(no subject)
Haven't posted in a while; wanted to share some good things, just to remember.
At a fiddle weekend in the mountains a while back, one of the students there commented to another (and one of my students eavesdropped) that she liked that I was always supportive of the other fiddlers, especially the beginners. It was good to hear that, confirmation that what I try to do quietly hasn't gone unnoticed, though it's ok if folks don't notice. I try not to be obvious and obnoxious about it. Also at the weekend, the fiddler who was teaching asked me to play melody for a couple tunes while he played harmony. Folks really liked it, and he asked me to play with him again at a concert stage at the big folk festival last weekend. I did & it went over really well, as did the class I taught there. Great fun!
My principal told me that two teachers at the school were the most requested for next year - one of the kindergarten teachers and me. I can understand how that could happen, since there's only three of us who will teach third grade next year: my room partner, who will get the most gifted cluster, a long term teacher with somewhat compromised social skills, and me - so I guess there are lots of people trying to keep kids out of Ms-compromised-social-skills' class. Still, for a second year, about to be third year, teacher, it's nice to know that parents are willing to request you for their kids.
Toward the end of the year, the chorus had a concert, and it was to be introduced by 2 of the dance classes. The dance teacher chose my class, though I will never fathom why. Anyway, they learned a dance in 2 days to perform. Didn't think they could, but they pretty much pulled it off. The other teacher whose class was chosen is a guitar player, and he and I got to play for my class' performance. The kids were doing a dance where the premise was that they were supposed to do movements at different tempos. There aren't all that many CDs that can provide music for that kind of dance, so Other Teacher and I played a Scottish jig in different tempos. Kids did pretty well. They were videotaped & we saw the tape. Same teacher had a party after the last day of school and we played tunes together on the deck under the stars to an audience of other teachers. Interesting, because he's a classical guitar player and we have virtually no tunes in common, but if someone sang a song, we could both play along. Nice evening.
Weight loss program going well - 11 pounds in 8 weeks so far. Still working at it. I discovered yesterday that I can again fit into the jeans that had been my very favorite about a year or two ago, when I was first introduced to the boot cut variety. I've worn them for 2 days now! I'm so glad they fit again.
Then today, the reason I want to remember the good things: I saw the hand surgeon who thinks I should have surgery on my hand. I guess I shouldn't have been surprised, really. That's his job: see a problem, cut, and supposedly cure. He says he has had good results from the surgery and has done it a lot, but I REALLY don't want to have surgery, not yet anyway. Not until there's no other option. I've heard of fiddlers who weren't able to play after the surgery, plus the hands never regained full function. I asked what was the downside of not doing surgery right away, and he said that I could try massage on the lumps in the palm of the hands which probably wouldn't be real effective, keep exercising the hands the way I showed him I do, and continue to lose weight which might make the relevant parts less swollen and likely to hurt. I'm supposed to watch for signs that the knuckles are beginning to stiffen, because at that point surgery won't be effective. What I did instead is likely to be expensive, but worth a try. I've had a referral from friends to a reportedly excellent acupuncturist. I called him & he said he could treat the problem (called trigger finger, incidentally). I'm to see him Saturday. It isn't surgery, I think it's less dangerous than surgery, so we'll see what can be done. The hands aren't non-functional yet, just painful and weaker than they used to be. I can still play fiddle, though maybe not so fast, and fewer tunes in G minor which for some reason tends to hurt more than other keys.
So, vacation is here at last with 3 classes to take and 3 or 4 trips planned. Pretty much the whole summer is planned, one way or another, I just have to live it. Tile guy came to estimate the cost of re-tiling the upstairs shower ($1500 - $2000 plus plumbers' fees was the ballpark estimate), but we have to do it as there is no more waterproofing in the upstairs shower and we have mighty leaks into the downstairs if we try to use it. That and maybe finally getting the sprinkler system working will be the big projects to shoehorn into an over-committed summer this year. I'm trying to stay positive and live a day at a time to the fullest.
At a fiddle weekend in the mountains a while back, one of the students there commented to another (and one of my students eavesdropped) that she liked that I was always supportive of the other fiddlers, especially the beginners. It was good to hear that, confirmation that what I try to do quietly hasn't gone unnoticed, though it's ok if folks don't notice. I try not to be obvious and obnoxious about it. Also at the weekend, the fiddler who was teaching asked me to play melody for a couple tunes while he played harmony. Folks really liked it, and he asked me to play with him again at a concert stage at the big folk festival last weekend. I did & it went over really well, as did the class I taught there. Great fun!
My principal told me that two teachers at the school were the most requested for next year - one of the kindergarten teachers and me. I can understand how that could happen, since there's only three of us who will teach third grade next year: my room partner, who will get the most gifted cluster, a long term teacher with somewhat compromised social skills, and me - so I guess there are lots of people trying to keep kids out of Ms-compromised-social-skills' class. Still, for a second year, about to be third year, teacher, it's nice to know that parents are willing to request you for their kids.
Toward the end of the year, the chorus had a concert, and it was to be introduced by 2 of the dance classes. The dance teacher chose my class, though I will never fathom why. Anyway, they learned a dance in 2 days to perform. Didn't think they could, but they pretty much pulled it off. The other teacher whose class was chosen is a guitar player, and he and I got to play for my class' performance. The kids were doing a dance where the premise was that they were supposed to do movements at different tempos. There aren't all that many CDs that can provide music for that kind of dance, so Other Teacher and I played a Scottish jig in different tempos. Kids did pretty well. They were videotaped & we saw the tape. Same teacher had a party after the last day of school and we played tunes together on the deck under the stars to an audience of other teachers. Interesting, because he's a classical guitar player and we have virtually no tunes in common, but if someone sang a song, we could both play along. Nice evening.
Weight loss program going well - 11 pounds in 8 weeks so far. Still working at it. I discovered yesterday that I can again fit into the jeans that had been my very favorite about a year or two ago, when I was first introduced to the boot cut variety. I've worn them for 2 days now! I'm so glad they fit again.
Then today, the reason I want to remember the good things: I saw the hand surgeon who thinks I should have surgery on my hand. I guess I shouldn't have been surprised, really. That's his job: see a problem, cut, and supposedly cure. He says he has had good results from the surgery and has done it a lot, but I REALLY don't want to have surgery, not yet anyway. Not until there's no other option. I've heard of fiddlers who weren't able to play after the surgery, plus the hands never regained full function. I asked what was the downside of not doing surgery right away, and he said that I could try massage on the lumps in the palm of the hands which probably wouldn't be real effective, keep exercising the hands the way I showed him I do, and continue to lose weight which might make the relevant parts less swollen and likely to hurt. I'm supposed to watch for signs that the knuckles are beginning to stiffen, because at that point surgery won't be effective. What I did instead is likely to be expensive, but worth a try. I've had a referral from friends to a reportedly excellent acupuncturist. I called him & he said he could treat the problem (called trigger finger, incidentally). I'm to see him Saturday. It isn't surgery, I think it's less dangerous than surgery, so we'll see what can be done. The hands aren't non-functional yet, just painful and weaker than they used to be. I can still play fiddle, though maybe not so fast, and fewer tunes in G minor which for some reason tends to hurt more than other keys.
So, vacation is here at last with 3 classes to take and 3 or 4 trips planned. Pretty much the whole summer is planned, one way or another, I just have to live it. Tile guy came to estimate the cost of re-tiling the upstairs shower ($1500 - $2000 plus plumbers' fees was the ballpark estimate), but we have to do it as there is no more waterproofing in the upstairs shower and we have mighty leaks into the downstairs if we try to use it. That and maybe finally getting the sprinkler system working will be the big projects to shoehorn into an over-committed summer this year. I'm trying to stay positive and live a day at a time to the fullest.