As I knew it would, I have more ideas and plans than I can possibly keep up with. The problem is give me 6 hours of effective work time and I'll make loads of progress. You would think that since leaving work, this wouldn't be too difficult. Not so. Unfortunately, my work-effectiveness seems to be DIRECTLY related to whether the sun is shining.
Right now I'm working on putting together a syllabus for my Noteworthy "Bass-ics" course. ( www.mayaspianolessons.com/noteworthy.html )I'm designing it to be similar to a Kindermusik class but for a very small class size (3-5 students) that emphasizes basic music skills such as concepts of high and low notes (pitch matching and ear training), beats, dynamics, different "instruments" through various musical games. Thing is, I'm wondering if I'm being a little too flexible with it. So far I've had two trial classes which are just absolutely loads of fun. I generally start out with an idea of games that we can play but the class has been mostly improvisational. Some things just flow better from one activity to the next with the openings that show up! Last week we did a lot of work with dynamics and the week before we learned about imitating beats with instruments "in the world around you" (mostly kitchen stuff). With the kids, flexibility is extremely helpful since dissolving into piles of giggles is a fairly common occurance. On the other hand, I feel bad for parents because I've said on my website that I'm going to have a syllabus. With the two-month class officially starting tonight (though the one for tonight is as full as I'm allowing it to be) I feel like I reallllllllly need to put that up.
Regular piano lessons in the meantime are picking up steam and I'm absolutely loving it. It seems that I have stumbled upon a very effective method of engaging beginning students which I wish I had found earlier. I teach most evenings now and it doesn't bother me at all like it used to. I have a sneaking suspicion that the bulk of the positive feedback that I've been receiving is because kids can pick up on the amount of energy that I'm bringing to lessons. With work out of the way, piano is getting practically all of my attention. My main concern now is to make sure that I don't inadvertently over-stretch myself once school starts. Hopefully, I will enjoy cooking so much that I never have to "work" another day in my life. That's my goal. If it's at all like music, the goal will not be difficult to reach.
Singing is also something that I've taken off with recently. After the Dickens of a Christmas event in December, I was invited to go caroling with the same group around town. One of the carolers invited me to the All Campus & Community Chorale (AC3) for which I had to rearrange my Tuesday lessons to join but it was totally worth it. The person in charge of it, Sarah, is funny and motivating and she has a Master's Degree in piano performance (at least I think that is what she said, although I don't swear to it). To top it off, she teaches piano too so she had me instantly interested! Singing with them has been wonderful and I look forward to it all week. I'm hopefully also going to be learning Song of the Dragonborn with a subgroup of AC3 for the friends and family performance. The AC3 group happens to perfectly coincide with starting school - our spring performance is on April 6th and classes at the Art Institute of Indianapolis start on the 7th. I'm continuing to sing with Jan's church choir as well. Last week, Nadya had to transform us into an all-women's choir since we were down to only two men available for singing on Sunday. The song we sang was an absolute ear-worm and I loved the alto part to it. Majestic Holy One was the name of it, if I remember right.
Last week I started the ball rolling for getting a juicing booth going at the West Lafayette Farmer's Market this summer. I'm supposed to wait just a little longer to look at the requirements because they haven't been solidified just yet for the West Lafayette Farmer's Market. There are a couple more phone calls I need to make and I don't know if I should go for the Lafayette Farmer's Market as well or not. :-/ It's quite a bit more expensive since there are potentially 3 markets associated with the fee. Today I spoke to the person in charge of teaching the local 1-day ServSafe course and she gave me some information on how to sign up and what sort of course materials I needed. The course is on February 19th and lasts all day which is coming right up! I'm excited. That said, if I throw the money for everything into this I really need to be sure that I'm going to do well. I need to buff up my recipes and start looking for deals on a commercial juicer and making a strict weekly budget for kitchen rental and food. The up-front cost is the worst of it, but each week I'll need to make sure I have the time and ability to get and prepare fruits and vegetables to juice. I think this idea really has some potential though there is a significant amount of work yet to go into it. What's nice about the ServSafe course is that if I do well, I won't have to retake the test when I'm in school. Also, I'll have a leg up and could start the catering business sooner rather than later. I still need to figure out what to do about a commercial kitchen but that's on the docket for another day. There is apparently a chance that the Farmer's Market may or may not require that the food be prepared in a commercial kitchen this year. Apparently though, the Tippecanoe County Fairgrounds has a Commercial Kitchen that they rent out which is more than I knew a month ago. It's not the best option since it's all the way across town, but since 231 was put in, it's a lot closer than it was.
Aside from that I've been trying to help my Dad on the house recently with some success. It's somewhat inconsistent because our bad days tend to coincide which tends to make the bad days VERY bad. Good days can be pretty good though. I think I've been helpful although I still don't work well with Ari when we're trying to work with Dad. I'm aware it's my own fault and it probably doesn't bother anyone else but I just don't like the feeling that I'm extraneous or that I could be more efficient with my time at home. Dad is also pretty frustrated with the books and stuff that is "being stored" in the house. Sometimes he just walks between the different rooms working himself up. I know he's desperate to get them out of the house. My problem is that my apartment just can't hold too many more books. I don't want to get rid of the books that I have at home, but there really are a lot of them and Dad's right, most of them will never be read again. It's a very intimidating project and isn't something I can do with anyone standing over my shoulder. Ironically, it's probably something Ari and I could do fairly well together because we're both of the mind-set to send the books on.
The one thing that has been lower on the list recently has been cooking, in part because I spend so much time at Dad's that I don't have a chance to cook anything on my own. I did make a really nice stir-fry yesterday and a chili a couple days before that. Not my best attempt, but not bad either. I had so much of it that I had to put a bunch in the freezer for another day. I have all the things for making juice in my refrigerator but cleaning the machine even once a day is a huge pain.
My idea of teaching English to Spanish speakers seems to have currently fallen off of the wagon. I did have a couple of classes lined up but none of the people who were initially interested got back to me. It's not the end of the world although I was hoping to keep my Spanish speaking abilities up to par. Instead, I decided to volunteer at LARA twice a week in the mornings which has been educational and eye-opening although I don't get to use my Spanish nearly as much as I thought I would. The main issue with the ESL class at LARA is that when you are trying to teach people of multiple ethnicities simultaneously, you cannot really use the native languages for the individuals. Spanish speaking volunteers can speak to each person one-on-one but it doesn't help explain the intricacies of the language. Mostly there explanations are given in English or by using a picture dictionary. It might be interesting to volunteer in one of the more advanced classes. LARA is an amazing community with such generous people. What are their options though for teaching language specific ESL classes? I'm not sure if it would be possible or fair to have a Spanish speaking only classroom. I wish I had the option of volunteering at one of the evening classes. I can't because of my piano teaching schedule but it would be an interesting experience to see how the classes differ when the majority of the class only speaks Spanish.
