The Hills Are Alive

These are exciting times here on the Stick Farm. For starters, Rex was out of the house for two days in a row, and I was totally ALONE!

I do love being alone. I think it stems from growing up with sisters who just made fun of me all the time, leaving me unwilling to do much of anything in their presence. For example, at a Bible camp we went to for a week one summer, my sister Janet and I were put in the same dorm room. The room was actually an attic, and a damned hot and stuffy one at that, and about 10 girls were housed there. I think I was 10. I was very lonely. I had no idea how to make friends. In contrast, Janet made friends easily and hung around with a large group. One day I was lying on my bed between classes, having a conversation with my stuffed bear. Janet came in with some other kids from some activity outside. She strode over to me and ripped my bear out of my hands, and told me to stop playing with a stuffed animal. It was embarrassing her.

At home in Falmouth, it was only when I would strike out on a walk "down back" with my nonjudgmental dog that I felt free to be. Maybe that's why the word and concept of freedom resonate so deeply with me. Freedom! Ain't that a gorgeous word?

Liking to have Rex out of the house has nothing to do with Rex, really. He tolerates whatever I do here, including, notably, my wretched attempts to rebuild my trombone embouchure. Still, I'd rather not have him in listening distance. It makes a difference in how I practice.

Also exciting is the response I've had to my search for music students. It's exhilarating (is that spelled right? I don't think so ...) yet scary to be opening myself up to sharing music. I'm not saying I have a lot of students -- just that I'm talking to people about music and seeing some enthusiasm and also seeing more possibilities. I'm discovering, too, that I hate the money aspect of teaching lessons. I just want people to come play with me. What I'd really like to do is charge people on the basis of how much they practice -- the more they practice, the less I charge, because the quicker they learn, the more fun they'll be to play with! Maybe Rex can come up with a practice-o-meter that we could imbed in students' instruments.

Last but not least, I have finally successfully papier-mache'd something. It's Kayti's mask for her parrot costume for Halloween (her best friend is going to be a pirate). I'm quite delighted with the result.

Now it's on to my own costume -- appropriately, a treasure chest!