whoa!

seems like a lot happened this month!

So happy that your kiddies recital went well Rachel! I wish I coulda been there to see them play! Kelly, sounds like you got your 5-year plan set. I don't even know where I'm gonna be in 5 years.

I moved in with Ryan like a month and a half ago. So far it's awesome. I don't have a crazy landlord that asks me to do favors all the time and gives me lectures. (btw she made me wash the walls of my old room because "it reeked of smoke". Weird, because I don't smoke and I never let Ryan smoke there, and, oh yeah, it DID NOT smell like smoke at all.) So happy I don't live there anymore.

My new roommates are supercool. All of them are artists (as in visual) except for one chick who does theater. It's nice, there's usually music and painting going on in the loft at all times. My roommate Cris is working on this project with crayons right now. He melts them all down with this super hot gun and they all end up looking super trippy. I'll post a pic of one.

One thing that does suck though is that there is no a/c. And it's crazy hot right now. The loft is an old brick building (I think it processed lumber back in the day) and it heats up really fast. Oh, and now that its warm outside all the crazies are out. So it's not really the safest place for chicks to walk around in at night. Like an hour ago I wanted to get some ice cream from the nearest grocery store, but it was already dark outside so Ryan wouldn't let me go because he thought I would get raped and killed or whatever. And there are prostitutes (kurwa), really. Saw a truck driver pick one up the other day. Basically, the part of Jersey City I live in is like post-apocalyptic. Like if Judgement Day really happened, my part of Jersey City would have stayed the same.

Um, other things...I went full-time at whole foods for like a week, but now I'm back to part-time because I am GETTING PAID ($22/hr) as a per diem assistant producer at WNYC. I'll be working there two days a week in June and hopefully more throughout the rest of the summer! I bought a viola recently! I haven't had one in like a year so that's really exciting for me. I got it from shar and it's way better than my last one! I'm thinking about joining a community orchestra in the fall after I get my chops up.

AND, I think Ryan and I might come to Indiana in August! It's seriously being considered so I'll let you guys know more as I do.

That's it I think, Ciao!

I am bout to give my dog away!!!! (not really)

not really...but No FUCKING JOKE she is driving me NUTS right now. i love her and i don't regret getting her, but it's moments like this that make we wonder if actually do ever wanna have "adorable" little babies of my own. SHE IS SO ANNOYING sometimes. like right now, instead of realizing that i have this monumentally important blog to post, she thinks that she can just fucking jump ALL over me while biting me *ouch* to get my attention. i mean, maybe i'm just a bad puppy mommy, but really i think she's just a puppy. she's only 6 months old, so she's similar to a 3 year old kid or something. she's starting to realize what no means but then chooses to ignore it cause she knows she is cute. ALSJFOIEWFALKSD. i really do love her. don't call animal control or anything lol.

rachel, congrats on your awesome recital! even though i know i said that to you today in the gchat. i'm so glad you were so proud! you deserve it.

so anyway, i'm blogging. rachel's blog inspired me to blog, but also i don't wanna practice. why? BECAUSE IT'S SUMMER. AND I AM STILL IN SCHOOL DESPITE THE FACT THAT IT'S SUMMER. quarters suck! i have one more week of classes this upcoming week and i'm skipping out on finals to drive to blue lake on june 3. luckily, i don't have any finals. but i have a 10 page research paper due (the only paper i'll ever have to write at ccm..lol) and a take home theory test next week, so that'll be crazy. plus, patrick is visiting, PLUS, steven maijala is visiting on wed/thurs because he's taking the dayton phil audition (which is like 45 min from here). so it'll be crazy to write/take a final/keep from going psycho cause of the dog/entertain two people/pack for blue lake. but hey what's life for if it's not fucking crazy.

oh and now she's doing the thing where she runs around in circles and then pees wherever she wants. crazy ass animal. i really think she might be retarded. she passed the retarded dog test except then the next day she rolled around in some other dog's shit. i just put her in her crate and i think she knows i'm mad at her.
ugh.

patrick is working at blue lake with me this summer. i am really excited cause we'll be in the same place and i'll see him quite a bit more than i did when he didn't work. plus i'll have the puppy up there (god save me) but i think she will be a little more well-behaved because it'll be in the woods and she'll have big spaces to run around, unlike my tiny-ass ghetto cincy apartment. which i can't WAIT to leave.

patrick and i think we're going to move to michigan after i graduate next spring/SUMMER cause quarters go on forEVER. we were gonna live in indy but we changed our minds. rach, don't worry ,it's still doable to visit each other every so often. plus i imagine we'll frequent indiana cause that's where our fam is. i think we're gonna go to ann arbor. i might look for a job at like SHAR since that's where their headquarters are. i think we might both work for a year and then patrick is gonna go back to school to finish up his degree and i might work to get either a second master's at U of M in music ed to get my teaching license, or, if i feel up to it and can get into the school, get my DMA at U of M. CCM is a great program, but there are several things that i don't like about it and I'm not a huge fan of cincy. I've always loved MI and plus, I'll be closer to camp! Always a plus, for me, the camp junkie.

wedding planning is going smoothly, i already have my dress and everything! i'll be taking a hiatus from thinking about ANY wedding stuff while i'm at camp, and then churn it into gear when i am done with that. next school year might kill me--i have to plan a wedding, play two solo recitals, and do my oral exams at the and of the year to graduate. ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

ok that's about all i can think of for now. i miss you all so much and seeing everyone's grad pictures from dpu made me miss you all even more. love you guys. I'll post my camp address on fb if any of you want to be my pen pal this summer!

RECITAL and other things

ok so my kids' had the recital tonight. THEY WERE AWESOME. so good. so good. and i am super fucking proud. like walking around with a giant smile, etc.
i was also SO NERVOUS OMG. i think i was more nervous than i was for my senior recital. i really do. cuz then i had the party to think about. that was a fun party :)
i meant to take pictures. but i was so worked up. that i did not.
my students are the best
plus i think they like me. idk, i can kind of tell a lil more when im chatting w/the parents and whatnot. Plus I have three students saying they are going to take lessons over the summer. so yay. and i am trying to push three of them into the ius summer string camp. 1 is like "yeah!" and 1 is like "ugh viola" and 1 is like "ooh when?" so that's cool.
you guys shoulda gone to this recital. it was SO AWESOME i am not sure if i was clear but it was pretty freaking fantastic. and i baked cookies. and my chocolate chip ones (just like poison cookies btw - same recipe just me making steada mom) went so fast! i didn't get one :( but i have leftover cheeseball and butterscotch and pecan cookies. :)

so what else? oh so i was like high off my awesome night right? well came home with my parents (who came to cheer me on - sweet) and we listen to a new voicemail. from some fucking arm doctor who my work STILL HAS NOT PAID and then i got mad and i think i have to sue. which sucks. but this happened with my boss's boss this week
tony heineke "hi rachel how are you?"
"i'm bad. i'm getting collection calls from the bills YOU ALL still have not paid"
"what? it's not my fault"
"well whose fault is it? who picked gallager and basset (their insurance company)?"
"calm down"
"it has been four months tony"
"well don't attack me"
"i'm not attacking you, you asked how i am. and i am upset because i am getting calls from collection agencies. that's how i am"
then he walks away visibly upset. my coworkers are like STUNNED and silent. he comes back
"ok start over this is the first i've heard of this"
"no it's not. you asked how i was right when the renovation started and i said "bad my medical bills still haven't been paid" so you have heard about this before"
"ok. well what is going on?"
"well most of my bills have been paid, but the lab bills and the er doc bill still hasn't. i have mailed them and faxed them to my contact at gallager basset and she says she is paying it but now i'm getting calls because she hasn't"
"you have to understand it is a really big company"
"EXACTLY. it is a really big company so they should be able to deal with a few medical bills in a timely fashion"
"well it hasn't been that long"
"YES IT HAS if i am getting calls from collections agencies"
"well tell me about it ask me for help maybe we can make resolution" (sometimes i don't think he understands english)
"ok here is her name and number" he took it, called her, came back and asked for YET ANOTHER copy of the bills. i left them in his office door yesterday. i got a call tonight. WHAT THE FUCK JUST DO IT MOTHERFUCKERS WHY MUST YOU RUIN MY DAY AND MY CREDIT

so that sucks. seriously you guys DO NOT get hurt at work (although it isn't like i planned it) because i really don't think hms host is special in its suckiness.

oh and apparently the thing i'm doing with ofa is SUPER FANCIPANTS. I'm a summer organizer and i was on a conference call for it the other night and i put NO effort into getting this, steve completely hooked me up i think, i didn't even have an interview. and i learned on the call 1. that everyone else had an interview 2. that they only accepted 20 something applicants out of 100 plus. WHO KNEW.

ok now that i have written a novel i am going to eat leftover cheeseball

One of my students told me to fuck off today. To my face. Only he said it in Polish, so was obviously not expecting me to understand him. I'm not sure if I'm more disturbed by the fact that he said that or by the fact that everyone else in the class laughed when he said it...as if showing such disrespect to a teacher is a good thing. Uggggh how do public school teachers EVER survive?!? I have so much more respect for my past teachers now!!

5 weeks left!

Hi everyone! Hope all is well. The end of this semester is in sight; I have only 5 full weeks of teaching left before I am totally done for this semester. I'm not gonna pretend that I'm not excited. The kids are antsy to be done (and the seniors are no longer in school but instead are in the middle of month-long university entrance exams...yikes.) Meanwhile, with the weather getting nice (finally) and with a quarter of my friends on Facebook freaking out about finishing school, I'm feeling antsy to be done, too. The closer I get to the end, the more anxious I am to be done....it's like the last few weeks have just been draaaaagging on and on.

I have signed my contract for next year, so I will be in Poland for another year. However, I am going to Hamburg for the summer. No more long distance relationship as of June 22!!! Yay!!

For the most part I like it here, but I do get frustrated at times. I have like 3 friends cause this town is so freakin' small, and sometimes I feel like all I do is eat, sleep, and work. So, I get homesick on occasion, and I really wish I could meet more people, but what can you do?!

On a positive note, I'm super excited about traveling this summer. One reason I came here was so I could take advantage of the location. You can travel for cheap when you don't have to buy a super crazy expensive plane ticket across the Atlantic Ocean!! So, June 23-July 11 Jeff and I are going from Hamburg to Vienna to Budapest to Sarajevo to Mostar (both in Bosnia and Herzegovina) to Kotor (Montenegro) to Dubrovnik (Croatia). Should be a fun adventure :) We've also been invited to visit one of Jeff's coworkers in Lithuania (they have a house there) so all we'd have to pay for is a Ryanair flight...super cheap! We're also going to Morocco for a few days in August. The rest of the time this summer, we'll be teaching English in Hamburg before we head to Poland in late September for the start of the next school year (beginning of October.)

Otherwise, my life is pretty boring. No big news or anything on my end. The most exciting part of my day usually consists of me correctly ordering a coffee to go in Polish :) Hah.

my job = doing everyone else's job and mine. i hate it. i cried all the way home. because i am fucking miserable.

glad your all's lives are going well though.

i asked my boss's boss today why we don't fire people. It went like this.
"i was just hoping you could explain our policy of not firing people" (COMMON KNOWLEDGE)
"what are you talking about? what policy?"
"well we all think there is a policy against firing people. Because no one ever gets fired"
"that is because things aren't documentated. " yes, he said documentated. MULTIPLE TIMES. and then he went on and on about how if we dont documentate then his bosses will make him hire that person back. And he asked who I was complaining about. I told him pretty much everyone, and it is exhausting having to do multiple people's jobs. I singled out Tierra. And I told him what happened yesterday.
First day of may = worst day of may (i hope) despite the fact that i did say rabbit.
Me, Geraldine, and Daniel (new guy who is a big smart ass, and so new he knows nothing) were opening. Rosie (EVIL EVIL LAZY ASS BITCH WHO SLEEPS ON THE JOB CONSTANTLY) was the manager, got mad at geraldine because she "had an attitude" and sent her home. At 4 am. We had an incredibly AWFUL day. Because Daniel isn't quite a real employee, and HOlly showed up so it was JUST ME AND HOLLY WORKING OUR ASSES off. And fucking Rosie. I HATE ROSIE. I SHOULDN'T BE WRITING THIS DOWN BUT I WANT TO CUT THAT BITCH'S FACE OFF. I SERIOUSLY HATE HER. Rosie didn't help us at all. She was busy sleeping on the clock.
I conveyed some of this to Tony. "oh"
"hang in there kiddo"
HANG IN THERE KIDDO?!
IS THIS WHAT THE FUCK I WENT TO COLLEGE FOR?!
HUH?

WHAT THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH ME? NO ONE EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVEN CALLS ME FOR A REAL LIFE MOTHERFUCKING JOB WHERE PEOPLE ASSUME I HAVE A COLLEGE DEGREE

Also today a customer saw one of our mice. BOUND to happen because we have had mice FOR MONTHS AND MONTHS AND MONTHS and have done NOTHING THAT I CAN SEE about it. fucking humiliating. So i was upset. Jonathon (manager) asked evie "what's wrong with rachel?" evie said "the same thing that's wrong with me and holly! We find the mice disgusting, wished someone besides us cared, and are freaking sick of working our butts off while everyone else is lazy. And it doesn't matter because no one ever gets fired"

But you guys have good lives. Kelly is engaged, Tiffy's loving her NYC producer life, Amanda's living it up in Europe, Patrice got into Jet (YAY!), so I will just sit here and miserably rot with my kitty cat alone.

I. HATE. MY. JOB.
and i can't get another one.
so glad i have years of great work history. so glad I did unpaid internships.

and I am so lonely.

I'm getting hitched!

Hi friends!

Sorry it has been a million years since I've posted. Been busy and all that jazz.
I only have 5 more weeks until I'm halfway done with my masters! Wow! It goes fast. Thank goodness, since I'm really over the whole school thing.

As all of you know, Patrick and I are getting married! (Surprise). It was a cute proposal, he just got down on one knee and popped the question in our hotel room on our 1 and 1/2 year anniversary weekend. It was sweet! Our wedding is probably gonna be in late May next year (almost a year away!wow!)

I went wedding dress shopping with Rachey (super fun) and we also saw the ballet (drunk) which was amazing. I didn't get a dress that weekend, but I got one last weekend! It's really pretty. I'm not gonna post any photos though because I want everyone to see it at the wedding!

Patrice, I am soooooo excited for you for Japan, as you already know. That is awesome. I will write you back soon.

I applied for a job at Carnegie Mellon University: Director of Music Enrollment and Recruiting. Basically like the head of the admissions office. It is pretty much my dream job, if I still got to play music on the side. If I get it and they want me to start this year, I'll prob leave CCM and try to finish up my MM there. If not, no biggie, I'll just stay at CCM. Blaaaaaaah school.

I'll be heading out to Blue Lake for the 5th time this summer at the beginning of June. Patrick is working there this summer too!

My puppy is getting bigger, but she is still adorable!! I wish you all could see her, she's real cute.

Anyway, that's all I can think of for now. Hope you are all having a great start to May :) Miss you all!