Crunch Time

My first class as a college instructor is Thursday. I've got books spread all over two rooms, Power Point presentations in various stages of readiness, and hopefully enough time to pull it all together.

Tomorrow is pretty much non-stop orientation and meetings, but I'll have Wednesday to get things finalized, and Syllabuses turned in. Whew!

I'll let ya' know how it goes!

Making Music with a New Friend

Jason and Joan make music (The only picture anyone took was really blurry, so transforming it into "art" seemed the way to go.)

Last Thursday I had one of the most fun experiences of my life. The McClellans came over for the evening. The youngest kids wanted to play with the train set some more. Jason and Omer messed around with cameras for a while and then he and I made music together for... I have no idea how long... hours. I don’t think I remember the last time I was so completely absorbed in something. Shawn was even playing his chanter at the same time, right next to me, not the same songs, and I never even heard him. I was oblivious to the 12 extra people in the house. Blocking out other noises is not something I’m good at, at all, so this was very out of character for me. We wanted to include Shawn in our playing, but he can’t read music, so we had to give that up since I didn’t seem to have music to anything he knows. I guess the girls went downstairs and watched a movie. I was not any kind of a hostess, let alone a perfect one.

We played and played till Jason had a sore shoulder and I had a very stiff neck. Then we gave it up, not because we were tired of the activity, but our bodies needed a rest. We chose three songs that we both like and thought sounded good together and made sure we both have the music to those to practice. Patrick thinks we should do a gig at the local Italian restaurant with an open case for people to throw money. I know we’re not anywhere near that good, but it certainly went better than either of us anticipated. I’ve never played with anyone on any instrument in a duet like that... well maybe Clara and I played one or two accordion duets when we were kids. But never with a different instrument. He said he hadn’t either. We like a lot of the same kinds of music.

It helps that the accordion is not currently the subject of the derision of every person in the universe. It’s down to something like 90%. * smile * What’s the definition of perfect pitch? When you throw an accordion in the dumpster and it doesn’t touch the sides before it lands.

Seriously, if you listen to TV commercials you'll now hear accordion in quite a few of them. I’ve had several young people say "Cool!" when the find out that I play. Now there’s a reaction I’ve never encountered prior to the last few years. Kinda nice!

Josh, Omer, Steve, Joan

We had Steve home for just 32 hours for Christmas this year. It wasn't nearly long enough, but we worked hard to pack lots of fun into the time. We played all the games that the four of us very diverse beings can play together. We ate lots of yummy food, blew the diets, and then had to repent and be really good for the next few days. I forgot to take the annual photo in front of the Christmas tree, so some lady who wasn't afraid I was a terrorist used my camera to snap us at the airport at 5:30 am on December 26. At least we are all smiling in this one!

The time seems to be speeding past, and I'm not ready for my teaching duties at the college. I'm working on it, but not nearly fast enough. That has to be fixed!

Too many changes in life in too short of a time span. I guess we'll just grab 2008 by the tail and hold on!

P.S. I had a really REALLY fun experience Thursday night, but I'm holding out for a photo to put with the post, so I'll keep it a secret a little longer.