destination wedding: regina edition

Hello again reader,

This summer, vacation plans centred around my friend Charlotte getting married in Regina, Saskatchewan. As far as destination weddings go - this destination wasn't the most exciting in the world. So - plans started forming about the epic roadtrip that could develop from heading west.

Here are the stats:

I left August 7 and returned about 5 hours ago (August 25 - promptly found a dead mouse under the sink and have spent all afternoon being grossed out about that and not putting away any of my crap...)

Anyways...

Over the last 18 sleeps I have

- put 11,544 more kilometres on my car (Ethyl)
- driven through 12 states (New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, Nebraska, Wyoming, Utah, Idaho, Oregon, Washington)
- driven through 5 provinces (British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario)
- slept in my car 4 nights (Akron, Ohio; Atlanta, Iowa; Rock Springs, Wyoming; Winnipeg, Manitoba)
- slept in a hotel 4 nights (Troutdale, Oregon; Langley, British Columbia; Marathon, Ontario; North Bay, Ontario)
- slept in an airbnb apartment 4 nights (Regina, Saskatchewan)
- slept at Uncle Hans and Aunt Kinga's 1 night (Calgary, Alberta)
- slept at Shawn's 1 night (Saskatoon, Saskatchewan)
- slept at Michelle and Stu's 4 nights (Blumenort, Manitoba)

I have driven over the mountains, through the prairies, over the mountains, and back again.

I put my feet in the Pacific Ocean at Rockaway Beach in Oregon.

I got to hang out with Erica, Hans & Kinga, Megan, Shawn, Peter, Charlotte, Stephen, others at the wedding that I knew before, and those that it only feels like I knew them before, Nathan & Katy, and Michelle & Stu.

I had mostly good weather - there were a couple days where it was too hot for my non-air conditioned car, and a couple days where it rained all day (read the whole drive across Ontario) but overall I was comfortable.

I stopped at a stop on the Pony Express.

I stood on the top of beautiful gorges and was utterly awed while driving through them.

I played piano for a friends wedding at the oldest building in Saskatchewan (Regina?) - the chapel in depot.

I got to see a lot of Labrador people and it felt somewhat like home.

I visited places I have only read about.

More importantly I took a break.

Now I am back in Ottawa. I have 2 papers due by Monday but I would like to be done before Friday (1st day of work).

I should get to unpacking so I can sleep in my bed tonight...

It is 6 am and I have not yet been to bed. I am currently sitting in the school cafeteria watching the kids who were too stubborn to just go to bed despite bloodshot eyes and cranky attitudes. I'm doing fairly well - I got a 10 minute nap before heading out to lead discussion for a play at a local high school. That finished around 10/10:30 after which I headed back to Redeemer to start my chaperoning duties.

My hope is to sleep while they watch a movie this morning - we'll see if it actually happens or not. I have spent much of the evening staring at my civics notes... didn't get as far as I wanted - so I guess I"ll be doing that later...

I have no idea what I am saying anymore... This note shall stop.

school is officially over i guess - for the kids anyways. yesterday they wrote their last exams and went off on their merry way. so today is the first of a week and a half where the teachers come in and do their thing. i always have stuff to do for the first couple of days - for example right now i should be writing report card comments - but eventually the lists start getting checked off and we are all ready to hit the road. so far this morning i've already planned a baby shower, what to do for good byes for the people leaving and got someone else to plan the yearly staff lunch. i have emailed the realtor for the house that i want to buy and even got steve to start on fixing my coat rack for me... too bad none of this is helping get the report card comments finished - but it is fun.

i started a second blog - dailysmashrv.blogspot.ca - it is called 'sometimes' and it is my goal to do daily updates here with one line and a picture. so far i've done 3... we'll see if this is something i can keep up with.

sometimes your brother lets you borrow his car...

sometimes your drama student hands in an assignment with this on the cover...

you know when you're a teenager and watching a movie with your parents and that awkward sexually infused scene comes on the screen and you end up sitting very still in hopes that the scene will pass and the movie will return to normal and no one needs to comment on anything that just went down. i have decided it is even more awkward when you are sitting next to your boss and you are watching various scenes from high school shows that happened in ottawa this year.
last night i had the pleasure of attending the cappies gala at the nac - there is no sarcasm in that - i honestly enjoy the gala.... it is basically like the tonys for high school students. all year students have been attending each participating school's plays/musicals and writing reviews that get posted in the citizen and then nominate their peers in a variety of categories which culminates in this huge award show. it is loud, high energy, and long.... but i love it. throughout the evening, each show nominated for best play/musical has the opportunity to perform an excerpt. my kids were nominated for charlie brown last year and got to perform - this year we were not nominated in that category so we got to watch (decidedly less stressful). i am pretty sure that of the 10 scenes we saw, 8 were full of sexual innuendo... this is not an abnormal thing in theatre - believe me, i have read many a play over the last 3 years attempting to find something that is appropriate for our school community and very few fit the bill. obviously the public/catholic schools have a different yardstick to measure the appropriateness of their theatre (as they should i guess) but it led to an evening of me trying to sit very still and my boss leaning over after most clips saying "we will NOT be doing that one next year"
the evening was good - we did not win anything, but were nominated for 3 (props, composition, and lead actress). i enjoyed sitting in a box - i got a comfy swivel chair and was able to put my feet up on the edge of the box and i could see everything clearly - also i did not go deaf from the insane cheering that happens... but it also meant missing all the insane cheering and whatnot. all in all a good evening.

All the nominees gather back on the stage at the end of the show for a final number. 

It is 11pm and I am currently sitting on the floor in the hallway of a residence building waiting for the sounds of chatter to cease in the rooms around me so I can end this vigil and go to bed. I have a feeling that morning is going to come rather quickly and despite the new bed yet again - I will be sleeping semi-soundly tonight. Well - soundly while still keeping one ear open for kids in the halls.
Today went well. Laughed that everytime we climbed back on the bus all the teacher chaperones immidiately conked out for 30 minutes or so... Almost like we anticipated the little amount of sleep in store for us. The kids told me today that most teachers have a no sense of humour - but I do.... While I think they were intending that as a compliment all I can think is that I must be doing something wrong.
This has been a busy couple of weeks... The play ramped up to 3-4 hour rehearsals every day after school and on Easter Monday finally culminating in 4 exhausting performances. It is so stressful to be that on edge for weeks straight. We went from it being "the 6.5 hour" show the week before we were on to the "2.5 hour" show (a place I was comfortable) to the "1.5 hour" show on dress rehearsal day - im still not really sure how they pulled that one off. The performances tended to sit closer to the 2.10 mark which I was happy with. The shows went well - the crowds and the cappies seemed to like us - we find out May 13 if we've been nominated for anything - fingers crossed.
The week after the play closed we had choir festival. I LOVED it this year - mostly because Jen was one of the conductors and it was nice to catch up with her - and she was such an influence on who I am as a conductor that it was fun for me to hear from my kids how similar we run things. We slept over at the school this year which meant I got very little sleep, but it was great for the kids and itwas nice that we had the chance to do one last midnight rehearsal together. On the way back a van broke down so we had the added fun of spending an hour or so on the side of the 401. My kids amused themselves by singing through all the worship songs on my ipad - it didnt seem to phase them.
This week it's school trips. Im in Quebec with the grade 10s.
It is 11:45pm and all seems quiet. I am off to bed.

there were approx 5 minutes last week when i felt like things were in control.

i was in the middle of a number of email conversations / text conversations, i had my lessons planned and was up to date on my marking. i may have even slept well the night before.

then the 5 minutes ended.

mid-conversation.

life picked up, and while i am currently taking time to write this, it is definitely taking the place of "more important" things that have to get done. the ministry inspector came to visit our school last week - and surprisingly came to visit me. i always major stress out about these visits and do many late nights etc. getting my binders back up to snuff, lesson plans printed and properly organized, kids refreshed as to what 'assessment as/of/for learning' is, etc. normally i do this but am still mercifully left alone. no one wants to visit the drama class - you never know what might be happening. but this year, the inspector was a retired drama teacher - so into the bat-cave (aka my classroom) he appeared. it wasn't nearly as bad as i expected and i think it was the day following his visit that i felt calm again.

but then 11:30 came and classes began. things need to be printed in advance; music kids need help with their compositions - trying to learn their version of finale on the fly; lines are not memorized for the play; the design for the taxi needs to be approved; choir festival is in 3 weeks - can you get the music up on edmodo so we can practice at home; someone needs to buy makeup, hairbands, screws; don't forget you need to purchase a piano this year; bible study topic of the week is 'predestination' - be sure you've read your articles and bible passages and have a handle on things; mark the journals and the practice logs and the compositions and the reflections; teach the play kids how to waltz; plan what you are going to teach; teach.

i have to-do lists everywhere which is not helping the organization.

but amid the madness there are moments of greatness. skyping with the boys in uganda; doing the 'ugandan mile' - singing one direction songs at a coffee house accompanied by the accordion, having my drama class present a hilariously accurate portrayal of the teachers at this school, playing truth or dare with the grade 11 girls at 2 am, watching frozen as a school after most of them had not slept, those 3 hours of sleep in my own bed between truth or dare and frozen, talking on the phone with the boys at kwagala because their power was out and we couldn't skype but we still got to share the success of our fundraiser and have a joint 'pizza' party; worship team practice with scott, rich, roelof, and curtis while so tired you could barely see straight; seeing the play kids in costume starting to see who there characters really are.

now i am attempting to finish sewing slippers before erin and ben get hitched this weekend. it may or may not happen.

i think i might start blogging again. my class schedule this semester has me doing homeroom in the morning and then nothing until 11:30 (and then i teach straight until 5). during that morning prep time i tend to get a lot done, but it usually takes me a bit of time to find focus. perhaps blogging will help me get into the administrative work that needs to be done. perhaps it wont - this may be a completely failed experiment.

school is going well this year. i have a new classroom and a new office which means i never see anyone else unless i venture out to the fishbowl where the rest of the teachers work, but despite having less adult interaction throughout the day i am really enjoying the new set up.

the play this year is pygmalion and things are going well... i am going insane, but they are going well. we've started to gather props already and this is when i realize that i need an assistant to keep track of the administrative details - hopefully i don't have too much falling through the cracks.

anyways - that's enough for today. i need to approve furniture and mark drama journals and study up about early opera... tata

Today I am exhausted. Perhaps it has something to do with the fact that I was still wide awake at 4:30 am and was out of bed by 8:30 - perhaps not.
This past week was a good one. I went to Stratford on Wednesday to see Fiddler on the Roof (by myself) and Three Musketeers (with Mom, Dad, and Dave). Fiddler was better in my opinion. The singing was mostly great and the dancing was fun and in general the choreography made sense with the story. Musketeers was also good but not AS good as Fiddler. There were some line drops and minor light errors and a dude sitting beside us with a motorized oxygen tank that whirred for the entirety of the play. From there I went back to London - got up the next morning for my online class and then did nothing until pub. Hung out with the pub crowd for a bit and then went home and to bed. Friday I got up - did a bit of class stuff in the morning and then spent the rest of my day in traffic - 6.5 hours from London to Trenton. I ended up missing the rehearsal for Jennie`s wedding but that was fine. We hung out Friday night, got up the next morning to get hair and makeup done and then went off to the church. The wedding itself was lovely - I figured out where to go despite being first and not having practised. Pictures after were a little insane - we went into Presquile Park and got eaten alive by the mosquitos and annoyed by the passing cars. Hopefully the photographer got some nice shots - she was a little crazy.
The reception was fun - hung out with some randoms and some not randoms. Stayed to the end (only 1am thank goodness) and then went back to the house for some sleep.
Sunday morning I started the treck back - ended up in Kitchener with Christina for a couple hours and then eventually made it to London where I crawled into bed but did not sleep. Today I putzed around for the morning and then went to school around one to print some stuff off. While there I checked my course website and realized I had homework due by 6 tonight (it is done.... a whole 1/2 hour early I might add...) so it's been a mad rush to complete that.
Tonigh'ts plan involves prepping for my article presentation for class tomorrow - oh the student's life's for me :P

summer post #1

it is summer again and with that it seems - time to update the old blog...
i am at this point back in london prepping for my courses that i'll be taking (curriculum studies and a choral conducting symposium) as well as planning for the two weddings i am in this month.
july is going to be a blur - i can sense it now.
today
i got up - went for a jog/walk... mostly walk - it was nice to be on the trails along the stream again... london has the best trails.
i then found somewhere to get my hair cut (a real salon place - not first choice hair cutters like usual) and quite enjoy the result - it's not too much shorter than it was but the way it sits works better.
i then hopped in my car and drove to kitchener to try on a bridesmaid dress which was of course too small so i had to leave it with them to fix...
since i was only 45 min from home i thought i'd stop in for dinner... so i did
after dinner lisa, kimberley, nathan and i went to the mall to buy wedding shoes. they are goldy silver and shiny.
i then drove back to london...


I took a quick break to update some bachelorette plans - came back to this and reread the above portion... apparently teaching English for a semester creates a need to use at least some proper punctuation. Gah - ridiculous. Anyways - it's late - i'm off to bed.
Tomorrow - first 2 Stratford shows of the season!

one of the girls who i went to kenya with back in 2009 just posted a picture on facebook of herself with two of the massai warriors we travelled with as they are currently in canada promoting their new book...

i'm ready to go back...

i am exhausted. i guess that's what going to bed at 5:30 am and waking up (naturally i might add) at 9:30 does to you. it's my own fault really - this final paper for my philosophy class was harder to write than i expected considering it has basically been floating around in my head for a month. for whatever reason this rumination did nothing to help with the actual formation of words and sentences but that's ok - i'm finished. alaina is currently editing for me (i know you said you would dave - but i left it so late it seemed unfair to add that on to everything else you have to do today) and then i need to fix it up and submit it. at that point i get 2 weeks of no homework before starting my next course - "ways of learning" which i'm taking online to put towards my christian school teaching certificate. it's looking like the option of plugging through and taking school all year while teaching school may be what i choose.tiring - yes. stressful - probably. worth it - i hope so and think that it will be.

anyways, the remainder of my summer went well. i completed driving the trans-canada highway (with the exception of where it splits out west - i've only done the south route... and the occassional short section where something off the beaten path called me to explore). i experienced what new brunswick, nova scotia and pei had to offer to some degree. i met extended family in pei that i didn't know before which was awesome and hung out with friends that i haven't seen in years in nova scotia. i didn't see as much of new brunswick as i had planned due to the delightful experience of having the flu, but that just adds incentive to head back. i drove to new york city (well conneticut, and then took the train in) and experienced that in all its wonder without having to be sure that my 41 17 year olds were keeping up. i saw two more shows on broadway:

evita - terrible. ricky martin played che and he was great - it was fun to get to see him live, but the girl playing eva was annoyingly bad. having grown up on the original broadway cast soundtrack, her mutilation of the rhythms bothered me to an extent that she ruined the show for me. even jennie who didn't grow up on the soundtrack found herself questioning her choices - they did not seem to make musical sense. basically the version i saw in stratford a couple years ago was much better.

wicked - we saw this the last night of our trip and it was a fantastic way to end. they also played the characters differently to the soundtrack or to the version i saw in toronto a couple years ago, but their decisions made sense. their characters were consistent. the actresses playing glinda and elphaba were powerhouses and although their voices didn't always seem to blend, it worked with the story they were telling.

upon returning from my trip i have gone on the staff retreat with school which was a great opportunity for us as staff to catch up on what we've been doing all summer, i went back home to celebrate my parent's 30th anniversary which was a nice dose of family, i spent a week in school getting ready for the new year/having meetings/participating in registration activities. i have been hit by allergies in a force i haven't felt since high school. i was kind of hoping that i had outgrown them - but it turns out they just went into hiding.

tomorrow school starts - a new batch of students to get to know. a routine to rework. lesson plans to create. i am revamping my grade 10 drama course this year - i wasn't really happy with what i had used last year, so now with a year of drama under my belt i am making changes. i am crossing my fingers that kids come out for band despite having to give up two lunches a week (or that they take the one lunch/one before school offer). we will see what happens. i like this time of year where everything is new. i am hoping to get through it without too many difficulties.

now i am off to fix up my paper and submit it before heading over to school to practice some Bb concert scales on all the instruments that I have not played in about a year.
later

i had a chat with ruth (head of music masters program) today... we came up with 3 options for me to finish my program. at the moment i have 4 courses (or will once these 2 are completely finished and i manage to get my ghana course credited) and need 3 more and then the final oral exam thing.

option 1 - stay on course with the summers - two in the summer of 2013 and one in the summer of 2014
option 2 - take two in the summer of 2013 and one in the fall of 2013 or the winter of 2014
option 3 - take one in the fall of 2012 or winter of 2013 and two in the summer of 2013

i'm leaning toward option 3... i could be done by next summer which would be awesome... but in order to do that i need to figure out something to do an independent course on (and find someone to oversee it) and it would mean being in school all year as i'm pretty sure i also need to take a cstc course for work in the fall or winter... maybe that would be better tho - stay in the schooling mode...

any ideas / suggestions / wisdoms --- feel free to pass them along.

so i have finished up my stratford adventures for the season - this makes me a little sad...
last night kirsten, amber and i saw pirates of penzance...
amber and i sat next to a grossly sick woman in the upper seats of the balcony in the avon... we were in the middle so the angle was good - but the closeness of the seats meant that we had huge divots in our legs when we needed a break of having them pushed on an angle into the aisle or the small space between the seats in front of us. but that is not the musical.
pirates was great. it is gilbert and sullivan and fits in their style - i enjoyed the costumes and the versatility of their stage - but story wise it probably isn't my favourite g&s (i think i prefer hms pinafore but that could be sentimental), and production wise it wasn't really near the top for shows this season - however i've enjoyed all the shows i've seen - so that's not a bad thing either.
today i joined christina, lisa, and mrs. n. in the balcony of the avon (but in row b instead of row k) to see charlie brown. i actually enjoyed this one more than i thought i would. the spectacle of it was a lot of fun (even debating trying to figure out how to do this one with school... it would be a blast...) i enjoyed how their backdrop was just a giant tv that changed with where they were.... the simplicity of the set and the limited cast (although i would have to see about making some of those boy roles - girl roles) makes me think it could be a possibility... and there is no drinking, or swearing, or mention of sex (as all the characters are meant to be around age 5)...
after the show we wandered around down town and got ice cream and were talking when lo and behold charlie brown and snoopy and random other person walked be --- fairly certain they were unrecognized by most (other than us and all we did was pull out our books to look up their real names)... heading off to wanderlust perhaps?
i then found a bench along the river to read my "chaos in the classroom" book (research for a paper). stratford has this new thing where they have decorated pianos placed in random locations around town with the invitation to play - so while i sat on my bench, some guy serenaded me on the piano attached to the bus stop across from the tom patterson... all in all a pleasant afternoon...
now i'm off to write a philosophy of jazz - should be good times :)

classes are done. on one hand it feels like a long time, on the other - this month has sped by. i'm living in my 3rd house this month - this time with company - we'll see how that helps my motivation. i have 2 more trips to stratford (tonight and tomorrow) so i'll let you know how those go... a meeting with the head of the masters program about next summer... camping this weekend with the london crew... hamilton for 12-24 hours to see the fam jam and hopefully jen... ottawa for 12-24 hours to sleep in my own bed for a change... then off to the east coast - pei, ns, nb... haven't even come up with the order yet - but that will come. then i'm heading to nyc with jen for a couple days and then back to work already.
amidst all of this i also must write a short jazz philosophy which hopefully wont take me long - and a longer paper for philosophy that hopefully can be finished before friday.
overall it has been a good summer so far...
met some cool people... i love hanging out with music teachers because it's such a rarity that i do my best to appreciate the moments...
anyways - off to catch my bus.

today was not super productive... i sat at school for 5 hours - gathered all the information i need to actually do my work and am heading home - i have little interest in being here today and need to come back tomorrow anyways to use the printer and pianos and what not anyways - may as well just head home now.
i've taken over a little cubicle in the grad office which has a loverly mac that i have figured out how to use now after a month of playing around... i am very appreciative of this little room and the free printing it allows me... plus i like feeling special because i know the code on the door... small things make me happy???
i have nothing major to report - i've been doing homework for the last 2 days fairly steadily... last night i had sweeny todd on in the background while i typed out my reflections... i always forget how gruesome that movie is and how much i want to vomit while watching it... i do like the music tho... if it weren't peppered with sound of throats being slit it would have been better... anyways - my bus comes soon so i should leave this little room and find my bus stop...

we got out of class half an hour early today which was nice... more time to spend in the library updating my blog... i got one of my reflections back today with the comments "well done but i disagree with everything you wrote"... i'm debating the wisdom of revisiting that argument for reflection 4 which is the only one i'm not finished yet. it's hard to believe that we only have 2 days left of class - i have crazy amounts of assignments to do yet and they are causing me to feel a little less that class is nearing the end. the problem? is that while course work is done as of tuesday - our assignments aren't due until the end of august - at least the major philosophy paper (dave vance will you edit that for me if i ever finish it?? i promise to use proper punctuation) isn't due until then... jazz assignments are due on monday - so they may be the cause of some panic - but perhaps not... we'll see where i'm at after spending tonight and tomorrow in the library.
last night i went to see snow white and the huntsman at the uwo theatre with one of the girls from my class... i actually enjoyed it despite kristen stewarts uninspired performance...
my goal is to complete reflections 3 and 4 (3 is written just not typed or edited) before the library closes and then find a piano room to plunk out the rest of my transcription assignment with enough time to bus home and drive to pub - which isn't until 10... so i should be able to accomplish my goals - however i am the worst student ever (i have references) so that may not happen haha...
i'm off. 

yesterday was a bit of a downer day... probably had something to do with the fact that i was at school for 14 hours --- 5 of which were spent sitting in "my" chair in the 3rd floor lounge trying desperately to finish a presentation on an article about american educational policy that i still don't really understand. but i have a presentation prepared - so that's good i guess.
jazz started yesterday with an exam - i've been fairly at peace with the whole concept until sunday night when the panic struck and did not really subside until after the exam. i know the theory stuff - it was not hard for me to re-pick up --- but the listening killed me. anyways - we took up what the listening was after the exam and i got some of them right - so that's good... we'll see what that ends up looking like overall. At this point I have 5 days of classes left - 4 major assignments and 2 or 3 smaller assignments. I am hoping to knock off a large part of one major assignment and 2 of the minor assignments tonight but we'll see --- i also have to leave school early enough to bring my glasses back to get fixed and to head to the music store downtown to pick up a book that i ordered 3 weeks ago. the end is in sight... i can do it.
other than yesterday - this whole school thing has been pretty fun. i'm not loving the homework - but who does really... the classes are good - i'm learning a lot - i no longer feel like i'm too stupid to be here. life is good.

i sincerely hope that whatever i am learning in this jazz class this summer i am able to replicate in my classroom. dr. watson's teaching style is positive and encouraging and allows us to try new things despite the fact that we often fail - or feel like we're failing anyways.
today we learned to play the drum kit in a swing style - i think i did alright... it was especially fun when we added the double bass and the piano back in -- and i felt successful playing each part.
now i just need to figure out how to have a drum kit in my classroom to use in band and class without taking away the worship team kit... hmmmmm
the cottage this weekend was fun- not super relaxing as most of the time was still spent reading and writing for school - but christina came up and we spent some time floating around the lake on airmattresses which was mostly relaxing - the only non-relaxing part were the boats zipping around not really watching where they were going...
oh well we survived...
i should go back to my work - i have 2.5 hours (self given) to complete about 4 assignments... good luck to me.