93/365-2 Where I Work

"Hard Working Keys"

I have been teaching in the same place since 1992.  I can't believe it has been 24 years; well, really 23.  I took a year off early on to teach elementary music at the school that my girls were attending at the time.  Back then, as a doctoral student, I figured this would just be a job that would give me some experience, something to put on my resume, a stepping stone of sorts that would allow me to move on to bigger and better things.  After all, everyone knows that community colleges are the stepchildren in higher education.

As it turns out, I really love this environment.  My classes are small and I have an opportunity to get to know every music major that comes through our program.  What I have learned about myself in my twenty plus years of teaching at Brookhaven is that though I am trained as a music theorist and that is what I "do," my calling is really as a teacher.  God just put in the field of music to live out that call.  I know this because I am happy teaching just about anything - music theory and composition for sure, but also knitting and journaling and study skills.  There is just something about helping people learn, learn anything, and grow as human beings that feeds my soul.

Not only have I taught at the same school all these years, I have also taught in the same classroom most of that time.  Until I began the Capture Your 365 project it had never crossed my mind to take photos at school.  I am so grateful for prompt's like today's.  How sad would it be to come to retirement (should I ever get to that point) and have not a single visual reminder of where I spent so much of my life and gave so much of myself to others.

Though I do a lot of work outside of the classroom, it is in class with my students that I feel like I do my best work.  This is why I chose to focus on my classroom rather than office or dining room table at home.  Everything that I teach involves piano playing.  This photo is the piano in my classroom with a glimpse of the room itself reflected in the piano.  The music is a Chopin prelude that one of my classes was analyzing today.  You may notice an important thing missing in this shot - students.  I did not feel comfortable photographing my students and posting their pictures online.

I feel so blessed to have a job that I love doing exactly what I want to be doing.  My students are fantastic as are my colleagues.  As a teacher, I am never going to be rich in the material sense, but there is no amount of money that can buy the kind of joy I receive from being in the classroom every day.

92/365-2 Framed

"Who Framed Who?"

This isn't the image I thought I was after, but I like it.  

91/365-2 Focus

"Feeling Low"

I personally am not feeling low, but when I looked at a stack of papers on my desk in which a piece of music was turned sideways, this poor little bass clef looked so sad.  Though I have been looking at bass clefs for MANY years, I had never noticed their "un-smiley" face before.  This made me chuckle.

Today's prompt had more to do with technique, achieving sharp focus than the philosophical ideas surrounding focus, but I had no idea what I was going to photograph so this became it.  I think that the quote is sound advice for us all.

90/365-2 Garden

"Garden?"

Confession time.  At this very moment my garden is non-existent.  I have dreams. I have plans.  I have seeds.  I have raised beds.  I have had no time.  I would love to have a bountiful garden this year.  It makes me happy to grow my own vegetables, but right now I just don't have the time to nurture a garden.  The flip side of a garden making me happy is that if it fails, it makes me incredibly unhappy.  I would rather not plant it than feel like a failure if I can't keep it going.

All that said, I was at a lost for garden pictures today.  I ended up wandering around the yard looking for something, anything that would pass for a garden photo.  The best I could do was a blooming "weed" in the grass.  This bright yellow flower was standing out in the middle of the grass all by itself.  It looked so happy, so cheerful, so proud.  And, it really is pretty.

If the irises had been blooming or the vegetables growing or even the trees budding, I probably would not have noticed this little yellow flower.  How often do we miss beauty in the small things because we have our intentions set on the big picture, on what we are "supposed" to see, or only on what we want to see.  Most of us don't want to see weeds in our lawns, but I am OK with this little bit of sunshine on the ground.

89/365-2 Tight

'USNA Class of 1959"

This weekend my dad gave me his Naval Academy class ring.  He says it is too big and heavy for him to wear now.

Weekend Update

Here are some random thoughts on my weekend.

I much prefer going to bed a 2am to getting up at 2am.

Dallas traffic is a breeze at 3am - even LBJ and the construction around the airport.

Our flights were not conducive to nourishment.  Our first flight departed at 5:15 am.  None of the vendors in the airport were open yet.  We connected through Charlotte, a 2.5 hour flight.  Food is only available (for purchase) on flights that are three hours and longer.  We had a 35 minute connection in Charlotte and the two gates were literally as far apart as they could be; no time to stop for food.  The flight from Charlotte to Salisbury was also too short for food.  Needless to say, we arrived in Salisbury hungry.

Even if you disagree with her suggested route, Siri never gives up!

When you are really hungry, Burger King tastes pretty good.

I like Lewes better at this time of year than I do in the summer.

I'm glad we made the trip to see my dad.  He didn't feel well on Thursday but perked up during the rest of the weekend.

I loved having some different scenery to photograph.

I love rain!

I spent a fair amount of time with dad taking care of business.

I did not make any friends with a pushy realtor who stopped by the house.  OK, she couldn't get my name right.  She was snobby, only thinking about business, not the fact that there are human beings involved in the process.  My assessment: insensitive and self-serving, two things that don't fly with me at all.  She accused me of being a woman of few words, which was actually to her benefit.   My response to her comment was, "I am perhaps a woman of few words but one of many thoughts."

Sarcasm is one of my more developed talents.

I love my iPad Air but I don't like the Blogger app.  I'm not sure if I don't fully understand its workings or if I expect too much of it.  We need to work on our relationship.

After being a hold-out for many years, I have become a fan of Facebook.  I was able to meet a fellow photographer from CY365 this weekend because Weber checked in while we were at a restaurant.  She was in the area and stopped by for a few minutes.  This was way cool!  I was also able to keep up with what was going on at home with family and friends vis Facebook.

I got a couple new shirts even though I had no extra room in my bag.  I'm not sure how I fit them in.  Do dirty clothes take up less room in a bag than clean clothes?

TSA said nothing about the cactus in my carry on bag.

Weber is not a fun travel companion when traveling by air.  He does not like dealing with airports at all.  I wonder how long it takes to get from Dallas to Delaware on the train?

Our flights back to Dallas were both delayed, the first one because of weather and the second one because we were waiting on "catering."  The irony of the latter is that as I am writing this, the flight attendants have not been allowed to serve anything because the flight is too rough.

As we were standing in line to return the rental car, we fell into conversation with the couple in front of us.  As they were leaving, the woman handed us a book that her husband had written, The God Diagnosis.  I have read the first couple chapters; it is kind of interesting.  He is a doctor who didn't discover the importance of a relationship with God until well into his adult life.  On the second flight we are seated by a woman who is a chef and owns a restaurant in Dallas.  As it turns out, her manager lives literally around the corner from us.  It is nice when people actually talk to one another!

6am is going to come way too early tomorrow morning.

Despite our late arrival home tonight, I am so glad we made this trip!

88/365-2 Lucky

I am not doing well posting from my iPad while away from home.  For whatever reason, the photos are not sized correctly for tha app I am using, though they are the exact same size that I usually post from my desktop.   Also, there seems to be no way to format in my usual manner.  Oh well, I have more important things to worry about so for now it is what it is.

This photo only minimally has anything to do with the day's prompt of lucky, but it was my favorite shot of the day so I'm going with it.  Perhaps I was luck that it was gray and rainy thus making this image possible:-)

"Peering at a Pier"