BYE BYE BABY

1 Down, 10 More to Go

Our radio has no AM antenna here at work so I actually went over to Radio Shack to buy a little pocket AM radio for my store. So I turned that on and at the same time watched the TVs across the way at Classy Nails and my anxiety and tension were relieved. But I couldn't help screaming my approval when Alfonzo hit the double that scored Bonds, giving Schmidt some insurance.

October baseball is great. The Giants have been spoiling me these past 6 years. Usually when playoff baseball came around I started switching over to FOOTBALL MODE. But my Niners are suckin' a fat one right now and I'm willing to delay football mode for a month longer!

And last night a friend called me if I wanted to buy tickets to the game for $55 each but no one could cover me at work. DOH!

I got a good feeling about this year though...

A Hunting We Will Go

Right now, courtesy of my financial aid check, I've been pushed and prodded by my parents to look for a new car because my 1984 Honda Porshce [Prelude] is running on it's last wheels right now. The main problem is that we bought it as a lemon and ended up paying almost double the amount in repairs as we did for the car.

The deal is that whatever I use from my aid my parents will match, meaning, if I can budget right I'll potentially have $4000 for a down payment. The thing is that they're planning on a getting a new car too, so if I don't get a 4WD [specifically for Tahoe!] then I could possibly borrow theirs to go to the snow. But if they don't and I don't, then I'll probably be forced to rent one or ask someone else to drive. The other alternative would be for me to just use their old car ['95 Civic] which is already paid off, and right now I'm leaning that way.

Even with $4000, a lot of the used SUVs start around $15,000 which is a little out of the ballpark for me. But I'm sitting online, checking out different websites about buying cars and what not, and now I'm getting a little lightheaded from all the prices. I like the Matrix and those wagon type cars [Outback, Protege, etc.] but I think the last thing I need right now are car payments.

On top of that, I'm FUNGRY and I don't know what I want to eat...

Decisions, decisions...

I took my friend ECMJR to Fry's in Pally Alto so we could price parts for the new computer that he's going to help me build. Ever since I moved out of my parents' house I've been having to rely on a computer that has a grand total of 3 GB, and two of those were taken up by Microsoft Office and various other programs.

So I finally got to go to Fry's for the first time. And it's pretty damn cool in there. They should offer 'Wedding Registry for Grooms' in those places. I'm sure there would be a lot of happy men post wedding as they're opening gifts and finding cool gadgets, video games, and a veritable cornucopia of DVDs.

So the grand total for the computer is ~$700, which I hear isn't bad for a Pentium IV, 128 RAM, 60 GB hard drive, CD burner/DVD player and Video Card. I'll be able to download some music notation software and also be able to play all the games that my low memory computer prevents me from playing.

So within the next month I should be posting blogs from my brand new shiny toy!

Chicken Crowin' on Sourwood Mountain...

I thought that the days of me waking up early for 8 am class were behind me. But slowly and surely, and for some yet unknown reason, I've slowly gotten my body accustomed to waking up around 7 am. This sort of thing didn't happen since my Senior year in high school, when I would wake up at 630 just to get ready to be at school by 7 so I could get parking right in front of the door. Then my first year out of school I scheduled 8 am class at DVC M-F, which meant to get there in time I had to be at the Caldecott tunnel by no later than 715. Eventually that started getting old and by the end of my third semester, I decided no more 8 am classes.

This went pretty good until now. MUS 222 is only offered at 8 am and in order for me to qualify for financial aid I needed to make sure I showed up for class. I thought this would be really hard at first, but now it's been 4 weeks and my whole period of awake-ness has been shifted back 3 hours. Whereas I used to start winding down around 1230-1am, it's not more like I'm getting tired around 930-10pm.

My record so far this semester? Well, I've been on time twice [class startas at 810] and late the other times! But I'm only like 5 minutes late and I sneak in the back anyways, so it's cool. It's just a little weird to be walking around the campus at 10 am and feeling like it's noon.

My point for all this madness? Well, I woke up this morning at 630 and couldn't go back to sleep, so I figured all you good readers out there would want to know.

Nothing unusual happened this weekend. Had a Reunion BBQ for my old youth group Kabataan [formerly Sino Ako?] in Union City. The turnout was a lot smaller than I was hoping for. Originally on Friendster a lot of people expressed interest but then as we all know most of that is just talk anyway. The only ones who came out were the ones that I expected [albeit there were a few surprise appearances.]

Two of the guys who showed up were ones I met while they were freshmen in high school. They strolled up to the BBQ yesterday and I almost didn't recognize them. Turns out they're both at SJ State and doing well in their studies. But it's funny because I'll always think of them as the 15 year old screwballs that they once were and not people that can now legally buy drinks. "Don't worry, Keem," one of them said to me, "We still look up to all you guys!" That made me feel good because then all the hard work we put into the youth group wasn't all for nothing.

Then I rolled with my old friend Lex out to downtown Los Gatos, which is suprisingly alive on Saturdays. It was pretty cool because I've never been out that way before. We were trying to catch up to a bachelorette party, which we ended up losing at the Blue Tattoo in San Jose. So Lex and I just rolled back to Alameda and got some Mexican food at La Pinata.

Now I'm at work and bored and pissed because the Niners freakin' blew another ballgame today.

Getting to Know You, Getting to Know All About You

When I first joined the SFSU Chamber Singers in 2000, it took me almost the whole year to discover that we sang a whole lot better once we got to know each other a little more personally than just singing in a classroom twice a week. Without fail, we would have good concerts at the end of fall semester, and great ones by the end of the spring semester. I think that's also why the SFSU University Chorus, though almost 4 times the size of Chamber, doesn't quite seem to gel together as in Chamber.

Keeping in the yearly tradition, the Chamber Singers had their annual fall retreat at the Point Montara Lighthouse Youth Hostel in Montara, CA [just a bit past Pacifica and Linda Mar on Hwy1 South.] Located right on the coast, the hostel has three buildings with various size rooms, two kitchens and a great view, not to mention beach access as well.

We were blessed with great weather the whole weekend. Arriving there at 1030, we wasted no time into getting straight into sectional rehearsals, with each voice part rehearsing by themselves. The tenor section [small but mighty] has only 7 singers as opposed to 9 in each other group [soprano, alto and bass] so we have to make up for the sound without subsituting good tonal quality. The rest of the day until 530 consisted of various sectional/tutti rehearsals with one break for lunch. That night we enjoyed a great Mexican dinner and watched the sunset/moonrise on the Pacific Ocean. We also hung out playing Apples to Apples [which is a great game].

Before sleeping I cooked two pots of rice, because for breakfast I was determined to do it with the PIN@Y stylez. I think I pretty much mastered cooking rice on the stove [being a spoiled mama's boy I'm so used to using a ricepot] and I actually had to measure using the 'finger' technique [again, mama's boy uses the marks on the side of the ricepot]. Then I woke up around 645 am so me and another girl Noel can make breakfast. With the recipe complimentary of CinnaBon, Noel served homemade cinnamon roles [including the frosting, also homemade], scrambled eggs w/bacon [and w/out for the veggies.] I chipped in with fried rice and chicken tocino. I didn't buy enough packages of tocino, so I cooked it and then cut it into small pieces which I mixed in. But I'll be darned if i still haven't figured out how my dad makes his.

We left 1030am on Saturday morning, but I had to work from 1245-9, and then had to wake up again for work from 11-7 on sunday. I woke up on Sunday with a dry throat and I developed a nasty, full of phlegm, cough, and when I got home last night, I was asleep by 745pm. Then I woke up once at 4 and then finally up fully at 7. I slept 12 hours. I think my body punished me for the long night on Friday, because I didn't get to sleep that night until 230am.

Needless to say, I went to school and had a visit in the Chamber Singers infirmary because my voice was shot.

Oh yeah, 1-3 (AGAIN!) in Fantasy Football but I have a good feeling about this year. So till next time,

Makin' Mine Music

~No Tations~

Hey Dad, what were you doing on that day?

There is probably at least one date in a person's lifetime where they will remember what they were doing almost down to the exact second that something considerably memorable/tragic happened in history.

When I was in Hawaii this past August, I asked my Uncle George [who speaks in old school pidgen] what he was doing when Japan attacked Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. It turns out he was delivering laundry for his brother-in-law's business and heard the BOOM and turned toward sound and saw billowing clouds of black smoke.

My mother remembers November 22, 1963 pretty clearly. Roosevelt School in Oakland just got a brand new TV for the school and all the kids were in the assembly hall watching President John F. Kennedy as he rode in his motorcade through downtown Dallas, TX. She remembers hearing gunshots and then the cars speeding away. Later on, she remembers her teacher crying as they announced over the intercom that President Kennedy died at the hospital.

On this day two years ago, I was sleeping on the living room couch at my parents' house. My mother, who usually wakes up around 6, was getting ready for work because she leaves at 7am. As she's moving about her room, she usually has the TV on and listens to the various news and traffic updates. This particular morning she woke me up and said, "Chim, terrorists just crashed an airplane into the World Trade Towers and one of them collapsed!" Still groggy, I turned on the TV and was watching the station flip flop both the crash of the first pland and then the real-time of the remaining tower. I started to fall asleep again when I watched what I thought was yet another replay, a plane crashing, a tower falling...and then the picture was empty. "Holy Sh!t," I thought, "that really happened!" I just witnessed the death of a whole bunch of people.

I drove her to work at SF State and then I continued on to Hillsdale Mall in San Mateo. Putting the radio on KQED I listened as they talked about the attack all morning. Then I opened the store, only to have the security guard come back at 11 and tell the mall is closed. I got back into my car and drove to Alameda, and the whole trip, from 101 to 280 to 80 took me all of about 25 minutes. NOBODY was on the road and time seemed to stand still. It was one of the longest days of my life as it seemed as if I had nothing to do and yet it was only 12 noon.

I'll remember what happened that day for the rest of my life, as I'm sure everyone will. Hopefully the next generations won't live through something like that, and what transpired on September 11, 2001, is an event that, god granting, will never happen again.

My prayers and thoughts go out to the families of the ones who were killed, and I hope swift justice befalls the person/people who planned this horrible catastrophe.

It's the Sport of Kings...Better than Diamond Rings

Because of my new school schedule I had to change my work schedule around, and it just so happened that for me to max out the hours I have to work the full shift on Sunday here at Hillsdale. I open at 1030 and I'm here til 715 or so all by my lonesome. Normally my manager comes in for about a half hour so I can grab a lunch or have a quick break, but he's out of town this weekend.

Another of my coworkers, who recently got another job, abruptly changed her status from full to part-time thus throwing the freshly minted September work schedule a phat curveball. In addition, she told him that she'd come in and give me a break today.

So around 12 noon she calls and asks, "Do I really need to come in for you today?"

What the hell?

I told her, "Well seeing as that you don't want to, NO."

I mean, what the hell's the point of calling me and asking me that? I'm not forcing you to come in, darnit. But it's all good because the Niners are kickin' some Chicago @ss. I'm going 2 for 3 this week in the fantasy leagues, but more importantly, one of those wins are in the 'loser pays $20 to the winner league.' And what makes that even more gooder is that I'm beating a guy who talks hella sh!t.

First day of Chamber Singers is tomorrow. I hope there's some cuties in there!

Makin' Mine Music

~No Tations~

Freakin Blogger!

Twice I tried to write a post and it asked me to RE login, and then I do and my post is erased.

I'm out, I'll rewrite it later.

Have a nice weekend!

~No Tations~

I'm Shazoo, how d'you do?

How many out there remember preschool? Singing, clapping, playing, dancing? Sitting on our own little rugs, tapping 'rhythm sticks' on the floor and passing around red rubber balls to music? Challenging things to do for four and five year-olds but fun and satisfying once they're done right?

Well, all that and more takes place in my MUS 601: General Music class every Tuesday night from 710-945 pm. This class is all about strategies and ideas for teaching music to preschool up to high school, but mostly focused on preschool.

So I showed up and as soon as she finished talking about the syllabus, we were numbered off into two groups. Me, being a Group II person, sat in the back while the Group I people stood in the front. Then my professor came up to the person nearest to her, smiled, and sang, "I'm Shazoo, how d'you do? Can I share this spot with you?" And then she sat down and proceeded to clap her hands and stomp her feet to the beat.

We were like, "WHAT?!" So then she had all the Group I people wander around and sing this little song to all the Group IIs. After about one minute of rhythm/beat keeping, we sang, "Thank you...for sharing...this spot with me...See you soon by the light of the moon!"

If ever you wanted to be there live and in person for Mr. Rogers there it was! It was so corny, so lame, and yet we all had a great time. After 'Shazoo' we had to grab our little carpet squares and sit down on the floor. We played 'Shoemaker' [where you go to differet shoemakers and they each make a mistake, ie sawing off the heel of the shoe, which means that when you walk to the next shoemaker's place you have to use your tippytoes!] and then she got out the rhythm sticks and we all proceeded to hit them on the ground, flip them around and other crazy things [think 'sakuting' for those of you who don't get it yet].

At the very end I looked up and noticed that it was time to go, so she had us all sing goodbye to each other. And amid smiles and laughter we put away our carpet squares, cleaned up the rhythm sticks, put our backpacks on, and I walked out the door...

And drove home.

But it was great being a preschooler again.

Makin' Mine Music [officially, in the eyes of the CSU system]

~No Tations~