Upon Further Reflection

Sitting in a Starbucks

It’s a typical September evening in Arkansas. I’m sitting inside a little piece of Seattle in the heart of Arkansas: Starbucks in Little Rock. Ziggy Marley is playing in the background as I reflect and collect my thoughts mainly to pass the time until I head over to the airport to pick Jilian up. There is a really intense lightning storm going on around me at the moment, so I’m hoping her flight isn’t delayed.

I’ve made every necessary preparation for her arrival. I cleaned my room, swept my hardwood floors from the hair that Larry and Whitney’s dog, Bea, magically distributes equally around the house, washed my sheets, colmed my hair, and by a random twist of fate found an organic grocery store to buy yogurt and granola at.

Ah! Right! My week. Well, after the smooth sailing of week one I’m pleased to say that things have still been going very well. The freshness of my carpet is quickly eroding. My students have no sense of throwing away little balled pieces of paper. Instead they try to discreetly throw them at eachother and they always choose the minutes when I’m in a heated monologue about the importance of eighth notes in relation to quarter and half notes.

I’ve even done some Teach for America things this year! Shocking! I’m actually tracking student progress! Currently I’ve taught every note through the eighth note along with every rest, and I can tell you that two of my class have above an 80% mastery of those objectives. The other two classes are sitting at above a 60, so next week we’ll review and re-master some of those objectives.

The high school choir has left me impressed and sometimes spellbound. Even though we’ve barely cut our teeth into the first two songs I’m realizing that the group I’m working with this year is night and day compared to my two groups last year. Most members sing loudly and with the choir, and they sound good. I’ve been using a sight-reading program I picked up at the Rene Claussen school and every morning they start out with a sight-reading exercise: labeling SOLFEGE (do, re, mi, etc.) symbols on basic sight-reading patterns.

My big challenge this year will be the all-girls choir. They’re a very different group. They (generally) sing well together but it’s a mini soap-opera every day. As one of my more vocal girls put it, “lots of girls in here with attitude Mr. Fitz.” I have a few natural leaders in the class but they sort of vie for control during rehearsals. My main problem at the moment is getting them new music. So far we’ve been working on a “piece” for the gospel festival on the 22^nd, but it’s not exactly a piece as it is a fun song. “Don’t Matter” by Akon has been incorporated into a catchy Gospel tune. Here are some of the lyrics:
“Lucipher don’t wanna see us in heaven. But it don’t matter no, cus I got Jesus.” A poetic triumph to say the least.

So if you, as my faithful readers, hear of or know of any easy two part or SA (that’s Soprano Alto) songs throw them my way. I’m building these girls up the same way as the high school choir with sight-reading exercises. Hopefully by the end of the year I will have some sight-reading and good singing choirs.

I spent the last weekend at the beach with my house-mates, Larry and Whitney, and our friends John and Katie. A few other friends of friends showed up to and resulted in a great time. I’d never been to the nice part (i.e., not hurricane ravaged or murky) of the Gulf Coast and it was a real treat. It was hot, but the beaches were a pure white sand and you could see right through the water to the bottom in all directions. It was like living in a post-card. I learned that I can’t apply sunscreen well. After the first day my stomach resembled a badly marinated roast-turkey. A friend also asked if I would spray her shoulders and apparently I’d done a bad job, she told me the next morning she couldn’t wear her dress because she had spots too. Whoops.

The biggest highlight of the whole trip was an evening we had at a local bar called the “Red Bar.” We had a two hour wait, and normally this would repel even the most intrepid seekers of culinary treats. Not us. We had come prepared with our vehicles, friends, and lots of cheap beer. As the hours drug on we made some new friends and eventually stumbled our way in to the restaurant, where our heavily accented waiter (foreign employees are very popular for these resort places. It makes sense. If I had a job in some big country somewhere I would pick and amazingly fun and beautiful spot to work) showed us our menu on a chalk board. How novel. I went with the crab cakes and then “Grease Lightning” came on and all hell broke loose. Soon everyone in the restaurant were up on their chairs dancing and doing the dance. Epic.

So these past two weeks I’ve been extremely fortunate to have cool weekends to look forward to. Last weekend I got to go to the Gulf Coast and this weekend I get to see Jilian for a couple of weeks. Once she leaves the highlights will stop until Thanksgiving, but I think I can make it.

Cheers,

-Nate
“Cancel the thing that I said I’d do. I don’t feel comfortable talking to you.” –Kings of Leon