Dear Blog,

Sorry I've been neglecting you. I just need to get my priorities straight lately, and you know that you can't come first. It doesn't mean I don't care. But if I get the things I need to get done, and keep up my new disciplined habits of practicing, and stop wasting so much darn time on the Internet, we both know you and I will end up better off. I know I have left you out of a lot of great stories, rants, inquiries, and ramblings, and really I have lost a lot along the way too. But it is for the best. Thank you for your understanding, and I hope to attend to you soon, whether it be about the northern woods, bridesmaid-excursions, beautiful weddings, adventures on "Plum Island," or that crazy-named place with an "x" in it.

Love, C de C

P.S. If it would be OK with you, I'd like to allow some guest bloggers to contribute, if they're interested, in the meantime. I know it won't be the same, but perhaps it can hold you over.

(Anyone want to guest blog?!?)

Cardboard...

...is what my chops feel like.

I thought maybe if I admitted it to the world, it would go away.

The Top 10 Things You Do in Yucatan Because of the Heat

We actually do these things.

1) Eat breakfast in the dark to avoid the extra heat from the overhead light.
2) When driving and approaching a red traffic light, stop a good 100 feet behind the intersection, just because there's a patch of shade to wait in.
3) Learn how to sleep with no body parts touching, since any point of contact is sure to sweat profusely.
4) Rearrange living room into bizarre set up so that main seating areas are directly under overhead fan.
5) Three showers per day.
6) Go the the mall and wander around aimlessly just to be in AC.
7) Go a 7-11 and wander around aimlessly just to be in AC.
8) Make purchases specifically in stores on the lower floor of the mall, as opposed to the upper floor, because the AC isn't as powerful on the upper floor.
9) Roll shirt up to leave stomach exposed and provide more ventilation. This is done anywhere, any time, under any circumstances.
10) Nothing. It's too hot to do a damn thing.

It's Not Me, It's Them

When did it become OK for 13 year-old boys to have absolutely no respect for their elders, teachers, or anything??? I have a few boys in my class who are so far from well-behaved it's sickening. When I ask them to be quite multiple times they actually have the cajones to turn to me and motion like, "Just a second, I'm almost done telling my friend about my favorite band..." so I have to say things like, "No, that is not how it works in my classroom. Blah blah blah." A few of them even made fun of my accent (in Spanish) today.

Is it because I speak another language so they don't really see me as a person? Is it because they have not yet learned what respect is and why it is important? Do they do it purely for attention? Are their parents completely incompetent at raising them? Is it because they are spoiled? Is it because they are Mexican? Will they grow up in the next few years into nice young boys, who care about their mothers and getting good grades and getting into university? Or will they become the ones that whistle at me on the street or the ones that waste my time in rehearsal?

Some days respect strikes me as this abstract thing, the importance of which I can't quite articulate. Right now it is a very real, necessary, essential to being a human thing, the lack of which in these teenagers leaves me flabbergasted.

Fun with the Internet

Some things on the Internet are fun. Here are a few:

I don't know who most of these people are, I look 64% like a guy, and who knew Britney's real name was Jamie Lynn? But hey, from now on, I'll just answer to "Madonna."


My house mate is a short films genius. He does his best work during mundane rehearsals when the basses have lots 'o' rests. Here are my recent favorites:

Lil' Giraffe



Big Giraffe



And this is the website of the political party that just took over the state I live in.

Funny.