends. I love her blog and I wish she didn't live in SEATTLE. (Honestly, can you GET farther away from Rhode Island?)

2. Gorgeous Georges by Susanna George. Sue does the best in my family at posting pictures of the kids. She also has like 1 million friends so the comment section on her blog is always packed with fun responses. I check every day to see how my little niece and nephews are doing.

3. Gobblin Market by Emma Forsyth. I am giving Emma this award as an encouragement because she has been EXTREMELY lax about posting in the last year and I am in revolt. I loved reading about the books she is reading and the scrum-diddly-umptious recipes that she would prepare, describe and demonstrate oh-so-mouthwateringly! Not to mention that she now has a Berner to take pictures of. Get posting already!

4. Witness to Insanity by Stephanie Birkinshaw. Stephanie was one of my companions on my mission in France who literally saved my sanity. She has three adorable boys and I love reading about her adjustment to life with her baby-boy twins Alex and Brady.

5. Give me a few words for a woman to sing by Rachel Porcaro. I don't think I have ever met anyone more real than Rachel. We lived close when we were in North Carolina at graduate school but those darn jobs took us to different states. I miss her and love keeping up by reading her blog.

Okay everyone--go out there and love some blogs!

Parlez-vous français

2009-01-22T19:56:00.002-05:00

Next week I will teach my first French class in 9 years. I am TERRIFIED! It has been so long and in that time I have taught only Spanish. JC and I only use French to tell secrets and since we don´t have that many we don´t use French much! I am so used to using Spanish in the everyday that I am a little concerned about getting up in front of a class and trying to run it in a different language. It is very embarrassing to be speaking one language and blurt out something in another. (Yes, I know from experience) Or worse, teach a grammatical principle that applies to the wrong language!

At least it´s French 1.

New Years Resolutions brought to you by Luna

2009-01-03T02:09:00.006-05:00

I usually don't make resolutions so this is kind of new for me. I have been thinking a bit about how my life is as opposed to how I want it to be. And I think that is how I have decided what I want to focus on this year. I feel like we just keep working and working and waiting and waiting for our actual life to start, and not focusing on the important things. Let's face it, JC is 41 and I am 34 and as my mother says, we are no spring chickens. When is this "real life" going to start? My mom had 6 kids by the time she was my age and most of my sisters have three or more. That hasn't been how things worked out for JC and me and admittedly we are so busy that perhaps that's how things are supposed to be right now.

Anyway, JC was talking to the dog today, telling her what a good life she had because she doesn't do anything except eat, beg for food and sleep. And I realized that while I have a need to do more than those three things, there were a few things I could learn from my dog's approach to life. So here goes.

1. I will be happy with my life the way it is and not concentrate on all the things that it is not. I know Luna does not sit around thinking, "I wish I had a better life" or "I wish we lived in a bigger house". She is delighted to eat, drink, run, greet, sit and sleep, or watch TV. Whatever people are doing, that's what she wants to do. (although I do suspect she wishes passionately for something to fall on the ground while I am cooking)

2. I will stop worrying about what will or will not happen and live in the moment. Luna doesn't worry about whether she will be fed every day. She is very happy to be fed, but if she misses a meal she doesn't crash down into despair. She moves on and starts scavenging off the floor or out in the park. Disgusting but practical.

3. I will pay more attention to JC. Luna has her eyes on JC every moment. (Mostly because he feeds her contraband but also because he is the center of the universe for her) We are both very independent people , but JC is always taking care of everyone else and I need to be better at taking care of him, especially now that his book is being published and he will be working on his manuscript in addition to his regular teaching. I have seen him make himself sick from exhaustion and I do not want that to happen to him. I had a very bad year last year and JC got me through it. Now it is my turn to get him through a tough year. I never forget how seriously lucky I got when I married him.

So there it is. This life is what I have and it is enough and I am grateful. I guess dogs do have a few things to teach their owners.

A whirlwind holiday..but not in the way you might think!

2008-12-31T15:24:00.004-05:00

The last couple of weeks before school gets out were unusually horrific this year. The time seemed to be flying and yet dragging at the same time. I love my students but I am able to love them better after a little break. Anyway, the first week and a half was taken up by some projects we have been doing around the house.

Here are the before pictures:

Boring, I know. But hey, I can blame it on my staid Mormon upbringing and the fact that my mother never let us paint her house anything but white. However, she did not count on my bold, creative, temperamental and hot-blooded Spaniard husband! Also remember that I am NOT decoratively gifted. I finally just had to stand aside while JC created his vision. Be forewarned: he definitely did not choose white.

And here are the after pictures:

It turned much more, um, bright than I had anticipated and though I didn't love it at first, JC did, so I was happy. I have to admit though, that it is nice to come in out of the cold and the grey that is New England in winter and feel like I am in the south of Spain, so it is growing on me. We did two upstairs rooms as well, but we haven't finished putting those rooms to rights as of yet.

I also have to say that the favorite Christmas gift that we bought this year was.....(drum roll)

A vaccuum cleaner.

It sounds like a very unromantic gift, but after spending the last 18 months scraping dog hair off of the carpets by hand, we both went into ecstasies when we turned on the new vaccuum cleaner and it actually picked up all the dog hair stuck on the carpet. We couldn't be happier, and neither could our backs.

The Spirit of Christmas Past

2008-11-29T17:12:00.005-05:00

Christmas has always been a favorite time of year for me, not least because of the Christmas break that teachers get. The holiday season has always meant great music, beautiful winter weather, and time with friends and family.
Since Christmastime is such a favorite, it is hard for me to understand how Scrooge-ified I have become over the last few years. Maybe it is because I am married to JC and Christmas is not the big she-bang in Spain that it is here. Perhaps it is because that during four of the last five years, we have traveled for Christmas and didn't feel like putting up decorations. Maybe it is because the opportunities for singing at Christmastime are virtually non-existent here, and I am just not getting into the spirit. Or it could be any combination of graduate work, thesis and dissertation-writing, or the fact that we don't have small children around to inspire us. Anyway, We haven't put up a Christmas tree in 5 years, at least. So this year we decided we were going to haul out the tree (fake on top of everything else) and all our old decorations and see what we could do to help ourselves get back on track. I can think of a lot of things that I could have done with the time that it took to move furniture around, put up the tree, find the decorations and get them onto the tree, but we did enjoy talking about the things that we did during Christmases past.

Juan Carlos and I made these the first Christmas we were married. We were living with my parents for a couple of months before they left for Guatemala and we were going to be staying in the house while they were gone. I actually have a picture of us putting the potpourri into the glass balls, but no scanner, so no luck! In my scrapbook I have the picture and pieces of wrapping paper from that first Christmas together, when we wrote each other love notes all over our gifts to each other.

I made these our first Christmas in North Carolina. I am not sure whether we went to Utah to visit that year, but I remember that we were trying to save money so we didn't go too all out for this one. We sat at the kitchen table and JC told me what to put with which flower, (JC is much more artistic than I am and if we disagree on aesthetics, we always go with his decision, since if I decorate it without question always ends up uglier.) and helped me tie them all together.

This year, instead of making ornaments (which, let's face it, we have not a lot of time or talent for), we decided to add to our Christmas village. One thing we have learned living here is that we will probably always need to live near the ocean. So we added a lighthouse this year and a pet store (for obvious reasons but also because it is cute).

Anyway, our tree is a big mess of ornaments but as we said to each other today, at least we have one this year. And we had a great time remembering.

My New Favorite Books

2008-11-15T18:15:00.006-05:00

I confess to being an avid fan of science fiction and fantasy. I love it. I am enthralled by it. I am envious of people who can even conceive of alternate worlds, languages or realities, let alone being able to write an understandable and entertaining novel about them. Don't get me wrong, I love the other stuff too, but I have had a passionate relationship with fantasy since I was small. I think the first example I remember was The Juniper Tree and Other Tales from Grimm, edited by Lore Segal and illustrated by the wonderful Maurice Sendak. My mother bought me this book when I was 8 or 9 after realizing that if she wanted me out from underfoot, books were the way to go. Anyone who has read the real version of Grimm's fairy tales knows that in addition to being wildly entertaining, they can be very dark, as well. I remember being completely fascinated with Godfather Death, which is perhaps a bit morbid for a 9 year old.

A few other favorites from elementary school and junior high are The Hero and the Crown and The Blue Sword, by Robin McKinley. McKinley had such an impact on me that to this day I instantly buy anything she writes. She is a wonderful writer for girls of all ages, and she even worked her magic on a boy I once dated and whom I harrassed into reading one of her books.

I remember well two novels by William Sleator that I read while on forced house arrest while living very much against my will in Guatemala. Since it was dangerous for young, American girls to be out on the streets by themselves and since my parents could not afford private school, we were home-schooled for six months and loathed every minute of it. Books became my number one escape. Anyway, I was fifteen at the time and the Sleator books were actually for my little brother, who was 9. I enjoyed them very much anyway, and I still have copies on my own bookshelves. Interstellar Pig is about a boy who gets drawn into an exciting board game with some local tourists involving interstellar wars and conquest (think Risk in space with lots of creatures) and how he reacts when the interstellar wars turn out to be real and Earth is the next planet to be conquered. Singularity is about a teen-aged boy who is resentful of his twin brother who is both popular and condescending. He finds a space warp where time in the warp is faster than in the regular world. He gets the idea to spend a night in the time warp (one year in warp time) so that he will be older than and therefore less a victim of his self-centered brother. Very appropriate literature for an angry 15-year old who hated being stuck with her family 24/7.

In high school a boyfriend of mine introduced me to the Robotech books and also David Eddings. Again, fantasy and sci-fi with very little reality involved and perfect for escaping teenaged angst. I first read Ender's Game in high school, as well, which opened the door to many more Orson Scott Card novels. Though I love Card's books and look forward to when they come out, the bonus has been his weekly column, Uncle Orson Reviews Everything. He really does review everything, and almost all of it is very entertaining reading, but what I love is that he reviews all sorts of books. I really don't know where he finds the time to read as much as he does, and I don't always agree with his reviews, but his fantasy and scifi recommendations are always excellent. Which leads me to my favorite of the moment, the Inda series by Sherwood Smith. Smith writes mostly literature for young adults but this series is intended for adult readers. The series follows Inda, the second son of a military regional leader who ends up in the wrong place at the wrong time and as a result is exiled from his home and academy training and ends up at sea on a trading ship. If you are looking for light reading this is not the series for you, and Smith's Inda world is built entirely on a military society, so if you don't like to read about war and intrigue, then you should pass this one by. However, Smith's characters have great depth and even within a story built around war the focus is on human nature and human relationships and all the complexity involved. I keep thinking about that world even though I finished the latest installment, King's Shield, weeks ago. That is the sign of great writing.

So, until I find new favorites, these are the books that I must now find space for on my bookshelves, so that I can pull them off and dive in whenever I want.

Wasting Time

2008-11-10T19:22:00.003-05:00

There is a lot that I avoid doing on a periodic basis. I avoid doing dishes, grading papers, going shopping, folding laundry....need I go on? Well, lately I have found a way to avoid doing all of these things at the same time.

http://cdn1.ustream.tv/swf/4/viewer.45.swf?cid=317016

This is a livecam that I check in on at LEAST five times a day and through which I am endlessly entertained.
If it does not work in Internet Explorer, try Firefox. Yes, it's worth it.

A Day At The Museum

2008-11-05T21:26:00.005-05:00

Today my AP class went to the RISD museum which is about a half a mile from the Wheeler School in Providence, RI. One of my friends does tours in Spanish for the museum so the class was able to have a tour and discuss Spanish and Latinamerican art in Spanish!

It was a wonderful visit. The students really enjoyed going through all the different periods and learning the history behind some of the art works. The favorite of the day, however, is an exhibit that is on right now by Dale Chihuly, a glass artist who actually attended RISD in the 1960's and began their famous glass program.

For those of you who think you have never seen or heard of Chihuly, I bet you have! He did several glass structures for the 2002 Olympics in Salt Lake City. Remember?

Anyway, here is a picture of my students in front of their favorite piece. It made them feel very dramatic. I am afraid the lighting is not very good, but you can get the idea.

This weekend we are off on another adventure as we visit La Arepa, a Venezuelan restaurant that specializes in arepas, which are a kind of corn cake that you split open and stuff with meat, cheese, vegetables, or whatever else you want.

Don't you wish you were in my class?

A Fun Quiz

2008-10-18T07:44:00.008-05:00

I haven't had the time or the inclination to write much this week, but I saw this on my friend's blog and it was fairly painless, and pretty interesting. You take a two-question quiz and then you are told which Mad Men-era icon you are. (I have never actually watched Mad Men since it is usually on after I go to bed, and usually that means I am not interested in making a habit of it. Who has time to watch TiVo'd shows?)

So here goes:

Your result for Are You a Jackie or a Marilyn? Or Someone Else? Mad Men-era Female Icon Quiz...

You Are a Grace!

You are a Grace -- "I need to understand the world."

Graces have a need for knowledge and are introverted, curious, analytical, and insightful.

How to Get Along with Me

* Be independent, not clingy

* Speak in a straightforward and brief manner

* I need time alone to process my feelings and thoughts

* Remember that If I seem aloof, distant, or arrogant, it may be that I am feeling uncomfortable

* Make me feel welcome, but not too intensely, or I might doubt your sincerity

* If I become irritated when I have to repeat things, it may be because it was such an effort to get my thoughts out in the first place

* don't come on like a bulldozer

* Help me to avoid my pet peeves: big parties, other people's loud music, overdone emotions, and intrusions on my privacy

What I Like About Being a Grace

* standing back and viewing life objectively

* coming to a thorough understanding; perceiving causes and effects

* my sense of integrity: doing what I think is right and not being influenced by social pressure

* not being caught up in material possessions and status* being calm in a crisis

What's Hard About Being a Grace

* being slow to put my knowledge and insights out in the world

* feeling bad when I act defensive or like a know-it-all

* being pressured to be with people when I don't want to be

* watching others with better social skills, but less intelligence or technical skill, do better professionally

Graces as Children Often

* spend a lot of time alone reading, making collections, and so on

* have a few special friends rather than many

* are very bright and curious and do well in school

* have independent minds and often question their parents and teachers

* watch events from a detached point of view, gathering information

* assume a poker face in order not to look afraid

* are sensitive; avoid interpersonal conflict

* feel intruded upon and controlled and/or ignored and neglected

Graces as Parents

* are often kind, perceptive, and devoted

* are sometimes authoritarian and demanding

* may expect more intellectual achievement than is developmentally appropriate

* may be intolerant of their children expressing strong emotions

This is pretty interesting because this is not how I would have perceived myself as a child. It is, however, a pretty accurate representation of me now. Anyway, take the quiz here to find out which icon you are!

I Love 9th Graders

2008-10-10T15:55:00.004-05:00

I had a very bad year last year. It wasn't ALL bad, but it was MOSTLY bad. I was very nervous about coming back to school this year since it was a very difficult transition to the school where I teach now. There are still some difficult things, but this year is unbelieveably different--I almost feel like I am at a different school. Things are going very well for the most part and I am more relieved than I can say. I tried to figure out what the difference is and I think one big part is my 9th graders.

This year I am teaching two sections of Spanish 2 at the honors level. There are two sophomores in one of the classes, but otherwise they are all 9th graders (13 and 14 year-olds) --and I have never had so much fun with classes in my entire teaching career. The combination of fun and hard-working is really tough to beat. From the first day these kids have come to Spanish class ready to go. We always have "talk-time" at the beginning of class and it is by far the best part of every day. They come in the door bursting with news to tell me in Spanish. Whether it is telling me about a soccer game that was won or telling the class about getting in trouble in handbells for laughing at something the handbells teacher didn't think was funny, we all start the class smiling and fully into Spanish mode. I don't know why they are so awesome, it must be that they are still young enough not to let inhibitions or fear stop them from trying. My two sophomores are definitely more sedate, so I must be onto something. 9th graders just rock.

Since they are so awesome and yet so focused, I have been able to do some very fun things with them this year. I think the best one so far is called "Sr. Español". I happen to be very lucky in my choice of a husband, since he is a great teacher and a native Spanish speaker (and because he is just amazing generally). We set up an activity where I give him the topics that we are working on and a time that we will be in class. While we are in class he calls my computer from home (we use Skype) and asks to speak to a student (whose name I give him ahead of time). When the Skype tone rings on my computer the whole class goes ballistic and everyone wants to be chosen. He will have a 2-3 minute conversation with the student about things the class has been learning and then ask to speak with a different student. This way everyone gets to talk to Sr. Español a couple of times each quarter. We do this once a week and the kids love it. The conversations are hilarious, because one of the rules is that they have to ask Sr. Español something about his day, so they ask him things like what he ate for breakfast that morning or if he is feeling tired from speaking so much Spanish. I can't wait for those two classes every day.

Sometimes I wonder if I am just very easily entertained, (or maybe my maturity level is just the same as theirs) but I think there is nothing more fun than watching kids learn. So this year I am appreciating my 9th graders and feeling grateful that I have 8 whole months left with them.

Period E

Period A

Finally...Ciabatta!

2008-10-06T17:35:00.000-05:00

Ever since I married JC, I have heard about how bad American bread is. Although he is a little bit of a food snob, I have to allow that if I had grown up with his mother's cooking I would be, too. And, having eaten European bread myself, I have to concede that he is right--Wonder Bread just can't be compared.

Anyway, a goal of mine has been to make European-style bread. It has taken eight years, and I know more about yeast and gluten and flour than I ever thought possible, but yesterday I finally got it right:

JC ate the whole loaf right before my eyes. I wish I had taken a picture of that!!! Too bad it takes two days to make. At least he will know I really love him when I do!

A Shameless Wannabe

2008-09-17T15:58:00.003-05:00

A couple of weeks ago I wrote a possibly too-negative post about starting school. I have to say that things are radically different this year, at least so far. I am still trying to come to grips with that, so I will write more about that at a later time. In the meantime, I am once again shamelessly copying Lara, who sent a very interesting career personality test and I thought it was cool, as is most everything that Lara thinks or does, which is why I want to be just like her.

Your career personality is decided entirely by the colors that you like or don´t like to look at. It was hard for me, because I love all the different colors so it was difficult to choose favorites.

Here are my results:

BEST OCCUPATIONAL CATEGORY:
You're a CREATOR
Key Words: Nonconforming, Impulsive, Expressive, Romantic, Intuitive, Sensitive, and Emotional

These original types place a high value on aesthetic qualities and have a great need for self-expression. They enjoy working independently, being creative, using their imagination, and constantly learning something new. Fields of interest are art, drama, music, and writing or places where they can express, assemble, or implement creative ideas.

CREATOR OCCUPATIONS
Suggested careers are Advertising Executive, Architect, Web Designer, Creative Director, Public Relations, Fine or Commercial Artist, Interior Decorator, Lawyer, Librarian, Musician, Reporter, Art Teacher, Broadcaster, Technical Writer, English Teacher, Architect, Photographer, Medical Illustrator, Corporate Trainer, Author, Editor, Landscape Architect, Exhibit Builder, and Package Designer. (Does Spanish Teacher count?)

CREATOR WORKPLACES
Consider workplaces where you can create and improve beauty and aesthetic qualities. Unstructured, flexible organizations that allow self-expression work best with your free-spirited nature.

Suggested Creator workplaces are advertising, public relations, and interior decorating firms; artistic studios, theaters and concert halls; institutions that teach crafts, universities, music, and dance schools. Other workplaces to consider are art institutes, museums, libraries, and galleries.

2nd BEST OCCUPATIONAL CATEGORY

You're a SOCIAL MANAGER (I love this title, it is so completely what I do!)
Key Words: Tactful, Cooperative, Generous, Understanding, Insightful, Friendly, and Cheerful
This very social type enjoys working in groups, sharing responsibilities, and being the center of attention. Fields of interest are instructing, helping, nurturing, care giving and instructing-especially young people. They discuss and consider feelings in order to solve problems, lead, direct, persuade, guide, organize and enlighten others.

Obviously I am in the right place doing the right thing for my personality. Take the test and see what career personality you have!

The Furminator and also some Fun

2008-09-02T19:18:00.002-05:00

I didn't think I had much to blog about but there are two things that have made a big impression on me lately, and one of them was today. Last week we went to the Cape to see Amy and Dave Bodah. (Amy is one of my fellow teachers at Wheeler) They have a new baby and we hadn't spent any time with them this summer so we decided to take a day and hang out with them. We walked along the beach, swam, and JC taught Dave to fish. It was a great day. Here are some pictures of JC with the baby--

And some fishing....

And this one of the baby just because I thought it was really cute!

Impression #2:
We had all of our back to school meetings last week and one day I was in the lunch line with some other teachers and one of them said he had just gotten an Australian Shepherd puppy. My friend Summer mentioned that I had a very large hairy dog as well, and another lady in the line asked me if we had "The Furminator". I asked her what it was, and she said it was the best thing she had ever purchased, since she had three dogs. It is a sort of brush/rake that helps with shedding. She said it was really expensive, though. I looked it up and sure enough it retails for $60. We were skeptical about a $60 brush so I shopped around and found one on sale for $25. We decided to give it a try, since Luna's hair sticks to our carpet and we have to scrape it off the floor with a scrub brush. Not very fun. Well, the Furminator came today and JC made me come home as fast as I could so we could try it. It took us about 30 minutes to brush her out and this is what came out of her coat:

Yeah, I know. Look again:

We were stunned, to say the least. All that hair that will never find it's way into our carpet! As you can see, she looks just the same, it doesn't cut her hair at all; it just rakes out the dead, loose undercoat. I know, you just have to see it one more time:

Anyway, we will see what the floors look like in a few days, but needless to say, we are impressed! Problem: FURMINATED!

Moon Lake 2008

2008-08-09T10:11:00.007-05:00

This week my family had it's yearly camping trip to Moon Lake, up in the high Uintahs. It is one of my favorite times of the year because everyone who can comes and brings all their kids. It is the best time for me to get to spend some time with my nieces and nephews, since we live about as far away from them as is possible. Anyway, this year we planned a few games to keep the little ones interested. So we had a treasure hunt. I asked my brother-in-law Paul to draw the clues since he is a brilliant artist and he did a great job (and Sue looks lovely as she holds them up!). Here are just a few:

The treasure hunt itself was a lot of fun for the kids:

The kids dug up a treasure of chocolate gold coins and Ring-Pops (since they look like jewels). The hunt actually ended up being more exciting than the treasure!

In the interest of not making this post the longest post ever, I will post more about the trip later.

Timpanogos Falls

2008-07-28T17:37:00.006-05:00

Today was the first day that I was not completely busy with family members, and Luna's and my favorite walk (Bridal Veil Falls trail) is closed because of a fire. So I decided to take a short hike up to Timpanogos Falls. It turned out that it was not as short as we thought it was and we were very hot and tired at the end of it. However, I enjoyed the sights and Luna enjoyed the smells. Since I was the only one around with a camera, the pictures are all of Luna. (And it was a camera phone so the pictures are not that great) I love my beautiful girl!

I wish there had been some shade for me!

A Good Visit

2008-07-27T22:38:00.004-05:00

I am having a nice visit at Mom's and this week Sarah's family is here. We had fun yesterday going to see Wall-E. Maegan got some pony books and both she and Austin love to be read to, so we have been doing a lot of reading!!!!

Austin enjoyed having his bath in Granny's sink.
The kids are all terrified of Luna (she is a big, scary looking dog) but they are getting to know her a little at a time. Adam is doing the best:

I learned how to play Dance Dance Revolution with Jason and Nathan today and it was pretty fun but I got my behind kicked! Jason and Nathan are the dance masters! And last but not least: Sandra, Sarah, Samantha, Rachael, Maegan and I went to Seven Peaks on Wednesday and we had a great time. Other than Annie tipping the tube over on herself and Maegan and Sandra falling in the water trying to get out of her tube, we all did well. Fortunately for you all there were no pictures taken!

I also received a call from my department chair on Thursday to let me know that out of my 8 students who took the AP test, There was one score of 3, two students scored a 4 and five of them scored 5's! I am so proud of them!

Pooped in Providence, San Antonio and Flat Stanley

2007-11-25T21:09:00.000-05:00

We haven't posted in awhile, but we are about to make up for it now! Some of you know that our ward is fairly young; that is, many of our members have not been members for very long. Many of our members are also students, so that means that they are not here during the summer. That means that those of us who have some years of experience are called upon to fulfill multiple callings. Since we moved in, I have been playing the piano in Primary, teaching Primary and doing all the music for Sacrament meeting. Juan Carlos is the Young Men's president, which takes up quite a bit of time. I have felt like the only people in the ward that I was getting to know were the 8-11 year-olds, since that is the class I teach and who I sit with 3rd hour. I love them but wasn't really getting to know anyone else. I still don't know who a lot of my student's parents are. I was talking to Mom on the phone last night and she asked me if I loved my new ward yet and I said no. The Lord must have been listening because today I was called to be Young Women's president on top of all the other callings! Obviously I won't be doing music in Prmary anymore but I will still do sacrament meeting and teach my Primary class. I guess the Lord wants me to have many opportunities to love my ward. JC and I went to a conference on foreign-language teaching last week and we had a great time. Not least of all the fun was seeing Emma and Paul and having dinner on the Riverwalk:
The conference was great and we ran into a bunch of people that we knew in our pedagogy classes at BYU. It was great to see them.
We went on a hike in the hills around San Antonio and spent some time with our friend Scott, who let us stay at his house.
Rachael sent us a visitor named Flat Stanley. Flat Stanley is an elementary school student who accidentally was smashed flat by a bulletin board. Although it is unfortunate, Flat Stanley can be very helpful by sliding under doors to retrieve items and also he is able to travel around the world inexpensively in an envelope. Flat Stanley had Thanksgiving dinner with us and he is eagerly awaiting his next Rhode Island adventure.
I love and miss you all-
Annie

It has begun...

2007-09-17T17:37:00.000-05:00

My organized desk (It only looks like this in the morning and right before I leave)

School started about two weeks ago and I am finally feeling like I have my head above water. This is the fastest I have ever been able to reach that point. It has taken me five years! Of course I have been teaching in traditional schools where my workload was much higher and at my new school there seems to be a bit more time. Add this to the fact that since we are desperately trying to avoid buying another car and that I ride the bus to and from work every day and you can probably figure out that I just have to use my time at school more effectively. I also managed to finally get myself organized (mostly) BEFORE the school year started. I think most teachers try to manage classes more effectively every year until they finally find a system that works. This is the first year where I felt my system hasn't needed major work.

It's a good thing I feel so on top of things, because I am teaching AP Spanish.

This statement needs to be prefaced by saying that the AP test was reformulated last year and it is now a BEAST. The students are expected to be able to do things that even native speakers can't do (yes, I do have native speakers in my class) and my AP training was, unfortunately, taken when the old system was in place. So all of my extra time is taken up with AP. I am working with a stellar group of kids. Here they are:

So far, so good. We'll see how things progress--it is early days yet.

Walk at Wheeler

2007-09-13T11:06:00.001-05:00

Hi everyone-

We started school so we have been pretty busy the last couple of weeks. Today we have the day off for Rosh Hashanah (there is a large Jewish population in RI) so we decided to take Luna out for an adventure. My school has a 120 acre farm in Seekonk, MA and one of the perks is that faculty can use it. So we took Luna today and went for a long walk. It is great because she can be off leash for awhile. She had fun splashing in the pond and rolling in the pine needles and the grass.
We also have new callings in our new ward. I am the ward pianist and the Primary pianist and a Primary teacher for the 8-11 year olds. Juan Carlos is the Young Men's president of all two young men in the ward.

Other than that, our life is full of lesson plans and correcting papers!

We love and miss you all-

Annie

Luna loves to roll in the pine needles!

Luna finds Juan Carlos while playing Hide and Seek

Taking a break with JC

Too much running!

Ready to go home

Back in Utah Again

2007-08-07T11:57:00.001-05:00

We are back in Utah again! We will be heading out to Texas in a couple of days but we have had a full schedule since we arrived. We had a family reunion at Moon Lake in the High Uintahs. We had a great time but it was a bit stressful, mostly for my Mom. She had a digestive problem one night and we had to drive an hour and a half to the nearest hospital. She was fine in the end so we headed back to Moon Lake. The next day she tripped over a tent stake and did a face plant into a tree trunk. The worst thing is that she has to do a reading at my sister Emma's wedding on Saturday and she has two big scabs on her face. The next day she wasn't taking any chances and she left a couple of hours before everyone else. This morning she packed up the van with wedding items and my sister and her three kids and headed out to Texas. What a lady! She threatened me with death if I posted any pictures of her, but I am sneaking one in. Here are some pictures of the trip. Notwithstanding all of the trauma, we can't wait for Moon Lake 2008!

Luna's first swim

My cousin Rachael with her great catch
A visitor to our campsite
Everyone having dinner
Juan Carlos with Sue's three kids
JC and Phebe
Luna fishing with JC

Family Fun

2007-07-23T15:09:00.000-05:00

I have been in Utah for the last three weeks visiting my family. The object of my visit was to help my mother sort through a lot of family history papers and things since she has more than she knows what to do with. Of course things never go as planned. We haven't opened a box since I arrived three weeks ago. I have, however, been kept busy by all my nieces and nephews and my brothers and sisters. My sister Susanna came to stay the first weekend with her 2-year-old twin boys and her 1-year-old, Phebe. Here they are:

As you can imagine it was a very hectic visit but I think my favorite part was taking the boys to the Scera Waterpark. They loved the water but the real hit was the slide that went into the shallow end of the pool. The twins went up and down the whole time they were there. The third weekend of my visit was spent with my mom. We stayed at Sue's house with the kids while Sue and Josh had an anniversary getaway. I have a new appreciation for moms with small children. I had a blast though,

My sister Sarah and her family came up for a week while I was in Orem. Here is a picture of her kids:

I also got to spend some time with Rachael, who is my sister Sandra's youngest. I don't have a picture of her but we had a great time and we went to see Ratatouille, which was super cute.

It was a great visit, but I am glad to be home for a week before we go off to Utah again for two weeks! I bought Harry Potter 7 in Utah hoping to save it for this off-week, but of course I finished it within 24 hours of purchasing it. It was great and a fitting end to my "vacation".