toastmakers and the early bird award!

don't forget, hospitality committee needs you (if you go to cabell)..breakfast tomorrow!!!!

i haven't had a headache like this in awhile...perhaps i had my ponytail too tight. or..not enough coffee..or maybe it was just a long day.

i decided that it was probably the right thing to do to help the teacher in charge of the mlk jr oratory competition because i remember what it was like being thrown into it last year. so we were doing that stuff in a meeting today and one of the kids said something about 'i think president obama has probably heard of martin luther king jr. and he wanted to be like him.' perhaps...perhaps. and when i talked to sandra, my friend who is in charge of the after school programs, she had talked to the man from the district in charge of funding and she was trying to explain what the speech program was going to be like, sure that he would recognize the organization: toast makers. well, he didn't recognize it. mostly because she should have said toast MASTERS! smile.



by the time i left school, i decided that it was my duty to share my music with the world. it was my time to impose on the world the amazing sounds of florence and the machine. if anyone saw the voice, vicky (sp?) sang it and banged the drums, and it was invigorating.

if you haven't heard dog days are over, you really must!

this is one of those songs that gets me going. one of the other songs that really gets my blood pumping is pink's so what. anyhoo, i definitely had my music on louder than necessary, not worried about others, because if they didn't recognize the music they weren't cool enough anyway...if they did, they were thinking, 'whoa-i LOVE that song! that must be a really cool person!'

on the way out of school today, i had a conversation with the light man at school. he  said they were supposed to have the lighting done within the next couple of weeks. that'll be nice...real lights! we won't feel like we're walking under the hood of a car with a mechanic light shining on us!

did i mention that the reason i pulled out my baby book last night was to look for my 4th grade class pic because a friend from elementary school was tagged in it and one of the guys commented, 'wasn't there a julie?' (i'm glad i was so memorable in 4th grade). so one of my friends who lived close by answered that yes, in fact there was. when i saw that, it brought back even more fun memories.

the guy that had asked was sean, and actually in 4th grade, he and i were two of the students taking guitar lessons from mr. reimer (sp?) one morning a week before school. the first person to get there won the early bird award and their polaroid picture was on the door for the week! once in awhile mom or dad would drive me to school, but often i either had to walk or ride my bike. now, riding my bike and carrying my guitar was quite a chore. thinking back on it now, i wonder exactly how i managed it, but i did! (all 12 blocks!) when you're young, everything seems bigger.

i remember we used to compete at getting there-i didn't really care who was better. ah mr. reimer. what a great music teacher! i loved his class! he had this great ghost he'd pull out for halloween (every year).

the ghost was on a little stick or something

he would turn out the lights, and it wasn't completely dark, just shaded, then students would get to go up and hold the stick and as we sang a simple song in a minor/flat key :there was an old lady who lived on a farm. OOOoooOOoooo and it went on from there, but the kid holding the ghost on a stick would have to move it up and down as the music moved up or down the scale. coolest thing EVER.

i hope our students are making fun memories that they will remember for years to come!
julie