Food, Teaching

Flashback Friday!

I had a blog before this one, and I was just rereading it (yeah, slow night!).  I would like to repost most of an entry from Saturday, November 1, 2008 because it is a really great entry!

Saturday, November 1, 2008

Life in St. Louis

For those of you following my blog…haha! I know no one is. But anyway, at the beginning of September, my boyfriend and I moved to St. Louis for him to play with the SLSO this year. What have I been doing? Well, a few gigs, a few students, and really that’s about it. At first all the free time was really refreshing (I was used to working every day for about ten to twelve hours) but by now I’ve gotten a wee bit bored. So what I like to do is break up my day into thirty minute blocks, and plan activities around that. Okay, not really. But I’ve had more time to practice, sleep, cook, and work out. I also get a lot of business done.

One of the things I did recently was make some delicious pumpkin chocolate chip cookies. Only I used butterscotch chips. I’m going to give you the recipe here, because these cookies are truly awesome.

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies:
INGREDIENTS

* 1/2 cup shortening
* 1 1/2 cups white sugar
* 1 egg
* 1 cup canned pumpkin
* 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
* 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
* 1 teaspoon baking powder
* 1 teaspoon baking soda
* 1 teaspoon salt
* 1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
* 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
* 1/2 cup chopped walnuts (optional)
* 1 cup semisweet chocolate chips

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease cookie sheets.
2. In a large bowl, cream together the shortening and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the egg, then stir in the pumpkin and vanilla. Combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, nutmeg, and cinnamon; gradually mix into the creamed mixture. Stir in the walnuts and chocolate chips. Drop dough by teaspoonfuls onto the prepared cookie sheets.
3. Bake for 15 minutes in the preheated oven, or until light brown. Cool on wire racks.

Notes from me: I did not include the walnuts, I’m not a big walnut fan. The dough turned out really wet, and the cookies do not spread, so you can put them really close together. Lastly, they took more than 15 minutes in my oven, so be sure to check. Even when I took them out I wasn’t really sure they were done because they were pretty light, but they passed the taste test.

I have been teaching a violin class at a nearby school–there are five kids in the class, and it’s beginning violin. I’m not very good at discipline–I tend to let the kids distract me with random questions too much. By random questions I mean questions like, how are bows made? I hate to not answer stuff like that, because I love when kids are curious, but it tends to derail the class. We’ve had about five classes so far. I am trying to be more in charge. I will have to lay down the law a bit more, and insist that we stay on track. On a bright note, the kids are doing well–each week they have met my expectations. I suppose I need to raise my expectations of them!

I also have three private students so far. They are fun–one adult, one high school student, and one 4 year old, all male (a big change for me). The four year old is so fun! At the end of the first lesson, I showed him the stickers, to pick one. He looked through a bit, and then said, “Where are the batman stickers?”. As if, naturally I had batman stickers, and he just couldn’t find them. Unfortunately I did not! Since I was so used to mainly girl students, I had a lot of hearts and stars, but no BATMAN. Since then I have purchased batman stickers.

The other funny story about my four year old. We’ll say his name is Daniel. The second or third lesson, I called him Daniel, and he looked at me, and said “That’s not my name, my name is Andrew.” I was HORRIFIED, worried that I had called him the wrong name, and I looked at his mother to apologize. She rolled her eyes, and said, “yeah, for some reason he has decided he would rather be called Andrew. Just ignore it.” It was hilarious!

Note from Hannah today (not from the past):  I plan to make those cookies again this month, I remember how delicious they were!

Running, Weddings

Easy Friday

Today has been a great day so far!  I woke up early, had a work out with my trainer Mike (which was pretty tough), hit the store, picked up my race packet for tomorrow’s race, and played a wedding.  Now it’s laundry and perhaps an episode of Mad Men (am one week behind).

The wedding was outside at Sunset Country Club in Sunset Hills.  It was a nice day, though a bit sunny.  We aren’t able to play in direct sunlight (can ruin the varnish, and definitely puts the instruments out of tune easily) and sometimes it’s tough to convince people of this.  We had to play from under an awning a little ways away from the wedding site, and it was still quite bright due to the angle of the sun.  That said, it was a gorgeous day–could have used some cloud cover personally but was great for the bride and groom!  The crowd was really friendly and seemed like a great bunch of people.

(still using the retro camera!)

 

You can tell how sunny it was! Beautiful scenery though, and the pictures don't do it justice.

 

Me in the car beforehand

 

I’m nervous and excited for tomorrow’s race.  It’s very different from the half marathon, of course (only 5K , approximately 3.1 miles) and on a much smaller scale, but I am hoping to have a good time and run most of it.  I already got the t-shirt though, technically wouldn’t even have to go.  (I will of course!  and Chris is coming to cheer me on as well).

The race loot:  includes small sample of Wheaties.  I should probably eat those beforehand so I can finish strong!

T shirt, wheaties FUEL, race number, and shoe tag for timing.

 

Lots of sponsors, including my gym (Club Fitness)

I’ll let you know how it goes!  Have a wonderful Friday night 🙂

Teaching

Students leaving

2 Comments

I just wanted to say a few words about when students leave my studio.  I’ve lost a few students recently, but gained a few as well.  I do not require contracts from students, so basically people can quit whenever–I probably should start making people sign a contract that they have to give one month notice, but I really don’t want more paperwork…

There are two ways people leave the studio.  The best way is that they tell me, either in person, over the phone or email.  It’s really fine!  I understand that finances or other life events, or other activities get in the way of violin lessons.  When you sign up for violin lessons, you are not making a lifetime commitment (like I have ;)) so of course I expect people to leave at some point.  Ideally that would be high school graduation for my younger kids, but I don’t actually expect that.  Sometimes people leave and ask if it’s okay if they change their minds later and sign back up.  Of course!  I do not hold grudges against people who leave (or at least haven’t yet 😉 ).  I can’t hold time slots, of course, but if our schedules permit, then any former student is more than welcome to become a current student again, no worries at all.

The other way people leave the studio is to just stop coming to lessons.  I hate this way.  One week they won’t show up.  I’ll leave a message.  And never hear another word again.  I never know whether it was something I did, or if it was a financial decision, or if the family all died in a horrible accident, or they simply didn’t consider me or my time important enough to notify me that they wouldn’t be continuing.  That really bugs me.  I would be hesitant to take somebody who left under those circumstances back, though, I am a forgiving person by nature.

I do miss certain students who have left, and I also miss students that I have left (moved away, changed schools, etc.).  But people come and go, and all I can do is hope that I have made a positive impact on their life in some way!

Running, Teaching

Violin photos

Another marathon teaching day is completed!  Man, Thursdays are a killer…today was 12 students out of a possible 14.

During one of my breaks I decided to have a little fun with my violin and my camera apps on the phone.  Here’s some of my favorites–what do you think?  Does anyone have a preference…please comment!

Option 1

 

Option 2

Option 3

 

And even though I know I am really behind on the “warhol” idea, this next one is pretty neat, I think!

Yes, I was bored.  I ended up with an hour of free time I hadn’t anticipated, and had already done enough practice for the time being.

I ran 3 miles tonight after all that…I am trying to a) run a little faster and b) keep running longer.  I seem to be doing okay at both goals–I am trying to be careful as I don’t want to injure myself by doing too much too fast.  Hmm…sounds just like a musician, huh?  I think running and practicing violin have a lot in common, both require time and discipline, and are (in my opinion) best done alone.  (I know some people enjoy running in groups, but I don’t want to).

Tomorrow…no students, just a wedding!  Gotta love Fridays 🙂  (Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy teaching…I just enjoy free time more!)

 

Running

Fall is getting closer

On my way home from the gym yesterday, I noticed the trees are really starting to turn.  It has been pretty warm still-I found it amusing that the trees were falling down yet I was wearing shorts and a tank top!  At a few lights/stop signs, I snapped a few pictures because I thought the colors were really beautiful.

From Arsenal Road, the entrance to Tower Grove Park on the left side.
Corner of Arsenal and South Grand, also looks stormy!
My neighborhood

Tower Grove Park is nearby for me (location of this Saturday’s race as well), and I am able to run there occasionally (often I can’t work out until night though).  I’ll have to take my camera with me next time to get more pictures of the trees.  The older I get, the more interested in landscapes I become.

Cat, Grand Ideas

Windows Live Writer

I’m testing out a new program to help me blog easier.  Yes, dear reader, now I can blog MORE and MORE!

Let’s see how this works—how about some pictures of my cat?

DSCI0002

Aww…look at that cutie!

OMGkitty

This is not my cat.  A friend found this photograph on the web.  I consider it to be the cutest photo in the world.  Occasionally my friend and I will email the photo to one another just to be overcome by conflicting emotions of cute and sad.

On a fun note:  I’ve recently been doing some internet research about running and gear and such, and came across a blog I really enjoy called SkinnyRunner.  I had commented on a recent post–there was a sign that said something about Run Fast Aunt Ham.  Well, I occasionally refer to my cat as “the Ham” or “Fat Ham” (because her tummy resembles a ham… 😉  ).  So I just had to comment!  And now I am internet famous (ha!) in that the blog author answered my question in a later post.  Okay, well I was tickled by it!  Really I’m just jealous because that author has many more readers than I do (and awesome legs, I want legs like hers but long like mine!)  Then again, she puts much more effort into it, so that is fine.

thoughts about violin, teaching, running, life.