Happy New Year 2015!

Happy New Year!

I hope your new year provides you plenty of enjoyment and happiness in 2015.

Over the last two weeks, I've started a new position within the same company, eaten approximately half my body weight in junk foods (obvious exaggeration), and have narrowly missed calling in sick on the first day of my new position. Now that my voice has (mostly) returned, I can go back to "normal" life. yeah... my first day of work at the new job, I could barely whisper...

A few happenings have stood out, and I'm not going to lie, I'm looking forward to sharing them. :-)

First is H-Mart. If you've never heard of it, you're missing out. Seriously. Go Google it. You've heard of Asian grocery stores before, and probably been to a few. This is more like an Asian food emporium. This place is HUGE! They have an entire aisle filled with nothing but different brands of soy sauce - not even kidding. My friends and I went there one evening because we were bored, but left having each spent a smallish sum to purchase interesting or unusual foodstuffs.

By the way, I definitely recommend the seafood department. It's so cool! There are saltwater fish in tanks in the store. And, if you bought or brought a fish, they'll cut it up for you so you don't have to. Have to remember that the next time I am carrying around a fish!

On a completely different note, I started my new position this week. I'm now a statistics and data coordinator for the same company. While I loved my position in the support team, I'm sure I'll also come to enjoy my new position, too. A highlight (albeit a negative one) is that I entered statistics for a very large chain of offices (yay!). However, today - after I entered all their stats - their office administrator called me to inform me they'd found some issues with the documents they'd sent and I should just ignore them... *sigh* Looks like I get to troll through their stats on Monday, too!

The nephews and I invented a new game nephews this week. I stomp around as a dinosaur - "Stomp-o-saurus" - and make dinosaur growling noises. The boys think that's pretty awesome and will run away screaming. When they get caught by stomposaurus, they get "chomped" (tickled). It's a silly thing, but they really like it.

Orchestra practices started up again this week. I'm kind of excited for this concert. It's coming up fast, but it'll be a fun one - "pops!" We're doing Broadway musical excerpts. The music includes songs from West Side Story, Evita, Cats, and Phantom of the Opera. (I know I'm missing another, but I can't think of it now!) I'm thinking it'll be a fun one, but again, the bassoon parts aren't very exciting. Not that this is unusual in not-difficult orchestra arrangements, but it's worth noting.

Sometime this week, I need to sit down again and make some reeds... I've got one that works really well (if I soak it for half an hour before practice...), and the rest are all "moderate-weather reeds...

<REED RANT>

Sometime this week, I need to sit down again and make some reeds... I've got one that works really well (if I soak it for half an hour before practice...), and the rest are all;" weather="">IT'S A REAL THING! 
If you play bassoon or oboe, you know what I'm talking about. Most of the time, my reeds are thick enough that they're nearly impervious to weather changes and barometric pressure issues. If I were to play on a reed that was thin enough to be comfortable to play on...

1. I would have a hard time not over-blowing

and 

2. It would most-likely be susceptible to the barometric pressure shifts and weather changes.

Perhaps I should study this to see if I'm right. For now, I'll just assume I'm right and call it good. :-)

END OF RANT

Merry Christmas 2014!

Here it is again - Christmas! And, it's the end of a fine year. Merry Christmas, dear reader. I hope your holiday season has been as wonderful as mine has been.

I'm thrilled to have made it through another great year, and I'm feeling pretty good about life in general right now. That's a good sign! Here's review of my year. As I've reflected on the year, I've noticed a lot of great things happening in my life and I wanted to take a few minutes to share where I've been this year.

2014 - My Year in Review

Quarter 1
January to March was a blur. We had great times, though I must admit that the first quarter was busy! Just about everything I could possibly say has to relate to teaching and how insane that part of the year can be.

At work, I made it through many pep band events, took 16 kids to honor choir to sing in Salt Lake City, worked through Singing Valentines, attended the Utah Music Educator's convention, took three days of field trips to Richfield to attend the state basketball finals, and got word that my time at Parowan High School was to end after that school year.

I don't remember a lot of things that happened specifically, whether work or personal. However, I do know that because of the schedule I was keeping, I didn't have much of a social or personal life! Most of my after-school activities were spent enjoying time with Scott, Josie, and Kristi, though it was great to spend time with my parents and cousins there in Cedar City. Outside of work, I was able to perform with the Orchestra of Southern Utah, serve as the ward choir director at church, and play the piano and organ for church meetings. I got pretty good knowing the schedule of my favorite cooking and renovation shows on television, and I had a while where my "hobby" was playing Minecraft (yeah, it's not exactly the highlight of my life...).

Quarter 2
April to June was a difficult period. While I wasn't going to jump ship to leave my position at the school, knowing that I wasn't invited to return for another year made completing the school year all the more challenging. However, I made a commitment that the end of the year concert was going to be fantastic and I pushed myself and my students quite hard to make sure we had a fabulous rest of the year.

During this time, I put together a well-run (IMO) large-group festival and hosted eight schools, put together a dynamite end of year collage concert with "Skyfall" as our concluding number involving all eight performing groups, and finished the school year strongly, blowing everyone away! :-)

I grew considerably as a person during all this time, though there is still working through the emotional baggage that goes with job loss. Again, my time outside of school was mostly spent with siblings and parents, cousins and grandparents, playing with the orchestra, and continuing to work with the choir at church.

In the middle of June, I visited Colorado, hoping to have some job interviews. As it turns out, I didn't have any interviews at that point, but I was able to have a great vacation with my sister and her family. If I'd been thinking straight, I'd have flown Southwest Airlines and racked up a bunch of flyer miles. This year, I've flown from Las Vegas to Denver round-trip and from Denver to Salt Lake round-trip. That could have given me pretty close to a free flight! But alas, one of them was on Frontier and I paid too much... lol

Quarter 3
I committed to moving to Colorado to work in I.T. My job interviews were both amazing and I was offered multiple positions and had to choose between terrific jobs. Ultimately, I ended up taking a support role with RE/MAX and have since had many excellent experiences. Please indulge me for a moment as I brag - my supervisor at RE/MAX has been totally blown away by my job performance. Since training in August, I have outperformed my peers on the call team on multiple occasions and, in November, took 70 more support calls than any other member of the call team. It never seems like I'm working that hard, but it's nice to be able to go home at night and not have to do additional work to stay caught up.

Since arriving in Aurora, I've met some incredible people and started to form some great friendships with locals. I've become heavily involved in my singles ward at church and took on a second-bassoon position with the Aurora Symphony Orchestra. Now, I get to do two of my favorite things - work with computers and play my bassoon! Lastly, I volunteered to be a Temple Ordinance Worker in the Denver Colorado temple for the church. It's been a wonderful experience to attend each week, and I feel a tremendous amount of growth in myself since taking this on.

Quarter 4
Here, I had some time to reflect and adapt to changing surroundings. My company had some layoffs, so my technical support role disappeared in November. I was able to maintain my temp status until the end of the year, and will be transitioning into another department at the first of the year as a permanent employee!

With the holidays, musicians are often very busy people. I played in several musical groups over the last month, and was able to enjoy some really great talent and be a part of some very wonderful music. Now that's all done, I'm looking forward to some R&R for a couple of days.

My brother got married during this period, so I flew out to Salt Lake City to join the family for the ceremony in the Salt Lake City temple. It was awesome.

I know some of you are wondering, so I'll just throw it out there - no, I'm not married or seeing anyone at this time. I have been on a few dates since arriving in Colorado, though. One of my goals for 2015 is to go on more dates and take them more seriously.

In conclusion, it's been a great year. Sure, there've been ups and downs, but who doesn't have that? Where will 2015 take me? Good question. The only thing I know for sure is that I'm looking forward to it!

Thanks for being there for me, friends and family. I appreciate your love and support!


I'm so grateful to know there is a God who knows me personally and has directed my steps throughout the year (and life!). I trust in Him to guide me and help me make the best of any situation. The life of Jesus Christ brings me hope - knowing that life can be happy, even in the midst of really trying times.

May the blessing of this Christmas season stay with you throughout this season and the coming year.

New Digs

Looks like it's here again - that moment when I realize I haven't written anything in a considerable amount of time. So much has happened to me since the last writing, and I'm ready to shell out some deets!

Since June... Let's see... Where exactly to start?

I met my new nephew... finally. He's 14 months old! And I think he's one of the cutest kids on the face of the planet. No lie. Actually, I'm living in the same house. I moved!

After a long, disappointing job search in my educational field, I decided it was time for a change. Fifty (yes, 50) job applications and countless resume updates later, I gave up on trying to find a teaching job for this school year. A total of three schools called me back, and I interviewed at two of the three. The third I cancelled, after deciding I didn't want to go back to work at a tiny school at this point in my life. ...Plus it would have been way too soon!

Don't get me wrong, I loved teaching, but I also realized that my heart isn't really in it right now. I'm still a little... tender... about my last experience. There's a lot to love about being a teacher. There's also a lot to hate - politics, drama, no time, meetings, grading... I mean - I signed up to teach. (that other stuff is everywhere, btw)

So! I moved to Aurora, Colorado and am currently pursuing a career in I.T. As luck would have it (or providence?), within two weeks of making the decision to go into computer technology, I had a job working technical support! I love it. Right now, I answer phone calls and email messages from real estate agents across the country. I'm meeting a lot of people and making positive connections.

It's worked out great! I'm living with my sister and her family right now, working not too far away, and enjoying making new friends and finding out new stuff about the area. Yet... Still itching for something else... something more? Maybe it's the fact that I'm starting to realize I'm 28 and an adult and have to make decisions?

I also joined a different symphony. I'm now playing with the Aurora Symphony. This one is considerably different than my last gig, but it's been great. The orchestra is awesome, and we're getting better all the time.

I'm also working on getting a grant to earn another computer technology certification. I have a CompTIA A+, so I got started with things, but I don't want to answer 1 D 10 T calls all the time. (lol) So, I'm working towards that new certification so I can do something different - it's between web development and information security.

Anyway - that's life in a nutshell. I'm glad summer is over. This one was emotionally exhausting and mentally taxing.

Marching to a new drummer?

Yay!!

It's finally here!!! Summer vacation!! (and it's about time!)

It's been a very long year, and there's no shortage of things that happened this year to blog about. Just... apparently I stink at keeping up on my blog! If I was to chronicle all of it, this would be a uniquely long and probably very boring post where I just brag about all of the stuff I have been doing where it isn't particularly relevant to you! However, I'm glad you're here, and I'll share with you some of my thoughts.

A new year...
This year began my second year of teaching. While it was definitely not a picnic, it was far better than my first year! It started the usual way, scaring seventh graders into behaving in middle school, introducing classroom procedures, and getting music ready for a performance ...on the first day of school! Before school even started, we had to get together the school song and fight song to play at an assembly. Good times...

I don't mean to outline everything I've done the last two years. There are lots of other people doing just as much or more than what I do. But I feel like putting this here will help me sort through some of the stuff floating around in my head... like... what to do next fall? Or, which adventure is next? SO bear with me for two (long) paragraphs. It's helping me! :-)

Pretty soon, it was pep band, play practice (we did Footloose this year - that's a whole 'nother blog post in itself!), all-state choir, and plenty of "homework" to do to keep on top of things for my classes, at least two parades, new shirts, lots of misplaced paperwork... Oh, yes, and monthly 6:45 trainings for the new "ISTEP" program in Utah... which we apparently piloted.... I was invited to be the church choir director on top of my teaching duties, and later became the "standby" organist - turning out to be the "full time" organist... and choir accompanist (surprise!!). This year, we had 12 in the pep band - an improvement from last year's 9. We had a few marching bands come and use the field at the school, so I spent a day outside with my band watching them rehearse for competition, we had a communal lunch with them, and I convinced (maybe just conned) some kids into staying in band because of these other bands being so amazing. Veteran's day assembly, the school play opens, Thanksgiving... Plenty of musical adventures! Christmas concert, and I got all the music copies put away before we left for winter break!! (that's actually huge...) Last year, I was at the school three times over winter break to get the music put up... (apparently this all happens in the first 16 weeks of school... the more I think about it, the more I realize that it was insanity for all those days)

Then, we return from winter break!

Honor choir, UMEA, honor bands, basketball band (which - has a slightly different combination of students - some who played football are now in, and some who are playing basketball are now out), solo and ensemble (region and state), region festival (we hosted this year), state basketball competition (away games... 2 hours away...), end of year concert, graduation - (which I might add includes three musical numbers by the entire senior class), singing valentines, community performances... The fun never ends! The week before school let out, we had a guest performance from a middle school in the district. They came and played for us - it was awesome. :-)

While I wish things got easier in the second half - it's simply not the case. In fact, I'm starting to think that, well, maybe it's time to move on to something different! Don't throw things at me just yet! I was thinking I might want to take a different teaching position - somewhere a little bigger and a little less... different.

Second week of March, I get a non-renewal notice - no job in the fall. TAILSPIN! That changes everything, you know!! The last 12 weeks of school were rough! But, we all made it through. I didn't hurt anybody, managed to pull off an amazing "collage" concert, hosted the region festival (which went quite well) and got everything put away, cleaned up, and ready so I could turn in the keys on the last day of school. One decision was definitely made - I'm not back at the school next year...

So -

that opens up a new can of worms. Now that I've had almost two weeks to "decompress," I'm wondering if teaching is really what I want to do. I mean - don't get me wrong - I love working in the classroom, giving new opportunities to the kids, developing their musical skills, pushing myself (and everyone else) beyond their current capacity, and even going on these trips and outings! What's the issue? I'm totally exhausted all the bloody time. Can't even sleep for being so tired!! (actually, that's not true... it's the nightmares of being trapped in the building that were the issue) That's not really a way to live... Pay is good, the kids are great, and [most] parents and coworkers are awesome!

But!

There isn't much "personal time." (Is that even a thing anymore?) I mean, there's either no time or no energy to go do other stuff (usually don't line up... I guess that's part of being an adult), and I would love to have gone on a few dates!

 Anyway -

I'm strongly considering moving into another career field... (and maybe a new city) Perhaps one that I don't have to be everything to everyone... (does that exist?). I might keep teaching, but so far have only two interviews (one is forthcoming; put in tons of applications) and haven't had much success yet... The signs are kinda pointing in other directions!

Summer Fun
Last year, at some point, I went to the local Chinese restaurant - the food was great - and at the end, I got one of those fortune cookies. When I read the little paper inside, it said, "Next summer, you will march to a different beat." I thought it was funny - I mean - I teach drummers, I march, and, well, it was just funny to me! Well, here I am!

Now that it's summer, I'm trying to figure out just what I want to do. I kept thinking of all these awesome things last year - and I wish I'd written them down!! So, aside from looking for new work, I'm also looking for something to do.

I'll practice my bassoon, clean up around the apartment, do some computer training, and maybe I'll even go on some wild adventure - gonna hit up the beach or maybe the grand canyon (I mean, it's only four hours from here...)! One thing is certain, I need to go see my sister in Colorado... There's a new nephew I haven't seen yet! (and he's already a year old!!)

So, dear readers... what are your plans this summer?

An Interesting Week

Well, it's one week into July. Yay! We're nearly halfway through summer break. Boo... It's been nice to have some time to relax, but sometimes, I want to be back at the school, because there is so much to do. (Must resist!)

This last week was a wild ride. It's crazy that it's already been a week since we got home from IDRS. While we were driving through Vegas last week, the car thermometer registered at 120° F. It was hot in California and all the way home. We had over 100° here in Cedar, which is not typical for the end of June. Usually, it's the end of July before we get that hot.

On Monday, I toured a couple of housed. I'm looking at buying a house! I walked through a couple of nice places, but then I have found a house that I'm pretty stoked about. It's a one-story two-bed, two-bath cottage, with a sweet shed and landscaping. Next week, I'm going to talk to the realtor about putting in an offer! :) Exciting? I think so! Rent is more than what I'll be paying on mortgage at this place, so I'm checking things out.

What else happened this week? I sang in the Interfaith Choir this week. Our concert was called "Seven Miracles that Saved America." The turnout was great, and we really had a nice concert. I sang first tenor, and I tell you what... I couldn't hit the A above middle C if my life depended on it that night. Oh well. It was good, anyway.

Gone to a Conference

Last week, I did something super fun. Don't laugh! It's nerd-con for double reed players! :-) (For anyone who reads this and doesn't know what nerd-con is or what double reed players are, Google can tell you.) It turned into quite an investment, but I feel a lot better about life after rubbing shoulders with some of the most amazing bassoon and oboe players in the world.

So, about a year ago, I talked to my friend, Ben, about going to the International Double Reed Society convention in southern California. It takes that long to get organized enough to go! We saved up our money, then we drove to Redlands to go to the conference. The thing is, with these conferences, it's a lot of money, a lot of travel, but the payoff is getting to listen to some amazing players, meet really cool people, and attend masterclasses and workshops that help you be a better DR player.

Ben and I went to a lot of recitals, concerts, and masterclasses this last week. Sometimes, it felt like being back in college! We stayed in the dorms, went to classes, and played in quite a few sight reading sessions. It makes me remember just how fun it is to play the bassoon. Our local orchestra does a pretty good job of playing quality repertoire, holding regular rehearsals, and performing a lot. But, it is a small-town community orchestra. So, getting to play in sessions like these with other college-and-beyond-level players is a real treat!

My favorite are sight-reading sessions. A group of IDRS members collects music, and three times nearly every day, anyone who wants to perform, does. We get together and play with whomever shows up. During the conference, we played in duets, trios, quartets, octets, and mixed large groups (with ...oboists... and English horn players). (the triple-dotted "oboists" is a joke. please laugh.)

All in all, it was a great conference, and only once did I want to kill Ben. I'm sure there was once or twice he wanted to kill me too. However, neither of us killed the other (obviously), and we are still friends now.

Now that we're back in Utah, though, I'm trying to sort out what I need to do here at the house... It's a little overwhelming. I managed to finish the laundry. Check! Now for all that other stuff I don't want to do. Things like cleaning the fish tank, tidying up the basement, going through all my stuff so when I find a place to move I don't go crazy packing up all the junk that I don't need... You know that kind of thing. The last nine months (during school), I was only home like twice a week, so my living spaces are kind of disastrous. I made a half-effort a few weeks ago to tidy up, but then I took all my things out of the living space in the basement and made a new mess on the floor in my bedroom... *sigh*

The garden is looking really good right now. I've got some very healthy-looking tomato plants, squash and corn. The beans and peppers are kind of limping along (I think I've got to decrease the watering for those particular plants), and the rhubarb is just kind of there... Something is eating the leaves and it's not looking to happy right now! Stinking bugs!!

What else? I think that's it for now. Just the usual day to day! OH! By the way, I lost somewhere around 17 pounds! :-D Some of my clothes are too big to fit. I went to help some friends move from their apartment and forgot my belt. I had a hard time keeping my pants up! A minor inconvenience -- and proud of my weight loss!

Just some stuff

I'm impressed with how quickly time goes by when you are relaxing. Don't get me wrong, I'm not sitting around doing nothing with my summer, it's still chock full of good stuff, but I am surprised just how quickly June 2nd turned into June 12th...

This week, I've participated in the bell choir, sung with the interfaith choir, played bassoon trios, installed a drip line sprinkler system in the garden, cleaned the basement (and subsequently messed up a bunch of other stuff...), searched for a new home (and looked at listings of literally hundreds of southern Utah homes - some of which won't work because they are in other counties or ...Beaver...), rode over 20 miles (multiple trips) on my bike, and started to get back into shape!

My summer has been good. The drip line might be my biggest accomplishment so far. That felt good. Plus, I killed a black widow spider in the process! (Don't judge... Those things are hateful!) If the thing is dumb enough to hide in the hinge of the sprinkler valve box, it deserves to be squashed.

I'll have to get some photos up from the garden. I'm pretty proud of it! There are tomatoes, rhubarb, squash, zucchini, lima and green beans, bell peppers, and corn. It's not a huge area, but it's a good size, and the plants are pretty healthy.

Today, when I turned on the water to the sprinkler system, I realized that I hadn't put plugs in all the holes in the main water line (I'm using recycled hose lines). AND, the pressure was a little too high for my little garden area. Thus, one section of sprinkler sprayed about 20 feet into the air, catching the wind, and blowing over the fence into the neighbor's yard. I patched that hole, then started the system again. One of the drip valves blew out (aiming at me, of course), blasting a pretty solid stream of water in my direction. Luckily, the wind kicked up right about then, thus I avoided getting totally soaked! Replaced said drip head... twice... and started the system up with much less pressure. SUCCESS! :-)

I talked about riding my bike. That's been fun. I told my brother the other day that my route took me through the adjacent neighborhood to mine, up the running trail, down the hill around the block to the grocery store, back up the hill (oof!), then down the trail and back home. Turned out to be a really good route... just with a lot of uphill! That one section didn't look so enormous until I had to go up it with my heavy bike at the lowest gear. I passed the same old man watering his lawn going down and going back up. I think he made a face the second time I saw him...

Bell choir was pretty awesome. I've never done that before! My first experience was pretty good, too. I had three notes: F, Gb, and  G. Turns out that some of the pieces they are playing have a lot of those notes! I got tied up at one point holding all three bells in my hands and trying to play them sequentially... Just for the record that doesn't work... Gotta do one bell at a time! Anyway, it's good practice for when I do some bell things at the school next year. OK, so they're not fancy bells, but they'll do -- Suzuki Tonechimes. We used to play them in elementary school pretty regularly, and now I have a set in my classroom! w00t!