In honor of the ‘Cats victory on Saturday: My latest youtube video – me singing and doing my best on uke with Go U Northwestern. I am not sure why the music and picture are out of sync. Poor quality, maybe? I’ll work on figuring out how to make that better. (Fixed it — watch the bottom one, it’s better.)
This one is better:
I think yesterday my midlife crisis decided to get started.
Y’know I’m turning 40 this year. Quite soon in fact. And what do I have to show for it? Am I president of anything? No. My life is flying by and I am not even president of anything. It gives a person pause I tell you.
I had a bizarre unsettling experience this week where, apparently, I completely and totally misunderstood another person and misread the person’s signals. The intense hostility released onto me by this person was so fierce and so unexpected that it really knocked me for a loop. It wasn’t work-related or family-related or anything. I can easily and quickly cut this person out of my life entirely, but I still have this dizzy feeling and a knot in my stomach when I think about it. I need to just let it go. It’s sad.
My new little class of kindies is also taking a lot out of me. Cute little five year olds realllllly require a lot of energy from their teacher. Not a shocking bit of news, but my body hasn’t gotten used to it yet. I get home at night, eat whatever Scott cooks and stare into space for a while. And with me in this very vulnerable state, the damn Fox network has decided to put out a new TV show that has ME as its target audience. Let’s see… it’s about teachers, kids in the high school show choir, it is full of show tunes, has ironical caricatured characters, dark humor and did I mention show tunes? Also Queen songs? Sign me up! I got caught up with Glee on hulu.com. You may know that I don’t watch TV as a rule because I am too intense and get too involved. I try to Just Say No to television. As an example of my “problem” – I’ve now watched each show about twice so far on my laptop, not counting the dozens of times I’ve re-viewed the musical numbers. And I’ve looked up the chords to play the songs on my ukulele. And I might have checked out their Twitter feed and their clips on youtube. Show choir doing Amy Winehouse? Single Ladies for goodness sakes??? There’s nothing I can do to defend myself against these things. So, I don’t view this as a good development, but I am helpless in the face of singing, dancing teenagers performing Journey songs. Please send nutrients.
Also, to pile more onto the insanity pile, one of my favorite authors relased a brand new book in my favorite series this past week. These are eight-hundred page books, people. It has been ages since I read a novel, but I had to find out what happened to Jamie and Claire and I’ve been waiting like, three years. So, yeah, finished that yesterday. My eyes are crossing here.
And, since that’s not quite enough to keep a girl, er, middle-aged lady’s mind busy I’ll tell you that my parents have gone on a trip to China. If you’re in China, and you happen to see my parents, do say hello.
I hate not checking in with you more often, but this was my first opportunity to get my incoherent ramblings in paragraph form.
Oh, and in some exciting news, the website for the knitting retreat at which I will be teaching has gone live. Go check out my class offerings! Come knit in May, it’s going to be big fun. Mittens and Gloves! It’s at www.handsonretreat.com.
Thank you, and goodnight.
I heard “Jane Says” by Jane’s Addiction on the radio. I have always loved to sing along to the radio whenever I hear that song so I was inspired to try and learn it. It’s a pretty simple chord progression and I’ve been practicing. I can sing it ok, and I can play the pattern pretty well, but it’s hard to do both at the same time. Also I keep forgetting the words. Jane says… mumble mumble mumble… I will continue practicing!
I also did a search online for the chords to play Go U Northwestern so I can support the team and all that. (GO CATS!) I found this link to some 1913 sheet music. I was absolutely amazed to see that the sheet music is written for piano, voice and… UKULELE! I guess they were popular enough in the University crowd in the 19-teens for sheet music publishers to include ukulele tabulature. Anyhow, so that’s on my practice list too.
I’ll try to keep posting little movies. I got a lot of nice comments on my playing and singing, which is very encouraging. It’s funny that many of you blog readers who have known me for years didn’t know what my voice sounds like, and were surprised. Now you know!
Tomorrow I have an all-day school board retreat. Need to pull out some knitting. I need to knit on something that is NOT a kippah. I don’t know if we’ll have sing-along breaks, but I have my concert uke at school should I need to lead one.
Things I’ve fallen behind on: completing my dress pattern, getting ready for Rosh Hashanah (gluten/casein free apple cake recipes, anyone?), several unfinished knitting projects. Time waits for no ukulele player!
Looky, I made a little movie to show you the present I got today… well, my CLASS got it today:
There’s an embedded video here, so if you’re watching on Facebook and it doesn’t show up, you’ll have to click over to the blog. (http://www.pamelamama.com)
Thanks Elizabeth Goertzel for thinking of me whilst shopping!
Which completely misses the most important news of the day: SAM TURNED TEN! Thanks for all the phone calls and well-wishes. Sam had a nice day and is looking forward to a great year. We did buy him an Amazon Kindle for his birthday (because we are insane and like to torture ourselves with expensive gifts that are easily lost or broken) and so, any future gifts for Sam can please be in the form of Amazon Gift Certificates so he can by kindlebooks, or whatever you call them. He loves the text-to-voice option.
He got to eat his favorite dinner (Tuna Pasta – no joke) and I made him a chocolate cake with chocolate frosting. We hit a few bumps as Scott’s bike tire popped AGAIN and he needed to be picked up at work, then the car battery died, then the grill ran out of gas for the corn, but all in all, Sam enjoyed his evening. Lots of wheat and dairy. We’ll see how tomorrow fares.
Good night! Oh, PS: what was in the uke? Silica gel packet. Do Not Eat!
EDITED TO ADD: One more dopey video of me on youtube… there might be some spontaneous singing of Rosh Hashanah songs. (Your favorite!!!)
You should probably subscribe to my youtube channel so you don’t miss more of this excellent hilarity.
Thanks for all of your encouragement. I keep practicing, so, hopefully I’ll keep improving. Anyhow, I am loads better singing than I was last year at this time. Also, loads better on ukulele than I ever was on guitar. So, a good start for the new year. Good for a laugh, anyway. Onward and upward. Shana tova!
Second day of school, I awake to these words from my husband: IT’S SEVEN O’CLOCK!
I usually get up at about ten to six, so this was not good news. Our house cleaners have a tendency to knock the alarm clock and de-activate it. That happened. Scott didn’t check it before we went to bed, so, uh oh.
We still managed to get the kids fed and out the door with lunches and snacks packed (at least for the kids) and arrived at school by 8am – the time I am officially required to be there. With my students arriving at 8:15, it didn’t leave me a lot of time to settle in. Yeesh!
The kids are very happy with their new classes and teachers. I have them both come straight to my room after school to do homework with me, and then we leave as soon as we can. No more late nights in after-care. I’m committed to being more present for them so they can be organized and well-rested and develop good habits. Day 2, so far so good. Yesterday at school I got reports from three different adults that Sam was hungry and didn’t have enough to eat. He’s growing. A lot.
Last night I had another voice lesson, and my teacher says I’m making great progress with my “ear” — I can hear what I am supposed to be singing much better. I sang and played for the students today, and I had a few freeze-ups, but in general, I’m doing much better. The students are loving the ukulele. They desperately want to touch it. I need some cheapy low-end ukes for the kids to use at school. Anyone have some laying around?
I am completely and utterly exhausted. Thankfully my excellent husband made us dinner. Now to put the kids to bed and make sure all the kippot are ready for Friday when we distribute them to the kiddos.
Good night!
- Mom and Dad are here watching the kids while I am back to work for orientation!
- Kids got new shoes, haircuts, fall clothes — all in the first day! Mom and Dad are very skilled!
- I have knit 17 kippot, Melissa made 5 and Nance made 1 so we’re up to 23 kippot — three more and I’ll have a class set!
- New computer has v. v. tiny monitor. May be going blind. Also might be due to incessant knitting.
- On the plus side, Windows 7 is kinda fun.
- OH: Actual Interesting Big Fun News! I was invited to teach knitting classes at a glove and mitten knitting retreat in Chicago in May! Coveniently between Pesach and Simchat Torah! I’ll be taking a few days off work in the spring to travel to this fun event. If you are a knitter — consider attending! www.handsonretreat.com “Hands On 2010″ - whee! I’ve got some exciting classes in mind. There are some great offerings — see the discussion on ravelry.com.
- And finally, ukulele news: I accompanied a group of people singing a song today! With my ukulele! Since it’s supposed to take me 10,000 hours to be awesome at this, I have to get in a LOT more practice. (Link goes to wikipedia on Malcolm Gladwell and his 10,000 hour rule — something we’re discussing in school at oreintation. Anyone read Outliers?)
Remember! Your comments encourage more blogging and remind me to take interesting photos. Do say hello! I’ll be happy to convey your greetings to my Mom and Dad!
My day turned out lovely. Turns out all I needed was a little food and some me time. Sarah fed me a delicious dinner (also fed my children and husband) and I spent over three hours at my voice lesson with Judi, my phenomenal and hilarious voice teacher.
You know how you sometimes meet someone and you hit it off so well, it feels like you have know each other forever? That is what it is like with me and Judi. She’s making me work very hard to become a better singer, but she has just the right tone and sense of humor to bring out the best in me. Plus her confidence in me is very encouraging. Then we spend hours talking over our lives and getting to know one another. It’s delightful. I hope you get to meet her someday. Also, I hope you can hear a difference when you hear me singing …
I made a few more of those “sticks together” dpn stitch holders/needle wranglers — big fun! If you want one, just let me know what you want it to say, and I might get around to it. We’re not going to go into business, there is just no time for that. I can see us making a few and sending them out for a couple of dollars to cover costs and postage. So speak up! We’ve got cute colorful letter beads and number beads. (Numbers show needle size! Handy!) I’ll try to snap some shots of the ones we’ve done already — tomorrow!
Off to bed — Sam has a friend coming in the morning and I need to have clothes on and be fairly lucid when he gets here. I hope to get around to posting some of the Sock Summit photos too, and telling the stories. Did I tell you we had a very entertaining time getting to know International Ms. Leather 2008 on the train ride home? No? Well I’ll get to that soon.
Have acquired vinyl caps in quantity, alphabet beads and clear stretchy cord for our dpn stitch holders/needle wranglers/whathaveyou. Also numbers — so as to label each set with a needle size. Good idea, right!? Now alls we need is a clever name and a few extra hours in the day. Maybe I’ll put some up for sale in my woolywonder shop, or on etsy.
QUESTIONS:
1: How much would you pay for a set?
2: What is your preferred customization?
3: Clever names?
They remind me of the beaded ponytail holders that we used to have when I was a kid. Like these:
We used to call those chick-chicks because of the sound they made when the beads click together. Maybe these should be “dpn chick-chicks” … maybe too much of a stretch.
I am planning to set Sarah up with the goods and force her to work. My very own sweatshop. {insert inappropriate comment about Sarah’s Mexican heritage here}
Keep those clever name ideas coming.
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