It's been a rough week here teaching. Although we had President's Day off, I have had at least two classes of incomplete class work assignments and incessant nagging from my students. At the end of my morning class, I snapped at my students "I do NOT want to hear anyone complain about when lunch is ever again!" I tried to make a dramatic exit out of the classroom.

It didn't work so well.

But, the "savior" for teachers everywhere (I presume) would be the feeling that they get on a Friday. I'd equate it how a runner feels when they can see the finish line. And, today, I am receiving a huge HEAP of that feeling. While we try and take each day as new, with no mistakes in it, I still feel like those days pile up on us until we can not even stand up and, guess what happens, we realize that we're finally to Friday.

Most days, I'm glad that I have a job, that I have friends at where I work, that my work is/seems meaningful (at least to those around me). Today, I feel some of those same feelings but, more importantly, I feel empowered.

Yesterday, I meticulously wrote out some new lesson plans and prepared classwork and homework assignments for both my classes. Most days, I just run out of a lesson plan book (of my own creation) that has 25 to 30 lesson plans and just use those. I've been "using" them for the past 3 years. They're practically memorized. I never actually have to look at them, I just take out the assignments to make copies when I need to. I follow the play book, usually, but I try to omit lesson plans wherever I can. It's so thorough that I never have to add anything.

But, this class is a little different and I've been trying out some new books and new ideas on how to teach...

Today, I'm breaking form.

Writing Creatively meets lovey-dovey

So, I have been enjoying looking to some of my favorite writers/bloggers for inspiration. Today, I've decided to bring out the big guns...someone whom I consider to be famous, Felicia Day (see Dr. Horrible's Sing-A-Long Blog and various other projects.) You can check out her website/blog here.

Here is an excerpt:

It takes a very brave person to express themselves creatively. I know the paralyzing fear of being bad very well; it’s one of my greatest weaknesses. For years I had a voice inside me telling I “should” do this and I “should” do that, but I couldn’t overcome the possibility of being horrible to actually risk doing something about it. So I did nothing. And I loathed myself for my weakness.

Finally I had a strange realization that time passes whether you’re doing something with it or not. It would be easy to let every day go by easily with no risk and then, at the end of the day (my life), I would look back and realize that fear ruled me: At that point there would be nothing I could do about it. So, I got off my butt! It wasn’t easy and I had a lot of lapses (I still do) but the experience of being ruthless with myself was an amazing lesson to learn.


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

She posted a lot of books that helped her, things that she tried, and many of those things stuck with me. Being as though I'm trying to write every day, today's writing prompt came from a website/book that she suggested by author C.M. Mayo. The book, Daily 5 Minute Writing Exercises, is pretty much exactly what it says it is. There are some amazingly awesome ideas in here, ones that I never would have ever thought to write about...It has been amazingly inspiring, terrifying, and has pushed me to look outside the box.

Today's writing exercise is taken from that website and will hopefully be interesting for you to read.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
February 13 "Message for a Stranger on February 14"
Today's exercise was inspired by an essay published yesterday in the Washington Post, by Canadian novelist Margaret Atwood. She wrote, "writing, like sewing, was always for someone, even if that someone was yourself in the future. Writing was a way of sending your voice to someone you might never meet." Imagine that tomorrow a stranger will pick up the scrap of paper on which you have written the following words:
(Note: this exercise is especially fun if you really do leave the scrap of paper somewhere for someone to find it-- perhaps on a park bench or in an elevator.)




Dearest,

If you're reading this, it means that I'm not there with you...at least I'm only there in spirit. I think the things that I will miss the most are when you brush your lips lightly against mine, when we dance around the kitchen like a bunch of goof balls, when you put your arms around me and kiss my neck.

I know that we're not separated because our love links us. Our life has been a mixture of dreams, fantasy and reality. You have always played the lead role, the love interest, the husband, the bad guy, the hero, and, in the end, the person I wanted to be with forever and ever.

Our love has stood the test of time...

Stepping Stones (2nd Draft)

(In order to get some of my creative juices flowing (thatswhatshesaid), I decided to visit one of my favorite blogs to look for an easy prompt to right about. Although it was easy to figure out the twelve stepping stones in my life, it was not so easy to write descriptions of them. Here is my first attempt that I have ever so slightly drafted, edited and made to look as pretty as I could...)


My good friend, Em, is taking a class in the Methods of Teaching English...The prompt basically asks the writer to imagine their life as a series of twelve stepping stones, each one with representing an accomplishment or growth and write about them.


1. I was born...October 5, 1982 - (Fun Fact - I was almost born in San Diego which was where my parents were living when they found out that I was on the way...but then my dad got a great opportunity to get his PhD at Catholic University and took it.)

2. I got the part of Suzy Snowflake in an elementary school production at school. It even had a solo... It really launched me into my love of music and motivated me to want to do more. (1989 or 1990)

3. I got into Thomas G. Pullen Creative and Performing Arts Magnet School for music (specifically singing.) I was the one that brought my already filled out application to my parents and begged them to let me audition. The audition, so easy, that at the time I wondered if I would do better just finding a vocal coach on my own. This is one of my few moments where my true determination, drive and motivation paid off. (June 1994)

4. My first boyfriend, Ricky, sang for me in front of everyone. He was a little bit of country, and I was a little bit of rock and roll. He sang a very country version of "I swear." It was sweet and I'll never forget it. It reminded me that, although I felt starved for attention (hey - I'm an only child), I was being noticed by the people around me. (Fall 1994)

5. Getting into the school musical, Cinderella Trilogy - I have never been good at auditions. But, somehow, I got a small part dancing in our production of The Cinderella Trilogy. The great things were that I was with my friends (sans Jessica who left TGP) and we were singing, dancing and acting together. We even missed school for two weeks to do the production twice a day. I will never forget those days and long for them to come back. It was an accomplishment just to be involved. I was surrounded by wonderfully talented friends. (1996)

6. I started studying with my first voice teacher, Robin Henshaw. She was recommended to me by Niki Zook and, after a semester of lessons with her, I told her of my plans to try and get into Chamber Choir. She was, of course, sweet and encouraging. She was honest about the amount of work that would be involved in getting into better vocal shape. We worked hard changing my bad habits. It worked and she is one of my constant sources of inspiration. (1998)

7. Getting into and singing with Chamber Choir - My senior year was full of amazing things. I sang Alto in the Chamber Choir (an elite 12 person choir...only the best of the best were in this class). We had a great time and I was partnered up some amazing singers...Anyone who knows me now would be shocked that I was singing Alto (with my large range) but I like to think it was because people realized that my voice is the type that fills in the gaps...it smooths other voices over or blends them better...I don't really know how to explain it any other way. (June 1999)

8. Bye Bye Birdie - I finally got a good role in a musical my senior year - Mrs. MacAfee. It was good singing, I had lots of costume changes (because I also sang and danced in almost every group number as a teenager as well), and I felt like I belonged. I truly loved being on stage... (April 2000)

9. Getting into college wasn't hard. It took very little time or effort on my part. I hardly did any work to even get into the voice program at UMBC. However, when I auditioned for Opera workshop and got my first big role in an opera, that was a lot of work. I played Laetitia in The Old Maid and the Thief by Gian Carlo Menotti. I was also in Street Scene (but I don't remember what role). It was wonderful and uplifting (except for that one moment that someone tried to kick me in the face). (2002)

10. I don't think my voice has really matured or changed as much as my teachers had liked. I tried to sing harder music to prove to them that I was a good singer but to no avail. My senior recital hearing was one of the worst days of my life. First off, I was so nervous, debuting a new piece that was really much harder than my voice could handle. Second, I was still very ill and tired which made it harder for me to concentrate, practice, and sing. I did well (and passed) but they didn't pass the one song that I wanted so desperately to sing. To this day, I will not sing it for anyone. The song was "Dove sono i bei momenti" from The Marriage of Figaro. (November 2004)

11. I didn't think that I would ever feel more linked to someone in my entire life than the day that we got married. It was a big step and not one that I took lightly. I talked to death with friends, family, my priest and especially my husband about this big day. A lot of work went into that day. Not everything was perfect and many things went wrong. But I will not change any of those things. One of my favorite memories from that day: walking down the aisle to beautiful 8 part Rachmaninoff. (2006)

12. "Those who can't do, teach." I tried to satiate my thirst for music and performing with opening my own studio out of our home, cleverly named La Voce Dolce. A year later, I closed it down. (2007)

Welcome

I had this grandiose idea. I needed my own little piece of the internet where I could post things, without worry and people would not have to join a website and add another user name and password to their list.

Hopefully, I have accomplished this. If not, don't sent your letters, emails, messages, twitter comments, etc. to me. I didn't do it! (Unless you want me to post them and make fun of you....)

In my mind now (a month and a half into it and me finally putting up some posts), it's a place to keep track of any creative writings and musings. My goals are to try and write in different styles and empty out some of the ideas in my brain. Most importantly, I hope to be able to become a better story teller and writer.

So, welcome. Bien venido! Enjoy!