Joy

"You increase your joy by increasing the pure joy of others."
Torkom Saraydarian (1917-1997) scholar and sacred music composer

The hurdles have been jumped. The semester is over. It's only Wednesday, and I feel exhausted. It was the longest week ever. Sunday night I prepared to teach the kick routine for competition, only I didn't. I cut the music Sunday afternoon, then had things to do at night. By the time I got home, it was late and I knew I wasn't going to be able to think and "write". I went to bed telling myself that I can do it during my lunch hour. Monday was horrible. I woke up late, first of all, and second of all I forgot my phone at home (because I was rushing). So instead of eating during my lunch time, I rushed home to get my cell phone, then when I was "supposed" to be at lunch duty, I hid in my room and frantically tried to come up with as much as I could. I got to about half way done, when the bell rang for my 5th period to start. Luckily, they were taking a final, which meant that after they were done, I had approximately 5-10 mins. to work on the piece. School ended at 4:30 and I worked until 4:50 to try to finish the dance. I wrote about 6 pages down and left some spots open, but it was finished. I quickly ran over to start teaching at 5:00. I had never in my life been so pressured and nervous to teach a stupid dance. Every year for the past three years, I have taught the kick routine at La Joya. I have always said it was a pleasure to work with them, because they are so talented. That has not been a lie. I always gave them my best. They have gotten hundreds of compliments at competition and on the field. Which meant that this year I was going to have to live up to every ones standards and hopefully go beyond. I guess that is why I was so nervous. Nevertheless the dance is good. It has room for improvement, but that is what practice is for.

After that, I left early to rush to another practice of my own. A week ago I agreed to perform with the Dorados at a basketball game for Edinburg. I graduated from Edinburg, so going back is always a plus.....turns out that it wasn't. I am not in shape. I have recently been going to the gym to prepare for tryouts in Jan. but to dance a week later, i was not prepared for. Out of the three dances we did, I only remembered one of them. One because I was in Washington, D.C. at the time and the other because I learned when I had come back (I was placed in the back, and didn't need to remember the dance, because I was looking at the people in front of me...bad dancer...lol). So I pretty much needed to learn a min routine and a halftime routine in one night and perform the next day. I thank Christina for having patience with me. :) I got home around 9:30.

I still need to eat dinner and start my grades. Grades were due the next morning and if any one is or was a teacher...you can sympathize. I stayed up until 2:30 to finish. It would have gone much faster if I wasn't watching a movie at the time. I finally saw The Devil wears Prada. It was good, but I have some opinions about the ending.

The next day...I dressed up and took my secret elf gift to school. We were supposed to have a luncheon on Tuesday to reveal our secret elfs and give them their gifts. Turns out that the fine arts luncheon was also that day at the same time as was the Jewelette Christmas party. I was planning on going to the fine arts for half an hour, arriving at Jimmy Carter for the gift exchange and quickly going to the drill team party to finish off my day there. Yea....plans...I hate making plans because they never seem to go the way I want. As I was walking to the school (my classroom is in a different building than the rest of school) to leave my gift, just in case I didn't get back in time, I entered and got stopped right in my tracks. The party was in the middle of school with table and chairs all set up. There were two serving tables filled with food, buffet style. Everyone was there. You know that feeling of nervousness on the first day of high school, when you walk into the cafeteria and don't know a soul.....well de ja vu....that feeling was there for me. Instead of being brave and finding a friend ....I turned around and exited the way I came. I was going to go to the fine arts banquet, where at least I knew someone. Nope. Plans didn't work out. I got locked out of my building. I tried going around ....but none of the doors were unlocked. I don't have a key...so I had to shamelessly go back to the faculty party.

Turns out I found someone I knew and she made me feel comfortable. Mrs. Contreas (my principal) played Santa and passed out the secret elf gifts. At my other campus we personally gave our secret elf our final gift revealing who we were....here Mrs. Contreas passed out the gifts ....I didn't know I was supposed to put my name on it. I wrote...To: Ms. Glenda Kneblick From: Your Secret Elf......When I saw her receive her gift she looked at the card and then opened the present. I was watching from across the room. Luckily she was standing up as she opened her gift so I didn't look like a total stalker. She opened her gift and pulled out the cds first. She looked happy and passed them around the table. Then she opened her box. She pulled out the ceramic kitty (she loves cats) and from lip reading I heard her say ...."Oh, its a picture frame!" She then passed that around her table as well. I saw her eyes scan around the room wondering who had given her the gift. I then considered leaving it a secret, but she packed up her things and started wandering around the room. She was looking for her secret elf. I kept my eyes on her the entire time. She then came close to me ...and a table next to mine asked her what she got. She then started to show the ladies and as they were asking, "Who gave it to you?"...her eyes fell on mine. She raised her eye brows and asked, "Was it you?" All I could do was smile and nod my head....she must have asked me several times ...because I had to keep nodding yes. She then started to tell me that she loved the cds and how did I know she loved cats ...then she asked me to go to her ....she wanted to show me something. I walked over to her, and she opened her bag. "Look!" , she showed everyone sitting near us all the items I had given her over the past week. She took out everything and told me that when she was stressed that she takes everything out and holds it and it makes her feel better. All I wanted to do was throw my arms around her and tell her that I was so grateful that someone appreciated me. After a terrible semester, of moving around...getting hurt....being in an accident...and after that terrible feeling of being alone at school...that it was nice to know that someone, somewhere appreciated me. Even if it was of the silly little stuffed animals I gave her. She said, "I would hug you, but I'm very sick and don't want to get you sick as well"......I told her I didn't care and gave her a big hug.

That night, I had to go home and get ready for the basketball performance. I haven't put that much makeup on and actually fixed my hair in about 4 months (and that's because someone else used to do it for me). It took some time, but I managed to look nice. I arrived late as usual, but I was actually the 2nd one there. The basketball game was so unprofessional. Everything went wrong. We practiced three routines. One for in between the 1st and 2nd quarter, one for half time, and one for in between the 3rd and 4th quarter. The dj told us that there was already someone for the first time out. No biggie, one less dance to worry about. Halftime came. We performed and looked stupid, because the dj turned off our halftime routine early. As me and Daisy started to get up to "cheer" off the court...he continued it from where he left off. The volume was low. People weren't watching. In fact, we could hear them talking. It made us mad. All of us are used to the football games, where people stay quiet when we dance. Or at least turn up the music so we don't hear them. When we ran out for our last dance, he played the wrong song, making us start late, so they kept ringing the buzzer to let us know that our time was up and to get off the court. Looks like we are never going to Edinburg again. Not unless they have their sh!t together.

Its finally the last day of school. We had a field day. I got to play softball, students vs. teachers. I hit the ball. Yea me! That pretty much concludes the last day of school. Hopefully they will let us leave early. Either way....Im sneaking out. Marty arrives today and I cant wait to see him. I know he is tired and probably asleep right now. He finished his finals and the last two papers he need to write. I am so proud of him.