Música

This semester I’m taking choir as an ensemble, it fit so neatly into my schedule that I couldn’t say no. I’ve really missed singing. We’re singing this song that’s in Spanish and while I’ve said the word for music plenty of times, it just sounds weird to have a choir full of non-Spanish speakers carefully singing, “Moo-see-ka”.

Anyways, I realized it’s been a while since I put various and sundry youtube links up here. No classical today, but just things I’m into lately. Here we go.

I am in love with The National, I tell you. Some people don’t dig a baritone, but oh. He is my cup of tea. This song, off their older album Boxer is my favorite (and I love the video. How perfectly does it capture that awkward high school reunion/wedding feel.)

p.s. In case you liked them too, I love “Sorrow” and “England” from their High Violet album.

Next up, this song by The Morning Benders makes me feel better that there are other geeks out there like me who would get all their friends together to play and sing, just for the heck of it (and this is so something my family would do).

And lastly, in the chill department comes an offering from my favorite Norwegians, The Kings of Convenience: Mrs. Cold (You’ll have to click through for this one, for some reason it won’t let me embed.) Sounds like good weekend background music to me.

I hope you have a fantastic weekend. Tell me, what are you listening to? Old, new or otherwise?

falling for fall

Don’t you love New York in the fall? It makes me wanna buy school supplies. I would send you a bouquet of newly sharpened pencils if I knew your name and address.

Do you remember that movie? It’s funny how some things get so dated. Pretty soon no one will remember how AOL used to have that little voice going, “You’ve got mail”.

Oh I know it’s still summer, but mine technically ended this week with the start of my Monday morning theory class. It feels good to be back, and the cooler change in weather around here couldn’t have been better timed. I’m sure we’ll have more 80 degree days, but it was so nice to drink my coffee this morning while wearing a sweater.

The Friday Fill-in

I love the questions this week and even more I’m loving reading all the answers!

If you could be a fugitive from the law for whatever reason, what would your crime be? (from It’s a Hooah Life)  For carrying out some vigilante justice, baby.   I’m still angry about what happened to those pigs, for example.

How long do you think you will be a military family? (from Julie the Army Wife) We only have about 4-6 years left until dh can retire, woohoo!!   (the range is because in order to retire at a pay grade you have to serve a certain amount of time at that rank.  So it depends on when he’ s promoted, but also what jobs they offer us…we might consider staying in longer)

What’s your favorite recipe? (from Keep Calm and Soldier On) Too many to name!  I am currently loving chocolate chip zucchini bread.

What would you want your last five words to be when you leave this life? (from My Goal is Simple) “It’s ok, I love you.”   I just want to have someone I love there to say it to!

Where do you hope to retire? (from Pennies from Heaven)  Somewhere out west, but that’s a matter of much debate.  Much more pressing debate now that retirement is closing in.   We loved the tiny town in Arizona that we used to live in, but since we’ll have a relatively young child to raise we’re thinking right here would offer more opportunities for her.  As much as I’d like to live in Michigan again, my dh would never stand for it.   And truthfully, there really is something  magical about the west, I love it out here.

Sponsored by the fabulous Wife of a Sailor.

in the nick of time

Look at me go, I can’t remember the last time I posted twice in one day!

This summer my sewing machine hasn’t seen much action. Partially because I’m frustrated with it. I’m desperately in need of a new one, but I can’t decide whether I should make the investment or not. I sew now on the machine that everyone tells you not to buy if you research machines: the el cheapo model from a big box store. What can I say, I bought it almost 10 years ago and back then I didn’t even know enough to research machines.

This is the smocked sundress from Weekend Sewing by Heather Ross. It only took me two years or so to get around to making one. I’m paying the price for my laziness because my kiddo is too big for the straightforward version from the book, so I had to add a panel to the back. And because my machine is a piece of, well, you know what, I had a lot of trouble with the elastic staying put. But it’s cute, no? Don’t be too distracted by bun bun there, how he makes it into most of my sewing photos I’ll never know.

Thankfully I finished it while we’re still technically in summer. Preschool starts tomorrow!

No wonder I feel old

For students entering college this fall, e-mail is too slow, phones have never had cords and the computers they played with as kids are now in museums.

The Class of 2014 thinks of Clint Eastwood more as a sensitive director than as Dirty Harry urging punks to “go ahead, make my day.” Few incoming freshmen know how to write in cursive or have ever worn a wristwatch.

I happened on this bit of fluff this morning.   It’s no wonder I sometimes feel ancient compared to my classmates.  I’m fully willing to admit how unhip I am.  But  I mean honestly?  It’s not like I’m ninety.   Thank heavens in the world of classical music anything less than 200 years old is “modern”.

The lifevest

I spent most of the weekend at a piano pedagogy (teaching) seminar. It was wonderful, even though I’m not currently teaching, I will be again someday and the things I learned will definitely improve my skills. It took some high level negotiations to make it happen (childcare is always tough in the summer for me) but in the end dh really came through. It was sort of a nice prelude to school. I sort of forgot how much I love the feeling of an entire day spent focusing on being a musician, since I’m back in stay-at-home-mom mode this summer.

And it was much needed. I’m not even sure how to type this, but I’m recovering from what I think was a “chemical” pregnancy. Meaning, I was just barely pregnant, and I’m not anymore. Maybe that’s too much information for some of you, and I’m sorry if that’s the case. Feel free to move along. I just have some stuff to work through and sometimes writing it out helps.

I can’t even describe the shock. I’ve never been pregnant “on my own” before (without medical intervention), I honestly didn’t think it possible. The timing couldn’t have been worse, with dh’s upcoming deployment and my own school in progress. I couldn’t understand why God would pick now of all times. To say I felt ambivalent about it is an understatement. It also made me reconsider some of the very harsh judgments I’ve made in the past about other women whom I felt weren’t grateful enough. As if infertility somehow made me fit to judge. Sometimes I wonder if this was a test, and maybe I failed.

The cruelty was in that it lasted just long enough (about a week) for me to allow myself to think about the future and hope again. I don’t appreciate that at all, actually. That’s the dangerous thing about hope, in my situation it often brings more pain. I don’t want to be back in the nightmare of hoping each month that I will get my miracle, only to crash and burn. Then again, I guess the deployment will take care of that, and neatly.

For now, I am intensely grateful for the decision I made to return to school. When I originally took the photo above and posted it on Flickr I captioned it, “Sometimes the ticking of that metronome is just what I need to turn my day around.” And that’s true. The focus that practicing requires often recharges me. I loved being a SAHM when my daughter was a baby, and it was a hard decision to leave that behind. I know many women find their purpose and calling in that alone. For me, I feel like music saved me. I am ok… and I have different dreams to dream.

Swim mom

That’s me. This is our third go round with swim lessons this summer. By my child’s choice, mind you, she loves it so much that she prefers it to pretty much everything else. Although she is looking very much forward to dance beginning again this fall.

Anyways, I’m writing this because today was the first time I had the very uncomfortable experience of a teacher pushing my child out of her comfort zone. It’s really hard to watch your child cry while standing next to the pool desperately looking in your direction. Nearly too much, actually, I almost scooped her up and ran, which is always my first impulse. The only thing that saved the teacher from my wrath was that she recovered very quickly afterwards and seemed able to finish the rest of the lesson.

We’ll see how the next lesson goes. I think we’re definitely due for a break anyway, so I’ll have no regrets about pulling her and being done. If she goes from adoring swimming to not wanting to go, however, that teacher and I will have a word or two. It makes me wonder… we all have to be pushed sometimes to learn something new. Will it scare her off or just help her overcome the fear? Hard to say. I’m not sure I like having to trust that a teacher knows that fine line better than I do.

I guess we all have to learn to jump in the deep end sometime.

Cramming it all in

I am beginning to see that dh is trying to make some memories and cross stuff off his “to-do” list before he goes. While I am generally lazy and like to sit around at home whilst calling it “family time”, he wants to go forth and DO!

This is a 4 day weekend.  We have included: camping for a night, cleaning the garage and hitting Costco for the “I need xyz for to pack in the connex”.   We went to church this morning, but instead of the normal Sunday nap we headed instead to the post pool. It was blistering hot, and crowded, neither of which are my cup of tea…but I knew that he very much wanted to see the dutchkid demonstrate her new swimming skills.

After that it was off to the commissary for me (I still feel guilty about going to the grocery store on Sunday, a throwback from growing up and no stores were open and  you weren’t allowed to do anything.  I have grown up into quite the heathen, I guess)  and we topped off the evening with a few holes of mini-golf. At least until we got seriously rained out.

I can’t even remember the last time my weekend was so action packed. I sort of missed my nap. Tomorrow promises more of the same since dh has the day off.

(side note, I learned a new acronym after all this time! DONSA: Day Of No Scheduled Activities. Every time I hear dh say it I think of Tony Danza. What ever happened to him, I wonder?)

I hope you enjoyed your weekend, be it fast or slow paced!

Do you do this?

Please tell me I’m not some sort of freak, although you might think so by the time you’re done reading this.

I love doing endless, often pointless, research on where we might be living. And I mean might. We are not due to leave here for at least another 18-24 months.  I have no earthly clue on where we will go, but this is my way of dreaming. In my own defense we do move a lot, I’m always in awe of the folks who have stayed at the same duty station for more than 3 years.  And this whole mess started when the darn branch manager came to visit.   Usually it begins when dh mentions something offhand, like, “You know, I’d really like to take an overseas assignment next.”

Me: “Oh? Where do you think you’d like to go?”

dh: “I don’t know, I was thinking somewhere cool, like Belgium or England, maybe. Where would you like to go?”

Me: Now out of the room and already searching things about Belgium on the internet.

Seriously, I need school to start because I have already wasted entirely too much time looking at where we could live (Brussels! Mons!) and then at schools and what the towns look like, what expats say about living there, and on and on it goes…

Don’t get me wrong, I would love England, too, I just happened to research that one already a few years ago and I still have my links (is this sad? I think it must be).

I have a lot of fun thinking about a place and what it would be like to live there.  Since I know this is off in the future it doesn’t have the same pain attached to it as when we’re making our list and hoping and praying for an answer we can live with.  It also helps if said place is on the exotic list.  You wouldn’t find me doing this about Ft. Irwin, say, or Ft. Polk.  Nevermind that usually if I’ve taken the time to research something, the Army sees fit to send us to the exact opposite place.

For someone who grew up in the same small town my entire life, and had the same schoolteachers as my mother did,  I am startlingly well suited to the military life.  And just let me know if you’re moving to Belgium anytime soon, do I have some links for you!