purple monkey dishwasher

Bam Adebayo - from Kentucky to Miami Heat

Some more explaining...

My father was born in Lexington, Kentucky. The thing about being from Lexington is that you have two loves in the sporting world; Kentucky basketball and the Kentucky Derby. The basketball team was coached for many years by the legendary Adolph Rupp (for whom the arena is now named). The year my father was born, as well as the year I was born, and the year I graduated high school, Kentucky won the national championship. And they won a few others.

Unfortunately, for us UK fans, the two most well-known events in our history had us on the losing side; the famous Texas Western (white vs. black) game in 1966, and the last-second shot by Christian Laettner in 1992. Of course, the lasting results of these two games were the progression of integration in all places (including the UK basketball program) and the lasting hate of Christian Laettner and Duke basketball ;P

In recent years I have been following Kentucky a lot more closely than I used to. Coach John Calipari has built a strong system that keeps his team competitive and also prepares players for the next level. I know not everyone agrees with his methods and philosophy, and I myself do not care for the NBA much at all. But beneath the LeBron-Curry upper crust of the league, there have been many recent successful players that were drafted from UK (they achieved academic success while in school, but now can realize their dream of professional success). I must say it is nice to actually root for a team in the tournament rather than have to rely on bracketology for my thrills ;)

#tbt the time my name was spelled out on the ‘field’

I have been associated with the Herndon High School band since the year 2000, when I did my student teaching there. I have been honored to be a part of numerous performances in collegiate (Villanova, James Madison, Towson, Rutgers) and NFL (Ravens, Giants, Falcons) stadiums, the Cherry Blossom Parade, Disney World, Universal Studios Orlando, etc.

I am really looking forward to working with the band again this fall. We will be performing in the Philadelphia Thanksgiving parade.

Allow myself to re-introduce...myself...

I am a musician (horn player) and a teacher... I taught mostly band but also strings for 13 years... then (long story short) I left my job, did some soul-searching, and worked my way back to prove to myself that I was really doing what I was meant to do... in a twist to my path, I was asked to substitute for a great strings teacher while she had heart surgery. Proving to myself (and others) that I could do this, I was hired full-time this year and had the opportunity to work at two wonderful schools as the lead strings teacher, and help out at another school.

This was the best year ever and there was rarely a time when I felt unsupported or unappreciated. I made a few mistakes, but I worked to move on and improve upon what I did (rather than let everything accumulate and weigh me down).

So being back in full-time work means that I have not posted a lot on tumblr. Summer is here, though, and maybe that will change ;)