I am lucky to be playing the flute. If I played oboe or bassoon, or even tuba or percussion or viola or a number of other instruments... I don't know where I would find any students. But little girls LOVE the flute, and they make up pretty much the entire population of my students. Thanks, flute-loving girls!

It's a dilemma when I don't want to stop listening to music to play music. Why did I pick the Beach Boys this morning? Barbara Ann is just so catchy! They just don't make music like they used to.

It's definitely a skill to be able to teach, to tell someone what they need to work on without making them feel less than adequate. Teachers, remember to celebrate the small accomplishments of your students. Remember to precede suggestions with at least one comment about something they did well or something that has improved. Students need both positive and negative feedback, because confidence is an important part of the learning process. When a student believes that he can improve, it is powerful motivation.  If he doesn't believe he can improve, he will end up thinking, "What is the point in trying?"

Be careful. Students aren't robots. They need ENCOURAGEMENT and an UPLIFTING ATMOSPHERE as much as they need DIRECTION.

A short list of things I don't like:

-bad auditions
-ASU whenever they have to process paperwork
-riding my bike in 111 degree weather
-PMS

I had a great round of lessons today! It is wonderful to come into a lesson and hear your students able to do things that they couldn't do the last week, to hear them exclaim excitedly "it's working! I can do it now!," to see their eyes light up when a slightly altered fingering can help them play better, and see that their knowledge of music theory is far beyond their peers. It's very rewarding, and it's an affirmation that I am doing something right as a teacher. I have grown so much as a teacher over these past two years, and I am of course still learning.  Now I am taking on some very dedicated, quality students, and I am excited about molding them into awesome musicians. I just wish that every day of teaching was like today!

I don't know exactly why, but I really seem to be able to interact with, befriend, and tolerate men much more than women. I do have a few close female friends, but I can count the number on one hand. The large majority of my friends are male. Maybe it's because I grew up with a brother, and I only learned how to interact socially with his type. Maybe it's because I have one or two interests which are typically "male." I don't know the exact reason, but for the past three years, I have mostly found the male to female ratio in my presence alarming. I can identify with the cries of single men around the world... "where/how do you meet women??" Beats me, guys.

Also, the concept of a bar as a place to meet people with which to engage in romance just boggles my mind.

Okay, I am procrastinating sleep. I'm so tired during the day. Why do I feel the need to elude sleep now? The world may never know. (Owl: "and a-ohone! and a-twho!" Crack!).

Okay, sleep time. For realzies.

Butterflies are white and blue
In this field we wander through.
Suffer me to take your hand.
Death comes in a day or two.

All the things we ever knew
Will be ashes in that hour,
Mark the transient butterfly,
How he hangs upon the flower.

Suffer me to take your hand.
Suffer me to cherish you
Till the dawn is in the sky.
Whether I be false or true,
Death comes in a day or two.