Somebody found my blog the other day by searching for “how to tell if your violin is depressed.” I thought I’d use that as a prompt and tell you five ways to tell if your violin is depressed and five ways to help. (Note: Depression is a serious illness and in reality, the best and sometimes only way out is to seek medical help. )

How to tell if your violin is depressed:

1. It won’t stay in tune. You’re constantly tuning it and wondering if it’s the weather or if it’s the humidity. It’s neither.

2. It’s covered in cat hair. All different kinds of cats. Violins tend to seek out cats more when they are sad.

3. It only wants to play sad pieces like Barber’s Adagio. If you try to play something happy like Ode to Joy from Beethoven’s 9th Symphony it transposes it into a minor key and before you know it, you’re back in Barber’s Adagio.

4. Your violin won’t eat and sleeps all day in its case.  It refuses to come out even for its previous favorite activities like Kreutzer Etudes and Scales.

5. You find a lot of empty alcohol and prescription drug bottles hidden in the trash and you don’t remember drinking or taking any of them yourself. That’s just your violin, self-medicating.

How to help:

1. Blast happy, joyful tunes at your violin all day long. I recommend a lot of Mozart and perhaps the last movement of the Organ Symphony by Camille Saint-Saens.

2. Practice, practice, practice. Aka, fake it till you make it. If you pretend it’s not depressed, on occasion, your violin will pull through. Try scales, Sevcik, etudes, and your violin’s old favorite pieces.

3. Sometimes putting your violin together with other instruments can help. For instance, consider another violin, a viola, and a cello. Get them to play some Beethoven String Quartets (personal favorite, opus 132). DO NOT let them play Barber’s Adagio. If this fails, try a larger group—include woodwinds, brass, percussion. Mahler Symphony no. 2 might be a good option for that. (You’ll need a chorus too.) Again, do not let them start playing Barber’s Adagio.

4. Buy it a new, colorful case. Studies show that bright colors can help. Continue to avoid direct sunlight though as violins, unlike humans, do not like direct sunlight.

5. If all else fails, your violin will need professional help. Take it to a luthier for repairs. Consider planing the fingerboard, a new bridge and/or soundpost, an adjustment, a thorough cleaning and polishing, and of course, all new strings! If that doesn’t make your violin happier, then nothing will.

How long since I did an oatmeal post? Years, I think.

In the past, I’d been doing overnight oats. You add milk, yogurt or water to a serving of oats and refrigerate it for a minimum of overnight. That was before we lived in a house with a microwave. Since we have a microwave now, I’ve discovered that regular oats only take about a minute and a half to get to the consistency I like. I still do overnight oats occasionally or (and sorry I’m not sorry) I make OOIAJ (overnight oats in a jar) to use up the last bits of “nut butter.” Chris thinks I’m crazy but it’s a nice treat.

Oatmeal. 3/4 cup. Cover with water. Microwave for 1:30 (yes, I don’t care for it too soggy.) Add spoonful of “nut butter”, scoop of “protein powder” and your choice of fruit. And coffee. WIN.

Pictured below: raspberries, blackberries, and blueberries. No banana this week: I ate those plain.

Are you a creature of habit for your morning meal?

Everybody’s been doing Throwback Thursday pictures where they post old pictures of themselves online. I figured I’d do the same but I’m calling it Flashback Friday because people usually use that to link to an old blog post.

I could scan some old pictures in but instead I’m going back to 2001 when I first got my Snapfish account. You’ll have to sit on your hands and wait for something older than that…though of course I was a toddler then…

This is me holding up the Leaning Tower of Pisa. Now, children and young people, you need to know this is an impressive picture BECAUSE we did not know until it got developed if it turned out. Back in the summer of 2001, things weren’t like they are today. I went to Europe and brought three rolls of 24 exposure film. I ended up buying a few more, and then I had to wait awhile to develop them when I got home because I’d used up all my money in Europe. We had to WAIT to see our pictures.

Spring of ’02. Heifetz and Oistrakh (aka her royal fatness). They rarely cuddled, but I took them on a trip with me and they were upset so they sat close to each other glaring at me the whole time.

Okay, one more, this from 2006, at Christmas time. My sisters with me—Leslie, me, Carrie.

What I really don’t understand is why I had wavy hair. I don’t have wavy hair now. It makes no sense.  Though Carrie had the same hair, so it’s probably genetic. This was at my parents’ house in South Carolina, which my dad built. It is a geodesic dome and is really neat.

One more, something tropical! For my 30th birthday my sister, my friend Sarah and I took a cruise from LA to the Mexican Riviera. (Leslie is already planning something similar for my 40th, though we have some time yet…).  Here’s us enjoying a few drinks on the deck in the sun. 

Today it is cold and rainy, even though it’s May 2, so a tropical vacation sounds pretty good. I know it’ll be hot again here soon enough (like it was the other day…man we humans have short term memories, don’t we?)

A Life Worth Dreaming About by Nicholas Dettmann

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I think all of us can look back on our lives and see, in retrospect, pivotal times, where our lives could have gone one way or the other…I just found myself relating to the main character more than perhaps I should have, in that I also grew up in a small town and couldn’t wait to leave–but I didn’t do so by alienating myself from everyone and being mean! I just left…

I liked how the author did a Christmas Carol style thing and made the main character look back on his life and see what he could have done differently and was able to change and become a better person. I didn’t like how all the main character’s colleagues bugged him about being single and should get married with kids. I don’t think that one needs a family to have a wonderful life, but I do think that everybody needs people and needs to treat people well.

A fun and easy read–will make you feel good about life.

(Blogging is hard work. You get a bunch of books to read and review, and you just FALL BEHIND because, darn it, life is hard, and plus I wasn’t getting paid for any of this beyond the free books. I read this one awhile ago and finally posted my review!)

View all my reviews

The past few years April and May are always my craziest months. This year I tried to pace myself and not go crazy. (That’s what February was for). Things are not so super busy this April, though I’ve still quite behind on…you know…everything.

For instance. I only took two pictures on my phone since my last blog post. WEIRD RIGHT?

Here they are!

I thought my hair looked extra wavy because of the rain yesterday. Yeah. Those are gray hairs GLISTENING IN THE LIGHT. And evidently I have no eyebrows? Strange times. Reminds me I need to dye my hair again—it’s betraying my age!

And this was from rehearsal today.  I met my friend Jennifer (I have numerous friends named Jennifer, this is the one who is the mother of my horse head student) for some Brahms rehearsal. We are playing a recital in the fall, most likely, and some other performances before then.

Always worth posting again. ALWAYS.

Unrelated: I have developed a true obsession with Taco Bell’s Doritos Locos Taco. I had to go there for lunch today and had the best lunch EVER: a bean burrito and the cool ranch taco.  I understand that this may not be the healthiest lunch choice…but my goodness.  So delicious. I didn’t take a photo today but luckily I have some from the past…

After you eat one, your hands smell and taste like cool ranch doritos for HOURS. It’s wonderful. Or it’s gross and I should wash my hands better.