Senior Recital

So I don't forget that I did play once :-)



Singletary Center for the Arts. March 1, 1998. 7:00 p.m.

It has been almost 10 years since my clarinet recital.

Paul Hindemith - Sonata for Clarinet and Piano

1. Massing bewegt
2. Lebhaft
3. Sehr langsam
4. Kleines Rondo, gemachlich

Norbert Burgmuller
- Sonata for clarinet and Piano
Leonard Bernstein
- Sonata for Clarinet and Piano, 1st movement
Louis Cahuzac
- Variations for Clarinet and Piano - above as video!!!!!!!

Our new house

Polska Wersja (Polish Version of this entry)

Since August 20th 2009 we live in new house. Well, it is not 'new' just new for us. The house was actually build in 1930's so there were lots of old things we (I :-)) needed to change. We are making progress. With face-book and nasza-klasa (Polish equivalent of classmates) I realize this blog is missing lots of info about this new undertaking that takes most of my energy and time. So here you will find some photos related to this project (not necessarily in order at the beginning ... I organize them one day ... think of it more like archive of pictures related to our new 'nest')

Those pics summarize nicelly our ongoing inside struggle ...

Edisto Beach 09

To My Child

Polska Versja

Just for this morning, I am going to step over the laundry, and pick you up and take you to the park to play.

Just for this morning, I will leave the dishes in the sink, and let you teach me how to put that puzzle of yours together.

Just for this afternoon, I will unplug the telephone and keep the computer off, and sit with you in the backyard and blow bubbles.

Just for this afternoon, I will not yell once, not even a tiny grumble when you scream and whine for the ice cream truck and I will buy you one if he comes by.

Just for this afternoon, I won't worry about what you are going to be when you grow up, or second guess every decision I have made where you are concerned.

Just for this afternoon, I will let you help me bake cookies, and I won't stand over you trying to fix them.

Just for this afternoon, I will take us to McDonald's and buy us both a Happy Meal so you can have both toys.

Just for this evening, I will hold you in my arms and tell you a story about how you were born and how much I love you.

Just for this evening, I will let you splash in the tub and not get angry.

Just for this evening, I will let you stay up late while we sit on the porch and count all the stars.

Just for this evening, I will snuggle beside you for hours, and miss my favorite TV shows.

Just for this evening when I run my finger through your hair as you pray, I will simply be grateful that God has given me the greatest gift ever given.

I will think about the mothers And fathers who are searching for their missing children, the mothers and fathers who are visiting their children's graves instead of their bedrooms, and mothers and fathers who are in hospital rooms watching their children suffer senselessly, and screaming inside that they can't handle it anymore.

And when I kiss you good night I will hold you a little tighter, a little longer. It is then, that I will thank God for you, and ask Him for nothing, except one more day............

10 years behind

Polska Werjsa

This weekend we celebrate our 10th years wedding anniversary. We will be in Gatlinburg on Friday, Saturday and Monday. On Sunday we will go to Biltomore Estate and ride horses. (10 years ago we went to Gatlinburg for 3 days for our 'honey moon')




View Larger Map

Terminator SG1

Polska Wersja
A cyborg (part man, part machine) is sent from the 31 century to present-day Midwest America to assassinate a seemingly innocent women whose child will play an important part in the world from which the killer came ...

.... the half man half machine's name is ... Shamick Gaworski ... production of this monstrous machine started last year in some dental labs in Midwest USA, reportedly in the state of KY, probably in the city of Lexington ... the year is 2008, 1028 years before the rise of machines ...

... his first dangerous ability is a killer bite with his lower left jaw .... just look at those!!!






See Final Result - April 30, 2008

Southwestern trip

My in-laws are gone ... for 6 weeks
Polska Wersja
They started a big trip in their makeup van across USA.

Larry took back seats out and made special folding bed (he had special mattress made for it)

It is really cool as the van resembles more now little RV (storage space is under the bad which folds easily so half of the back is still 'empty')

Read more about it on a blog I made for them - they just left today (I think. Larry postponed the departure by one day ... he wasn't ready ...)


http://southwesterntrip.blogspot.com/2008/03/southwestern-trip.html

Legal, Social & Econ Sci In Environ SYS (Polski)

I am tired ....

Our Future Vacation House in Poland (Polski)

Polska Wersja
http://gaworskipolak.blogspot.com/2008/02/w-przyszlosci-nasz-dom-wakacyjny-w.html

How times changed (Polski)

Polska Wersja

I had to drive to Western Kentucky yesterday to give presentation about effective web design. One does not think of Kentucky as such a large state, certainly it isn't Texas (size of France) but nevertheless it take 2.5 hours to get from Lexington to Bowling Green.

I had lots of time to think about other things than school, work and how to manage it all ... thought about how things changed ... driving state car by plasma place where as a student I used to sell my plasma to make some money ... so needed back then, now giving presentations and while waiting for my turn, browsing real estate market in Poland seeing for some more realistically priced lots and properties ... [in my opinion they are experiencing there what one can easily compared to the .com bubble ... which should soon burst ... it was not enough to have a web site to be profitable, it isn't enough just to have land and put a world price on it to sell it]

While doing all that I drink $2 fancy star buck coffee never giving much though about those $2 I spent ...

2 dollars 15 years ago would be almost 1% of my entire money that I had in my pocket when I landed in Chicago in 1993. I valued 2 dollars much more back then especially that to earning another 2 was not guaranteed and was through hard "unstructured" work in hot and humid weather of Kentucky. I did not buy one single beer for the first year I was in USA. I love beer!

FYI, don't do the plasma thing. I hated it. I only did it every six months or so when they paid my good money (< 50 dollars)
Here are the reasons I hated it:
- at least 1 hour on medical exam
- at least 1 hour doing it
- do not like needles
- it isn't like giving blood, you have to pump your own blood with your fist so the blood goes for 15 minutes or so to the machine where the plasma is separated and then the blood is returned to your body .... You have to do this 4 or 5 times, depending on your body ... with 5 minutes breaks in between ... then your hand gets cold ... that's when blood is returned to your body ...

Arrr ... I shiver even now when I am writing this ...

OK, if you do want to do it, you should focus on something more noble about this process - Plasma saves lives. It used in hospitals etc.

And finally, it was close to Bowling Green that Monmouth Cave is located. That's when I proposed to Juli 10 years ago. Which reminded me to think for long time on the way back of ideas for our 10 years anniversary ... ideas that will be affordable that is ...

Times did not changed that much ....

R2D2 - I evolved

I entered new phase in my life. I am going to beep now on airports ... which "should be fun" :-(

On the other hand, now that I have water, bionic mass and titanium in my body, I should be much stronger! Maybe soon I get titanium other parts and will be finally super hero ... (I am sure in some 30 years knee will be one of those)

So here you have it, I am no R2D2 yet, but took my first step.

So what you see there are two titanium screws and little healing tops that were literally screwed into the bone by the dentist [he said I have hard bones, which is good health wise but made him work for his money ... he should ... titanium implants aren't cheap]

You can see on this picture but in my mirror I see literally two caps and if I had a good wrench I could probably unscrew those and screw them back ... not like I am going to do that of course ...

Malina Iza (Maya) Blogs

Why not introduce them to the modern world? The Internet will be incredibly important part of their lives and knowing and being comfortable with it will help them in their schools, careers, etc.

So here it is - 2 new blogs for my kids
(And if you wonder, I will protect them on the Internet. Internet is my work so I can make it safe for them)

Malina - http://malinagaworski.blogspot.com/





Iza - http://izagaworski.blogspot.com/





Maya (Juli) - http://maystorama.blogspot.com

Wesolych Świąt - Happy Xstmas

I believe this is like 13th or 14th Christmas I spend in USA ...

Not a big thing of course but see I am Polish so one would think I am "miserable" during Christmas in foreign land. This is a time of increase number of suicides ... people who are truly miserable somehow can't get enough alcohol or drugs to get through the Christmas season and before you know it, they are the new members of the exclusive morgue club.

So any chance I will be? Well, not. Sorry to disappoint you my dear insurance company (if I do end my life by myself, you would not have to pay that 100,000 dollars in life insurance and keep all the monthly payments ... [it is kind of weird to think that there is at least one entity - insurance company - that would be happy if you committed a suicide :-)])

I never forget how worry my mother and I guess sister too were during my first Christmas season abroad ... they called and sounded very concerned. They did not know how lucky I was to meet good American family who, in addition to giving me employment, which in the end gave me a realistic chance to make it here, gave me warm family feeling and opportunity to be around people who cared about me as a human being.

Good think they did not think of themselves as “better”, even though they had about literally 1 million times the income I had and even their dogs came from better blood than I did ... You know, they did sort of the same thing if some would indeed actually invite the beggar Romanians from the Central Railroad station in Poland to the Christmas Eve meal ("Wigilia") ... instead of just nicely and comfortably leaving empty dish … And by the way, we will see the American family this Christmas again. They became good friends of ours …

But times change, poor people - me - become a bit less poor and suddenly instead of just worrying about some people to spend the Christmas with, people are worrying about the quality of the season celebrations ... Maslow truly was correct in his theories.

This Christmas we will spend with my friend Darryl and his wife Masha from Ukraine with their kids ... and we will speak English and talk about Jesus’ birthday, as even though I think Jesus was just a man (good one) I do not want to stop the Christians from enjoying their holidays and want to introduce my kids to this concept.

We will talk about families, Christmas traditions, Mikolaj (Santa Clause), love will be in the air, we will talk to my mother on the phone ... we make a fire in the chimney, play some Christmas carols on the piano or listen to some on the radio ... Maria will cook some good Ukrainian meals, including her version of “goląbki” (cabbage rolls with beef and rice inside them), Juli will cook fish (although not carp) and pierogi (and not by hand but even the ‘good Polish wives’ do not do pierogies by hand anymore .. got “lazy I guess?:-)) Kids will play with Elizabeth and her little brother, Darryl’s and Maria’s kids.

It will be nice, and maybe they will ask about Christmas in Poland under communism, like those people who gave me warm family Christmas during my first years in USA ... I remember their stories of their own experiences in communist Poland during their trips there (They are rich people, some were there on business travels). They were very surprised that people were stealing toilet paper from trains when they traveled in Poland … (I did not tell them it was most likely my mother and her friends who stole it ... they would not understand ... just like most young people in Poland already forgot what life under communism was ....) Would any normal person steal toilet paper? Just because I lived in not normal country for 35 years does not mean somehow those who did not are 'worse' than me ... and close minded.

There is a sea of interesting things to get to know about Christmas in USA. In contrary to stereotypes about Americans simply only shopping during the holiday season, one should note that they cook special cookies sometimes keeping doe for days and following special rules, making ginger houses and having special times when the kids are allowed to pick the candies form it, leaving letter and milk and cookies to Santa by the chimney ... as he is of course tired of bringing the gifts (and of course Santa writes back to the kids ....which they can witness themselves next day by reading what he wrote on the paper), self-criticism of their shopping attitudes and openness to find out about any other tradition they can pick and carry during Christmas, even if that will be just one Christmas) They go to church, they eat special dinner, they look for the first star … and of course there are “special department lunches” and Christmas Work Parties.

So Merry Christmas, as my boss today said during our "special department lunch" in near by restaurant. I guess everyone knew that the official name of the lunch was just “politically correct” as many did not hesitates with greetings "Marry Christmas so and so" ... but then again, this is my work, somewhat liberal ... can't speak for the entire country ... the size of Europe and part of Asia combined ... I guess we would not want to be called for Honokaa Party if it just happened that our boss was a Jew ... and then again, the way it is respects whoever does not want to participate but people inside may choose the greetings the way they want … that’s what happens in diverse country where not 99% of the people are white, catholic and lived behind a wall for the last 35 years with little ability or permission to travel and stick the nose out of their environment.

But the best are the parties. This is not the time of my students years when I was poor and my English was poorer. This is time of free drinks and lots of fun with food and during mingling among the people. This is a sort of a skill that I learned the hard way through my 14 years in USA. People like comfort. Foreign things, be it people or someone speaking of controversial topics make them uncomfortable. People do not like change nor being force to feel uncomfortable against their will. You may be lucky to meet “cultural” person on some party and bush this and that with that person for a few hours … But guess what, unless he/she is really “cultural” (translation for other people “weird” or “geek”) even that person gets tired of that after a while during the same party.

Mingling and “finding” yourself is not something natural and some people, of the same nationality, never learn and are never comfortable. Nothing wrong with that! Just you should know it ain’t the crowd that is the obstacle.

And what a crowd it was during Juli's work Christmas party

Shhh, don’t tell Juli, there are some hot girls working for my wife’s company!... and they drink like Polish people!!! (Actually I already told her and said that if we would ever get a divorce, I have some new candidates … to which she responded with a sad face …sign I should not “joke” anymore.)

During the party, I was introduced to a girl from England ... Eva I think? She has been all over the place because her parents moved. She lived in South Africa, South USA [which may as well be a different country from north USA], Canada, and Europe. She did not even have much of an accent (and, yes, as I was saying there are lots of hot girls in Juli's work ... :-))

It was nice to talk to her because she understood ... we both agree how rich our lives are thanks to the diversity of lives we have seen and been introduced to ... we may not "belong" to any 100% but it is that not belonging that makes us happy ... no, more than that, makes us strong and appreciative of the opportunity to be able to be "outside" of things and to see things through a perspective of environment, culture, structure, etc. and not being blinded by being "inside" things ...

That's I guess why I see things in much broader light and from broader prospective - Carp (fish) is now a fish of necessity for mostly poor Polish people in addition to being Christmas meal tradition ... and good breakfast ... peasant culture tradition where breakfast was important to gain strength for physical work in the field ... Your country tradition, in other words, is nothing but just one of many, product of its own environment, culture and often semi-temporary culture that resulted from semi-temp historic times ... Most likely in 50 years, people in Poland will look at carp the same way American do ... as a "bottom feeder" ... far down the line of fish worthy of dinner plate.

But ironically, it just makes you appreciate the carp even more ... but you life will not end nor you have to be unhappy if you do not get to eat one this Christmas...

Merry Christmas

WOW, I sure write a lot …
Tell you a secret, my biggest challenge in school is to shorten the papers I write!

Trip. USA - Poland - France. (Polski)

USA - Poland - France

www.shamick.com/index.htm

Odwiedziny Przemka z Rodzina

Zabawa

Polska Wersja - http://gaworskipolak.blogspot.com/2008/02/usa-polska-francja-listopad-2007.html

>>>>>Friday, Piatek 9 XI, 2007 <<<<<

http://gaworskipolak.blogspot.com/2008/02/usa-polska-francja-listopad-2007.html

OK, we are in Charlotte ... Iza & Malina liked the trip but Iza was already impatient towards the end of only 50 min flight. It is now 5.27 pm ... nice airport here ... we are going to eat something and on 7:04 a flight to Frankfurt is leaving ... Airbus.

>>>>>Saturday 10 XI, 2007 <<<<<

8 hours of across Atlantic ... we slept some ... 4 hours me ... Frankfurt is a horrible airport ... crowded, hot and confusing ... but we made it, Karolina picked us up. Now we are going to the play ground ... then to dinner ... we are so glad to finally be here in Poland. A bit tired ... Karolina has Internet ... OK, going to help with the kids ... they are tired too ...

Iza slept the whole time in Restaurant "Chlopskie Jadlo" ... but we had Barszczyk, Golabki and of course Polish Beer Zywiec ... Taxi in and Taxi out ... I start to like Warsaw ... and so does Juli. First day and so far so good ... We paid $75.75 plus $2,27 Foreign Transaction Fee
Times of cheap Poland is over.

>>>>>Sunday 11 XI, 2007 <<<<<

Maybe it is 3rd time the charm. This is our 2nd trip and everything is going almost perfect. The train was great!!!!!!!!! 1st class ... it took 5 hours but we did not notice ... we set, laugh, played with the kids, ate food and drank coffee brought from the near-by restaurant wagon, look through the window ... until it got dark ... which hided the snow on the ground that we saw in Poznan. Mother and father picked us up ... 1.5 hours to Ostrzeszow. Father, me and Iza together ... 1.5 hours Polish made Iza very scared and she asked "where is mommy ... sister ...daddy ... stop talking" :-)

>>>>>Monday 12 XI, 2007 <<<<<

Today on Monday Ciocia Henia & Artur visited ... it was great! Artur will visit us soon ... Tadek called, we talked 30 minutes ... he could not make it ... it was one of my greatest conversations ... I really like him. We then made a little snow man, kids helped ... Iza was without pants ... they still walk bare foot in the house to the despair of Babcia ... we took a walk later ... it was good, bought some beer at the end and "warm ice cream" earlier but one thing that now I noticed so much was CO2 in the air, it is dark at 5 o'clock ... smoke all around, it gets noticeable and it is smelly, almost hard to breathe .... USA should fight Global Warming here ... would make a bigger difference

>>>>>Tuesday, 13 XI, 2007 <<<<<

Today we went shopping. It is crazy now in Poland. People make so little but prices like in Europe (and also more expensive then in USA We went to Antonin to little castle for ice creams. We had good time there.

>>>>>Wednesday, 14 XI, 2007 <<<<<

We went to visit my father in his place. It was very nice.

>>>>>Thursday, 15 XI, 2007 <<<<<

We went to the flee market in the morning. It was a bit cold but it was fun although the kids had to go back earlier. After dinner we went to inside playground where kids played. The same evening we stopped by Castorama and Carefour. Yes, as far as shopping, Poland is definitively in Europe … funny however how people’s shopping baskets are only covered on the bottom ….

>>>> Friday, 6 XI, 2007 <<<<<

We went to the cemetery and visited abandoned property where my mother’s parents used to live. It was cold. Later on we packed.

>>>>>Saturday, 17 XI, 2007 <<<<<

We are at the airport in Poznan. We got here “only” after 3 hours in the car … despite the fact it is only 120 km or so but in Poland there are no highways so you can’t really drive like in a normal country …

FRANCE

Bienvenue au France!!!!! With sunshine! Nice. We rented a car and went to Lille. We found Ville De ASCE with no problems. Jean and Michele welcomed us with a dinner. Laurence and Stephen were there two with their 3 kids.

>>>>>Sunday, 18 XI, 2007 <<<<<

We met with Lars and Amira. It was so great despite the bad and sad news how our “adventure” with CDNetPlay.com broke many friendships and destroyed or at least hurt people (including financially) ...

Then we went back to Laurence and Stephan house and later had great pizza. Boy, the French pizza is 100 times better than the staff we eat in USA! And that was “chain” pizza! My French is not so bad … I can communicate OK. I surprised myself.

>>>>> Monday, 19 XI, 2007 <<<<<

Finally we decided to call the doctor for Juli who is really sick since a week or so … he came to the house. How nice, and even without any insurance (as far as the country France sees it) we paid ONLY around $50 … That would be at least 100 times that much in USA and doubtful that one could get home visit. We wanted to go to the beach (to Belgium) but instead we went to the mall … bought a few nice foods, kids played … it was good to relax a bit. In the evening we had a great dinner. Jean and I picked up great big platters with see food (fruit de mere) and it was really good. Polish women (first name Balbina) was also invited to the Dinner. Juli and her have actually similar jobs.

>>>>>Tuesday, 20 XI, 2007 <<<<<

In the morning (well, after 10 am) we went to visit kindergarten where Stephan and Laurence kids are going. It was great. Kids were there for 1.5 hours and will correspond with this place in the future. The kids (with the teachers of course) made a big banner “Welcome” which they put on the windows. Malina were not that impressed with them and wanted to play in little toy-kitchen all the time but Iza participated and draw with them. All kids drawings were put together and made a little book which the kids gave Malina and Iza as gift.

Right after it, making my wife extremely angry, I insisted on going to the beach, to Belgium even though it started to rain … big time. But this is me being “Polish” and thinking it is somewhat cool for the kids to say “I was in Belgium” … hopefully they help me for it one day (maybe? Yes I know I am naïve)

Even before the trip to the beach, we had to pack really quickly and went to another family Juli knows, Gaston and Claudine

We had a nice diner in the evening. All kinds of wine, cheese … can’t get more French than that! It was great!

>>>>>Wednesday, 21 XI, 2007 <<<<<

Change of plants. We were to go to Paris today (that’s why the hurry to the beach in Belgium) but there is a strike going there so we will stay one extra day here. We are going to IKEA soon … we used to go there while we lived in France and “dream” of our house one day and how we will decorate it. It used to make us sad not to be able to have a house and our live …. IKEA is more than a store to us, it is something of a nostalgia. Before IKEA we visited Isabella’s place.

In the evening, Cecile called from Paris. We will not go there at all except for Friday to fly from it. It is a mess, people are “killing” each other to get to the metro. Only ¼ of trains are going …

>>>> Thursday, 22 XI, 2007 <<<<<

+8 degrees C. Sunny. Kids are starting to complain and are “missing our yellow house”
The fact that we are not going to Paris makes me a little said because kids won’t see (at the minimum) Eifel tower … of well, they will see it next time. We also saved some money on hotels (although Juli had a heck of time cancelling that hotel and not being charged)

Malina and I went downtown and had a good time. After lunch, we all went to IKEA while Juli and Gaston went to Auchan and Carefour to buy a few more things for USA (alcohol among others) I used IKEA free internet connection to catch up on blogs, emails and my school.

>>>>>Friday, 23 XI, 2007 <<<<<

We got lucky. Juli changed easily our last flight from Chicago do Lexington and not like we were to go from Chicago to Cincinnati. And we will fly earlier from Chicago!

We had no major problems in Paris except that we forgot (!) that you can’t have liquids in the carry-on and almost lost 2, 3 good bottles of wine. But the people let Juli go back and recheck the language.

We got to Lexington around 22.00. That one last language was not here but the airline brought it home next day. Malina felt asleep in Chicago and slept the entire last hour on the plane, in the car – Juli’s father picked us up – and slept till the “morning” … 4.30 in the morning that is …

Another jet lag … oh well, that is normal. It was a good trip (bit long and bit tired of living on suitcases)

Our dog was waiting for us at home. It is good to be home in our yellow house again.

Trip Cost

• USA Airways (all flights except one) – 3,422.76
• WingCentral (Poznan – Paris[Beauve]) - $200
• Train (1^st class) - $150
• Credit Cards Travel Expenses - $191 (including conversion fees)
• Bank Card Expenses (Debit) -$539 (including conversion fees)
• Car Rental – Avis – 5 days - $600 (400 Euros)

Total (at minimum) = $5,102.76

Mother and Dieter. Thank you very much for your financial substantial help! We appreicate it very much! We hope to visit you more often thanks to that financial help!

Malina Iza Famous Quotes. Updated 6/24

My kids say things that are profound (or simply funny). It is time to start to archive some of those before we forget ....

- Iza in the car "Daddy, you know what, poptars are close to my heart"
- Cacada - bug making lots of noise every 17 years - was making noise in our front yard tree. On one Saturday, the noise stopped. Malina said "Maybe they are here only on school days"?
- In the car on the way home from school, Iza is asking her sister for candy [they were sharing and Iza already ate hers] to which Malina responds "Iza, I can't give you any candy, my hands our sore"
- "Iza, it is not about winning, not about having fun, it is about trying longer ..."
- "Daddy, Do you know why I like Lexington? Because I can understand what people say here"
- To her dallies while playing ... "Anybody who died long time ago, raise your hand ..."
- On airport in Chicago ... "I think I am allergic to walking"
- "Sister, we can't go to the Eiffel tower because there are lots of strangers there and they are going to be there for a long time ..."
- "Don't go there sister ... the darkness is going to get you"
- In Poland in the car, during eating vanilla ice creams, "Sister, you can't say 'vanilla' very good because you spoke too much Polish ..."
- "I can't speak French, but I can sign it very well ... " (Happy Birthday in French)
- "Daddy, go to work and take some money, we need to buy the beautiful princess ... " (in famous store where they cried as if I was killing them because I refused to buy overprices princess)
- Iza falls what seems like all the time and most of the time she laughs about it, but this one time she felt and Maya was close to her. Maya may have touched her with her tail. Iza started to cry and said "Mommy, Maya was trying to kill me ..."
- I am not really good on closing my eyes ... (in response to repeating attempts to make Malina sleep)