Grand Ideas

Action #reverb10

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Prompt: Action. When it comes to aspirations, its not about ideas. It’s about making ideas happen. What’s your next step?

Making ideas happen.

I love brainstorming.  I love coming up with ideas…on any topic!  But putting those ideas into play, making them happen, that is definitely not my strong suit.

In fact, I have a category here on my blog called “Grand ideas” for when I come up with…well…grand ideas!

I took a look back at the blog posts I categorized under that.  Very few of the ideas came to fruition…and I’m okay with that.  I would rather have a million ideas and make one (or none) of them happen than have two ideas and make both of them happen.  Is that lame? 

Sure, it might mean I take longer to reach my goal than somebody else.  But my life will be more interesting along the way, and I’ll never be bored. 

Besides, I don’t have goals.  I have “grand ideas.”

Performing

Playing the violin #reverb10

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Prompt: Body integration. This year, when did you feel the most integrated with your body? Did you have a moment where there wasn’t mind and body, but simply a cohesive YOU, alive and present?

 

This is exactly how I feel when I’m playing the violin well. 

Playing the violin is both physical and mental.  My mind knows what I want the sound to be and makes body makes it happen.  If everything lines up, the magic happens!  I play the music exactly as I imagine it to be.

What can keep this from happening for me?

Pain:  from injury or overuse.  I am very susceptible to injury, particularly in my wrists and joints.

Tension:  due to nerves, stress, improper warm up, too cold, cramped for space, tired, sick, etc. 

Not practicing enough:  lack of planning, lack of inclination, lack of time, too much pain

But when these things don’t happen, when I am:

Pain-free

Relaxed

Well-prepared

I can play the performance of my life!  I can love my music!  I know why I have chosen my career!

Generally this happens during orchestral performances for me—I become ONE with the music, and I am absolutely swept away in the moment. 

I was glancing back at my concert schedule from this year (so sparse in contrast to previous years) and thinking of concerts I LOVED playing…

The recent Chamber Project Concert definitely fit the bill in places…Werther with Winter Opera did as well…Shostakovich 10 with Columbus Symphony…I could go on. 

So often, as a professional we get caught up in the details, the rehearsal schedule, our fee, the breaks, etc, and of course those things are important…but…we mustn’t lose sight of the forest for the trees!

This is exactly why I love to play the violin.  To become ONE with the music.  To have my mind and body absolutely integrated.  This is what I wish for all of my students to feel some day! 

Christmas, Running, Teaching

Christmas ornaments

Let me tell you a little about some of the ornaments on my Christmas tree.  I have been collecting ornaments for a long time!

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This was a gift from my very first violin teacher!  I saved this for a long time until I had my own tree Smile

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This one was a gift from my very first violin student (I was in high school!)  She decorated it herself.  I love it!

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A gift from my “host mother” when I was at the National Repertory Orchestra in Breckenridge, Colorado for two summers.

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Got this in the Cayman Islands on my FIRST trip there.  I was fortunate enough to spend almost a week on Grand Cayman and just had to play a few orchestra rehearsals and a concert.  Wish I could have done that again! But I did return to the Caymans at least.

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I got this one in Mazatlan, Mexico on my second cruise (with my sister Leslie and good friend Sarah).  Yes, it’s an adorable cow.

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A gift from my sister Leslie.  Unfortunately it sustained some damage when the tree fell over last year.  I’m happy to report that so far this year the tree has remained standing!

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Another gift from my sister Leslie!  It’s a sock monkey. 

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Got this cutie at World Market this year.  Or at least I think it’s cute!

I’ll do another round of ornaments soon—there are several violin ornaments from my mother along with some other sentimental type. 

I am QUITE nervous about tomorrow afternoon’s concert at Metro East Lutheran School.  It’s a joint concert with students from a variety of Lutheran schools in the area, and I wasn’t able to attend the rehearsal today to see how my students did and meet the other teachers (due to my other gigs…I had thought the rehearsal was in the morning), so that means that tomorrow I will be doing that.  I always get nervous on behalf of my students (especially because technically they could have used more time on this music, even though they did work really hard!) plus I get nervous meeting new people.  Basically I’m afraid that my students are ill-prepared and it’s my fault…you know, the usual Winking smile  (Wow, I sound like a basket case describing myself!)  I didn’t hear any bad news from parents though so I’m hoping that means today went just fine.  Nonetheless I’ll feel better when it’s over.

Woke up this morning at 8:15 and it was pouring rain.  Figured if I was going to do a treadmill run, I’d do it on Sunday, the normal day.  So I hope it doesn’t snow too much overnight to get to the gym!!  There is a treadmill with my name on it wanting 8 miles…

HBBC:  20 minutes weight-lifting: 1 point, 20 minutes stretching: 1 point, total: 2 points.

Random thoughts

11 things #reverb10

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Prompt: 11 Things. What are 11 things your life doesn’t need in 2011? How will you go about eliminating them? How will getting rid of these 11 things change your life?

 

At first reading this post seems like a great idea.  At second reading, well, I’m just overwhelmed!  11 things?  and for each to answer the question, how will getting rid of it change my life? 

I decided that the 11 things must all be connected to one big thing.  My big thing that I want to get rid of for 2011 is negativity and self-doubt (really the same). 

What things bring about self-doubt?

1.  Worrying about what other people think

2.  Having too high of standards for myself

And that’s really as far as I can get.  So the next thing that brings about self-doubt is trying to come up with 11 things that do!  So maybe I need more “things”?  Am I thinking about this too abstractly?  Should I consider getting rid of 11 actual things?

I COULD get rid of 11 pieces of clothing or shoes…

I have done pretty well this year giving away clothing that doesn’t fit or that I don’t wear, but I am sure I could get rid of more.  I won’t list them here, but let’s assume there is a jacket or two, two skirts, a few shirts, two or three pairs of pants, and likely 2 or 3 pairs of shoes that I haven’t worn since moving to St. Louis OR that are just too big (yay!). 

How will getting rid of these 11 items of clothing change my life?  Well, honestly, the thing that Chris and I fight the most about is probably general household chores.  Neither of us is terribly neat, but due to my self-doubt (see above, particularly reasons 1 and 2) AND due to the fact that I would truly like to live in a neat house, I am constantly bugging him to clean, feeling guilty for not cleaning, or (on occasion and in desperation) cleaning up. 

If I have 11 less items of clothing there is more space in my drawers and closet to put OTHER things away, which might make the rest of the house cleaner.

Outcome: less fighting with Chris. 

And bonus outcome:  less self-doubt over cleanliness of house!

Well, gosh.  This is starting to sound pretty good!  Maybe I need to get rid of 11 things from EACH room….I’ll make a note in my resolution draft Smile

Random thoughts, Teaching

Quick recap of week

I’ve been so busy these past few days I’ve just been doing the reverb10 posts.  So what have I been doing?

Well, less working out that in the past, but that’s okay.  I’m still on track, and the holidays are just tough.  I ended up having two days off this week plus I’ve been dealing with leg soreness from Mike-related exercises.

I have done most of my Christmas shopping!  I’ve gotten people some really awesome gifts and I hope they all love them (or at least find them useful.)  I probably spent too much, but it’s fine Smile I just hope my family and Chris are happy with their gifts!

I got a few new decorations for the tree.  I’m really pleased with the tree this year, it just looks really beautiful.  Yesterday one of my students came in, looked at the tree and the presents underneath (I wrap my gifts and set them out), and asked “are any of those for me?”  I had to laugh—I absolutely remember that feeling—you would see gifts and hope (and hope) that one was for you…but I don’t recall ASKING!  Sometimes you would be disappointed, but sometimes you would get that surprise gift you weren’t expecting.  Isn’t it great being a kid??

I had a morning off on Wednesday where my stomach was really acting up.  I think the stress was getting to me a bit…or I had a bit of bug/food poisoning.  Who knows.  I managed to make it through the rest of the week.

I realized I messed up a bit for the weekend—I forgot to forward a memo to my students who are performing on the Metro East Lutheran joint school concert on Sunday.  I guess it’s really impossible to do everything!  I made a list on Wednesday of all the things I needed to do until December 19 (vacation) and have kept up pretty well since then…but it’s hard to keep up with the things you forget to do OR forget to put on the list.  I’m making cookies for my class students this week for mini-parties and we have three performances ahead of us—hopefully they will go smoothly, or at least, well enough!  In the past few months I’ve worked my butt off on these new school jobs and I don’t always feel I get enough back from them to make it worthwhile.  But as always, the kids are wonderful Smile

Today was a workout with Mike and a rehearsal for a choir concert.  It was my first orchestral experience in a long time, and it was quite fun!  The workout was great too—the gym has been expanding and now has a large back room with a new line of treadmills.  The disturbing part of the workout was where a creepy guy from the gym was evidently staring at me while I was doing squats.  Mike was pretty pissed—he had us move to another part of the gym (He didn’t say anything to the guy, but I think he wanted to?  I don’t really know, I kind of missed the whole thing.)  I guess that’s the problem when you lose weight and look awesome when you work out—gross balding creeping guys might stare at you.  Then again, seriously gross balding creeping guys, we women need to work out too.  If that happens again, be sure that me or one of the trainers will report you to gym management for creepy staring!

I haven’t been nearly as flexible as during my Bikram Yoga weeks…maybe I’ll need to attend another class.  I will, I think…plus, it is very warm in the class, and it’s cold outside, good reason, right?

Wish me luck tomorrow—I am planning to do my long run in the morning because Sunday is supposed to be really cold and tomorrow isn’t quite as cold.  I would prefer not to run 8 miles on the treadmill…then again, it might rain tomorrow.  So that’s why I need luck.

Chris and I went to Dressel’s for dinner.  It was wonderful!!  We split the chips with rarebit and I had pasta with a mushroom sauce.  I also had the green goddess salad because I felt guilty about not having enough veggies with my dinner—I love green goddess dressing.  (Is that a St. Louis thing?)

Well, I hope you’ve enjoyed this somewhat random post!  I have a busy weekend ahead of me, but I’m looking forward to some good times and great performances!

Random thoughts

Wisdom #reverb10

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Prompt: Wisdom. What was the wisest decision you made this year, and how did it play out?

Decisions!  We all make decisions every day.  I thought about this one all day—what big decisions did I make this year?  I resigned from ProMusica Chamber Orchestra, a group I had played with for over five years.  I joined the gym and started working with a personal trainer.  I took on several new teaching positions.  I attended a summer institute to continue my Suzuki Violin Teacher Training.

Then there are the smaller, everyday decisions:  what to eat for dinner, where to go out with friends, what social engagements to accept and which to decline, what to wear, how to do my hair, etc.

The thing is, I feel like my wisest decision has already been beat to death on my blog, but yet I can’t come up with a better response.  I even discussed this with Chris over dinner at Dressel’s tonight (a great decision!)—and he said immediately:  well, we joined the gym.  You’ve all heard it already, but it’s true:  joining the gym and signing on to train with Joe is by the wisest decision I made this year.

I will always be glad I made that decision.

How did it play out?  I lost weight, I completely changed the way I eat and look at food, and I now love working out and sweating.  I’ve run several races and am training for another one.  I feel strong and healthy.  I know even if I gain weight indulging over the holidays I will be able to lose it without a problem.

Seriously wise decision.

 

HBBC:  yesterday: 7 f/v: 1 point, today: 1 mile run: 1 point, workout with Mike: 4 points, 7 f/v: 1 point, total for two days: 7 points.  Total for week: 26 points

thoughts about violin, teaching, running, life.