RIP Jean Bassett

I wrote about this incredible woman in my blog on November 27. This teacher has had cancer since September 2009. About two weeks ago, I learned that the tumors in her brain have grown and that she was in hospice care. I still thought she had about 2 more months to live because I know she is such a fighter. I learned a little later that she was in a wheelchair because she couldn't walk. I knew then that the end was near. I found out this afternoon that she passed away either this morning or last night. She was only about 50 years old. She has three kids that are a few years younger than my brothers and me. She was a 2nd grade teacher for a number of years. As I said in my first post about her, I met her through my internship. She was the first teacher I ever worked with. She is one of the reasons I remained in this profession. She gave me a book at the end of that year. I just pulled it out today and read the message she left me. "Shane, all through life, enjoy what you do and do what you enjoy!" -Mrs. Bassett. So simple yet so profound. The book she gave me is A Short Guide to a Happy Life by Anna Quindlen. I read it when she gave it to me. I'm going to read it again tonight or tomorrow. I have a simpler solution to life a happy life than this author does. Live the way Mrs. Bassett lived. I never saw her without a smile on her face. She had such a passion for everything she did. When I worked with her my senior year, I saw the love she had for each of her second graders. I know that when people die, people always say that he or she was an inspiration to everyone. Mrs. Bassett really was an inspiration to everyone! As stated previously, she fought for her life when she found out she had cancer. She didn't give up. She could have given up and died 4 years ago when she was diagnosed. She lived her life to the absolute fullest and then some. She cherished every moment spent with family and friends. I feel honored to have known her and worked with her. Her simple message will keep me fighting to get a teaching job because I know I will enjoy that. What's the point of life if you don't get to do what you enjoy? Thank you so much Mrs. Bassett for everything you have done. We have lost an amazing person way too soon. RIP.

Ideas

Where do ideas come from? How do authors come up with ideas for their books? I've always been told that you should write about what you know. That makes perfect sense. Why would someone write something about something they don't know? I guess they would do that if they were interested in researching a topic. Ideas come from life experiences. I came up with the idea for this blog post tonight while I was thinking about what to write. I came up with the idea to write about ideas. I know, I'm strange. I wrote two books about kids in school and a book about a grocery store because that's what I know. Everyone has their own ideas about many things. People get their ideas and opinions based on what they learn on a daily basis. That's where teachers come into play. Teachers teach topics that hopefully get kids' brains thinking. You have to tell people your ideas because you never know, you could have the idea for the next great book, invention, or you could come up with the perfect way to end the nations debt! If you think you have a great idea, don't be shy to let the world know it.

Cleaning

I started cleaning my room today. In May, we are getting new carpet in the rooms upstairs. Therefore, I need to take everything out of my room. The people who put the carpet in will move my furniture out of the room. However, everything needs to be removed from all of the furniture so that they aren't liable for anything. It's also easier for them to move everything if there is less in it. I guess it makes sense that I'm cleaning my room around Easter time. The dust bunnies in my room have great-great-grand bunnies. It's disgusting! I'm still sneezing many hours later. I only scratched the surface of what I need to do. I still have so much junk to look through. On the bright side, I get to go through my things and see what to keep and what to get rid of. I've decided that once I pack everything up, I'm moving out because I don't want to unpack it all in my room again. I'm kidding. I have no plans to move any time soon. I'll continue to clean my room and pack up my things during my week off. I can't think of anything else I'd rather be doing over my last break until summer!

Emotions

How many emotions do we go through on a daily basis? It's quite interesting when you think about it. You can be happy one minute, angry the next, and sad three minutes later. I'm guessing each person probably has dozens of emotions everyday. Happy, angry, mad, excited, shocked, nervous, anxious, thrilled, scared, overwhelmed, stressed, exuberant, etc. etc. etc. Unless you hold grudges, you typically aren't angry the entire day. If there was a death in the family, then you probably will be upset all day. It's okay to smile even if you are upset and grieving. I find it strange that we can go through all of these different emotions in a day. That makes for an exhausting day. You don't have to be physically tried to be drained. When you have many emotions throughout the day, you will be wiped out. When I do well in poker tournaments, I am exhausted when I'm done. Poker is mentally and emotionally draining. Emotions help decide how we make our decisions throughout a day. They are part of the reason we come home with no energy at night (unless we are kids!)

Energy

It's amazing how much energy little kids have. I see them come in to school running when they should be walking. They talk nonstop when you tell them not to. They are always bouncing around from place to place. They can hardly sit still. This goes for the older kids too. They seem to hit their burst of energy at the end of the day. In the morning, they drag themselves to school and go through the motions. After school during newspaper club, they are very noisy and full of energy! If I had half as much energy as these kids, I would probably get so much more work done than I already do. I wonder if they have this much energy at home. I'm guessing they do. What do their parents do when it's time to put them to bed? I think the younger kids run out of steam eventually and fall asleep. When I was a kid, I don't remember having that much energy. Maybe I did. I can't remember what I did yesterday. How am I supposed to remember 15-20 years ago? I'm pretty sure that when I get a teaching job that I'm happy with, I will be able to match, if not double the energy the kids have. They will be blown away by my enthusiasm for teaching. My goal is to get them the best possible education.

What Motivates You?

Tonight, I cannot answer that. I have no idea what motivates me right now. The more I apply for teaching jobs and never get a response back, the more frustrated I get. It makes me want to stop applying. Do I? Of course not. How do I keep going? I have no idea, I just do. I guess I'm intrinsically motivated to keep going somehow because I don't have a choice. I guess I could quit and give up. What good would that do me? Clearly I am too smart to give up my 5 and a half years of education to quit. How can I remain motivated when I never hear back after I apply somewhere? Can't you at least tell me no? Then I would have an answer. If I have had even one interview for a teaching job, I would be motivated to keep looking. If I had that interview, then I would know I'm close to being good enough to get a job. This time of the year, there are very few jobs to apply for. However, I still manage to get more and more frustrated each day. When will my big break come? I don't give up on teaching because I'm not a quitter. I keep fighting and pushing because that's all I know how to do. On a much lighter note, It's all my parents fault I can't get a job. If my mom had given birth to me maybe 4-5 years earlier, I'd more than likely have no problem getting a teaching job. Patience is running out. My big break needs to come soon!

No Internet

Last night, I didn't write in this blog because we didn't have Internet at home. I could have written on my cell phone using 3G. However, I have already used 65% of my data for the month. I only have 200MB of data allotted to me for each month. My paying period ends on April 9th. That means I have 2 weeks to only use up 35% of 200 MB. I don't want to go over or they will charge me a lot more! Therefore, I couldn't go on Facebook or play any of my games on my phone last night because I didn't want to use any data. I shockingly wasn't shaking from withdrawal without the Internet. My mom was another story. I woke up this morning (always a good thing) and there is still no Internet! I'm writing this blog at work. Shhhhh, don't tell anyone. I know I've said this before, but it's truly amazing how reliant we are on the Internet. My mom grew up without Internet. Now she can't live without it. Interesting... Maybe when I get home today, our cable/Internet company will have fixed the problem!

Cooking Camp

When I was maybe 11 or 12, I went to cooking camp for one week in the summer three summers in a row. My friend, who I haven't talked to in several months, texted me today to ask me the name of the restaurant where we went to cooking camp. I had completely forgotten about the camp until today. We went there for 8 hours a day the entire week. These chefs would teach us kids how to cook. At that point, I wanted to be a teacher for 10 months and a chef in the summer. Not to be arrogant, but I was one of the better chefs at the camp. I remember the chef saying that my friend and I were the only pair to perfect a recipe in all of the previous camps they had that summer. I still have the cookbooks that we created back then. They are collecting dust with the other cookbooks on the shelf that I never look at. I have thought about going back to school for cooking. There are many reasons that I am not going to do that though. 1. I don't want to spend money to go back to school. 2. I would have to go full-time, which means I can't work during the day. 3. I don't think I'm cut out to be a serious cook. I love cooking. I don't think I would enjoy cooking after going through the grinds and stresses that chefs go through on a daily basis. Maybe I think that way because I watch way too much reality TV on Food Network. I would love to learn how to cook new meals. I get bored of cooking the same stuff every night. Maybe I should just open my own restaurant since this teaching thing hasn't worked out yet. That's now three places I want to open. I'll open a restaurant, my own school, and my own publishing company. Then I'd have the best of all worlds!

Commercials

Since Thursday, I have watched about 36 hours of TV. No seriously, I have. That's what happens when it's March madness time. I cannot tell you how many times I have seen the same commercials over and over and over and over and over again. Naturally, these commercials aren't funny at all. If they were funny, they wouldn't be after seeing them many times. There is supposedly a law that makes commercials the same sound as the program. They are not allowed to be louder than the show you are watching. That doesn't happen. That's another annoying thing about commercials. I think insurance companies have competitions with each other to see who can make the worst possible commercial. I thought commercials were supposed to bring customers in, not turn them off of your product because of horrible advertising. All State commercials with that ridiculous guy hurting himself every commercial is probably my current least favorite commercial. They have several different commercials with him that they rotate through. I can't stand any of them! I need to start muting commercials from now on. Needless to say, I hate commercials!

Five Guys

Today was my first time going to Five Guys Burgers and Fries since December 2011. I know, it's pathetic and sad that I remember the last time I was at this place. If you have never been to Five Guys, what are you waiting for? It's one of the best burger places you can go to. I heard In and Out Burgers on the west coast is delicious too. This place is in between fast food and sit down. You order your food and they make it in front of you. You wait between 5-10 minutes for the food to come. You don't have many things to choose from: hamburger, cheeseburger, bacon cheeseburger, fake (veggie) burger, or hot dogs. That's all. Of course they have fries too. They put the fries in a cup and then take another huge scoop and put it in a brown bag. The disgusting part is that you can see the grease soaking the bag. That's what makes the fries diabolical and delicious. A burger and fries will cost you a lot of money. However, the burger is always a double burger and it's huge and delicious. I already told you the insane amount of fries you get. I ordered cajun fries. They take regular fries and throw a lot of cajun spice on them. They were spicy! I felt like I was going to die after eating today. I was full for 6 hours! That's very un-Shane-like. If you ever eat at Five Guys, make sure you wear baggy pants and make sure you are ready to eat a weeks worth of calories. It's totally worth it!

The Best 2 Days of the Year

Today and tomorrow are by far the best 2 days of the year. It's March Madness baby! There are 32 huge games in 2 days. These days are typically filled with lots of upsets and very exciting games! The hardest part for me is staying up until 1AM to watch all of the games. By the way, these are college basketball games. I forgot to mention that. Most people fill out brackets because they are casual fans. Most people aren't even fans, but full out brackets to try to win money. I'm not a casual fan. I look forward to these two days all year long. I follow the sport the entire season. The energy that comes from the college athletes is amazing. 68 teams start this tournament. After tomorrow, we will already be down to 32. Will my bracket be ripped up at that point? Only time will tell. Enjoy the best two days of the year everyone! I know I will!

Kevin James

Another comedian I am obsessed with is Kevin James. I recite many of his jokes randomly. I know I annoy my friends by doing this repeatedly. Unfortunately, I have never and will never see him live. I don't think he does stand up comedy anymore. My friend let me borrow his DVD with a comedy special from James. I was practically in tears because I was laughing so hard. This dude is hilarious! He is now in many movies. He is as funny in his movies as he is in stand up comedy. Kevin James is in Mall Cop, Grown Ups, Here Comes the Boom, The Dilemma, and much more. Some actors are great in movies yet horrible in stand up comedy. One example of this is Zach Galifianakis. I love him in every movie. I watched about 10 minutes of his comedy show on TV and had to turn it off. It's interesting how that happens. I thought that I had seen more comedy shows than I have. I guess this is probably my last post about comedians. Sorry for the lame blog post today...

Gambling

I know that when most people look at the word gambling they think of money. However, gambling is a lot more than money. Every single person gambles everyday. Every decision you make is a gamble. It's like the song from The Clash, "Should I stay or should I go now. If I go there will be trouble and if I stay there will be double." Should I go work out or should I stay home and sleep? That's a gamble. If you aren't feeling well and you go to work, you are gambling because you could get sicker or get other people sick. Every big decision you make is really a gamble. Do I sign a book contract? If I do, I have to spend a lot of money up front. If I do, I could make a lot of money. If I don't I could be losing a lot of publicity. That was a decision I had over the summer. I could also lose a lot of money. It's all a gamble. Picking a college...gamble. Should I go to SUNY Potsdam or Oneonta? Which one is the better choice? You won't know until you go to college if you like it or not. Life is all a bunch of gambles. If you make the right decisions, it could make the difference between happiness and being miserable.

Jim Gaffigan

I remember being in college and searching through the stations and landing on comedy central. This pale guy named Jim Gaffigan was on. At the time, I had never heard of him. I was immediately struck by how hilarious he was. He is also a clean comedian. He doesn't swear! You don't have to swear to be funny. Imagine that. Anyway, I became obsessed with his comedy show. I was always watching clips of him on YouTube. I think it was in 2010, I saw that he was coming to Albany. I had to get tickets. I did and had a great time at his show. I had heard several of the jokes that he said live. However, when you go to a live show, it's so much better than hearing it on TV. He didn't interact with the crowd at all. I like when comedians interact a little with the crowd. It makes it more authentic. The problem I have with comedians is that their show is only about an hour to an hour and a half. I wish they were longer. I also understand that having more than an hour worth of material at one time is pretty hard. Jim Gaffigan has three major comedy acts that he has done. I have seen them all on TV or YouTube. His famous joke is about hot pockets. He also makes fun of himself and the fact that he has 5 young kids. I would love to see Gaffigan again.

Jim Valvano

I know I've wrote about him before in my blog. However, it's worth it to write about him again. I just watched a 2-hour special show on ESPN about him and his magical 1983 championship team. He was the coach of North Carolina State that year. This team wasn't even supposed to make the NCAA tournament. They had a pretty poor record. They went into the conference tournament as a huge underdog. They fought and clawed their way through the tournament and won it. They were behind in those games with little time left, yet they still never gave up. Once they got to the NCAA tournament, they fought some more. The team they beat in the finals was supposedly much better than them. They didn't care. They beat them on a last second shot. Jim Valvano made many, many motivational speeches to his team that year. They even cut down the nets at the beginning of the year so that they knew what it was like to do it. Cutting down the nets is a tradition that happens when teams win the championship. They did it at the beginning of the season! Jim Valvano lost his battle with cancer in June of 1993. He made one last speech in March of that year at the Espy awards. There was not a dry eye in the crowd. His famous line is "Don't give up...don't ever give up." He had a way with words. People listened to him and believed everything he had to say. He never had a negative outlook on anything. He fought for everything in life. I wish students these days could have met Jim Valvano and seen what he was like. I wish kids had the determination he had. I knew a lot about Valvano before the show, but I learned a lot more about him tonight. Staying up way past my bedtime to watch the show about Jim Valvano and his 1983 North Carolina State Wolfpack was totally worth it.

Comedians

I've talked about vacations and concerts I've gone to. Now I'm going to talk about comedians I have been lucky enough to see. I'll start with talking about comedians at Potsdam. I mentioned two concerts that came during Spring Fest. The other two years, comedians came. We had Lewis Black my sophomore year and Stephen Lynch my senior year. Lewis Black has been in many movies. We sat in the third row for his performance. He is a very loud and angry comedian. He loves swearing. Yes, he is very hilarious. Stephen Lynch is also a pretty dirty comedian. He plays guitar and sings songs in his comedy show. I had seen both on TV/YouTube before seeing them live. I'd see them both again if given the opportunity. The thing about comedians is that after you see them, you rarely remember the jokes that they said. It's unfortunate because normally you want to remember all of their funny jokes. Potsdam got many small time comedians to come up there. Almost every comedian would make a joke about the fact that Potsdam was in the middle of nowhere and freezing cold. It got pretty boring after awhile even though every comedian had a different twist on the jokes. At Clarkson, I went to go see Pablo Francisco. He's another comedian that has been on comedy central. He did many impressions and was spot on. The thing I love about comedians is that they are amazing at their different voices and impressions. I went to as many comedians as I could while at Potsdam because most of them were free and I love to laugh. I think being a comedian is an incredibly hard job because you don't know if your joke will make the audience laugh until you tell the joke. If they don't laugh, the comedian is in a lot of trouble. I miss being able to see many comedians throughout a year.

Swimming

When I was a kid, I used to love playing around in the pool all of the time during the summer. In 7th grade, I figured I'd join the swim team because I enjoyed playing around in the pool. I had to try out. I only made 1 of the 3 try outs because I went to Disney World during two of them. I still made the team. Swim practices were nothing like playing around in the pool. I had to swim lots of yards. I tried out in 8th grade, showed up at every try out, and didn't make the team. Strange. I swam all 4 years in high school because there were no try outs. I definitely was not the fastest swimmer. For whatever reason, I never kicked my feet much. When my younger brother was in 6th grade, he brought home a flyer about swimming in a club. That changed my life. I started swimming all year round and lost a ton of weight. Swimming is one of the best exercises you can do. It was awesome, I was dropping pounds like crazy while eating more than usual! How could it get any better than that? I never liked swim practices. Swimming back and forth for two hours is ridiculously boring. You have no one to talk to besides yourself. The competition was always fun. I never worried about what place I finished in a race. My only goal was to lower my time each race. However, if someone was close to me at the end of the race, more than likely, I will beat them. I like the pride of getting 5th instead of 6th. For whatever reason, my coach thought it would be a good idea for me to swim the 500 yard freestyle all of the time. I will never understand why he wanted one of the slowest swimmers on the team to swim the longest race. I was so slow that every other swimmer was done and waiting for me to finish. My team would start the slow clap until I finished the race. Yup, that was me, swimming in to the slow clap! In my last home meet as a senior, I swam the 500 as always. I had never qualified for sectionals. To qualify for sectionals, you have to swim a certain time. Sectionals is a meet where you swim against many other people that qualified. The fastest swimmer in sectionals goes to states. In that race, I was close to two people that were luckily next to me on both sides. I kicked and thrashed my way home and beat both of them. Sectional qualifying time for the 500 was 6:05.00. My time was 6:04.18. The other two guys' times were 6:04.71 and 6:04.78. I just out touched them. Although I made sectionals, I didn't get to go because I was in Germany during the sectional meet. It sucked to miss it, but I knew I wouldn't do well because I barely qualified. Either way, it was a great moment in my swimming career. I swam in college too. College never had try outs either. I was in a division 3 school, not division 1. I only swam 3 of the 4 years because student teaching my senior year conflicted with swim practices. I wish I swam my last year. Oh well. In college, I swam the 500 and the 1000! On the few times that the swim meets had this race, I swam the 1650, a one mile race! I'll never forget my first 1650 ever. There were only 4 of us. One guy lapped me two times, which means he was 100 yards ahead of me. I shockingly lapped someone else twice. The other guy was about half a pool length ahead of me most of the race. On the last lap, I caught up to him and was able to beat him out and finish second. Not bad for my first 1650 ever. I don't miss the 6,000+ yard practices 6 days a week and lifting weights 3-4 days a week. I also don't miss the long bus rides home from college meets. I definitely miss the competition, though. If I didn't swim, I know for a fact that I would weigh much, much more than I do now. I guess joining the swim team in high school and college and swimming all year round was worth it.

Actually

You are about to endure a very random rant. The word "actually" has been bothering me the past few days. The definition of actually is: in fact; in reality; used to express surprise. When someone puts the word actually into a sentence, it tells the other person that they are shocked. An example of this happened yesterday. My mom gave me a book to read and she wanted me to write a review so she could post it on the website that she writes reviews for. After reading my review she said, "This is actually pretty good." I interpret that to mean, "I'm shocked you wrote a great review. I didn't expect that out of you." She did it again today. "You are actually getting better in SongPop." She means, "I can't believe how much you are improving in SongPop." I noticed the word "actually" was used in Chopped yesterday, too. "This is actually pretty good." The judge meant, "I didn't expect you to make such a good meal." The moral of this completely random and useless rant is to choose your words wisely. People definitely interpret words differently than you might want them to. On that note, no, I am not mad that my mom said actually. I won't get made when people use the word. It was just an observation I made today and I actually remembered to write a blog post about it!

Saxophone

I know I mentioned a few times that I played the saxophone. Now, I must elaborate on the awesome times I have had because I played saxophone. In my district, we were allowed to choose an instrument to play starting in 4th grade. I don't remember why I wanted to play saxophone. I think I loved the sound. It was my first choice, and the district gave me that choice. In elementary school, I did not like playing the sax at all. I could not stand practicing. However, in 5th and 6th grade, I had the opportunity to play NYSSMA. I didn't have to do it if I didn't want to. It is a competition against yourself. You get to choose a song from a list, practice it for a few months, then play it in front of a judge. I got perfect scores both years. I wanted to quit so badly because I could not stand practicing. My mom knew I was too good to quit. She wouldn't let me do it. I cannot tell you how happy I am that she did not let me quit. In junior high, I joined the Jazz Ensemble. The music played during Jazz was so much more upbeat and fun than the music we played during regular band. In high school, I joined the marching band. We did many parades, including two in Disney World. You read about those trips in a previous blog post. I also did pep band, which would perform at the high school football games. Unfortunately, our team wasn't anywhere near as good as they were this year. That music is a ton of fun to play. I also did Jazz Ensemble again. My main instrument is the alto sax. In jazz, I played the tenor sax. The sound that comes out of that sax is lower than the alto sax. It's also a bigger sax. My junior year, I was given the opportunity to play in the Siena pep band! I have always loved Siena basketball. Now they wanted me to play in the pep band for every home game, get court side seats, not pay to see the games, and get paid a little to play. It didn't take me too long to come up with my answer! Again, unfortunately, Siena had two terrible seasons when I played in the pep band. It was probably my fault. I played in NYSSMA every year from 5th grade until 12th grade. From 9th-12th, I did two NYSSMA performances, one for classical music and one for jazz. I did very well in each NYSSMA performance. I thoroughly enjoyed practicing the sax in high school. I considered being a music teacher at one point. I changed my mind because I didn't want to learn the other instruments. I played in a band in my first year of college. The fun was gone and I stopped playing. I haven't played the saxophone in many years. I still have two saxophones sitting in my room. I would love to play it again, but can't seem to find time. I also don't have any reeds left. I finally threw them out about a year ago because they were beyond gross. Choosing to play the saxophone and not quitting were two of the best decisions I have ever made.

Daughtry and Nickelback

I believe this will be my last post about concerts I have been to. I can't think of any other shows that I have attended. Hopefully I will add to this list eventually! I have seen Daughtry in concert twice. Once, he was an opening act for Nickelback. The other time, he was the main show with Lifehouse as the opening act. Chris Daughtry is the lead singer of that group. He was a 4th place finisher in American Idol. He is one of the most successful singers from American Idol. He is a rock singer that puts on a good show. I think he is better as a cover artist than he is performing songs that he created. Nickelback is my favorite current band. I have been lucky enough to see them in concert three times! The first time was on my 20th birthday. The second time was I think two or three years ago. The most recent time was last year. They have had opening acts such as Saving Abel and Hinder. I am not a big fan of either of them. I've noticed that with Nickelback, people either love them or hate them. I have no idea why. I became a fan of them after hearing their first popular song, "How you remind me". That was the only song I have heard from them for many years. They started getting really big just before 2007. They always put on an awesome show with a lot of energy and play all of their popular songs. I like almost all of the songs that they perform. My favorite song is probably "Rock star". If they come to town again, I would definitely see them.

Concerts in Potsdam

I went to several concerts while I went to Potsdam. There were many recitals by students and faculty. I was even in a concert in the band in my first year. I stopped playing the saxophone after that year because it wasn't as fun as it was in high school and I didn't have time. I do miss playing the saxophone. Our music school would always have at least one big act a year. During Spring Fest, the college would get either a big name comedian or a fairly well-known band. My freshman year, the bands that came for Spring Fest were Motion City Soundtrack and Hello Goodbye. That concert was ok. It was very loud. I think we stood near the front. That didn't help! My junior year, Reel Big Fish came to town. I did not attend that concert. The big concert that came to the music school my freshman year was Medeski, Martin, and Wood. That's a group that I had never heard of. My friend from high school, who's a huge jazz fan, was a huge Medeski, Martin, and Wood fan. He came up to Potsdam and we went to see them. They play keyboard, drums, and the bass guitar. They put on a great show. That year, I took a music class. This class required me to attend certain concerts. MMW was one of the concerts I had to buy tickets for. I got some money back since it was a packaged deal I had to buy for that class with all of the concerts and I had already bought MMW tickets way back. We had to see a group called the Portland Taiko. They were an outstanding percussion group. The types of drums they used were very unique. That's a show that you have to watch in person to really experience and appreciate the music they made. I went to see one group at Potsdam all of the time. They were the Potsdam Pointercounts. They are the all male, a cappella group. A cappella is when you sing without using any instruments and do a lot of beat boxing. This group was amazing! They sang many current songs. They entered many competitions and did very well. I saw them almost every time they performed. One group I was hoping would come to Potsdam was Bela Fleck and the Flecktones. Naturally, they did not come when I went to school. They did about 2 years ago, though (of course)! They also came to Albany the next day, but I didn't go because I had no one to go with :(. I miss all of the A Cappella and other great music I saw at Potsdam.

Jazz Festival

The day after I graduated high school in 2005, I went to a Jazz Festival. It was 96 degrees out that day. This Jazz Festival was a two-day event. Needless to say, I missed the first day because of my graduation. This was my first and only time attending this event. They have it every year. I used to play in a jazz ensemble in high school. I love jazz music. We saw the Dave Brubeck Quartet, Bela Fleck, Stanley Clarke, and Jean-Luc Ponty, Chris Botti, and much more. I'm sure you are reading those names and thinking, Who the heck are they? I think the only person I had heard of at that point was Dave Brubeck. To enjoy this event, you really had to be a fan of this type of music. If you have heard of the song Take Five, then you have heard of Dave Brubeck. He recently passed away at 91 years old! That means when I saw him, he was rocking it at 84 years old! Not too many people can say they were jamming away at that age! I had a great time at the show. My obsession with Bela Fleck started after that. I desperately wanted to see Bela Fleck and the Flecktones, but still haven't. The saxophone player in that group is amazing! Bela Fleck is a bluegrass banjo player. It's pretty sweet. It's been way too long since I've been to a jazz concert and I have no idea when I will go to one again.

Journey

I've seen Journey twice in concert. The first time I believe was in 2006. I don't remember who else they performed with. The second time I saw them was last June with Night Ranger. Journey's lead singer is no longer Steve Perry and it hasn't been for years. However, the lead singer they have sounds exactly like him. I remember the first concert, the guitarist played an awesome rendition of the National Anthem. Of course they played their famous song "Don't Stop Believin'" as well as "Faithfully", "Lights", and "Lovin, touchin, squeezin'". I remember there being many people around my age at the concerts. It's interesting to see so many younger people considering this band is from the 70's and 80's. Journey always puts on a good show. My parents saw Journey with REO Speedwagon, and Styx. Unfortunately I wasn't at that show. The only song I have ever heard of from Night Ranger was "Sister Christian". They played that and naturally many others. Hopefully there will be more good bands coming to town this summer so I can see more concerts.

Aerosmith and KISS

I believe this concert was in 2004. I know it was on the day after Thanksgiving. This concert was LOUD! Two heavy rock bands definitely make a lot of noise. Overall, it was a good show. It definitely wasn't my favorite, though. Aerosmith didn't play two songs I was hoping they would play. I love "Dude Looks Like a Lady" and "Jamie's Got a Gun". They didn't play either song. My dad refused to go to the concert because he doesn't like loud rock bands. However, last year, my mom won tickets to Aerosmith and Cheap Trick and he went to that. He makes no sense sometimes. If given the opportunity to see Aerosmith again for free, I'd do it. I don't think I'd want to pay money to see them again, though.

Billy Joel and Elton John

I have been lucky enough to see these guys perform together twice! Once was in 2003, like I said yesterday. The other time was supposed to be July 2009. Billy Joel was sick that day and had to postpone the show until December. Elton John was sick that day and they had to postpone the show until March 2010! Finally, one year after we purchased the tickets, we saw the show. Before the concert in 2003, I was never really a fan of Elton John. After listening to him perform, I changed my mind. There are still a few songs I don't like by him. Billy Joel on the other hand...AMAZING! He is my favorite artist of all time. I love almost every single song of his. I love his saxophone player. He is phenomenal! Billy Joel always ends with his most famous song, "Piano Man". Elton John joins him and sings that song at the end of the show, too. Although they are both in their early 60s, they both can still sing like you wouldn't believe. Elton John cannot hit his high range anymore. No surprises there since he has been singing for so long. Does anyone know Elton John's real name? No, it is not Elton John. His real name is Reginald Dwight. His singing name is Elton John because he is paying respect to former saxophonists. I didn't know why his name was changed until I just looked it up. However, I did know his real name is Reginald Dwight. My favorite Billy Joel song of all time is "Scenes From an Italian Restaurant". I love, love, love the saxophone solos in that song. Every time Billy Joel comes to town, I want to see him. My parents have seen him 5 or 6 times. I know that as he gets older, he will not tour as much. I hope I get to see him one more time. His voice is amazing and his music is legendary! I will never forget my two Billy Joel and Elton John concerts. Sigh, I miss them!

NCAA Basketball Tournament 2003

I know I've been writing about concerts lately and now I'm switching topics. I have a lot more concerts to write about. However, I'm writing about the tournament because it leads to another concert I went to. Back in 2003, the sweet 16 of the NCAA college basketball tournament was played at my local sports arena. We tried to get tickets, but failed. They blocked out many thousand tickets for the college students of teams that were playing. Season ticket holders of our local sports got next dibs on tickets. Then the rest of us were thrown into a lottery. Our name was not called out of the lottery. That would have been an opportunity of a lifetime. Since our arena is considered to be very small compared to other venues that hold this event, it is very unlikely that the tournament will be held here again. A couple weeks before this tournament, our local news station was giving away 2 free tickets to anyone that could call in and answer a sports question correctly. They did this every day very early in the morning for a week. I got up everyday and called in while my dad looked up the answer. One day, I shockingly got through! My dad had not found the answer yet and gave me a name. It was wrong. Whenever we talk about opportunities blown in the family, we always bring up the double overtime playoff hockey game that we missed in Toronto and Adolph Rupp. That was the answer to the question we got wrong. My dad said he knew the answer, but gave me the wrong name. So sad! Instead of paying $120 per ticket for four of us to go to the three games that were played in the arena, my parents took that money and got us tickets to see Billy Joel and Elton John a few days after retuning from our cruise in April 2003. That's how this story relates to a concert. Tomorrow, you will read about Billy Joel and Elton John.

Tom Petty

The second concert I went to was Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers when I was 13. I have seen them perform four (4) times! Unfortunately, I won't be seeing them a 5th time when they come to town June 23. I plan to be in Cedar Point that night. If I wasn't going to Cedar Point, I'd be seeing Tom Petty for a 5th time. The dude is 62 years old and still rocking out like he is 30. He is such a great performer and singer. His songs are awesome. I have seen him perform with the Allman Brothers, the Black Crowes, and others. He always does an encore at the end of each show and always ends with his famous song, "American Girl". This is not my favorite Petty song, but I definitely like it. My favorite song of his is Free Fallin. My new favorite song of his is, "You don't know how it feels (to be me)" because you don't. I don't know how it feels to be you, and that's a good thing. Writing a song is a lot like writing a book, but probably more complicated. Not only do song writers have to come up with lyrics, they also have to come up with music and rhythms that sound good together. I have so much admiration for singers and songwriters. That job is not easy. To make dozens of songs that everyone loves is incredible too. I could see Tom Petty in concert many, many times and never get bored. Maybe next time he comes to town I won't have other plans!

Beach Boys

I'm done talking about the vacations I've gone on. Now it's on to the concerts I've attended. The very first concert I ever went to at the age of 12 was the Beach Boys and the Four Tops. Well, I guess it was what's left of the Beach Boys. I think there was only one original band member performing at that time. My mom asked me if I wanted to go to the concert and I did. I actually enjoy the Beach Boys' music. I really don't remember too much from the concert. I remember there being a ton of people and a lot of, um, smoking going on all around me. That seems to be a theme in all of the outdoor concerts I've gone to. I try to stay as far away as possible from that stench, but it is impossible. I remember that I had never heard of the Four Tops. Once I heard them play some songs, I realized I have heard and like the songs they sang. Although you will soon read about the many concerts I have attended, I've been to nowhere near as many as my mom. at 52, she still loves going to as many concerts as she can. How many people can say they have a mom that will rock out to Bon Jovi, Def Leopard, Journey, Tom Petty, Billy Joel, Elton John, Boston, Peter Frampton, etc.? If she is lucky enough to have grand kids, she will be taking them to concerts, too. The Beach Boys was a good concert to get things started off for me.

Ohio, Niagara Falls, Montreal

I've combined these 3 trips into one post because I don't have too much to say about any of them. We went to Ohio the summer before I went to fifth grade. We went to visit friends that used to live around the corner from us. I remember the year because a few days before we went to Ohio, a classmate of mine was killed when a truck hit him while he was walking on the side of the road. Very Sad! Anyway, I don't remember what we did there. I know us kids didn't go to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame like my parents did. I wish we had. At that age, I probably would have been bored there, though. When we left Ohio, we went to Niagara Falls. I was skeptical about going to see a water fall. Let me tell you something. It's incredible to see! The amount of water falling is overwhelming. We took a boat tour by the water falls. We saw it at night and they had a neat light show going on. It was also pouring rain the night we were there. We stayed under a roof, yet somehow I was the only one that managed to get drenched. Only me...

Another trip we went on was to Montreal. It was in April of 2002 I think. I don't remember much that we did there besides going to a Montreal Expos vs. Chicago Cubs game. This was before the Montreal Expos moved to become the Washington Nationals. I can't even remember where we sat or who won! However, I do remember that the Chicago Cubs players stayed at the same hotel we stayed at! Sammy Sosa walked right past us! We tried to get an autograph from him, but he ignored us and continued walking. We did get an autograph from a pitcher named Antonio Alfonseca. This guy has 6 fingers! Look it up, I'm not lying.

I know how lucky I am to have parents that used to bring me on vacations all of the time. I thank them frequently for everything they do for me. It's really important to thank everyone in your life that has helped you in any possible way. Niagara Falls is another place that I would love to visit again. It has been many years since I've seen it. One day I know I will.

Toronto

We went to Toronto, Canada two times. Unfortunately, I can't remember how old I was for either trip. I must have been probably around 11 and 14. I know it was somewhere in that range. We went to the hockey hall of fame both times that we were there. I remember we went in April both times. Both times the Stanley Cup trophy was at the museum and we got to touch it and take pictures with it! I don't care if you don't like sports. You have to admit that that's pretty sweet. We got to touch the trophy that the winners of the hockey Stanley cup get to touch and kiss and keep for one day. I remember the second time we went to Toronto, we went to the Yankees vs. Blue Jays game at the Sky Dome. We were in the 3rd row on the right field line. Excellent seats! Unfortunately the Yankees lost. I also remember the second trip, we waited in line for well over an hour to possibly get tickets to the Ottawa Senators vs. Toronto Maple Leafs playoff hockey game. We got to the front, found out the price, and my dad said no. My mom of all people was willing to go to the game. My mom is someone that only likes baseball and doesn't want to spend a lot of money. My dad is someone that loves sports. He is the one that thought that the price of about $60 American per ticket was too much for a playoff hockey game. He later said that us kids were not behaving and that's why he said no. I believe him. We were brats! However, the game went into double overtime! We sat there watching in our hotel room yelling at my dad. We also went to the CN tower. You could stand on glass and look down. That was scary! I can't remember what else we did. I know we did a lot of walking around. I'm sure we hit up some more museums and stuff like that. I miss vacations like that, but am too obsessed with cruises to do anything else in the near future. I haven't been to Canada in many years and would love to go back sometime.

Coffee

If you are reading this post, congratulations! You read my other posts and knew that I changed the URL today. On to today's blog. I am an extremely rare teacher. In fact, I'm a rare full-time worker. Are you ready for this? I do not like coffee! I have had a few sips in my life and can't stand the taste of it. I don't like any hot drink. I prefer something very cold. I know that almost every full-time worker known to man drinks coffee in the morning. I'm not one of them. Teachers see me with my 32 ounce nalgene bottle filled with water everyday and don't know how I survive without caffeine. I don't need the jump start to get me going. I don't like energy drinks or shots either. Then again, I don't feel awake in the morning by drinking water. Maybe I do need something to get me going. I seriously don't understand how coffee and other caffeine gets people moving in the morning. I've had energy shots before and felt no different. I am thoroughly convinced that I don't have a teaching job because I don't drink coffee. The first question they ask at an interview is probably, "Do you drink coffee?" When I say, "No," they respond, "Sorry, this interview is over. We can't hire you." Maybe one day I will acquire the taste of coffee. I don't see that happening any time soon though.