Pi Girl

This is part of my “people who rock” series, but since I know none of them and I’m sure none of them read my blog, someone will just have to pass along the word that someone out in the world thinks they’re cool.

Drew Barrymore - Finally, someone who pays attention to the crap on MTV and wants to put an end to it! A girl wanted to undergo plastic surgery to look like the actress and Drew called her up and convinced her not to go through with it. I can only hope that MTV wil air that episode for all the suckers who actually watch I Want a Famous Face - a lesson might actually be learned!

Katie Hosking - she and her fiance called off the wedding with 12 days to go. What to do with all the wedding plans? She threw the reception anyway and invited 40 homeless people to enjoy the festivities. It’s brilliant!

Mikhael Rawls - he sings very high soporano and earned the scores to get on the Texas All-State Choir, but Texas says only girls can sing soporano and alto and only boys can sing tenor and bass. Ok, so Texas says he can’t sing soprano in the All-State Choir (boo!). I’m applauding this kid because he can sing soprano and stood up for the right to sing soprano in the All-State Choir. I’d love to hear him sing sometime.

Spain - Yea for legalizing gay marriage! How refreshing to know that there is a country in this world that will let gay couples have all the same rights and privileges as straight couples! (and I haven’t forgotten about you either, Belgium, Netherlands and Canada.)

At least this one is all in the name of literacy. Is now a good time to link to our award-winning Need to Read section from the Star-Gazette?

Jason says I have to play, so here goes:

1) Total number of books I’ve owned?
No idea. I was addicted to reading when I was younger and I think I owned every book from every teen series (Sweet Vally High, Babysitters Club, etc). It’s gotta be in the hundreds.

2) What is the last book I bought?
For myself? uh…I think it was “Buff Brides” (yeah, that didn’t work). But I bought several books for people for Christmas.

3) Last book I read?
“A Song to Sing, A Life to Live : Reflections on Music as Spiritual Practice” by Emily and Don Saliers - and you may recall how much I loved that book!

4) 5 books that mean something to me:
“Gone with the Wind” by Margaret Mitchell - I went through 2 editions of that book because I read it so much, I just destroyed the binding. I spent my whole week at diabetes camp when I was 13 reading that book and earned myself the “Frankly, my dear, I don’t give a darn about diabetes” award that week.
“Joshua and the Children” by Joseph Girzone - While I highly recommend the whole Joshua series, this one is closer to my heart because I read this one first. It was an assignment for Confirmation class and I was just hooked.
“She’s Come Undone” by Wally Lamb - I was shocked to learn that this book was written by a man. Wally Lamb is an amazing writer that just captures your soul and makes you identify with every single character.
“Promiscuities” by Naomi Wolf- I had to read this for Women’s Live in college. This class completely blew me away, so much so that I inhaled as many classes for the Women’s Studies minor as I could - too bad it was my senior year so I never did earn the minor.
“The DaVinci Code” by Dan Brown - I know, it’s recent, it’s cliche, but I find myself referencing back to it a lot lately. I’m so fascinated how it connects science to history to art to religion. Something for everyone!

Saturday night, as I settled into my seat in the Clemens Center, I had an eerie feeling I would being feeling Tequila Mockingbird’s latest post.

Yes, because I love my kids, I attended a dance recital that 3 of my youth group kids were in. What fun, I thought, because I spent 8 years of my own childhood dancing in those dance recitals. But for those recitals, I spent the majority of my time chasing down costumes and make-up back stage.

This time, I got to see it from the other side. Two and a half hours watching mostly other people’s kids dancing (or attempting to dance). At least I can say my kids were in the top 2 classes so they really were the best dancers on stage (ha!). But I had plenty to keep me amused….

- Apparently it’s cute to watch 3 and 4 year olds standing on the stage occasionally following their teachers, but mostly just wandering around fascinated by the wings on their butterfly costume. My kid’s parent explained to me that this is because parents are glad to see their kid on stage by themselves and not freaking out that you aren’t within immediate view. And often, they are remembering that just a year ago, they couldn’t do any of that.

- There were probably about 8 boys in the show, an impressive number in itself, but I have to hand the show to little Jeffrey and Marsden. Both of them performed with such flair and style that I hope noone tries to take it away from them when they get older. Neither of them could be older than 8, but at times, I believe they danced better than the high schoolers.

- I was a little surprised at the halter top and bare midriff costumes for the 6 year olds on the Aladdin number - even more surprised by the same costume in gold and more sequins on the boy in that group. That picture has blackmail written all over it when he gets older.

- I will admit, when I saw that the dance company has an adult class, I considered very seriously signing up for classes. Until Amy reminded me that I’m already over-booked with stuff. But I followed along on the tap number anyway and told myself that if I were to take that class, I could totally do the steps.

- The musical choices were … interesting. It’s been a long time since I heard Debbie Gibson’s “Electric Youth.” I still don’t understand why we had to listen to a live recording of “Zippity Do Dah;” you’re a dance studio, I’m sure a better sounding version of the song exists somewhere. And that haunting techno version of “I Could Have Danced All Night” was downright scary.

- I still stand by my assertion that Kei, Amanda and Julia were the best dancers of the show. And I’m sure they’re parents are in complete agreement with me.

Last night’s concert rocked! I could be just biased but Magic City Music Hall in Johnson City is one excellent concert hall. I’ll have to go back sometime when I can try out the food. But the place is small and perfect for getting up close and personal with the featured band.

And of course, the featured band of the night were the Indigo Girls. There couldn’t have been more than 10 people between me and Amy Ray. There were probably 20 people between me and Emily Saliers. I could see everything! Well, except for when the tall people in front of me got in the way. Damn me being short!

They did a lot of different songs from last week’s concert at Wolf Trap, which was great for me. One of the better moments of the show happened when Emily messed up during “Watershed.” Like we need another reminder how real these girls are. But we all laughed along with her and picked right up when she started again and the right place in the song.

And that’s the other great thing: the audience. Maybe it was the smallnes of the hall, but the energy in the audience was amazing. Amy and Emily fed off of it and gave it right back to us. The singing of the crowd was so loud and intense. And we could see how much the girls loved it.

The opening band Three5Human were also way better than last week. Probably because I could see them better. Or maybe it was because they brought out the Indigo Girls not once, but twice. Trina Meade, the lead singer, joined the girls twice herself on “Closer to Fine” and “Kid Fears” and her voice blended so well on the harmonies. She was selling cds after the show so I bought one and got her autograph!

It was so much fun. I want more!

My plan was to come back early and “take a vacation from my vacation” before heading back to work on Monday. It almost worked too. Monday was pretty good, although I think I was just getting good day vibes from it being my brother’s birthday.

But I was getting clued in that the stress and my schedule was building when I couldn’t actually call my brother until 11 pm on Monday.

And now, here it is Thursday. And I still haven’t done my laundry from last week. And I can’t remember what the dog or cat look like. I will thank my boss who yesterday reminded me that I had a dog.

Between work, catching up from last week, youth groups, rehearsals, and hot weather, I haven’t had any down time. It’s kind of sad that I’m just as glad as the kids are that it’s the end of the school year because for me, it means youth group is over until the Fall (although they claim to be sad that youth group is over and can we have it every night - I’m flattered, but no!)

But another Indigo Girls concert is almost here. That will be the perfect end to my week and the perfect start to my weekend. Is it Friday yet?

So, I just got back from a week in Maryland. We were down there for the cousin’s graduation party and it just so happens that the bro-in-law was deployed this week. Chris will be keeping a war blog while he’s away; I highly recommend you check him out and keep him in your prayers.
We also took the opportunity to see some friends, see the National Museum of Women in the Arts, go back to the World War II memorial (I wanted to see it while the fountains were actually running, it also happened to be D-Day), check out other DC attractions along the way. You know, the usual.

Walking around in the heat and humidity seemed like such a good idea on Monday, but then I got sunburned and a little cranky trying to find any object to shade me on the long walk back to the metro. After that, I displayed the more typical upstate New Yorker behavior of complaining about the heat and seeking out all things air-conditioning (and let me tell you, I actually detest a/c 90% of the time).

I saw my Indigo Girls at Wolf Trap. I waited a little too late to get tickets, so we got actual seats instead of the lawn tickets. I thought I would feel all special being under the roof and not worrying about getting to the venue early, but I found myself wishing I was back on the lawn. And it was way too weird being there without Amber. But the girls sounded wonderful and the in-laws enjoyed the concert, which was good enough for me.

I also enjoyed that you can now take the metro to West Falls Church and take a special Wolf Trap shuttle to the show! Wisking past all the road traffic was fun, even if I was packed like a sardine in the metro car with every other Virginian commuter.

And now, I’m home. And my cat has not been alerted that there is a heat wave going on, she seems to think I want cat hair all over me. Jason is still in Silver Spring, which gives me a few days to completely redecorate the house on him … or not, it’s way too hot to do anything.

I jinxed it the last time, but now that we’ve gotten so much further, I think I’m ok to spill the beans. Just in case, I’ll keep it short.

We have a house. And the bank has even approved the loan.

Since we have that whole closing to get through (and I’m not entirely sure what that means) I am keeping details to a minimum.

Free booze for anyone who wants to help us move in July! (must be 21, of course)

My high school chorus teacher, Carol Jacobe, is retiring this year. She decided to end her 20-something long teaching career with a bang - 2 reunion concerts that brought back her old students, 1 for the Vocal Jazz group and 1 for the high school musicals. So, for 2 days, 140 of us went back to high school to relive our memories.

It was so weird to be back at Baker High. For one thing, the school has added a whole new wing, and the music wing has had some pretty nice upgrades. Then, I was seeing people I haven’t seen in years; I’m talking about the legends I looked up to when I was little, people I graduated with, kids I watched grow up and are now themselves alumni.

The concerts themselves were very laid back. No strict rules, mistakes were ok, and it was really all about having fun. And I think fun was had by all.

From the performer point of view, it was so different. So many of the things I learned about performing came from Ms. Jacobe and those things were kind of thrown out the window for this performance. We didn’t have to memorize our music (yes!) and if we missed something, it was all good.

From the audience point of view, it was so cool to see so many peope on stage from back in the day. For the musical portion, soloists from each show sang a few numbers (1982-2005 - that’s a lot of shows, it was really a 7 hour concert). I felt like I aged as each show was presented while I remembered the show when it was performed and how I responded to it at the time. The very first show I ever saw was Annie back in 1984, so that was probably my favorite to see because I was so enthralled with the performance and I remember thinking, “I want to do that!”

By the end of the weekend, I realized the people I was most excited to see were the people from my old church, who I still see fairly often. It was neat to catch up with the people I graduated with, but I haven’t talked to them since we graduated 10 years ago so there wasn’t much to talk about beyond “where are you in your life right now?” Mostly, it just reminded me that I am so glad to be done with high school and that I am quite content with the path I chose and where it has led me to today.

At the very least, now I’ll know what to expect when the reunion comes around in August.