Remember when we used to complain about how long it took us to start writing the new year on our checks without mistake?

Honestly though, I had a nice Christmas break (which I’m still on for another day) and a wonderful few days relaxing and celebrating the New Year, but it doesn’t FEEL like a new year. I’m not sure what a new year should feel like, but in the past I’ve felt the need to come up with ideas for how to improve myself or have a fresh start…maybe this year I am already improved enough?

I don’t think that’s necessarily true…to an extent, yes, but not totally. For instance, I had a long list of things I wanted to accomplish over break (these ranged from cleaning out the basement to seeing a movie) and to be honest, I haven’t accomplished too many of them. Once I start allowing myself to relax, I end up not doing much! I did do some cleaning (the fridge looks great!) and I’m getting back into practicing, and I kept up exercising over the break, for the most part, and I got a new phone, but mostly this break has been pretty lazy. I think that’s okay. I feel relaxed, and I know that once I get back to work there is plenty to stress me out, and having a few extra days to relax rather than work at home won’t matter in the long run.

Does anybody else find it hard to do things like get to movies or museum exhibits? I really have to make an effort. It’s much easier to watch netflix, go to a concert, or meet friends for dinner. I think it’s because (of the leaving the house options) movies and museums feel like activities that aren’t particularly time sensitive, but then when I finally find the time to do them the exhibit or movie has closed.

So I got a new phone, as I mentioned. I had been hesitant, because I loved my previous phone and it didn’t cost me anything extra. But I did a little looking around and realized that I had been paying too much per month, and now WITH a phone payment I’m still paying less per month, so it’s a win-win. And I love my new phone, especially the case I chose, and it works so well, and so fast. Life is good!

Time to run some errands, practice, and generally get on with my day. Vacation isn’t so bad

Before I met Louie, I wasn’t a dog person. And now, right this moment, I am alone in a house with two dogs and two cats, for the next several days while my friend April goes on vacation. And Louie is also on vacation, so it’s just me, at home, working, and taking care of what is basically a zoo!

April brought her dog over the other night so we could make sure the pets get along. And they did, mostly. My cat isn’t a fan of other animals, but she is great at being quiet and hiding, so I guess she’ll just have to do that for awhile…better than being really mean and aggressive, which is another favorite of hers. (It’s funny because she is the sweetest thing ever to people!)

My week is going well. I’ve been teaching, getting near the end of the week here, and only two days next week! I’ve also been helping out at a local school and judging their high school orchestra placement auditions. Some of the kids sound really good, and others sound like they are terrified. Auditions are hard! They always taught us in school that committees can tell how well you play from the very first note, and honestly, it’s definitely a good test. The audition for this school starts with a scale, as many student auditions do. Students! Do not neglect your scales. I have been trying to take each part of the audition on it’s own, but for the students I hear that really play the scale well—I find myself wanting to score the rest of the audition higher. For those that mess up the scale, that is, for those that seemed like they hadn’t practiced it, I tend to expect the rest of the audition to go worse. The best way to set a good tone is to really rock out on your scale, and that makes the judge sit up and listen!

(This doesn’t apply for professional auditions as we don’t play scales for those. Maybe we should! But the part of “the first thing you hear setting the tone” is likely true across the board.)

This isn’t to say that if the student plays the scale poorly and then redeems themselves that I wouldn’t give credit for that. Not to mention, that the students who practice scales regularly are usually just better at their instruments than those who don’t. So this is a fairly unscientific blog post here. But I just found today and the other day, that the scale sets the tone. It makes me want to double down my scale efforts with my students. Many of them play scales to start their lesson, but not all do.

Enough boring scale talk, right? How is your week going? The last week before break is always fun for teachers because we (if we are lucky and have organized and generous students) get presents! I’ve gotten a few gift cards and some homemade things, and it’s always wonderful. I love getting gifts the students made themselves, with notes, and I also love getting gifts I can use. Some parents give gift certificates to local restaurants, which is great, and of course who wouldn’t turn down Target or Starbucks? Naturally I don’t EXPECT gifts, but I am always delighted to get them, the more personal the better, because I love when people are thoughtful and kind. I also know that some parents/families don’t do gifts and it’s not because they don’t appreciate me. (Well, who knows, maybe it is with some, but I don’t assume that.) In the past I’ve given small gifts to my students but it was usually candy. I decided a few years ago to stop because they get plenty of candy, and then worrying about various allergies is difficult, and MEH I just end up making sure to have awesome seasonal stickers and hopefully everybody goes home happy enough.

It is funny to me how evidently I’ve become a dog person. I definitely like the security of having a dog when I’m alone, and I feel safer out walking or running with Mackenzie than when I’m alone. Mackenzie isn’t the greatest runner but I’ve been trying to train her—that is, she loves running, but she also loves stopping and smelling everything, so I’ve been trying to get her to understand the difference between when I want to run and when it’s ok to stop and smell stuff. Maybe if I keep taking her out to run she’ll get better. (Side note: she doesn’t actually get to run when I’m running, it’s more of a quick walk for her—when she runs it is a faster pace than I can keep up for long!)

So there are my random thoughts for Thursday. Hope your week is going well!

So today is Giving Tuesday. Which I think is a pretty silly name…just as ridiculous as Small Business Saturday and Cyber Monday. First off, small businesses should have Black Friday too—it’s like saying Friendsgiving to mean Thanksgiving with friends…Thanksgiving should already be about friends! And Black Friday can be a shopping day for all kinds of stores…and then Cyber Monday? I think there were probably a few years when people had better internet connections at work than at home and that’s why they shopped on Monday? Or alternately (my pet theory) nobody actually works at work—they just pretend they do in order to cover all their internet time? But really. So that brings us, logically and clearly, to Giving Tuesday. I think giving to charities and nonprofits is great, and we should do that, throughout the year, at the end of the year, really whenever you have “extra” money. But that money you are wasting on buying gifts for friends and family members who don’t need anything…that could ALSO be given to nonprofits. People are constantly complaining about how much junk they have, how much simpler they want their lives to be…are these the same or different people who run out to the stores on Black Friday to get great deals on a bunch of junk nobody needs?

TL: DR version: Holidays are stupid. Give money to nonprofits.

So the week is going well. I put “write a blog post” in my calendar for this time so I thought I’d just sit down and do that. I told you guys in my last post that I was experimenting with scheduling tasks that I do, and this is day 2 of that. So I made a few different colors of calendars in Google Calendar (my organizer of choice) and added things like “Important Paperwork”, “Cleaning”, “Practice Violin”, “Run/Shower” and “Write a Blog Post.” I thought maybe I’ll be able to get a handle on where my time goes better this way too, and be more productive, and as a result (hopefully) have more meaningful downtime, where I’m not fretting over what I should be doing, because I either already did that, or it’s on the calendar. Between that and a very detailed “to-do list” on my phone, this is the time for organization. I could have waited until January, but there’s no time like the present, is there?  I figure better to start right away and by the new year I’ll have more of an idea how much time I really need to schedule for things and I’ll just be a supreme organizational machine!

The more students I have the more work it takes to keep everything running, and while if you’d asked me 10 years ago if I’d want to be a full-time violin teacher I’d have said no, it looks more and more like that’s where I’m ending up. The money in teaching is better and more regular than freelancing, especially here in St Louis, and while I enjoy playing gigs and weddings and will always continue to do so, I am happy to have the bulk of my income from teaching. I also love performing, and will always do that as well. Of course, that makes it sound like I have several full-time jobs, but as I’m really considering myself a full-time violin teacher, it’s that job (small business!) with additonal work here and there, rather than more evenly divided.

That probably doesn’t even make any sense, but I never promised you that this blog post would. In any case, I have some emails to return before I teach, and while I’d love to put them off, I know not replying will stress me out, so I’m off to do that. You might be seeing more regular blog posts if I stick with this organization thing, though no guarantees on quality. Practice may or may not make perfect!