I have been reading the Sookie Stackhouse series by Charlaine Harris for the past month or so, but yesterday I finished up the last one (well, the last paperback one).  I needed something else to read, so I decided to reread “The Happiness Project” by Gretchen Rubin.  I first read this book about a year or more ago, and enjoyed it.  The author spends a year trying to make herself happier–it’s not that she was depressed or even terribly unhappy to begin with (unlike the author of Eat, Pray, Love!) but that she figured, why not make herself as happy as possible.  I haven’t finished rereading it so I don’t recall everything she does for the year, but I have been thinking about my own happiness project.  After all, that’s really (in a nutshell) what this blog is about!  I am starting to think about the new year and what sort of things I will want to achieve…after all, this past year has been about pottery, diet, personal training, and now running…where to go?  But it’s only mid-November now, so I won’t tell you any of my thoughts yet.  In any case, I just googled The Happiness Project and found the author’s website.

Okay, it’s that time of day…the time of day where I try to come up with something new to be thankful for!  Today I am thankful for my students.  My students continually challenge, delight, and impress me.  I am proud of their hard work and celebrate their successes.  They are also unique individuals and never cease to amaze me.  Not to mention that teaching violin gives great meaning to my life.  Thank you to all my wonderful students for being you!

I have a great story from today (names and places withheld 😉 )

I was teaching a class when suddenly one of the students let out a loud, quick fart!  The other students were disgusted or laughing (while moving away from him), and I didn’t want the student to be embarrassed so I tried to keep the class attentive and ignore it.  Suddenly the student cries out, “my allergy medicine makes me fart! ” and we all just lost it.  We were laughing hysterically for several minutes.  (The student was laughing with us–he didn’t seem embarrassed at all.)  Seriously…”my allergy medicine makes me fart!”  AWESOME.  (Thanks to my students for being wonderful anecdotes as well…kids say the darnedest things!).