Ice Skating: A Reflection

Last night, I went ice skating.

I've been ice skating a lot in my life, a few times a year. I am thankful that I learned to skate as a kid, because I imagine if I tried learning it now, I would be terrible at it:

Anyway, we discussed the stereotypes of people who go ice skating, and realized that there are a few distinct groups of people who always appear at the public skating sessions.

Top Ten Types of People Who Iceskate on a Saturday Night in January:

1. The Edge Shufflers. No public skating rink would be complete without all the people who can't skate at all. They scoot around the very outer edge of the ice, holding onto the wall for support.

2. The Whiz Kids. These little kids are scary, because they are so good at ice skating (because of all their hockey lessons) and they zip around people, weaving around and through peoples legs, cutting people off without signalling.

3. The Perpendicular Kids. Even more terrifying than the Whiz Kids, I've named them this because they can't skate at all, and will just skate across lanes of skating traffic, like a squirrel dashing across the road. Squirrels with no control or brakes, capable of leaving such havoc in their wake. Where are these children's parents, is the real question??

4. The Awkward College Freshman First Date. There are always one or two awkward date couples on the rink. The guy that isnt very confident on skates, but she said she used to love watching figure skating on tv, so hey, it's worth a shot. Plus, it's a great excuse to hold hands. And, maybe "accidentally" run into each other, I'm sorry, I don't know how to stop!

5. Old Roller-Derby Dads that are wearing their headphones and boogieing like no one is watching! Sure, he got his start on roller skates (300 years ago), but the same theories apply on ice. He can go backwards better than 80% of the people here, and he feels pretty hip doing it. (By the way, he's a father of one of the perpendicular kids)

6. Face Plant Kid. There is always one. He is not an edge shuffler, because he has left the safety of the wall and flown free of the nest. He is not a perpendicular kid, because he can't stay upright for long enough to even go ten feet in a straight line. He spends the whole time standing himself back up, but bless his heart, he's gonna keep trying for hours.

7. Norman Rockwell Girls. Girls who get completely dolled up to go ice skating, with their pretty red wool coat and their hair perfectly bumped on top and curled at the ends. Hoping that a handsome man will hold both their hands and they will skate together. Left, right, left, right. (Watch out for those Whiz Kids.)

8. The Burnt Out Skate Guards. There has to be someone in charge of the situation, and that is always the person who is much better than everyone else. They skate around, bored, making sure no one is getting hurt, helping up the Face Plant Kid, yelling at people who are throwing the ice shavings, and also at people who are holding hands with more than three people in a row. They are always crabby. And they use the time to practice their hockey stops and silently resent their wasted talent.

9. In Nashville, anything you do needs a category for Hipsters. They are everywhere. There is a group of them in their plaids and ironic christmas sweaters and their chunky glasses. They stick together (whether they are grouped in a corner and not skating at all, or skating slowly around amidst the couples and kids and skate guards). Harmless, and interesting. Just another flavor to add to the pot that is Public Skating Stew.

Last but certainly not least,

10. The One Black Couple.

Sorry I haven't blogged in a while. I guess I ran out of things to say.

Here's a song!

doors

Would you like to know what I like best about my job?

There are many reasons a luthier career is perfect for me - a blend of music and art and science. It's not just making things pretty (although that's important too!), its making things exact. It's nice for someone whose brain is made up of squares instead of circles. I also enjoy the flexibility the job allows. I am here all day every day, but if I'd like to take a long lunch out with someone, or leave early for a rehearsal or something, I can do that as long as I stick with the deadlines given to me by the customers, and depending on how much work I have to do (which, on the other hand, sometimes kicks me in the foot when I have too much work to do, staying late or working all weekend). I pretty much live here - I have better food on my shelf at work than I do at home. I learn a lot, new things come in all the time. New little problems and challenges to fix. New little emergencies, someone is in town just for a few hours and needs something fixed quick.

But what I like best about my job is my door.

I have a glorious door that I can close whenever I want to, and I play music and work on my projects and rarely be bothered. I still come out to talk to my customers, when they drop off their bows and instruments and when they pick them up, but it is just the right amount of customer interaction for me.

violin lessons!

Tomorrow, I start up my spring semester of violin lessons. I'm excited! I have a really good slew of students this year. I've never til the recent couple years thought of myself as the teacher type, but when it's good, it's good.

This sort of thing helps:

adorable.

But I still like teaching adults best. Even though they get discouraged initially - because learning the violin sounds terrible at first, and they know it (where a 5 year old has no idea how bad it is, and forges ahead no matter what) - adults learn so much more quickly, and blow through the easy things pretty quickly. Once they understand that it'll take some time, they can joke about it, and get through it. I always admire when someone works hard even when it doesn't sound good, and won't for a while. (and I know when that 13 year old kid is stalling and trying to distract me from the fact that he didn't practice. can't foo me! I've been there!)

In other news, has anyone ever noticed how many cheese-related commercials there are on television these days? As if I need motivation to eat more cheese. Psh.

.magical extra day this week

This morning, I was very stressed.

I got to work feeling very sick and very cranky. My annual sinus infection is in full force, making me not sick enough to take any time off, but sick enough to be entirely miserable.

I have a handful of bows to get done by the 6th. I planned on doing them all today. But I also had some overflow work from yesterday. And I had a guy call ahead and bring me a bow to do a same-day-rehair on. (Which I found out via sticky note, whoever took the note down did not ask me if I was able to do it)

I had no idea how I was going to get everything done by tomorrow.

Then I looked at my calendar, and realized today is the 4th, not the 5th, and now I have two days to get done everything I thought I had to do in one day.

I wish I had the ability to add an extra day of the week whenever I need it, because this was certainly nice!