an update perhaps

There are so many changes happening. 
Overall, life is quite good.
I don't know if I want to continue keeping this blog in existence.

The more life experience you have the more difficult things become to sort out.  Ironic?

a long drive cross-country

I have driven across the country several times:

• In 2001 I drove from Ishpeming, MI to San José, CA to start studies at San José State University as part of the National Student Exchange.
• In 2005 I drove from Ishpeming to San José again after graduating from undergrad. to begin my teaching career.
• In 2009 I drove from San José to Ishpeming via Flagstaff, Santa Fe, Oklahoma City, Warrensburg (MO), Indianapolis and Chicago.... then back to Flagstaff at the end of the summer to begin graduate school.

I arrived in Washington, DC two days ago after over a week on the road.  I was lucky that my mom was able to make the trip with me this time.  We left Flagstaff Wednesday, July 13 and drove to Minneapolis via Utah, Colorado, Wyoming, and South Dakota (Mt. Rushmore!!).  Then after two days in Ishpeming to D.C. via Ohio, Pennsylvania and (my future homestate of) Maryland.

Highlights of the trip:

• HORRENDOUS lightning and thunderstorms in Utah.  There is a beautiful scenic byway heading east out of Moah, Utah.  Unfortunately, we saw very little because of the heavy rains.
• Colorado and the Rocky Mountains.  I've driven this stretch several times but each time I am amazed at the beauty of the mountains.
• Mt. Rushmore.  It was my first time visiting and thought it was very much worth the time and extra driving.  Learning about how it was created is fascinating.  They didn't take what we'd consider normal safety precautions back then.  I can't imagine tackling such a large project.
• In Minneapolis I attended two days of the National Seminar of Hanbell Musicians of America, formerly known as AGEHR (the American Guild of English Handbell Ringers).  I will be teaching handbells this fall at Norwood and learned SO much and met some wonderful people from Area III (DC, Maryland, Delaware, Virginia, & North Carolina) who can help me with the 439083098 questions I have about how to teach handbells at the middle school level.  It's a good challenge... I'm excited.
• Being at home for a day.  Not long enough.  Every time I go home I realize more and more how lucky I am to have been raised in such a tight knit community.  I have been very much shaped by my experiences growing up there.  It was fun to see family and friends.  I even got to sit in with my grandma Palkki's card club (the Tilden Terrors!).  Such fun.

I'm now in the process of trying to find an apartment on the Maryland/DC border.  Wish me luck!

inspiration for a lifetime

I recently finished reading Long Walk to Freedom, the autobiography of Nelson Mandela.  Please read this amazing book.

One of my favorite quotes:

"I always knew that deep down in every human heart, there is mercy and generosity. No one is born hating another person because of the color of his skin, or his background, or his religion. People must learn to hate, and if they can learn to hate, they can be taught to love, for love comes more naturally to the human heart than its opposite...Man's goodness is a flame that can be hidden but never extinguished." - Nelson Mandela, Long Walk to Freedom

Leaving Flagstaff

I leave Flagstaff for the East Coast next week.

Inevitably as you prepare to leave a place you reflect on your time there.  These two years in Flagstaff have been so incredibly vivid and full of life.  I left the Bay Area after four and a half years and was, admittedly, a bit dazed by the smog, the traffic, the fast pace, and a very stressful job.  I came to Flagstaff with my Bay Area friends thinking I was crazy to want to live somewhere to remote.  I came to Flagstaff wanting despeartely to be awakened in some way.  

For those of you who have never been here, Flagstaff is in northern Arizona, about 2.5 hours north of Phoenix.  We are at 7,000 feet elevation at the base of the gorgeous San Francisco peaks (see below).  This area boasts the largest group of volcanic peaks outside Hawaii.  Flagstaff has about 50,000 residents (not including NAU) and is a strange mix of NAU students, hippies, lesbians, artists, Native Americans, "gun and country" types... the gamut. To combat some Arizona stereotpyes... No, this is not the desert.  No, this is not like Phoenix or Tucson.  Yes, this is a quite liberal area in a sea of red. Yes, we do live in a massively large Ponderosa Pine forest.  YES, it snows here... a lot. 

Living here has made me appreciate the outdoors much more.   In San José, you need to seek out wilderness.  In Flagstaff, it surrounds you.  Skiing was 15 minutes away, hiking everywhere, the Grand Canyon just over an hour away...

But more than re-awakening my love for nature, what has amazed me about my time in Flagstaff has been the people.  Outside my work at NAU, I served as assistant conductor of the Master Chorale of Flagstaff and also as choir director at Flagstaff Federated Community Church.  What I soon found was that there is just enough of that small town atmosphere here to be charming (rather than my hometown of 6,000 folks where everyone thinks they know your business).  Starting last spring, I couldn't go anywhere in town without running into someone I knew.  And I found that I loved that.  I loved that people knew me and that we could exchange pleasantries in the produce department at Safeway.  I loved not being a number in the Bay Area rat race.  I loved being a part of this community.  I guess what I'm realizing is that this community has become a part of me...

I will miss Flagstaff immensely and will try to take these lessons to heart as I move to D.C. 

 The San Francisco peaks in winter

photo credit: Brad McCann

 

The view from my first room in Flag.  Ponderosa Pines everywhere!

 

Working with the NAU Men's Chorale... a source of great joy and inspiration

 

Conducting the Harter Memorial Handbell Choir at NAU.  So much fun. 

new horizons and getting involved

Some downfalls to moving around all the time is that your friends don't know where you are.  It is also difficult to become "rooted" and connected professionally.  The main professional organization for choral directors is ACDA, the American Choral Directors Associaiton.  ACDA had been a vital part of my development as a choral director and it is a national organization which operates mostly through voluteer leadership.  There is a national office in Oklahoma City with a small staff, but all the national officers and R & S (Repertoire and Standards) chairs are volunteers.  Each state has its own ACDA chapter, and there are seven divisions which have their own leadership.  My goal is to get involved with Maryland/DC and Eastern Division ACDA.

I can't believe I'm moving to the East Coast in just over two weeks.  I am excited to start my new job and to explore D.C., but I can't believe I'll be leaving the west behind.  I've become very accustomed to life (far) west of the Mississippi.  I'm not sure how I'll adjust to humid, traffic-ridden D.C. life.  I do love the city.  Hopefully it will be a smooth transition.  I plan to ride a lot of public transit.

I need to get a website.  Putting that on the "to do" list for fall.

I am currently in process of choosing the repretoire I'll teach next year.  An exciting but daunting process, especially when you don't yet know the students you'll be teaching.  The learning curve this year will be steep.

I am trying to be more active in these last two weeks. I have been rather lazy this summer and want to get off the couch and in good shape before driving 2,300 miles (!!) to my new home.

Random things I love, installment #1

#1: Garrison Keillor

Oh how I love this man.  Ironically, I didn't learn about him or A Prairie Home Companion until I moved to California.  I do remember being required to read one of his short stories in a middle school English textbook and TOTALLY not getting it (I couldn't "see the forest for the trees").

Since becoming a PHC listner, I have seen the show taped live twice and seen him speak live twice.  I am absolutly enamored of the News from Lake Wobegon (which you can now download as a weekly podcast).  The creativity he displays in telling stories of this totally fictional town blows my mind.

These stories from an imaginary town strike extraordinarily close to home.  Coloquialisms, stock characters and iconic establishments still exist in my hometown.  It makes me remember when I lived in a much simple time and a MUCH simpler place.  Thers is a warm nostalgia that washes over me when I listen to Garrison.  I am glad I got to see him in person before he retires (which unfortunately I think will be very soon).

I love that a 50's style radio show is still such a popular thing in the USA today.

#2: This American Life
 If you don't know about this amazing PBS show, here is a blurb from their website:


"This American Life is a weekly public radio show broadcast on more than 500 stations to about 1.7 million listeners... The radio show and TV show follow the same format. There’s a theme to each episode, and a variety of stories on that theme. It’s mostly true stories of everyday people, though not always."

Ira Glass hosts the show and it is amazing the stories/people they find.  There are so many compelling things I've thought about because of this show.  This is like a very smart, healthy version of reality television.  They're talking about things that matter.

You can download the weekly shows for free as a podcast.  Check out http://www.thisamericanlife.org/ for more info.

#3: Ice Cream
One of my vices.  Did you know you can get a kids cone at McDonald's for only 56 cents?  Amazing!

#4: Rufus Wainwright
Who else could possibly re-create the 1961 Judy Garland Carnegie Hall concert...?  I mean come on.
If you haven't heard his album Release the Stars, run don't walk to get it.

#5: National Parks
How many have you visited?  I believe there are 53 now established.

I recently watched one installment of the new Ken Burns documentary about the history of the national parks.  Fascinating.  I can't believe that I lived in California for five years and didn't learn about the amazing work of John Muir until recently.  He was an amazing man.  If nothing else, read about his struggle to save the Hetch Hetchy valley.

I have now been to six national parks: Rocky Mountain (CO), Yosemite [twice] (CA), Sequoia & Kings Canyon (CA), Petrified Forest (AZ), & Grand Canyon (AZ).  I want to visit many more.  Unfortunately, very few are east of the Mississippi.  I recently learned that Isle Royale in Lake Superior is a National Park.  I hope to be able to visit the Smokey Mountains when I live in D.C.

Here are a few pictures from my recent trips to Yosemite, Sequoia/Kings Canyon and Petrified Forest:

Hetch Hetchy - O'Shaughnessy Dam (Yosemite)

Mariposa Grove of Giant Sequoias (Yosemite)

Random valley shot (Yosemite)

Yosemite Valley waterfall

Zumwalt Meadows (Kings Canyon)

Kings Canyon

Petrified Forest

Petrified Forest

Painted Desert (Petrified Forest)

Well, it's been awhile.

Much has happened since I last wrote here.  After my epiphany about not pursuing the Peace Corps, I began to apply for teaching jobs.  I applied for several jobs in California and several throughout the country in cities I'd be willing to live in.

The first "bite" I had was for a private school job in Bethesda, MD (right outside Washington D.C.).  In mid-April, I had two phone interviews and then was flown out for an audition/interview, which went very well.  That same week they offered me the position.  As of August, I am the new middle school choir and handbells teacher at Norwood School.

This is quite a change from my original plan, I realize, and I have had some struggle reconciling this discrepancy.  Teaching private school isn't a bad thing to be sure... just a major departure from "the plan."  Perhaps the larger message here is that you can't plan your life too specificically.  In the end it will take you where you need to go.

So, I will spent half the summer here in lovely Flagstaff, then move in mid/late July to the East coast.

Last night I watched Waiting for Superman, a documentary about public education in America.  GREAT film.  If you haven't seen it, I'd highly recommend it.

Public education in this country needs help.  I remember how fresh faced and naive I was when I began my teaching career.  I taught in a big urban (and very disfunctional) district.  Over my four years there, I was continally struck by the challenges.  Kids being raised by their older siblings, gang issues, a negative (and creepy) campus climate, kids who speak little or no English... I found a reality I wasn't at all prepared for.  Though I found some success, I was never really satisfied with my school, district, or teaching.  I always felt like my kids deserved better.... the sad reality is that most of them will never get a better education.

More on this to come.

In the meantime, check out http://www.waitingforsuperman.com/action/