I have been in a bit of a funk all week long.  The past few months (year really) have been SO exciting, so many wonderful trips and events to attend, and now it seems like the most fun stuff is behind us.  I know, how rough my life is, I’m letdown after my wedding, honeymoon, Leslie’s wedding, a trip to Paris, all that.  Boo freaking hoo, there are people starving and dying and I’m complaining that my life is a bit dull now? And honestly it’s not even remotely dull, but I guess I’m just tired or something.  Plus my good bow has a crack in the frog and my spare bow is in rough shape because the hair is approximately three years old and so I feel like I’m not prepared for any of my concerts in November.  Plus I haven’t been happy about certain career things for months (I’m not going into it here, sorry, but it just teaches me not to get too excited about things and not to take stuff for granted.)

Yesterday was particularly tough (understandable with any day that starts with a memorial service for a friend).  We played at the service, and then I had teaching—now, this is where yesterday got really awesome—a bright light in the middle of a grumpy day (week…hopefully not month). 

This is my new favorite student.  He walked into the lesson wearing that horse head.  I absolutely LOST it and almost started crying.  His mother suggested I take a picture, and I figured it might as well be him playing the violin.  After we got this all set up (harder than it looks)—he asked, in a small voice, if he could take the head off as "it’s hot in here and hard to breathe."  Poor guy.

So I’m not going to wallow.  I got to sleep in today which was fantastic.  I was feeling a little sad that I don’t have a good reason to dress up for Halloween this year, but honestly that’s just not that important to me right now.  Or heck, I could just dress up to teach on Wednesday if I wanted.  We’re finally making progress on getting my bow fixed and I’m sure I’ll get that back soon and it’ll be better than ever.  A friend has been wonderful with lending me a bow (and another bow too, I believe) and I’m delighted to know that even though we violinists act like we hate each other, it boils down to that I have some of the world’s greatest friends who would do just about anything for me but I have to ask.  That’s a good thing.

A friend asked me recently if my students liked me.  I was like, um, yeah, they LOVE me.  I think most of them do.  Is that what’s most important in a violin teacher?  Well, they need to love me and respect me too—I think most of my students recognize that I know how to play the violin and how to teach them to play, but we have a darned good time doing it.

Oh, and I have a new weight loss goal.  I know I’ve said these things before but I mean it this time.  I’m signing on with my trainer for another six months.  By the end I plan to lose 20 pounds.  It sounds like a lot but it’s not if I break it down.  I’m already working towards that goal.  I know 20 pounds is just a number, but it’s a nice round number, and I’m over ten pounds up from where I was a year ago and I’m really not happy about that.  So I’m committing myself to weight loss, and though I know that losing weight doesn’t bring happiness, it certainly doesn’t hurt!  BRING IT ON WORLD.

How are you today?