SRE

When you are five years old, and a girl amongst many boy cousins (many, many boy cousins) things get easily blown out of proportion.

Say you and your favorite cousin are playing with a broom. He has it, you want it, so you grab it, but he doesn't want to give it up, so he grabs it back. In this process, you get pushed or knocked or something that feels like a hit.

What do you do? Well, I suppose you cry. And cry, and cry, and cry, until your mother has to send you to the living room in order to calm down.

Once you're in the living room, you stop crying and start thinking about what happened. And you write a note to your favorite cousin. It says, "SRE".

C'mon, sound it out.

Sssssss-(a)R-Eeeeeee

Auntie Shauna was the one who thought enough like a five year old to figure it out. I, for one, was staring at it blankly.

It said, "Sorry"

My Happiness Playlist

Happiness - You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown
Simple Song - Bernstein's Mass
How Beautiful - Twila Paris, performed by the Sterling Singers
I Can Only Imagine - Mercy Me
The Hand Song - Nickel Creek
Waitin' For the Light to Shine - Big River
Love Divine All Loves Excelling - per. by the Sterling Singers
Rainbow Connection - Kermit the Frog
No One is Alone - Into the Woods
A Child's Prayer - Tabernacle Choir
Children of Eden - Children of Eden
Nessun Dorma - Luciano Pavarotti
The Impossible Dream - Man of La Mancha
For Good - Wicked
The Echo of His Love - Patti Rogers/Kelly DeHaan
Some Things are Meant to Be - Little Women
Angel - Sarah McLachlan
Meadowlark - Joanne O'Brien
Variation 18: Andante Cantabile - Sergei Rachmaninov
I'm Going to Go Back There Someday - The Great Gonzo
Unusual Way - Brian d'Arcy James
Fields of Gold - Sting

And there it is

I hate me when I'm feeling sorry for myself. That cycle of "poor me" is a horrible thing, and it's hard to break. But, I indulge myself anyway. And it's been a particularly difficult month.

I got a wake up call last night.

I have a student who I haven't seen in about three weeks. He hasn't called and hasn't come. I heard a while back that his mother was ill, and I figured his extended absence had something to do with that. After all, why would he just miss lessons when State Solo/Ensemble festival is this Saturday.

Last night he called me to apologize for having missed these lessons and for not calling me. He knew it would be annoying to not hear from a student. He took all the blame for his actions, and then told me, "I don't know if you had heard, but my mom died."

Um...

What is there to say?

Just when you think...

I've been feeling down lately.

Really down.

And just when I was thinking that dreams never come true, that people over 35 can't make a difference anywhere, I watched this...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9lp0IWv8QZY

It's worth the 7 minutes. I promise.

A Shout Out

It was great seeing so many old friends last night! I'm grateful for your friendship, and I hope it continues for a long time yet to come.

BTW, I'm awfully glad that I'm not the one who has to cast any of these upcoming shows. I don't think I could decide.