Beginning the Second Week

Beginning the second week of school is much less stressful than beginning that first week. The first day was, wow... overwhelming. At the end of the day I was ready to quit this whole mom goes back to college thing.

But now, after the calming influence of a weekend, I can see that I can do it.

Two research papers? No sweat. Both teachers have them torn into bite size pieces. MLA? I have the book. Topics? Interesting enough. "The Effects of the Reformation on Religious Music" for Western Civ (I got to choose) and something on Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde for English Lit Comp. I can live with those.

Music Theory Part 2? Not as big a deal as I thought it would be. Sure it's been twenty*cough-cough* years since I had part one. I'm pretty much understanding it all, although I don't have all the voicing and cadence rules memorized. Yet. But hey, I get 6/4 cadences and can identify passing, cadential and pedal easily.

Wind Ensemble and lessons? Already acclimated to those from last semester.

Music Tech? Harder than I thought it would be, but only with time concerns. The projects are very interesting to me so I probably will (and have) end up spending more time on them than the teacher expects.

Time Management for pulling school, family life and my flute teaching altogether? That has yet to be determined. I will have no time for a social life, not that it ever took up much time in my life anyway. I do have to attend at least 8 concerts, so there we go. There's my social life! It's not like I'm stuck inside the house all day. In fact, my life has been more social since I started this college gig!

Last Day

Today is my last day of summer vacation.

Today is the last day I don't have to worry about did I get my reading assignments done, or did I write that paper, or do my theory homework.

Today is the last day of sleeping in past 6:30 am. (okay, not counting weekends...)

Today is the last day of not having to worry about Josh being picked up.

Today is the last day I can read a book (not assigned) without feeling guilty.

Today is the last day of fixing a good meal.

Today is the last day I can enjoy my freedom.

Today is the last day of no worries.

Tomorrow school starts. I'm excited about learning new things, yet worried about time management.

Also, I got that weird feeling about being old amongst the young. But I'll get over it. I just keep telling myself *this is what I want to do* *I can do this* *I'm capable*.

New Lappie

Okay, so here's my new baby. It's little and cute. Weighs in at 4.6 lbs. Easy to pack.

* Intel® Pentium® Dual-Core mobile processor T2080 with 533MHz frontside bus, 1MB L2 cache and 1.73GHz processor speed
* 1GB PC2-5300 DDR2 SDRAM for multitasking power, expandable to 4GB
* Multiformat DVD±RW/CD-RW drive with double-layer support records up to 8.5GB of data or 4 hours of video using compatible DVD+R DL and DVD-R DL media; also supports DVD-RAM
*13.3" WXGA TFT-LCD widescreen display with TruBrite technology and 1280 x 800 resolution
*160GB Serial ATA hard drive (5400 rpm)
*Intel® Graphics Media Accelerator 950 with up to 8MB-251MB dynamically allocated shared video memory

*Walking* Pneumonia

If you wonder, and I'm sure all three of my readers do, why I haven't written in over a week, it's because I've been out of it. I was diagnosed with *walking* pneumonia. That's a misnomer if I've ever heard one!

Supposedly it's called that because, unlike the more serious pneumonia that is life threatening and usually lands you in the hospital, walking pneumnia is something you can have and still lead a regular life. Some people don't even realize they have it. Unfortunately for me, I had a more serious walking pneumonia. I certainly knew I had it... I ran a fever everyday for two and a half weeks, had trouble breathing deeply, and had a bothersome cough. My breathing was shallow and I was worn out.

After the first week of this, I went to the doctor. He gave me a Zpack prescription, told me to lay low for a while and sent me to get a chest x-ray.

I'd like to say I'm back to normal... I'm not. I still cough. But I can play my flute again. Finally. That was the worst part. School starts in four days. I'm a flute performance major who hasn't been able to practice and I'm a little behind now. Okay, a lot behind now. With all the traveling I did this summer I didn't get much practicing in. And then I got sick. I know. Excuses. Do I need a note from my doctor? Yeah, right. "Patient had walking pneumonia." If you can walk, you can play a flute! Maybe I should rename it *walking but not able to take in a deep enough breath to play longer than an eighth note* pneumonia.

word of the week

You ever find yourself using the same word over and over? I did this week. And you probably noticed, too. The word is *geek*.

I always liked the word geek better than nerd. Geek denotes more intelligence, whereas nerd implies low social skills. After all, one will call himself a band geek, but not call himself a band nerd.

So I decided to do a little research on this word, *geek*, so see if I'm even using it in the right context.

I head to dictionary.com. Here are the results:

geek –noun Slang.

1.	a peculiar or otherwise dislikable person, esp. one who is perceived to be overly intellectual.

2.	a computer expert or enthusiast (a term of pride as self-reference, but often considered offensive when used by outsiders.)

3.	a carnival performer who performs sensationally morbid or disgusting acts, as biting off the head of a live chicken.

Hmmm, not looking too good here. A dislikable person? Overly intellectual? A term of pride as self-reference, yes... but offensive? AND disgusting acts?

I think I no longer want to be a geek. Let's see if nerd is any better....

nerd –noun Slang.

1.	a stupid, irritating, ineffectual, or unattractive person.n

2.	an intelligent but single-minded person obsessed with a nonsocial hobby or pursuit: a computer nerd.

Okay, I'd much rather be overly intellectual or peculiar than stupid, irritating, ineffectual or unattractive.

Just don't count on me biting off any chicken heads anytime soon.

That would be just plain foolish. Which by the way, Kristen, is the origin of the word:

GEEK-- Origin: 1915- 20; prob. var. of geck (mainly Scots) fool

Techno-Geekiness Confirmed

Okay, so it's official. I am geeky.

Evidence:
-New laptop
-New geeky phone.
-Ability to play around with new laptop
-Firefox
-Inability to walk by laptops, cell phones, etc in a electronics store without at least looking to see what's new
-facebook messages are forwarded to my phone
-Helping friends pick out new computers
-knowing more about the computers than some of the CR's
-I actually enjoy it when someone wants to show me a slide show, or a powerpoint presentation, or a new phone or whatever.

-blogging...

I think I've passed this geekiness on to my children. Sorry guys!

band geeks

This past week I've spent some time being a band geek. And learning that my last kid is truly a band geek, too. I say *geek* in the sincerest and nicest sense of the word. ;-)

I had a lot of fun teaching and playing with and directing the flute sectionals. They are a great bunch of teens. We had a flute party at my house last night. What goes on in flute sectionals stays in flute sectionals.

Josh surprised me by saying he was going to be in the contest band. He said he decided to do it because it was so much fun marching. BAND GEEK! Then last night he came home from band camp wiped out, but saying "That was SO much fun!" BAND GEEK! It's been great for him. So far, high school has been a wonderful experience for him. He's made tons of new friends.

So all my kids are/were band geeks. Even Kristen, who dropped out of band, was still a band geek at heart. She just hated marching band. I've done my job as a mother!