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I am not much of a country music fan. But there are a few that I like, and on this, Veteran’s day, I think it’s appropriate to say little about myself and pay tribute to those who have fought and continue to fight for our freedom. From “Some Gave All” by Billy Ray Cyrus:

All gave some
And some gave all
Some stood true for the red, white and blue
And some had to fall
So if you ever think of me
Think about your liberties and recall
Some gave all…

I swear, this is NOT Evanescence’s “Good Enough.” At least, NOT YET. This is a tribute to all those good 80′s movies that I love. I swear, they don’t make movies like this anymore! No tales about ordinary, every day kids, having good err…wholesome adventure and getting major treasure. It’s all CGI driven, major special effects.

Man, I miss this sort of stuff. And on top of that, all these 80′s flicks had AWESOME theme songs. I mean, think about it. I know you can name a few yourself.

Tonight’s 80′s flashback is from the 80′s “Goonies.” From “Good Enough” sung by Cyndi Lauper:

Here we are
Hanging onto strains of greed and blues
Break the chain then we break down
Oh it’s not real if you don’t feel it
Unspoken expectations
Ideals you used to play with
They’ve finally taken shape for us.

What’s good enough for you
Is good enough for me
It’s good enough
It’s good enough for me
Yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah

(And by the way, if you haven’t heard of this song or watched this movie, you must have been born way too late to appreciate either anyway…)

I have loved this song since I was tiny. I don’t care that Kermit the Froge sings it; the lyrics, whoever wrote them, are pretty darn good. And I’m going to leave it at that because: 1. It’s late. 2. I am posting this WAAAAY backdated, and, 3. BECAUSE I CAN!

From “Rainbow Connection:

Have you been half asleep?
And have you heard voices?
I’ve heard them calling my name
Is this the sweet sound that calls the young sailors?
The voice might be one and the same
I’ve heard it too many times to ignore it
It’s something that I’m supposed to be
Someday we’ll find it, the rainbow connection
The lovers, the dreamers, and me…

This post is going to be short and sweet (I think). I’m fascinated by astronomy, and when our pastor centered an entire sermon on the workings of the universe and the vastness of space, I was intrigued. I’ve never really had anyone approach the authority of God quite in the manner that he did. I mean, yeah, the vastness of creation has been alluded to in past sermons I have heard. But he went into depth, with visuals.

Call me weak and unknowledgeable. But have you ever considered how everything in our world, in our universe, and beyond, works in such perfect and amazing detail and complexity? I have a really, really difficult time believing all of this “just happened.”

From “The Majesty and Glory of Your Name” arranged by Tom Fetke:

When I gaze into the night sky
And see work of Your fingers
The Moon and Stars suspended in space
Oh what is Man that You are Mindful of him?

(by the way, I am pretty sure the following is the exact arrangement of Majesty and Glory of Your Name we play and played on this morning.)

There’s an advantage to the fact that I can’t remember a damn thing about the days I’ve not been able to post. That fact is that you are going to get the music, and just the music, and why it is important to me. Some days I spend so long trying to pick a song that goes with what happened during the day or with my mood that I forget what I’m really doing here. Yes, I’m basically writing an online diary. But I’m also writing about the music that I love and telling you why I love it. Why it is a part of my life. And sometimes that doesn’t have a thing to do with anything that happened during the day. Sometimes it just is.

The selection for this post, I’m pretty sure, is an exercise in philosphy. I’m pretty sure when Led Zepplin pinned, Stairway to Heaven  a statement was being made.  The song itself seems sort of “haunting” the way it was orchestrated.

I think the song is talking about, quite literally, each and every person trying to build a stairway to Heaven.  Each one does it his or her own way; some try to do it on their own, some follow specific ways.  Some buy into things blindly.

I am not going to dare go into my views on this.  Not on this post.  What I will simply state is that I have not “bought into” anything without investigating it for myself.  That is not to say that I know all the answers.  But as I have pointed out before.  That does not mean I am cluelessly following something.

From “Stairway to Heaven” by Led Zepplin:

There’s a feeling I get
When I look to the west
And my spirit is crying for leaving
In my thoughts I have seen
Rings of smoke through the trees
And the voices of those who stand looking
And it makes me wonder

And it’s whispered that soon
If we all call to the tune
Then the piper will lead us to reason
And a new day will dawn
For those who stand long
And the forest will echo with laughter

I am so far behind. Almost a flippin’ month behind. And Only. One. Person. has said anything about it. I’m not even going to pretend to try to make up these days for whatever happened unless something happened that day that I can actually remember. What I can give you, however, is some music that relates to my life. So don’t expect grand posts from me for now, cause I’m not even sure I can get caught back up.

But I’m going to give it the ole’ college try. And simply because I can, I’m going to start my crawl back with an Evanescence. From “Missing”:

You won’t cry for my absence, I know -
You forgot me long ago.
Am I that unimportant…?
Am I so insignificant…?
Isn’t something missing?
Isn’t someone missing me?

Someone posted a Bon Jovi version of this song on my Facebook feed and I remembered how much I like it. I really can’t explain why I like it other than the melody and orchestration. The lyrics are pretty depressing, and I’m not really sure what “a cold and broken Hallelujah” is either. But then again, maybe I do. Anyone who has ever been in love–whether they were truly in love or not, or whether anyone else believed it or not, knows the feelings expressed in this lyric. From Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah,”

Maybe there’s a God above
But all I’ve ever learned from love
Was how to shoot at someone who outdrew you
It’s not a cry you can hear at night
It’s not somebody who has seen the light
It’s a cold and it’s a broken Hallelujah

Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah

You say I took the name in vain
I don’t even know the name
But if I did, well really, what’s it to you?
There’s a blaze of light in every word
It doesn’t matter which you heard
The holy or the broken Hallelujah

Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah

I am so good at times at discussing how I’ve been hurt in the past. I still can remember it so well even though I’ve forgiven it. And I think the reason for that, even though it was quite some time ago, is the fact that I never really got any closure. That frustrates me. I know it’s not something you get at times, and I should probably get over it. Maybe I would if I didn’t feel like a disappointment, like I’m not interesting. I hate feeling that way. But the fact that, after all these years, I’m still alone, seems to speak volumes to me. I feel clumsy, awkward.

And broken. So I’ve got a house and I’ve got a good job. But I haven’t got many friends and I often feel very much alone.

And I’m pretty sure it’s my fault. What’s the lyric again? “But all I ever learned from love was how to shoot someone who overthrew you.”

Yeah, that’s it in a nutshell.

This was an awesome, feel good day. We took a field trip to a Corn Maze (aka farm/ranch), saw a donkey, pigs, goats and chickens. We went on a hayride and ate in the freezing cold (worst part of the trip, I mean come on people, this is FLORIDA. It’s only November so it should be mid-70s at the least. Watch, it’ll be 85 on Christmas day…). Anyway, the kids also got to jump on the “Corn Popper,” which was the equivalent of a large bouncy house/trampoline. This thing had 30+ kids jumping on it, plus some big kids who masquerade around our school as adults and teachers. Lots of fun.

After school on payday Friday was the usual. I worked on lesson plans until around 5:15, then headed out to eat dinner and have drinks (even though I don’t drink and only had a coke) with coworkers. Good times. And whie this song is really cheesy and the lyrics don’t have alot to do with anything that happened today, I still like it. And I did have fun, fun, fun.

And if anyone has a T-bird I can borrow and drive around so guys will want to pick me up well…

…let me know.

From Fun, Fun, Fun by the Beach Boys:

Well the girls can’t stand her
‘Cause she walks looks and drives like an ace now
(You walk like an ace now, you walk like an ace)
She makes the Indy 500 look like the Roman chariot race now
(You look like an ace now, you look like an ace)
A lotta guys try to catch her
But she leads them on a wild goose chase now
(You drive like an ace now, you drive like an ace)

And she’ll have fun, fun, fun
‘Til her daddy takes the T-Bird away
(Fun, fun, fun ’til her daddy takes the T-Bird away)

First of all, for those of you who actually keep up with me enough to notice, this post is totally backdated about 3 days. In my wisdom and business I forgot I didn’t do a Thursday post when I updated for Friday on Saturday morning. So I shifted those two posts to make the events I wrote about fit the days I wrote about them. And if you understood that, congradulations on your expertise.

Since this is backdated and I need a nap before heading back to church, the long and the short of Thursday was that it was a long, busy, day but things still went well after the “Come to Jesus” meeting with my assistant. We had a fall festival at the school with the kids from our department along with the 3rd-5th graders. (which is the main reason I did not do a Thursday post in time to begin with). This was a lot of fun, manning our booth with the department. We had a “Monster Lab” where the kids stick their hands in containers and feel monster “hair” (spaghetti) and monster “eyes (grapes). I’m not sure which was funnier, some of the looks from the kids we got that pretty much said, “You want me to put my hand in there and touch what?” or the kid that said, “Oh, they are just grapes” then proceeded to pull one out and eat it. And this was after multiple kids, young and old, had already put their hands on them.

Kids who have germs. And pick their noses. And God knows what else…

Anyway, this song comes to mind only because I like it, and not because it has anything to do with the day’s events. I’m not a country music fan, but I do have a few I like. This one is peppy and upbeat, but I’m pretty sure the draw is the lyric content. From Standing Outside the Fire by Garth Brooks:

We call them cool
Those hearts that have no scars to show
The ones that never do let go
And risk the tables being turned

We call them fools
Who have to dance within the flame
Who chance the sorrow and the shame
That always comes with getting burned

But you’ve got to be tough when consumed by desire
‘Cause it’s not enough just to stand outside the fire

Considering the fact said individual from the previous day’s post spent over 30 minutes in the office with my site coach discussing how to handle students correctly, the day actually went very well.  I don’t like that it came to this and I keep wondering if there is something else I should have done to help prevent it.  I’ve gone over that with several people including my site coach, and he seems to back me in what I’m doing and my approach.  I think the whole thing upset her and maybe was a good wake up call; the improvement was 200 percent.  I know this is difficult to understand since I’m speaking in vague terms, but what it boils down to is the roughness in handing one particular student was getting to an unacceptable level.

With a nonverbal student.  Who cannot really fend for himself other than to act out more.  Not good.

Here’s hoping it stays the way it was today, and gets even better from here on out.  I want everyone in my classroom to enjoy their job and what they are doing.  I want them to love the kids.  I want them to feel comfortable with what they are doing.  And in all of this, I want my kids to learn.

Then we can call it a good year.  And maybe everyone can learn to fly.  Here’s a feel good song for tonight.

From Learn to Fly by the Foo Fighters:

I’m looking for a complication
Looking cause I’m tired of lying (trying)
Make my way back home when I learn to fly
I think I’m done nursing the patience
It can wait one night
I’d give it all away if you give me one last try
We’ll live happily ever trapped if you just save my life
Run and tell all the angels that everything is alright. . .
Fly along with me, I can’t quite make it alone
Try and make this life my own