Born to Hand-Jive, Baby...

Yup, I have that song stuck in my head. Oh, Grease, my first musical obsession. See, I have this odd relationship with musical productions, particularly movie-musicals (but that's probably because it is with these that I've had the most experience). I'll see the production, often without really intending to, then I'll have the songs playing over and over in my head for about two days straight. And after this period, I become obsessed. Even if I didn't particularly enjoy- heck, even if I hated a musical number the first time I heard it, I'll be totally in love with it after the 'earworm period'. So then I download all the songs and listen to them more times, continuing to have them running a non-stop loop in my head, only getting gradually more defined as I learn all the lyrics. This period lasts for about a week, sometimes more if I really, really liked the musical. Then the obsession gradually fades, but I forever hold the lyrics in my brain and get such an excited, jubilant feeling whenever one of the songs shows up again in my life. This seems to be the cycle with every musical I experience- starting with my long-running and intense love-affair with Grease, then my great obsession with Chicago, followed by certain Gilbert and Sullivan numbers, Fiddler on the Roof (funny, it never happened for Guys and Dolls- probably because none of the songs in my head were put there of my own accord, so I forever associate "you can bet that he's doin' it for some dolls..." with science class and Mark Shultz and irritation on the bus or West Coast rather than the actual production), Annie get your Gun (and that one was only partial, again given the association of certain songs in my mind with the library and Marek), RENT, Westside Story (only a little, I think because the cycle was interrupted by seeing the production numerous times, so I became more attached to the actual production than the musical numbers), Singin' in the Rain, Harvey Girls (but only that one song, you know, "the Atchinson, Topeka and the Santa Fe"); even movies that had songs in them but weren't musicals like A Mighty Wind, A Goofy Movie and Veggie Tales make it onto the list. You know what I just realised- I think that this is a fairly normal pattern for people to go through, only they generally go through it with particular musical albums. The reason why it's musicals for me is that I rarely listen to CDs, rarely enough that hymns and musicals have been the more consistent source of music throughout my life. That might be a little sad.

Actually, you know what's even more sad is I just spent about an hour writing on something I had no intention of going into. That whole paragraph was meant to be about two sentences of explanation. Anyway, the reason I started writing this blogpost is because I was filling out my Winter Session application and needed a break from the stress of permanent words on pages that will determine whether or not I get to do what I've desired doing and shaped my life around since hearing about it.... (*deep breath*), so I thought I'd do this. And I thought of doing this so that I might share a little bit of joy that I found the other day in my pile of old report cards...

So the story goes that in grade 4, each reporting period Mrs. Bishop had us write letters to her regarding how we felt were doing in terms of in-class behaviour, and this was included in our report card. I totally forgot about this until two days ago when I was looking through all my old report cards- the ultimate task was to find my immunization records but I was having more fun being distracted by learning about what I was like at various stages of childhood by teacher's comments. But anyway, in this second letter from grade 4 I found an astonishing sentence about halfway through:

"I find that I am quite good at learning in a group but you sometimes start saying something boring and it starts getting hard to focus on the topic"

Wha!!! I actually wrote that to my teacher?!! *snickerwheeze*. I have to say that sometimes I amaze myself. There was nothing mean-spirited about the comment, either, I was just being dreadfully honest. I doubt that I even considered that there might be something wrong with writing that. Oh, Hannah...

On an entirely different topic, I got the job I wanted! Yay! So I'm working at the Bethany Care Centre as a recreation attendant, which means that I my main job is to assist the recreational therapists in doing their work with the residents. My position summary from the website is as follows:

"The Recreation Attendant is accountable for providing recreation and leisure activities as scheduled and directed by the Recreation Therapist. The Recreation Attendant will work to ensure the continued organization and smooth running of new and ongoing programs/activities in accordance with Bethany Care Society’s philosophy, objectives and standards"

I start on Monday, and I'm super excited, while also being super-terrified! I think I'm more excited than frightened, though, so it's all good. The people I've talked to/met/been interviewed by at Bethany have all seemed really awesome- all informal and kind and helpful, so I'm looking forward to it :). Let's all give a grand 'hurrah!' for meaningful employment!