Good Day with Mom

Mom and I spent a great day in Bar Harbor on Monday. I had a gift certificate to the Bar Harbor Inn, so we decided to use it at the spa and have manicures and pedicures. This is the lounge at the spa - it looks like the perfect summer cottage - my dream house.

And the view from the lounge is incredible. It looks right out onto Frenchman's Bay. We could see out the windows from where we were having out manis and pedis and we watched fishing boats go by. It was very picturesque.

Here are my freshly painted toenails. My fingernails and toenails are the same color blue and I think it is super fun. It is so nice to have my nails and toes look good for a little while. And it is suppose to be really warm at the end of the week, so I'll have a chance to wear sandals and show off my pedicure.

Mom and I had a really good day. After our spa appointments, we went to lunch at Geddy's (one of the only restaurants open in Bar Harbor at this time of year), then walked around a little bit and checked out a couple of stores. The weather was beautiful and I always love being able to spend the day in Bar Harbor.

JOY

It is amazing how quickly things can change. I was sitting in church this morning (I'm visiting Mom, so it means church attendance) literally crying because I was so upset that my dear friend Jean was still in the hospital fighting leukemia and it looked like she would continue to be there for a while. I mentioned her as a prayer concern during joys and concerns time and couldn't stop myself from crying as I updated people on how she was doing. When I talked to her on Friday her white blood count was low and it looked like she would have to stay in the hospital for another few weeks. It was discouraging and upsetting and it really got me down to think that she was only suppose to have initially been in the hospital for a month and it had already been nearly 6 weeks. I spent all of church thinking about her and trying (unsuccessfully) to hold back more tears.

Then I got home and the world changed! I logged on to Facebook and Jean's status said that after 39 days in the hospital she was going home tomorrow! I immediately called the hospital and spoke to her and Michael and it is true - she's going home! She has had an incredible turn around in the last 24 hours or so. She is off all her IVs and is eating on her own and her white blood count is up to a level where they feel comfortable letting her go home. I can't believe it!!! The change in the last 2 days is remarkable! Hearing that she gets to go home is truly the best news I've ever heard in my life. I am filled with joy!! I know she still has a long road of recovery ahead, including chemo and return trips to the hospital for the next 9 months, but I have hope again and I know she is going to beat this and be okay. Please continue to keep her in your thoughts and prayers as we hope beyond hope that this is the start of her truly getting better.

Now I can't wait to visit her on Thursday AT HOME!!!!

Easter

I was reading my friend Amanda's blog and smiling at how her descriptions of Easter morning as a kid are exactly as I remember them. I loved growing up in the Epping church and having sunrise service on Easter morning up at Harvey's Hill, followed by breakfast at the church before going home to change into new Easter clothes and heading back to church for the morning service. It was an idyllic time and I love those memories. My church attendance has been pretty spotty in recent years, but this year on Easter I found myself wishing I had a church home where I could go on this day (Mom's church is Maine is just too far of a drive for a short weekend, though it would have been nice to be with everyone up there). Instead I didn't even make it to church at all on Sunday morning, which was too bad, but I think I have a very valid excuse. I spent the majority of Easter weekend hanging out with Jean in her hospital room which, while not particularly festive, was still nice. I got to put together the kids' Easter baskets Sunday morning and then watch their faces light up as they came into her room and saw the baskets. It was good to be with Jean for the weekend and fun to see the kids when they came to visit.

I did get to have some nice family time on Easter afternoon, though it wasn't with my own actual family. Sarah invited me to have Easter dinner with her family, which was very sweet of her. I love Sarah's parents and if I couldn't be with my own family on Easter, being with hers was a nice substitute. Her niece Emma is adorable, as you can see from this picture, and she was filled with lots of Easter excitement. We had a chilly Easter egg hunt outside and a beautiful Easter dinner with lots of good food and good company. Thanks to Sarah for sharing her family with me and helping me have such a nice Easter!

Craft Blog

I've created a new blog to chronicle my journey as a crafty person (who would have guessed???): Crafty Camper

I'll still use Notes From A Not-So-International Life as my primary place to update everyone on my daily happenings, but I'll also be posting things about my sewing projects on the new blog. Look there to see photos of my latest creations and the things that inspire me to be creative.

Dirty Dancing

As you know from reading this blog, Nicole and I are huge fans of Dirty Dancing. When we heard it was playing on stage in Boston, we decided we MUST see it. We went on Friday night and had a fabulous time!! The show was really fun (how could it not be, it's DD??) and I'm so glad we got to go. They basically took the movie and just made it live, so the majority of the lines were the same and, since Nicole and I know the movie by heart, we could giggle and get excited about the parts and the lines that we knew were coming. The dancing was incredible and the scenery was so cool - very high tech and just beautiful! Here is Nicole enjoying some pink champagne at intermission. Yummy!

Listening to the audience hoot and holler at the show was also pretty hilarious. We expected the ratio of men to women at the show to be much more in favor of women, but there were a fair number of men there, who had possibly been dragged kicking and screaming by their wives. Nicole kept on insisting that her husband Joshua would like the show, but he hasn't even seen the movie and just laughs at us every time we watch it, so I'm not so sure. :) This was obviously a very appreciative audience and it was fun to be a part of it.

Job Update

It is amazing how much can change in a week. A week ago today I was in California, interviewing at the school in Oakland and falling in love with the area. After a long day of travel on Tuesday, I was back in NH and it appears that something about the change in geography seemed to bring about a change of mind too. When I was in CA, I thought I wanted to move there immediately, and while I still find the idea of living in CA very appealing, I've given a lot of thought to the job in Oakland and realized it isn't really what I am looking for. I had started to think along these lines in the few days since I had returned from CA (and if I'm honest with myself, I even had these thoughts while I was at the school interviewing) and it was solidified when I attended NH All-State Music Festival on Friday. Yes, it was great to see my former colleagues from Manchester and again be a part of the state organization that I had a grown up in and been professionally involved in for my five years in Manchester. The comfort of All-State alone could have been enough to make me want to stay in NH next year, but it ended up being the band rehearsal that sealed the deal for me. Friday morning I went to the All-State band rehearsal and listened to them working on Holst's First Suite in Eb. This has always been one of my favorite pieces and the band sounded incredible. Listening to them play this fabulous band literature made me realize that I wouldn't be happy in a job where I could do this type of music every day. The HS band in Oakland was 5 students, and yes, I could have spent years growing the program and maybe build the band up to a decent size at some point, but that just isn't where I am at right now. I want to walk into a better established program next year and be able to do all the music I love with an ensemble.

So, that leaves me where I am right now - waiting to hear about the job in Wolfeboro that I interviewed for a few weeks ago (they said they would be in contact this week, I hope) and looking for other jobs that might come up. I'm not completely tied to staying in NH next year at all, but I've decided that I am not going to move across the country for a job that I really don't want. I've often struggled with the pull between a great location and a great job. I think it is possible to find both and that would be ideal, but I also know that I am at a point in my career now where I really want a good job, a job I could see myself staying in a for a while, a job that has the things I'm looking for - a decent sized band, an orchestra and/or jazz band, even a chorus wouldn't be bad, plus the chance to teach theory classes or other music appreciation classes. I know these jobs exist, it is just a matter of finding them!

Thanks for all your thoughts and support on the CA thing. In theory it sounded like a great idea, but in reality it just wasn't a good match. If only the program had been better - if that was the case I could have definitely seen myself moving to CA next year. It is hard to be back to the drawing board in terms of jobs, but I keep hoping and praying that the right thing will come my way. I just heard that Bow HS here in NH is open for next year (the guy who is leaving actually interviewed for the Wolfeboro job too and is waiting to hear about it - got to love the small world of NH music education!) and I'll be sending my application. And I'm still looking at schools in other parts of the country too. The right job for me is out there somewhere!