Random thoughts

Where did the week go?

Wow, I can’t believe it’s already Thursday night.  When you work practically non stop the time really flies by!

Tomorrow we hit the recording studio for my ocarina rehearsal—it should be fun!  I’m also hoping to have dinner with a friend, or maybe more than one.  Chris has been rehearsing nights all week (and concerts now) so I’ve been on my own in the evenings.  Tonight and last night I went to the gym (tonight:  hill sprints on the treadmill…rough…but I wore my Phoenix RnR Tshirt so I felt hardcore), but tomorrow will be a fun night instead.

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I should take a picture of myself IN the shirt, though this is an impressive picture with the medal and all.  I don’t think we get enough opportunities to wear our race medals.  Maybe I’ll wear one at my wedding.

The weekend will be pretty hectic—we have a “festival concert” at the St Louis School of Music, I have a student playing Solo and Ensemble on Saturday morning, and there’s the Ocarina Concert.  Next week is crazy too in that I have two school concerts.  However, after that…well we are just heading towards summer.

Next week Chris and I have an appointment to check out a venue we are strongly considering for our wedding.  I am psyched!!  We have been hard at work making the guest list and a tentative budget.  Chris has also been hard at work researching things such as flowers, cake, invitations, and whatnot.  I would help out more but this month is just crazy.  It’s funny that he is so into the wedding planning right now…and very nice, because one of us needs to be!  (Don’t take that the wrong way, I absolutely am into getting married, but planning a wedding just makes me sleepy.  I’ve been ready to marry Chris for a decade now.  Just tell me when and where to show up.  Wait.  Am I a guy?)

I saw this in the most recent edition of Runner’s World

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The real question…are the seatcovers poop-proof?  (I’m sorry, I’m sorry for all the poop jokes…I just can’t help myself…)

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June 2011 of Runner’s World, that is how I look without a shirt also…oh, wait, I’m a woman…(also am not convinced of the whole no hair look for men, but that’s another story)

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Yup, that’s how I look!

Okay.  So I never made my May goals—I feel like May will just be me trying to get through and live to see the end and then I’ll catch up on my goals in June.  I’m still waiting to get my kindle because I didn’t realize the cover I wanted was backordered and was causing the whole order to get behind.  I fixed it though and my kindle should be arriving in a few days.

Well, I’m off to bed—Happy Cinco de Mayo to my Mexican readers!

Random thoughts

Text messages

I was both an early and a late adapter for text messaging.  I wasn’t the first of my friends to start, but I definitely text all the time now.

Back when texting first came into the world, I mocked it.  I said, why not just make a quick phone call?  How annoying to type in all those letters?  Then I discovered predictive text, or T9 as Sprint (my phone carrier) called it.  I went from 10 texts a month to over 1000, and realized I should sign up for the unlimited pack. 

I texted all the time.  I texted without looking, back in the days when I didn’t have a touch screen.  I (admittedly) texted while driving, though let’s say I was always stopped at a light or whatnot.  I texted friends who were sitting right next to me, and I definitely annoyed people (still do) texting when I should be talking with the actual people who are in my presence.

I even started sending texts when picking a friend up (say, at their house) rather than calling.  A quick text “here” that they would receive rather than having to answer the phone.  Again, something I originally mocked, and then embraced.

Then I got a touch screen phone.  My current phone is the HTC Hero, and is a touch screen.  I would like to go on the record and say that I hate touch screen typing.  However, I have overcome it’s limitations (having to look at the screen rather than feel the numbers) and continued to text with a vengeance.  I use one finger on the tiny picture of a keyboard.

I hear there is a technology for voice-to-text.  You speak into your phone and it sends what you say as a text message.  I imagine it’s almost like making a phone call but slightly more challenging. 

When I got engaged I sent out some mass text messages.  I texted Leslie first, who responded, WHY ARE YOU SENDING THIS VIA TEXT MESSAGE?  The answer, it was FASTER.  And it JUST happened.

Here’s the issue.  The conversations are stored together, and once they reach a certain point, my phone finds it impossible to delete them.  My text conversation between Chris and I (my highest, of course) was over 2000 messages long.  With another friend, over 1000, and with several other friends, over 100.  When I first got my phone I stayed on top of the deleting, but I evidently got lazy.  What’s more, my phone was NO LONGER able to delete the messages and would crash instead.  It also was running the messaging program very slowly.  And then yesterday I realized that I might have MISSED getting a bunch of messages—most definitely some from Chris and Leslie and who knows who else?  IT WAS A DISASTER.

I finally realized I should google the problem.  I don’t know why I waited so long to use google on my problem.  And guess what…

There’s an app for that.  In fact there are a variety of apps for that.  Apps that delete your text messages that your phone can’t on its own.

So now I’ve deleted MOST of my messages, in fact, now my phone will automatically delete all but the last 100 messages. 

Will I start receiving all my text messages?  That I cannot say.  I certainly hope so.  I guess that’s the issue with this fancy new technology, it just doesn’t always work. 

So, if you have texted me and I didn’t respond, I probably didn’t get it.  You know otherwise I always have to have the last word! (Or don’t know when to quit…whatever…)

What are your thoughts on texting? Do you prefer phone calls, emails, texting, smoke signals, or what?

Performing

Ocarina Trio Concert (online!)

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I’m playing with Heather on Saturday. (Edited to add:  I will be playing VIOLIN, not ocarina.  The trio is violin/piano/ocarina.) It’s a fun program, and if you are free I highly recommend tuning in.  If you are lucky you might even get to hear me blather on about my hobbies, and depending on the editing, there might be a half marathon joke in there, or perhaps something involving bacon (hopefully not).  In any case I’ve been rehearsing with the two other women for the past couple of weeks and I’ve been having a great time.  If you aren’t familiar with the Ocarina, it sounds sort of like a cross between a flute and recorder…it’s used in a lot of video games and Japanese anime.

I got this opportunity through the new school I’ve been teaching at, the St Louis School of Music.  The owners of the school also run an ocarina website which sells ocarinas, ocarina accessories and ocarina music/recordings.  I hope to play more with the trio in the future, but in case this is my only shot, you should definitely listen on Saturday!  6 pm Central Time, so do the math (7 pm Eastern, for instance!)

I don’t want to give away the program, but it ranges from ragtime to Piazzolla, and there is something for everybody.  I’m not on every piece, so don’t be alarmed if you don’t see me at first.  I’ve never played on a live internet concert, so I’m pretty psyched.  I’ve also been warned I might get some new “fans”…I suppose that’s also a possibility through this blog, so I’m not too worried.  I’ve years of experience ignoring creepy people anyway!

Random thoughts

Oil change

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Feel like I just had one but its been close to 5000 miles already! Plus one of my blinkers was out. I am watching one of the guys vacuuming my floor mats!

Gotta kill some time in Chesterfield anyway. What is everybody up to today? I had teaching, rehearsal, have more teaching and desperately hope to make it to the gym tonight. I want to get a run in, or maybe a hill workout.

Teaching

Dropped Violins

So far this week 4 students have dropped their violins on the floor.  LUCKILY so far none of them have broken.  It’s a miracle!  Yes, all of the students were boys. 

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source

This has been an interesting week so far for teaching.  My latest parlor trick is counting like the Count from Sesame Street for repetitions.  They LOVE this!  It works really well when I’m a bit tired and slap-happy.

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One!  Ha-ha-ha-ha!

Two!  Ha-ha-ha-ha! 

You get the picture.  My students don’t mind doing repetitions when I count like the Count!

 

Other than teaching this week, I also have rehearsals for Saturday’s Ocarina Concert.  It’s live on the internet, please watch!

http://www.stlocarina.com/

Follow that link for more information—Heather is the ocarina player I am playing with, and though I’m not pictured, that’s the concert I’m playing on.  Free, live, on the internet…what could be better?? 

Teaching

What it is that I do

I’m still surprised by the response to my earlier post on orchestra auditions.  What’s funny (to me) is how angry some people are.  Music is something that we should LOVE and feel great about.  If you are angry and bitter at music maybe you’ve missed something along the way.

That said, people who know me and people who have read more of my blog know that I am NOT an orchestral musician.  I do not have an orchestra job.

So what IS it that I do for a living?  Primarily I teach, and secondarily I play gigs.  We’re nearing the end of the school year so my life will change a bit, but right now this is what I do.

Teaching:

  • I have 15 private students, primarily 30 minute lessons.  These folks come to my house for lessons.
  • I teach at the St Louis School of Music two days a week (right now—7 hours),
  • I teach at the St Louis School of Ballet (in Chesterfield) one day a week (2 hours)
  • Two violin group classes at a school in St. Peters twice a week
  • Two days of teaching at a school in Collinsville where I have about 10 private students plus after-school orchestra once a week.

Playing:

This varies.

  • I play many weddings, sometimes 2 to 4 in a weekend (a good weekend!).
  • I play for church services.
  • I play chamber music concerts.
  • I play with an ocarina trio.
  • I play with Winter Opera St Louis.

Basically if you need to hire a violinist, I’d be happy to play 😉

This is my life right now.  This is my happy life, where I have time to work out almost every day and get plenty of sleep!  I get to run 15 to 25 miles a week, work out with a personal trainer twice a week and still have plenty of time for friends.  In the summer I’ll be able to work out EVERY DAY.

When I lived in Cleveland, this is what I was doing the last year there (to give you an idea of something a little different).

Teaching:

  • About 10 private students.  I went to their houses.
  • Taught at the Fairmount School of Music two days a week.  I had 10 to 15 students.
  • Orchestra Assistant with the Orange District Schools (8-10 hours a week?)

Playing (these are all part-time orchestras):

  • Concertmaster of the Mansfield Symphony
  • Principal Second Violin of the Canton Symphony
  • Violinist in the Akron Symphony
  • Violinist in the ProMusica Chamber Orchestra
  • Violinist in the Cleveland Pops Orchestra
  • Assistant Concertmaster of the Cleveland Chamber Symphony
  • Played a variety of wedding gigs and other gigs

That was a ridiculous schedule.  I worked on average 50 to 60 hours a week.  Many days I didn’t get home until after 11:00 pm.  Don’t even ask how someone can be a member of 6 orchestras.  I certainly wasn’t going to the gym.  I did enjoy it, though…

Did I make more money?  Of course!

Do I miss orchestra playing?  YES.  I was playing a different concert every week.  I miss it.  I miss it a lot.

A LOT.  Seriously.  Orchestra is the best!  There’s no other feeling like it—playing violin surrounded by that many other musicians.

But right now I’m not willing to do the travel it would require to do part time orchestra work.  St Louis is fairly isolated in this sense.  There is the symphony, and then there just isn’t a whole lot else, and what there is is filled with folks who have lived here a long time.  In Cleveland one could travel 1 hour to 1 hour 15 minutes and play with all kinds of groups.

I played with the Illinois Symphony my first year here in St Louis, but the commute ranged from 1 hour 30 minutes each way to 3 hours!  It was too much.  I also continued to play with ProMusica Chamber Orchestra and subbed with the Columbus Symphony (both in Columbus, Ohio) but I decided I wanted to focus more on my teaching this year and didn’t want to travel to Ohio monthly.

Am I happy with my teaching focus?  Yes.  Things are coming together here pretty well, and next year should be a lot simpler, easier, and better.  I have become a better teacher also.

Do I miss playing in orchestra?  YES.

Am I glad I have time for myself?  YES.  I wouldn’t trade it for anything.  I love thinking of myself as a runner.  I love working with a personal trainer.  These are some of my favorite things.

I love the violin, I love classical music.  I hope to spend the rest of my life passing that love onto another generation. I believe in what I am doing, and I believe in the music I play.

thoughts about violin, teaching, running, life.