Wind, rain, more wind, more rain, �

The snow of yesterday gave way to incredibly warm temperatures today, only for the wind to spring up around noon, the clouds to lower, and the temperature to drop, accompanied by fierce rains. I drove out to Costco in it, and drove home again, this time in the dark, hardly able to make out the road ahead of me for the glare. (As an aside, they�ve started handing out the pre-Christmas samples at Costco, and I gorged today, so much so that I didn�t feel like eating anything until about 7:30 p.m. when I made myself a hummus and tomato sandwich. My favourites are the dark chocolate truffles. Talk about something being �to die for�.)

Little Princess had her dressing changed this morning at student health services, and I got to see her wound. It looks much better than the last time I saw it, and much, much better than when the specialist cut away the scab. The lesion itself is still red (a nice, healthy red, mind you) and it looks like the edges are healing inwards well. There was some scab around the edge that the nurse cut away. The specialist takes another look at it next week, and hopefully that will be the last time.

My annoying student really tested my patience today. But we did have a breakthrough. I got her to sing an E (top space on the staff, treble clef) with a raised soft palate. That was the best she�s done in weeks. I also told her that there is a voice in there, but something is keeping it from getting out, either physical or psychological, and we have to work to open her up. I think there are real issues there, but I�m not a shrink, just a singing teacher.

Speaking of my profession, something happened yesterday which put me in mind of harri3tspy�s recent entry on crying in the workplace, and the resulting discussion it spawned on her notes page. Into the life of every singing teacher there will fall students who cry in their lessons. I think this is more common with this particular instrument than others, and definitely with females more than men. Anyway, one of my students cried during her lesson yesterday. It wasn�t my fault, and she was quick to absolve me of any blame, but something about the song she was learning (Nell by Gabriel Faur�) just brought on an emotional crisis. We talked instead, I deftly changing the subject, for which she was grateful. Later on I saw her and asked how she was feeling, and she replied that she was much better, surprisingly, that the outburst in her lesson had been cathartic.

I have another student, a young man, who finds the process of learning to sing to be very frustrating. It�s partly my fault, since I really want him to learn something in the one year that he will be taking lessons for his minor in music, and kind of push him harder than I would a student whom I knew was with me for at least two years. So he tries really hard to do what I ask, and he gets really frustrated because he doesn�t get it right away, and his way of dealing with it is to say, �Excuse me,� go into the hallway to get a drink from the fountain, and return composed. It works for him.

And now I�m done.

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