My Life

My car died died died. I was able to get it home by going five miles per hour from the main highway to my apartment. It sounded like it was going to explode. Now, it has been towed towed towed. In fact, the tow truck arrived in under ten minutes thanks to a call to the gas station ahead of time. That has to be a AAA record.

The place can’t look at the car until Monday. This undoubtedly means I must rent a car for at least a few days. I’m not happy about that.

Despite this, it is still much better now that I have a car than when I was living here without one.

Congratulations to Bryan and Lyn! We’ve been through some scrapes here and there but I’ve always been honored to be able to call Bryan one of my closest friends. The wedding went well, and my traveling companions and I are enjoying our time in Texas. At the wedding, I was told that I am the Leia of Central Jersey and she is the Spike of Dallas. Apparently the designation has something to do with planning events.

After a short nap, we’ll be going to the Main Street Fort Worth Arts Festival. Following that, Bryan’s band will be playing in a bar in Arlington to celebrate the marriage.

Sorry for the lack of updates lately. Yet again, I’ll use my new job as an excuse. Writing lesson plans, preparing the bands for a concert, and attending rehearsals at night for colorgaurd and percussion are all taking my time. In fact, I’m heading back to the school in less than an hour for uniform fittings for the incoming freshmen in the marching band.

On top of this, I have to prepare materials for a substitute for Friday and Monday because I will be in Texas to celebrate Bryan and Lyn’s wedding. So there’s packing for the trip, booking hotel rooms and cars, and planning for adventure in the Lone Star State.

So maybe I’ll post here again in a few days. Have a great weekend, faithful reader.

It’s time for another long, journal-like post. This should be the last one for a while. First of all, my birthday was very nice. Thank you to everyone who sent me nice birthday wishes through email or otherwise. Unfortunately I haven’t been able to check my email until just now so I’m in the process of getting back to everyone.

My last day at work was good, but long. My coworkers took me out for lunch at a nice bar/restaurant and I said goodbyes to many people I’d been close with (in a not-so-close kind of way). My boss decided he’d keep me on the payroll so that whenever I have time, I can do extra work and get paid for it. Not such a bad deal. Extra money never hurt anyone, unless they tripped on it and got a concussion. I picked up my old Civic from my father and decided I would just buy it back from him instead of getting a new car. It’s saving me tons.

I went to my new school today and taught with the current teacher to prepare myself for Monday. Now I remember why I wanted to do this in the first place. Although my second period class is going to stress me out — the current teacher had to call security five times already and the class has only existed for a month — I think I’ll be able to manage them, and the rest of the day will make up for any of that stress, anyway.

I’m going with them to a local parade tomorrow morning. They also happen to be leading the New York St. Patrick’s Day Parade later in the week. Oh, and their marching band will likely have 200 members next year. Fantastic!

My last train commute, on my birthday, gave me time to think about the last year or so. I’ve certainly learned a lot about myself and about people in general. I’ve discovered if I just try to be who I think I should be, so many other things will just fall into place. Eventually, people who are aligned in my way of thinking become the people closest to me. With this, I’m also finding that I miss even more the special people who used to be a part of my life. People can change, if they really, really want to, and after they decide that they really, really want to, they make a good effort to change the way they think.

That will be my last personal message for a while. I think I’ll stick to weblogging and such.

So far today:

• I was given the most abusive hair cut I’ve ever had. I think the stylist was on drugs, but I’m not entirely sure. My head has never been shoved in so many different directions in so little time. I didn’t feel safe in that chair with this woman standing close to me, looking over my body with a pair of sharp scissors in her hands. However, I did escape unscathed and without giving the angry young girl more than $1 tip. It was just a trim, anyway, but boy was she in a mad rush… and “mad” is the operative word.
• I picked up a new, nice-looking belt and nine pairs of assorted nice socks.
• I bought three new CDs: two film soundtracks and one film score compilation (Bernard Hermann — Psycho, Vertigo, North by Northwest, et.al.) New music is always a good thing.
• I finally was able to get to Russo’s Music Center to pick up trumpet and trombone mouthpieces.
• Lastly, I headed to the Sports Authority to pick up two weights and a Yoga set. I’m motivated.

Unfortunately, I have to make a decision about a car right away. I need to decide whether to buy my old car back from my father or to just go ahead and get something new. The Toyota Prius is nice but there’s several-month wait. I need something right away.

I gave my two weeks’ notice today.

Okay, let’s rewind a bit for curious readers. Over the last couple of weeks or so I have been interviewing for a teaching position (assistant instrumental music teacher) at a high school — a large high school — a large high school with one of the best music programs in southern New Jersey. It’s really the only type of teaching position that I would have considered applying for at this point. My first interview went pretty well, suprisingly. I was asked back for a second interview, where I was one of the three finalists for the position. That interview went even better, for some reason.

Then I received a letter saying that they had decided not to hire until the fall. I mentioned this to the other music teacher there, and he got quite upset about the situation, as the hole has been open for a while and he’s having a hard time working with all of the students himself. He spoke to the union, and the next day I received a call from the director of personnel inviting me back for a final interview.

It was pretty tough to schedule all of these interviews. I had to come up with some pretty clever excuses to get out of work for the morning. The final interview was tough. I thought there was no chance they would hire me. They asked me questions about my curriculum and for every good answer I gave, I gave a really bad one or was just incoherent. They said they’d let me know in a few days. I thought that was the end of it.

A few hours later — and this was yesterday — the director of personnel called to offer me the position. I told him I’d need a day to think about it and promised him an answer by 8:00 this morning. I made my decision to take the position last night.

I wanted to wait until the end of today just in case they were going to change their mind or something would go wrong when giving my boss the two weeks’ notice… but here I am, soon to be officially employed as a high school music teacher. Time to brush up a little.

Today I was given a choice. In two weeks and one day (which, as Stacey just pointed out to me, is my birthday — odd coincidence), my life may be on a completely different path. It would probably be a more difficult path. You might say that it would be back on an old path. But within the next 20 hours I have to make a decision and it’s going to be very, very difficult for me. It’s going to involve lists of pros and cons, talking to people I respect… not to get the answer from them, but to help me seek the answer within myself. I think this is big.

You can expect a follow-up with more details tomorrow morning after 8:00 am. For the moment, I am starving, so I’m going to grab some food.

My plans currently call for traveling to the Dallas/Fort Worth area this spring for Bryan and Lyn’s wedding and being there April 10 through 17. This is only if some kind soul(s) in the area is(are) willing to have a houseguest for some (or even all!) of that time. I don’t know if this website has more than one DFW reader, but if someone is willing to host me I’ll buy dinner, cook, or do whatever the person would like. I plan on renting a car so transportation won’t be an issue, I can find my own entertainment, and I won’t get in the way.

I had the opportunity to nap yesterday. I should have set the alarm; I managed a nice long rest between 5:00 and 10:00 pm. I took care of some classwork and eventually headed back to sleep. I woke up several times throughout the night, and in doing so I was able to remember at least one dream.

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Well, I don’t write so much now, do I? I hope everyone is having a good holiday season and is excited about the year to come. It’s going to be a big one, what with the extra day in February and all. Maybe there will be other reasons, too.

My solistice festivals were a little subdued this year. I exchanged gifts with my family through the mail, and dinner on Christmas day involved a Lean Cuisine microwavable lasagna-type food product. Following that, there was the traditional Jewish Christmas movie with friends.

Over the holiday I also discovered that there is now a second game I would play if I had an Xbox, SSX3. (I would include links to these, but all video game-related websites are blocked from my view while I’m at work. Maybe I’d add them later.)

Bryan was in town, too, so there was chili, hot chocolate, and fat cats, per tradition.

Now, a dillemma: New Year’s Eve. What to do?