This is the Title of an Uncreative Violinist.:)

For my birthday yesterday, we mostly hung around the condo--me on my shiny new laptop, Ryan on PS3 playing COD: Black Ops:P--but at some point, we both decided we needed to get out, especially since it was...um...my birthday:)  We first attempted the Olive Garden, but for whatever reason, it was packed for a Wednesday evening.  We then drove around aimlessly, shooting down all the options of miserable chain restaurants that C-bus has to offer.  We finally settled upon a place nearby called Cap City Diner which turned out to be excellent.  Even though it has the name 'diner' in it, it's actually more of a finer dining 'diner'.  Ryan got the fish and chips, while I chose the southern chicken which was the best I've had so far.  The batter was atypical of your usual southern fried chicken...it was sweet and scrumptious, and I finished the rest today for my lunch.  Mmmm.  Instead of ordering dessert there, we opted to get Buca di Beppo's amazing tiramisu, since

Sitting here in my parents' newly renovated kitchen, typing this post and eating the lovely burrito my sweet mom made for me.  Unfortunately, I can't post any fun pics because my a) camera is back home in C-bus and b) I can't find the battery charger for it, so it's useless anyways. So far, not much has happened except I slept in again and am still in my pj's.  After lunch here, I'll probably get ready and head out with my mom to hit the after christmas sales again. It's very quiet around here, and I'm loving it. If you all are on your vacation as well, hope you're having a peaceful and enjoyable break.  If not, hope you can at least find some time to enjoy the sales!!

Well, Christmas day was the ultimate "veg out" day for our whole family yesterday.  Everyone somehow woke up extremely late (we had opened our gifts the night before, so no one was up at the crack of dawn like little kids), and then shortly after we woke up, my mom and I got the case of the "sleepy's" and took a 4-hour nap in the afternoon.  Blegh.  Definitely not a productive Christmas day, but no one felt guilty about it! This morning, I attended church with my mom and then the whole family met up at the best Indian buffet--Bombay Sitar in Belden Village--where we stuffed ourselves on curry, mango lassi and naan.  We decided to brave the crowds at the mall to see if there were any good after Christmas sales, but there weren't really any.  I still managed to get a cute sweater from Talbots, however, and a fleece jacket that fit me perfectly at Gander Mountain, despite the fact that I found in the kids section:P We also stopped in at Wal-mart, where we u

Wishing you all a Merry Christmas!  Arrived at my parents' home last night just in time for Christmas Eve dinner and am now enjoying a laid back Christmas at home in my pj's:) Oh!  Am typing this post on my Christmas gift:)  Very excited. Enjoy the day!

Yes! One more day until freedom!  Actually, today didn't feel like a regular work day because only two students showed up.  I was expecting to teach four, but the last two were a no-show, and when I called the dad to see what was up, he sounded dazed and confused and basically apologized for forgetting to call me.  I didn't care too much, b/c that just meant I got to go home earlier than expected.  I know this whole week is probably crazy for most people, either traveling or preparing their homes for guests. I'm happy to say that I got pretty much all my Christmas shopping done for my side of the family; I only  managed to find one gift for Ryan--even though it's what he primarily asked for--because it's so hard to buy anything else for him, particularly clothes.  He needs to try them on before getting them, so I just figured I'll wait until after Christmas and we'll go shopping together. My parents told me they didn't want anything (they always say

This is awful...I'm still up and it's a ridiculous hour. I hate, hate HATE going to bed.  I'm like a little kid who thinks they're going to miss out on something.  But this is Columbus.  Nothing to miss out on here.  Hubby doesn't have to go to work until late evening tomorrow b/c of tons of vacation time he didn't use up yet, and the company wants him to use it.  So now he's up playing COD like there's no tomorrow.  I don't know how the man does it.  But because he's up, I feel like I need to stay up, too. I'm going to try finishing Decision Points on my kindle...I'm sure that'll put me right to sleep.

Well, I flaked on the plan to bake cookies for all my students, but I'm still bent on baking some for my husband to bring to his office.  I don't know what it is, but I'm just not a baker.  I've never been great at baking, nor have I ever had a great inkling TO bake.  I'm pretty comfortable doing everything else, though.  I once seriously considered going to culinary school because I was so into cooking, and if I didn't have a job (and someone just took care of all my basic needs), I could be content to stay in the kitchen all day long. I feel bad.  Every Christmas I intend to bake something for my students, but I just end up not doing it because I don't think it will turn out very well, and I definitely don't want to hand out crap to my students.  Oh well.  Turning them into excellent violinists/pianists will have to do! This past weekend, I made a chicken pot pie for my guests and this morning I received a message on FB from my friend's mother-

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XZkMvwwLfhw&feature=player_embedded I just read about this violinist--who allegedly went to my alma mater and studied with the same violin teacher--on violinist.com, and I can't tell if she's being serious in her playing or if it's all a huge joke (and the LSO is playing along, as well). If it's genuine...then it's AWFUL.  If it's not, and it's just some stunt for publicity...it's just dumb.  At least that's how I feel. If someone actually admires her intensely--and insanely--wide vibrato, then I guess everyone can just play anything out of tune on their violins and be considered 'amazing' because when one uses that kind of vibrato, they ARE playing out of tune!

This lovely weekend started off with a few makeup lessons, and now that I'm back at home, I'm just waiting for myself to muster up the will to clean up this place.  I tend to want to do housework type stuff when I should be doing OTHER things like practicing, or getting ready to go teach.  Of course when I'm done with those things and find myself back at home staring at the long list of chores to do, I do exactly that: stare at them blankly.  And then I go read some blogs or watch a movie on Netflix instead. I'm hoping to turn our spare room into a guest room since at least two couples will be needing a place to stay when they visit in the next couple of weeks.  We used to have a guest bed, but when we moved into the smaller apartment on the west side of Columbus, we got rid of it.  I'm mad that we now need to get another one:( I have no idea what is going to happen to this condo.  I'm so worried that the moment I start decorating and painting, that's wh

Today I was thinking about how many of my students are long term; that is, those who have been with me since I started teaching here in Columbus. Discovering that only a handful out of 40 have stuck with me for the last 3-4 years kind of depressed me, but then I realized that most teachers probably experience the same statistics.  Ryan once told me that every teacher probably only really has a couple of good students for every hundred students they ever have. I find it interesting that the ones who have remained with me have families who are very involved in their musical endeavors and are pretty strict--or at least respect my instruction and strive to repeat what we do in the lessons.  The ones who don't get any help from parents or just have a problem with a teacher who continually tells them to practice (the nerve!) have fallen off the radar and I probably will never see them again. I used to get bitter and a little hurt whenever I received an email from a parent that basical

Wow. Glad this week is finally over.  The new orchestra I joined this year is about an hour or so away from Columbus and we had rehearsals/performances four days in a row.  I was going to try and drive each way for each service, but I ended up staying in a hotel for one rehearsal b/c we had a children's concert the very next morning.  It was a cheap hotel, but I still loved it, lol.  I don't know what it is, but I LOVE hotels and airports.  It doesn't matter if they're crappy or nice--I just love anything having to do with with traveling.  Ryan thinks I'm a weirdo.  He's boring. Anyways, I just got back from our sold out concert tonight.  This weekend's program involved contortionists/aerialists (think cirque du soleil) and while it was definitely an interesting program, the music was a little annoying for the orchestra, I think.  All numbers were basically fast showpieces.  I will say that we sounded a lot better in our performances than we did during reh