Jimmy Kimmel and Former Students

I was watching Jimmy Kimmel Live. Sometimes he has artists on for performances. Sometimes they are people who I end up liking and area really good. And sometimes I see things I don't want to. One of my former students was rocking out in the front row to one of these really bad bands. A flood of unfond memories came back.

His mom who is on the school board calling him on his cell phone during class.
Him wearing a hood over his head all the time like it's something unique.
Him filming me and putting it on YouTube without my knowledge.
Him mouthing off at me.
Him swearing.
Him not being able to sing very well and me having to deal with it tactfully.
Him being helpful for the first few days--but you see when I get a break I need to take it by myself. He stopped coming to the room during breaks.

As bad as it all was, I wonder if he is happy now. I wonder if he is in college, making friends and having a good time. Once I knew for sure it was him, I couldn't watch anymore. It's so hard seeing my students from that time.

A Pain in the Neck, etc.

I already have a pain in the neck because of the auto accident I had last year, and the other one from the year before that. I have a pain in the shoulder from conducting, playing piano, and then having surgery. I have a pain in the ankle from having sprained my ankle at work 4 times in one year.

And now...The pain in the ankle and the shoulder is worse.

I went to car dealership to test drive a Mercedes. I know--what teacher can afford one? I was curious.

My salesperson gave me a handshake over the planter something that I should have known wouldn't work out well because my should has been hurting quite a bit since surgery. My foot wobbled on the edge leading to an ankle sprain. Yes, my left ankle, the one that I sprained 4 times at work. The man tried to help steady me and re-hurt my right arm that was still hurting from surgery.

The doctor says I never would have been hurt from these things if I hadn't had surgery and prior injuries.  I have to agree.

I give up. I'm never leaving my house again. I wonder how this works out with these being Work Comp injuries.

Post Shoulder Surgery

I have found out a few things about the Work Comp system. Yes, it's true, people do abuse it. I am in a situation where my right arm was basically destroyed from conducting & playing piano, never got better, I had to have surgery and now I am being told that Work Comp isn't obligated to restore me to the condition I was in BEFORE the job destroyed me. In fact, unless I get a second opinion in the form of a visit with a Qualified Medical Examiner, I may not get all of the physical therapy I really need to live a pain free life.

I was talking to some guy I was briefly interested in who said that he thinks it's all a scam and that people know what they are getting into. Not only that, they shouldn't have to have some system pay for their treatment. As I said, I was only briefly interested in him. I really don't care to be put down for something like this.

And I'm not so sure this surgery was actually successful.

Unspecial

I auditioned for America's Got Talent. It was, to say the least an interesting experience. Some girls want to beat up one of my ex boyfriends. They have met him because their singing group is an offshoot of one that he was involved in founding years ago in college. I befriended a group of girls who teach fire dancing and brought their group to audition. I also befriended the people on either side of me in line. One is a girl who needs a teacher to be able to audition for the performing arts high school. She has to learn an Italian aria. I can help her with that. I am trying to build a reputation for being able to prepare students for that level.

What happened with the actual audition is that I learned that this really isn't a talent show. My story was buried because they has so many singers to get through. I learned that to make yourself more interesting, you should play something while you sing. I learned that they pick some really bad people with no talent on purpose. I learned that they make is seem like a talent show when it really is only about ratings. There were so many talented people there. Why are they picking Boy Shakira when they can have someone who is actually good? I don't even mean me.

By the end of the evening, I was in tears because they didn't even look at my story and I didn't think to say anything when I introduced myself. I only got 90 seconds to shine, as did everyone else. I know that it's possible to pick people from that, but they aren't even looking or listening for talent. Partly I was in tears because I was so tired from standing in line all day or waiting around.

One of my friends said, You are talented, you don't need a show to tell you that. Maybe exposure because that's always nice. But you don't need them to tell you you're talented.

He's right. I felt better after he said that. I do feel like people don't understand how hard it is to make it as a professional singer. Some of my students and my coworkers thought I was amazingly talented and that I should be on American Idol or some show like that. They don't stop to think that I'm not the age or the look that they want. I don't know why I forgot.

Surgery A Success

I just had surgery on my shoulder. Here's hoping will finally have a pain free life. Surgery sure has changed in recent years. Not only can they perform a surgery arthroscopically, they even give you a video of the procedure on DVD. Amazing!! It hurts to type too much. Aparently they took out pieces of bone and scar tissue. I don't know how this all happened when all I was doing was playing piano and conducting. But anything is possible. My arm is in a sling. The guaze finally came off today with really sticky tape that pulled off a layer of skin. It felt so good to be able to shower!

When I go to the post-op appointment, I will find out the hows and whys. The thing that amazes me is that my principal tired to talk me into signing off that I didn't want medical treatment. I said I would go home and put an ice pack on it and see how it felt the next day. If I had signed anything, they would not have been paying for the surgery. But then, that's the whole point, isn't it? Who wants to pay?

At Long Last

Due to my case getting dropped and then picked up again. Due to the fact that my pain still hasn't healed. I am finally having surgery on my shoulder for the injuries that teaching last year caused. They never fixed the piano. I was playing and conducting for hours and it resulted in rotator cuff problems.

This week I will be getting surgery to fix my shoulder. I'm seriously nervous about it. But hope I will finally be closer to normal than I have been. Work comp is seriously slow. This could have been done a long time ago. But at least it's getting done. I'm working as an independent contractor, so it's not like there will be anyone upset with me or disappointed in me that I wasn't able to be at work. At least I will be paid for being on disability for awhile. And then hopefully I will be better. I'll let you know--if I can type.