Finally!!

Ok, so it's been a long time since I blogged last. Since then, I have finally found a full-time job! I am teaching Pre-School. It's a really awesome gig. I was placed in a Daycare since Mon County doesn't have the space for all of the pre-schoolers, so I don't have to wear a shirt and tie everyday, just as long as I look presentable with a polo shirt and nice pants/shorts. I absolutely LOVE working with the little kids, but the paperwork that goes along with pre-school is very overwhelming. First there are the lesson plans that have to be so detailed, then comes all of the observation. We have to observe every little thing the kids do and write it down to put in each of their files. A lot of paperwork since the kids obviously can't go home and explain to the parents what they have learned. Another cool perk is that I get to have an assistant! It is pretty awesome having your own assistant, especially when they come up to you and ask you what you need down to the room while you are doing circle time in the morning! Other than the new job, I am so pumped that football season is finally here!! Oh sorry Annie and Glen for not seeing you the first game, I was out talking the whole time and couldn't find section 201 or 101, whatever section you were in haha. This year I am also living with my younger brother, which surprisingly has turned out pretty awesome. We don't get into any fights, yet, and it's pretty easy living with someone who you have already lived with for like 18 years. Well off to write some more lesson plans for next week. LETS GOOO MOUNTAINEERS!!!

Summer Time

Ok, so I know I have been pretty bad about updating it, so I figured I would do it now haha. This summer has been pretty awesome. Let's see I have gone to a few weddings they all have been a lot of fun, but honestly my favorite was Annie & Glen's wedding. I'm not saying that because Annie might read this, is was so nice seeing everybody who I haven't seen in over a year.

The job search this summer is going ok. I'm still waiting for the Music job in Mon County to open up and hopefully I can get that, since I have subbed this past year for Mon County. I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

Me and Dan celebrated our 1 year on July 6th, everything is going pretty well. Last weekend we went down to Boone County for their Pig Roast with Sarah and a bunch of people. It was so much fun to just hang out with a bunch of friends outside of Morgantown. This weekend Dan and I are going to Charlotte to visit Molly. It has been way too long since I have seen her and am very excited!! Then Dan and I are coming back to Pittsburgh on Sunday to go and see John Mayer in concert, should be a very exciting and fun weekend!! Next weekend Dan is putting a team together to play softball for a charity event up in Pittsburgh. Hopefully I can remember how to play haha, I haven't played since high school : /

My brother is going to be moving in with me here soon, I think it will be good for both of us to have this relationship in a different way. It's not going to be a home relationship with the rents, we are going to be living by ourselves and will probably grow a little closer then we are. Other than that, My summer is just moving along a little too fast, I wish I could push pause for like a week and slow down this summer.

Oh well, I'm just getting ready to go hang out with Aunt Grisso who I haven't seen in forever, I am just loving how this summer is being filled with people who I haven't seen in a long time!!

Can someone tell me what direction to go in?

So I have no idea what I am doing next year. I have been invited to audition at WVU next year after I take some diction classes. They told me that I have a very strong classical singing voice and would love to have me, but because I was an Education major that I need to catch up with the performance majors before I become a Grad student there. I got accepted into Duq grad program, but because they still haven't received one letter of recommendation from the Choir director that I have known for about 7 years now, they can not send me my letter of acceptance, or schedule me for in interview for an assistantship. Who knows if they will even get the letter in time for me to interview, and if I miss an opportunity to receive an assistantship at Duq because someone is taking 3 months to write a letter of recommendation, I'm going to livid. So as of right now, I have no clue what I'm going to do. So I have thought about it, I am going to apply for the temporary PA certification, I'm just going to send in everything I have, including my WV certificate, and see what happens. Hopefully, if I can get that, than maybe I can get a full-time teaching job around the P-burgh area. Hopefully that will work out, I can be making some money, Dan's business keeps growing and growing so he will be doing fine and then maybe I can take a look at life and try and find out what I really want lol. Well off to write some lesson plans for band and try and figure out what date would be best for their concert.

Grad school auditions over, bring on the final four!

So I had my Duq audition on Friday. I think it went ok. I sang well, they were excited that I was a tenor. I don't think there are many Tenor Grad students around. Hopefully that plays into my favor. They had me sight sing, which I haven't done in a year an a half. I didn't do as well as I knew I could, I think nerves got the best of me. Then they played different chords and had me either sing the top, middle, or bottom note. Ok, now I know I can do this, but for some reason I was messing up. I wanted to smack myself and say Ryan, come on you can do this just take your time. Oh well, not that big of a deal, we'll see what happens. I'm just glad auditions are over. Now I can focus on the important things, like WVU in the Final Four!! I am so excited, I missed the elite eight game on Saturday due to my brothers Musical. They did really well, excellent. Probably the best high school musical I have ever seen. They did Cats, and it was phenomenal! I couldn't be more proud of my brother, he was one of the leads and was just amazing, I'm a little jealous of how good of an over all performer he is. Anyways, so I missed the game. i am NOT missing the game on Saturday though. I am really excited, Molly is coming up Friday and staying till whenever for the game. I am stoked I haven't seen Molly since New Years!! It should be a lot of fun. I have no idea what's going to happen to Morgantown on Saturday, especially if we win. I can't wait. Everything else in my life is going pretty good, me and Dan are doing well so is his practice. His patient base doubled this past week! So everything is going well, enjoying this weather, subbing a lot, band is improving, have 30 piano/voice students, and auditions are over!!

Just watching some bball

So, I'm just sitting here watching Pitt play some basketball and I was thinking I haven't done this in a while. So here it goes. I had my WVU audition on Friday, and I think it went pretty well, I will hear if I made it in a week or so. I am really hoping for some money or a GA position or something! I have my Duqusene audition this Friday, which I am kind of split about, do I really want to go to Duq? It's a good school, but I just really love WVU and feel comfortable here and feel like I could have more opportunities here. We'll see what happens. The Band job is going ok, the kids are playing well, especially since most of the rehearsal time for them is out of school. I really appreciate how much they practice at home, I wish I had time during the period to let them know. Maybe after the concert I'll throw them a little party while we watch the video. I just feel right now that I have no idea what I am going to be doing with my life, maybe that is why I am going back to Grad School. I don't know, I just hope I can figure it out sometime soon! Nothing really else is new, I still get to see Dan like every weekend, so that is great. His business is starting to pick up more and more every week. Nothing else is really going on, just praying Pitt can pull this game off! I never thought I would say that.

Getting ready for Grad School

So I decided to go back to school, and try my hand at performing. I set my date for my DUQ audition, it is going to be March 26th. I have yet to hear from WVU about my audition, I'm just going to go to the CAC tomorrow before work. I had my first voice lesson in over a year today and it felt....AMAZING! It's so nice to get back into taking lessons. Ran into a little problem when one of my potential references doesn't agree with me formy reasonings for choosing to go back to grad school and doesn't agree with why I am choosing WVU and DUQ. Now, I am curious as to why this is having an effect on whether or not I recieve a positive letter of recommendation or not. I thought the purpose of a letter of recommendation was just to provide information about a canidate, do they posses the right qualities to be in a vocal performance graduate program, do they have the talent, the desire, the musical abilities. Not do you agree with the canidates choice of schools and reasonings behind choosing this program. I have given it a lot of thought, and this is what I want to do, why can't I just recieve a letter based on my talent, potential, and abilities. Not why I am choosing the schools or program I am? Ugh... it's frustrating!

Can it be spring yet??

I am really over this snow! I think it has maybe taken a break for a day, but has continued to snow every other day for like two weeks! In the past two weeks, I have has less then 10 lessons, I normally give around 25-30 lessons a week, plus every Sub job that I have gotten has been cancelled due to the snow! I haven't been able to rehearse with my band for two straight weeks, I just hate this snow!! I calculated it out and I have lost over $1,000 because of this snow, from the four sub jobs I had, all of the lessons that were cancelled, and me not working at St. Francis. That is insane!! I really can not wait till it gets 40 degrees outside, how sad is that? Other then this awful weather, life is pretty good, I think I am going to go to Grad School next year, pending me getting into the schools. I'm just ready to get back into voice lessons and singing everyday, I really miss it. I love teaching in schools and private lessons, I just really miss performing and want to give it a try while I', still young. Now I'm just torn on where to go. I love WVU, I know WVU, and already know who I would want to study with. It would be comfortable to go here. The CON is being an 90mins away from Dan for another 2-3 years. I could go to DUQ, if I get in, and live with Dan, but I would not know who to study with right away, be in a completely different environment, and not be as comfortable, but this might not be a bad thing either. I don't know I have to first see where I get in and if any school gives me an assistantship or money. After that is all done, then i will decide!

What to do about next year

Ok, so I have been thinking a lot about next year. I've thought about getting my pa certification and trying to get a job in Pittsburgh, and eve if I can't get a job in pgh still just moving in with Dan and subbing up there. I am now thinking about getting my master's. I've been thinking about getting my master's in Vocal Performance. I think I am going to audition at Duq and WVU. I know some people got into Duq that I am confident I can sing better than, so that gives me some confidence to audition, I am going to start taking some voice lessons here and prepare pieces to go audition with. The one thing is, I don't know what school I would like to go to more, I mean if one school gives me an assistant ship obviously I am going there, but if I don't get anything from either school, or somehow get something from both schools I'm not sure what school I would choose. Oh well, I can think about that later. Nothing else is really going on, just work and sleep and hope for a sub job in the morning. We'll see what happens, I just can't wait to do the auditions and here back from the schools. I would really love it if both schools gave me money and I had to pick one.

Long Time...

So Annie informed me that I have been lacking on my updates.. my bad. So lets see, I had my first band concert since the last time I was on here. It went ok, I had a lot of parents come up and congradualte me on what I had them playing for the short amount of rehearsal time I had with them. I guess I'm just really hard on them, I heard things that I knew they could have played better, but the msitakes happened, and we went on. I'm just glad that my first concert is over. Now I am getting ready for my spring concert. I think I'm going to try and make a Movie/Musical concert theme, is that a bad idea?? I know I'm going to have to throw some religious songs in there because it is a Catholic School, but for the majority I want to do some movie/musical songs. I'm thinking jarassic park, tomorr from annie, edlwiess (sp?), chariot fire I think it's called, it's the part in the movie when people run slowly towrad each other, that song in the backward, should be funny. I'm picking some other ones too. We'll see how it goes. Xmas break was wonderful, seein dan for like a week was amazing. He got me a northface fleece that is so warm, some clark house shoes that are so comfrotable, a theraputic pillow, and a coffee mug that I had my eye on. It was so nice spending Christmas Eve with his family. Then we went to Charoltte, NC for New Years and stayed with Molly, I had soo much fun! We went to this 80's bar downtown called The Breakfast Club. It was awesome, the tables were rubics cubes, and the drinks were named after different 80's icons, sayings, etc. We took this shot called twisted sister.....OMG the WORST shot ever!! It was Jager, Schnapps, and some other kind of Liquor, absolutely awful, I thought I was going to throw up. It did what we wanted it to do and fast, but just tasted worse than anything I have every tasted. Now I'm back in Motown and back to work and giving lessons, I have 31 students now, I didn't even realize it till tonight when I counted. I have to stop taking lessons, I'm working till 830pm 3x a week....INSANE! Other then that I'm good, going to see Dan this weekend, and then next weekend I'm going to a wedding with Sarah Hall and Dan is coming too, should be a BLAST!! Well, off to grab something to eat and work on lesson plans for tomorrow.