I'm the diet coke of Christianity/Officially on my loathing list

Yes, apparently I am not Christian enough. Ah, it is a sad sad feeling. When a woman has gone through life with emotional turmoil and has had a normal, rocky relationship with her Deity that makes people doubt her faith. Oh, then there is my second topic for this blog, people that suck.

So, I had an interview last week for a christian school. I came in amid a flurry of activity that I was told was track and field day. I was asked to wait in the office and while I was there, a boy with a bloody elbow and knee came in, looked at me strangely, then went off with the secretary to find a band-aid that would stick. After this I was led into the office to start my interview. The first question was:

"Tell me about how you came to know Jesus as your personal Savior?"

Not a typical question for an interview, but then I knew this wasn't a normal situation. I answered her question very honestly and it was a bit emotional for me since it is a very very personal topic. And got these comments about it. "Wow, you were quite young weren't you?" (I was entering high school) "So you don't remember the exact time it happened?"(Most people have a "moment", I don't remember a day, just a month and general realization) "Well, have you prayed for forgiveness?"(Obviously she doesn't believe me now.)

And so on and so forth. I didn't talk much about the music side of my teaching and what little I did say she didn't seem to keen on. In general, she told me what the current teacher did and could I be an exact replica of that person please (right down to finding a husband who would build a set for the annual musical since he was a carpenter)? Then there was a lot of little side comments and looks like I wasn't a good enough christian and I have never felt so judged in an interview in my entire life.

When I got home and reflected on the interview, I realised that I probably wouldn't get it.
1. Let's face it, christians like that can be the most judgemental people on the planet. Speaking as a christian, I think I can say that my number one problem with strong christians is there superiority while wearing a humble mask. Not being like that and my very "love everyone as you love yourself" and my respecting people of all faiths didn't match up with the christian bubble the kids needed.
2. I am a process teacher and that was a product environment. I have done the big shows with the dancing and the modern music and the "look at the little monkey's perform!" and I respect that. But my main goal with my students is to give them something they will learn, not mimic. While I was interviewing, I was to understand the most important event of the year was the spring musical and to me that is hypocritical for the school. I would think that Jesus would want us to learn and be the best students possible, not to have an event showcasing themselves while pretending to focus on God.
3. She seemed extremely fake. I have met and befriended many different types of teachers, including christians and this lady made me feel very awkward and not at all at ease.

A few days later I received me "thanks, but no thanks" letter and that was that.

In other news, it is has been hot as hades in my house after our air conditioner broke on Friday. The repair man came out, spend almost two hours trying to "cool down the compressor" then said it should work and he would come back to check it out in a week. An hour later, it was not working. After calling up and asking what was going on, we found out the compressor was broken and needed to be replaced. But, at the time of the call, it was too late for them to come back out and they wouldn't be able to do it till Monday. We found this out when we got patched through to the person that was at the house an hour earlier.

The jerk KNEW that it was broken and that what he did was a temporary fix that would last twenty minutes. How convenient that by the time we called and found out that information it was too late. It has been in the nineties this weekend and my poor cat looked like he was on death's door until I picked him up and kept him in the basement to cool him off. Thankfully, this evening it finally rained and has cooled into the seventies.

This hasn't been the best weekend for me. Basically, lots of people suck and I am trying not to generalize. Because, really, that would be very un-Christian of me.

Just for your Josie!

i before e except after c...sound familiar?

Perhaps I am being a bit hypocritical, but lately one of my biggest pet peeves is people spelling the word "receive" like this: "recieve". AHHHHHHH! People, I watched Charlie Brown and I learned this rule: i before e except after c. Besides the fact that a big red line should show up under the word "recieve" to indicate that it is indeed incorrect, I would hope that people would remember this simple rule.

Now, I have been known to misspell words on this blog where I have had to go back and re-publish it to make sure it was right. However, the majority of websites that I have seen this egregious error on were PROFESSIONAL websites where people are SELLING things. (once again) AHHHHHHH! I am not selling anything, except for my brilliant ideas and the price is free!!

So, we shall review this:
CORRECT :): RECEIVE
INCORRECT :'(: RECIEVE

Oh, just one more for a word I saw misspelled at a deli:
INCORRECT!
desert: "v. abandon in a way that is disloyal or trecherous..., n. a dry, barren area of land"
CORRECT!
dessert: "the sweet course eaten at the end of a meal"
(definitions from the dicitionary application on my Apple)

The rule for this? We always want more deSSert, thus it gets TWO "s's".

Thank you for your time!

Hannah's Graduation

Congrats to the Grad & my future sister-in-law/bridesmaid Hannah!

Artistic photo by me at brunch.

Hannah walking to her spot.

Here comes the grad!

The expensive piece of paper is in there.

The Clan!

Evan, Hannah & I

The sibs. 

You can see Hannah in the reflection.

You think I could resist taking a picture of the black squirrels???

Chillin' before dinner.

Sweet smell of success

Ah yes, it is finished. I have done my Graduate recital and it was pretty good I think. It is very odd that it is done now and just a touch bitter sweet. So, with one final left (which happens tomorrow) I have to leave the world of student and enter the real world.

I will add more (how many times in the last month have I said "I'm going to totally blog about that" with no follow through) but this has been a very difficult month for me and the family. Now I have a single grandmother left since my dad's father died Thursday morning. The morning of my dress rehearsal. The creepy thing is that my mom's father died the morning of my opera dress rehearsal about four weeks ago. It is a sick, twisted thing.

So the tension of my recital is gone, but the tension in the family is choking me at times. Prayers would be much appreciated of course. Keeping my head above the emotional water.

On top of this, I am looking for a full time job, hopefully in teaching, for the fall. Most likely it will be something in the K-12 area since I won't be able to do the collegiate thing yet. It is looking more and more like I won't be able to graduate until the Fall due to testing conflicts. Sigh.

Stress, stress, stress, stress!

To the creeps that ripped down my recital posters:

Dear creeps,

I would thank you not to rip down anymore of my recital posters. Apparently you get some sick jollies out of destroying other people's work and that there is a vendetta against me for some reason, seeing as you felt the need to leave up every other poster in the elevator. Perhaps it is because you are intimidated by my ability to sing in every language on the planet, to understand at least five of them by translating them on the spot in a basic form and to do all that in heels while not hiding behind my music. Yes, I can see how my ability to sing in any concert setting, in any style and genre and to enjoy working with voices and instruments makes me a person of whom to beware. Or could it be my ability to acknowledge my audience after I sing with a smile, the way I dress appropriately for all performing situations, that I am actually intelligent and and can sight read and find it highly enjoyable to teach my audiences while simultaneously entertaining them? Or perhaps you don't realize that I have the utmost respect for all instrumentalist, seeing as I have learned how to play every single instrument in the orchestra since I also have a degree in education. And for this reason I have sung with various instrumentalist throughout my vocal studies.

Ah yes, it is all so much clearer now! The fear is what drove you to do it of course.

Or perhaps you are just a :::insert expletive here:::.

Going a little crazy

Okay, I haven't written for a while. In the mean time, I had a show and here is a pic to prove it:


Look at how creepy William looks! Ah, beautiful.

Anyway, so I had a 15 page paper that was due two days ago (just got that done,), program notes I have to send out this weekend and then my recital is in little over a week. I am going slightly crazy. Plus, this weekend is insanely busy!! I have a little break on Friday with not too much to do (just a concert to see!) and then..well... there is this:

Saturday:
12 - go pick up my wedding slip
1ish- take pictures at Springvale (my possible reception site)
3 - SIMONE's RECITAL! (I have the extreme privilege to have this very talented lady with me on my recital)
6 - Jen's Wedding...

Okay, so maybe it is more like my crazy Saturday. Simone will be fun. I don't know how Jen's wedding will go. I haven't seen her for over a year now and I haven't even met the guy she is marrying. I think I heard last summer that she was engaged, but she was usually too busy to meet up with me. Yup, it is one of those things. But we are invited, Evan, me and my parents, and I have known her for well over a decade so I will go and hopefully not feel too uncomfortable. If I do, I'll start running my recital music in my head. Maybe I should bring it along to review my music...jk!