I really miss living downtown. Life in the burbs just isn't cutting it. I feel so disconnected from everything. I went for a walk today before rehearsal down Linwood and I just felt so good. I love being down there. Even Kenmore was close enough. I have to get back downtown soon :(

There are a lot of bad teachers in the world. Like, way more than there should be. We've all had bad teachers, in some way or another. It seems like everyone is just getting lazier and lazier. It takes a lot of effort to be a really good teacher, and a lot of people just don't seem to want to make that effort. I think I'm halfway decent and I don't do half of what I could do to be better. Maybe I see more of it because I teach high school and I feel like some high school teachers feel that they can relax or "be cool" because the kids are older or something. I'm just sick of seeing teachers who don't make any effort to enforce rules, maintain consistency, challenge students, introduce students to new things, etc etc. It is so easy to be a bad teacher. It really is. I could come in, play the piano, sing songs from beginning to end (and not actually work on technique or harmony), and go home as soon as the bell rings. But how could someone live with themselves if they did their job like that?

Maybe it's part of getting older but lately I've been feeling sad about the fact that I really don't hang out with friends anymore. I blame it on lots of things, including my job, which keeps me quite busy, and also on the fact that all of my friends have a significant other or live far away. I mean I have never been one to go out a lot, so that probably prevents many people from calling me. I also live in Amherst and out of walking distance from downtown. I dunno, maybe I've just become a boring old lady. I just don't like that I go like a month without hanging out with (e:mike) or (e:jill). We used to hang out, well, a lot more than that! I never want to be one of those people that only hangs out with their significant other and people they work with. That sounds so miserable. I guess the solution is, make more of an effort on my part. But it seems like even when I do, other stuff gets in the way. I think all of my friends just need to move back here, I should quit my job, and move back downtown. Hmm...

...this weekend, at JFK High School in Cheektowaga-Sloan!