MY LIFE AS SPINNER DUDE

Posted by admin at March 31st, 2008

As a member of the TVEA, I get to attend CTA conferences. This weekend I was at the Equity and Diversity Conference in Irvine, CA. The Irvine Marriott was great. The speakers were good and LD even got to come along. Diego had a babysitter (my niece Nathalie) so off we went. Friday night after dinner, we rode the ferris wheel-gondolas at the Irvine Spectrum. This is a picture of LD as we take our journey around, and around, and around.   There was tons of free stuff (translated..SCHWAG!) that the different vendors put out.   Huh?  What?  Free Stuff?  Gimme..Gimme…Gimme!

Sunday was spent at the WGI West Power Regional at CSU San Bernardino. LD even sat in on the shows! WOW! SCV was my fave of the day. More later.

Posted by admin at March 28th, 2008

Diego went to Grandma Virgie’s house yesterday.  He did visit on Easter Sunday but returned for a more relaxed visit .  Grandma Virgie loves him!

Posted by admin at March 24th, 2008

Well of course I’m going to take our heir apparent to the beach. He has no choice really. He was a little hesistant but liked the sights and sounds of Del Mar’s Dog Beach. Lots of pups to sniff, however the wave action took a little getting used to. He’ll get the hang of it. Pic is of him romping in the sand. Is this a cute dog or what?

Posted by admin at March 22nd, 2008

It’s here! Spring Break..and after the week I had I deserve it. Seems that certain of my colleagues think that I’m a bad person for pointing out that they interupted me during a conversation.  C’mon folks…can we toughen up the skin a little bit?  How old are these people?  SHEESH!  I am so ready to move away from all this nonsense and find a staff that, oh I don’t know, is mature?

Along with School Spirit Week (I’m the Spirit Week guru) ….yea…it’s been a long week.

LD had scallops, lime and mushroom kabobs, kettle chips with dip (fish…AND chips) and a margarita (or 2 or 3) waiting for me when I got home. He’s good.

Posted by admin at March 11th, 2008

Mssrs. LD and SD proudly introduce Diego “The Blur of Fur” to the world. Diego comes to us via the SD Humane Society. He’s a Maltese mix or as the AKC classification so rightly tells us, a mutt. How could you resist that face?

Posted by admin at March 9th, 2008

Wow…how your life can change in one sunny Sunday afternoon!  Stayed tuned for more in “As The Puppy Turns”.

Posted by admin at March 2nd, 2008

The last few days have been a blur. Why, you may ask? Because…Mr. Teacher aka Spinnerdude procrastinated getting data entered into his grading program and stayed awake for nearly 24 hours getting grades done for the Friday, Feb. 29 deadline. It was horrid and (God bless him) LD was there to help (as always). Will I ever learn my lesson? I’ll let LD to field that one. Care to chime in counselor?

On the other hand, WGI  is in town! WOOOOOHOOOOOO! OMG…it is still the best thing in the whole wide world. LD calls it my opiate. 26 performers spinning flags, sabers and rifles while executing carefully choreographed movement (e.g. I tossed my rifle into the air and made it rotate 8 times and while it was in the air and I did an assemble into a rond de jambe and THEN caught the rifle in second position plie….HOT), intricate staging design, coustumes and all under the broad tent of performance art.

And while it was all fun to watch, I also remember why I do such things. 2 of my former SRHS students were in the audience last night and 10 years later they still remember the good times we all shared in rehearsal, at competitions, the hours of travel and genuinely enjoying each other’s company. In many ways, WGI and winterguard have been my second family. I don’t coach any longer, but I still judge and it is personally rewarding for me to see “my kids” either performing or still coming out to watch shows. They are both very succesful (a surg nurse and an accountant) and attribute their success (a UC Davis grad and an SDSU grad) to the life skills they learned in colorguard. We did our kiss and cry thing when we saw each other last night. It was like being transformed back in time. I loved it.

One never knows the impact you have on a persons life. Sometimes, down the road, it comes back to you in the form of “OMG…Randy…!!!” screamed from the top of a high school gymnasium. I couldn’t ask for anything better.

I hope to drag LD to finals today.