Makeshift Food

It's somewhat amazing what sorts of things you can come up with when your food supply is severely limited by budget constraints. (Yes. Severely. At least for the rest of this week.) As it turns out, butter, milk, flour, and eggs can make an astonishingly wide array of food, as can cinnamon and pizza dough.

My first success was cinnamon pizza. That sounds nasty, I know, but it wasn't. Probably because there were no normal pizza toppings involved. I remembered late last night that I had a roll of pre-made pizza crust in the fridge that I needed to use very soon. However, I didn't have any pizza sauce or tomatoes, so it seemed like it was doomed to a miserably, rotten death until I remembered that everyone loves apple crisp. Problem number one: Lent. Problem number two: no apples. Now, dessert isn't dessert if not all the pieces are there, and you can't have pizza for dessert. Therefore, problem number one was solved. On to problem number two. I think we can all agree that the best part of apple crisp is the topping, so that's what I made. No recipe involved, just experimentation. It worked, too. It came out of the oven looking like this...


...the apartment reaction was something like this:


...and 10 minutes and six people later, it looked like this:


I will be making that again next time I have pizza crust.

After school today I ate some eggs, but then I decided I wasn't full yet. After perusing the Williams and Sonoma website for things I could make with the above-listed ingredients, I came across a recipe for rosemary popovers. Now, I didn't really want to make them with the parsley and rosemary that was called for, because I wanted to put butter and jam on them. Parsley and jam, in my opinion, don't make the best combination. So I just left them out.

If you've never made popovers before, they might seem kinda weird. The batter is lumpy and quasi-viscous, and you put them in a cold oven to start. But if you make them right, they are the most delicious little biscuitlike things you can imagine. They're not sweet at all, even though they look a little like muffins.


(Yes, they are supposed to be that crispy-looking. They're crispy on the top and squishy in the middle.)

One of mine came out looking a little lopsided, but it tasted the same.


Then you put on your butter and jam - I am particularly partial to jam of the raspberry-minus-the-seeds variety - and you have an excellent after-school snack.


Lauren and Diana ate some too...and I ate four...

I'm slowly exhausting my supply of not-so-renewable-by-me resources, so I'm going to have to become even more creative for the rest of the week. But given my success so far, the outcome should be pretty good.

All-State, the Reprise

So remember last year when I went to All-States? I said, "The highlight of the entire conference by far was the opportunity to see a good friend (and the chorus accompanist) conduct his own arrangement of the Star Spangled Banner with the chorus at Symphony Hall. The arrangement was absolutely fantastic, the students and the audience loved it, and the cheering squad of several Gordon students backstage was thrilled to be able to witness his accomplishment."

Well guess what?!? He conducted it again this year, and instead of being backstage, I made a point to sit in the audience in the best possible seat I could find and record it so y'all can witness the fantasticness of it as well.



Ladies and gentlemen, I predict that this man is going places. I mean, let's be honest. Not that many people get to conduct their own music in the most prestigious music hall in New England for an audience of...huge. Plus the students in the chorus created a Facebook group in his honor. Then we ran into a student at Uno's later in the day, and, after she acted like she'd just run into George Clooney, she asked him to autograph her program. I don't think you can get much sweeter than that in the field of classical music until you're Michael Tilson Thomas.




(P.S. If you really want to, you can watch it on Youtube too. Just so it's official.)

An Ode to my Brothers...of sorts

I have pretty super brothers. They're quite handsome, wouldn't you agree?


(Christopher is the one right in the middle behind the other guys, and Jonathan is the second from the right. He can also be recognized as the kid who looks like me.)

They're awesome.

To prove it, here's a video that Jonathan made for Spanish class. It's hilarious, and I've watched it probably 20 times now. (It's a little blurry here, probably because I made it bigger than it's supposed to be. Oh well.)



Here's to you, Johann, for making the best Spanish video ever, rivaled only by our now-lost French video made several years ago involving a horror story: death by vengeful squirrel. (If we ever find it, have no fear, it will be here too.)

Planting Parties!

Michelle and I were the first two back from spring break today. Ok, so I technically never left, but still. You get the point. Originally, we had no plans for epic adventures. I got back around 1:30 from church and lunch at American Flatbread (hot dang, that stuff is good!), and Michelle suggested that we go grocery shopping, so off we went. We got all our groceries, and as we were heading to the checkout, we found seeds, and an amazing afternoon was born. I got some flower seeds - Alyssum, to be specific - and Michelle got some basil, but we soon realized we had nowhere to plant them UNTIL we both discovered we were buying yogurt. EUREKA! Dump the yogurt into another container, and you have a plant pot. What excitement!


Upon our return to campus, we decided we needed to get some dirt, because you can't plant seeds without it. Problem: no shovel or spade. Solution: make a shovel/spade out of extra soda bottles!


We decided to get dirt from around campus, so we walked all the way around the quad until we reached the side of the library. It was fairly inconspicuous, and we figured GoPo wouldn't come by. We kept a lookout nevertheless.


We're so hardcore.

On our way back to the apartment, we decided to check out the recently-finished second floor of the science building, and we found a cool room there. I took a picture of my stroke-of-brilliance water draining system in there.


In our travels we also found a photo of our favorite ornithologist/environmental science teacher.


Make of it what you will.

Finally, we marched back up the hill, planted our seeds, and decorated the pots. Here's my finished product!


When (if?) the flowers and basil grow and bloom, I will put up of pictures of them too! I'd say that between our ingenuity, spontaneity, and pioneer-like adventuring spirit, we entertained ourselves in the best possible way.

Unholy Bruckner

Remember how I mentioned that "Locus Iste" from Bruckner's second mass was lovely? Well...then I found this version. Horrible or amazing. You get to pick.



Ok, I lied. You don't get to pick. It's an outright abomination, but it's so amazingly bad that it's almost funny.

Current Events

So I haven't been blogging too much lately. Sorry to those of you who are just DYING to read all about my life and everything. I mean, I know there are tons of you who hang on my every word. (HA!)

Some rather important things are happening as of late that I think deserve to be here. Number one is Gordon's spring break, which means that the campus is virtually empty. In lieu of human interaction, I turned to tv. How lame is that?!? But I discovered a show on Hulu that only aired for one season, and it was absolutely fantastic. It's called "Kings," and it's a modern retelling of the story of King David. The entire first season is on Hulu, so if you can spare the time like I did until rather late at night for five days in a row, you should. I know, I know, I have no life. In self-justification, I did go to the Junior Northeast District Festival for an hour or so yesterday so that I wasn't totally lame. Or maybe that makes me more lame. Not sure...

My second important thing is church. I recently changed churches from a very traditionally New England-y congregational church to a very Anglican church, and I absolutely love it. It's been a long time since I've been this delighted to go to church (this week I ended up going to two services and a choir rehearsal, I think). Today the service was for the dedication of the church building, and it was beautiful. The Introit was "Locus Iste," which is a part of Anton Bruckner's 2nd mass. That's worth listening to, if you get the chance. If not, here's just the one part.


However, I got there a little late because of some student teaching duties and so I missed out on singing it. Alas. Nevertheless, I think what I witnessed made up for it. I walked in to find the sun streaming through the stained glass windows on the choir and congregation, with the organ, two trumpets, a horn, and some timpani accompanying a hymn - Vaughan Williams' arrangement of Old Hundredth, to be specific. To say that it was glorious doesn't cut it. To say that I couldn't sing the last verse because it was so indescribably magnificent, sublime, beautiful, and holy might.


(This is somewhat of an old recording, so its quality isn't the best. But they have the spirit, so it's ok. And who doesn't love Westminster Abbey?)

The third important thing is on a bit of a sad note. I encountered Knut the Polar Bear for the first time - I think - whilst in Switzerland. I thought he was the cutest thing ever because of this song, which we watched in German on the Swiss tv. You might be asking what this is sad news...and it's because Knut the Cute Polar Bear died today! Here's to you, Knut. You will be missed.


Other important news items include DELICIOUS homemade granola (that probably deserves a post of its own), great movies, fun adventures with friends, and various other every day things that might bore you, but that kept me pretty well entertained.

DILEMMA

I have a major, major problem. It's such a large problem that I don't know how to solve it. Seriously...what happens when Christianity and identity are at odds with each other??? But I am getting ahead of myself. What is this serious problem, you ask? I will tell you.





Ben and Jerry's Free Cone Day is DURING LENT.

To Our Neighbors...

There's a guy who has become rather internet-famous by creating a website about notes he wishes to write to the girls who live above him. It's a little scandalous, so I'm not going to recommend it. But I feel a connection with him, because I owe the girls who live BELOW me a letter - though mine is a letter of apology. So here it is.


Dear Girls Who Live Below Us,

You've had to deal with a lot this year. I mean, we've practiced our major instruments in our rooms for over an hour during the day; we've laughed hysterically in the wee hours of the morning; we've had dance parties that have undoubtedly left you wondering how you managed to reside below a herd of elephants; we've walked on our tile kitchen floor in heels before 7:00 in the morning (over the weekend, no less!); and we've occasionally been known to scream in registers that might deafen dogs who live in Virginia. You've handled it with fortitude, bravery, and admirable patience, and I'm dreadfully sorry that I am personally responsible for annoying you to the point of no return.

Let me explain myself. I am a music ed major - sometimes a regrettable decision, but mostly a good one - which means that I often experiment with playing a variety of instruments that I don't normally play. In fact, our whole apartment has done this in our room before. While taking Instrumental Methods, we played saxophone, violin, bassoon (spare us!), clarinet, flute, oboe, trumpet, and trombone, and you even put up with that. But today I decided to play horn. I really needed to practice here, because I'm not good enough at it to play in the music building. I would have lost all of my dignity, I think, like I almost did while practicing at the high school where I student teach. In self defense, I did conquer the A major and F major scales as well as 7th grade band music, and I was working on the F major scale in thirds when I heard - and felt - you banging a broomstick or a chair or something on your ceiling/our floor.

I seriously contemplated going downstairs and apologizing, baking you cookies, or even just handing you the bag of chocolate chips that I bought just before deciding to give up dessert for Lent. My roommate talked me out of that, which is why they aren't sitting on your kitchen counter right now. Instead, I'm writing you this letter as both an explanation and an apology. Please forgive me, and if I ever learn who you are, I will apologize in person.

Your sincere upstairs neighbor,

Jillian

The Joys of Public School, part 2

I've decided I need to add to my list of things learned while student teaching. Here goes.

1. How to park diagonally backwards.


I wouldn't say I'm an expert at this - YET - but I've gotten significantly better. My wheels are now mostly parallel with the white lines!

2. How to stay awake while observing private lessons.


(Note: this is NOT me - shocking, I know - nor is it during a flute lesson. It's just a funny picture.)

Tips to those who also need this skill: write a letter to someone in outline form so it looks like you're taking notes; get an instrument and play along, even though the 5th graders are significantly better than you; drink water when you find yourself struggling to keep your eyelids from melting; tell your teacher that everything you learn during the day is absorbed while you're asleep and that you're just attempting to hasten the process.

3. As previously mentioned, how to write a letter in outline form.


If you're awesome, you'll write it in cursive just for the practice of improving your handwriting.

4. How to remain oblivious and invisible while overhearing things in the teachers' lounge.


(I take no credit for this cartoon. I hope it's legal to post it here.)

Because I can achieve this state of being, I feel it is not necessary to say anything about it. I might no longer be both oblivious and invisible.

5. How to get small children to think you're cool.



-Fix their instruments when they break them. It's inevitable.
-Sing for them...on pitch. They'll tell you to go on American Idol, regardless of the fact that you are not a voice major, nor should you be.
-Learn all their names in a class period; they'll think you know EVERYTHING.
-Don't talk to them like you're a million years older than them.
-French braid your hair without a mirror.

6. How to explain things a thousand different ways.



Sometimes you need to get your point across to different learning styles, so you have to say the same thing using different words. Or you need to teach something clearly to a wide variety of students, so you explain things using other vocabulary. Or you must synthesize your main points into a cohesive statement that appeals to everyone, because of Howard Gardner's theory of multiple intelligences. Or, to put it metaphorically, it's like reharmonizing your chord progression, but every time you come back to the tonic. Got the point yet?

7. How to get ready in the morning really fast.


(I think I need this alarm clock. Getting up would be so much more fun!)

I like to maximize the amount of sleep that I get to the point where I get up at the last possible moment that I can get up and still be on time. Let's just say my alarm goes off at 5:45, and I don't get up until 6:25...and I need to leave at 6:40. Ish.

I could probably keep going, but I think I should stop here, because maximizing the amount of sleep I get should probably include going to bed really early. If I'm going to do that, I need to start getting ready now. Go.