"lessons"

12-10-99

It is now possible for you to e-mail Fleck or Julia. I know all of you were just dying to communicate with them. Any messages sent to those two addresses will earn you CynicCash, and/or brownie points with me.

I drove to Macon to teach lessons this afternoon. Apparently, I have the wrong time, because I keep showing up at 3:30 and the students don't come until 4. So I practiced for a while. The kids I was supposed to teach today were the two brothers, the one who liked me and the one who cried in his first lesson. Their mother told me that BOTH of them were ready to take a lesson this week, and the crybaby would be cheerful.

Around 4, mom came downstairs and told me that the older boy wasn't there, she didn't know where he was. And Crybaby was refusing to get out of the car. She didn't make him. She thought maybe the older boy would show up, so I stuck around until 5, practicing. Crybaby sat on the couch at the top of the stairs and listened to me. When I walked up the stairs, he took off, out the door and around the corner of the building.

I'm supposed to be cheerful about this? Their mother is like, oh well, I won't force them, they can do what they want. It doesn't affect her because she convinced me to give the kids lessons for free. If she had to pay me to sit there, I'll bet two butts would be in those chairs next to me and I'd be hearing some fricking horn lessons.

John's hounding me to take care of this situation. I cannot continue to teach her kids for free. Truthfully, I don't mind practicing for an hour and a half, but I hate driving all the way to Macon just to practice. I've decided that I'll give her until late January to find me some other students. If nobody bites, I'm going to have to charge her for the lessons. By giving her kids lessons, I'm earning publicity; she gives me the space to teach in and she puts my name out for potential students. But if I don't have any students, I'm not going to pay for the space. If I drove to someone's house to teach them lessons, I wouldn't give free lessons just to use the house.

There's been a kitty in boarding almost as long as I've been working at the vet. Her name is Duchess and her family is building a house, living in a hotel. Finally, she went home yesterday. She'd been in a cage so long that I had to give her a bath.

Betsy: "Good morning, Duchess!"

Duchess: "It's you! Hello! Let me out! Pet me!"

Betsy: "You're going to hate me today!"

Duchess: "Pet! Me! Do that scratchy thing on my neck like you always do!"

Betsy: (scratch scratch scratch) "How would you like to see the dog room? Just stand right in this sink right here."

Duchess: "What is this? Are you doing what I think you're doing?"

Betsy: "Shh...."

Duchess: "Mmmrrreeeeeeeeeeeee...."

Betsy: "Not so bad...."

Duchess: "Rrrrrreeeeeeooowwwwwwwwwww...."

Betsy: "See? Clean clean clean, that was fun, right?"

Duchess: "Do not speak to me. You are no longer my friend."

I have claw marks on my back. They go well with the puncture wound on my thumb. Just to make things worse, I worked out today and went a little too far with the cross trainer. I'm sore all over. Boo hoo.

So many things to do tomorrow. Need to get to work early and work fast so I can leave early, take a shower, and go out to the high school for TubaChristmas. It's not the same TubaChristmas I did in East Lansing; if you can believe it, there are TubaChristmas spectacles all over the country. A friend of John's from the band is putting this one on for his college students and local high school kids. I'm missing a wedding to go to it.

Not because I'd rather go to tuba events than weddings, but because I'd rather go to ANYTHING than a wedding. You know, I don't mind weddings so much, really, but I don't have anything to wear, I don't want to go without John (Mr. Out-Of-Town, again,) and I barely know the groom and have never met the bride.

Sometime this weekend, we're going to get a Christmas tree. I can't wait. I love Christmas, yay!