Old Lane's Eye

I can't speak for all teachers, but as a teacher I don't think of a year as January through December, I think of it as August through May/June.  So when I look back at 2012, it's weird that I was in such a different place in January.  I wasn't even thinking about leaving my current school to teach elsewhere, in fact I was planning out my schedule for "next year" and making sure I archived every homework assignment, test, or quiz that I created so I'd have it to use again: no fuss, no muss.  In January I was prepping a hundred ill-prepared voice students to sing solos and ensembles at ISSMA, I was still teaching about 15 private students after school, and I was still playing in Carmel Symphony full time.  Then everything changed in May and a new chapter of my life began.  I have had a wonderful year- I can't really think of any low-lights except having to say goodbye to all of my friends and colleagues at my last school, and that was all for the best.  Here are some highlights from this year, in no particular order:

• I take orchestra to organizational ISSMA for the first time and got a Gold with distinction
• The Super Bowl is held in Indianapolis 
• I am hired at a school at which I truly wanted to work 
• I get my first significant pay raise
• I celebrate my 2-year wedding anniversary with my best friend
• I make fudge for the first time and it turns out great
• I plant a garden on the side of the house
• I get a smart phone
• I take a group of students to All Region Orchestra for the first time
• I start blogging
• I teach my own class of beginning strings for the first time
• I am hired as a wedding manager for the first time
• Glenda Ritz is elected Superintendent of Schools in Indiana, thus giving Tony Bennett the boot
• IU basketball finishes the best season they've had in years and starts the next season ranked #1
• The Colts get Andrew Luck as their new quarter back 
• I turn 25 and my dad turns 50 (yikes!)
• Aaron builds a stone patio with a fire pit off the back of the house
• Aaron puts in hardwood floors
• I lose 40 lbs
• We get closer to our small group and study the New Testament every Monday night
• Our puppy, Shelby, turns 1 year old- 7 in dog years

Every Christmas I watch It's A Wonderful Life.  This year our whole family watched it on Christmas Eve.  I find it fascinating that I can have watched this movie over 50 times yet I'm captivated each viewing.  I can quote pretty much the whole movie line by line, except some of the lines are in my head as I learned them when I was ten.  For an embarrassingly long time I thought "Auld Lang Syne" was "Old Lane's Eye" and I didn't understand that the strings around Uncle Billy's fingers were supposed to serve as reminders for things- I thought it was just something cooky that old Uncle Billy did.  I understood the moral of the story; Clarence did an excellent job at illustrating how much George effected everyone's lives in Bedford Falls.  But I thought when Harry referred to George as "the richest man in town" it was because everyone had just given him all their money.  I've always had a secret fantasy of Clarence coming to show me what life would be like if I weren't born, but then I have a fear that nothing would be different and he would be like, "What was the point of this again?  I got some Tom Sawyer to read..."  I've never been a New Year's Resolution kind of person, but this year I am definitely going to continue working on putting others needs first.  Maybe then everyone will give me all their money and I'll be the richest woman in town...

For Old Lane's eye, my dear

for Old Lane's eye

We'll take of cup of time uh yep

for Old Lane's eye