Hump Day

Many of my students started school this week. As a result the lessons have been less effective because the poor kids are exhausted. (My argument is always that they should drop out of school to focus on violin, but rarely do they take my advice.) One student dropped her bow no less than three times (it is important to always teach over carpet for this reason) and another kept getting lost in a passage of a piece that she had played perfectly well many times before. Another hurt his pinky finger in P.E. and claimed that was why he was unable to play his scale very well in tune.

But I saw some of my students for the first time since the end of the school year so it is nice to get back into the swing of things with them. Ideally they wouldn’t take the entire summer off, but I can’t control these things.

Music wise it’s been a decent week. I’ve got some stuff that I’m practicing for which is good because it’s always good to have goals and to keep busy. After playing the violin for 30 years, I’m amazed how easy can be to stay in decent shape (still hard to stay in top notch shape, but decent shape just gets easier and easier.) Two days ago I pulled out some music I hadn’t played since mid-February and it felt like perhaps a week or two had passed. This is good because it means I can hopefully get the music to an even higher level than I had had it before (always the goal!) and I have time for that. (There’s an audition coming up for the extra list for the St Louis Symphony—doing well on the audition would be I might get to substitute more often than…just a bit for one month back in 2012.)

Otherwise, I’m just keeping my head down and trying to stay busy. My life has changed in ways that I’m not quite ready to announce on the blog (and for the love of all that is holy I am NOT pregnant, and the next person who asks me that AFTER LOOKING AT MY STOMACH will seriously get punched in the face, and I’m not kidding one bit) but it’s been an incredibly difficult summer…though in retrospect I suppose it’s been difficult for a longer time than I cared to admit. *shrugs* Life goes on though, doesn’t it?

I won’t end on a serious note, because I’m not actually feeling that way right now.

Here’s a funny link that my sister Leslie sent me today about equal dining rights for cats. It’s worth a read if you are a cat lover (and goodness, if you aren’t, why the heck are you reading my blog?)