Taking Stock

So the Dancer is officially done with high school, and the Musician is getting married in October! Time to do my own thing is becoming increasingly less scarce. Even though I'm really introverted, I'm still trying to find new ways to get out of the house, that I'll enjoy. I already attend a knit/crochet group once a month, and I'm trying to find people locally who are interested in doll collecting. I like going to baseball games, and it'd be fun to go to a concert once in a while. Neither my husband nor daughters are interested in the same music I am, nor are they interested enough in baseball to swing tickets, for the price.

At the same time, while scanning Google Plus a few days ago, I realized how few of these people online are my actual friends. It was enjoyable having other people to talk to about homeschooling, for example, while I was still doing that. But quite a while back, I realized that during the last period of time when Mr. BTEG and I were especially suffering through a difficult situation, we had absolutely nobody there for us. Our pastor did come and commune us, since Mr. BTEG's health hardly let him leave the house at that time. But it was just Mr. BTEG and I in the day-to-day struggle, me mostly trying to support him and be there for our girls. And now that I have more time to make better friends, even if some of them are still online friends, I don't want to waste thoughts or time or bandwidth on people that I don't have a real relationship with. And with more discretionary income and time, I can focus more on things I've always wanted to try, and maybe make real friends that way too.

This may not become strictly a hobby blog, but I think posting about new things I'm trying, and hopefully new people that I meet, will make for some fun blog posts. I may go back more to posting about current events, if I have a bloggable opinion. Because I like blogging! I've been able to interact and meet with some fun people while I've been writing this blog, and I'm hoping I'll meet more. Next time I blog, it will probably about my lunch date with a friend either in Ohio City or the Tremont neighborhood. I've never been to Tremont, although that neighborhood has been livened up by the development of the Christmas Story House and Museum. Don't know if we'll visit that, but if we do end up in that area, I'll take pictures.

I'm Goin' Off the Rails

Okay, Pauli, I see your Thunderbusters, and raise you Take Me on the Crazy Train.

Something Different

One of the things I am finding I like about Mr. BTEG's current job, is that people are relatively social outside of work. Tuesday night a group of Mr. BTEG's co-workers and their wives got together at a bar called Happy Dog, in Cleveland. I hadn't been in that area of Cleveland before that I can remember, and there was a very interesting atmosphere, urban, but not scary urban as certain areas of Cleveland can be.

Anyway, a very interesting night. There was classical music, and a trio singing Christmas carols (the bass was sick), all from the Cleveland Institute of Music. I think I'd like to try it when a different music genre was there. I guess I'm totally uncool, but most of the modern classical stuff didn't really cut it for me. Especially one piece where either the piano was wildly out of tune, or there were notes that deliberately sounded grating to the ear. Physically painful, even.

We had a chance to see hipsters in their natural habitat. Lots of them. I took anthropological notes. :D

For some reason, I really found it funny that atop the upright piano, was a bust lamp of Elvis. A very large bust of Elvis. In blues. The lampshade shook when the modern classical musicians were pounding on the piano keys, but Elvis stayed solid.

This bar serves hot dogs, tater tots and french fries, and beer. However, you can get about thirty different toppings for your hot dogs and tater tots. Including mole, the Mexican chocolatey stuff. Which, no.

I found it interesting that the cellist, who looked very Korean, was named Carlos.

Wait, what?

This is already all over the internets, but as a resident of O-H-I-O, I have to pass this picture on. Just click over to Ace's place to see that our president thinks Ohio is spelled O-I-H-A. And deodorant is optional.

If you need a palate cleanser, watch this video of students from the Burke School perform an Irish dance to Hang On Sloopy, Ohio State's song. This is a better video than the one that I have, but I took one of this dance the same year. I think you can see Mr. BTEG and I off to the left of the screen every so often.

Music

On Friday, the Musician's high school had the privilege of hosting a Drum Corps International competition. For all the band students at my daughter's high school, it was a great opportunity to see these Corps, as Drum Corps International features the very best brass and percussion corps in the country. The Corps practice perhaps twelve hours a day in the heat of the summer, and when they are not performing or practicing, they are on a tour bus or sleeping on a gym floor. The bands also feature a color guard, dancers who moved flags or twirled batons, sabres, ribbons or wooden rifles, who work very hard as well. There was so much activity going on on the whole football field, that you couldn't take everything in at once. It was also fun to watch the judges, who literally get right into the competition. There were eight different judges, each rating one portion of the presentation. Judges follow the band around the field, talking into a recorder to preserve their observations in real time. One judge who particularly stood out was tall and stocky, and was the one who wove the most in and out among the musicians, gesticulating wildly with one arm. It must be very hard to face forward and maintain your composure while a judge is ducking under your tuba!

Have you seen any of the videos where two songs are mashed together? Like Thunderbusters? Well, the DCI corps Music City out of Nashville, Tennessee, presented a program called Phantom of the Grand Ole Opery. Somehow they managed to weave in Ring of Fire and the theme song Phantom of the Opera, then Your Cheatin' Heart and Music of the Night. They also played Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This), Point of No Return, Stand By Your Man and All I Ask of You. The male color guard members wore Phantom style half-masks for most of their performance. I couldn't help but think how hot it must have been to wear those.

All the DCI groups had some kind of "theme," although some of them were more obvious than others. The thing I noticed most about the 7th Regiment out of New London, Connecticut, was the drum major. With a fu manchu mustache, large but well built, he looked like he could be a bouncer during the rest of the year. With the Vanguard Cadets out of Santa Clara, California, the theme was Heroes and Legends, and we got a beheading(!).

It was a fun night if you enjoy marching bands (minus the woodwinds.) If nothing else, the work that the kids put in should definitely be appreciated.

Life's Little Oddities

For a desperately needed mental lift for the Evil Genius, three members of the Evil Genius family went to our nearest Winking Lizard restaurant. As we were seated, surrounded by large televisions, I was irked that the baseball game on was between the evil Red Sox and the even eviller Yankees. So we get the game on our TV turned to the Indians. Heaven. So there I am watching the game, eating a delicious Angus burger, jamming to a cool song (it was Pulling Mussels by Squeeze if you must know) and I realize my husband and the Dancer are not really into the game (or the music.) Not only that, but I start watching a preseason football game on another television involving the Evil Team that my husband roots for, and he's not interested in that either. I love Mr. Evil Genius more than anyone else, but not only am I the biggest sports fan in the house, but the man of the house isn't really all that big on sports. Heh.

Oh, and my family really hates it when I jump up and down screaming while one of the Browns runs into the endzone. Yelling and sticking my hands up in the air when an Indians player goes yard is slightly more tolerated.

Running Again

I found my machine oil. It was in a little crate with some other bathroom items. I keep it in the bathroom because, where else is easier to clean up if some of the oil happens to spill?

We're going to be very busy for a while here, and I hate having so much on my plate. Curriculum night at the middle school tonight, ice cream social for the high school marching band tomorrow. Fortunately, Daddy will be the one taking the girls school supply shopping on Saturday. I will probably be the one taking the girls shopping for a few new clothes. Next week, marching band preview night, then the first day of school. Then the football games start, then the dance classes start. I guess it will keep me out of trouble. :)

I Want My MTV

I was just about to start my eighth grade year when MTV debuted. It was the coolest thing ever! I hadn't remembered the MTV logo flashing on the moon flag, but I found that so awesome back then. Now so much of it looks so cheesy! The open shirt on Mark Goodman! Oooh, edgy!

Sirius Radio already features four of the original MTV VJs as the hosts of the 80's on 8 channel. They did a tribute show today, playing the songs in order as the videos appeared on TV. They also had guests in like Pat Benatar. The reactions of the VJs ranged from "Good times, good times" to "I can't believe we played this dreck." After hearing Nina Blackwood back then versus Nina today, I also think she's smoked about two packs a day since then. Here then, is the first ten minutes of MTV.

The Circle Comes Back Around

The Musician is the one who made the choice for her current name on this blog to be: the Musician. I think she picked this name because the big extracurricular interest for her in high school at the moment is the high school marching and concert band. She enjoys being with her friends but she also does want to play her parts well.

I forget what made us get the Musician started taking piano lessons. I think it was because she wanted to take guitar, and honestly, Mr. BTEG and I felt that piano was a better choice to actually learn to read the notes and learn about scales and chords. I imagine we were open to her learning guitar but we wanted her to have a sound musical foundation first. She did well; she even performed in front of judges for a competition, which I thought was impressive considering she was only about seven or so.

Her piano teacher was also a former opera singer. The Musician sang the words as she played some of her piano pieces, and her teacher suggested she take voice lessons as well. She didn't do the voice lessons for long, but to my lay ears you can tell that she did have some training. She also picked up a few extra instruments and played around with them: a flute carved out of wood, a Scottish whistle, an Irish drum. She wasn't a prodigy; we never thought music would be her life, but she did show a musical bent.

So what happened next? Well, she didn't want to practice. I suppose we could have forced her to do so, but it seemed like a really good way to kill any little interest in music that she had left, and it would have been as much work or more for us to make her do it.

She still played around with instruments occasionally, inherited a student guitar from a friend of ours and picked up some chords. Fast forward to public school in eighth grade, when she decides she is interested in learning percussion. We didn't have an extra lot of money lying around, so we advised her to ask her music teacher (from whom she was taking general music) if he knew someone who could teach her percussion inexpensively. He suggested she join concert band and she did for the second half of the school year. She lacked experience but could still read music fairly well and picked up percussion quickly, leading her to being in pit in the marching band, and playing bells and similar in concert band.

Now a friend of ours, who has a musical background, has starting giving her voice lessons after hearing her sing in church. He will also be teaching her how to play the cornet. She borrowed that from a friend whose mother used to play it. She's also expressing interest in playing the organ, although goodness knows how she'd practice. She'll still never be a professional or anything, but her father and I are glad to see a deeper interest in music coming back. And that those piano lessons we paid for were worth something!

Bad Weather

Our little bit of excitement for the night was going to the Dancer's orchestra concert and being told before the program started that everyone needed to get to the basement. Seeing how the weather was shaping up on the way to the school, I was really not surprised. Before everyone got down the basement, however, the superintendent showed up and told everyone that the concert was canceled and everyone should go home, as the bad weather went by us. The Dancer was not pleased about having her concert canceled almost literally at the last minute, but I imagine they will reschedule it.

This has been an awful spring, hasn't it? So many people have lost their lives, have lost family members, pets, possessions, their homes. The Evil Genius family has its own problems right now, but we also have so much that is good.

Just heard the emergency blurb squawk from the television. Going to see what's up now. May be just a flood warning, though.

Projects

I think I've mentioned before that my attention span is something akin to a toddler's. I also need to have more than one thing going on. I have an awfully hard time getting projects done. I generally only knit, for example, while the Dancer is in one of her classes, because I can multi-task. Watching the Dancer, listening to the music and knitting occupies all of my mind. Just sitting and knitting would bore me immensely. I have two projects I ought to get done before the Easter weekend, as they are birthday gifts that are already rather belated. It just occurred to me the other day that I should make myself a case for my glasses. I have to take them off when I am doing anything close up. Isn't that the opposite of what is normal? Anyway, a case would give me someplace safe to put them. I don't like to just stick them in my purse where my keys and so forth are.

I also do better even at household chores when I have music to listen to. I'm so thankful for satellite radio. It's not that expensive, and I can listen to it on my phone. It is hard to pick up radio stations out here, even though we're definitely part of metro Cleveland. And talk radio, you guessed it, bores me. Plus, the quality of "old school" radio is decreasing. Like so many other things, there is less offered for what I'd imagine is the same amount or more in advertising intake.

Speaking of music, I find it funny and heart-warming that the girls like older music and not just the current pop stuff. The Musician likes AC/DC and GNR, and we can rock out together to "Don't Stop Believing." The Dancer is singing "Footloose" as part of her school concert, so she's all "Been workin', so hard, I'm punchin', my card." It's nice to have things that bring us together. :)

It's Pouring Sunshine and Rage

I've been a fan of Plumb for years, but I happened to stumble across this video tonight for a song I hadn't heard before. It says a lot in a few words about the manic state.

Mad World

And it's really kind of funny
It's really kind of sad
The dreams in which I'm dying
Are the best I've ever had

Don't Blink

Wow, the days are going by quickly! In a couple of days, the girls will be home for winter break. The Musician will also be celebrating a birthday soon. I have most of the gifts purchased, although I have to exchange some earrings. The Dancer came home today, and her friend had given her the same three-pack that I bought the Dancer for Christmas. Oops. They were, of course, ballerina-themed earrings.

Speaking of dance, the Dancer has started assisting at a tap class for 7-8 year-olds. Great experience for her, but another day to be at the dance studio. We do get the Dancer's tap classes for free now, though.

The Dancer's Winter Concert was tonight. The chorale did sing the J-word in one of the songs. :O The Dancer participated in the String Orchestra, and the band also played. The high school freshmen musicians in attendance, including my Musician, were scoping the band for future members. :) Yes, these current 6th graders will be getting Freshmen Wake-Up from the current crop of freshmen, in only three years. I'm sure it will come all too quickly.

Be True to Your School

Too tired tonight to do a serious post, so I'll just talk a bit further about the American high school experience, as this week is Homecoming week at my daughter's high school. Tomorrow is Hogwarts Day; every class is assigned their own house. Freshmen are Hufflepuff; the Musician is wearing black and yellow and planning to speak with a British accent all day! Tomorrow night is a bonfire at the high school; the band is playing so the Musician has to be there, but I'm sure she'll enjoy it. Friday at school is of course Spirit Day, when the school colors are worn. Friday night is the big Homecoming football game, then Saturday is the Homecoming parade. Crazy busy, but will be very fun!

High School Bands

The Musician took part in an event called Band-O-Rama last night. Six Ohio high school bands, including hers, performed at our high school. Let me get the awful part out of the way, which is that there was a freak accident last night and a young man was taken away in an ambulance. I'm going to try to find out how things went this week; I really hope he's okay. Don't want to post too many details online.

So, on to the fun part. It was interesting seeing all the different approaches the bands took. Team F danced into the stadium, with their band director dancing beside them. They also had a colored red light in their sousaphones, red being one of their school colors. Sousaphones, let it be known, are the slightly smaller version of a tuba, and are usually used in marching bands. Tubas wrap around the waist and not the shoulder and are generally used whilst sitting down.

Team S had 287 band members!!! That's almost 3/4 of the entire population of my high school alma mater when I graduated. It took 12 buses to haul them and their instruments into town. Their trombone section did a "suicide line" at the beginning of their program. A suicide line is when a player alternately bends forward, and swings his instrument over his neighbor who is bending forward. Someone in the stands behind us kept commenting how their band must have so much more money, since there are so many more band boosters, etc. Yeah, and they also have more members to fund, costume and transport.

Team A had an electric guitarist as part of their band. They also did a four-season musical theme, with their color guard using a seasonal flag for each song. Alas, the only two songs I can remember are "Summertime" and "Hazy Shade of Winter."

Team E was absolutely the most fun. They also did a catchy dance routine coming into the stadium, and they did a fun little moment in the middle of one of their songs, where they put down their instruments and played leapfrog, pantomimed cat fights and fist fights, and some of the drum guys in the back even threw around a football. They also did a little act at the beginning of one of their songs where some of the band members were pushing and shuffling around like they didn't know where to stand. Their last song even ended with a field full of smoke, from what looked like fire extinguishers but I can only assume were some kind of safer smoke propellant. However, the Musician did think that their performance of Seven Nation Army was not as good as her band does. This is a whole other band in the video, although coincidentally also a local one.

So speaking of the Musician's band, they performed last, as the home band. Their band director is very stiff and formal. No dancing, no smoke, no goofy routines. They were also the only ones that performed several pieces outside of the general pop and rock genre. Their theme this year is "La Nouba," featuring songs from Cirque du Soleil. They played three songs from "La Nouba," and also Queen's "Crazy Little Thing Called Love." They had, I believe, the largest color guard, and their baton twirlers had the fanciest costumes. The baton twirlers' costumes were a step up from their normal ones, however, and seem to be only for competition type events. The color guard and baton team also did a nifty number where large balls made out of six hoops were brought out onto the field. These balls were pulled apart to form hula hoops, which the dancers than tossed around the field. They were very good musically, and the dancers fun to watch.

Never Gonna Give You Up

Due to the incredible pop culture movement that is rickrolling, Rick Astley has returned to the music scene!

This, after rickrolling the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade.

XKCD also caught rickrolling fever.

H/T: Ace of Spades

Tired

I have a post brewing, but at the moment I am tuckered out. The Musician is in marching band and had Band Camp this week, so I drove her to and from the high school twice a day, in addition to dropping off and picking up my husband at the bus stop. Then there was an Ice Cream Social for the band tonight, in addition to getting all the parents to sign up for stuff.

We're seriously getting into that time of our lives when we're going to spend our time driving our girls around to activities. We may as well enjoy it, because I'm sure it will speed right by. Mr. BTEG is already working concessions at the high school football game next week. Let the fun begin!

Puzzlement

The Dancer has started taking violin lessons at school this year, and she seems to be enjoying it, so I want to get a violin for her American Girl doll for Christmas. I may not like the direction the company is going, but I must admit the products they make for the dolls are lovely. Other stores for 18" dolls offer a violin, bow and case. American Girl's set also includes a pretend block of rosin, two music books and a music stand. I thought about checking out eBay to see what I could get there. Oddly enough, incomplete sets are going for only a dollar or two less than you can buy the set for from American Girl. What's up with that? Granted, the last auction I watched *said* that the set was no longer available in stores, but a quick check of American Girl's online shop would refute that. Back in the old days when bulletin boards reigned, people would buy things from stores and sell them online for a profit, with the argument that some people didn't have a Wal-Mart or a Target close by. Nowadays when you can get everything online, I don't understand why people are willing to pay so close to retail for sets that don't even have all the pieces. Do people not search online, or do they not want to buy directly from American Girl? Those are my only two thoughts.

School Days, School Days

Having the girls going to public school is weird, although oddly enough, having the Dancer attend is weirder than the Equestrienne. The Equestrienne went to a parochial school for kindergarten through second grade, so there seems to be a certain familiarity with the concept. The Dancer attended only a year of preschool and a year of Pre-K at the same parochial school, something I'm glad we did. It was only half a day, and not all five weekdays, so it was mostly just a time to have fun and have books read to her and eat snacks and be around other little ones. She, of course, thought she was all that, with her shiny backpack, but that was part of the fun. Anyway, I've been so used to homeschooling the Dancer that this is feeling a little strange.

There are some good things about her attending public school. She will be receiving group violin lessons; the only cost to us will be renting the instrument, and what we pay can all go towards an eventual purchase if she decides to continue music. She is also making friends, and riding the bus has helped her meet kids that live in our neighborhood.

Despite the local tax support, there are fundraisers. That's one of the downsides. Turning in boxtops is not very hard, but magazine sales are another story. Who knows what else will take place later this school year? The cost of publicly educating children continues to astound me.

Mr. BTEG and I are also still rather involved in the Dancer's education. There are some subjects she needs help in, although she hates to admit it, and in the end it is our responsibility to see she learns what she needs. One thing I am seeing with the Dancer is that, although she can read quite well and with comprehension, she is not picking up much from reading in regards to grammar or spelling. I am going to supplement her education here at home to keep her at or get her up to grade level. I don't like the social studies the Dancer gets instead of history, but I will concede that she is learning useful things about maps and climates and so forth. I would have rolled it into history studies, but I'm not teaching now. It's been a little hard for me to deal with! The Equestrienne is assigned projects on the computer, which her father helps her with, and he also helps with math.

Knowing so many other homeschoolers now makes me feel awkward and out of place. I have no doubt that outside schooling is best for the Equestrienne, and I can see advantages for the Dancer, but I still have stirrings of guilt. Perhaps with good reason, I think there is still defensiveness on the part of homeschoolers, but it disturbs me slightly to see all the "Homeschooling Is So Great!" posts. It comes down to what is best for our family at this point in time, and it will help me to remember that.