Survived

So, when I offered to play for our neighbor's funeral on Thursday morning, I was a little concerned about the fact that I had just changed all of the strings on my harp the evening before. But, the service wasn't until today, so I figured it would be alright. I tuned religiously and things were looking pretty good.

Then, last night, as I was cutting up my old 5th octave strings to make string ends for my students, I cut my right 3rd finger open pretty badly - in two different places (at once) on the tip. So, in comparison, my tuning issues seemed pretty minor. But, I put a nice layer of Krazy Glue on it this morning before church, and it masked the pain pretty well while playing.

But then, just as I was pulling into the church parking lot for the funeral this afternoon, I heard a string break. Uh oh. Turns out it was my 2nd octave A string. Not the end of the world, except for the fact that my solo during the funeral was The Lord's Prayer and I needed that A string at the very climax of the piece: right on "ev" (and Thine be the glory forEVer. Amen). Uh oh. So, I quickly reworked the pedals to use a G# instead, but I was a little concerned about remembering the string change and the pedal changes since I've been playing it for so long with Ab's, not G#'s.

But, it worked out fine, even though I didn't feel my best playing, between the bit of worry about mistakes and the dull pain in my finger. That is probably much more than you wanted to know, but now you do.

It's been a pretty full weekend, and it's just now starting to feel like the weekend should begin, but it's already Sunday night. Sigh. At least we can look forward to a nice vacation at the end of the week...

Saturday Together

I spent the whole morning and into the early afternoon teaching lessons, but since Emily went down for an early nap, we were able to spend the afternoon at the Children's Museum. I took Emily by myself on a weekday a few weeks ago and she loved it, so we went ahead and bought a family membership today. She's at a great age to enjoy most of the exhibits - especially the little grocery store (see below photo), the playhouses, the train room, and the exhibit where she enjoys dressing up like a bunny and crawling through tunnels and burrows.

I still need to grocery shop for tomorrow's dinner, but I'm thinking I can get away with doing that sometime tomorrow afternoon (after the funeral and before the game begins). We shall see. Now it's time to reheat a piece of pineapple upside down cake.

Cute Kids

Emily with two of her friends from church. Kiley helps her mom in the nursery and her brother, Creighton, is four or so months younger than Emily. She likes both of them quite a lot, but is pretty much obsessed with their baby brother Cort. Someone at the music store asked if Emily wanted a baby brother or sister someday and she replied, "Yes. Baby Cort."

End of Week Update

Well, Monday was recital day. I printed the programs late Sunday night, but still ended up having two students back out at the last minute. I was hoping to schedule on a day when all 15 of my students could perform, but I only wound up having 8 play. Who would have guessed? My newest student fell down walking out the door to the recital and they wound up heading straight to the ER for x-rays instead of attending. In any case, it was still a good recital and I am proud of my students. I'm thinking of scheduling a harp ensemble recital for the end of the year. It would be good chamber music experience for everyone.

And because February is a slow month for performing, I decided to take advantage of the lull and change all my strings yesterday. I finished after midnight, but I have until Saturday morning to get them staying in tune. So far so good.

We received a call from one of our neighbors this morning that his wife had died in the night. She was 91 and they had been married for 65 years. I will be playing for her funeral Sunday afternoon. It will actually wind up being a pretty full day between church in the morning, teaching a lesson, playing the funeral and then hosting a Super Bowl gathering.

Let's see, what can I say about Emily? She's really got quite an imagination nowadays. When we got home Monday night after the recital, we heard from the babysitter that she refused to eat dinner with her fork because it was asleep. Apparently she kept saying, "Shhhh...no wake up fork!" At least she had fingers to use instead...

Recital Tomorrow

I would just like to assert that the preparation for a harp studio recital seems like it is definitely more involved than for other instrumental recitals. Because so many of my students play on different types of harps (very small lever harps, medium-sized lever harps, small pedal harps, medium-sized pedal harps, full-sized pedal harps) and because a couple of them just prefer to perform on their own instrument, I am responsible for tuning 7 different harps in the 35 or so minutes before the recital begins. Good heavens! And of course, I have not yet figured out the reception food. I'm toying with the idea of just getting a sheet cake with a nice message written on it. But then what will my student who only eats raw food eat? Maybe I could couple that with a veggie tray. Or I could skip the cake and do a veggie tray with some cookies and brownies, etc. I will deal with that during the day tomorrow.

And I decided last night that I really ought to perform at the end (even though I am already playing duets with two different students), so I have been practicing my tail off for that too. Now I need to proofread the program and get those printed and folded. Should be a fun performance, and if everyone plays well, it will make for some very happy lessons this coming week too!

6 Minute Video

Video Link: 99 Balloons

Grab a Kleenex before you watch this one.

"Daddy....sick ear"

Well, just when we thought all three of us were pulling out of Sickville and into a better week ahead, Dan woke up in the middle of the night with an ear infection. Thanks to a completely untouched bottle of Oxycodone from when my wisdom teeth were removed and a speedy phone call to the local Walgreens from my amazing father (Thanks, Dad!) - relief came pretty quickly.

So, hopefully he will be feeling pretty good by tomorrow morning and will head back to work. I'll hold down the fort with Emily, will attempt to plan out the final logistical details of my studio recital and figure out the reception food too. Friday is my only lesson-free day of the week, and hopefully I'll be able to fit in some errands around meals and Emily's nap. Speaking of meals, I guess we need to head to the grocery store too. I have not been doing a very good job of getting back into the "swing of things" since feeling so lousy.

And on a lighter note, we recently discovered that Emily believes all nursing babies are actually drinking "Gotit Milk" (Chocolate Milk). Huh..