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...