Wednesday, June 29, 2011
Thought for the day
Trying to share your excitement over your job is less successful when that person happens to be your half-asleep father connected to his apnea machine so that he sounds like he has an enormously bad cold.
Sunday, June 26, 2011
MYC training, new flute and anxiety
I finished my level one training tuesday through friday this week. It was very informative and makes me both excited and nervous to be teaching all the level ones this coming year. Teaching Sunrise this past year was great, and I fully believe that I will always be teaching Sunrise so long as I am teaching MYC. But, it is also very exciting to begin teaching the same things that I did as a child...learning the MYC critters from a teacher's perspective was special, and I can't wait to pass along the fun and joy of it to my students. And here's my plug out to anyone reading this with children ages 2-8-go to the MYC website and click Find a Teacher-there are teachers all across Canada and part of the United States as well as in New Zealand, Singapore, Hong Kong (I think) Malaysia, South Korea and I think Japan. In my opinion, it is simply THE BEST program out there for teaching young children both keyboard and other essential skills because it is FUN, adaptive, includes many different techniques, and covers SO MUCH. (and now I stop the advertisement!)
I'm also very excited because very soon I will be the proud owner of a new (to me) flute, a Gosman (spelling?) flute. I haven't had a new instrument since I was 14, so almost 7 years. I wasn't even taking flute lessons back then, just playing in the grade nine band at school. A picture will be posted once I've actually become the owner. I am REALLY excited to get to practice with it though! And just to explore how my skill as a player will be able to develop with this new instrument.
Knowing so much about mental health, I've come to realize that at times, I can be somewhat agoraphobic. Some days I am practically in my room for 24 hours or more straight, only coming out for the washroom, and to make more tea, maybe get a nectarine or granola bar. I sometimes find it very hard to make phone calls, which leads me to putting them off and putting them off (and in some ways this posting is putting off one right now, I really should phone the prospective MYC parent I am meeting tomorrow to make sure they're still on for it). Staying hidden in my room is safe, but limiting. I really do enjoy the things (and yes, I'm saying enjoy, that is a step for me, acknowledging that) that I do outside of this safe haven, but it is sometimes, well, scary. This is actually something somewhat new, almost going back to my childhood shyness. I thought I'd gotten rid of it in my early adolesence, between 10-12 years of age, but in the past year or so, some of it seems to be coming back to bite me. I guess it's a form of social anxiety disorder, but I am not wanting it diagnosed as such. To be honest, feeling like I'm carrying around the weight of so many diagnoses is hard. Keeping things secret is hard, but letting things out into the open is even harder. But, when I look at things, a few years down the road, I DO want to think of myself by a different set of acronyms, instead of OCD, GAD, MDD, EDNOS, I want to think of myself by the titles that others will know me by...the ones that will show up on my business card...B.Mus, A.R.C.T, MYCC, RMT, CCA, maybe even M.Mus, or B.A as well. The things that people see on the outside, that is what I want to see on the inside.
I'm also very excited because very soon I will be the proud owner of a new (to me) flute, a Gosman (spelling?) flute. I haven't had a new instrument since I was 14, so almost 7 years. I wasn't even taking flute lessons back then, just playing in the grade nine band at school. A picture will be posted once I've actually become the owner. I am REALLY excited to get to practice with it though! And just to explore how my skill as a player will be able to develop with this new instrument.
Knowing so much about mental health, I've come to realize that at times, I can be somewhat agoraphobic. Some days I am practically in my room for 24 hours or more straight, only coming out for the washroom, and to make more tea, maybe get a nectarine or granola bar. I sometimes find it very hard to make phone calls, which leads me to putting them off and putting them off (and in some ways this posting is putting off one right now, I really should phone the prospective MYC parent I am meeting tomorrow to make sure they're still on for it). Staying hidden in my room is safe, but limiting. I really do enjoy the things (and yes, I'm saying enjoy, that is a step for me, acknowledging that) that I do outside of this safe haven, but it is sometimes, well, scary. This is actually something somewhat new, almost going back to my childhood shyness. I thought I'd gotten rid of it in my early adolesence, between 10-12 years of age, but in the past year or so, some of it seems to be coming back to bite me. I guess it's a form of social anxiety disorder, but I am not wanting it diagnosed as such. To be honest, feeling like I'm carrying around the weight of so many diagnoses is hard. Keeping things secret is hard, but letting things out into the open is even harder. But, when I look at things, a few years down the road, I DO want to think of myself by a different set of acronyms, instead of OCD, GAD, MDD, EDNOS, I want to think of myself by the titles that others will know me by...the ones that will show up on my business card...B.Mus, A.R.C.T, MYCC, RMT, CCA, maybe even M.Mus, or B.A as well. The things that people see on the outside, that is what I want to see on the inside.
Sunday, June 19, 2011
First sweater!
Not much to add, but my friend Cassandra's daughter Autumn is being released today, and I finished the sweater for her yesterday. It's the first one I've ever made so I'm pretty pleased with the results. I LOVE working with the Bernat Baby Jacquards yarn!
And I guess I should mention Happy Father's Day!
And I guess I should mention Happy Father's Day!
Saturday, June 18, 2011
It's been a little while. Things have been going pretty well, all things considered. I've been experimenting by lowering my seroquel the past couple of weeks. I was at 125mg, I'm down to 75mg. So far I can still sleep, and sleep relatively well, although I do remember waking up three times last night (which is not normal on the seroquel). I'm not intending to go fully off the seroquel, and in two or three more weeks, I just might go back to my normal dosage-this is mainly an experiment during an unstressful time when sleep is not as vital to make sure that I CAN. I think tonight I might try going down to 50mg and seeing how that works. Unfortunately, even with decreasing the seroquel dosage, I'm still having issues getting up in the morning (which was never the case before seroquel). On thursday night I decided that instead of lying back down in bed after shutting the first (of 8) alarms off that I would instead lie down on the floor if I had to lie back down. I figured it would make me uncomfortable enough to encourage me to get up. Well, didn't quite work...the body's natural defenses worked in making me grab a blanket and then a cushion...and eventually just get back in bed! So much for that bright idea.
I'd ask for prayers for my friend Cassandra's daughter Autumn, who was admitted to the hospital yesterday in ketoacidosis (extremely high blood sugar levels than can lead to a diabetic coma). She's been diabetic since early October, so I'm hoping this just means that they need to retune her insulin levels. I can't imagine how hard it must be to have your child suddenly spiral like that and I hope that the doctors figure things out quickly! I can't even help in any tangible way, because she is probably about 2,000 km from me, down in South Carolina. If everything works out somehow though, I might, just might, get to see them in August! There's a flute conference in North Carolina and my flute teacher really thinks I should consider it. I'm interested, and if so, maybe there's someway that Cassie and I can work things out. I haven't seen her in almost five years and I've never met Autumn. Communicating via facebook is all right, but definitely not enough!
The main project I've been working on the past couple of weeks is a sweater for Autumn. I'm just finishing sewing the picot hems and then I need to tidy the button holes and sew on the buttons, but I'll definitely post a picture too. It's the first sweater I've made so hopefully nothing's gone horribly wrong :P
I'd ask for prayers for my friend Cassandra's daughter Autumn, who was admitted to the hospital yesterday in ketoacidosis (extremely high blood sugar levels than can lead to a diabetic coma). She's been diabetic since early October, so I'm hoping this just means that they need to retune her insulin levels. I can't imagine how hard it must be to have your child suddenly spiral like that and I hope that the doctors figure things out quickly! I can't even help in any tangible way, because she is probably about 2,000 km from me, down in South Carolina. If everything works out somehow though, I might, just might, get to see them in August! There's a flute conference in North Carolina and my flute teacher really thinks I should consider it. I'm interested, and if so, maybe there's someway that Cassie and I can work things out. I haven't seen her in almost five years and I've never met Autumn. Communicating via facebook is all right, but definitely not enough!
The main project I've been working on the past couple of weeks is a sweater for Autumn. I'm just finishing sewing the picot hems and then I need to tidy the button holes and sew on the buttons, but I'll definitely post a picture too. It's the first sweater I've made so hopefully nothing's gone horribly wrong :P
Saturday, June 4, 2011
Our weather has 'bipolar mood swings'
Or so my 14-year-old flautist friend states! It DOES seem to be that way, yesterday we hit 24 celsius and it was sunny and beautiful, this morning it is much colder and so gloomy I will have to put on my light when I leave this computer (not to mention windy).
This week has been the week of clearing out. On thursday Goodwill came and picked up a whole porchful of things that we (my dad and I) cannot use anymore, including three full sets of suitcases from my mom, my grandma and a great aunt, some old clothes of mine that are a bit young for me now, some clothes of my mom's that got missed when we took the huge load out to the Salvation Army in November, and a number of other things. Later that day, my dad and I took a full carload of electronics over to an e-waste (responsible electronic recycling) site-this included the microwave that broke after almost 30 years of life in February, the ancient Windows 95 computer, a printer someone gave to us that never worked, the dvd player my sister brought us back from the US from Target that was DOA when we plugged it in (and unreturnable), and the record player that broke a few years ago. And then yesterday we had Got Junk come and pick up a bunch of, well, junk from the basement. So, given all that has now been removed from the basement, it is a lot emptier! And stranger...the ancient chairs down there had been down there since I was a toddler. The good part about this is that I finally got back the $2 that I lost when I was 9 years old down the 'monster' chair (I call it this simply because it probably weighs about 100 pounds and is very hard to move-fortunately the Got Junk guys turned it upside down and it fell out). Yes, I do remember losing the $2. When I was a kid, I very rarely got allowance, so when I did, it was extra important. That particular day I had fallen off my bike and badly gouged my knee on a rough edge of the sidewalk. I was downstairs resting with my leg up (this chair was a recliner) when I received it, and only a few minutes later, it slipped from my fingers and disappeared into the chair never to be found for about 12 years!
In a couple of days I will be sending off one more blanket to Project Linus
The best thing about this yarn is that it does the work itself-it creates the floral pattern and the colour changes all on it's own (I LOVE Bernat Baby Jacquards yarn!). It was the first time I'd done a pattern with picking up and knitting stitches and it worked out pretty well! And if we really look at things, one more thing will be out of the house in the form of the Stoned Wheat thin crackers box that it fits perfectly in!
This coming week we will hopefully be able to get out Basement Renovations Building Permit. The ball has definitely started rolling!
This week has been the week of clearing out. On thursday Goodwill came and picked up a whole porchful of things that we (my dad and I) cannot use anymore, including three full sets of suitcases from my mom, my grandma and a great aunt, some old clothes of mine that are a bit young for me now, some clothes of my mom's that got missed when we took the huge load out to the Salvation Army in November, and a number of other things. Later that day, my dad and I took a full carload of electronics over to an e-waste (responsible electronic recycling) site-this included the microwave that broke after almost 30 years of life in February, the ancient Windows 95 computer, a printer someone gave to us that never worked, the dvd player my sister brought us back from the US from Target that was DOA when we plugged it in (and unreturnable), and the record player that broke a few years ago. And then yesterday we had Got Junk come and pick up a bunch of, well, junk from the basement. So, given all that has now been removed from the basement, it is a lot emptier! And stranger...the ancient chairs down there had been down there since I was a toddler. The good part about this is that I finally got back the $2 that I lost when I was 9 years old down the 'monster' chair (I call it this simply because it probably weighs about 100 pounds and is very hard to move-fortunately the Got Junk guys turned it upside down and it fell out). Yes, I do remember losing the $2. When I was a kid, I very rarely got allowance, so when I did, it was extra important. That particular day I had fallen off my bike and badly gouged my knee on a rough edge of the sidewalk. I was downstairs resting with my leg up (this chair was a recliner) when I received it, and only a few minutes later, it slipped from my fingers and disappeared into the chair never to be found for about 12 years!
In a couple of days I will be sending off one more blanket to Project Linus
The best thing about this yarn is that it does the work itself-it creates the floral pattern and the colour changes all on it's own (I LOVE Bernat Baby Jacquards yarn!). It was the first time I'd done a pattern with picking up and knitting stitches and it worked out pretty well! And if we really look at things, one more thing will be out of the house in the form of the Stoned Wheat thin crackers box that it fits perfectly in!
This coming week we will hopefully be able to get out Basement Renovations Building Permit. The ball has definitely started rolling!
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