Crazy December!

The first couple of weeks in December were the busiest I'd had in a long time. Over a time span of 9 days, I had a total of 14 rehearsals/performances for either my students or myself. Since I'm teaching the advanced students this year, we performed for the school Christmas concert and also had several opportunities to perform around the area. It's great, but makes the season even busier! We performed for visitors from Singapore, at Aramco (a Saudi-based oil company), for a retirement home, and even taped a segment for the local show "Great Day Houston" which aired on Christmas day. I also offered them a chance to perform at our stake's Christmas Concert and I had a lot bigger response than I expected! I had 14 students and their parents come and they all really enjoyed it! It ended up becoming a great missionary opportunity even though that was never my intention and I received so much positive feedback from everyone. Teaching these kids is so fulfilling for me; I absolutely love working with them!

Also during that week, I performed The Messiah with a Jesuit high school chorus, Vivaldi's Gloria at a local church, and a Bach concert with the Houston Chamber Symphony. Not too mention in the midst of all of this, I celebrated my 20th (I mean 30th birthday)...I know, scary, huh?...and came down with a pretty good case of laryngitis. It was cute because there was one day in particular where I could barely whisper. I think my students felt sorry for me because whenever I tried to talk to them, I only got whispers back. One student even gave a full report to her mom of when my voice was improving or getting worse throughout the day. They're so great!

In case anyone's curious, I spent my birthday working...first at school, then at a rehearsal for the orchestra, and finally with a performance of The Messiah. It's okay because the paychecks made it all worth it and because I have some really nice co-workers who brought me lunch and cake and one awesome co-worker/friend who took me out for sushi after the performance. I had also celebrated previously in November by going sky-diving (which we're doing again in January). And, my friends took me out to dinner at a Saltgrass steak house a week later. And, my awesome sister brought me home a Lady Baltimore cake (amaretto with meringue frosting) from the Buttercup Bakery in New York City. So, for not really having much of a birthday, it really turned out to be quite a good one. Thanks everyone!!! : )