Category Archives: Teaching

Running, Teaching

Proud Teacher

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Today I slept in then had a rehearsal (for a gig that Chris is playing too, which is fun!) and then hurried off to my students’ recital at the St Louis School of Music.

I’m enjoying playing with the Bach Society.  I forget how much fun sitting in the back with a hilarious stand partner can be.  (A stand partner is someone you share a stand with—string players almost always sit two to a stand and so you share music, and if you are lucky, inside jokes.)  Of course we are working hard and not just goofing off, but it’s been a fun couple of rehearsals.  It doesn’t hurt that I’m also hilarious.

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The older I get the more proud I become of my students.  They get so nervous and yet get up there in front of everyone and show off their hard work.  I was particularly proud of some of my students but of course I love them all the same, right?  😉

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I love the backdrop of the stage.  By the end of the recital it was dark and the trees had twinkly Christmas lights.

Speaking of, how weird is this heat wave?  I think it got up to 70 today—it’s so bizarre to be driving around seeing Christmas lights and decorations while wearing a tank top.  It’s really hard to get into the “Christmas spirit” while sweating on a run.  (Figuratively speaking.  I didn’t exactly run today.  Or yesterday.  I’m going to tomorrow, I swear.  And I imagine I’ll be sweating.  Though technically I sweat when it’s cold too, so that was a pretty lousy analogy, right?)

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(It is Caturday…aerial view of her Royal Fatness.)

Okay, a couple more random thoughts before I leave you to your Saturday night.  Does anybody have a Direct TV DVR?  Ours has been randomly recording stuff and I don’t understand why.  I looked on the “To do list” and none of the shows it’s recording are on there, but yet…then they show up.  It’s very annoying.  We don’t wish to record “Adventure Time” or “The Rachel Maddow Show” and we’re not really sure why the DVR is doing it.  Unless the cat has developed an ability to use the remote?  Weirdest of all is a half watched recorded episode of “Real Sex” …and both of us assumed the other had watched half of it.  I know I did not, and I believe Chris when he said he didn’t…but that doesn’t really leave anybody.  (Are we haunted? Is somebody breaking in to watch and record stuff on our DVR?  Is this is truly a first world problem?)

Oh, and I registered for the Castlewood Cup today.  Figured I wouldn’t have enough to do with marathon training and perhaps an audition in addition to, you know, work…plus I haven’t done enough trail running lately.  (I ran it last year too!) Plan:  do some trail running while training rather than just showing up and trying not to die.  Who else is running?

I’m off to hang out with friends!  Lots going on tonight—wine at my friend’s house and then meeting Chris and another couple at Franco for drinks and appetizers.  Yeah, yeah, rough life 😉

Teaching

I have the style of a 7th grader

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One of my students likes to tease me about my Toms shoes.  Mainly because she doesn’t think I need comfortable shoes because I just sit there during the lessons.  She wishes I would wear my cow shoes more often.  The other day I was telling her about my new Toms which are fuzzy on the inside and she thought that was really ridiculous.  Anyway, I explained to her that I was totally going to wear my cow shoes for her, but I wanted to wear my red jeans, and the cow shoes have pink in them…and then I realized we were both wearing red jeans.  That’s right.  I have the style of a 7th grader.  (I think she’s in 7th grade.  Maybe it’s 8th grade.  Apologies if she or her mother is reading this and I’m wrong!)

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That’s right.  I’m awesome :)  Or at least my students are!

Cat, Teaching

Thoughts on students and my cat’s twin

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You may recall we have moved recently.  I teach out of my house a couple of days, and the younger kids are always most interested in the changes. 

For instance, we are renting a single family home that used to be a duplex—only the thing is, because of some city law, the duplex doors must remain.  So we have two front doors.  The students are FASCINATED by this, and often try to come in and go out a different door each time.

The other day one of my students wanted to wash his hands.  I took him down the hall to the bathroom, and he needed help turning the faucet on (a bit too high for little people).  As he was washing he looks around and then says, "It seems you don’t live here alone."  He seemed really disappointed when I said, "why, yes, I live with my husband."  I’m guessing he was hoping I would say, "why, you are correct, I live here with my five year old son who wants to go play with you rather than learn the violin!  Why don’t you do that for the next 30 minutes?" 

On the way out, this same student looked into our {rather empty as we haven’t yet found a dining room table we like} front room and asked, "Why don’t you have any furniture?"

Funny student stories aren’t limited to my home students though.  My school students are equally entertaining.

The other day at my school one of my students came in and said "You look really pale."

Other students always like to comment on my makeup, or if I have something weird (like a large zit) happening on my face, or if my nose is red.  I also get lots of comments on my shoes or my outfits generally, or on my hands (fingernail biting and worse…"Why does somebody so pretty have such ugly hands?" a small child once queried).  I think what’s most fun about the kids is that they will just ask a question when they think of it rather than worry about the politeness of it—and I do my best to answer.  I imagine if they asked something that was really inappropriate I’d let them know, but usually it’s a perfectly good question:  "Did you know you have a brown stain on your nose?" while drinking coffee for instance…it’s nice that SOMEONE is willing to point these things out!

What is that cat-shaped blob in the corner?

My friend Valentina posted these pictures on my facebook "timeline" last night.  She saw this cat while on vacation in Italy (?).  Isn’t that wild how much like my cat this one looks?  Even down to the soft rounded tummy, lighter colored paw, and sleeping ability. Thanks for sharing the photos, Valentina (hope you don’t mind I blogged them 😉 )!!  I am so delighted by this cat.

Food, Random thoughts, Teaching

How is it Monday already?

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Yes, creative post titles, that’s my forte. 

If you are wanting with bated breath for my 80s race recap, you’ll have to keep waiting.  I don’t have time now to write a good one and do it justice.  I’m planning to do so tonight, but after work I am going for a run and then I have to watch last night’s Mad Men…you’ll get it when you get it.  If you recall, this is what I wore:

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I will tell you about how awful and hot the race was soon though.  And how gross and sweaty a pair of skin tight orange shorts get.

But first: 

Yesterday was another busy day, with fun and work.  You know, the usual.  We started by taking care of a friend’s dog.  Chris loves this dog and wants one like it someday.

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That’s Buck.

Then we met Steve and Melissa for brunch at Vin de Set.  I follow them on facebook and every weekend they post these amazing sounding dishes of what they have for brunch.  It was finally a good day to go, and I’m glad we did.  I always love eating at Vin de Set, because it’s the building we got married in and it brings back all kinds of happy memories.

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Plate number one…you can tell this was a really healthy meal.  Bacon is the centerpiece of any healthy breakfast.

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The view…at night…from Vin de Set.

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The world’s coldest couple, on top of Vin de Set (we took pictures out there.)

Oh, wait, did I hijack this post with wedding photos?  Gosh, how DID that happen? 

Which brings us to my first afternoon activity—our Festival Concert with the St Louis School of Music at the Sheldon Concert Hall.  This is the annual concert for all the kids to perform in groups rather than by themselves, though this year we had a few kids play solos by audition. 

My wedding photographer (and friend) Sarah Crowder‘s daughter takes violin at the school, so Sarah was on hand snapping a million photos.  I had a hard time not just dropping everything I was doing and posing for her, but I reminded myself she wasn’t there to take pictures of ME this time.

She posted this gorgeous picture on facebook though—I’m onstage in the back left, somewhere…

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It was a wonderful experience for the students and they all did a wonderful job!

After that I had to meet for a photo shoot in Forest Park (which ended up being at Tower Grove Park due to a mixup) for a new strolling strings group I’m joining with my friend Elizabeth.  There are three violins and a guitar, and our next step is to put together some demo tracks, and the step after that is: profit!  I’m sure I’ll have some pictures to share—we took pictures at the Music Stand Pavilion and by the Ruins in Tower Grove Park.  It was about to rain the whole time but held off long enough for us to be holding our instruments. 

After all that Chris and I had dinner and then watched "The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo."  I do love that Daniel Craig.  The movie was very good too, though confusing in parts (and I’ve read the books). 

How was your weekend?  Are you happy it’s Monday?

Teaching

Big day

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I start at City Academy today—I am teaching 12 hours a week of violin group classes while my friend Laura is on maternity leave.  I am completely stressed out about this…one of my biggest stressors had been worrying about how to fit working out into my schedule as well.  Evidently I just don’t do that anymore.  (Injury, remember, not completely sheer laziness…) Today is an 11 hour work day though, woo hoo! 

I’m sure it’ll be fine.  At least the classes are M/T/Th/F which means Wednesday I get to recoup and catch up on everything.  And I’ll be making a lot of extra money going into the summer.  And the kids are really sweet. 

I need to learn to say no!  But Laura is such a good friend, I just couldn’t.  One can do anything for 6 weeks, right?

Oh, and that means that today she is having her baby.  That’s going to be awesome.  (In no way should you take my excitement over Laura and Jon’s baby as an indication that I want my own.  Just saying.  I look forward to visiting him, rubbing his little soft fat feet, maybe poking in the belly a bit, and then HANDING HIM BACK to his parents and going home.  I need my beauty sleep.)  But seriously, everybody send good wishes to Laura today, she’s going to be great!

And send good wishes to me as well.  I can do this, right?  Or if not, well, it’s only until the end of May. 

I wish we lived the kind of exciting lives that would be ruined by having a baby.

Teaching

Kids say the darnedest things

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I’m thinking of Bill Cosby as I write that title.  More importantly, Bill Cosby as he is depicted on Family Guy.

My students often ask great questions.  I had quite the range of questions in my teaching yesterday. 

Let me preface by saying I’ve been having a little bit of trouble with my forehead lately.  A few weeks ago I got a pimple on my forehead.  No big deal, right?  Except, knowing me, I can’t leave it alone, and keep picking at it.  Suffice it to say, the scab is still there, and yesterday I needed to have a band-aid over it.  I figured, whatever, so it looks crazy but it’s better than the alternative. 

Every single student asked me about it.  And I didn’t really want to go into what was really under the band-aid because I was a little embarrassed plus it’s mildly disgusting…and none of them would let it go.  They refused to accept my answer of simply having a "boo-boo" under my band-aid.  They wanted to know more details.  How did it happen?  How big was it?  Did somebody else do it to me or did I do it myself?  Was it the cat?  They just wouldn’t let it go.  I guess an adult having a band-aid on her forehead is a pretty big deal!

(quick google image search for cats and band-aids…PSA:  animals have claws.  deal with it.)

On the other end of the spectrum, sometimes my students ask really good, interesting, unique questions.  I’m teaching one of my students vibrato and we were working on the exercises yesterday.  He stopped and asked, "Do you use vibrato in orchestra?"  I said "Why do you ask?" and he said, very thoughtfully, "If everybody is vibrating at different speeds, won’t that sound bad?"  I had a really hard time answering that question!  Since the answer is both yes, and no.  I ended up talking a little bit about chamber music and matching vibrato, but I may have just confused him.  I just thought it was a great question.  He then followed up with "Should I be practicing more than ten minutes a day?"  To which I replied, "YES" since I didn’t realize he was only practicing ten minutes a day!  I guess I need to ask more questions about practicing….

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