generated by sloganizer.net

Lilypie 2nd Birthday Ticker

DaisypathAnniversary Years Ticker

Tuesday, October 31, 2006

October 31st - less complaining this time

...cause there's just 3 days left!!!

YAYAYAYAYAYAYAYYAYAYAYAYAYAY!!!

I'm one of those shiny, happy people right now. Wanna know why? I mean, other than the 3 days left thing. On Monday we FINALLY hired me a sub. She taught a sample lesson to the worst 1st grade to come through my school in, well, ever, from what I've heard. She's got pre-K (Kindermusik) experience, up through middle school choir. She's set. She starts shadowing me tomorrow. I'm psyched.

Today was Halloween - nice, very nice. TIRING as Hell, but nice. I had 3 back-to-back classes (no pee time!) in the morning, and then my friend Stacey brought her twins in to socialize (and her husband, but he's nowhere near as entertaining). She had her daughter dressed as a pink octopus and her son dressed as a blue octopus and I DAMN the cute was running down the walls in there! She also brought me two more bags of baby clothes that Sophia grew out of - sweet!

Did the trick-or-treat thing, except for when Bob went out, cause I couldn't handle the seemingly rabid dog, the candy, the door, and the kid (the heavy one in my tummy) all at once. I turned the lights off and hid in the bedroom for 1/2 and hour instead. Trick or treat was technically over by then anyway. 2 to 6 around here. How stupid is that? Who's home at 2???

Called Dad and wished him a happy birthday (he's a Halloween baby) and go the update on all things in his world, including the Brian Wilson concert tomorrow. That's pretty cool, I'm sorry. Brian Wilson.

I'm SORT OF ready for Baby D. I mean, if she came now, we'd be fine. We have what we need for a newborn. And she COULD come now, that's what so weird...I tell ya what, I wouldn't mind waiting a few more weeks to have her, but I am SO done being pregnant. (I know, the two are kind of connected, whatever.) I mean it, DONE. I think your body does these things to you so that the torturous few weeks after baby comes home and isn't sleeping at night much don't seem so bad. I was up 6 times last night, and was completely awake, wired, at 5:30 AM. Lovely.

And speaking of sleep, it's time for some. Or at least some laying down and trying not to think about all the stuff that needs done at school tomorrow. Yeah, there's a lot left. But you know what?

3 days left!!!! So who cares????

Friday, October 27, 2006

October 27th - "Hello, everyone. I'm the MANATEE!"

Jim Gaffigan said it best.

"Whatever, Sea Cow."

Bloated, slow, gigantic, lumbering, and pretty damn ugly. Don't give me that 'pregnant women glow' crap.

My dress shoes don't fit (yeah, the feet spread this time o'pregnancy) so I've been wearing sneakers with my work clothes for a week, and even though they're actually a nice pair of New Balance and not tan Easy Spirits, I feel like my 11th grade History teacher.

I've taken to sleeping with my Boppy around my neck so I can basically sleep sitting up, thereby not breaking the no-sleeping-on-back rule, and not flattening out my left hip completely. I look SO hot, lemee tell ya.

My tummy has pushed out and down so much that my shorter maternity shirts aren't particularly modest anymore.

And - icing on the cake here, people - I have apparently developed a RASH on my eyelids and eyebrows that can also be blamed on the pregnancy. My OB told me yesterday, when I asked about it, that yes, having sensitive skin and the increased bloodflow that comes with the 3rd trimester usually spell big skin issues for us pretty, "glowing" girls. Well don't I feel like a freakin' earth-mother goddess now?

On the quick update side of things:

5 days left of school. No sleep (or very little, in between trips to the bathroom). No sub. No problem - cause the "caring" switch has been turned off for a little over a week now.

5 days left, and then YAY!

Wednesday, October 18, 2006

October 18th - Blowing off a little steam

Remember that old adage that you shouldn't upset a pregnant woman?
Apparently people don't buy that anymore.

I have 40 minutes till my first class of the day comes in. I have them from 10:40 to 11:30, then lunch, then at 12:30 I have a 5th grade, then at the time I dismiss them a 1st grade is already lined up in the hall, and their class goes until 2:10. But their teacher is a friend of mine, and she always stays in my room a few minutes with them so I can run and take a quick pee break. Then the second I lose them, I start a TERRIBLE 3rd grade, and they go till 3:00. At 3:05 (hooray, an actual bathroom break built in!) I start Chorus with my 68 talkative little cherubs. So there's that marathon-simulating practice, and then I have 20 minutes to book it to Voorhees for a growth scan.

I'm getting SICK of all these appointments, man. I mean, seeing her is awesome, finding out how she's doing is awesome, trying to schedule them so I don't lose all my sick days before I actually go out on maternity leave and burn them all up anyway is NOT fun. Both offices I deal with have the worst hours in the world. Well, not really, just ridiculous hours for the procedures they want me to have done. My OB is open till 9! And of course for these NST's & AFI's, they want you to come in weekly. What do other people who work do, I ask? "Oh, you think this is bad, wait till you try to get a pediatrician appointment while you're working, it's impossible, you always have to take off." GRRR...not the freakin' pediatrician I signed up with! They have 2 offices, and they're open till 9 PM, and on Satrudays all day, so take that, bitches...not that I'm bitter.

So then there's that rush out the school door and to the hospital for an ultrasound. And those appointments have taken 2 hours before, with all the waiting. It BETTER not today, because then I have to drive home as quickly as my tiny Saturn will navigate through the traffic. And then I change into comfy clothes and wolf down dinner (that's SO healthy for you when you're pregnant and your stomach compressed into 1/3 its usual size, btw) and turn around and run right back to the hospital for our last prenatal class, complete with the infamous hospital tour. I'm TOTALLY excited about the tour and the class, and I have some big questions for the instructor, but seriously, I would be SOOO much happier doing this tomorrow.

I'm SO tempted to cancel my 1/2 personal day tomorrow (which I had to take to get another set of NST's and AFI's done, weekly, remember?) and just call in sick the whole day...hmmm...would the world judge me harshly? Would subfinder try to kill me? Do I care? All this running is NOT good for me, I can feel it. You know how your body just TELLS you something sometimes? Like, "you're getting a cold tomorrow!" I get that one particular achey feeling and I just KNOW it's feel-like-crap time. I can just feel it, and it's not a good feeling. Hmm... wonder how the logistics of that would work out, since I already took the 1/2 personal day. I'm going to go ask Steph (computer teacher)...she'd know.

Well, have to cut this short then, since all this complaining has lead me to the conclusion that I'm a wuss and need a mental/physical/baby health day. Plus I hurt in places I didn't know could hurt.

Sunday, October 15, 2006

October 15th - A Day at the Beach, & other stuff

Well, well, 10 days later. I remember when I used to blog every day. Ha ha. I don't open this laptop bag every day now. Fun days, those. Hmm, let's start with the FUN stuff and move on to the muck:

We took Max to the BEACH yesterday! Bob's sis, Laura, goes to Stockton College, which is ridiculously close to the beach. She lives in Brigantine, a nice little shore town about half an inch from Atlantic City. You can walk up the beach easily and hit the AC boardwalk. But Brigantine is nice and small and quiet. She lives with 3 other girls there in a little rental house from September to May. And to somebody who lived in a small hole in the wall through half of college, while outside the 'scenery' included cows and Hershey mascot characters standing in 2 feet of snow, it sounds like freakin' Heaven. So we visited Laura's place, and walked the block and half to the beach to give Max a taste of shore living.

Hee-hee. My laptop is sitting on my lap, bouncing around. This is surreal...

We got the 50-foot "long line" and let Max have some freedom. At first he wasn't very interested in the water (our dog? yes, our dog didn't understand the concept.) He DID however go right to the water's edge and relieve himself - both ways, how sweet - leaving Bob to chase after the washed up pieces of poopiness rolling in the waves.

We eventually started throwing stuff in the water - we HAD gathered some sticks from our backyard to throw and left them in the car, cause we're all smart and stuff. When we threw in the shells, THAT did it.

And awaaaaay he goes:

Retriever that he is, he kept trying to bring back the shells and stuff. Doesn't work well in the ocean, they don't stay still and float on the top like a floaty toy in a pool. He still loved it though.

Great action shot (I was the designated photographer of the day, and I'm QUITE happy with how these turned out.) Check it out:
There were seagulls in flocks, but Max paid no attention to them. (We do not have a bird dog, obviously.) THEY however went flying if he got near enough.

This one is my desktop wallpaper right now. I just think it's so cool. The dog, the leash, the birds, the ocean, the sun. Damn I'm good.
And then we lay down in the surf and chill. He's a water dog!

I just love this one. Crazy ear dog! He was having SOOO much fun...
Laura and Max on a collision course (nobody was hurt). She's brave, though. 100 pounds of fur running at ME sends me the other direction. Check out the high-rises in the background. Yeah, that's AC. You can walk to Trump's & back for your morning exercise. We really loved this beach...

"MAAAAAXYYYYYY"
And he made a friend. A little Corky named Gizmo came jogging down the beach, and of course told Maxy who was in charge (our dog's a sissypants). Little dogs own him, I swear. He started out being barky, but eventually Corky won. Corky also wouldn't shut up. Still, very cute interaction.

Our new friend Corky and Max, getting acquainted:

So we had an awesome day, and a very tired dog when we got home that afternoon.

That was definitely the highlight of the week. Not that it was a bad week, mind you, but we both have lots of work to do, and with my maternity leave looming closer and closer, school is keeping me quite busy. Not usual school stuff. That runs itself. But just preparing for somebody else to run my program for 5 months creates constant streams of "oh, crap, gotta do that now".

I guess my biggest concern remains that I STILL do not have a substitute. Yeah. I'm gone in 3 weeks. 15 days. And technically I COULD have gone out 2 weeks from now (you get 4 weeks pre-duedate. I only took 3, to finish out the Halloween season, prepare Chorus, and save my sickdays). The last I heard from my principal was that she "has to call those people who sent in resumes in June". DAMN it, we should have been interviewing people in SEPTEMBER. Who the hell are they going to get now? And why the hell didn't she call these people the minute my original sub dropped us? That was a month ago, literally. It is NOT my place to tell my boss "um, you better get on that, I'm not staying around because you never found a replacement!" GRRRRR... she KNOWS there's a public concert on December 13th. If I didn't love the 68 fabulous kids (yes, 68 freakin' kids this year. I love it! How cool is that, from my tiny school?) I would prepare them only as far as I usually would in 4 weeks of rehearsals, and let the concert crash and burn. Not do anything extra, push them no harder than usual, nothing. But I desperately feel the need to make sure they're at least concert ready on the 3 or 4 easiest songs, so they can at least carry that to the concert, no matter what happens, sub-wise. That equals a lot more work and stress for me. Which, by the way, I'm NOT SUPPOSED TO BE ADDING TO MY LIFE RIGHT NOW.

I mean, they can call a different sub in every day or every week or whatever, during the school day. Using the teachers' manuals, a regular sub could teach the class, conceivably. It wouldn't be a high-quality music educaiton for that time, but they can at least have music-related class. If they don't get a real long-term sub who will take over Chorus as well, Chorus will stop, literally. They can't hire a sub to teach JUST an after-school activity. Won't happen. *sigh* Damn, I have the most kids ever, love them dearly, the majority of them are not musically illiterate, and I finally know what the hell I'm doing up there in front of that many kids day after day...and I have to go. Well, I'll be back. What happens when I'm gone is NOT supposed to be my concern.

Our other concern right now is the Malvern School. Did I mention this yet? We originally planned to take Baby D there for the 2 1/2 months that I'll be back to school in the 06-07 school year. We registered and put down 1/2 the first month's tuition as a deposit to hold our place (to the tune of $478. Yeah. Daycare is pricey.) Then a few weeks ago Bob's cousin Shannon offered to watch Baby D. those months for a piddlin' $25 a day. Works out to half of what Malvern charges, and she's family, and she has only 2 kids in her care, and their ages are nicely spaces out (her 3-year old who we love, and a 1-year old boy). So we jump at the chance, call Malvern, and withdraw Baby D. Well I understood that the registration fee was non-refundable ($75), and was fine with that. But now they're arguing with me about the $478 deposit - not calling me back, having to "call the executive office" about it, etc. And now they "can't find our file". How precious is that stpuid spot to them if they can't even "fine our file" now?!!? Grrrr...

Well, I'm armed baby. We are NOT losing almost $500! There is NO mention in any of the forms we have from them mentioning the deposit being non-refundable. None. Just the registration fee is mentioned. In addition, they have a clearly-stated policy that says you have to give them 2 weeks notice before withdrawing your child, or you pay that 2 weeks tuition anyway. Well we're giving them 6 months notice. I think they can fill the spot in 6 months, seeing as they have waiting lists. They let enrolled, attending kids give 2 weeks notice, but babies who are not even in the world yet, 6 months isn't enough? Well, I have the numbers of the Camden County BBB, the NJ Consumer Protection Agency, and an attorney who works with teachers through our state union, and I'm sooo prepared to use them. Unless they can show me a policy stating that the deposit IS non-refundable - and can prove that they made us aware of it (signed by me!) they better show me a check.

Monday I'm calling the two agencies and asking what I can do in the meantime - Malvern said they'd call me by Friday with word from their executive office. Of course we didn't hear from them...yeah, I'll be pissed if we lose, but I'm not letting $478 go without a fight. I'm a bitch like that. IF we end up not being able to get the $ back, Baby D. WILL be with them for the 2 weeks we paid for, and THEN we'll be withdrawing her anyway. (There's your 2 weeks notice, bitches!) We're not flat-out losing that money. So either way, they have to fill that spot in April. Plus - being a public school teacher in the area - I'll promise to let ALL parents I can know what kind of business they're running. (I won't really, probably, Evesham mommies don't do 'daycare', please! But the threat is a powerful one when you can prove that you are in contact with 500 sets of parents every year.)

Seriously, we're NOT rich people. We have are having a baby in (hopefully less than) 6 weeks. And $478 is a HELL of a lot of diapers. I don't give up without a fight when we're talking about that many diapers.

*Deep breath, off soap box. Can't do anything about it all till Monday anyway*

Bobby's doing well - he's busy with school, of course. He's really making an effort to keep school at school as much as possible (and of course at times it's just not possible, for either of us) so that he has his nights and weekends for himself and the other things he does. I think one of us says, "Thank God I'm/You're not doing marching band anymore!" about ever other day. It's amazing having him home on weekends and in the evenings. He was saying yesterday that it actually feels a bit like Thanksgiving or Christmas break; he's home, has time to do stuff, and doesn't have to leave soon for a practice or parade. Well, this time of year last year, that didn't happen except on breaks. He's at Home Depot right now buying soil, fertilizer, mums, etc. He's into gardening, and he'll be putting in the spring bulbs and setting up the garden for fall & winter. (If it were left to me, on the other hand, the dirt would be left as plain dirt. That's the kind of gardener I am. What, I have a garden?) SO happy I have such a smart hubby.

Baby-wise, we're doing well too. Baby D. has had 2 sets of non-stress and amniotic fluid tests, and 2 check ups, all of which went very well. She kicked the freakin' fetal heart monitor out of place its place on my tummy last time during the non-stress test! We have a growth scan on Wednesday (and a million other commitments too) and we'll see how much she's grown. I'm really hoping for a good growth percentile, seeing as my sugars have risen here and there lately. They told me the farther I got in this pregnancy, the worse my numbers would get and the more insulin I'd have to take. They're totally right - and that's a nice indicator that perhaps this whole diabetic thing really is gestational and not type 2, since it IS getting harder to control as I get more and more preggy hormones.

The baby's a source of entertainment as always. The kicks and rolls and punches are starting to really HURT at times, but for the most part, she's fun to watch. She's still head-down, which is happy news. We're still going for the weekly tests on her heart and amniotic fluid and all the other things they watch for on me - protein, anemia, sugar, blood pressure...and soon I get the unbelieavable joy of having "internal examinations" weekly. To check out how the good ole cervix is doing. I will forget about these weekly joys when I'm holding my beautiful baby, but until then, we have a combo of EW and OUCH to think about.

Well, I have to get my ass to Babies-R-Us and return a few things and get a store card. We want to buy the breast pump (yes, I said a 'breast pump'. Behold your future, girls, if you're going to breastfeed!) and I don't want to buy it until we have the Breastfeeding For Dummies class on 11/11, so we can find out what to look for. And I want to hit Michael's and get those cute little wooden letters to spell out HER NAME (wha ha ha! I love knowing what nobody else does!) for her room wall.

So I go now. Oh, and I've had to pee for like 1/2 an hour now.

39 days, 15 hours, 19 minutes, 20 seconds till I'm not supposed to be pregnant anymore.

...3 weeks still she's full-term and could come at anytime. Holy.

Thursday, October 05, 2006

October 5th - Week in Review

Holy Crap, has it really been since Sunday that I last posted??? I'm a slacker. Guilty.

I'm only taking the time to do it now because I have my laptop on my lap, my feet are up on the couch, and I am NOT getting up again till bedtime. Or till I have to hit the bathroom again. Let's face it, we know which will come first.

We're plugging right along here in D'Errico land. Bob's sitting at the bar making the monthly menu. I blogged about this, remember? We plan out all the meals we have to make by the month, and this way we can shop in bulk and save money. It's also nice to know while you're driving home that A) you know what's for dinner and B) you have all the stuff you need to make it already.
Sunday we have a standing dinner thingy at Bob's parents'. Monday is Pasta night, usually with sauce which Bobby makes in a double batch and freezes the leftovers - Bobby's sauce is always better the 2nd or 3rd time around, believe me. Tuesday is Mexican night (that would be my influence there!) - nachos, tacos, chicken fajitas, enchiladas, etc. Wednesday is crock pot night, because we don't have anything on Tuesdays as of right now, so we have time to set it up the night before and because Wednesdays we both have club and right now we have childbirth class - more about that later - so we have to get in the door, eat, clean up, do all the housey stuff that needs done, make lunches, take care of the dog, and get out the door in basically an hour. Thursday is chicken or pork, alternating. Friday is beef or the Diner. I know, it's crazy. But I like the routine, and it makes planning and executing the whole dinner thing on a tight schedule much easier.

We had an interesting week.

Monday: ran around like crazy, went to Sam's for a few staples. Had a Dr.'s appointment at 3:15 which ended up taking 2 1/2 hours. I was told Friday I had to start going for non-stress tests and amniotic fluid inspections weekly from now on. (NST's: they strap two monitors, a contraction monitor and a baby heart monitor, around your waist and they track how much the baby's heart rate changes in response to movement or contractions. AFI's: a brief ultrasound that measures the distance between the baby and the uterine wall in four places, this telling the doc how much fluid's in there.) Needless to say all this sudden monitoring freaked me out. My blood sugar's also been a bit out of whack lately. They TOLD me it would start to rise as the pregnancy hormones got stronger and stronger towards the end, I just wasn't prepared; sort of felt like I was failing at this whole GD GD thing. ANYWAY...

We waited a million years to see the doctor, and I had some blood test which I assume came back fine since I haven't heard from them since. The doctor heard I was scheduled for the NST and AFI on that coming Thursday, and said, "hell, stay for them today!" Ok, she didn't say 'hell'. It took a while, but baby's fine. The tests were pretty darn cool, actually. Except that another couple came into the NST room and the nurse left the door WIDE open to the waiting room, saying "nothing to see in here but a bunch of bellies!" and EXCUSE ME but not all of us are thrilled about their belly appearance right now...Eeek! Just cause you're pregnant doesn't mean you suddenly get a cute basketball bump, people. Modesty!

Then we had bells, which went fine. I'm actually sort of dropping out of bells after this month, though! We lost two people this last season, and we're having trouble replacing them, plus finding a 2/3 month replacement for me is hard enough. So Bob's going to cut us down to a 2-octave choir for a while (anybody who knows handbells knows how wussy this sounds, but it's necessary, temporarily) and I'll be a kind of permanent sub. We will, after all, have to worry about babysitting or bringing a baby along to rehearsal, if I have to be there all the time. This way I'm call-in-able, but not there every week. I'll miss it though. I'll feel so weird, not going along with Bobby...

Tuesday evening we actually got to stay home, miraculously enough. Hmmm, what did we do Tuesday...no idea. Oh! I inventoried the baby's clothes and found that we have forty million tiny onesies. I also found that despite the fact that two labels both say "newborn/0-3 months", they would only fit two vastly different-sized babies. Seriously, the one would fit twice inside the other. I don't get it. I called my in-laws to ask about this phenomenon, and they were shocked that I was calling during "Gilmore Girls" ACK! We forgot! We only missed the first 2o minutes of it (sorry, obsessed now). A very good episode. We may some day forgive the writers for last season, somehow.

Wednesday: Day of Hell. My Wednesday schedule sucks ass, basically. I have one morning class and 3 back to back, no pee-break-at-all classes. The last class was absolutely horribly behaved. I have no words for this class. Yes I do: Prison. Hey, just thinking out loud here. On the track they're on now, a good number of them should end up in (white collar) prison. And then it was time for the first Chorus rehearsal.

67 kids. 67 freakin' kids signed up for Chorus. I take this as an enormous compliment, a sign that my program is getting nicely built up, and an indication that I'm doing my job well. I also have no idea how to deal with that many kids in my room. 67 kids, after school, crazy-assed, and me. I devised as much of an organizational plan as possible. I made sure the folders were stuffed, the rules letter was in their folders, and the uniform shirt orders were stapled to printed envelopes ready to take home. That was all I could do. And it didn't go too badly. But 67 kids? Holy freakin' mother of everything. Last year I believe I had 45. And at least I can be straight with them about discipline. "Look, you're bad, you're out. I could lose 20 of you and have a perfectly good-sized group. I put up with nothing this year. Nadda."

After a miraculously good Chorus rehearsal (except for my stupid ass CD player pooping out on me) I went to pick up Bobby from Yearbook club at school, then we sped home so we could do our Wednesday night stuff and get our butts to childbirth class.
And we were greeted at the door by the worst smell - doggy poop. Yep, our poor Maxy got sick (out both ends...ewwww) in his crate and had a horrible day trying not to sit in his own mess. My poor baby! He was still obviously feeling sick when we got home. Bob (thank God) did the clean-up while I made dinner, made lunches, cleaned up, etc. and even after Max was all clean, he wanted nothing to do with his food. So we had that to deal with. It was so worrying to put Max back in his crate. But we'd gotten him to eat several pieces of plain white bread (no dinner of his own yet) and all he wanted to do was lay down and sleep, so we let him, and went to class.

It was labor night! Got some very good info, too. We even saw "the video", and nobody fainted! I'll say this, though. I'm actually glad I'm the one who has to DO this baby delivery thing, not the one who has to SEE it. Love the class, still, though. Bobby's so cute, he takes notes and asks questions - ok, he gets me to ask questions - and I think it's really making the whole experience a little more real for him. And it's reassuring. And it's solidified my desire for a nice, healthy epidural.

Thursday: Hey, that's today, isn't it? Well, when we got home we found Max had had another, smaller, accident. But he seemed much happier and was quite hungry, so we think the worst is over. He still seems tired, but that's not a really bad thing. You get some quiet time then. We're watching him closely, though. My poor doggy! And you can't exactly take off or stay home form work because your dog is sick. At least not without getting teased. I hope he's really better now.

We had Back-2-School night. Bob and I decided that they call it that not because it's like going back to the days of their schooling for the parents, but because the teachers have to go home, rush around, be extremely tired, and go right BACK TO SCHOOL, whether they want to or not. It all went well. There were tons of parents there, a yummy bake sale, and many jokes were made during the opening meeting run by the principals about there being something in the water at our school... 4 pregnant women in one tiny building. And I'm sure there will be at least one more this year. 3 newly-married girls in their 30's. And last year our art teacher had twins. (And her sub who I'm friendly with told me tonight that she and her hubby are now trying - always happy to hear somebody else is joining the club.) Well, you hire a bunch of younger women in their twenties and early thirties, you get a lot of preggy chicks. I installed our home 5-disk CD changer in my classroom, because my old school-issue JVC now stops in the middle of songs and restarts the CD or turn off... and ate a granny smith apple dipped in caramel and peanuts (shut up, it was the best looking thing on the table. Had to be better than the plate of pumpkin bread that almost came home with me). Those were my accomplishments, other than talking to lots of (dyed) blonde mommies telling me their pregnancy/labor/birth horror stories. And trust me, it's a lot grosser when you KNOW the baby she's talking about quite well.

Bobby also returned the changing table Nick got us and got us (wrong wood color, I'm pregnant and I'm anal, sue me), and picked up a gift card in exchange for it. See, Target carries exactly one freakin' changing table, unless you buy online. So that's what we did. Should ship in "1 to 2 weeks", whatever that means. And then we can finally set this room up right. We're still not 100% sure where everything's going to go, and we can't put away much of anything without at least having the furniture set up. Nesting, baby. It's a beautiful thing.

So now we're up to date. *sigh* and I've only been typing for half an hour. :-) '

Tomorrow we have *gasp* another day of school. And I have exactly 21 days left. And no, my sub has not been hired. BUT I got a memo about coming to see long-term sub candidates' sample lessons. Gotta find out what that's about. I'm still obsessing about not having a sub, and what's going to happen to my program, and dear God who's going to run Chorus and teach the 5th graders the D. A. R. E. music for their graduation and run that show, and what about the recorder concert in March, and...yeah, I know, deep breaths, deep breaths.

Sometimes I desperately want to get everything done before the pre-labor hormones kick in and all I care about is baby stuff. And sometimes I wish they'd kick in already so I could just push all of this crapola away and truly accept it as somebody else's problem. Eek! What about Enrichment???

Ok, settling down now. Time for bed. See, I know it's time to get up because my feet don't hurt anymore. :-) That's a good thing. *night*

Sunday, October 01, 2006

LVC Homecoming!

Yesterday Bobby and I took a little babymoon to LVC for the Homecoming/Oktoberfest/Family Weekend festivities. We loved it so much we decided we're not missing it again next year. (We'll just be toting along a little extra baggage.) We arranged for Bob's folks to come by in the evening and feed Max, so we could make it a day trip. It's only 2 hours to LVC, if you don't hit much traffic.

We JUST MISSED the pregame show because of a back-up on the stupid turnpike (damn that Renaissance Faire traffic. Who the hell still goes there anyway? It's all hypey now...grrr.) but we caught the band just as they were leaving the field. They are HUGE this year. 150 of them (we had 105 the year I was band manager.)

We walked around and found a few people we were friendly with at LVC. Lots of smiles and nods to people you don't remember exactly, but you know they were in some class with you sometime. It was actually a little awkward, we've been back so little, I don't remember anybody! And then found Brenda (we were friendly with her too, don't worry) and we bought tickets to the game. And proceeded to walk up into the stand (in the rain - did I mention that it rains every weekend in fall as a rule?) and found NOWHERE to sit, walked back and got FOOD, cause that's more important, and sat in the Alumni tent, paying no attention to the game at all. Please, that's not why you go to a football game, and everybody knows it. We found out that the trumpet section still leaves the stands during the 1st quarter and sneaks under the away side's bleachers. They play their incredibly loud trumpety fanfare thingy - they all learn it by rote and teach the freshmen. People on the away side either stand up and look below in shock or applaud - it's a good time. So happy that hilarious tradition continues. We later ran into DOC - the man himself! - and he told us all about the band and that they're huge and quite good. I'm a little jealous, honestly.

The band show was VERY good; they've definitely improved the program since we've been there. It's all still student-run, btw, with the exception of Doc who basically books the gigs and taps his watch to make you rehearse faster. Oh, and demands you tell him where the clipboard IN HIS HAND is...ah, my memories of being Doc's bitch that season are sweet.

We ran into a few more old friends in the stands, including Laura, who played in the Tuba line & who I had a few music ed classes with. It's cool, because all the band alumni know that despite the fact that the stands are packed, you can always go inhabit the band's section when they go do the show. Insuring that you have good seats for the part of the afternoon that really matters. It was neat to be mixed in with so many band alumni, even if they didn't march with us. We were all really impressed with the show. Jealous, but seriously, a highly enjoyable band show. Made me miss actually lugging around a mellophone case. Here we have the illustrious "Park-n-Bark", a requisite of all LVC band shows.



Their drill was very well-written, I thought. I can't believe there's so many of them! Doc said they ran out of uniforms and had to put the percussion line in fatigues (went along with the show's theme). I've touched every one of those uniforms several times. What a thought.
Then after half-time we decided that we don't care about the stupid football game - um, who won? Seriously, I have no idea who won...

We wandered around the campus to see what we could see of the renovations to the buildings since we've been there last (3 years ago). THIS used to be the under-used gymnasium in Lynch. (I was in there only to register for classes. I don't know what they used it for when registration was done.) Now it's a student lounge with a cute coffee bar. The second story has classrooms around a hallway that's open to the downstairs. Bobby went upstairs and took this pic of Brenda, Laura, and me, chillin'. (Yes, Laura is wearing a highschool band-issue raincoat. One of her students left it behind last night at the game, it was in her car, and HEY, it was raining!) This was also a nice opportunity to rest my pregnant butt. I was feelin' it yesterday, bigtime.

Then we went over to Blair - the music building, our old home!!! *Sniff sniff* I miss Blair. We wandered around - low security at LVC, can you tell? Bobby's here on his old podium. Bob was band librarian one year and librarian and manager the next year, so he spent a good # of hours in this room. We all did, actually, with band, more band, classes, rehearsals, juries, and oh, yeah, band.
Over in Lutz Hall (upcoming winner of the World's Worst Acoustics in a College Recital Hall award) Brenda pretends to play the stage piano. Is that the sacred Baldwin? Cause touching that was grounds for hand-chopping-off, as I recall. Good thing Sweigart wasn't around. Actually, that pretty much goes without saying anytime. (Swiggy gave me so many C's in Form & Analysis...grrr...)
And *Sniff!* here's our old locker! There was never enough to go around, so you only got a big one if you were willing to share. So of course I shared with Bobby. :-) C4, baby. I believe I had it at least 3 years. That thing was a mess by 2003...
Went to the Peace Garden (the home of many pretty wedding pictures) and visited Hot Dog Frank. Bobby feels tall next to Frank. Ok, anybody who'd know: Didn't he used to have glasses???

And the scene of our favorite wedding photo (big one in our living room, as a matter of fact!) I think our faces look thinner now (no more LVC food to fatten your ass up can do that to you quickly) but the tummy is DECIDEDLY BIGGER than in the wedding photo. Oh well, you lose some, you win some - er, you get pregnant. Whatever. I miss that bridge!


We later headed back to the football field (my dogs were done barking and had been pronounced D. O. A. by that point). We ran into Shawn and Christina, who we found out come every year all the way from Virgina (at least Shawn's in Virgina, they do a long-distance thing, God help 'em!) and we all hit the Alumni tent and got our nachos, cheese cubes, crackers, and beer. I had water, relax. Didn't win any door prizes (phooey). The band they hired to play under the tent was SO LOUD (and so not an Alumni-tent choice, they should have had a little jazz combo or a keyboard guy - come on, the department's full of them) that we all ended up yelling little conversations and then finally catching up with people properly when the band took a well-needed (by us) break.
It was great to see so many people and hear what they're doing. Most of them are quite well, teaching, working, living, etc. We decided that we're definitely coming back next year, and bringing little She-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named along.

Except we can't bring the stroller, because we couldn't climb into the band section of the stands to watch the show.