Blogging A-Z Aborted

I tried. And didn’t even make it halfway through the alphabet. But, most of the posts were highly uninspired. And boring. I didn’t want to write them, much less read them. I’m giving up the ghost on it. I’d rather blog about working out, paying off my credit card (see, that shows how badly I dislike this meme), and anything else going on in my life than keep up the blogging by letter.

Farewell little meme, you seemed like a good idea at the time. To be fair, you did get me back onto the blogging bandwagon. But, your usefulness has come to an end. With no regret and not but rejoicing in my heart for the freedom of subject and blog title do I bid thee farewell.

~The Countess~

LSSDS: LSSDF

Lots of letters. Standing for the Lone Star State Dulcimer Society’s Lone Star State Dulcimer Festival. This was the 29th annual. Crazy.

The people out there are like family. Only, I got to choose these people. And, am I ever glad that I did choose them. They care about me, what’s going on in my life, and are really just dang talented. It was a weekend of little sleep but much shared laughs and tunes. I worked in the raffle booth/club booth selling raffle tickets, t-shirts, performer cds and the like and then played fiddle for the dance band both Friday and Saturday. Such good times.

My family has been going out there for some 15 years now. It’s a family tradition that I hope we keep up as long as they have the festival.

~The Countess~

K.

Here in the blogging a-z countess edition, I debated on letting my 30 Day Shred post be my K post. But, I’m trying to keep the exercise and the other stuff kinda separate. Mainly because I’m actually trying to increase the amount that I’m posting. And having two themes running simultaneously is definitely helping with that. Besides, K happens to be my first initial, which is a perfect excuse to talk all about myself. ;)

Me:

I am 5’10 and I love being tall. It means that I can get away with wearing cute flats and still be taller than most of the girls in a club. Of course, I can also throw on some heels and be taller than pretty much everyone who isn’t a professional athlete.

I have light brown hair and green eyes. My coloring also is neutral enough that I can add blond or red highlights/glazes and it looks completely normal. Yet I can also tan. It’s okay to be jealous.

My mom came up with my name while watching the 85 Super Bowl. She was playing with the names of some of the football players. Yeah, I’m named after football players. Is it any wonder that I’m a sports fan?

I have always loved teaching. Over the course of my life I have taught or helped teach: daycare, children’s choir, youth choir, youth praise band, special education class, tae kwan do, piano – solo and group, violin – solo and group, fiddle – solo and group, Gymboree Play and Music classes, music history, music theory, and, yeah, probably a few other things I’ve forgotten.

I am too conservative for the liberals, too liberal for the conservatives, and I like it that way.

~~

If I had to sum up my religious beliefs into just a few verses it would be:

“What does the Lord require of man? To do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with God.” Micah 6:8

and

“Love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, and soul. Love your neighbor as yourself.” Luke 10:27

The quote that has had the biggest impact on how I want to be perceived as a Christian is from Mahatma Ghandi, “I like your Christ, but I do not like your Christians for they are not like your Christ.”

~~

I love to:

Play piano, fiddle, guitar and pretty much any instrument with strings.

Learn new and crazy things.

Cook and bake yummy foods.

Spend time with my boyfriend, friends, and family.

Try crazy and new things.

Travel and meet new people.

~~

If I could go anywhere to do anything I would want to travel the world just playing music and making new friends.

~The Countess~

Jobs

I’ve been really blessed as far as jobs go. It seems that every time I’ve been looking for a job that one has just opened up for me. That was especially true when I moved to SA and took the jobs with the MLC and SMH that I did. Both jobs opened up because of people I had gone to school with – I’ve never had a greater reminder that networking in college is an important and real thing.

I’m currently faced with moving – again – and applying for jobs all over again. But, I’m not worried. I know that I’ll find something that I’ll have fun doing.

~The Countess~

Idealism

I’m not an overly idealistic person. I like to think of myself as an optimistic realist. I’m very realistic about the things I can accomplish and what I can expect from others. I prefer to see things exactly as they are – rather than how they should be or how I want them to be. I find that I’m disappointed far less often when I think this way. That way, most often, I get exactly what I expect and every now and then my expectations are exceeded. But I’m rarely surprised by something not meeting my expectations.

Every now and then though, I think that I might be a closet idealist. That, deep in my heart of hearts, I just want everything to go well and be perfect. Of course, it’s totally not that way. So, I quash those feelings until they fall back into my happy little realist world. Luckily those are few and far between as I have found that I really do prefer facing problems head on – that is, saying that yes something could potentially be a problem rather than pretending that it doesn’t exist until it becomes a problem monster. I don’t like glossing over things…they just make the gloss bumpy and sticky…

~The Countess~

Happiness

Happiness can be found in so many places. It is so many different things. An emotion/mood that can change as quickly as lightning can strike. It can be found deep within and be as untouchable as molten lava. Or it can be dependent on others and be as fleeting as a glance. I’ve learned to find happiness inside of myself, but there are so many things that make me happy.

The following things make me very happy:

God’s love – Knowing that I am loved and forgiven is a source of deep abiding happiness. Sometimes I forget to easily how wonderful He is. But, everytime I am reminded, I find myself happy again.

The sun – I have a really hard time being in a bad mood when the sun is shining. Give me a sunny day with a cool breeze and I’ll be happy all day long.

My boyfriend – His love makes me so happy. Just his presence in my life is a bright spot. Even on a bad day, if he tells me he loves me, or is thinking of me, or misses me, my mood turns around.

My friends and family – I can depend on them to be there for me, make me laugh, make me cry. It’s amazing.

My work – I find such a joy in working with my students. When I see their eyes light up, when they grasp a concept. When they perform they make me so proud and so happy.

Good food – Hmm, I love a good meal. Cooking for people makes my day. There’s a shy chef inside of me who likes to cook and bake for people.

~The Countess~

Goals

I’ve always been kinda funny about setting goals. I’m kinda instant gratification as far as that goes. I don’t like goals set at New Year’s because I’m of the opinion that they are doomed to fail. People make big sweeping changes in their lives – multiple ones all at once – and are then surprised when they don’t succeed with any of them.

When I was working on my thesis, I had to tell my advisor at the beginning of every week what was getting turned in that week.  That worked so much better for me than trying to tell him at the beginning of the semester how all of that was going to go. It worked well for me too, as I had an immediate deadline. Goals like that work well for me. It’s the general, non-specific, no fixed schedule ones that I don’t ever make.

Some of my goals for May and for this summer:

1. Complete the 30 Day Shred – I should be able to do that in May. I started last week and then took the weekend off – but today is the 3rd and I’m on day 3. I may not quite make it from being out of town – or, I’ll take it with me when I travel and subject others to it too. I’ve never done a program like this with a specified amount of time that one should move through it. I’m pretty excited. I’m also using this as part of the May challenge from http://www.theshredheads.com to exercise every day in the month of May. Should be fun. I’ll keep you updated as I go along.

2. Be able to work out with my boyfriend and his men at the end of May. This directly relates to the above goal. It’s the reason I set the above goal. Because I oh so intelligently told my Air Force lieutenant boyfriend that I would be delighted to work out with him and his men while I’m up there on vacation. Now I have to make sure I won’t make a fool out of my self…

3. Pay off my credit card. I’m tired of being in debt. So, I’m really tightening up my belt to see how much I can pay off this summer. It’s kinda a game for me – the more I pay off the happier I am. If my summer gig goes as well as it should, then I won’t have any problem at all with it. Even if it doesn’t. The goal is to be out from under that debt before the next school year starts.

Those are my three goals. Two to be accomplished by the end of this month and one by the end of the summer. Immediate and achievable. Here goes nothing!

~The Countess~

Fieldtrips

One of the craziest parts of my job is organizing field trips. My boss picks the locations and handles that end – but I have to deal with the student end. It’s my job to hand out permission forms and collect them back. Which isn’t too hard when we have regular class. But, this last round of field trips that we did – taking kids from all five classes on three different days – was preceded by not having regular class the week before. Meaning, I had to hunt students down. And then, some still forgot to bring them back so the day of the field trip they’d have to call home to get permission. This means that we sometimes don’t know who we’re taking until that day. Crazy unorganized.

But, the kids love it. It’s a real motivation for them. We’ve taken them to the Riverwalk, convention centers, churches, and the like. Anywhere we can set up and play for 15-20 minutes.

For every field trip we have to pick a limited number of kids – no more than 26. We have 120 enrolled in our program – so it makes it hard to pick. We have to consider their behavior in our class and in GS as a whole. Attendance is the next marker – they have to show up regularly to be able to go. Their technical skills at playing their instrument is our least concern. We use the fieldtrips to motivate good behavior and attendance out of the students. And it works quite well. Reluctant attendees get much better at not complaining about coming to class every day.

So, I guess field trips are a good thing – even if they drive me crazy.

~The Countess~

Exercise

What an awful word. People react so strongly to it. Most commonly I hear, “I hate to exercise but I know I need to,” or, “exercising sucks,” or some variation of those. I actually don’t mind exercising. Even if I prefer to call it working out. I had good friends that I would go walking/jogging/running with in Houston. I miss them. And our trails that we would walk/jog/run on. Since I don’t have that here in San Antonio, I have had to figure out what to substitute for it. I’ve tried quite a few different things.

I tried just walking the neighborhoods that I live in/near, but that isn’t my favorite option when I have to wait until after dark. Especially since I go alone. Factor in the weather to my ability to go and I wasn’t getting any exercise done. I also tried the workout room at my apartment complex, but, I hate running on a treadmill. It just doesn’t seem right…

So I switched to workout videos. Now, I know me – I need a thirty minute routine – so I need something pretty darn effective in that amount of time that is also fun so that I don’t get bored. I started with Carmen Electra’s Aerobic Striptease routines. No worries – they’re totally family friendly. And, I could see some results – I felt more toned – but, I wasn’t working up a sweat at all. And, it just felt like I wasn’t actually working for any of it.

Then my mom and sister started raving about Jillian Michael’s 30 Day Shred. My curiosity got the best of me. So did my big mouth. I told my boyfriend that I would work out with him and his platoon during the week I’m spending with him at the start of June. What was I thinking? So, I decided to give the thirty day shred a try. I’ve decided that I’m going to blog about it at least periodically as I go through the thirty days. Mostly to motivate me to not quit. Also to give me something to blog about.

Now I’m not trying to lose any crazy amounts of weight. Or really, any at all. Like most women, I think that I could stand to lose ten-ish pounds, but, that’s life. My goal is to get in shape. I want to be able to workout with my boyfriend and his men without embarrassing him or me. And, I know that if I tone what I have, well then, who cares about the number on the scale?

~The Countess~

Delights

I delight in the following things:

1. Seeing my boyfriend.
2. Seeing my family.
3. Seeing my friends. (Hey, I’m a people person what can I say?)
4. Amazingly tight harmonies.
5. A good angry-girl country song.
6. Pretty much any country-rock song.
7. Dulcimer Festivals.
8. Being outdoors.
9. The sun.
10. Cuddling in front of a fire.
11. A good book.
12. The exhausting burn after a good work out.
13. The feel of piano keys beneath my fingers.
14. The vibration of my violin against my shoulder.
15. Watching a student’s face light up as they grasp a concept.
16. Running an efficient classroom.
17. Being on time.
18. Eating healthy food.
19. Eating junk food. (Yeah, my boyfriend says I’m a walking paradox.)
20. Shopping without spending money.
21. Shopping and being able to spend money.
22. Vegging out and watching sports.
23. Playing guitar and singing in my empty apartment.
24. Writing songs.
25. Driving a standard.

~The Countess~

C.razy

Wednesday of last week was crazy.

The craziness started at the beginning of the week when the walkie-talkie’s that we use for communication were stolen over night. Now, we are part of an afternoon program that sees 300+ kids everyday. They are broken into multiple groups based on age and they rotate across our campus. In addition, our music program and tutoring pull kids away from their regular rotations. The walkie’s allow us to just radio for the kids we need as every leader has one. Without them, we have to go and get kids by hand. It’s definitely made things run a little slower, though we’re all chipping in to help each other out.

I got to work Wednesday afternoon for us to find out that we were having a surprise visitor from the mayor’s office. His director of education actually. Now, we get visitors all the time – we’re a non-profit so it’s to be expected. Donors, board members, and the like are always coming by. Still, someone from the mayor’s office is a pretty big deal. It could be some really great publicity for us. I remember thinking at the time that the lack of walkies would make things a bit crazy, but manageable…it’s like I tempted fate or something.

Our esteemed guest showed up with her two kids and the minute we walked in the door I knew something was wrong. Namely, the classroom smelled very wr0ng. I still did our standard walk-through of our staging room and instrument room. When I opened the door into our classroom the smell was worse – acrid, burnt plastic smell – one of our interns was already coming out to ask me to call the site’s maintenance man. I escorted our guest to her seat and then made the call. By the time I was off the phone with him the classroom was hazy. We opened all the doors and moved the kids outside. The maintenance guys came through and immediately went into the main building evacuating it as they went. We were moved to the far side of the campus as the fire department showed up. They confirmed that we had an electrical fire. The motor on the air-conditioning burned out – luckily the fire didn’t spread.

We ended up holding class out under the gazebo – but, because of the fire we couldn’t get any more instruments for our kids. Which meant that we couldn’t rehearse all of the kids that were going on field trips. We arranged to hold an extra class on Thursday and called it quits for the day after we restocked the classroom. Still, it was crazy. Definitely a day I was glad to see the end of…

~The Countess~

Boyfriend starts with B as does

My guy’s name. So does bullets. So, I’m going to tell you about him and use bullet points!

We met back in November. At a dance hall. And I can easily say all these corny things like :

• I noticed him from across the room (not quite he was only a table away the first time I saw him, but I did notice him. He had a great smile)
• He noticed me from across the room (nope, his group did come and join with my group but he danced with another girlfriend of mine first. Yes, I stole him from her because his other friend wasn’t as much fun as he was.)
• We had an instant connection (we did, but, who doesn’t when they’re slightly tipsy and dancing.)

From there we set out on a fairly whirlwind three weeks – we went all over SA. So much fun! We hit up:

• The zoo  – Can I just say best first date ever?
• A bookstore – We talked so much about books on date 1, that date 2 was at the bookstore so we could do some shopping.
• Ice skating – He kept me from falling down. That was quite an accomplishment.
• The Riverwalk – It was all decorated up for Christmas; very pretty and romantic.
• A jazz club – We were supposed to go swing dancing, but the club was closed for the year.
• Dave and Busters – Heheh, we shot things. He shot bad guys, I mostly shot the hostages we were supposed to free…oops, my bad…
• The mall – He needed a Christmas gift for his brother.
• Six Flags – We tackled all of the roller coasters that were open. I’d never been on one before that day. I’m kinda addicted now. It’s such a rush.

Then he finished up his training and got sent back to his home military base. We’ve been long distance ever since.

Our current travel log to see each other contains:

• A 13 hour detour for him on his way from ND to AL for training.
• A flight to AL for me to spend a weekend.
• A flight to TX for him to spend 25 hours together.
• A 13 hour detour for him on his way back to ND from AL.
• A flight to ND for me for a weekend.
• And, a flight to TX for him to spend this weekend!

We’ve had a lot of fun in the past few months. And I can’t wait to see what is coming in the next few!

~The Countess~

A is for…

Adoption

My oldest sister joined our family by adoption. So, it’s always been something that fascinates me. And I mean fascinates. I read tons of foster and adoption blogs around the internet. I love the stories – the good, the bad, the downright ugly – the people on this journey amaze me. Their stories inspire me even as they break my heart.

I really want to adopt someday. There are so many children that need a good home and I want to help. I don’t have any delusions about it being glamorous or easy. I’ve personally witnessed some of the hardships of adoption. And I’ve read even more, but, still, I think I’d be good at it. It’s a moot point for quite some time, but, I hope that adoption will always play a prominent role in my life.

~The Countess~

Blogging From A to Z

Hey! I can’t believe how long it has been since I signed on to write. Things in life are going crazy. As a result, I’ve been out doing more living. That, and I don’t have internet at home…which pretty much means that I’m only on the computer at work. Still, it’s no excuse.

So, I’ve decided to do the blogging from a-z meme that I’ve seen floating around. Hopefully, I’ll post every couple of days with a different letter as my theme. We’ll see how it works. If you want to join in, just let me know so I can check your posts for inspiration.

And, lastly, a quick update on my life:

I love both of my jobs, but I have decided not to renew either contract. Instead, I am moving to Minot, ND this summer.

That’s all for now!

~The Countess~