September, 2009

OMG, is it already September? How did that happen? We had a great summer. We did a million fun things this summer. We went to the Colorado Suzuki Institute where Isabelle was an amazing soloist. We went to Water World in Denver and a tornado came after us there. (We escaped!) We went to the Grand Canyon and spent some time in Flagstaff Arizona. We went to Cape Cod where we went whale watching in the bay. We did so much!

Isabelle and I. We went to the Santa Cruz Boardwalk and rode the skywalker ride. We went to the Alameda County Fair and Isabelle rode on Michael Jackson's "Samba" ride from Neverland Ranch. We went to Aqua Adventure in Hayward, and to the Livermore Water Park three times. We went to the San Francisco Aquarium and Isabelle did flips on the bungee trampoline. We really did this summer up!

But, September, already? Now my little girl is in second grade!

Getting her to practice her cello? Difficult, but not impossible. I let her practice by herself alot. Two days a week we have "lessons." I am pretty easy on her. After all---she's seven, and she needs to have fun and love music. We got her a violin after she begged for awhile, and she plays that every day too. I was surprised. She loves it.

My CD "Butterfly Girl" is playing all across the United States. Really. On college radio stations. It's kind of cool. The cities where it is playing are listed on my website. I wonder who is hearing it? And I wonder who is playing it? It's number one world CD on Radio Phoenix, so somebody there likes it. It's in the top ten in four or five cities...it's kind of fun and exciting.

I went to Los Angeles and to San Diego last weekend to perform with the Ramana Vieira Portugese Fado Band. Interesting. We had alot of fun. We traveled there in a kind of a Partridge family van setup...it was a marathon trip...but ultimately there were lots of laughs and there was lots of good music, which is what I am looking for in life...

Lots of new students. That's the other thing I am looking for in life. Today I had a three year old violin student. She was serious, too. But she switched to cello, after she heard Isabelle play. That happens sometimes. It happened yesterday too, believe it or not. Two new students came in, a brother and sister. One wanted to play violin and the other wanted piano. But, they heard Isabelle, and now they both have decided on cello. :-) I guess she is my best recruiting method so far. When the kids hear her, they want to play cello like she does.