Atlanter?! I hardly know her!

I got back from Atlanta today. My next big adventure (catch up with my last post if you don't know the next big adventure) has to be preceded by a lot of mini-adventures. Since I'm moving away from this area for the time being, I get to make the rounds to see people that I won't see again for a while. This past weekend was Atlanta to see my Sarah and Josh! You may remember them from my roadtrip down to Alabama over Christmas break, to help them get married (I was the maid of honor)

I have been to Atlanta plenty of times, but never for very long at a time. My main Atlanta experiences have been eating delicious food, and not much else. Which is not to say that I don't enjoy delicious food very much! (I do), but for how many times I've been to Atlanta, I can't say that I know the city very well. But it does have delicious food.

We went to the dog park on Sunday, because the weather was ridiculously lovely, and that was pretty fun. And I got plenty of fuzz-therapy with the friendliest cat in the universe, Lila.

She's pretty much the best. I've been realizing lately that I am more of a cat person than a dog person, but I'm not anti-dog, of course. Going to the dog park was interesting, because I thought about the possibility of a cat park and how poorly the whole idea would go. 

Anywho. Next mini-adventures are Clarksville and Louisville! And you can expect a post one of these days about minimalist living. 

That's all for now! Thanks for stopping by. 

ch-ch-ch-ch-changes!

The rumors are true.

I'm quitting my life as a land lubber luthier, and running away to sea (like my father did before me - he was a first mate of a ship and had glorious adventures, and even though I'll only be a cabin boy, I aspire to be as cool as him even though he left me at a young age and I never saw him again. Some role model.) (I'm just kidding, I think that was Treasure Island.) (I digress.)

At the beginning of April, I will be signing onto Celebrity Solstice with my string trio! Most of you know that I hold a Bachelor's degree in violin performance, so like most people who went to school for music, my goal in life was to play for a living. I detoured into a more practical career, to my day job fixing violins and bows, but I'm back on track to play the violin full time.

The goal in life is to make a living playing the violin. The huge perk is that I'm getting paid to go places that I would never be able to afford to go to otherwise. I will be starting in Sydney, Australia, only to immediately cross back over the Pacific (by way of French Polynesia) to Hawaii. The summer will be spent going back and forth between Seattle and Alaska (my long time readers will recall I spent the summer of 2010 doing those same Alaska runs - I'm looking forward to going back!) and then back to Hawaii in the fall, before signing off in October.

FAQ:
How much will you be working?
A few sets each evening, which is a couple hours a day.

Oh wow, that's the ship your boyfriend is on! Is that why you're doing this?
No. Yes, I'm very excited that I get to spend so much time with him working together in the same place, but I've been wanting to get a job on a ship since I got off my last ship job in 2010, and I only met Boyfriend in 2012.

Do you get to actually get off the ship when you're in those cool places?
Yes. My job is to entertain guests, and when the ship is in port, the guests are out in port too. There is no point in having live music when the audience is out snorkeling, so most of the time I'll be able to go to the cool places!

Can I fit myself into your luggage and come along? 
Unfortunately, we're not allowed to have pets on board. Also, my luggage space is pretty limited, as I have to pack 6 months worth of stuff into two suitcases, including my sheet music.

How can I follow where you go and what you're up to?
Well, I'll be writing some adventures into this blog, AND/OR you can go like my group on facebook (by clicking HERE) . We will keep that updated with blurbs and pictures in case you don't want to read my pompous ramblings interesting stories on here.

end of blogging haitus

I'm back in Nashville after a month of rambling.
I ain't never gonna change, I've got a gypsy soul to blame and I was born for leaving.

Places I've been in the last three weeks:

Annapolis, Maryland

Durham, New Hampshire

Boston, Massachusetts

Dover, Delaware

Harrisonburg, Virginia

Ocean City, Maryland

Greenbelt, Maryland

Vienna, Virginia

and back to Nashville, Tennessee. 

I like to do a grand New England tour at least once a year to see as many friends and family as I can in one trip, but the point of this trip was to go study bowmaking up in New Hampshire. It was my third time at this particular workshop (last year for bow repair) I made one violin bow. It turned out well enough, for learning in five days what is a four year program in France. I could do better, and I will, on future bows. Fortunately, plenty went wrong on my first one, so I learned a lot of what not to do next time, or at least how to fix many different things that go wrong. It was a very informative and fun week! And I got a whole slew of new tools to play with.

On our way south after New Hampshire, we stopped in Boston for a night to visit one of my dearest friends. I wish we'd had time to stay longer, since I love Boston a lot. It's one of my favorite cities, which I don't say lightly, because I am very persnickety about some cities, and I would totally live in Boston someday if I could ever afford to.

I had ten whole days in Maryland to catch up with everyone. It was so much fun! I spent time with my family, we went to the beach, got my usual sunburn and then our usual family go-karting, where I won (as usual), then walked down the ocean city boardwalk to the kite store, stopping for greasy pizza on the way, as usual. I met my new nephew (or newphew, if you will), I went to some great live music (Cole Cash, and the NSO Zelda concert), played some great music with my fabulous string trio, caught up with some friends from high school and pulled out some old photos from our high school orchestra trip to France, played some violin for the church I grew up in (which I haven't done since two christmases ago), and many other delightful endeavors.

It was a great trip, but I am so glad to be home, in my own bed, driving my own car, sitting on my porch again, and having a great roommate who made me peach blackberry crumble for breakfast this morning as a welcome home :)

Life is unbelievably good, and it keeps getting better. I'm going to try to write here more often, and I will hopefully have more things to write about. New adventures on the horizon! Don't stop me now, cause I'm having a good time.

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.