Yeah, they'll pass you by.

These days, I feel like I'm pretty good about staying in touch with people that I don't see that often. Of course, things like blogs, Facebook and texting help that. Even though I may not SEE all of my Wichita peeps as often as I'd like, I still know what everyone's up to, and we talk pretty frequently.

This is a new phenomenon in my life, though. Up to this point, I'd say one of my biggest personality flaws was that I lost touch with people pretty freaking easily. I'm not a huge phone talker, and I guess there is some truth to the phrase out of sight, out of mind. Unless it's one of my closest friends, I'm not great about seeking people out to catch up. I moved on pretty easily.

Last night was a great illustration of this. Bets, Mitzi and I went to see the Journey tribute band again, which features a drummer who I went to high school with. Last time we saw them, I didn't really see anyone I knew. That's okay with me.

Last night, there was a whole crowd of SMN folks. It was the whole drama crew. People who I spent a ton of time with in high school, but always at school during play practice or drama classes, never out of school. We ran in different circles, I guess you could say. As soon as they came in (together) I recognized everyone one of them, and then out of the corner of my eye, I watched them stare at me for about half of the evening, ostensibly trying to figure out if it was, in fact, Jill they were seeing.

I haven't lived here in 15 years, if you count college.

There's only two people who I knew in high school whom I still talk to, see or e-mail on a regular basis. One is here in town, one lives in Florida.

Here's the thing, though: I sort of like it that way. I'm not the same person I was in high school. I would like to think most people aren't.

I can't imagine what I would have in common with people I haven't seen in 10 years. I suppose we could swap stories about the "glory days" but that only lasts so long.

Back to last night: Yes, a couple of them finally came over to say something. I think I would have been happier to just skip all of that. It was so loud, so I could hardly understand Betsy and Mitzi, whom I talk to all the time, let alone people who are strangers to me now. A sample of conversation:

"Are you Jill?" (Really? Do I look THAT different? No.)
"Wow, good to see you!" (Screaming over the music, then insert giant awkward pauses.)
"Where were you living?" (Still screaming.)

I didn't really ask any questions. I'm really self conscious about screaming in people's ears.

I probably would have enjoyed catching up with these guys - in a quieter environment, and not a group of 10 all at once. I had the "monkey in a zoo" feeling for a while. And I don't even like to talk to Adam or the twins over live music. It's incredibly awkward to scream into someone's ear, and it's a little familiar to be that physically close to someone who is not your close friend.

I knew eventually this day would come. We did move back to my hometown, so yes, I'm going to run into people from my "former life." I guess I should come up with some stock conversation starters...

I am very shy around people or groups that I don't know well. It takes me a little bit to warm up. I'm always trying to find my place in the group and I don't want to mis-speak or do something stupid. That's exactly how I felt last night. As I got older, I grew out of this as a necessity of my job. I had to be able to approach people as a news photographer and I met so many people every day that it just became easier.

I'm very bad about assuming shy or quiet people are being aloof or snobby. (Pessimist, I guess.)
If those guys are anything like me, they might be Googling me as we speak. I hope if any of them find this, I don't sound snobby. It's just amazing to me how quickly I reverted to that person I was back then, who was so worried about being accepted.

I do not miss those days.

Are they all just crazy Mennonites...

livin' in a HIP HOP paradise?

My apologies to Joshua, but check this out. Crazy Bethel kids.

I stumbled upon this little gem today after reading a blog post here about teachers learning the "Soulja Boy" dance. (I'll get back to that in a minute.)

How did I get from "Soulja Boy" to Joshua? The post reminded me that every once in a while, I feel like I should Google search myself, YouTube search myself, etc., to see if any crazy kid has posted random cell-phone video of something stupid I've done or said...So, I searched "Chittum" on YouTube, and along with random videos of babies taking first steps (not mine), and a bluegrassish band with a member whose last name is Chittum, up popped little Joshua and his mad hip hop dancing skills.

It's also helpful to see what from my blog pops up when I search my name. I think I'm pretty good about keeping it mostly G-rated, but I feel like I need to be extra careful these days. I'm torn - there are a lot of things I'd like to say on here that I don't. I like my job, and I like my paycheck, so I try to tow the line.

The real reason I went to YouTube in the first place was to see if any of the video that's been shot of BV teachers doing that dance made it into internet oblivion yet. Last semester, our broadcasting kids did a segment of teachers doing the dance. (I was not one - a. I don't know the dance, and b. I think the song is freakin' ridiculous and highly offensive). I thought maybe some enterprising kid would have posted a bit of it somewhere.

I have to say, our teachers do it much better than the few that I looked at online.

I wished one of the math teachers a happy late birthday today - he's 25. He said last year he was the youngest staff member in the building. This year, there are eight people younger than him teaching at BV. That's good news for Adam and I - lots of new teachers to get to know and add to our circle of friends.

I think I'm going to take a little nap - we're playing trivia tonight for the first time in what feels like forever tonight. I've been up since 5:30, so I don't think I'll make it until 11 without a nap.

God, I am getting old.

The night in pictures

Here's the photo take from last night.


Mitzi and me.


Betsy, me, Mitzi. Okay - take a look at this photo. Two words. BARE MINERALS. I love them, and how they make my complexion look. I hate putting on makeup, but I love that stuff (and no, I'm not being paid to say that).


Adam and Doug. It kinda looks like Doug is checking Adam out in this photo...


Two things about this crowd photo: Yes, that IS a can of Schlitz you see raised to the roof, and YES, that is a vintage 80s-style prom dress on the right side of the photo. It was a packed house, as you can see.


Most of the staches were fake, but not this guy's.


I don't ever remember ChaNandler Bong talking about _____ plugs when he discussed working with the WENIS on "Friends." Thanks to Betsy for stealthily snapping this photo. And, please God, don't let there be ads on my blog based on this post...


Here's the guitarist rockin' his best Neil Schon. BUT, don't you think he kind of looks like Kevin Cronan from REO Speedwagon?


LOSTIES: I think they had Roger WorkMan, from the Dharma Initiative, brought in to play bass at the gig.


Billy's disguise.

"Only the Young" can stay up until 1:30 in the morning - Stone in Love at the RecordBar, Westport

As promised yesterday, yes, we did actually go out last night.

My throat is sore today, I'm a little hoarse - but it's not from being sick this time. We all met up with Doug and headed down to Westport to see Stone In Love, a Journey tribute band. Much singing along (well, screaming along is more accurate probably) ensued. Now, all of you who are looking down your noses at Journey - be careful before you cast stones. You know it's one of your guilty pleasures - and judging by the 300 or so people in the venue last night, you're not alone.

It's not a guilty pleasure for me - I love Journey. I've been listening to them for as long as I can remember, and every time I hear certain songs, I think of the movies that featured them on the soundtrack. Or, I think of skating in a million giant circles during the Snowball (yes, that's what they called the couples skate) back in the day.

Even Adam enjoyed the show, despite the fact that he doesn't like 80s rock. I might need to give my mom the title of social secretary, because she's the one who saw the little piece in the paper about the band, and called to tell me about it. A high school friend of mine plays drums, and Stone In Love is one of his projects. We probably wouldn't have known about the show if she hadn't called.

The crowd was a good mix of folks - when we first walked in, it was mostly older people, probably there because they were big Journey fans back in the day (like, when they were in high school), but as showtime got closer, the average age dropped a little bit. To get everybody in the mood, the DJs played LPs featuring some of the greatest early 80s rock - Boston, Bad Company, Bon Jovi, etc. (It was like my Pandora station!) The band took the stage rockin' some hair band wigs, and badass 'staches.

Bets has the photos, because I took my purse and coat out to the car and didn't bring the camera back in. We used hers. You'll have to check out her blog, and maybe she'll be nice and share some photos with me so I can post them here later.

•••

I've got to decide how productive I'm going to be today - what I can get on my list and actually get done. Mitzi and I are going to workout this afternoon, since I didn't do that at all last week. Hopefully since I took my week off sick and tired, I'll be energized to get some good miles in starting this week.

The Yearbook Gods - Songs Edition

Today was the last day for students before spring break. We've got two days of inservice tomorrow and Friday, which while not exciting stuff, is a welcome respite. Our last yearbook deadline (spring book - yea!) is over break, though, so we were working hard the last few days.

Last night we stayed until 8, tonight I was there with one of the editors until 7 p.m. It's the tedium that's getting us now, but we did get it done. Now, we wait for proofs.

Ashley and I were running the indexer. Well, she was running the indexer. I was giving moral support, reading instructions and calling computer support. Don't get me wrong - the fact that we CAN "run the indexer" makes our lives a million times easier than it was back in the dark ages of yearbook ca. 1992. BUT, the way it's set up, it can only be run on what amounts to one huge document on one computer, so it's incredibly tedious and time consuming. We had been working on it bit by bit for the last few weeks, but when we tried to generate it today, it didn't work. We called computer support, and they so graciously told us we'd have to mark all the names again.

All the names. On every page. All 360 pages of them. That was after we'd been working for about two hours. We were getting a little loopy.

Thank God for Pandora internet radio (it lets you choose an artist or song, then creates a "station" based on it). I turned it on. One of the kids had created a Queen station.

The first song it played? "Under Pressure."

Ashley and I got a good laugh out of that. This was just before we had to start over.

We got that problem figured out, spent another hour or so clicking the mouse about a bajillion times, and got to the "Generate the Index" step.

Clicked it, and proceeded to watch the spinning beach ball of death (Mac users - you know it well) spin and spin. And spin. And spin some more. While it was spinning, we began to wonder if it was really working or if the computer was locked up. It was like waiting for grass to grow. We decided to call computer support again, for a little moral support in addition to tech support.

Just after I dialed the number "I'll Be There for You" by Bon Jovi played on the Pandora station (by now, I had started a Journey station). Again, Ashley and I grinned that our radio station seemed to be echoing our yearbook life. Computer support was there for us...She said, as long as you can still move the mouse, it should be working.

"Take five, go get a soda, get blood back in your legs. Then, you'll have a better idea when you get back to it."

Okay. We thanked her and hung up. Just then, the beginning of "We Are the Champions" started to play. Ashley looked hopefully at me, and me back at her.

Could this be the sign? Is it working? Are we the champions of indexing?

The beach ball stopped spinning. An actual progress bar popped up, and it was moving!

FINally. It really worked. I'm not making this up. One of my all-time favorite songs that always gives me goose bumps when I hear it, and it really did mean good things.

"WE ARE THE CHAMPIONS, MY FRIENDS - THE INDEX IS GENERATED!"

A little bit of text box creating, some loaded cursor clicking, a little bit of size adjusting, and dang it if we didn't get that darn section finished at 7 p.m. Yeah, it's going to need a little adjusting when the proofs come back, but it is so close.

At some point, in the middle of all that "Hysteria" by Def Leppard played. By then, both she and I were feeling a little hysterical.

And I'm totally serious about all those songs - they really did randomly play. You can't make this crap up.

I can't believe how far yearbooking has come in all these years. My freshman year of high school, I lugged a little baby Mac (that's what we called it - I think it was a Mac Classic?) back and forth from school to home so that I could type in all 1400 names of students and teachers, and type in all the page numbers that we had indexed by hand. Then, we were listening to an old boom box in Lucas's room, and it was Elton John and Billy Joel, and .38 Special. I used to complain about Elton John and Billy Joel back then. What the heck was I thinking?

Thank God for databases, Excel files, and software plugins.