Chumbawumba

Heading to Summerfest today. I'm going to be seeing Animation play at about 6:15. They are opening for Heart. I will have backstage passes so this should be real cool! Probably meet the ladies from Heart too. Nancy has been holding up pretty good for her age. But, she was never just the hot chick playing guitar. She was, and still is, one of the better female rock guitar players around. Funny how there just aren't that many. We were talking about that at church the other day. Almost our entire instrumental musician pool are men; while the vast majority of vocalists are female. It is like that on the club circuit too. Interesting...

I plan on leaving at 1 and am not 100% sure who is coming with. I will know at 1! I am pretty sure Katrina is going and if Alec gets home in time from Watseka, he will go too (yes, he was there on his friend's grandmother's farm doing some work). New Orleans was a great thing for him. Time will tell how much he got out of it.

Running Updates...

Before I go out for my 5k jog on this awesome warm, humid day, I thought I would update y'all on what is going on here. Sorry for the long time between posts, so much has been occupying my head space that I haven't made it to the blog. I'm going to summarize:

The Plainfield school district is NOT the great district it was always touted to be. I won't entirely elaborate but they have no concept on dealing with each kid's issues on an individual basis. The decision they made was completely unreasonable and excessive. In essence by making their decision they did NOTHING. They only go and penalize the family. I feel for low income families that are put in to a position to continue their child's education by having to take a financial hit (losing work time to home school or to find a private school). Plainfield East is now not the school of choice for the upcoming school year. In fact, no where within the district can he go. Home schooling (what they are recommending) is not an option here at home. We are all in agreement that a fresh start needs to be made. There is no need to prolong this any further. By going the district's route, it would continue for a while. Whatever happened to "No Child Left Behind"? I better stop or this rant will really ramble!

Perhaps it is for the better. We are looking at 3 private schools (there aren't many in the area out here in Will County): JCA, Providence, and Christ Lutheran. We are in the process of scheduling and visiting each. Christ Lutheran is very intriguing. It is a very small school located in Plainfield that just might be the place. We visited today. Mary and I like it so far. How about this: since I work for a church it is HALF off the tuition! $7000 - 8000 + fees (which is about the norm at all the schools) is WAY out of our price range. Half (which would be around $4000) helps for sure but we still don't have the money for it. We will have to find it and pray that God leads the way because we are clearly decided on having him go to a real school for his freshman year. Next week we hope to visit the other two, larger schools.

Meanwhile, Alec has been on a STUCO mission trip to help with the cleanup in New Orleans (hard to believe that it is STILL going on!). I have been hearing great stories from there. If you are Dan Vallaro's friend on Facebook he has some great ongoing pictures of the team that Alec is on. Sending Alec was one of those very clear directions from God. I know that it will be good. I can't say what the changes and results will be in his life, but I just have faith that it will be good. I am already hearing some great stories about him. One day I will share.

Rush stuff continues. Rehearsals will start in about 3 weeks or so. Stay tuned!

Gotta run...literally.

And then...

Almost done with the Rush songs! Getting closer. The only thing is that some of the ones that I learned a month or two ago I have to revisit. I am sure I forgot some parts already!

Peaks and valleys. That is how the course of each day goes. We have good moments and challenging ones. I am learning a lot about parenting! I am also learning a lot about how you can only do so much. You just have to let them go sometimes. Let them burn their hand if need be. That is very hard to accept but feels to be the right choice. Oh, there are still rules to be followed and expectations to be met. I just can't have a tracking device to monitor every movement (do I REALLY want to know everything? seriously, think about it).

The days do get more manageable as time moves along. Tomorrow we hear from the school on a decision. I have a feeling I know what it will be but we will wait and see.

Later gaters, got guitar lessons to give...

Yesterday was interesting. Apparently some virus or trojan sent out some nasty videos to friends on Facebook. The inbox was reeling with everyone either notifying me, making funny jokes, or settling in to panic mode (like I did it - right). There wasn't really any way to send out one general notice via Facebook. It just went about and happened. It was kind of a frustrating and helpless experience. The worse part about it was that our home computer was really messed up. I went through about 12 hours of clean up on that computer. There was a ton of things on there. Probably from a long time ago. Check this out: there were over 1500 things that it found! Granted, much of it was adware but there ended up being several trojans and worms gobbling around in there. That explains why it has been real sluggish in recent times! Thanks to my friend Larry Hummerich (from Answermaxx), I got some software to clean it all out. It is amazing how much better that computer is running. One interesting part of the process was to initially do a 'system restore'. It is basically like a flux capacitor for computers. You send it back to the state it was in a week ago (before the latest trojan hit it) and then start cleaning from there. Very interesting...and it worked!

Last night we had a GREAT time at dinner with the Carrolls and Eichelbergers. It was kind of a farewell dinner for Bill and Rachel. We were at Mon Ami Gabi in Oak Brook. There is nothing like spending and evening with some great friends. I don't know, we were there maybe 3 hours or so.

Good times...

The 300th Post

I just discovered that this is my 300th post! Is that good or bad? I don't know. I am a bit tired right now. Just learned another Rush tune that isn't particularly hard (Time Stand Still). Today was the kids last day of school. Yeah, even for Alec! His diploma is getting mailed like they always do. So he made it! Katrina is a senior now. Yikes! She is really getting in to her plans for going to Greece next summer. She has been saving and planning and doing a great job of it. Today we sent our child back into the wild with the hopes that lessons have been learned and absorbed. I can only hope and pray that they have. For me, today has been a much better day too. Let's keep it that way!

Mary and I went to see Star Trek at the new Joliet Mall theatre. It was our second time seeing it but the first at that place. A very comfortable experience with cushy seats and lots of leg room! Check it out over there whenever you can. Naturally we are trekkies so it was fun seeing all the characters again. I am really happy with how the new actors kept many of the nuances and quirks of their characters. The first time around, I really caught the McCoy and Scottie character similarities with the previous actors. Today, I really caught on with the Kirk and Spock characters. And yes, the guys in the red uniforms still always get killed. We really saw it when the 3 guys were preparing for the space jump (how fun!). You just knew the guy in the red uniform was going to get it!

Maybe it is because I am so wrapped up in Rush but I couldn't help but see a strong connection with their song "Red Barchetta" early on in the movie (when they are set in Iowa when Kirk was a kid). If you know the song and see the movie, tell me if you see it too. The song isn't played but the scene is close to the lyrics.

Rush and things...

So amidst all this insanity (which is slightly improving each day), I have been adding to my library of Rush songs for Animation. It really has helped me get through some of this a lot. I now have 26 songs down; 2 that are almost there (I have to figure the 2nd weird solo to La Villa and all the weird intro stuff to Xanadu); 3 that I have to remember again (shouldn't take long); and 3 that I haven't done before (Time Stand Still, Losing It, and Bytor). The song, Losing It, is of particular interest. It is on the Signals album (the one that has New World Man and Subdivisions). They had a guest violinist, Ben Mink play. He really did a lot. I am not sure yet how in the world I am going to cover it. I'm saving it for last I think.

Also, through all this, I have been practicing my new Roland PK-5A midi pedals with Reason software on the computer. Ok, many of you not musically inclined probably thought I just spoke a foreign language. Basically, I have some killer sounds for some of the songs that I control with these pedals. I'll have to upload a picture of them someday.

Today was a better day for me. I felt I have to get on with my life (much of the difficulties were just running in my head). It was good. I feel like I can laugh a little again. That is a big step. It was hard to for a while. Later y'all...

Michigan

Alec and I drove up to Michigan yesterday to check out these small cottages at Lake of the Woods. It is in SW Michigan near the town of Decatur (very close to Sister Lakes which is a hot spot for Chicagoans). They are small but good enough for the price. We will have it for 5 days in July. I don't think that everyone will be there for the entire 5 days (schedules and such get in the way). Although, I think that I, for one, will take full advantage! I am wondering how much the kids will take before the "I am bored" thing comes up. But, you never know, they just might surprise us! We had to keep it to a reasonable price and some place that would accept our dog, Dixi. We originally anticipated a bigger family vacation but a quick series of major car repairs (like $2000 worth) last January put the kabosh on that. I think this will be fine. Yesterday's trip was one of those were it might have been a better idea not to take Alec. I don't think he was ever really in to going. To be fair to him, I probably should have spotted that right away. Oh well, it was still ok. I just need to be a bit more observant with regards to noticing when to give my children the space they need. They are teenagers after all!