Monthly Archives: December 2012

One-third done

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One gig down, two more to go. Last night’s high school concert was very nice. The pianist kind of biffed it on one section (she thought she’d be all hoity-toity and memorize a difficult accompaniment instead of looking at the music, HA), but the choir stayed true and did not flinch. Good thing it moved so incredibly fast, no one in the audience caught it. Shew.

Today, my select ensemble goes to a nursing home to perform. I like taking them to rest homes; the residents enjoy it so much, and it’s a good life lesson for us, myself included. Be thankful for every day you wake up with the ability to walk, reason, experience personal freedom and fend for yourself. It can’t be overstated.

My heart breaks when I see some of these folks — especially the lonely ones with no family, and those who can no longer recognize their families. BFF Kay and Bob are heroes to me for taking in Kay’s elderly mother (who suffers from Alzheimer’s Disease), and loving her through the good times and bad. They surround her with a feeling of safety, and a sense of family and belonging: something many of the elderly patients in nursing homes miss.

So today, we bring a little Christmas joy to the shut-in, and we are happy to do it. Tell you what — I’m getting in the holiday mood. LOOK OUT.  :-)

Have a happy day, fiends.

Fink, to the showers, the school house, and beyond

Nous commençons

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Here we go.

For those of us in the performance ensemble racket, today begins two weeks of what many call…well, let’s just say it’s a busy time. :P It’s the morning of a Christmas concert, and there is much trepidation. My nervousness comes not from worries that my students won’t sing well, because they do. Rather, it’s all the other factors: my piano playing, technical issues, and the ubiquitous fear that someone will do a swan dive off the risers. It doesn’t happen often, but it has happened recently. It’s in my brain, I can’t lie.

I have many athletes in my choir who come to the concert directly from various practices. They’re tired and winded, and in spite of my instructions and their best intentions, many of them don’t eat or drink before they go onstage, so they’re weak, and sometimes dehydrated. Bad combo. My concerts are not lengthy — an hour at the most; often shorter and never longer — but standing under hot lights for twenty minutes is sometimes too much for some singers (and in case you’re wondering, it has historically been only male students who pass out at my concerts…weird). Thankfully, Greg runs the lights a little cooler, and I have resorted to installing fans offstage.

I refuse to go without robes, although it’s been suggested. I dunno…to me, that would be giving into the insanity; being controlled by it. Ain’t going there.

Still, when it’s all over with, I always say, “Hm, that was nice. Not so bad after all.” It’s the lead-up that’s the killer. I hate those hours, and they start now.

Go!

Finkmobile 2.0

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Terrible night to buy a car, but it sure is pretty, even in an Arby’s parking lot in the rain.

Do you ever do a thing and then think, “Whoa; can’t believe I did that”?

Such is the case with my beautiful new Finkmobile.

So…anyone need to go anywhere? I’ll come get ya. Nah, wait. Nevermind. Time to grade 14 final projects. It’s entirely possible (albeit unlikely) that I’ll get them done before the Js get here tonight, but I will give it a shot.

Ooo, I just remembered — Rousseau needs some more food. A run to the pet store is in my future. Yay!

Happy weekend, fiends!

What is this fresh nonsense?

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All right.

I know that we all take a risk when engaging in social media, and you can believe me when I tell you that few people pay closer attention to managing that risk than Yours Truly. I have all applications blocked on Facebook, my profile is locked down tight except to friends, I never use my real name (or especially my Facebook identity) when commenting on forums or news articles, and I have an alternate email reserved for purposes whereby I might receive inordinate amounts of spam. I am not careless.

Yet, Domino’s Pizza not only found me (because I happened to be logged into Facebook when I ordered a pizza from them online), but they posted a link to their site — as me — on my own Facebook wall. I was told by a friend in the restaurant business that the company rolled out a new TOS that enables them to do this.

Well, where was the email to all the site users, telling them of this change? While I admit that I don’t read the 4500-word (yes, I pasted the TOS into Word and did a count) agreement EVERY TIME I ORDER, this came out of left field, completely. And I don’t like them for it.

In fact, I don’t like them so much, I had to tell them about it. It was among my best work.

I suppose I should also insert an additional reason for my Domino’s divorce. The last two times we’ve ordered, the Thriller has made the “wet dog” comment. Their sauce or dough seasonings or something reminds him of the smell of a wet dog. If that alone isn’t a reason to say bye-bye-bye, I don’t know what is.

Regardless, we’re done with the three dots, and they’re done hijacking my social media identity. And for good measure, I removed the “TM” from the logo before I put the red circle on it. Take that, homie. Hmm. Must be Snark Week around these parts.

For sure, it’s Go to Bedford and Buy the Car day. Oy…could this be why I’m fussy this morning? Saying bye-bye-bye not only to the dots, but the dough?

I hope I don’t chicken out, but if I do, you will know it was for a good reason.

Stay tuned! Rant over.

FO

Had to happen

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At some point, right? I decided to give them a try for a year.

Interestingly, AARP was started by a woman who was looking for fair, affordable health insurance for retired teachers.

I always thought that once you reached age 65, you were eligible for AARP membership, but I’ve been receiving offers to join for several years now. Maybe it’s because people are retiring earlier? Or maybe AARP, like the Christmas retailers, just wants to get a huge early jump into the money-grab game? It could happen.

I haven’t read the accompanying brochure completely yet, but I plan to compare AARP’s goodies to that of AAA, to which the Thriller and I also belong. We shall see if I send them another $16 next November.  Truth be told, what really sealed the deal for my joining this time was the offer of the cute little lunch bag. :-)

Anyone else an AARP member? What can you tell me? What have they done for you lately?