Now What?

Just great!  It's been so long since I've written on my blog that they changed the site.  It's taken me about five times of looking at the main page to figure out how to write a new post.  You'd think with such a computer savvy/nerdy hubby that I would not be so dumb, but he's not here today!

Tomorrow is my last final!  My final last final, ever ... until I go back to school because I'm bored and don't know what else to do.
Some great things about this final semester have been:

1) Vocal Pedagogy II with Dr. Cindy Dewey.  Honestly, it has been the hardest class I have ever taken (well combined with last semesters Ped) but I have learned so much.  I love it.  I can't say that I am now the greatest voice teacher ever, but I feel so much more clarity of what I am doing or trying to do when I sing, and I've been given a lot of great tool (500 + pages of nerdy music articles) to help me be a better music teacher, if I still want to do that :)

2) Tai Chi Chuan with Kayo.  This is something I hope I can continue after we move from here.  It has helped me with my singing more than anything else up to this point.  All the teachers even noticed.  From a singing perspective, it's like the Alexandar Technique, except it's thousands of years old!  But even beyond singing, my knee feels better, my breath feels stronger, my legs feel longer, my head feels taller and I feel strong.  I have discovered this connection in my body that I cannot even describe.  I have begun to discover how to relax, which is a lot harder to do than it sounds.  Just try to relax, I dare you!

3) My Senior Recital in March.  Mostly it feels good to have it finished, but it was a really great experience to have accomplished.  So many of my family members were there, and it felt great to be supported in this goal that I undertook ... 13 years ago :)  I sang in an episcopal church that was basically a mini-cathedral and I think I sounded pretty good.  I sang my high D and it sounded so clear and free that it distracted me from the next phrase in my song.  Through all the literal sweat and tears that I have shed over the last four years of being here, it feels great to have actually done it.  My Aunt Holly said that her mom (my grandma) would have really, really loved it.  That made me feel even happier about it.

4) I'm a writer, and I forgot.  This blog isn't any great sample of anything, but I really enjoyed writing papers and essays in high school, and in general.  I haven't really written anything for so long that I'd forgotten.  I've spent almost the entire semester working on this one essay.  I revised it more times than I have ever done before.  I felt so good about it and my teacher and her adviser said that it was actually good.  So I revised it some more.  Anyway, I won $50 for it! 
(It's called Flying Back and it's a little more personal than I feel like posting on my blog at this time because it's about my mother, but I will let you read it if you ask.)

5)  Discovering Zumba.  Now this has not been an actual part of my schooling, but it is something I discovered this semester.  First you must know, I can't dance.  I'm not coordinated.  I hate aerobics (mostly step) and if I were to choose a work out class, I would always choose yoga, and that's it.  Not anymore.  I told Trav, if I wasn't a plain boring white girl, I probably would have been African, maybe Latino.  I don't know what it is, but I can Latin dance, all of it, any of it.  These hips had to come in handy for something.  I did a sample African dance one night, and wow!  I was good at that too.  It just came to me, like I'd always been doing.  So what sort of aerobics is perfect for me -- Zumba.  The teachers here are really fun.  I look forward to searching out the classes in my new hometown.


After this semester is over, three of my next goals for myself are:

Pack up my house, and move (I'm trying not to think about that one too hard -- the packing up mostly)
Read books, lots and lots of books I have been putting off while I've been in school.
Work-out.  My hot sister-in-law Katrina is a great inspiration to me.  I'm going to use up what use to be homework time for my body ... belly! 
I knew when I decided to come back to school that with my health and sleeping needs I would have to put some of my priorities on hold to make room for the current one, school.  Now that it's done, I can recall some past ones.  I mean, what could I possibly have to do?