Dead and alive.

Fluting again (hopefully).

On Tuesday evening, while I was busy being glued to the election coverage, the choir director from back home (it shall always be home) sent me an email inviting me “and my flute” to come back to participate in our churches Christmas Eve Cantata.

I have many years of that cantata under my belt now. At first I was only in the Senior Bell Choir and so our norm was just playing a prelude. Then I was playing an additional prelude on flute as well. By high school I’d joined the Senior Singing Choir and so sang alto/second soprano in the Cantata. The choir director was also beginning to use me as the go-to for accompaniment so I’d jump over to flute for specific parts. For a year or two of college I still predominately sang as well as doing a bit of fluting for the cantata, I think it may have been assisted by a lack of altos. However most recently I’ve been kicked out of singing and left with a whole book of the C accompaniment parts. And let me tell you some of that stuff is actually tricky.

But anyways I’m torn about playing this year. The thing of it is that I love playing, have always played, and would be happy to continue. But I haven’t lived in, around, or near that zip code for a year and a half now, and that’s not even counting the three college years when I was really only half there anyways.

I guess I feel like maybe I should be moving on. It’s tricky.

Interestingly enough yesterday I was perusing Craigslist, because it provides a rather endless source of entertainment for me. But I saw posting under musicians for “Concert Band Musicians.” Holy crap.

If you are familiar with the musicians page on Craigslist you’ll know that 90% of the stuff is people wanting to be rock stars or something close. Concert Band’s don’t so much fit in that category.

There it was, a shining light in my night sky. It beckoned me, and I clicked. My heart raced as I saw a listing of instruments. It started with low brass, damn, then a 3rd trumpet, gah, 2nd clarinet, warmer, French horn, gosh darn it there are too many flute players in the world!, and lastly, miracle of all miracles, flute. Break out the Hallelujah chorus, or maybe the finale of Beethoven’s 9th – it’s better.

I spent the next hour or two pouring over an eloquently written email about how I’d played before but haven’t found anywhere here. My college experience. And most of all how I treasured the 6 years I’d spent with my old community band. I could’ve brought a tear to your eye with my description of the joys of providing music to people. Yes, I’m a dork.

I also dusted off my “musical resume” which actually makes me look pretty durn good. Rock on being the only flute major in my year in college. That’s definitely probably cheating, but hey I did do it all. And actually I was pretty good 2 years ago.

A response was received this afternoon. The director was impressed (crap shes a flute player, which I knew from the website, and I’m going to have to live up to something) and I am to call her. She has some kind of crazy hours and so now I’ve got to sort them out. Then if I can convince the phone not to eat me I shall call.

:-)

Box Office Battlefield

Patron Services Manager. That's my title, for all it's worth. But I'll have you know that I am a kick ass Patron Services Manager. Like whoa.

You may have realized this already for yourself but let it be known: People are idiots. And for some reason when people are idiots they like to come to us(which means me) and think that I'm duty bound to fix it.

Frequently I do fix it, I'm a good fixer, no one else here seem to be able to figure this stuff out. Although I will admit I like to let them know that I am doing them a very huge big special favor that I shouldn't actually do but just this once just for them I will. In my mind that's so that I'm not encouraging them on their path of idiocy.

Today I received a fun (aka infuriating) email from a woman. It was sent based on the pretense that she wanted to know how long the concert would last. However the majority of it was filled with this pity plea complaining about her personal situation in relation to our ticket exchange policy.

I crafted a spiffy responce to her. First I simply answered her question. And then I poured, seriously heaped, in apologies. Spinning it like there was nothing I could (yea I'm kinda a liar) do I expressed a heartfelt commiseration for her pain. In my devious mind I came up with the idea of proposing using her story as a motiviation for change and revision.

Ok, so actually I'm not so double faced as I'm putting forth there. I do want to change the policy, and it would allow her a way to do what she wanted even. The truth is that this morning my boss ticked me off by ignoring my ticket exchange policy and so I'd spent a good bit of the morning researching what other organizations do (I then lost all of my research when I accidentally closed the document....this morning kinda kicked my ass, I wanted to cry 3 times). And I do want to change our policy. But I want to charge people, bwahahaha. All's fair in love and war (I should write a book called Box Office Battlefield, how sweet would that be, *changes post title*).

I recieved a responce back from her to the tune of:

Thanks for the info. If my story can change things I'm glad. It was my fault after all. I will enjoy the concert.

One million points to me.

Interwebs

I spend an alarming large portion of my life browsing the vast spaces of the Interweb, basking in its unending depths of stuff. Sometimes I even find good thought provoking articles (they are my favorites).

The Cult of Clean
We've become a nation of grime fighters, and there's growing evidence that we're sacrificing our safety and our sanity to sanitization.
By Carlin Flora, PsychologyToday.com

From that article my favorite quote is:

Significantly, our dreams of disinfection parallel the rise of anxiety in our culture. After analyzing anxiety levels measured among young people in 1952 and 1993, psychologist Jean Twenge of San Diego State University concluded that levels of anxiety in today's average teenager are equivalent to those in patients treated for a psychiatric disorder 50 years ago. Other studies have documented the rise of anxiety among college students and adults.

It was definitely not the focus of the article, but led me many more thoughts and observations.




A few days ago I found this:

Red Sex, Blue Sex
Why do so many evangelical teen-agers become pregnant?
by Margaret Talbot

And there I focused in on this:

Some of these differences in sexual behavior come down to class and education. Regnerus and Carbone and Cahn all see a new and distinct “middle-class morality” taking shape among economically and socially advantaged families who are not social conservatives. In Regnerus’s survey, the teen-agers who espouse this new morality are tolerant of premarital sex (and of contraception and abortion) but are themselves cautious about pursuing it. Regnerus writes, “They are interested in remaining free from the burden of teenage pregnancy and the sorrows and embarrassments of sexually transmitted diseases. They perceive a bright future for themselves, one with college, advanced degrees, a career, and a family. Simply put, too much seems at stake. Sexual intercourse is not worth the risks.” These are the kids who tend to score high on measures of “strategic orientation”—how analytical, methodical, and fact-seeking they are when making decisions. Because these teen-agers see abstinence as unrealistic, they are not opposed in principle to sex before marriage—just careful about it. Accordingly, they might delay intercourse in favor of oral sex, not because they cherish the idea of remaining “technical virgins” but because they assess it as a safer option. “Solidly middle- or upper-middle-class adolescents have considerable socioeconomic and educational expectations, courtesy of their parents and their communities’ lifestyles,” Regnerus writes. “They are happy with their direction, generally not rebellious, tend to get along with their parents, and have few moral qualms about expressing their nascent sexuality.” They might have loved Ellen Page in “Juno,” but in real life they’d see having a baby at the wrong time as a tragic derailment of their life plans. For this group, Regnerus says, unprotected sex has become “a moral issue like smoking or driving a car without a seatbelt. It’s not just unwise anymore; it’s wrong.

Sorry that was so long. But it’s a long article that I found quite interesting. And that quote there I liked it because I’ve been trying to puzzle together my own psychology for years. And frankly, it’s not going so well. However that quote led to some insight.

Happy reading.

I used a #3

I have lived the alt tag.

Although I did become a bit more speedy with all of the AP test drilling.

iVote

I am ashamed to admit that this morning was the first time that I have ever placed a vote in this our governmental system.

I was smart about it and when I went at 11 there was only a 20 minute line vs. the 1.5 hour line that TRM was kind enough to call and tell me about (she also warned me to dress warmly, the line was outside).

Now I feel all tingly or something. As much as I suck at doing new things after I manage to do them I feel very accomplished.

Almost anyone will believe almost anything.

I just finished watching the pilot episodes of Legend of the Seeker.

I'd not heard anything about it at all until Friday. I went out for a bike ride, had to leave quickly to keep the daylight so left before anyone was home, and arrived home to find no one at home. It was kind of depressing cuz TRM has a boyfriend now and she's over there quite a bit. I guess I've gotten used to having someone around all the time again. But then just as I was cookin myself some stir fry for dinner she walked in the door, having gone out only to the grocery store. Yay.

But anyways she told me that apparantly she had heard from her friend J that there was a new TV series that was based on Terry Goodkinds Sword of Truth Series. And that J and his girlfriend were coming over the next evening, Saturday, to watch it. And that her boy would be there. Conveniently enough my fling was already scheduled to come out that day so it worked out pretty awesomely. The plan was to get pizza, and TRM and I figured on getting some chips and pizza as well.

And being as we are losers and have no friends this was a total party. I was all excited.

According to J the episode aired at 6 (kinda weird for a pilot to air at 6 on a Saturday, but knowing the books I expected it to flop too). So people were supposed to show up at 5:30 although TRM's guy, B, was coming earlier.

So there we were Saturday evening, B had arrived but everyone else was late. Being paranoid, as I always am, I told Jo that she best DVR it just in case they didn't arrive in time. She went over to the computer and I guessed had to look it up online to check the channel or something, but anyways we then learned that there were in fact 2 episodes the first of which started at 5. Good job J. But that plan went out the door. Other activities commenced instead so the party kinda wasn't what it should have been, and in general wasn't as good as I might have wished. But then I get big ideas in my head that very rarely come true.

This all really is nothing near my point. Just wanted to keep ya'll uptodate on nearly everymoment of my life cuz I'm a nut like that.

Luckily for us the episodes were re-airing quite a few times this week, the first being this evening starting at 8. Dutifly I watched.

And as a fan of the books I'm dissapointed. Seriously tho in any kind of book/movie/tv situation how can one not be dissapointed. They changed quite a bit of stuff.

It was kind of funny because right in the opening scene I got all excited because I thought it was the completely correct opening scene and said something to that extent to TRM. She told me I was wrong being as she had just started re-reading the first book that weekend (apparantly she never read the whole series dispite owning all the books, like seriously?, although I'll admit they are not the most compelling reading. In a review I read this evening someone brought up Goodkind going all Ayn Rand, and I must say that was a very good way of describing it). So then I thought a bit more and realized that the opening sequence I was thinking of was from Eragon, not Sword of Truth....oops. Then just like a minute or two later I promptly called the main character Rand. His name is Richard, Rand is the main character (well as main as it gets with the billions of important characters) in Jordan's Wheel of Time. So all in all 2 strikes right of the bat. The show was not particularly adherant to the book at all.

And taking it aside from the book I don't know that I'd be much inclined to watch it as good television either. Good fantasy takes good money. And this thing had some decent stuff, but all in all I didn't really buy the world.

All that being said of course I shall continue to watch it. It's a fantasy series and I'm a fantasy girl (or wish I was) :-)


Ah well I suppose I'll just read my book and go to bed, the time change thing (plus too much junk food and too little sleep - with all pleasure comes pain) really killed me today. I'm currently reading this random series thats decent but not amazing by Robin D Owens. What I'd really like to read is the next Dune book, but the stupid librarys don't seem to have it - it's frustrating.


"People are stupid; given proper motivation, almost anyone will believe almost anything. Because people are stupid, they will believe a lie because they want to believe it's true, or because they are afraid it might be true. People’s heads are full of knowledge, facts, and beliefs, and most of it is false, yet they think it all true. People are stupid; they can only rarely tell the difference between a lie and the truth, and yet they are confident they can, and so are all the easier to fool."