Last Day

Today was unofficially my last day of working at Austin Lyric Opera!! WOOOOTTTT!!!! Officially, my "official last day" is next Friday, when I'll be given a farewell party, which I am seriously surprised to be receiving because only last week my boss forgot my name, yet again- but I'm not coming in to work at all next week, so if you don't want to split hairs, I'm done!!!! I'm so excited! I am glad I got to work at the opera company. I've learned a lot about the real world of opera business that I would never have figured out if I hadn't. There's a lot they don't tell you in school. But I can't express enough how happy I am to be leaving! Although today, knowing I'm not coming back, feels really surreal and odd. Especially because it feels so routine and pointless. I celebrated, though, by purposefully coming in to work late, and by watching Hulu all day, and by telling anyone who called and wanted help that they'd have to call back on Monday, when I won't be here to help them! (Juliann cackles maniacally)

For those of you who randomly check this blog, I'm sorry I didn't post this earlier. But I just found out this week that I can leave ALO because I finally got a teaching job! I'll be teaching K-5 music at a couple of elementary schools in the Austin school district. I start Nov 3, and am very excited! People keep asking if I'm nervous. And I have to say, yes and no. I'm not at all nervous about the kids- I know they'll be great and I'll enjoy them- I even know I'll be able to survive turkeys and monsters, even though it will be hard and frustrating. But I'm mostly nervous about coming in mid-semester and being 10 weeks behind. I worry about creating a Christmas program in just one month when I only get to see these children once or maybe twice a week. I know I'll get through it, and be a lot better at it than some people think (the fine arts coordinator at the district office spent an hour singing all the songs to me because she didn't think I could figure out how to sing "Rain rain go away" on my own). But mostly I worry about getting to work, because this week both our cars also decided to poop out on us.

Our 1986 Fiero is spitting smoke out the exhaust and has major issues that will cost a fortune to fix. We're still waiting to hear from our mechanic what the damage is. And our new-to-us Chrysler, the lemon we are feeling so sheepishly stupid for buying, is misfiring 2 pistons, has 2 oxygen sensors out, is leaking power steering fluid, has a faulty oil pump, and is in such bad shape our mechanic told us to not even bother fixing it. He did say if it were his car, he'd just drive it until it dies, because it's not completely unsafe, and so that's what we'll do. But it is frustrating to know it can die any day. I know we'll get through this mess, too- it's just so annoying dealing with cars.

So since we're stressed out, we're going to postpone any dealing with anything this weekend and are running away on vacation- we're going to the Texas Renaissance Festival with Ross's sister, Jenny. We'll be gnawing on turkey legs while we watch jousting, listen to bagpipers, and gawk at all the weirdos (pretending we're not weird ourselves). It will be great!