2013

So here we go! Brace yourselves! It's a'comin! Here is my cliche New Year's "Year in Review" blog post!

The past week or so I have heard a lot of people talking about how glad they are to bring in a new year. During our Christmas Eve church service, the pastor began talking about how 2013 has been a really tough year for so many people, and everyone is really looking forward to a fresh start with 2014. As I pondered that thought and tried to think of some of the hardships I've faced this last year, I realized something - 2013 was actually probably one of the best years I've had in a long, long time.

This year was a big breakthrough year for me. It started with fresh new beginnings, as I moved out of my townhouse on campus and blindly walked into a rooming situation with someone I did not know very well. Little did I know that the person I was moving in with would soon become not only my best friend, but my sister in Christ as well. Meghan and I hit it off instantly as friends, and I have been so blessed with a roommate for this entire year who just totally lifted me in every way. Honestly, I'm not sure that this year would have been as good as it was if it wasn't for her constant prayer and support. Anytime something did seem to be going downhill, she was right by my side giving me a big hug and praying for me and uplifting me with scripture. What a true blessing she has been!

Our first big snowfall together

After Meghan's (second) senior recital

Pumpkin picking this Fall!

Meg's graduation day. Oh how I will miss her!

While my friendship with Meghan grew, we were both truly blessed by another wonderful friendship that I had begun toward's the end of our Fall 2012 semester. Shortly after the year began, Meghan and my little family of 2 soon turned into a family of 3 as Lucas entered our lives. I cherish the memories of all the nights we spent, while other college students are age were out partying, sitting on "couch" watching M*A*S*H and Doctor Who and having a wonderful time together. Lucas and I will most certainly miss having Meghan around this semester!

One of our many M*A*S*H nights

Reunited after a long summer!

On a Bill Gray's run one snowy night

Last day together before Meg graduated :(

This summer came with lots of excitement as well. I started out my summer by taking 3 weeks of classes so I wouldn't have to take too much my final semester, and had a great time staying up in Rochester and extra 3 weeks. I got to see my first Rochester Lilac festival, and my friend Audrey and I got to go out and have some great nights together. Even with all the fun, I still finished my summer semester with a 4.0... my first ever!

Audrey and I at the Lilac Festival!

 One of the biggest highlights this summer was seeing two of my best friends - David & Brynn - get married...and even being in the wedding!!! I've watched these two grow in their relationship the past year and a half, and it was such a beautiful thing to see them commit to each other for life. The wedding was a blast and I had such a wonderful time with fantastic friends.

A few days before my Brynnie got married!

Mr. & Mrs. David Shewan :)

The wedding party

After the wedding, I spent the remainder of my summer watching my nephew Caiden 5 days a week... and we had so many wonderful adventures!

Heading out on one of our many car trips

Baseball day with our best buddy Shawna

Lunch date at Nagels

Photo Credit: Shawna Oberst

Fall 2013 marked a huge time in my college career as I embarked on my journey into student teaching. I have to admit I was not that excited at first, but within a week of my first placement I knew that teaching is where I am meant to be. My high school placement especially became a very special one for me as I fell in love with each and everyone of my students. I can honestly say that I love everyone of them, and I hope they learned as much from me as I did from them. I passed my student teaching with flying colors and ended yet another semester with a 4.0, giving me a cumulate GPA of 3.55... so I will graduate Cum Laude in May!!! :D

First day (left) of student teaching in September, and then last day (right) on December 12.

So yea, 2013 was wonderful. And honestly, I'm a bit sad to see it go. 2014 is going to come with a whole new set of adventures... my roommate and a majority of my friends graduated this December, so there will be a lot of room for making new friends. I am graduating in May, which means I will need to find a place to live and a real job. So many unknowns lie ahead of me for 2014...but I'm ready. I cannot wait to see what the Lord has planned!!!

"For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will hear you. You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart." - Jeremiah 29: 11-13

- Erin

Admitting Defeat

Doctor Who.

All my friends have been talking to me about for the last 2 years since I got to Roberts is Doctor Who. My roommate is obsessed with it. Her family is obsessed with it. My best friend Lucas is obsessed with it.  Several of my other Roberts friends are obsessed with it. A majority of my Csehy friends are obsessed with it. My church friends are obsessed with it. And even my boss here at Roberts is OBSESSED with it.

Because of this, I found myself constantly frustrated because everyone would always be making Doctor Who references that I didn't get, to which they would respond, "Oh you just wouldn't understand."

So last year, I tried watching the first episode of Doctor Who (the 2005 series), and I thought it was the DUMBEST, most absurd episode of television I had ever seen ever. And I let all my Doctor Who friends know it. Any time they even mentioned the Doctor to me I'd scoff, roll my eyes, and declare that Doctor Who was just TOO nerdy for me.

So here I am... about a year later... admitting just exactly how WRONG I was.

You see, as I mentioned before, my roommate and her family are all HUGE Doctor Who fans. That being said, they all have these matching Doctor Who/Minion shirts (pictured below), and this year they brought me one. I was deeply honored by this sort of "we-consider-you-family"-like gesture, but immediately realized that there was no way I could go walking around in this shirt with a TARDIS on it and not really know anything about Doctor Who.

The "Minons have the TARDIS" T-shirt

So, I decided to put my pride aside and give the Doctor another chance... and let me tell you, I am really glad that I had a week and a half of nothing going on before student teaching.

I watched the second episode, and said to my roommate, "Well, I guess this isn't that bad."

I watched the third episode, and said to my roommate, "Yea, this is kind of okay."

I watched the fourth episode, and said to my roommate, "I might actually like this show."

It has been a week and 2 days since I started watching Doctor Who, and I am now on season 5.

I'm totally completely obsessed. I have laughed. I have screamed. I have cried. And I have done A LOT of talking to my television screen. 

My roommate and our dear friend Lucas, both avid Doctor Who fans, have been loving watching me take in every precious moment of the series. They love seeing my reactions, and I can now see why they have been trying to convince me to watch the show for so long.

I have only one complaint*, and that is this - the show is EXTREMELY sad. When people had talked to me about it before I became a fan, all I heard about was how cool it was, how funny it was, and how brilliant it was. But no one EVER mentioned to me how horribly sad the life of the Doctor really is. I wish I had been at least a little forewarned. 

This scene pretty much spliced my soul in half.

But all that aside, I still continue to watch the show. I can't stop. It's addicting. And wonderful. And even though I know that I only have one more episode with David Tennant left to watch, and I will be greatly saddened, I also know that I will fall in love with Matt Smith eventually. After all, I thought I'd never get over Christopher Eccleston... now look at me. I'm in love with the 10th Doctor! I guess that's just how it works with the regeneration cycle.

Anyway, off I must go! I've only got a few more hours of free time left to watch Doctor Who before my life becomes consumed by student teaching!!!! Priorities must stay in tact!!!

- Erin D.

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* - Ok, so I actually have a second complaint. Just one name - Martha Jones. Yuck.

How I know it's time to go back to School

1. I'm really starting to miss being in Orchestra and Wind Ensemble.

2. I've had an awful hankering for Mighty Taco lately.

3. Family Video called me today and said they miss me, so they're giving me a free rental I can redeem in the next two weeks AND I get half off all month. How in the world does that place stay in business?!

4. I'm starting to get "When are you coming backkkk?!" texts from all my friends.

5. I'm seeing a lot of friends from Csehy and high school talking about going back to college. How come they get to go already?!

But it's okay. Because in less then a week now, I'll be packed up in my jeep on my way back to Rochester!

On Being a Musician and Working Out

I think my knee knows tomorrow is a training day. It started giving out on me and really aching about 15-20 minutes ago, as if to say, "No! No! We can't do that! Can't we just stay inside and watch movies?!"

Either that or it's just going to rain tomorrow.

Anyway, I've been using this app called C25k  to get myself in some sort of good shape. It takes you from "couch potato" level to being able to run a 5k in a course of 9 weeks, working out just 3 days a week. Tomorrow is Week 2 Day 2 for me and I'm feeling pretty good about it! Wish I could say the same for my stupid knee...

You see, I've been living under this facade that I am a musician so I don't need to be in any sort of good shape because I need to dedicate all my time to practicing.

I'd like to know the same thing Christina.

Well obviously that's just a bunch of garbage. If anything I need to be keeping myself in excellent shape because I'm a musician! How the heck do I expect myself to hold up my trumpet, with good posture, and have enough endurance/energy to play for long periods of time if I keep up these AWFUL living habits?! I have already noticed a difference (for the better!) in my playing and energy levels in general since I started running last week. 

I think this is a common misconception amongst many young musicians. Starting in grade school, the band kids are kind of separated from the athletic kids. Many TV Shows (GLEE being a great exception) always seem to portray band kids as dorky, asthmatic, and anti-social. 

What I got when I searched "Band Kid" on google images

In reality, musicians actually make AMAZING athletes. In fact, most of the professional musicians I know could kick any athletes butt in an ultimate frisbee tournament any day of the week. Even in 100 degree weather. Ultimate Frisbee is a favorite event at the music camp I have attended most of my life, Csehy Summer School of Music. When I was in my final years as a camper, we took our free time frisbee playing to the next level and turned it into a huge tournament called the CUPPA Cup (Csehy Ultimate Professional Players Association Cup) that involves a pretty serious drafting process.  The music faculty all get very into it, and the captains of the teams are usually made up of that week of camp's conductors or teachers (and the occasional chapel speaker). This tradition still holds strong today, as I've gone on to be a counselor!

My team, Pure Muscle, was one of the original CUPPA Cup champions! 

I'm the one dressed in all black.

(Team Captain was the infamous Benjamin Harding)

So here I find myself, struggling to break myself out of these bad habits I've let myself fall into. I used to be in such good shape when I was younger. When that picture was taken I was in some of the best shape of my life. Unfortunately it was also very shortly after that picture was taken that I feel ill for a year (eventually diagnosed with Celiac Disease) and just have never been very active since.  But I'm not going to let that be the case any longer!!!!! I will be able to run a 5k* in 7 more weeks!!!

I'm gonna see if my roommate will dress up as Robin so we 

can run a 5k together like this

Now I just gotta start working on my eating habits...

- Erin


"Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body." 
- 1 Corinthians 6:19-20

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* - I just need to find a 5k to run!

A Musical Observation

I have to share what I think is a pretty cool musical observation I've made the past few weeks as I have watched Caiden.

Caiden loves music. He whistles CONSTANTLY, bangs on the piano whenever he can get the chance (we're working on getting him lessons asap), and is always clapping/slapping on his knees some sort of crazy rhythm that is going through his head. None of it never makes a terrible amount of sense, but it's the thought that counts.

When I first came home from Rochester and Caiden and I were driving in the car, I had Sirius Radio's Classical Pops station on (as usual). I tried engaging Caiden in the music by pointing out certain highlights of whatever was playing (themes, different instruments, etc.), but eventually he just asked if I would turn it down and then started talking to my car (he's convinced my car is optimus prime in Jeep version).

                  = ?

This did not discourage me. I continued to play classical music around him every opportunity I got. Then one day, while we were playing legos with Rhapsody in Blue in the background, Caiden suddenly asked if I could put on the music from Iron Man 3. Thanks to YouTube, I was able to find the soundtrack and started playing it for him. By the end of the day, he was whistling the theme all over the house - in tune, in the correct rhythms. This was the first time I'd heard him ever do that.

Thank you Iron Man lego playtime!!!!

Now I was really on a mission.  I continued playing classical music in the car, but now I was trying to choose symphonies that sounded similar to the movie music Caiden loved so much. Thus, I turned to one of my all-time favorites. Bruckner's 5th Symphony. There are parts in the first movement that I am fully convinced inspired some of the musical themes in the original Batman movies, so I figured Caiden would like that.

I started out by just playing it quietly in the background every time Caiden and I were in the car together. Then eventually every so often I would point something out to him in the music and he'd say "Oh, cool" or something like that and then go back to talking to the car.

But then, it happened.

We were driving along, this time with Bruckner Symphony No 4 playing, when all of a sudden Caiden started singing along with one of the themes. Then he said, "Hey Aunt Baba*, they repeat that part a lot!" I froze. Part of me wanted to go into an in-depth conversation with my 7 1/2 year old nephew about the construction of symphonies, but I pulled myself together and in the best way I could, explained to Caiden what a theme was in 7 year old terms, to which he responded, "Oh! Just like the Iron Man 3 music!" and proceeded to sing the reoccurring theme from that sound track. I thought I was going to explode with pride. 

Restraining myself from pulling over the car to throw a miniature party in celebration of my nephew's intelligence, I decided instead to try Bruckner 5 with him again, this time pointing out the parts that I thought sounded like Batman. He LOVED it. He was trying to sing along, but having some trouble singing in tune with it, which he can't be blamed for because the pitches he was trying to sing/whistle were wayyyy too low for him. But he was getting the rhythms right, and recognizing the different themes.

Thursday was the last time Caiden and I hung out last week. We were sitting downstairs in the basement doing arts & crafts, when suddenly, he began humming what we've dubbed "the batman theme" (click link to hear it - it is what the trumpets are playing in the beginning of the clip) from Bruckner 5. In perfect rhythm. In tune. I could've cried. I could've dropped everything and given him a big bear hug right then and there. But instead I just looked over at him and said with a smile, "You like that piece don't you?" To which he responded, "Yea! It's really cool!" 

Sweet, sweet victory. 

Can't wait to see this (hopefully) happen with some of my students as I start student teaching in the fall. There are few things more rewarding to me than seeing children fall in love with music.

- Erin

"Praise him with trumpet sound; praise him with lute and harp! Praise him with tambourine and dance; praise him with strings and pipe! Praise him with sounding cymbals; praise him with loud clashing cymbals! Let everything that has breath praise the Lord! Praise the Lord!" - Psalm 150: 3-6

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* - Caiden has called me Aunt Baba since he could talk. We thought he would grow out of it as his babble turned into full sentences, but he never did. We don't know why he calls me "baba", nor does he. What he does know though is that he can't call me Aunt Erin because I'm Aunt Baba. That's what he tells me.