Saturday, May 17, 2008

To play or not to play...

OK, on a scale of 1-10 (1 being pleasant and entertaining and 10 being obnoxious and distracting), how do folks like my blog music? To turn it off to watch the blog videos, simply push the pause button in the bottom right hand corner of the black blog music screen. I tried to pick out funny upbeat tunes. Friends are having a hard time posting comments, so just e-mail me your vote!





It's Dingo weekend again for the Woodbury clan. Alex is again in all his glory pushing earth around and hauling trees. I was tasked to organize the garage. There is a reason Alex's last name is WOOD- BURY. He is buried in wood wherever we go. For the normal family, a garage is the place a car is stored. But at our house, the garage has never seen the likes of rubber tire clad cars. It is the housing unit for stacks and piles and mounds and shelves of wood. Alex is single handedly cutting down the eucalyptus trees on the lot. So now we could build a log cabin from all the log accumulation. Yes he has an allegorical last name. If only my parents had named me Melody....It's funny when Alex tells me to throw out the "garbage" in the garage. I pick up a bolt that is rusty and old and I say "Is this garbage?" and he says "NO! That is THE most important unit to my chainsaw". And this process repeats itself until I stomp off frustrated at my lack of ability to distinguish junk and garbage from important necessary tools. I explain to Alex that his task for me would be like if I told him to go up into my music room and sort through my pile of music; making 4 piles for Baroque, Classical, Romantic, and Modern music. I think we should all just stick to what we know!
And now before I sign off, a quick Moki story:
Even from the "sawing logs snoring dead a sleep" state, Moki can manage to leap out of bed with perked ears when he hears the backing up beeps of a UPS or Fed Ex truck miles and miles away. A few years ago, I was horrified to see a UPS truck backing down my driveway. And when the driver got to the bottom, I see Moki happily trotting down the steps from INSIDE the truck (meaning he RODE in the van down the driveway since UPS trucks don't have any doors). I yelled at Moki for what he did and the driver said "He does this everytime I come! He meets me at the top of the driveway, climbs aboard, and rides down with me". The reason for Moki's adoration for UPS and Fed ex drivers? They carry dog treats with them. It has caused a Pavlovian reaction in Moki: He hears UPS beeps, he immediately salivates and creates droolcicles. Well yesterday, the UPS man wasn't coming to OUR house. He was going to a house down the street. And Moki heard those glorious truck beeps and goes tearing out of my music room, out the open door, and galloping down the private road after the truck. I could see the driver walking up the steps to my neighbors house down the road and from the corner of his eye saw a salivating galloping dog. Before he screamed, I yelled "DON'T WORRY! HE LOVES THE UPS GUYS!" And of course, he gave him a treat from within his pocket and Moki came slinking back into my house ears down and guilty, but he cracked a smile because it was SO worth it!

Friday, May 9, 2008

Fiddlin' Around

Ah this is a music filled Mother's Day weekend. Several of my students made CD's as special gifts. After a busy day of teaching today, I zoom down to Hilo to play with the symphony from 7-10pm. Eeks! That is WAY past my bedtime. We are performing A night at the Opera concert on Saturday. I believe we even have opera singers performing as well. 
I cannot believe how fast this school year has flown by. I am going on my sixth year at Hualalai Academy. I have officially watched my original first grade class graduate to middle school! Is time really that fleeting? Last night Alex and I were talking the days of yore in Bellingham. He mentioned a certain memory of having friends over for dinner, and I looked at him blankly, not remembering that event. I told him that the days of Bellingham and college feel like a dream. A lifetime ago. And how fleeting those special times were. Time simply bogles me. Why are we moving so fast? What's the rush? I even have moments where I feel the day is moving about 15 minutes faster than I am moving. So this summer, savor each warm evening breeze. Stand still for just a moment and open your eyes. And like my grandma always told me "Don't hurry, don't worry, and don't forget to smell the roses".