2005 recap

stolen from my LJ friends, here's a recap of 2005, using one sentence from the first entry of each month.

(my other blog is at www.livejournal.com/users/teaii)

jan 2005
"it will be a reminder of the inexplicable hope infusing me today, this firm belief that this is the year i break out of my oh-so-very-extended relationship slump and actually discover what i've been wishing for for so so long."

feb 2005
"yesterday was bad - bad bad bad bad bad. so bad. the badness of this bad was greater than any badness that's been bad before.

well, maybe not that bad, but it certainly wasn't good."

mar 2005
"weekend was a difficult one for obvious reasons. i hate feeling helpless and wanting to do more. but i suppose that's how it goes in these situations."

apr 2005
"You would think I would realize, just because I’m in another country doesn’t mean my body won’t react to caffeine the same way. A big chocolate pastry and Diet Pepsi right before bed is a bad idea."

may 2005
"i wonder sometimes if my own spontaneity is just a ploy to keep people at a distance."

jun 2005
"year two is finished and my room is stripped bare and i have nothing but partying and sleeping planned for the next two days.

excellent."

jul 2005
"heading out the door for toronto. cincinnati was kind enough to welcome me back with some vicious thunderstorms"

aug 2005
"but the more i think about it, the more God brings it to the forefront, the more i am sensing i need to move away from this urban sprawl i so despise and look for a little piece of land a little closer to where my heart turns more and more lately - norwood, specifically, near st. e's. i want to be where God is, commute be damned."

sep 2005
"slivered morning light
pointing toward the coming day
sneaking up the sky"

oct 2005
"suffice to day, i spent the night in my new place last night and am experiencing no buyers remorse (though i'm not nearly as excited as i thought i would be - maybe that will come once i actually move in)"

nov 2005
"first, thanks to all who had kind things to say about my beardless picture. excellent ego boost this week."

dec 2005
"helped me not to dwell on the fact that it's been ten years now. geesh. i've entered my second decade now. and it's not a big deal for, oh, 350 days out of the year. but on those other days, it becomes a big deal."

Tunes: palomar - knockout

giddy, i'm giddy i tell you

SNOW DAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

glorious glorious glorious.

no phone call - should have told andy he needed to dial the area code to get in touch with me.

glad i checked online before wandering off to bed.

this has been a marvelous night....

...tutoring with jordan. such a great kid. tries really hard and seems to like me.

...the daily show and the colbert report - brilliant.

...it's official - i am a cast member for the CMT production of CHESS. i'll be playing Nikolai. small part (i think). little singing. probably no dancing. but who knows. we'll see what happens.

...late dinner invite from the barr's. vegetarian lasagna. julie gonnering came by. we watched The Snowman. lovely time.

...finished the CD for shannon, which was quite the adventure. should finish another before i go to bed, though i have all day tomorrow.

...did i mention the snow day tomorrow? and knowing about it the night before? priceless.

time to do the snow day celebration dance. woohoo!
Æ

Tunes: cake - love you madly

no more cold nights

no, i haven't found someone to share my bed (insert own inappropriate joke here).

i was going over my cinergy bill this morning while my students were down taking the PLAN test, trying to figure out how to get onto the budgeted billing plan because my bill jumped from $43 to $270 in one month. in the process, i saw a notice saying i had not paid my last bill, which made me concerned, since i knew i had set it up through bill pay at 5/3. so i looked and saw what the problem was. my last bill said $42.95 was due, which is what i paid. unfortunately, they moved over the remaining bill from my apartment (which was a frightening amount) and took the money i had sent in to pay down that balance. and then charged me a late fee for not paying my bill. i called to let them know what had happened, but of course, i was on hold forever and decided .64 wasn'tworth the hassle (the cost of the late fee).

ANYWAY, all that to say, my heating bill was only $70 last month, not $270, which means i can probably raise the temp in The Grotto a couple of degrees (it's at a cavelike 62 right now). it's the little things inlife that bless.

still no word from mr. canipe, so no idea if i need to be checking my bank account or not for souvenir/gas/ticket money. so shouldn't go. so probably will if the price is right (not sure whatright would be, but i'll figure it out eventually).

time to break out the snow dance - forecast is calling for 2-6" tonight. as with most things in life, it will all depend on timing. too early, the trucks will have a chance to clear the road. would love a snow day - who wouldn't - but i'm working hard not to get my hopes up. we are in southern ohio, after all, and if anything is consistent, it's that weather reportsare consistently mistaken.

but i'll dance tonight anyway.

tonight...rehearsal was cancelled, so not sure what i'm doing. probably grading. janet and some friends from the blue jordan label are performing a john lennon tribute - maybe i'll sneak out and see that - if the snow isn't too bad, that is. might be a good night to curl up with a good book or film and watch the snow fall outside the windows of MY house...ifonly i had a fireplace.

ok. must go. it's grice's lasagna day - one of the teachers fixes lasagna for the entire staff once a year. much easier when he started some 15-20 years ago - school was MUCH smaller. but he perseveres. glad to have first lunch - means there'll be plenty to eat. north beach, here i come!

more later perhaps.
Æ

Tunes: juliana hatfield and tanya donnelly - josie and the pussycats

who am i kidding?

two things...

one, if they offer me a part, any part, i'm taking it. like i would turn it down. just hearing the music sung through the curtained divider in the suprisingly balmy church basement made me want to do the show. sure, my dance audition was hideous (once you start yelling out official french names for moves, i'm out), but i was the only bass at the ensemble singing and even was asked to stick around and read for a speaking part (though seeing it, i might be better off doing multiple roles in the chorus...). so now comes the waiting (hey, wasn't i talking about this sometime recently?). in this case, e-mail = bad. phone call = good. no whammies, no whammies, no whammies....

two, chad canipe just e-mailed me. seems a coworker has U2 tickets he's looking to unload. hmmm. so should not do this, no way, no how. and yet i asked for more details. of course i did. like the subject line says.

back to school tomorrow. but half the day is PLAN testing, one bell of practice OGT and one bell in the media center. shuoldn't be too bad, other than the stack of grading i have to do. why oh why must the district have the practice scores before the new year? does it really matter? not to me it doesn't.

did i just type that out loud? silly me.

to sleep. perchance to...sleep.
Æ

Tunes: chess - where i want to be

pacing the cage

this song came up on my mp3 player this afternoon and struck a chord so deeply it reverberates even now.

Pacing The Cage

Sunset is an angel weeping
Holding out a bloody sword
No matter how I squint I cannot
Make out what it's pointing toward
Sometimes you feel like you live too long
Days drip slowly on the page
You catch yourself
Pacing the cage

I've proven who I am so many times
The magnetic strip's worn thin
And each time I was someone else
And every one was taken in
Hours chatter in high places
Stir up eddies in the dust of rage
Set me to pacing the cage

I never knew what you all wanted
So I gave you everything
All that I could pillage
All the spells that I could sing
It's as if the thing were written
In the constitution of the age
Sooner or later you'll wind up
Pacing the cage

Sometimes the best map will not guide you
You can't see what's round the bend
Sometimes the road leads through dark places
Sometimes the darkness is your friend
Today these eyes scan bleached-out land
For the coming of the outbound stage.
Pacing the cage.
Pacing the cage

bruce cockburn

no school

well, there is school. i'm just not there. woke up feeling my skin was uninhabitable and decided it would be better to try to kick this cold that seems to be lingering around instead of going and infecting my students with my bugs and my lack of enthusiasm. unfortunately, i still had to drive into school because there was no way to get things set up for the sub via email. so out the door at 5:30, back by 7:15. then sleep, glorious sleep. seems to have helped a bit, though i still have the pre-cold hangover. bleah.

i'm not ready for christmas yet, literally or metaphysically. no decorations, no christmas shopping. and other than the two marvelous advent services at st. e's, no connection to the season. not even the brilliantly cold weather has helped. time is flying by and i don't want to miss it.

stupid head. even harder today to gather my thoughts together.

so seems i did well enough to get called back for the ensemble in chess. so now i'm torn, 'cause i'd already written off being involved. and the way i'm feeling today, i'm afraid of how things will go tonight. but i have to go to callbacks, right? would be rude not to. and who knows - maybe a role in the ensemble will be better - fewer rehearsals, fewer responsibilities, more time for my other commitments. so i'll go. and then i'll decide. really, the big issue is one of the performances is scheduled for the night of film club's student film festival. and i don't think it's possible to move it - barely was able to get the auditorium that time of the year as it was.

speaking of film club, we watched seven samauri the past two days. always a bit wary on how high school student will do with the older films. but for the most part they enjoyed it and caught its influence over modern films, from archetypes to wipes. great group of students, except for the few that decided to bring food into the auditorium monday and then leave the wrappers and crumbs behind. no respect, i tell you. they didn't come back on tuesday, so no chastising. unfortunately.

ok, need to go rest some more, clear my head, figure out if i am indeed going to get a crown put on this afternoon. plus, would be nice to use some of this down time to get some stuff done around the house so its ready if the christmas spirit ever does come and find me. or i go out and find it i suppose.
Æ

Tunes: roland kirk - we free kings

each game of chess means there's one less variation left to be played

so i auditioned tonight for one of my favorite musicals - chess. have listened to it over and over again for years, since i discovered it back in high school. for those unfamiliar, this is the show written by the two male members of abba, with lyrics by tim rice and the 80s hit, "one night in bangkok." always thought it was a show that missed it's chance - the black vs white, us vs russia issues were there, waiting to be played out. but the book never really came together (the songs were written before the book) and by the time it did, communism had fallen and the changes made were iffy at best.

anyway....

cincinnati music theatre is doing it this spring and once i found out, i knew i had to audition. NO ONE does this show, so i figured it would be my only chance. so i signed up for a time, grabbed a copy of "stars" and gave it my best shot.

shortest audition ever.

but hey, i did it. and now i can go back to my life. didn't really have the time to do it anyway. but would have kicked myself if i'd not auditioned.

too bad i can't transfer that to other areas of my life.

got a call from candice tonight - she was going to be in the area visiting a friend, so i drove back up to tylersville road to catch up a bit. haven't talked to her in ages, which is a bit odd for us. hopefully we'll be getting together again next monday with our friend amelia. always a bit disconcerting to talk to candice - she and God are best friends, and He talks to her much more than to me - and often He talks to her about me. which makes me think i must not be listening if He has to talk to me through my friends. but that's another issue. good to chat.

weird school week. my first two bells are taking the PLAN test tomorrow and tuesday, which means i have to figure out something for my fifth bell to do, without getting them too far ahead. no idea what i'll be doing. that's probably a bad thing. fourth bell is taking the practice OGT, so no worries there.

bed calls. laundry will wait. good night.
Æ

Tunes: the white stripes - candy cane girl