Category: A Better Me

Octopus’s Garden

We are about to reach the two week mark of my garden. Yesterday was the first day of Spring so I decided to take a good look to see how it’s progressing. Earlier this week, I snagged a piece of arugula and man, was it full of spicy flavor!! So, here is my garden at two weeks:

The peppers are flowering.

Here come tomatoes.

New fronds in the fennel.

The garlic & green onions are getting some height.

The Japanese eggplant is blooming as well.

My spicy, yummy arugula.

I’ve got new growth in the peppermint as well.

Pfema decides to be the protector of the garden.

And Stanley watches from afar.

Some pretty purple flowers decide to join the party as well.

Can’t wait to eat it when it’s all ready!! 🙂

Act Naturally

**WARNING, THIS POST MIGHT BE A LITTLE GROSS**

For anyone who saw me at TMEA or since has probably heard about my left middle fingernail. For those of you who haven’t, in short, I almost ripped that fingernail off the night before I left for TMEA. Since then, it’s been hanging out, waiting to fall off and I’ve been wearing at least a bandaid on in, if not the finger splint if I’m going to be in a heavily populated area (like the exhibit hall at TMEA or the Narita Airport). It was painful for about a week but then, I’ve just been gentle with how I use that finger because I didn’t want to cause anymore pain than I’ve already had with it. I’ve even learned to type without it as hitting the end of the nail always caused a twinge to run up my arm. In fact, typing this is awkward because I’m making myself use that finger and I’m paranoid in doing it. LOL

So as you might have guessed, it finally came off today. I’m not sure what to do with it now (no, not the nail that came off, silly!!). I really hope a nail grows back, too! It looks funny now….

What You’re Doing

I’ve just gotten through the halfway point through Spring Break 2008 and I have to report that it’s been very productive and fun!

I started out by going to an SPHS Girl’s Soccer game on Saturday morning. They played against Westwood at The Palace and after a slow start, did alright. Final score, tie 1-1.

On Sunday, I built my garden:

I can’t wait to eat my own veggies. I have 8 varieties of peppers, 2 types of tomatoes, some Japanese eggplant, arugula, fennel, sage, Greek oregano, cilantro, rosemary, green onion and garlic. Next to the garden box, you’ll see my compost pile. I’m feeling more and more organic every day!!

Thanks to Monica for her help in putting my garden together. That soil was HEAVY and I couldn’t have hauled and mixed it all up without her. After we were done gardening, we went to her friend Jeff’s for a BBQ. Yummy!!

Monday, I spent some time with my mom. We went to my favorite Chinese restaurant Hunan in South Austin for some noodles. I rarely get down there for them but when I do, OMG, they are magnificent!!

I’ve cleared out more of the garage and put more stuff in the “to be sold” stack. (no picture of the garage, sorry) I’ve laid out and have a nice little bit of lobster coloring that will quickly turn to tan. (no picture of tan lines, either)

On Tuesday night, we went out to go see Boombox, ATX. As always, it was a good concert.

Before we headed to Lucky Lounge for Boombox, we went to Whiskey Bar so I could try their creme brulee martini. She set the glass on fire. Very cool trick, I tell ya!

Yes, it was Tuesday night but with all the SXSW activities going on, I didn’t know if we would get even close to the bar!!

LOL

However, the guy who is too much a Longhorn fan was somewhere out there that night.

But we had a good time, as we always do!

Like Dreamers Do

Randy Pausch is a professor at Carnegie Mellon University. He was told last fall that his pancreatic cancer was fatal and he only had 6 or so months to live. Carnegie Mellon has been having professors give a lecture of life lessons as though it was their last. He decided to give his on childhood dreams.

Have you seen or heard about this? This is the entire video (just over an hour) but you can watch the shorter one he gave on Oprah (around 11 minutes). Human strength and courage is amazing!

When I Get Home

I am now home from TMEA. I left feeling like we accomplished a lot…despite only having gone to 1 clinic the entire weekend. It was very much a jazz education focused weekend for me and I think I grew a lot as a musician, educator and supporter from my experience. 🙂 The three big highlights (in no particular order) –

  • Meeting, hanging out with and having several conversations with Ron McCurdy. Wow, what an amazing individual. We spent a bunch of time together on Friday and I’m blessed to have met him and I’m excited about the future of this new friendship.
  • Sitting in the IAJE meeting, with over 50 people there (there are usually about 15, with officers), listening to everything we’ve done in a matter of 6 months and having the people we affect tell us about the other positive directions they’d like to see their organization go. And that it’s not out the realms of possibility for us to get these things done. Collaboration is so invigorating!!
  • Seeing several of my ex-students as future music educators at the convention with smiles on this face. One student sent me a text that said, “Man I love this place!!”. How awesome is that???

    • It was really nice to see everyone, as well! Those of you that live further away, I hope your travels home are safe and I hope to see you again soon. Seeing you guys brighten my life even more than it already is!

    Next: Tokyo, Japan. 😀