Feed My Fishies

If you haven't noticed, I've just put up the funnest little gadget on the top near the writing area. Click to drop the food, and they'll follow you. I got a kick out of that and I hope you do too, lol :)

Physics :P

It's 10:48 and my body is telling me I should have been asleep about two hours ago. I'm staying up downloading OpenOffice, a type of word document software, so I can print a lab report that took me several agonizing hours to think through and and actually finish tonight. I've been working on it solidly since about 6:30, and I'm SO glad to be done. I'm no science whiz, and physics is anything but my forte, so say a prayer tomorrow at around 7:30am, because I'll need it.
Good night. I hope you'll get more sleep than I will. :)

Mickey Mouse, Mario, and Chiaro Scuro

I just got back from my second voice lesson. My teacher, Mrs. Catalidi, is a happy Italian woman with an absolutely huge voice. When shedoes a siren voice with me for warm ups, she imitates what I should be doing physically. Her arm swings up like a volume control dial, and her mouth expands to match it, and out comes resonating, loud pure sound making the entire small room vibrate. From her, not me. But it's pretty cool anyway:) The odd title are some of the things that she tells me to sound like in certain situations. When going up into the higher register, keeping a little bit of a bright, sharp Mickey Mouse keeps me from sounding like I'm about to swallow myself. Also on those high notes, some words like "will" and others containing two distinct consonants on one syllable need a little "MA-ri-oh" and "lu-I-gi." She is Italian, I guess.
Finally I learned about the Italian paradox for the ideal sound - Chiaro Scuro, meaning light-dark or bright-warm. It's the perfect balance between a deep, resonating, strong sound, and a blissful, bright, happy one. We're working on it. ;) haha jk no one's ever gotten it perfectly - although some have come pretty close. I'm going to go drink some tea now, because my voice is starting to hurt. :)

Co-op, January 19th 2012

It was pitch black and I stirred myself enough to roll over and check the time. 5:55 am. Dang it, I have 20 more minutes till my alarm goes off. I sorta snooze until 6:15 then drag myself out of bed. After quickly getting dressed, packing my bag (hopefully remembering everything I need), and grabbing tea and breakfast, Eva and I head out in the freezing black outside to try to warm up the car. The highway is full for 7am, and we get in to Physics on time, despite a very bad parking job on my part.
I'm always excited to see Dr. Vansuch. I'm not always excited to talk about the technicalities of TE=KE+PE in certain situations and temperatures at 7:30 in the morning. But no matter what we're talking about, even if it's boring as heck for me, it's entertaining to see Dr. Vansuch go about teaching it. I can tell it's something he loves and cherishes by the way he will carefully consider questions, go off on scientific tangents, and eagerly tell us about the latest scientific fun fact he's learned. His eyes light up, his voice is charged, and his enthusiasm is at least a little bit contagious; it makes me smile. We did a lab experiment which involved calculating energy from a ball rolling down a tube, across a table, and dropping to the floor. The most humorous part of this experiment is when you get super balls involved, and you need a designated roller, watcher, and professional athlete to run among the desks before the rogue ball bounces out the window. David Gallivan was the designated runner for awhile, and I was his designated cheerleader - "Go, little boy blue! (nickname:) You can get it - it's under that backpack- nope there it goes..." Gotta love the lab experiments, even if the reports are torture.
After physics, I went to study hall for 1/2 hour and did nothing but talked :) before running to teach Jessi Biology. Time flew, and by the time we were finished I had just enough time to prep for my first ROC class. This class went much smoother than the first one, because I used Elena's method of interaction, and every six-year-old in the room wanted to come up and be my "clapping buddy" for the rhythm part.
Lunch was a salami sandwich I mooched off the Millers. HUGE upgrade from the sickening Ramen noodles in a pre-packaged cup from the week before.
ROC for the older kids was also better, though not as good as the younger kids. But by the end I had them all clapping and tapping in time with that upbeat ridiculously Irish song with seven verses. We only barely got through the refrain... but I have hope... :)
Chorus was AWESOME because we got a SWEET new, accapella, five part harmony Irish song called "How are Things in Glocca Morra?" (spelling?) I'm an alto again for the first time in about 6 months so it's taking some getting used to, and while I kinda miss singing the melody, the challenge of the alto parts is so much more interesting.
I saw a few people, chatted a bit, and went home to do homework. I'm so blessed to be part of co-op. :)

Dreaming at the Dentist's

I don't know why dentists get such a bad rap. I'll catch someone recounting their experience there as a traumatized survivor from a haunted house. Having wisdom teeth pulled aside, which may very well deserve even more fear and abject terror than from zombies, it's generally fine. Sure, someone probing at your teeth may be uncomfortable, and having to keep that flouride in your mouth for 4 minutes is a challenge, but it hardly amounts to the infamy awarded to Al Capone.
"Stick'em up - I mean your tongue."
"Who needs an oozzie when I have this (insert long instrument name here)?"
I met my new dentist today for the first time in a long time - which was scaring me, one, because I was afraid he would shake his head and tell me that all my teeth would fall out before I was thirty, or that it would be just a long painful experience. It was quite the opposite. Despite my cavities (sadly I have three) the dental hygienist was very nice, the procedure mostly painless, and the chair extremely comfortable. Actually, I almost dozed off while the lady was groping around me mouth with deft accuracy. I knew she was highly skilled at this art, because having someone stick metal things in your mouth for minutes at a time while keeping your comfortable enough to almost doze off on them is a feat beyond reckoning. With my eyes closed, I almost imagined she was giving my teeth a massage. Dental care gets an A+ from me. So would anyone who could put me "on the table" and keep me comfortable enough to almost slip into dreamland.

Dental Care - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7LjoeRCM7uc

Music Therapy

I've been looking into different majors for college, and yesterday had the opportunity to talk to and work with a licenced music tharapist with about 10 little kids. One of the most amazing things she told me about music therapy was about how they use it to help people who had taken severe injury to their heads to re-learn to talk. It takes the entire brain to process a music, between the rythem, words, and different frequencies of the notes. It has the capability to build neuron connections between the different sides of your brain, for increased and faster connection between your right and left brain. It can also rebuild broken connections, enabling people to relearn to talk. It makes sense then that listening to Mozart or Beethoven would be good for you. I know from experience that trying to play Bach is the musical equivalent of Chemistry, so it's definitely not easy. :) The therapist would sing or play a simple, repetitive song, like (for example) "I love you" slowly and in beat. There is a simple backround instrument also. They get the patient to mimic the words with their mouth, and then replay it again, leaving out the word "you." The patient's brain is by that time trained to finish the thought, and the person tries to say "you." They will slowly take out more and more of the song, until the person has rebuilt enough of the connections in the brain to speak again.
I never knew music therapy could do that. It's pretty amazing:)

"How do you hold a moon beam in your hand?" I mean, seriously?

Good question. For all of you people who have watched the Sound of Music, you will know that the song "How do you Solve a Problem Like Maria?" uses that line to portray the image of trying to deal with an elusive, ever-unique issue. And I have an issue that is really like trying to hold a moonbeam in your hand. I'm trying to write a song.
Songwriting is not even of enough status as of now to call a hobby of mine. Lyrics are written on scraps of paper in spirts, tunes come and go in my head, and I rarely even get the notes written on paper, let alone finish a song. But I like to try. Some songs are easy - when dealing with a common idea that is easy to put to words, and a common emotion that goes along with that making the piano part easy. If you were asked to make up a "happy" tune, it would be a lot easier than playing an "elusively awe-inspiring with a hint of chill" tune. And that's what I'm trying to learn, and it's driving me crazy, and I love it.
Ok, so I found a scrap of lyrics about snowflakes that I had written last May. (Why?...good question) and the newly fallen snow told me it was time to try to put it to music. This is the hardest song I've ever tried to write. the others were much more clearly defined, and I had heard enough "happy" "sad" and "thoughtful" tunes that I had an idea of what one should sound like. But with this, at first I didn't even know what I wanted - I had to get the emotion I was trying to portray. Awe was the best I could come up with, but even that was lame. It's what you feel when you look out into a world, silent, still, and everything, even time, is encased in ice. Trying to name that flutter that happens in you is like trying to catch the pearl of light that shoots off an ice-over leaf in a split second, or a moonbeam in your hand. When the emotion comes, I try to stick that in ice too, to freeze the moment, so I can examine it closeup. Sometimes it works, and sometimes it doesn't. "Elusively awe-inspiring with a hint of chill" is the most descriptive I've gotten so far. But every time I walk away with more knowledge about it, as well as the knowledge that there is still so more that I know I missed. It's driving me crazy, but like a star-struck kid, I keep jumping after snowflakes to examine one up close before it melts in my hand.
And so follows what I call the "Beethoven Effect" that drives my mom crazy - I'm in my own world, forgetting what I'm doing because I had an idea, not responding when someone talks to me because I'm playing piano in my head, and being a generally spaced-out space cadet. I just want to get this done so I can go back to normal, but until I can catch the emotion, and then (the hard part), spell it out with notes with deft ease, it's enticing my mind to wander during school and lay in bed with the half-finished song brewing in my head at night. If and when I ever finish, I'll let you know, although you might be able to guess for yourself because by that time I'll be landing back on earth again.

Speaking of Spiderman...

Last night I watched the first Spiderman movie for the first time, and was immediately sucked in by the intrigue, messy plot, high action, and growing character of Spiderman. One of my favorite parts is when his uncle tells him "With great power comes great responsibility." After that throughout the movie, he discovers what it means to be responsible, doing what's right even if it's painful or hard. Spiderman is no saint, of course, but that is a good moral to think about. Last night after the movie it hit me - Speaking of Spiderman,there have been times where I've gained a little more "power" so to speak, as well as responsibility, in the past few years. Slowly things came to me that I had forgotten, or had not realized were important, that connected with this interesting premise.
I remember the first time I held a newborn baby. I was nine years old at a saints day party, dressed in full costume regalia, when Mrs. Green asked me to hold baby Angelica who wasn't even 2 weeks old. I had never held a baby so tiny before, and the only thought running through my 9-year-old head was I hope I don't drop her! I paid extra attention to holding her tight and not bumping into anyone, because I had gained a small, though very real power to my little 4th grade mind - holding a little life in my hands:)
Before I joined the TGN group, I was "the big man on campus" in Sacred Heart homeschool group, because I was one of the very oldest. At the get-togethers and family parties, the little kids, whenever they wanted to organize a group game, make an "announcement," or there was a problem, would come to some of us older ones (aka Hannah Monnin and I:) and ask us to lead the charge or solve the issue. They would copy us in small ways, like phrases we would say, or whether or not to take our shoes off in the house, little things like that, but nevertheless I always knew I was being looked up too, I had the leading power. Besides my mom's strong guiding hand, knowing that If I did something wrong, the younger kids would hear about and maybe try it made me think more before I acted and kept me out of trouble. Something I learned that was especially valuable was sometimes not acting my age, in a good way. If the younger ones couldn't go out to walk around the Monnin's very large property, I learned to encourage them to stay in the yard and lead by example, although I was very well old enough to go if I wanted too. If the company or activity was geared towards a younger age, I basically learned to follow the rules of that age group at that time, being responsible by leading others on the right way with my actions. That's something I'm still trying to learn how to do, as we all are...
When I got my license, I was very aware as I pulled out of the driveway by myself for the first time that I had my our life in my hands, as well as the others on the road. It's a real power, and a great responsibility, because your performance can determine the saving or losing of a life. I started that first drive with a prayer, and pray often when I drive now. :)
On a different level, another power came when I was about 13 or 14 and actually realized I was a female. Before that I had known it in theory, but it wasn't until I could some guys looking at me ("oddly", I thought) that I realized a had a different sort of power that every girl has. That was kinda scary at first, I had no idea what to do with this knowledge that guys could like me. With a lot of help from my mom, and a decent amount of embarrassing scrapes, slowly I learned the responsibility that came with that power - dress modestly, don't flirt, don't be alone with a guy, and no wrestling! (which was the hardest for me, actually, because I used to love to roughhouse when I was very little:) These are the awkward, random things I learned, that everyone has to learn to grow up a little more:) With that power came a great, awesome responsibility that I'm still learning how to follow.

Even though these little powers are unruly and hard sometimes, learning responsibility and skillfully wielding our "powers", or choosing not to, because it is right, is an adventure equal to swinging from the tops of skyscrapers.

Teaching makes me queasy

Today was the first day back to co-op, as well as the first day back to teaching Road to Chorus. The last few weeks I've been thinking, brainstorming, scribbling notes and scribbling them out, searching out songs, and trying to get organized despite the butterflies that seem to live in my stomach and wake up whenever I'm thinking about or doing something for the class. Yesterday mom printed out almost 200 copies of music sheet exercises for me, I got my song list settled, and was ready to go. Except, of course, that 30 min before my first class started I lost my appetite and was grateful not to lose my lunch.
Things went relatively well. PROS -When I walked into the classroom, I was greeting with big smiles and large hugs by two 6-year-old boys. That was a wonderful way to start. Despite some over excitedness and a little bit of ADHD moments from the little ones, they were happy to be there, learn the songs, and hang out with me and the class. THINGS TO IMPROVE - have more short fun activities to keep up with the kids' ever shortening attention span.
The older kids class was a little less nerve-racking because I had gotten a chance to warm up. After warmups, and going over the class schedule and songs, we did some intonation exercises and sang the beginnings of some songs, including the latin Dona Nobis Pacem and the challenging but upbeat Irish song Rocky Road to Dublin, complete with seven verses, thank you very much. I complete challenge. But I know the nervousness, stress, hours of singing, and brainstorming in the middle of the night, will pay off in a big way when the kids walk out on stage and sing to their hearts content.
This will be quite a year. I can't wait:)

Star Wars Meets Princess Bride

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VYVQooRSlzg&feature=player_embedded

lol :)

Mondays :P

Monday was just one of those days. If I were a cartoon character, I would've had a little grey raincloud floating above my head. I was sick, my whole family was sick, I still had to do school (lots of it) and everyone was putzing around and grumpy. Everything seemed intrinsically annoying simply because it existed. After several hours of this, we take a break from school to say family rosary, the joyful mysteries, meditating on how amazing, happy, and perfect the holy family was. I almost blushed when we started. I realized that I was supposed to try to be joyful, and if not that, then cheerful at least, and be like Mary a handmaid of the Lord, patient and kind (which I had certainly not been feeling lately). So I sighed, and promised to offer up the rest of that cruddy day. Well, whether the rest of the day really went well or not, that prayer was a good reminder that there is a reason God isn't asking us to be martyrs or missionaries yet - we have to get past the elementary stuff first:)

Hey guys:) If you haven't guessed already, I'm starting a blog. I'll write a bit here, a little there, maybe in spirts, but I'll try to be consistent. :) It took me a little while to figure out how to actually put up a post, but here is the first one:) I thought it would be a good way to start out the new year.
I'm excited, scared, a little worried, yet content when I think about this year. What is it going to hold? What will we choose to do in it? I'll be graduating (si Dios quiere - if God wills, as my mom would say), rather unexpectedly, so that is an exciting mark to cross. Everyone of my friends and family, as well as myself, will live, experience, think, choose, and hopefully grow from those choices - but the next day square on the calendar is always labeled with a big scribbled question mark full of possibilities. Observing life and jumping in on the action is a task a sincerely enjoyable to me. I can't wait for this year:)

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