Whew. Okay, I have now gone through my junior high yearbooks and will soon have a post or two on that topic. Several memories, some forgotten mysteries, and general strangeness. More on that to come. I still have four high school band yearbooks (yes, the band had its own yearbook) and my one surviving yearbrickbook from my freshman year, but I won’t wait on those books- they will be a post or two all by themselves.

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So what have I been up to?  More of the same, really.  A couple days a week are dedicated to just looking at and fixing photos online, usually adjusting the color when they are too blue or brightening dim or dark photos.  I also report photo problems I cannot fix like photos taken at bad angles or ones so dark (or bright) that they can’t be properly fixed.  The other days I am still out in the field taking pictures at my own stores (soon to be given away so I can be free to fly out at any time) or helping another photographer who has been inundated as of late.  Just Tuesday, she did over 50 cars with the assistance of the co-owner.  She wants to give up some of the stores, but the owners like her too much apparently- for good reason as she is a very good photographer.

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Besides that I have been rehearsing for Easter choir.  I finally got the music I need to practice at home.  For some reason they thought it would be a great idea to distribute the private link to the music over facebook instead of just emailing it to everyone, so when I realized an email was not forthcoming, I had to finally ask someone in the choir for the music.  No, not everyone uses facebook and I have no intentions of ever signing up, especially after hearing about what’s happening with Myspace and a company called Infochimps right now.

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As for now, it’s a weekend of rest.  Two days off from work, no choir until next week, and no 4th/5th grade ministry.  I do enjoy what I do most of the time (even if fixing photos is a bit tedious), but it’s nice to have a rest now and then.

While I’m on the topic of date night (see my previous post)…

This week we did not feel like mini-golfing again on date night, so we went bowling instead.  I did so well, we got a printout of the scores, much to my husband’s dismay – I’ve already mentioned how he has bad luck at physics-dependent sports like bowling and mini-golf.  And I got tons of practice at bowling as a kid – I was in a weekly bowling league for I don’t know how many years.  Later in high school, I took bowling in gym class and joined intramural bowling after school where I  was crowned, “Female Bowler of the Year” for the two years I was in it –  not a difficult feat, seeing as how there were under 10 girls involved, but still, if we had had a competitive bowling team in high school, perhaps I would have been a high school athlete, hehe!

I’ve spent about 23% of my adult years pregnant (!) and most of the rest of those years raising small children who would wreak havoc with a bowling ball, so needless to say, I have not had a chance to hone the skill I developed as a youngster.  I do enjoy the occasional bowling game,  though, and rarely do I top my previous bowling average from back-in-the-day: 132.  Well, the other date night, not only did I top my old average for the two games we played but I somehow tied my all-time high score!  Well, anyway, here are the scores, and this reminds me to make joining a weekly league a priority when the kids get a little bit older!

And about the title I chose for my post…  I just finished reading the book Columbine by Dave Cullen, and it was a fascinatingly detailed account of the 1999 Colorado high school massacre dissected from just about every angle.  If you like to read true crime or just want to know every detail about the massacre (it holds a special fascination for me since it was unfolding just as Hubby and I arrived at our honeymoon destination after a 24-hour road trip back in ’99), you should read this book.  It’s both sad and informative, and the author does mention that the Michael Moore movie, Bowling for Columbine, has little to do with the circumstances involving the high school massacre.  But, Bowling for Columbine is a catchy title nonetheless, which is why I borrowed it, not because I’m a Michael Moore fan.  Actually, we saw a parody of his movies the other day, and I will be sure to include the movie review in an upcoming post called “It Was A Redbox Summer”.  Stay Tuned!

On Sunday, the Seattle Mariners defeated the Oakland Athletics 8-7 in 15 innings.  While neither team is high on my radar to follow, the Mariners possess one player with very close ties.  Denny Stark pitched to four batters in the game.  This came after an absence of 1747 days (last appearing on the mound in 2004) and two Tommy John replacement surgeries on his right elbow.

How well I remember back in the day (he was a year behind me in school) when Denny was on the mound or on the hardwood either scoring 1000 points in basketball or pitching on the mound at EHS.  Totally amazing and he was definitely one who started out as soon as he was big enough to throw a ball to his father.  I know for a fact that his parents encouraged his talent and gift.  His father, “Connie” (and mother, Roz), coaching, developing him, but never being the stereotypically domineering parent.

Sometimes, coming from a small town and knowing everyone and what they are doing is a good thing.  In little league, I remember having Connie as a coach who never demanded anything less than what you were capable of giving.  So often we hear of coaches or parents who push as hard as they can in order to realize their own dreams through their players or children, but it was absolutely untrue in this case: THIS IS DENNY”S DREAM and it has been realized once again… if only for four batters.  Hopefully, this is only the beginning.  Perseverence does have its rewards.  I remember going to a Ft. Wayne Wizards game one summer when Denny was scheduled to pitch for the opposing team.  However, we were unable to see him pitch as he was called up to the next level.

UPDATE: According to a more local newspaper, Denny will be used in a middle relief capacity.

In our local newspaper lately, there’s been multiple stories covering the demolition of an old high school in the county.  The demolition uncovered a few surprises; one was a time capsule, placed in the brick walls by students and faculty in 1922 when the high school was built.  I found it really neat that no one knew the time capsule was there until a few weeks ago when a bulldozer found the vintage peanut butter can filled with letters from students and other 1922 memorabilia.

The high school was finally knocked down, but construction crews are still deconstructing the foundation of the old building.  In the newspaper the other day was an item about another buried treasure.  It seems the school was built with a long-forgotten swimming pool, whose existence was uncovered after many weeks of demolition.  Upon further investigation and interviews with surviving former students, it was discovered that the former swimming pool did actually exist but was never actually used since it was contaminated with raw sewage (eww!) shortly after it was built.  They filled in the swimming pool with clay and built over it, and it was forgotten about until the school’s demolition all these years later in 2009.

The story of the legendary swimming pool was of particular interest to me because at my own high school (located in suburban Chicago, far away from the rural Ohio area where we now reside), there was always a rumor of an ill-fated swimming pool.  Our gym’s floor sounded hollow, and there was always chatter about the existence of a secret covered-up swimming pool underneath the gym floor.  I never did find out if there was any truth to the rumors, and I wonder if students attending that high school today talk of the same legend?

An interesting story hit the Christian school news recently about one girls high school team that beat another in basketball 100-0.  No, that’s not a typo.  There has been much drama about it since Christians are of course supposed to reflect Christ and show Christ-like behavior at all times.  The principal of the winning school apparently felt that the team did not in this extremely lopsided victory and made a formal apology to the other school.  Their school after all had a winning team and the other one hadn’t won a game in the last four seasons.  The coach of the team felt the apology was in error and respectfully disagreed with it.  Shortly after, he was fired.  Just from this, it may seem that the coach was in the wrong and should have been fired, but from here it just gets interesting.  The coach had apparently just a few years ago led this school from lopsided losses to their current winning team.  Also, according to the players they did not try their best on purpose: missing shots, not taking some shots, and generally not playing hard once they racked up 25 points.  From their testimony there was really not much more they could have done as the other coach wasn’t giving up and it would be silly for the winning team to just up and call the game just because they were winning so badly.  Maybe I’m wrong.  Read the articles and let me know what you think.

Original article (mistitled- the principal was the apologetic one)

Article about the coach being fired

Testimony from the coach and players

Please vote, too.  Voting is good.  After all, voting is what finally removed our disgrace of a governor tonight:

[poll id=”4″]

(Sorry for the misalignment of the question vs. the options.  I don’t know how to fix this, though I did try in the templates section)

I don’t have many fond memories of high school.  It wasn’t horrible, but it certainly hasn’t come close to being the best years of my life as some people had promised.  Even so, when I saw this copy of an email forward on my friend’s blog, I couldn’t resist filling it out and making it a blog post of my own, especially since he didn’t send me the email version for me to forward.  Feel free to make it an email and forward it to your friends.  Coincidentally, I’ve been working on a post about a different version of classmates.com…  stay tuned – I might eventually have time to finish it!  Here is a copy of the email forward:

Here is a fun email I received from my cousin who shares my alma mater as well as the year I graduated.  Some of the questions brought a chuckle as well as made me think.  See if it does the same for you.

Fill this out about your Senior Year of high school! The longer ago it was, the more fun the answers will be!!  FORWARD  (or post in comments) with name of high school and graduating year in the subject box. Send this to all your friends, but don’t forget to send it back to me.
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1. Did you date someone from your school? No

2. Did you marry someone from your high school? No

3. Did you car pool to school?  yes

4. What kind of car did you have? black Pontiac Sunbird

5. What kind of car do you have now? minivan

6 . It’s Friday night…where are you now? In high school?  hanging out at a friends house, shooting pool or hanging out at Denny’s – lots of hanging out

7. What kind of job did you have in high school?  Wendy’s

8. What kind of job do you do now?  Homemaker

9. Were you a party animal?  more than some, less than others

10. Were you considered a flirt? no

11. Were you in band, orchestra? band freshman year

12. Were you a nerd?  depends who you asked I guess

13. Did you get suspended or expelled? no

14. Can you sing the fight song? no

15. Who was/were your favorite teacher? I don’t remember

16. Where did you sit during lunch? in my car – how dangerous was it to speed to McD’s and back in 25 mins every day?

17. What was your school’s full name?  this makes me nervous – are you trying to track me down?!?

18. When did you graduate? 1996

19. What was your school mascot?  Tigers

20. If you could go back and do it again, would you? no thanks

21. Did you have fun at Prom? not really

22. Do you still talk to the person you went to Prom with? No

23. Are you planning on going to your next reunion? no

24. Do you still talk to people from school? trade a few emails a year with some people back and forth

25. School Colors? orange and black

26. If you could do 1 thing differently in high school, what would it  be?  I would have been a little nicer to people – not that I was mean, I was just quiet and disconnected from my huge community of a school.

We’re all adults here, right?  Then you’d think the following sign spotted in the band room at a local high school would be less amusing:

Rectal Gas Policy
– Any student who releases audible rectal gas will receive one after school detention.
– Any student who “reacts” to audible or inaudible rectal gas will also receive  one after school detention.
If you feel the need to relieve yourself of rectal gas you must stand in the hallway to pass it.

Where do I start?  First, it must be said that I was visiting the school while attending a wonderful show choir performance starring (as far as I’m concerned) a good friend and my favorite teenager.  She did an awesome job!

After the concert, another friend gave us a brief tour of the new school where she works.  It’s a really nice school, but we were surprised to find that they apparently have an entire policy about a specific bodily function.  I wonder if students actually go into the hallway to abide by the policy.  And it really makes one wonder about the incident(s) that caused the policy to be drafted in the first place.  Asking my friend to make copies of the policy so I can post it on my blog is juvenile, I’ll admit…  but funny is funny, and I find it amusing.  I wonder if the teacher realizes that strangers come through her band room sometimes and read her rectal gas policy?  Did she have to submit it to the principal for approval before posting it?  Hey, Derek, do any of the schools you sub at have a body function policy?

A while ago, my husband suggested that I blog everything I do.  While that seemed a little outrageous and time consuming to me, I am going to share this email I just typed to a long lost friend from high school.  I got an email from her the other day out of the blue saying that she had just gotten married, so I sent her back congratulations and a brief summary about my life for the last 12 years.  I got a reply from her and found out she’s still in school (poor thing – we’re 30!).  I typed back such a long response that I thought it might as well be a post on my blog as well – 2 birds with one stone, so they say…  Now you don’t have to hack into my email to read my personal stuff!  That’s a thinly veiled reference to my last post about the dueling newscasters, one who was hacking into the other’s email.  Here’s the email I sent to my friend – in case you’re wondering why it gets random in places, those are answers to questions she asked me.

Great to hear back from you!  So are you going to be a lawyer when you’re done with school?  Where are you guys living?  We are living in a little town in Ohio – I think it just might be the most perfect place to live, for us anyway, we hated Illinois and city living.  It’s very rural out here.  Everyone knows each other; they’re all very friendly.  It’s small, not even 9,000 people, and it’s surrounded by farms.  But we love it; we still have Walmart, restaurants, a movie theater – all the modern conveniences.  It’s so nice to send the kids to school and not worry about them like I would at schools in the Chicago area.

So you are planning to have kids then?  I wouldn’t say I’m ahead of you – maybe in the insanity department, it gets pretty loud and crazy around here!  But seriously, being pregnant is actually kinda fun, especially when you can feel the baby moving.  I had pretty good pregnancies; though I had gestational diabetes with 2 of them, and I had to take shots of insulin.  Of course that wasn’t fun, but it’s pretty easy to do things when you know it’s for the good of the baby.  I can’t say much about the deliveries.  My first one was really long, my second one was awful, my third one was very easy, and my fourth one was horrible.  If I have any more, I’ll probably have to have another c-section, but at least then I don’t have to go through labor.  It’s different for everyone.  I have a friend who has 5 kids and she never needed any drugs with any of her deliveries.  Her longest delivery was 2 hours from start to finish, shortest was 20 minutes.  Not only that, but all her kids starting sleeping through the night before they were a month old!  She makes me jealous!  But anyway, it’s all worth it in the end.  My last delivery was so horrible, yet I’m already back to wanting more kids…  if only they’d let us sleep…  And it’s so neat to see how different the kids’ personalities are.  My second oldest, Sammie, was so crazy in the womb it felt like she was kicking my organs around.  She is still crazy and is our most challenging kid.  Disney was a really easy delivery, and she’s our sweetest kid – so happy, friendly, and cuddly.

Our marriage is going great!  My only regret is not marrying him sooner – we had a long engagement, otherwise we would have celebrated our tenth anniversary last year or the year before!  He is still perfect – he helps around the house (understatement) and takes care of the kids…  we definitely have a 50-50 household.  Lots of husbands don’t do anything but work, so I consider myself very lucky.  He works from home, has his own business, which can be challenging because I have to keep the kids away from him while he’s working.  He is very good with computers and has lots of great ideas, so he supports us while my work is taking care of the kids.  And I’m never bored – there is always plenty to do with 4 kids to take care of.  I think about going back to work sometimes, but only when I get sick of watching Barney and talking to a 2-year old all day.  I don’t think I’d like to go out and work outside the home though, unless it was at a zoo, and the zoo is an hour away.  Who knows what I’ll do when all the kids grow up and go to school all day.  The blog I’m doing that I sent you the link to makes a little bit of money, and I’m happy doing that in my spare time when I can get it.  We also do lots of volunteer work in the community.  We hold a few board positions for various community organizations, and we do lots for the local community theater group – Chris likes to be in plays.  He’s a great actor and singer, and he’s also written several plays.  I like to do behind-the-scenes stuff; we’ve directed shows together, and I like to produce and stage manage also.  I’m too shy to get on stage myself, and I’m starting to realize that my feelings on that will probably never change.

So what’s your new last name, did you change it?  Did you go to our 10 year high school reunion?  I didn’t because I was pregnant with Disney – she was born 10 days after the reunion!  I don’t have many fond memories of high school anyway; I didn’t really know a lot of people, compared to how big our class was.  Aside from you, Kristen, Kelly, and Sarah, the people I hung out with most of the time went to Glenbard West.

Did you have a big wedding?  Where was it, in IL?  Where are you going to school?  Do you still talk to Kristen or anyone else from high school?

It’s been fun catching up with you – send me some pictures of your wedding!  I will send you some more pictures of my family.  Our last family picture was taken probably over a year ago, but we will be due for another one soon so Christopher can be in it.  I’ll probably want one for Christmas cards.  When I get one, I will send it.  Take care!

Reading the post on Jamiahsh’s blog about his favorite things, I started to respond to his post then realized I probably had enough information for my own post, so here goes.  While I was in a school play when I was 7 and in the chorus of one when I was 10, theatre didn’t really enter my vocabulary until I was 16, before my senior year in high school.  Here are some of my milestones and interests in this regard:

Cheaper by the Dozen [note: link is not my production] (yes, it was a book, play, and movie before Steve Martin came along…) was a play my church at the time did as a student show.  I got to play the role of a 10-year old (I was 16 at the time, but then none of us were younger than high school) and had such a blast at it I would delve into theatre big time after this.

Scapino! was the first show I acted in in high school.  I played the part of Argante.  Very fun, and probably the most interesting audition I had ever.  This included theatre games and improv in addition to a little singing and script reading.

South Pacific was another high school show I didn’t try out for since it was a musical (hadn’t been bitten by that particular bug yet), but it was the first and only show I ever played in the pit orchestra.  I used to play trumpet but I wasn’t very good at it.  I never could get past moving my jaw as I played, a big no-no in technique.

Bishop of Aahs was written in-house (in-church I guess) as a parody of, you guessed it, Wizard of Oz.  This was the second show I did at my church and the second show that opened new doors for me, this time into musical theatre.  I played one of several “munchkins” (teenage kids).  Unfortunately that’s about all I remember of it.  Of course we sang munchkin songs with new lyrics.  Of course I started trying out for musicals after this.

Finian’s Rainbow was the first community theatre show I ever performed in.  Well, it was youth community theatre and not really a very well-run group (though it still exists today).  Anyway I was just in the chorus for this one, but hey, chorus members are people too!  After this show I would start private vocal lessons.

Phantom of the Opera was a show I have never been in, though I did do a different Phantom about 12 years ago.  Rather, this was the first professional musical I heard on CD, and later saw in Chicago.  This would be the only musical I listened to for awhile, though I did eventually broaden my horizons first with other Andrew Lloyd Webber shows including the dreadful Aspects of Love, and later with other shows.  Les Miserables would become my new favorite a few years later.  I still want to be in that show- come on, release the amateur rights already!

Speaking of Les Miz, it was the first and only show I ever auditioned for professionally.  They never called me…

Grease was a show I was in twice and didn’t perform even once.  Both times the rights were pulled when the tour came to town.  If you ask me, the second time the group should have done it anyway- pulling the rights is just evil.  Once give, the publisher shouldn’t be able to go back on it.  The first time they lost the rights immediately and so were able to do another show with the cast they had (Do Black Patent Leather Shoes Really Reflect Up?).  This became the first show I had a solo song in.  I was never told what role I had in Grease, though a friend tells me it was a combination of the Teen Angel and another role.  The second time I was actually asked to be in the show and was given the role of Roger.  We made it about halfway through rehearsing before we lost the rights.

Little Shop of Horrors… Okay, let’s not talk about this one.

Oliver! was a show I had a huge interest in at one time (I still have multiple CDs of this show).  I did try out for it a couple of times previously, but just a couple of years ago it became the first show I ever had a true lead in.  I was offered the role of Fagin, and according to several people I did an outstanding job at it.  Life has kept me from community theatre since, but I have been doing drama at my church so it hasn’t been all bad.  Next show…?  I would like to do Secret Garden I think, but who knows what the future will bring?

Okay, thanks to today this will be a two-part post.  See my next post for the reason. 🙂 Yesterday I had the privilege of attending my nephew’s high school graduation.  He actually attended two of the same schools as I did growing up.  One of those schools I have subbed at several times.  The other one was the high school.

We arrived at my brother’s house shortly before 11AM.  We then waited for the other invited guests to arrive, Alex’s grandparents (mother’s side) and half-brother.  It’s a sad thing to mention that Alex’s mother died when he was just six.  His mother’s other son was rejected by his father (not my brother) and so was raised by his grandfather instead.  There were other issues at the time, but it would be inappropriate for me to mention them here as they are private family issues that have since been resolved.  So, there were seven of us in total not including Alex.  These days, at most graduations it is unusual to get more than four tickets.  I suppose since they used an auditorium in addition to the gym there was more room for guests.

So, at about 11:20 or so we were off, with a short stop at my home to put some ribs in the oven because my brother’s oven took just this time to stop working.  Ours is electric and so was pretty safe to use unoccupied for a couple of hours.  When we arrived the entire front parking lot was filled of course, as by now it was 11:45, just 15 minutes until commencement began.  There were people parking across the street and down one of the connecting streets.  Fortunately for us not everyone knew about the lot behind the school, where the faculty parks (the front lot is student parking and, if they still use it, a practice “field” for the marching band in the fall).  We found a few spots still open and we were set.  We got out of the car and headed in.  Nine minutes to go.  We headed right into the gym, the three women (my mother, Alex’s grandmother, and his Aunt) heading for the auditorium instead.  Actually, my mother had been dropped off and headed immediately in.  The other two unfortunately had to wait since the graduates were now lined up in the hall.  We just made it.  They were about to close the gym doors.  We went in, then waited by the entrance for the procession.  At noon they started coming in- some teachers in black gowns first, followed by a few students in yellow gowns I later found out were not part of the graduating class, just there to take charge of getting the rows of students standing up and lining up in turn.  They were probably juniors.  Behind them were the graduates in purple gowns.  They headed up the aisle, passing between the teachers who had positioned themselves every few rows on either side.  They took their places starting in the front and working their way back, 24 chairs at a time, 21 rows.  Well over 400 students (many seats were taken by the teachers or yellow-gowns).  Behind all of them were several rows of chairs for older guests.  To the sides- bleachers.  Once my nephew passed, we started to work our way to the bleachers, where we found some seats about 10 rows up.  It was pretty tight.  Unfortunately, throughout the time I kneed the one in front of me a few times…

Once the graduates were seated, the speeches started.  One teacher tried to entertain us with his speech, starting with, “This entire speech is plaigiarized…”.  The principal had a speech about how he started with the current class four years ago, and then some standard words of inspiration for the young adults.  The valedictorian’s speech was a pretty normal well-prepared speech, and then another student, a cancer survivor (one of two in the graduating class 😮 ) performed a song he wrote on the piano/singing.  He received a standing ovation.  Finally, it was time for the long, drawn out process of the students coming forward to receive their diplomas.  As their names were called off one by one, they showed a picture (of most) on the overhead screen.  There were a couple of slipups, and I think there was a slide accidentally left in of a student who was not there for whatever reason.  At first, people applauded after hearing their young one’s (or sibling’s) name, but that turned into just a single clap.  I think the graduates got us started on that, I’m not sure.  Several shouted out or whistled.  One (only one thankfully) had an air horn.  My nephew had his turn, as did a former neighbor I remember- I had forgotten their youngest was Alex’s age.  As they got to “P” I noticed there were seven Patels, a very common last name for Indian families.  They were probably all unrelated too.  I’m sure it means something, but I’m too lazy to look it up.

A final congratulation when they were all finished, and then we were done.  We were supposed to wait until all the now-former students recessed before getting up, but that didn’t quite work out.  Once half had left, the bleachers started emptying.  We met up with Alex and the three women outside, a few (more) pictures were taken, and then we left.  Alex’s brother hopped into the car with him, and the rest of us got in our vehicles in back.  When we got to the front of the building, we were just in time to see Alex peeling out in front of the school by a police officer.  Nice.  The car had no plates either…  Should have meant problems for him, but the police were too busy with the traffic.  Lucky him.

Well, we finally got back, my brother fed us ribs (which we had picked up, now done cooking), pheasant, venison, corn, and some sides.  We talked a little, the relatives left, then I left.  Day over.  I should have gotten to this blog yesterday but somehow never got around to it.  Now, you will have to wait until tomorrow for part two which should have come today..