Numbers Meme

Saw this surfing the net. I was bored so I thought I would do it. Hope some of my friends choose to do it as well. I would love to read their answers.

The Numbers Meme

TEN random things you might not know about me:

1. I get annoyed when the cashier bags my stuff before running my credit card.
2. I am allergic to dogs.
3. I have tactile issues.
4. I always smell something before I taste it.
5. I would love to have a breast reduction.
6. I sleep in the nude.
7. I am against capital punishment.
8. One of my favorite smells is a wood stove.
9. I talk to myself sometimes when I'm in the shower.
10. I think David Letterman is sexy.

NINE places I’ve visited:

1. Ground Zero, New York
   
2. Disney World
   
3. Antigua
   
4. Seattle, Washington
   
5. Many places in New Brunswick, Cananda
   
6. Quebec City
   
7. Montreal
8. Toronto
9. Las Vegas
   

EIGHT ways to win my heart:

1. Be very witty
   
2. Be very candid
   
3. Be honest and sincere
   
4. Be enthusiastic
5. Love drinking coffee and coffeeshops
   
6. Love lying around and talking
   
7. Make me feel like a princess
   
8. Sing, play a musical instrument, or write
   

SEVEN things I want to do before I die:

1. Visit Australia
2. Have two children
   
3. Give my parents grandchildren before they die
   
4. Live in another country
   
5. Meet someone famous
   
6. Make a difference in someone's life
7. Take time off from my life to do something for charity
   

SIX things I’m afraid of:

1. Bees
2. Things that feel weird
3. Heights
4. Getting in a car accident
5. Losing my husband
6. The world never finding peace
   

FIVE things I don't like:

1. Peanuts
2. Guns
3. War
4. Lindsey Lohan
   
5. Britney Spears
   

FOUR ways to turn me off:

1. Be completely self centered
   
2. Laugh at those less fortunate
   
3. Drink and drive
   
4. Smell really awful
   

THREE Things I do every day:

1. Surf on the net
   
2. Drink coffee
   
3. Knit

TWO things that make me happy:

1. My husband
   
2. My cats
   

ONE thing on my mind right now: Will anyone actually read this?

Day Two of Blogging

I'm posting in consecutive days. Woohoo! It's snowing here and I'll try to take some good pictures. It's awesome to live amongst the trees now because it looks so beautiful. I always love the first snow fall.


I wanted to point out this man's christmas lights display. Only a computer geek would take that much time to do something that intricate. It's pretty amazing though. Here's a link to the story behind the house and how it works. And sadly here's the link to the story of him being forced to shut it down.

What the fresh hell is this?!

Can you believe I'm about to post twice in the same day? I know I know, things can't get any better.

Anyway, I was thinking. Throughout the year I always think of things I would love to receive as a gift, yet when I'm asked to make my yearly Christmas list nothing comes to me. Now I don't need anything, and quite honestly now that I'm 30 I shouldn't really expect much. But nonetheless, my parents wanted a list and it took me a good two weeks coming up with something.

So here is my suggestion. I'm gonna post mine in the hopes that maybe others have this same issue and upon seeing mine will get some ideas for their own. THEN, they can post theirs in the hopes that I will be inspired by them. Kinda like a pay it forward thing, but with less charity.

Of course I have a very limited amount of readers (probably about oh... zero,) but I'll do this anyway if for nothing else to humor myself.

Heidi Ellis's Christmas List 2005

Dell DJ Generation 1 car charger (I tend to only listen to my DJ in the car so this is pretty crucial)

Cavallaro B Single w/ Pocket and strap ( Most won't know what this is or care to have one, but it is an outer flute case and you can find it at www.fluteworld.com )

Sarah Jessica Parker Lovely perfume

Gap Curvy jeans size 8 (whiskered wash)

Loose-leaf tea in berry, spice, or peppermint flavors ( I recieved this really cool tea pot last Christmas but I have no teas to put in it)

Yarn and knitting supplies or a gift certificate ( I have become a knitting fanatic and have so many patterns I want to knit. I'll eventually post my projects, but right now some are gifts.)

Stitch & Bitch “The Knitter’s Handbook” (Again, the knitting...)

Crate & Barrel “Dune” silverware and serving set (to add to our silverware)

Cat beds that attach to the windowsill ( Although now I've found out that my cats may be too "big boned" for this lovely feature so this might only be good for the waif-like cats)

Mellamine mixing bowls (colorful bowls, but my chemical engineering husband told me they are not microwave safe unless I like to burn my hands. Which I don't.)

Home Depot gift certificates (New house needs lots of updating)

Old Navy gift certificates

NY & Company gift certificate

Home Goods gift certificate

Victoria’s Secret gift certificate

KMS molding paste hair product (This stuff works great but is quite expensive)

Chinois with pestle (This is great for making apple sauce, yet I know it's cheaper some where other than Wilimas Sonoma. Hello? $84? Uhh yea. No. And why is it called "chinois" which means Chinese in French?)

Memory foam slippers size 8 or 8 ½ (I saw these at Linens N’ Things and they look so comfy)

Pajama bottoms (preferably flannel) at Old Navy

Yea so that's my pretty lame list. I'm pretty certain it will not be much of an inspiration to many, but I thought I would try.

The Usual Update Post

Hello again.

Time to come back from my few months off of posting to do one all-consuming update post. Blah. Oh well, I'll try to post more but I doubt I will. Just like I'm bad with email, I'm bad with posting. I often think of stuff to post, but I'm usually in the shower or the car and that doesn't allow for much convenience. Such is life.

So here are a couple things I can update you on.

1. Way back in October I turned 30. I wasn't the stereotypical freak out person because honestly I was actually looking forward to it. The 20s were great but sometimes challenging and tumultuous times, so I'm ready for a new decade. The only thing I find quite disturbing is I still feel like a kid sometimes or at least a young adult. And well... I'm not. It probably has something to do with me interacting with kids between the ages of 10 and 15 all day. And the trouble with this feeling is that I'm supposed to starting thinking (although I've been technically thinking for 4 years) about having kids, and my mind is still in its young 20s sometimes. Oh well, I guess I'll just have to suck it up at some point and when I do have kids I'll have to go with the flow. Something I'm not very used to doing.

2. Some of you know I have some slight "issues" with Christmas time and traveling between my parents' house and my in-laws. This year my husband was supposed to take care of this and have us go to one place on one day and the other on the next day (we're trying to set it up this way now before we have kids) and unfortunately I've arrived back to the point of traveling between the two houses on BOTH days again. Absolutely ridiculous. I think I might have to go on strike.

3. I've started checking out this blog called Google Video of the Day and I find this specific video both annoying and ridiculously funny.

4. These shirts are frickin' hilarious. I'll try and post some of my favorites.


My favorite is the last one. Too funny.

Ok the amount of time it took to upload those silly pictures was far too draining. That, and the fact that everything I'm typing or clicking is on some 2 second delay. Truly annoying. So I'm gonna leave this for now and will try to post more regularly. If my life gets any more interesting...

Uhhh yea. . . we'll pretend that never happened

So I'm gonna just pretend that I haven't let two months roll by without an update. Why you ask? 'Cuz I gotsta. There is just too much to update people on, and truthfully this is my blog in all its glory and unglory and I'll do whatever I damn well please. Including run-on sentences and general incoherentness. Haha! Freedom!

Ok anyway. . .

It's pretty much craptastic out today. And well . . . it has been for the past three weeks basically. We're caught in some sort of rain/wind/coldness vortex that I sure as hell don't like. We had such gorgeous weather for the whole summer all the way into October, and then BAM! Craptasticness. And the stressful thing about it is I don't know what to wear. I can't fully commit to the sweater yet, but I sure can't wear short sleeves. AND, and, and I bought these great shoes at Payless. (Yes, I shop at payless. Got a problem with BOGO?)

I'll even show you the shoes











So my problem now is wearing these in the rain. Bah, life. Ahh well.

This rain also made our grass grow to about waste deep. And since Mr. Ellis likes to use old jury-rigged lawn mowers, he's the only one who can cut it. So yesterday, I sat him down during a short dry spell and said "Look it's going to rain all the rest of the week, you MUST mow the lawn before neighbors come and demand we move." I felt bad for him, but quite honestly there were moments of dryness where he could have gotten it done. Hopefully it's one of the last times we have to mow it this year.

Hey! Where have you been?!

Hello everyone! Remember me?

So yea, I took a small break from blogging. Not that I was doing a stellar job of it before, but at least I was blogging more than my friend, Laura. But I knew I had to start up again when even she was giving me shit about not blogging enough.

So let's see if I can sum up what's gone on in the past couple months.

Last I left you, I was going camping with Mr. Ellis. He and I had a good time, but unfortunately our type of camping isn't "trailer-ful" enough to really blend in to our campground. We pretty much were one of two tents in a sea of RV's, so needless to say we will not be staying at that campground again. But! We did manage to make a trip to Freeport, ME and go to fabulous outlets where I got many a deal including a cool quilted hammock that is out in my lovely back yard.

After that camping experience we went camping again, but this time at Alexandria Bay in upstate New York (almost Canada) over the 4th of July. We had the best campsite I've ever stayed at. It was on the St. Lawrence river and we camped on a cliff with an area to jump off into the river. Sadly, because of my fear of heights, I did not do that, but Mr. Ellis did. We also went to Boldt Castle on Heart island (which is actually shaped like a heart). Check out the history of the castle, it's a very sad story. Of course, the boys that we went camping with had a competition on who could make the biggest fire, so most nights I spent burning off the first layer of skin on my face from sitting next to a roaring fire. All in all it was a very good time, even though the drive was a bit long.




During my time away, we also got to eat in the .406 club at Fenway and get a tour around the good old park. We were given this priviledge because of my brother's financial advisor. Anyway, I'll include some pictures on the events.




Lisa also graced New England with her presence in July. We went out and about in Boston so she could revisit her old stomping grounds. It was a hot day though, and she and I definitely did not wear appropriate walking apparel, but it was still a lovely day.


And then to the big event of the summer: moving to our new home. I am now officially old. I live in the burbs, I have more than one bedroom, I have a yard, and I can see the stars at night. Ahh well.... I guess life goes on. The moving experience was horrendous though. We moved ourselves and, of course, picked the week that was mid 90's and high humidity. This is a great way to lose weight though, just in case you thought you might try it. Our cats weren't too happy at first, but once they found our screened in porch we can almost never get them to come inside. We also have bird feeders and two bunnies that live in our yard for their enjoyment. Most recently my life has consisted of taking down wallpaper, breaking down walls, putting up sheet rock, sanding, and pretty much living in dust. Very fun. Actually it is quite fun to be so creative with the house and see the results in the end. Although we haven't really gotten to the results yet, just the destruction.

Let's see.... some small things are I highlighted my hair (successfully) with Herbal Essences highlights. It was on sale AND I had a coupon. So bonus all around. I'm also enjoying watching the show Brat Camp. At first I thought it would be ridiculous, but I've enjoyed seeing these kids make strides in becoming more mature and responsible.

I'll have to write my own post about my Honda Element, since there has been quite a discussion about it (and other cars) over on Lisa's blog. I just can't do it right now, since it has taken me an hour and a half to write this along with figuring out Blogger's new way of posting pictures (which I am still on the fence about whether I like it or not).

Pitching a tent

Sorry I haven't updated in so long.

I'll be in a tent this weekend in Maine if you need to find me. And hopefully you don't because the people who happen upon my blog when doing a search, search for words like "candid braless" which is scary. I don't like those people checking out my stuff, so quit it!

I just don't get this

Molester Kept List of Suspected Sex Acts - Yahoo! News

"Police searching the home of a convicted child molester discovered handwritten lists of more than 36,000 children's names — mostly boys — and codes that appear to indicate how he abused them."

"Although police said Schwartzmiller appears to have spent much of the past 30 years in California, he has been arrested on child molestation charges in New York, Arkansas and Washington. He also served prison time in Idaho for child molestation in the late 1970s, and is wanted in Oregon on sexual assault charges involving a minor."

How is a man like this not behind bars forever? This pisses me off. I remember a discussion we had senior year in high school English class about the death penalty. I was the only one in my class that was against it, and even my teacher said "But what about all the child molestors?" Well you wanna know about all the child molestors? There living next door to you! Ugh. 36,000! Disgusting.

Going back to The Academy

Well I just got word today that I'll be having my 10 year reunion (it's been 11 years, actually but no one took the initiative last year) on September 3.

So since I never really had a huge consequence before to lose 15-20 pounds (other than I don't like how I look!) I now have to lose about 2 pounds a week to get to the goal by then.

Ugh.

I guess I should keep a positive attitude since I have no other choice but to do it. Ha!

I'll keep you posted. Hopefully there will be something to post about! Yikes!

The Sith Sense

I'm somehow addicted to this. Although I must say, the King from Burger King scares the hell out of me.

By the way, I have stumped it quite a few times, but it's still very addictive!

Get your daily fix of something FRESH!

Ok, I'm up way too early, but since my house is a sauna I can't sleep. (By the way, no dice on getting the AC compressor fixed. Yay! We get to spend more money on a house we'll be moving out of in the middle of July! Yay!)

Anyway, surfing blogspot, and I found this BRILLIANT (that's right, Lisa, rainbow letters again!) site. That totally made my morning! He is so getting linked.

Oh God! I think I'm gonna...

Found this post about this cologne.

Seriously? That's what it's called?

Am I suppose to give this as a gift for my dad on Father's Day?

If I did, I'd have some f'ed up relationship going on there.

Keep cool, man!

I'm having a fantastic smoothie right now. I got it from You, The Owner's Manual book.

1 cup vanilla soy milk
1 medium ripe banana (I had a frozen one)
1 cup frozen raspberries (I'm using mixed berries)
1 tbsp orange juice concentrate (you can also use half a tbsp 100% orange juice and add an ice cube)

Makes 2 servings

And also on the keeping cool front, our central AC went out last night. Of course just in time for the home inspection on Friday. Ugh. And of course it's 90 today, tomorrow and Friday. Matt luckily knows someone who can work on these things and hopefully we won't have to spend $1000 right before we sell this place!

On the home front...

We accepted an offer on the house this weekend. Very exciting. We got pretty much what we wanted for it, which is good since we could use all the money we can get. Ha! So now begins the process of home inspections and such, but hopefully it will go without a hitch. We're planning on closing in July, and hopefully closing on the other house around the same time.

"Dis" respectable Job

Ok so most of you know I teach private flute lessons. I love my job and love the freedom it gives me. I also think I'm pretty darn good at it, and I know a lot of my students enjoy taking lessons with me. But the one thing that aggravates me the most is when people don't show up for their lessons. Now I'm fine with people missing a lesson in general, but can I at least just get a call?

This frustrates me most on Friday afternoons. I teach two lessons on Friday afternoons in a town about 40 minutes away (This is a whole other story about my crazy schedule, but I won't bore you.). It's a 12 week deal. Out of the 11 weeks so far, one of the students has shown up 6 times and notified me twice out of the 5 missed lessons. The second student has shown up 5 times and notified me 1/2 time out of the 6 missed lessons. I say 1/2 because I sat around for 15 minutes and finally the mother showed up to tell me she was sick. Yea, thanks.

Now what makes it worse is I have to teach in a school conference room that is located in the school office. So a couple times now I've actually gone in, set up the music stand and flute, waited around for an hour, then left. People think I'm a freakin' psychopath.

More than once I've given my cell phone number to the moms to let me know if they aren't going to make it. Nope, no dice.

I realize I get paid for this, but it's just common courtesy. I drive 40 minutes down and 40 minutes back for nothing on a Friday afternoon.

I've left messages with both students today to remind them their final lesson is today. (I almost decided just not to show up, but I'm not that passive aggressive.) We'll see if they show up. I think Vegas has the odds at 20-1 they don't.

**Update** Well the first student showed up about 10 minutes late, but at least showed up. I sat in my car waiting, by the way, because there was no way I was gonna look like a fool again. The second student (the one who's paid almost $300 for 12 lessons and has only shown up to 5) called and said she would not be coming. Must be nice to have money to throw away....

Anyway, hoorah! I'm done with that silly ass job.

I'm Wicked Smaht

Appoggiatura. That's the word that won the whole spelling bee. I know what it means, and I even know how to do it.

Neener neener! Music rules.

Ok. I'm done now.

Edit: Actually I'm not. I found this post through a link on Lisa's website. This guy sums it up fantastically.

Help the girls out

I forgot to mention I watched an Oprah episode last week about bras. I definitely know the importance of a good bra, but the expert they had on the episode seemed to go against all my bra beliefs.

I was once measured at Victoria's Secret because the girl didn't believe me when I said I was a 34 DD. I saw the defeat in her eyes when she found out I was correct. Neener neener! (The gals at What Not to Wear helped me with making the girls look a little smaller. Ha!)

Anyway the expert on Oprah was telling some women they were 32 G! Hello?! G? What the hell am I then? The expert did make a good point that you might want to measure a little lower than right under the breast so the band stays down low and doesn't ride up. But who the hell sells 32 G?! Or 32 DD for the matter! Anyway, here are some of the tips the expert said.

Where to Wear Your Bra

According to Susan, the perfect position for your breasts is midway between your shoulders and your elbows. And your bra should be level front to back. Susan says most women wear their bra bands too high on their torsos and throw their measurements off. "Most women," Susan says, "keep going up in the back [increasing their band size] instead of getting a deeper cup. We want to keep the back lean and small so we can lift the bust. [The bra band is] like a bridge, if it's properly planted at the base, it can lift."

Susan says there are obvious clues your bra is the wrong size:

• If your cups runneth over, it's time to go up a cup size.
• If your cups dimple, it's time to go down a cup size.
• If you have the dreaded back fat, you probably think your bra is too tight, but you're wrong—your bra is too big. Wearing the bra lower on your back with a smaller band size will completely eliminate the back fat.
• If your strap falls down, that means your bra band is riding up and you probably need to go down a band size.

I said screw it because there is no way I'm finding a 32 DD or F! Instead I bought four new bras (34 DD thank you) online at Victoria's Secret because they are having an awesome sale. I unfortunately can rarely find my size in the actual store.

Also, Oprah showed these fantastic sports bras for more endowed women. They are a little expensive, but I'm willing to pay a little more in order to get less bounce! Ha!

Going back to Cali!

My brother just got a new 9 week old puppy. It's a miniature schnauzer and toy poodle mix, commonly called a schnoodle. Hahaha. No really, it's called a schnoodle, I'm not just be brilliant with my humor.

Anyway, her name is Cali. And here are a few pictures of her. I'm going to see her tonight. I've hearding she's a peeing machine. Lovely!





Oh and by the way, there's a new DogBlog. If you haven't checked that blog out, it's fantastic!

Bo was robbed!

So Carrie Underwood is the next American Idol. Or should I say Country Idol? Now don't get me wrong, she has a great voice but for the majority of the season she looked more like a 50s housewife than a modern teenager. And what's worst of all is her performance skills were so contrived and robotic. Zero charisma. But I guess I shouldn't be surprised since she had been primed to win this thing since the beginning of the season. It started off with her own farm girl story being told during the auditions to Simon praising her in the media and saying she's the one to beat. Pretty much a blonde, country version of Kelly Clarkson.

I guess I'm somewhat happy Bo didn't win. I don't think he needs the cheesy American Idol title with his country rocker status. I just hope 19 Entertainment allows him to put out a quality record and not fill it up with crap just to get it out soon.

"I'm in Love"

That's what Tom Cruise said yesterday when trying to explain his hyperactive (read: annoying) behavior yesterday on Oprah.

I made it through about ten minutes of this ridiculous interview and after feeling nauseaous, I just stopped the recording and deleted it. What the hell is wrong with him? I actually hate him now. My belief is anytime someone professes so loudly that they are in love with someone, and so and so is so perfect, and their relationship is so wonderful, they're lying. As Kevin Federline so articulately put it "Love is love."

What is up with all these Hollywood stars acting like 12 year old school girls. Ugh.

Oh and for those of you who didn't catch this episode (lucky you!) check out some screencaps on Defamer.

Priced to sell, this will not last!

Since Lisa was talking about her house, I figure I'll give an update on ours instead of taking up her whole comment area. :)

So we had our open house this past Sunday. It went really well, although don't ask the cats about it since they had to sit in carriers for over two hours with us in the car! We had 19 families come and check it out, and one offer did come in but it was too low and our house had only been on the market for 6 days.

I just had to do a mad dash of cleaning around the house because we have two more people coming to see it today. *Fingers crossed* I would absolutely love to be able to coordinate the closing dates of this house and the one we're buying. Of course, since it's my life I'm sure that won't be the case. ;)

I guess I should also give a couple of other updates since I've been so horrible at this recently. Let's see.... Britney and Kevin's "Chaotic" was absolutely ridiculous and Laura left half way through the show because she was so annoyed. Needless to say I will be watching it again tonight. :) Of course I'll also be taping the big American Idol finale. Bo better win because if I have to watch Carrie stand there and belt out a song with her robotic movements one more day, I'll scream. Vonzell was robbed!

I can tell the Red Sox will be putting me through another wringer of a season again. Can we please win three in a row? Anyone? And for those of you wondering why Edgar Rentaria isn't doing so hot, it's because I have him on my fantasy baseball team. I also have Curt Schilling. Sorry. I'm just a bad luck charm.

All right I'm posting this because I have a mother of a sinus headache at the moment. Rain= sinus headache for me. Pooper.

And I'll also want...

I got this email yesterday concerning music lessons. At least that's what I think.

Can this be for real?!

Hello Friend,
I learn you are a music TEACHER, and i'll want you to please let me know the kind of music you teach or the music teacher you know and what he teach.Please,and also i'll want you to email me the kind of instrument you have or the type of instrument the teacher have , and i'll also want you to email me the amount you charge per hour for teaching.I will be waiting for your response. Thank you. N.B please email me directly on (taken out just in case this guy is real) i'll be expecting your mail
REGARDS
JOHN

You can take the girl out of the trailer park, but....

Ok, I just finished watching the Britney Spears and Kevin Federline interview on Ellen. Now because I know about the "Pimp" jackets that Kevin and his groomsmen wore at his own wedding, I already knew this couple wasn't high class, but this interview just sealed their fate as white trash.

The two of them could not have been more inarticulate, making the whole interview quite uncomfortable. Plus with Miss Spears chomping on gum the whole time, it made them seem so completely immature. And these two are going to be PARENTS, people! (Sadly Kevin is already a parent to two illegitimate children. True class.)

Some interesting points made in the interview: 1) She's the one who proposed 2) He turned her down at first 3) Neither one could give a good reason about why it's good to be married 4) Britney doesn't read the magazines she just looks at the pictures 5) Kevin thinks love is good enough and didn't want to get married.

I never believed for a second that Britney was a genius, but even an idiot can see by the way Kevin sits on that couch, the way he dresses, the way he talks, how he answered some questions, and the fact he left his pregnant girlfriend for Britney that he is not nearly quality husband material.

Either way, I'm totally watching that train wreck of a show of theirs. I need a good laugh.

PostSecret

Check out this blog. A gentleman has somewhat of a living art project going on where people send him postcards revealing secrets they have never told anyone. I find it fascinating.

PostSecret

A ha!

Sober Worm Spawns German Spam - Yahoo! News

This is what I have! I've been going "what the f***!?" Everytime I open my email lately because I'll have about 35 emails all in German for no particular reason. My favorite one is titled "The Whore Lived Like a German" Heeheehahaheho.

Red or Blue?

I took this quiz to see exactly where I fell on the whole conservative/liberal thing (as if I didn't know). Hahaha! I find it interesting I'm liberal everywhere except personal responsibility. I guess concerning that issue I really believe people need to be responsible for the choices they make in life. I don't believe in fate or luck controlling our lives. Choices we make for ourselves or people sometimes make for us are what determine our position in life.

Your Political Profile

Overall: 30% Conservative, 70% Liberal

Social Issues: 25% Conservative, 75% Liberal

Personal Responsibility: 75% Conservative, 25% Liberal

Fiscal Issues: 25% Conservative, 75% Liberal

Ethics: 25% Conservative, 75% Liberal

Defense and Crime: 0% Conservative, 100% Liberal

How Liberal / Conservative Are You?

Good Betty

Well I'll never say I have a favorite kitty (out of my three), but Betty seems to understand me the most. :)

Today I picked her up though



And her paw went down my face, consequently leaving a big scratch down my cheek.



Now I look like a big dumbass, but what else is new. At least she apologized. Haha!

Teaching the Perfect Sudent

So I have a fourth grade female student that is already the perfect flute player after 7 months of playing. Well according to her, and really isn't that what matters? Seriously, though, I have a significantly difficult time teaching her and physically dread her lesson every week.

She started taking lessons with me soon after she signed up for flute at school. Needless to say, she was still in the beginning stages of playing and just trying to get a consistent sound on the flute. Lessons with these beginner students are as follows: me teaching them new fingerings, me correcting them on breathing techniques, and me showing them how to practice an entire song.

Well not with this girl. I learned quickly when I would point out she didn't finger something correctly or help her when the sound was coming out that this wouldn't be an easy relationship. Tears would well up in her eyes (which I would feel completely horrible and guilty about since most of my students laugh and have a great time in their lesson) and she would say she already did it that way, it's just the flute that isn't working. Or even better, I had told her to do it the other way (the wrong way) and she was just following that.

Now I'm sure some of you are thinking, "Well you just aren't encouraging enough with her and you're only criticizing." Oh no! I am constantly encouraging her and praising her on even the most minute things to get her to just even trust me. For instance, I often ask my students to define a new term we had gone over the previous week so I would know they had understood the meand, and when I did it with this student she would give me some made up answer and when an explanation of the correct answer was given she would tell me I had told her the "incorrect" answer the previous week or she would claim that's what she had said.

To be honest, sometimes I've had to keep myself from laughing at the audacity.

So anyway, I finally had a talk with her just to try to get things flowing a little better. I told her when I correct something or point out a different way of doing something, it isn't that I am telling her she's a horrible person or completely wrong, just that their is a better/easier way of doing it. I also conveyed the message that I wanted to work as a team and in the past few lessons I felt she thought I was somehow working against her. She seemed to get the message and I gave her a moment to speak her piece as well, but she didn't say much other than she understood what I said. I think she was actually surprised that someone called her on it.

So the past few weeks have gone somewhat better, although I have been a lot more accomodating to her and just let her do her thing figuring eventually she'll let me help her. But yesterday was just the ultimate. We were going over a piece and I wanted her to work on the final part (the most difficult part, all of four measures though!) She complained that it was difficult. I told her it was, but if she took it in pieces and tried to be patient she would see great results kinda like riding a bicycle, we don't hop on and immediately ride away perfectly. And her response to this was "Well I've always pretty much been perfect at riding a bicycle", so I said well name something that you might have had to work at before you were perfect at it. And she sat there for a moment and then gave me a sheepish look, pretty much saying "I can't think of anything I'm not good at".

And I just gave up and laughed.

I Heart Firefox

Critical Flaw Found in Firefox

Just a warning to those of you who love and use Firefox. Hopefully they'll be fixing this soon.

To Blog or Not To Blog?

This really the question. I have tried blogging before with some success, but haven't stayed motivated. Now that I know my friend, Lisa, has started a blog I'm all motivated again. Actually what I get motivated about is adding all the cool links and changing colors on my set up. Maybe I should just design a web page instead of actually writing my thoughts down?

What's unfortunate is I have a billion ideas running through my head all day, and I constantly think "Hey I gotta write about this!", but when I actually sit down the ideas all just fade away. OR I have so many things to write about and don't want to look silly updating my blog all the time.

Oh well. We'll see how this thing goes. At least (or at least I'm hoping) this will be a good way to keep in touch with some friends and hopefully they'll start blogs of their very own!

First entry

Right. So this is just my first entry to help me set up this crazy thing.