Last year, my new years resolution was to stop getting parking tickets (I made a bad habit out of just parking in places I knew I was not allowed to on campus because I was either in a hurry or it was too cold or it was raining, etc...and since the tickets were only like $15, I really wasn't learning my lesson when I would get a ticket). However I didn't make that resolution until about March or April, but I actually managed to follow through and I have not received a parking ticket since (I think that is the first new year's resolution I have ever actually met). Well, this year I have decided my new years resolution is to get back in to playing my cello. I am ashamed to admit that I have not touched my cello since I moved, in fact, today was the first day I even opened it (for all I knew all the strings could have been broken, but shockingly, everything seems to be in order and only one string was way out of tune). But I am going to try to play a few times per week for the rest of the year and hopefully I'll get a gold star for meeting my resolution two years in a row.
This actually stems from my desire to take piano lessons. When I moved here, I was convinced that I was going to buy a keyboard and find a piano teacher and learn how to play, something I've been wanting to do for years, and I was like, well when I move, I'll have all this free time after work and I won't know what to do with myself so I'll take piano. Boy was I wrong...I have pretty much no free time. It is wonderful that I have an extremely flexible job that lets me choose when I work so that I can have long weekends and plan around family visits and the like...but the downside is that when I do work, it is generally for very long hours. In a typical week, I work from 8:30/9:00 AM - 7:30/8:00 PM, which means I get home around 8:00/8:30. That allows enough time for me to plan and cook/or order out dinner, watch some tv, maybe read in bed, and then go to bed and get up again at 7 the next day. When I work this schedule, I generally finish my work biweek every other Thursday between noon and 4pm, which allows me to drive to Jersey on Thursday nights and get there early enough that Matt doesn't have to stay up until the wee hours of the morning on a work night. This means my free time is about every other saturday-ish, but it is irregular. This does not leave very much time for scheduling in regular piano lessons because I am generally not around at a regularly predictable time and most music teachers prefer to give lessons in the late afternoon/early evening.
So, since I have realized I am going to have put off my piano lesson dream for a few years, until my schedule is somewhat regular, I figured I can at least play my cello that is gathering dust because, even if I can't play as well as I used to be able to, I still remember how I am supposed to play, and I have a ton of music that I have never learned that I think will be fun to play.
So that is the current plan, maybe if I really follow through, I'll splurge and buy some new strings or something. I have also decided to set up a "music nook" in my living room in the hopes that if I leave my cello out all the time, I will be more inclined to play it because I won't have to go through the process of setting it up every time I feel the urge to play.
Here she is in the new "music nook" of my living room (I really do think she is the prettiest cello ever, if anything at least she is nice to look at):
3 comments:
Free time, ha! There never seems to be any. I think college was the last time I remember having copious free time.
Well done with the resolution, though. If I ever learn to play the guitar, we should totally form a band....
I think you should add a chair and maybe a music stand to add to the aesthetic of the nook. I think it's a great idea - if I hadn't sold my violin, I would want a music nook too.
now the nook has a chair and stand and has been used twice!
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