The Adventure Continues

This is my last post as MOA. I have indeed moved back to Long Island for the forseeable future. I'm very grateful to have had the teaching experience I had, but with the future of my position up in the air I chose to finish my Master's at Queens College and keep my teacher certification in New York State.

There are lots of things I missed about LI and NYC, namely the beach, the summer nights, and the delis. But more than anything I missed my family and friends. My family has been through an incredible amount of adversity over the past six months, and I'm glad to be able to be with them now, and yes, share in that adversity. My friends have demonstrated to me time and time again how much I mean to them, and in turn, demonstrate how much they mean to me.

I'm also savoring the opportunity to actually be able to play music again, since I didn't have any of my own instruments out West with me. I've got a fresh set of strings on my bass and she looks great. I'm planning to rejoin North Shore Symphony in the fall. I'm reacquainting myself with my guitar and building up rep so I can eventually go and play some open mics. And I'm looking for bands to join (once I get my chops back on bass guitar). All of these things have reconnected me, and reminded me why I love doing what I do.

I will miss, in no particular order: Dutch Bros. Coffee, my apartment in Keizer, Voodoo Doughnut, the general weirdness of Portland, downtown Salem, my bed, the Oregon Coast, all of the friends I made, local food and drink, and the students, parents, and staff who were so supportive through all of the craziness and uncertainty that was the past six months.

I will NOT miss teaching at 6:30 am on Monday mornings.

So this blog will continue, as a way to document and connect what's going on in my life at any given time. I'm glad for what I've done, and I know that the future is bright.

One More Time!

I'm making my way back to Oregon tomorrow to move my things back to New York. I'm also looking forward to seeing the sights one more time. Most of you know by now that I will be returning to New York for the time being to complete my Master's in Music Ed so I can finish that chapter in my life and move on to bigger and better things. A full update will follow when I return to the East Coast so stay tuned!

Month of May

It's been a while.

The weather has been absolutely incredible - sunny and 80 degrees with no humidity for the past week or so. I was able to drive out to the Coast on Saturday and hike over the Pacific Ocean. Afterwards, I wanted to go to a McMenamin's pub in nearby Lincoln City. For you East Coasters, McMenamin's owns fifty or so pubs in the Portland area and throughout the state of Oregon. Each pub has its own style and personality, and I was looking forward to going to the Lighthouse Brewpub in a seaside town. Unfortunately, it looked like a pretty standard restaurant from the outside and it was in a shopping center next to a Dollar Tree. So I drove home and cooked instead.

For the first time since I'm out here, I feel like I'm able to come home from work at a reasonable hour, get things done around the apartment, run errands, etc. and be able to spend time properly preparing for classes. It sounds basic, but for the first few months I would be at school from before sunrise until after sunset and be so busy teaching and involved with events outside of normal school hours that I would crash by the time I got home for the night. I'm hoping to build on some of the momentum I have until the end of the school year. The job hasn't gotten any easier, but I feel like I'm managing it a bit better. I would love the chance to spend a summer actually planning my classroom and curriculum before beginning next year. But, that's yet to be determined.

It's insane how fast time is going. In about a month classes will be finished for the year. But I'm feeling relatively at ease with the future amid the stress of concert season and year end stuff.

Post St. Patrick's Day

So I desperately needed a haircut, and after going to the mall last time, I decided it was time to find a decent barber in town. I went to two local shops and despite the fact that their signs said they were open until 3 pm (it was about 1:30) BOTH were closed. I guess trading hours don't mean much in Keizer barbershops. So the third place I went to looked super sketchy. The shop was decorated with all sorts of Americana from another era, there was free water and beer (neither of which I accepted), and the barber's mother came to visit at one point. The barber was a great guy, but not such a great barber. The search continues.

Anyway,

I went to a dive bar last night to see a couple of local bands play. A woman sat next to me, and through brief conversation I found out she grew up in Brentwood. Then, the singer of the second band announced that he was from Jersey. A small world indeed.

The bands were decent, but the crowd was lame. Mostly old Irish guys celebrating the holiday who had no idea bands were playing. But there were definitely enough characters to keep the night interesting.

Spring Concert

I had my first ever Orchestra concert tonight as host and conductor. I didn't know anyone in the audience. For the first time, I'm painfully aware of how alone I am out here.

Standard Update

Hey, it's been a while.

The production of West Side Story went smoothly. Ultimately, the choir director conducted the performances, and I think that was the best route for everyone involved. I was able to learn much of the score in a short time, and rehearsed the pit to the best of my ability, but there were still a lot of nuances and details that I wasn't fully in control of (it IS freakin' West Side Story, after all). I enjoyed being a part of the experience and I'm looking forward to doing it again one day when I have ample time to prepare.

With the musical ending, I've been able to focus more on the other aspects of my job, and while some parts have been good, others have been seriously overwhelming. There's so much that goes into being a high school orchestra director and teaching at three schools to begin with, and to come in mid-year in a new district in a new state the way I did puts me at a huge disadvantage. There's a lot that goes on that is new and unusual to me. I feel like I've been using my support systems to the best of my ability, but at times it can difficult to know of whom to ask which question. But I'm keeping afloat...for now, enough complaining.

I was observed by my supervisor and principal; both had good things to say. I'm settled into my home here and I'm becoming more and more familiar with the area. I've had opportunities to get out and hike and I recently used meetup.com to, well, meet up with some peeps in Portland to play Ultimate Frisbee. I do feel lonely at times, but not in a depressed way, just that I could use more company. I'm working on reaching out to friends I've made and making an effort to make new ones.

It's amazing how fast the time is going. Four months ago I accepted the job. In four more months I'll be back in New York.

Post Script

ALSO I forgot to mention I've met some really great people out here, thanks to Sarah Khan. She introduced me to her friends from Portland and I was able to participate in the filming of their video as well as be a part of a really intense card game. Then, on Sunday we went hiking at Angel's Rest on the Oregon/Washington border, and it looked something like this:

 

Afterwards I went to my first Portland microbrewery, where I had Eight Malty Nights, by far the maltiest beer I have ever had. 'Twas delicious. Although it may have replaced some of the calories I burned on the hike.

Anyway it's nice to know some good people out here.

A Short Rest

Today is my only day off out of a three day weekend. The production of West Side Story at the high school has been time consuming, to say the least. On weekdays I'm leaving the house at 7:30 am and returning after 6 pm. Yesterday was a six hour rehearsal, and tomorrow's is expected to last as long.

I don't necessarily mind the time commitment, but being at school all day and part of the night is keeping me from fully moving into my apartment and from properly preparing for my classes. I think everyone involved at the district understanding the position I've been put in by coming in at this stressful time, but I'm still concerned with doing a good job and making a strong impression. Also I have impossibly high standards for myself.

Now for some good news!

The apartment is fantastic and my bed is probably the most comfortable bed I've ever had. I received my couch, dresser, and night table yesterday, and I'll (hopefully) be getting my dining set some time today. My car arrives from New York tomorrow with more of my stuff in it. And I've still found the time to cook most days, some highlights include a tomato, mushroom, and onion omelette this morning and rigatoni with sauce and sausage, garlic, and Romano cheese.

Things really are great here so far, just intense because of the time of year I came out. But hopefully by February things will settle down a bit.

Clearer Skies

A lot of the things I've been stressed about have worked out, or are on their way to being worked out.

I have an apartment! It's a one bedroom, is a five minute drive to work, and super affordable. My address is

609 Rose Park Lane NE
Keizer, Oregon 97303

Send good tidings and cookies my way.

Unfortunately, I won't be able to move in until Friday or so. So I'm continuing to stay in a nearby hotel for the first few days of work. Not so great.

In the meantime, I'm finally able to focus a little more attention on the job I'm doing at school. I'll be teaching high school orchestra, elementary string lessons, and team teaching middle school orchestra. I'm also taking over the pit orchestra for the HS musical. I'm definitely going to need to put in time outside of school to step up my game a bit. It's been almost four years since I finished student teaching, the last time I had any real time in front of an orchestra. But I couldn't be happier about having my own groups.

I've gotten to see a little bit of Portland, but the past week has been so focused on getting stuff together that I haven't had a whole lot of time to grok Oregon yet. That will come with time. Also, I'm looking forward to getting hiking/biking gear to explore the Coast and Eastern Oregon, where all the good mountains are. Despite all the rain, the temperatures have stayed at least in the 40s, so I'm thinking I'll be able to hike and bike through the winter months. Also, as soon as I finish this post I will begin searching for the best gym in the area.

A big challenge for me is to be able to reach out to other teachers/staff members and ask for help. Everyone has been really kind and generous in offering their help, but I tend to want to be self sufficient. So that usually causes problems and stress because 1. I have no idea where anything is here and 2. It takes longer me to figure out the best way to do things on my own. So one of my goals over the next six months or so is to learn how to use my support systems.

Enough rambling, the real fun begins Tuesday.

Happy New Year!