strings on the side

My full-time job is stay-at-home-Ramona-mommy . . . and most likely, it will stay that way for a little while. A friend of mine once described this and similar occupations as a job with crummy pay but benefits "out of this world." I would have to agree.

Aside from this responsibility, however, I enjoy working as a teacher of stringed instruments part-time. For a while after our move to Iowa I was without students, but thankfully in September I began lessons with an 11-year violist (whose family happened to have a spare viola for me to borrow) and an 8-year old cellist. As much as I miss my old students back in Illinois, it has been refreshing to start over with a brand new studio of beginners.
About a week ago I held a mini-recital in our living room to showcase our progress. It was successful enough that perhaps we will have to do something like it again sometime.
In addition to my own private studio, I also got a position teaching at the Cedar Rapids School of Music, a facility for private music lessons after school. Last week I had my first lessons with a couple of violin students--and I decided it was time to purchase my own violin.

I took a bit of a gamble and picked up a 100-dollar fiddle from Craigslist that hadn't been played for 30 years. I spent another 100 dollars on some repairs and ordered a fresh set of violin strings. I think once the new strings are on, it will sound like a 700-dollar violin.
So, it's true--I am now the owner and player of a violin. I am even the teacher of two violin students. But let there be no misconceptions about my true identity--I will always be a cellist and cello teacher at heart . . . somewhere on the sidelines of my heart, where the mother, wife, and daughter in me live, that is.