Yikes!

I've just realized it's been 6 months since I've updated this. I'm not sure if anyone noticed that my little corner of the interwebz has been silent, but I'm alive. I've just been busy. I've had school all year...and changed my major from Music Education, which was eating me alive, to Elementary Ed with a specialization in Music.

However, it's summer! School got out a week and a half ago, and I have three and a half glorious months set in front of me. I can't afford summer school, so I get a nice long vacation. I also got news back on Friday that I passed the Illinois Basic Skills test which one needs to pass to get into the education program. It has an $86 fee for every attempt (whether you need to retake the whole thing or not), so I really could not afford to retake it. I didn't do as well as I would have liked (at all) on the reading and writing sections, which is kind of ironic considering how much I read and that I can be a bit of a grammar nazi (although, I do tend to write kind of lazily on here). I sailed through the math portion. I guess I can attribute that to the fact that I was in a math class this semester specifically designed to prepare students for the test, and I haven't had a writing intensive course in a few years...or a literature class for that matter. Also, it was really early, I hadn't had much sleep the night before, and some of those damn questions were really tricky, and you weren't sure what they looking for. It also didn't seem to help that with each practice test I took, my score kept getting lower.

Anyway, I won't dwell on it too much. I passed, and that's all that really matters. Now with summer ahead of me, I can focus on the more fun things. Try and find a job, and look forward to the production of Bye Bye Birdie I will be participating in. I also want to try and spend some time on this poor blog that I have completely abandoned. Spend more time devoted to my favorite childhood book series that doesn't entirely include shamelessly making Sims characters of them...

Anyone out there that sees this that has any ideas???? :)

So I have a friend that was diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes over the summer.

Holy heck it's been awhile! Sorry everyone, I got caught up with school. Now school will be over with for the semester in a month (Halelujia.) I hope everyone is okay and didn't miss me too much, (although, it's kinda nice to be missed ;) ).
I'm now a full year (number wise) older, and I hope a little wiser.

Anyway, before I get to the diabetic, let me just say that in Brass methods the first instrument we were on was the Tuba. I posted about the improbability of the book Karen's Tuba awhile back. Let me just reiterate it. I can NOT see a seven year old having much luck on that instrument being able to play HERE COMES THE BRIDE in just a matter of a few weeks.

Let's just say the Tuba and I did NOT get along.



Okay.

So there's a girl in Vocal jazz choir with me that's a freshman this year. We sit next to each other and share the same voice part (as in Soprano 2), so I've gotten to know her quite a bit. She was just diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes over the summer (or a little before? Whatever.) Having not really met anyone in person with Type 1 diabetes, I was loaded with all sorts of questions because of the Baby-Sitters club and the misinformation I KNOW I was given. (Well, the books DID come out in the 80's).

Like Stacey, she has an insulin kit that she carries around with her (not horribly big. Easily fits inside a moderate size purse). If i'm in the student lounge in the Hett around noon I can usually expect her to whip it out and test her blood sugar. Nah, it doesn't really faze me. I never got the BSC's "omg ew ew ew!" . Sometimes she does have to give herself an injection, but she's got a pen that doesn't look like an actual shot. With the pen she doesn't have to worry about getting rid of the bubbles and it's easier to do. She comes loaded with snacks. Last week she was having a "low" as she calls it (obviously, low blood sugar). It was around 54. Everyone pretty much knows of her situation, and since she was just diagnosed and is still getting used to the situation, everyone in the music department is pretty understanding. A friend of hers put food in the microwave and I called her piano teacher to let her know that she would be late because she had to eat. She said when she's having a low she's usually shaky. High blood sugar would resemble the symptons she had when she was diagnosed. Like Stacey, she'd be thirsty all the time, have to go to the bathroom a lot, etc.

She's on a fairly strict eating schedule. She has a watch that beeps when it's time for her to eat. During performance classes she can be seen eating a pudding cup or eating cheese of some sort. I asked her about eating M&Ms (If Stacey eats an M&M, she'll die!!). Although she has to be very careful about what she eats, one M&M is okay ;). Two won't kill her either, but it's pretty much dependent on the protein.

She'll be getting an insulin pump in December and is absolutely stoked to the point of giddy. She'll have more flexibility about when she eats (Like, she'll have to still eat breakfast, but on the weekends she doesn't have to get up just to eat breakfast. She can sleep in.). She's never read the Baby-Sitters club, and I plan on loaning her my copy of The Truth About Stacey. If I can only remember to bring it.

Did anyone have THESE come to their schools?

We did, and they were seriously awesome. A library inside of a BUS. We drove to Chicago to pick up my dad's new car, and on the way back we stopped at McDonalds, and this pulled up alongside the curb. I had completely forgotten about them until that very moment.

I was able to go inside. Of course it was a bit more updated since the last time I had been in one. They had DVD's and audio books, and other such things, but they did have a nice array of Nancy Drew on the shelf, so Claudia would have been happy. (No BSC that I could tell, though.)

Yet another article

Yay for me and a little publicity however small it might be. :)
http://www.bohemian.com/bohemian/06.16.10/arts-1024.html

Happy Canada Day, Fourth of July...whatever.

I hope everyone has a good fourth of July weekend to those that are in the states. I was also alerted (twice by the same person) that today is Canada day... so if any of you are in Canada...happy Canada Day.
Anyway, tomorrow evening I'll be headed up to Chicago with my sister, her friend, and her boyfriend who actually lives up there, and we will be taking the train back to St. Louis on Monday.
Now, even though I grew up roughly 4 hours (ish?) away from Chicago, I've only ever been there twice. Once when I was three, and I don't remember anything at all, and the other time when I was eighteen, and we were just driving through and I got stung by a yellow jacket in a park off the coast of Lake Michigan...
So needless to say, I'm looking forward to it, and one major thing I want to do? Go to the Art Institute of Chicago...
I think Claudia is rubbing off on me.


Speaking of Claudia. Someone posted in the comments from wayyyyyyyyyy back when, a link to Jeni Winslow's, The Claudia from the TV show's...facebook. I won't post the link to it,, but I might post the picture at some point. There were only two people from the tv show cast (main cast, primarily the BSC members themselves) that I couldn't find a recentish picture of, and she was one of them. I know there has been some talk about how she didn't look asian in the show (or 100% asian), but she definitely looks asian in the picture :)

Now if I could only find a picture of Melissa Chasse...
I wont rest, I tell ya!

AMM on facebook

For those of you that haven't done so, I recommend adding AMM onto facebook. You'll get some insight on her life, and even some background on the BSC and other books.


http://www.facebook.com/#!/AnnMMartinAuthor

She's only one of some of the "celebrities" that I've added ranging from authors (Wendy Corsi Staub, Kevin O'Brien, Lisa Jackson), actors (Alison Arngrim aka Nellie Oleson from LHOTP), and reality personalities (Rupert Boneham, Christa Hastie Waydo and Stephenie LaGrossa from survivor).
Oh Facebook, I love thee.

Does this remind anyone of anything?

I wonder if he knows how to recite "This is the House that Jack Built"