Okay, it's been a while since I've sat down to babble on about recent happenings... This is because it's been a while since I've had TIME to sit down and just type away for a bit. For some reason, it's been a very busy fall. Lemme back up... Summer finished off with some pretty good concerts, one at Gore Place in Waltham and one at the Depot Square Gallery in Lexington - we performed a fairly odd mix of repertoire (what else is new?) and both were well-attended; some of our students even made it out, which is always fun. Somewhere in between Kate and I ran our first 5K; her roommate, Rose, thoroughly kicked out butts, but oh well, it was fun, there were tons of great freebies, and I ran into my old friend Holland Phillips, whom I hadn't seen for over 6 years. I love side-effects. :-) Then, let's see - oh yeah, Lino is president of the Beethoven Society in Melrose, so we performed at their first two meetings (Kate and I at the first, Bonnie and Lino joined us for the second) and have now all been voted in as members. More fun stuff. And halfway through October, Rose, Lino and I all ran a 10K "together" (as in, I think I finished about 15 minutes ahead of the latter and behind the former... :-P) while Kate decided to be a complete lunatic and run the half-marathon. It was freezing and the course was, um, shall we say generously littered with roadkill, but who cares, we did it! To top off the fall's list of activities (literally...) I hiked my first mountain the first day of November - Kate dragged me up to NH and we hauled ourselves up Mt. Cannon. Oddly enough, it was extremely warm - we made it to the top wearing shorts and a tank top, but as soon as we got out of the trees and onto the tower it was completely frigid and we had to layer on again. So all that's why this update is delayed...
Meanwhile, back with the kids, I don't know what I did at the Wellesley instrument recruitment demos, but I have 10 brand new viola students! With beginners ages 6 to 10, I've had an interesting time reacquainting myself with what goes on at those different stages - but boy are first-graders cute! I now have a total of 28 viola students in Wellesley and Milton (ha! take that!), most of whom are doing quite well, although it's pretty funny to see (and hear...) a C string on an instrument that's only 9 inches long!!! Most of 'em are on 11" ones, but they're starting to grow... Maybe soon... Their first recital of the year is coming up, as soon as I get my act together. Which will hopefully be soon. Sensing a theme?
And half of the "old gang" is back together up here, as Katie has returned to Boston! Unfortunately, she teaches during the day and I teach all evening, but I recently got a chance to see her perform in a short play in an evening of shorts. I never knew there was a black-box right down Tremont, but I do now - hopefully there will be more interesting things happening over there. Emi came for a visit in August, and we had a great time running around the city for a couple of days. Now she's back in Freiburg, and - the usual musical coincidences - Sarah Darling has headed over there this year too. I suppose Boston is one of those cities where, if I stay here long enough, I will eventually run into everyone I know. Or something like that. In the meantime, that's about enough out of me for now. Those of you in the know, know where to find me. :-)
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