Oh, such fun!

M husband and my pug have a new game.
He turfs her out the laundry door, closes said door, then runs excitedly through the house to the back door (the one that opens out onto the decking I fell through) and waits for her to realise she can run across the backyard, up the stairs and through THAT door.
By this time she is very excited ("WOW! I just took this awesome trip through a jungle! ANd now here you are again! And I'm back inside! YEEHA!") and he exclaims "Oh, such fun!".
Is anyone else surprised I'm feeling a little left of centred?

Ben Folds is the musicians' musician

Currently sitting in the nosebleed section of the Palais Theatre. That's BB of the dress circle, which is NOT the second row from the front, but second from the back. Work THAT one out.

So, gazing down upon the millions of people who bought their tickets before us (curses be upon them ALL), I can see a black thing floating upon a murky stage. It may or may not be a piano.

The trend to dress down when attending concerts dismays me a little. I'm not expecting full-lenght dresses, but what's with the denim? I half expected to see velour tracksuits and hoodies.

No, we're not dressed up to the nines either, but gig= frock up. So, for posterity's sake, I'm wearing a black lace shift dress trimmed with cream, black tights and patent Mary Janes.

Suzukisinger is in a tailored navy frock belted at the waist and high black wedges. Boys in denim and shirts (there's a which nymore, given the multitude of floating fluorescent screens in the audience.

To digress, had an EPIC group lesson today. If you count O, seventeen kids, aged 20mths to twelve yrs. Ability level pretwinkle (polystyrene violin) to mid-Book 7. HUGE and CRAZY.

Given that we have a concert scheduled in a week and a bit, I wanted to cover a fair amount of repertoire as well as really emphasize dynamic contrast and movement.

Interesting to see how focus differed for children (not necessarily the eldest or the most advanced) based on how practiced they are with group attendence. I have a couple who are particularly motivated by the idea that they're another child's teacher, others who don't care in the slightest; again, not easily or superficially correlated to the age or ability of the student in question.

A little while ago, while conversing with my first violin teacher, I mentioned my idea that personalities can be roughly divided into two categories: because of, and in spite of. That is, that behaviors are motivated because of the predicated response or in spite of it. I'm going to have to keep thinking about this. Questions welcome!

nb: Intervals need to be shorter. I've composed a massive blog post and suzukisinger and my lovely husband are now playing rock, paper, scissors (refereed by her husband, sitting between them)... And now the crowd are getting all excited...

Awesome gig. AWESOME. My first boyfriend introduced me to Ben Folds back in the day. Good times.

But this word makes it all better:

PANTEASM

Pretty good, hey? I just got hit with it as a verification code when commenting (my lovely husband has just gone to great pains to tell me the correct term is CAPTCHA).

I think it should be best defined (we're back onto PANTEASM now, do try to keep up) as the fantastic feeling you get when putting on the perfect jeans. (Or leggings, possibly even pants.). As in "Those jeans are panteasmic!"

Well, it cheered me up. Tell me I'm not completely insane?!

It sucks when...

You go to school and they've changed the concert rehearsal schedule.
So that the WHOLE school is at the community centre and in rehearsal mode (and not available for violin lessons) until 3pm, instead of being half absent till 11.30, swap over (which would have allowed EVERYONE to have their lesson)....
Don't get me started.
You then look at diary, find the day involving the least people to shunt around, and proceed to shunt.

After approaching the principal, of course, and saying "So, since the rehearsal schedule spontaneously changed and the whole school is now unavailable, I will see three students today. So would you mind terribly if I came down on Monday to make up lessons for the other nine?"

***(This is code for : Thanks for screwing up my day, I have a conscience and feel bad about parents paying for a lesson I am technically able to give them but not because SOMEONE changed the schedule and forgot to tell anyone. OOPS.)

Let me digress for a moment.
I have no free days in my schedule, and these kids live far enough away to make trotting up to my place a MEGA hassle. So, I'm asking my Monday morning babies to come this Friday or the following Tuesday instead of their Monday lesson time. The school has stuffed up my teaching day, so technically I can refer annoyed parents to them, but instead I'd really like the kids to NOT totally miss out on their lesson.

 I've had a lovely day...
(a) realising at 8.30 this morning that my day was going to s%$#@t ,
(b) negotiating a compromise with principal and my schedule,
(c) writing a very apologetic email to parents requiring rescheduling,
(d) informing all today's parents of the change... and
(e) waiting around to teach from 3pm-5.10pm before racing to ballet.
Kill me now.

I realise that this is not a tragedy in any sense of the word, but seriously people, schedules exist for a reason. Don't mess with them. Okay. Pathetic little runty rant off my chest now.

How to find out your car's mileage

Immensely, uncharacteristically practical, I know. Clearly the best way to undertake this is to run your car to empty.
Do not try this when your driveway runs at a forty-five degree incline and you habitually park at the bottom of said incline.
The really stupid part of my little adventure is that I have actually done this before. The resulting sheepish phonecall was made: "Sweetheart, my car won't start... on your way home tonight could you stop and get me some petrol?"
Him: "Where are you? Call the RACV!"
Me: "Ah, noooo, it's definitely a petrol issue. I'm in the driveway."
Hmmm. So today after hopping out and debating with myself if I could possibly push my baby up the drive solo, I had one last try. Oh, the sound of a revving motor has never been so sweet! First stop: petrol station.

she gives me fever that's beyond compare....

I have a new blog crush; over at fever the lovely Lora strings together words with eloquence and velocity. Really. She's cool, so go check her out. If I was a little more visually creative I would attempt some kind of award, but I think that might be a project for another day.

After all, I've tidied up my email contacts, reminded everyone for the fifth time about our upcoming concert and a freebie for Melbournites, hung out two loads of washing, washed up, and -OMG! Brace yourself! Written a SHOPPING LIST! Amazing, I know. Nw I just have to DO everything on said list. This is where I usually fall down. Oh, and I taught a really nice 'baby' lesson today.

Note: 'baby violin' fast put into perspective when 20 mth old attends yesterday's group lesson with polystyrene violin and dowel bow. He's very cute.

Bl$&@dy monday

I love that changing the URL of my blog has lost me all my followers and blogger has forgotten I exist... so sad.

And then my tragedies compound! Ikea, whose flat-packed chest of drawers I helped construct only today, ikea, shrine to the gods of diy and I bought every piece of furniture I have here does it show? Ikea, muse of itinerant uni students and first-time parents and those of us with too much stuff and too little space... Ikea have changed their trademark font. I know, I know.

What I don't know is how best to express my sorrow and outrage. Do they not understand that an entire generation has learned to read by following ikea directions? (hang on, wait up, they're really more like meccano comics)

Ok, that their catalogues are the primary reading material of newly house-bound mothers (and therefore their child's first and formative exposure to the written word)?

You have much more responsibility than you realize, Swedish gods of ubiquitous design. Not only must you provide me with storage solutions and every conceivable item of household goodage, but I demand a clear and legible font nearly but not quite optimally economical. COME ON!

I love...free stuff as much as the next girl, so here goes: over at Herding Cats there is a giveaway. It's shiny, lots of pretty colors and therefore very appealing to my visual aesthetic. And Sammi is a neat writer, so go check her out!

Sunday again...

I find myself at Tripod's last august pod night at trades hall. The difference is that I'm without my husband and with my parents. The gig is good; they have a full house tonight, and I was probably lucky to get a seat. Afterward I make my way over to the cause of my husband's absence: a Magic tournament.

For those of you unfamiliar with such geekery, Magic is a card game most popular with guys. Some of them work in IT, some don't work at all. Some are in high school and some have kids. But they're primarily male and often to be found lurking in card, game and comic stores. Closely related but not limited to the species that fritter their time away playing D&D-like games.

***At this point in time I will briefly acknowledge my own brief (and disasterous) sojourn into the world of role-playing; cast as a unicorn, I displayed incongrously homicidal tendencies and inadvertently maimed/killed several long- term gamers' characters. Not one of my more successful
forays into geekery.***

So, my clever husband has been playing ALL DAY: seven rounds of Swiss, in which he clocked up six victories and a draw, taking him into the top eight.

He went on to win the quarters, semis, and for the last half-hour I've been sitting in the boy-smelling stairwell outside the store waiting for the finals to finish... So, he won 2-1 and is taking the flight to Austin, Texas to play in the next pro-tour.

I am a little tempted to attempt to go too; I'm sure I could find a Suzuki workshop to participate in and we certainly have plenty of people living in Canada due a visit. Anyone want to hire me to run a workshop in Texas?

THEN he said: "The only phones that talk wireless are the ones that do."
Hm.
I love him, but gee, he says some weird stuff.

We've since returned home to discover the pro-tour dates are mid-October. I think my students would kill me if I took off mid-fourth term... a
Mfter my japan excursion mid-term-three.
Oh well, one day!