Author: Karen

Hi! My day job is a CMA in the Precertificiation Department (I work with insurance companies). I'm a mom to two young men. I've been married to the same man for 34 years. I have a lot to say about nothing. Lucky you.
Band

How Can You Beat First Place?

Karen

Jazz’s band traveled to St. Louis this past Saturday for the Greater St. Louis festival (GSL). We didn’t go this time around. I wanted to go, but I knew it would be stressful trying to beat him home by 2:30 in the morning.

Yes. Two-thirty in the morning.

I get sleepy enough driving during the day, there was no way I would make the drive in the dead of night. Kevin probably could have done it, but honestly, driving that late at night is dangerous and what if we didn’t make it back before Jazz?

Ugh. I can’t even contemplate having to rouse a family member out of bed so they could pick Jazz up and keep him company until we got home.

No. Me, Kevin and Dude all stayed home Saturday.

Jazz took off from the school at noon. They made it to Fenton by 4:30 and had dinner then went straight to the Edward Jones’ Dome to warm up so they would be ready to perform by 8:30 p.m.

In the meantime, I spent the entire day watching the clock.

“He should be near St. Louis now.”

“He’s probably eating now.”

“I HOPE he’s eating now and not so excited that he forgets and then passes out from hunger on the field.”

“He should be at the stadium now.”

“The kids are warming up. I bet they’re doing those arm exercises that he loves so much.” (insert sarcasm here).

“Oh geez. It’s 8:15. It’s getting close. I bet they’re nervous. I’M nervous.”

“It’s 8:30! It’s 8:30!”

This is the part where I started chewing my already short fingernails.

And yes, I drove Kevin and Dude nuts.

I knew there were three more bands scheduled after Jazz’s and that the awards were going to be presented at 9:45. So, peace ascended on our household between 8:45 and 9:45.

Then the time rolled around.

“Oh geez, they should be announcing the winners now. I hope the guys did well!”

This is the part where I endured exasperated looks from my guys. We were watching “Mythbusters” and were quite into it when my cell phone rang.

“Put it on pause! Put it on pause!”

I answered my phone.

“Hello?”

“Mom?”

I could tell by his voice that something was up.

“Yeah! Hey buddy! How did it go?”

“MOM! WE GOT FIRST PLACE!”

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I think I hooped and hollered, but that whole time period was sort of an out-of-body experience so I’m not sure.

Yes. Our kids got first place. But not ONLY first place, they also received an award for Outstanding Visual Performance and Outstanding General Effect!!

I could hear all of his band mates yelling in the background.

They won first place!!! *squee!*

And you know what? There are 71 freshman in the band this year, which just about makes up half of the band. If our kids are doing this well now, just imagine how they will improve over the next three years!

(Hopefully – more on that in a minute).

Jazz called me back about 30 minutes later to tell me that they were projected to get back into town at about 1:45 a.m. So I set my alarm for 1:30.

When the alarm went off, I got up and turned my computer back on. The band director is on Twitter and I wanted to see if he had made any updates on where they were.

No updates.

My imagination started running away with me (it’s a curse) and I started imagining all sorts of things happening to the buses and had just about convinced myself that they were in trouble and I was going to have to go up to the school and rally with the rest of the waiting parents to try and figure out how to get a hold of the band director and find out why they hadn’t arrived yet when my cell phone went off.

Jazz was 10 minutes out of town.

By the time I reached the school, the buses were pulling in – perfect timing.

It was sort of amusing to watch the kids spill off the bus. They had all been asleep and were disoriented zombies as they stumbled back into the cold night air.

I spotted Jazz and helped him with his gear. While he took his instrument back to his locker inside the school, I unzipped his garment bag and hung his uniform back up (it was wadded up on the bottom).

We got back home and we all promptly went back to bed. (Kevin had gotten up to welcome him back home. Dude was dead to the world).

I had to take his uniform back to the cleaners today. One, it was sweaty (ew) and two, the kids had to change in the parking lot before getting back on the bus and it was dusty.

Picture that for a minute. Exactly how does that happen? In the parking lot? In front of God and everyone else?

I asked Jazz about it.

“So Jazz. When you guys change in the parking lot – how does that work, exactly? Do they put up a screen or something?”

“Nope. We all just change in front of each other.”

“You mean, the girls too? You guys don’t go off somewhere and the girls go off somewhere?”

“Nope. There’s no time. We just sort of deal with it.”

“Aren’t you tempted to peek?”

Jazz’s cheeks flushed a nice shade of pink at that point and I had my answer. But he shrugged it off and said, “We do what we have to do. And sorry I didn’t hang my uniform back up. We only had 25 minutes to change and get everything back on the bus.”

So … Jazz is learning a thing or two about modesty – or lack thereof, apparently. Actually, I’m okay with this. I mean, bodies are bodies and if you treat them as such, then really, what’s the big deal?

I was excited about Jazz going back to school today. I thought his entire band would celebrate their victory but …. um …. no.

“Did you guys have a party in band today?”

“No.”

“No? Why not? Wasn’t your band director happy about your results?”

“Not exactly.”

I was flabbergasted. How could the man NOT be happy with a FIRST PLACE win?!?

Jazz said that the band director showed them a tape of their performance and pointed out all of the flaws (never mind what they did right. And I’d like to add, that when Jazz called me with the news of their win, he said that he felt like it was the best performance they had ever given.)

Their forms (movements) were off. Their lines were not straight. The music sounded off.

Blah. Blah. Blah.

This sort of put me in a challenging position. First of all, I was annoyed. Excuse the hell out of me? Is what I wanted to say, but I didn’t. I defended the band director, but at the same time, told Jazz that he should feel very proud of his performance and never apologize for doing his best.

BUT, at the same time, there’s always room for improvement.

The challenge is, of course, finding the balance between doing your best and doing it PERFECTLY, I suppose.

I’m still a bit annoyed with the band director. How dare he pop these kids’ bubbles! They have worked their ASSES off and it paid off in spades this past competition. To suggest that they didn’t give their all or did a sloppy job is sort of insulting to the judges, don’t you think? That maybe the judges didn’t really know what they were talking about?

BUT, I don’t want to tell Jazz that he should just STOP and give up trying to do better.

We can all do better.

So … it was a weird position to be in. I mean, the kids got FIRST PLACE, how much better could they have gotten!

BUT, the band director knows what he’s talking about and I’m giving him the benefit of the doubt. I just hope he’s not cutting his nose off to spite his face and he ends up losing half of the band next year because they’ve lost their motivation to try and please the man, you know?

Jazz has one more football game Thursday night and then they travel up to Columbia for their last competition of the season. We’re going to try and go – simply because it’s the last competition of the season. We’ll see how it works out time wise. We haven’t gotten the schedule yet so I’m not sure when they’re supposed to get back into town, but the band is the last band scheduled to play (naturally) and then if they make finals, they’ll have to perform in finals. Which means it’ll most likely end up being another dead of the night sort of thing. So, we’ll see.

I’ve ordered a DVD of the band’s performance (and all of the bands that competed in his category), so hopefully, when I get that, I can convert the performance to video and post it for those of you interested in seeing the performance. I can’t make it public (due to copyright issues), but I’ll make it private and keep it up for about a week so friends and family can watch it.

I’m really looking forward to seeing how they did and IF I think they did as poorly as the band director THINKS they did.

I mean, I’m no expert, I’m just a proud mama, but dang it, how can you beat FIRST PLACE?!?

Grr. I’m annoyed.

random stuff

Is Anyone Home?

Karen

A boss wondered why one of his most valued employees had not come in and had not called out sick one day. Having an urgent problem with one of the main computers, he dialed the employee’s home phone number and was greeted with a child’s whisper.

“Hello.”

“Is your daddy home?” he asked.

“Yes,” whispered the small voice.

“May I talk with him?”

The child whispered, “No.”

Surprised and wanting to talk with an adult, the boss asked, “Is your Mommy there?”

“Yes.”

“May I talk with her?”

Again the small voice whispered, “No.”

Hoping there was somebody with whom he could leave a message, the boss asked, “Is anybody else there?”

“Yes,” whispered the child, “a policeman”

Wondering what a cop would be doing at his employee’s home, the boss asked, “May I speak with the policeman?”

“No, he’s busy”, whispered the child.

“Busy doing what?”

“Talking to Daddy and Mommy and the Fireman,” came the whispered answer.

Growing more worried as he heard what sounded like a helicopter through the earpiece on the phone, the boss asked, “What is that noise?”

“A helicopter,” answered the whispering voice.

“What is going on there?” demanded the boss, now truly apprehensive.

Again, whispering, the child answered, “The search team just landed the helicopter.”

Alarmed, concerned and a little frustrated the boss asked, “What are they searching for?”

Still whispering, the young voice replied with a muffled giggle, “Me.”

Abundant Life

Teaching: Truth Matters – Part Five

Karen

Every Sunday I provide videos and valuable links to the Truth or Tradition teachings. We’ve been following the Truth or Tradition teachings for many years now and they have truly blessed our family. We have found peace and happiness through our beliefs and we walk confidently for God. My hope, by passing on this information to you, is that what you find here, or on the Truth or Tradition website, will guide you to a better, more blessed and abundant life.

If you would like to read my views on religion and how we got started with the ministry, you can read this.

Let’s get started:

If you have any questions, or would like to learn more about God’s wonderful message, please visit the Truth or Tradition website. You can also keep track of the ministry through their Facebook page, their YouTube Channel, or follow them on Twitter.

Thanks for reading.

(Comments have been turned off. The information is here, it’s up to you to accept, or deny, it).

More from Write From Karen

random stuff, Saturday Stuff

Simon’s Sister’s Dog: Fed Up

Karen

As you all know, I’m not a big animal person. I don’t dislike them, per se, I just don’t have a desire to own one any time soon.

With that said, I LOVE looking at pictures and watching videos of animals – animated animals are no exception.

I have to say, this is one of the (and I said ONE, there are MANY), turnoffs I have with dogs: the begging. It drives me insane to be eating somewhere and someone’s dog is looking up at me with those expressive, sad puppy dog eyes just begging me to drop them a scrap or two.

And this is just an aside, but the way this dog balloons at the end of the video reminds me of my neighbor’s dog – that poor thing is MORBIDLY obese. So much so, that it waddles when it walks and it’s head is about 1/4 the size of her body. The owner is an older lady and she has trouble getting out herself. Luckily, I’ve been noticing a young girl walking the dog lately, but it doesn’t seem to be helping very much. I’m not an animal lover, as mentioned, but even I think this is cruel. 😦

You can find out more about the author of this animation, Simon Tofield, at his website.

Friday Fun

Aloha Friday

Karen

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Aloha! Kailani is the brain-child behind this fun Friday meme. If you feel inclined to answer my question, please post your answer in the comment section. Sound fun? Of course it does! Want to answer more questions? Hop over to An Island Life and play along!

(Please feel free to answer the question below, even if you’re not playing Aloha Friday!)

My question:

Which natural disaster freaks you out more?

My answer:

I’d have to say an earthquake. I mean, you can hide from a tornado (been there, do that a lot), and one usually has a lot of notice when a hurricane is coming so you’ve got the time to pack up your belongings, secure your house, etc., but earthquakes … are unannounced, unpredictable and everywhere. There’s no where hide. There’s no where you can seek shelter without the threat of something falling on you or the earth simply opening up and swallowing you.

Yikes. Now I’m going to have that terrifying visual image in my head all day.

Book Corner

Repost: Twilight Book Review

Karen

Kevin and I just finished watching “Twilight.” I had actually seen it before, but he hadn’t. I wasn’t sure if he would like it, given the, um, subject matter, but to my utter surprise, he loved it. He liked how the author took an evil aspect and made something good out of it. And he likes love stories — is this man for real?!

Anyway, the move reminded me of the “Twilight” book review I wrote and I thought I would re-publish it, just for kicks.

Watching the movie makes me want to give more Twilight books away. Perhaps I will … closer to Christmas. 🙂

This was originally published December 2008.

I’m embarrassed to say, I succumbed to peer pressure.

I’m not proud of this fact, but there you have it.

This is especially painful for me to admit because I pride myself on not really conforming to what is generally popular; I form my own opinions, thank you very much, and if I happen to agree with the majority then it’s because I happened to agree and not because I felt the need to belong to a certain group, wanted people to like me, or I was too afraid to be different.

So, to say that I succumbed to peer pressure is, well, not exactly something I will ever admit to – at least, not very often.

But I finally caved, I had had enough. I eventually cried uncle and yes, I read “Twilight”.

When the buzz first started, I wasn’t all that interested. I don’t generally read young adult stories to begin with; I think Harry Potter might have been the last time I had even picked up a YA book SINCE my young adult years. I immediately dismissed the genre – not my bag man.

Not interested, thanks.

But the enthusiasm for this book grew to the point that it once again caught my attention. There were enough people blogging about it that I decided to give it a closer look.

And then I found out it was about vampires.

Strike two. Now I REALLY wasn’t interested. I had no desire to delve into that super natural realm. None. I don’t understand how someone can be attracted to strange, inhuman beings. It sort of freaks me out, if you want the truth. That’s the biggest reason I could never swallow the fantasy genre – the thought of being romantic with an alien being just totally grosses me out. Let me reiterate: it completely turns me off.

I simply don’t “get” it. It’s not my bag of tea. I would rather spend my time reading about flawed human beings who eventually live happily ever after than about forbidden love with a creature who doesn’t possess human DNA.

But whatever, to each his own.

So once again, I fought the curiosity.

But then, I participated in this past Bloggy Giveaway. And I thought it would be fun to give something away that people obviously wanted – the Twilight Saga books. Even though I hadn’t read them, I knew other people wanted to read them, so, I bought them and set them up to give away on my blog.

I had over 200 people put their name into the pot. The response caught my attention and I finally gave in to my snooty attitude and bought my own copy of “Twilight.”

It took me nearly a month to finish it. Not because it was a terrible story, but because I was in the middle of NaNoWriMo. I actually had no intention of even starting the book until after the challenge was over, but I had to take my oldest son in for an orthodontist appointment so I grabbed the book to pass the time.

It immediately sucked me. (Pun intended).

And I’ve been sitting here wondering exactly why.

A. I don’t care for YA stories in general. They are, well, juvenile, for lack of a better term. Not only in premise but in the writing itself. And that’s okay, they are supposed to be – the target audience is 13 to 18 year olds after all.

B. I don’t really like vampires. They are creatures steeped in evil and I tend to avoid evil-based premises.

So, the fact that I ended up liking this book? Was puzzling to me.

The majority of responses to this book have been positive. People loved it. But there are a few who didn’t care for it at all and the reasons they cited are certainly valid, but I think they’re missing the bigger picture here.

Two of the biggest reasons were:

1. The writing was too simplistic and rife with slang.

True. But the story is being told from a 17-year old girl’s point of view. And even given the fact that Bella is pretty intelligent and ends up using words that some didn’t think was appropriate for a 17-year old (for example “absurd”… I can see a teenage girl saying this, especially if she was trying to appear older than she really was) it worked for me.

The writing itself was pretty good, I thought. It flowed. Meyer does a good job keeping the story moving so that I never really got bored or found myself skipping whole sections to get to the good parts.

2. They didn’t have sex.

This was the biggest complaint among those that didn’t care for the story. And even though I too ended the book feeling frustrated for our heroine, I believe that was the whole point. Again, this was a YA book. What sort of moralistic message is Meyer sending if she has her characters have sex?

True, it might not have been very realistic given the activities of our youth today, but really, it was the only option open to Meyer given the genre she wrote the story in. I believe she would have received a lot more flack if she had allowed them to do the deed.

I’d like to point out that Meyer did an EXCELLENT job of building the sexual tension between these two. I found myself tensing up and really wanting them to give in to their desires and do the deed, and yes, I was disappointed when they didn’t, but I ended up admiring Meyer’s writing style even more because she accomplished what she set out to do – establish several levels of tension between Bella and Edward.

Sex wasn’t Meyer’s goal here. She set out to tempt us into the unknown. This story was about passion, about an all-consuming love, about controlling our baser instincts and about dealing with forbidden love.

Hence the very clever cover – an offering of a red, juicy apple – the forbidden fruit.

I’ll be honest, I bought this story. There was something deliciously decadent about reading a story filled with darkness, seduction, temptations and dangerous attractions.

I think Meyer did an excellent job balancing the various elements just mentioned with the stringent guidelines imposed upon her when deciding to write this story in the young adult genre.

I think, in some ways, this story wouldn’t have been as powerful if she had chosen to write it for a different genre. The fact that she left us thirsty for more Bella and Edward is a testament to how well she succeeded in tempting our baser instincts.

I’m looking forward to reading the rest of the series.

After writing this review, I stumbled on Summer’s excellent post, “Edward and Bella: True Love or True Lust?” and honestly, it’s a brilliant dissection of a rather disturbing attraction. I highly recommend reading it.

I have to say, this love story, nay, this character OBSESSION makes me want to write something equally steamy.

What did you think about the Twilight book or series? I haven’t read any further than the first book so please, no spoilers. 🙂