Have I Mentioned I Have A Ukulele?

One of my kids came back from Christmas vacation toting a cheap ukulele he got for under $30 at Sam Ash.  It came with a book and CD.  The package deal should tell you something about the quality of this ukulele.  So he was learning a few songs, slogging through the process of training his fingers to switch from chord to chord, getting frustrated because it wouldn't stay in tune.  So I tuned it for him.  And then I played it too.  And then I wanted one.  Well, actually, I'd wanted one for a while.  In my travels through the eclectic corners of YouTube, I'd stumbled on a few ukulele gems that made me want to do what they do.  This video was probably the one that I found most amusing and first piqued my interest in the little instrument:

A week later, I had one.  Ordered off of eBay from some guy in Hawaii (where else), it arrived in a fun shaped box.  I could play it immediately, since I learned to play guitar during my freshman year of college.  From the first strum I was hooked.  It's a happy instrument.  It's too light and cute for anything too serious.  You can't play death metal on a ukulele.  Jake Shimabukuro, a ukulele master, made especially famous by this YouTube video, is oft heard saying, "if everyone played the ukulele, the world would be a better place.”  And I think he's right.  You just can't be sad playing the ukulele.  It's not that kind of instrument. 

This summer, along with the other projects I'm working on, I'm working on my ukulele skills.  I'm even practicing *gasp* SCALES.  I'm still slogging through Toxic (see above), and I'm also determined to learn this:

I have a lot of work fun ahead of me.

Summertime and the Living is Easy

I spend the majority of my year looking forward to the eight weeks from June to August when I don't have to see teenagers. Not that I don't like my teenagers, I'd just rather not see them every day.  Well, most of them.  Regardless, I start the school year ready for the school year to be over, but when summer comes I find myself bored and wishing there was something to do.  I sleep a lot (because that's something I don't do much of for the rest of the year), I read (see previous parenthetical statement), I watch a lot of movies, spend too much time on YouTube.  Nothing beneficial, except maybe the sleep. 

So this summer, I'm trying to be a little more productive.  I'm working on a sewing project, because I find it a little sad that I can build a huge set out of wood without much difficulty, but have never made a garment of any kind.  I went in to work to day to do get some stuff done.  Nothing important, and nothing that would be done in the course of the year because of it's lack of urgency, but something that I hope will make life a little easier next year. 

But I'm worried that despite my good intentions, I will keep staying up way too late (it's only 2 AM, this is not late!) and spending way too much time lying in bed doing, well, nothing.  So I figured, maybe I should blog about it.  Because nothing sucks more than getting to August and realizing I haven't really done anything with my summer other than play video games and sleep. 

Here's to a productive summer.

Every so often, as I pick up my pen and paper journal, I ask myself, "why don't you blog anymore?"

This is why.

Not that I would be as foolish as this particular teacher; I know better than to insult students in a public forum. But as a result of the caution that will keep me gainfully employed, most topics of discussion are removed from the table. I can't talk about my students, thus, I have nothing to talk about. It makes me sad. On some level, writing to someone other than my future self in an overpriced notebook that I bought a Barnes & Noble is very gratifying. So, I don't blog anymore.

Sadness.