Been a long time!

I'm still alive, yes. Apparently, I've had nothing to say since February.

Spring instrumental recital was April 10th and it was the best recital we've ever had. There are 26 video clips from the day on my youtube channel or you can link there from my website. Vocal recital is this Saturday night.

Need more students. I lost several in January and February, kicked one out for skipping the recital and hopefully will have some referrals come when school lets out. I'm raising my rates July 1, which I didn't think I'd do, but I've been researching what other teachers who go to students' houses earn, and I'm pretty far below the belt, plus many of them have far less experience than I do. The elementary school behind my house has early dismissal on Mondays and I'm going to put up flyers there to get some kids to come over for lessons.

My geeky Brit-obsession did, of course, prompt me to get up at 2am and watch the royal wedding. I find it quite serendipitous that I was at Westminster Abbey on April 29, 2010. Yes, exactly 1 year to the day before the wedding. Hmmmm...wonder what the universe is trying to tell me there. Anyhow, I have quite the crush on Wills now. I think he is very much his mother's son - he has a huge heart and is quite intelligent. Kate's pretty cool too - damn, that dress! It was perfect! They're both so down-to-earth and just seem like very genuinely nice people who are truly in love.

My little Pasadena pad is cool as ever. And I mean that in more than one way - it's been in the 90s the last couple of days and my house stays pretty cool without a/c.

I quit drinking Coca-cola and eating anything sweet or snacky. It's day 3. I had a momentary lapse of sense and joined Weight Watchers on Sunday, but have decided that you must be obsessive-compulsive to follow that complicated point system they have and after reading through all of their materials, I am going back for a refund today. In the past, the only periods of weight-loss success I have had were not obtained through a diet plan. It's always been from winging it. So my plan is to eat as many fruits and veggies as possible, no desserts - ever, and stop drinking coke and to exercise 30-60 minutes every day. And no food in the car, except water.

So, the book! The main reason I haven't blogged is because I've had writer's block since Feb. I started rewriting book 1 on one path, but I didn't like where it was going, so I stopped. I read a bunch of books (fiction, and 1 book about writing). Now, I've figured out a new path, so in the last 4 days, I've written about 18,000 words and I like how it's going. I'm writing it in first person from Jack's point of view and I'm really discovering Jack and learning things about him I didn't know before.  I think the second book will be written from Lizzie's point of view.

My mom was going to bring my nephew out for a visit in June for his 13th birthday, and initially, my brother gave his permission, but now he has retracted it and I'm VERY PISSED OFF about it.

BTW, apparently Osama was born in Hawaii. Who knew? ;-)