Random thoughts

Weak wrists

I’m feeling old and whiny tonight.  I’m tired, I am still annoyed at this morning’s classes, and I have some aches and pains.

My wrist still hurts and now I have a bit of a blister on the bottom of my foot from today’s run. 

Foot: I’m thinking either I need to retire my blue Mizuno shoes OR switch to a different sock.  I have been wearing cotton (the horrors!) socks, and I noticed today’s pair was a bit stretched out as well, but I couldn’t do anything about it as I was changing at the gym.  I have a few pairs of synthetic socks, but I’m not a huge fan of any I have as they seem to slide around.  Maybe I should keep trying.  Suggestions?  As far as the shoes go, I have another pair.  I also plan to take my old shoes back to the running store and make sure my shoe is still the best one for me—my feet were pretty sore by the end of the half-marathon, but that’s probably normal, right?

Wrist:  I don’t know why it’s bothering me now…I haven’t been playing {violin} enough to cause problems. 

I have a history of problems with this wrist, starting back in, oh, 1991?  And on and off, ever since, particularly freshman year of college and while I was in the Charlotte Symphony.  I’ve been diagnosed with bursitis, tendonitis, and general overuse. Violin playing (for me, and many others) is fraught with injuries.  My right wrist is my biggest weakness, though by no means my only trouble zone.

However, I haven’t had any real problems with this wrist in several years, so I hadn’t thought about it until the other week when I woke up with pain in my wrist.  I thought maybe I had slept on it funny, so I ignored it for a few days.  I don’t know what caused it, but I do know what I should do.

Rest.  I’ll just have to be extra careful for a few weeks, at least.  That probably means no burpees.  OH NO!  (burpees are a torturous move incorporating an up-down, push-up, and a jump.  Mike loves them.  That is, he loves making me do them.  I can’t speak for his own workout regime.)  Stupid weak wrists.  I’ve also slept in my wrist brace for two nights, and I’ll continue that again tonight and probably for a few more days or longer. 

Lucky I “just” teach now, and don’t have to play violin for a living.  Winking smile  Small victories, right? 

Teaching

Patience is a virtue

I am not doing well today with patience.  I lost my temper (well, in a child friendly way) two to three times during my morning classes.  I was TRYING to do something nice and play games—we played “Violin hangman” and I even added a true element of randomness to it by having the students draw for a song and then roll the dice to determine which line of the song to play.  It makes a nice challenge, having to start in the middle of the song rather than the beginning.  (What happens is, they do this, then get to choose a letter for the hangman game.)  But I asked them to follow one rule:  when somebody is playing, everybody must listen.  Evidently this was too difficult.  GAH!  Group classes are starting to drive me insane.  I see so much I could address with each child on a one-to-one basis…but that’s just not possible in this setting.  And as I’ve mentioned before, my discipline skills are sorely lacking.

I did manage to run 5 miles at the gym—I am working on my speed, so I was doing intervals of running/walking, but running much faster than I ordinarily would.  I believe I ran out my frustrations and I am now ready to face my later students.  At least there are no more group classes this week.

And I feel that having patience is one of my strong suits and helps me to be a good violin teacher.  I guess everybody gets a bad day?  I’m feeling like I really failed my morning classes…but maybe I just need to be clearer about the rules OR be more relaxed about them to myself.  I am not being consistent enough with the students and I probably confuse them.

Some of the students did play really well!  So that’s good.  Maybe I’m not a total failure in the class setting Smile.

musicstandsnow

Music stand (Tower Grove Park) in the snow

Random thoughts

Friends

While driving to work today, I was thinking about different kinds of friends. 

In a somewhat unparticular order, but a little bit particular:

Work friends:  this is different than colleagues.  Colleagues refers to everybody, work friends are those people you always chitchat with at work, but would be unlikely to hang out with anywhere else.  This idea can extend further, for instance, coffee shop friends and gym friends, though perhaps to a lesser degree, as you might spend less time in those places (unless you are like me, and spend many hours per week at the gym!)

Old friends:  Friends from previous times in your life.  I generally keep in touch with these people via Facebook, as I have moved quite a few times in my life.  Many old friends might be great friends if we lived in the same city, others are from a time and place in the past and would not be so close even if the distance didn’t exist.

Old friends are slightly different than College friends, though there is a fair degree of overlap.  It just depends on when we met. 

Lunch friends: Often these are work friends who you are trying to become better friends with.  You meet for lunch, or perhaps coffee, OUTSIDE of work.  (For me, most people start as work friends—when you work in a million different places, you meet a lot of people!) 

Occasional friends:  People who are busy but when you get together you have a great time.  Maybe you only see them a couple times a year…and neither of you makes enough effort to get together more often.  Perhaps you were good friends at one time, perhaps you were only lunch friends or work friends.

Good friends:  These are people that you see weekly, or at least try to.  You share quite a bit about yourself.  You meet for drinks or dinner, or have them over to your place.  You know when they go on vacation, you might even take care of their pet.

Best friends:  People that you can call any time, for any reason.  That you don’t have to clean your house for. Because you are no longer trying to impress or fake it for them, you are simply you and they are your friend despite that.  

Parting thoughts:  the older I get, the harder it is to make new friends.  After I first moved to St. Louis, I would be exhausted from trying to get to know people and let them get to know me.  It really is a lot of effort!  I figure we’ll end up moving again as soon as I have a few really good friends.

That’s sad, isn’t it?  I didn’t mean it to be.  Just thinking out loud here!  GOOD DAY!

robottaco

(unrelated, but delightful!)

Food, Teaching

Not a snow day!

Somehow today schools were not canceled.  Though a few students told me they fell on the ice on their way to school.  I was a bit disappointed I actually had to work today, but seriously, there was just a touch of ice. 

I know, I just dove right in there, didn’t I?  Hello, and welcome to tonight’s blog entry.  I taught tons of students today.  I taught two violin classes, one orchestra class, and 7 private students.  I’m very brain dead right now. 

I decided today was a good day to really work with my orchestra on following the conductor.  Up until this point in the year, I’ve been doing quite a bit of piano playing with them rather than conducting.  I do think it’s important to use ears AND eyes in orchestra, so we did scales trying to follow me.  They did pretty well!

I’ve been a bit concerned recently over my right wrist.  I’ve been having pain in it, particularly in the morning, but really whenever I’m bending it.  I think I should probably sleep with my brace on for a few nights, and probably cut out all non-essential wrist activities.  I am actually not blaming the violin at this point, though my wrist is prone to injury due to the violin.  I’ll blame push-ups and other gym activities. 

So, I failed at bread-making last night.

I put the ingredients in and then just let the machine do its thing.  Oops.  I failed to notice I hadn’t properly put the pan in, thusly the little paddle that is supposed to mix the dough didn’t QUITE mix it properly.  So it baked like this.

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Not QUITE what I wanted.  However, I did try a few bites and it seemed like a promising recipe.  I just need to make sure it mixes properly before letting it rise/bake.  Does this still count as a  new recipe for the month?

Food, Teaching

Snowy Sunday

Today we are getting a bit more snow.  After my spinning class I decided to skip the “Yoga for Runners” workshops I had signed up for…it would have meant driving out to Chesterfield and I had already driven past too many cars off the highway (in the ditch!).  Spinning class was all hills today and was seriously tough.  I’m hoping by next week I can figure out how to adjust the darned bike myself instead of needing help each time…it’s harder than it seems, for someone (such as myself) with very little spatial awareness.

Since I was home today instead of yoga-ing, I thought I’d see what baking I could do.  I settled on using my bread machine to make “True 100% Whole Wheat Bread” (page 20 of the manual).  The only ingredients are water, salt, honey, whole wheat flour, vital wheat gluten (whatever that is?), and yeast.  The bread machine is working hard right now, and I’m eager to taste the bread later (three hours or so from now).

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A few pictures of my bread machine.  I am pretty happy with it, though I don’t use it nearly often enough (as evidenced by the fact that I had to clean dust and cat hair off of it before using it today.)

I also am basically all caught up on my phone calls and busy work from my trip.  I would say I spent about 2 1/2 hours since getting home on paperwork, which isn’t bad.  I told myself I just had to sit down and DO it.  I am such a procrastinator with some things, and build them up bigger in my mind (or more time-consuming) than they actually are.  Don’t get me wrong, the business aspect of all of this does take time, but I mustn’t let it overwhelm me.

I am entertaining my summer institute plans…(if any) and am considering returning to Ottawa, KS for a Suzuki Teacher workshop.  Susan Kempter (my excellent teacher from last summer) is teaching Book Five—which I’ve already had BUT would gain new perspective.  Or there’s a Kreisler class with Alice Joy Lewis, who is supposed to be a brilliant teacher as well.  Not that I currently have any students doing Kreisler, but hopefully someday.  My other thought has been to attend the Mimi Zweig Indiana University Retreat, for a different perspective.  I know any choices I make will be good ones, as I believe all the options are great.

Okay, time to make dinner, watch a tv show and check out more of the Parents as Partners videos online.  Watching a few videos yesterday is what made me think of the summer institutes.  One big thing to remember:  Listen to the recordings!  Listen to the recordings!  Listen to the recordings!

Tomorrow I’m back to work for real—a busy week ahead! 

Random thoughts

Happiness Project Part 1

1 Comment

From Gretchen Rubin’s site:

A “happiness project” is an approach to changing your life. First is the preparation stage, when you identify what brings you joy, satisfaction, and engagement, and also what brings you guilt, anger, boredom, and remorse. Second is the making of resolutions, when you identify the concrete actions that will boost your happiness. Then comes the interesting part: keeping your resolutions.

I already have my “2011 goals” post to refer to—but part of that post is to create my own happiness project.  Let’s get started!

Okay, so, what brings me joy, satisfaction, and engagement?

(in no particular order, brainstorming!)

clean clothes, a clean house

a fresh pile of books to read, reading those books

my cat

planning a vacation, going on a vacation

calendars, making lists, checking things off lists

relaxed time with friends

rehearsals that make me feel like my education was worthwhile, being asked for new gigs

teaching students who practice, who enjoy and love music

moving money from checking to savings

trying new restaurants

working out with my trainer, my spinning class, new workout clothes, following my workout schedule

a fresh pot of coffee

cooking new foods, baking new goodies

 

Next, what brings me guilt, anger, boredom, and remorse?

staying up too late, wasting time

too full trashcans

forgetting to bring something to read

procrastinating

buying stuff I don’t really need

spending more money than I should

eating junk food, eating too much fatty foods

not preparing for classes enough

forgetting to return phone calls in a timely manner

snapping at Chris

not being “friendly enough” at parties or other events

not practicing enough

using too much paper

having to cancel or reschedule appointments

being afraid to drive in the snow

getting sick

biting my fingernails, picking at my cuticles

 

So, do most of the things on my 2011 goals/resolutions post follow these guidelines?

I think they do!  I guess I know myself pretty well.

thoughts about violin, teaching, running, life.