Pre-Op

Today Jamie had his pre-op visit for his surgery on Friday. He answered some questions, gave some blood, and had his vitals checked twice (two different places that don't really talk to each other). The only bad thing we learned is that he doesn't check in for surgery until noon on Friday. Argh. Early is better. We were hoping for a 6am check-in. I'm guessing his surgery won't actually get started until at least 1:30. The procedure could take anywhere between 3 and 5 hours. It will be a long day. Plus, he has to stop eating/drink at midnight before the surgery. He'll be one hungry dude by the time it's all over.

I'll start my regular updates on Friday once I get settled in the waiting room. YAY for free wireless and an awesome laptop!

In the meantime, head over to the Flickr album to see pictures I took at High Point University. I would have a hard time choosing between HPU and Salem College, if I had to pick out a college right now. HPU is so NICE!

Newest Edition

I've had three violins in my life. The first wasn't around for very long. It was a 3/4 sized loaner instrument that I didn't even have for a full year. My next violin was a full-sized student instrument. It served me well from fourth grade through seventh grade. In the seventh grade I purchased, with my own money, the instrument that would see me through the rest of middle school, high school, Governor's school, college, and the start of my semi-professional career as a violinist.

I played my first Irish fiddle tune on this violin. I played two high school recitals and my college senior recital on this instrument. This fiddle flew to Texas with me and even went to Ohio once. It has played in countless concerts, numerous weddings, a memorial service in the woods in the rain, and for impromptu performances in family backyards.

But now, this instrument sits in a shop waiting to be bought by its next owner. It has been lovingly broken in and has come into its own special sound. I was its first owner and I'm a little sad to see it go. But the time has come for us to part ways.

Yesterday, Mom, Jamie, and I headed downtown to partake of some yummy bbq. After we finished stuffing ourselves full of smoked beef brisket, us ladies dragged the non-musically inclined guy over to the music shop. Mom and I mainly wanted to look at music, but I couldn't help oogling the instruments.

There hanging above a glass case was a gorgeous old instrument with a not-to-bad pricetag. A sign on the case said "We're happy for you to try out our instruments!" I took the invitation. A salesman carefully took the violin down and handed it to me with a bow. I pulled the bow across the strings. Ah! What a sound! I asked the salesman about trade-ins, but he said to come back on Saturday to speak with the owner and the violin guy.

Today, Jamie and I headed back downtown with my violin. To make a long story very short, we walked out of the music shop with a 1739 German violin in my case.

Before buying, the owner of the shop told us the story of the instrument. It was being sold on consignment by a man whose sister had been a member of the Winston-Salem Symphony and had died several years ago. She had played the viola in the symphony but had several violins in her collection. The music shop was also selling her viola, which she made herself, on consignment. Her name was Margaret Ann Smith.

My eyes widened at hearing her name. Several years ago, a man brought several crates of music to the Moravian Music Foundation as a donation. His sister had died and he was cleaning out her home. He said we could keep the music or give it away as we saw fit. The collection was made up mostly of violin studies and ensemble music (quartets, quintets, trios, etc.), which we sent over to the Salem College Fine Arts Library. But there were a few books that caught my attention and I claimed them for myself. When I got home from the music shop, I flipped through my shelf of music books. I found a book of Violin Duets by Playel with "Peggy Ann Smith" written on the cover.

Perhaps it was meant to be. :)

Facing the Swelter of Summer

Summer doesn't officially begin until June 21, but someone forgot to tell Mother Nature. Yesterday afternoon my car thermometer read 92! In NC, when it's that hot outside and humid, be prepared for really nasty weather. About an hour after I got home yesterday afternoon the skies darkened with ominous clouds on the southwestern horizon. The storm wasn't terrible, but we did have nickle-sized hail, wind, downpours where we couldn't see down the street very far, and continuous rumbles of thunder that would last almost a full minute before dying down. And, the lightning. Haven't had brilliant lightning like that in a while. We never completely lost power, but several times we had, for lack of a better phrase, power drains; lights dimmed, tv dimmed, the fan slowed down. That was weird.

I updated the Story of Us, Part IV with the latest emails.

School's out for...about two more days

Commencement was tonight. I get to spend the day decorating our division's room at the coliseum. We do an awesome job, if I do say so myself. My college commencement was outside and it had rained earlier in the day, so there was a lot of mud. The best part of my commencement was throwing tissue paper butterflies in a rainbow of colors instead of our mortar boards. I think Mom still has a little bag of those butterflies tucked away somewhere.

Speaking of Mom: I got to spend Mother's Day with my mommie for the first time in several years. I bought her a pretty yellow orchid corsage to wear to church, and I went with her to church! Afterward, Jamie and I took her out to eat. I'm going to treat her to a movie (Robin Hood...) sometime soon.

Jamie had chemo on Monday. His platelet count went from 84 two weeks ago to 130 this past Friday. Hopefully we can stay on schedule for the next 4 treatments, even though he does feel really bad. The fatigue and general blerg feeling are only getting worse, but that is to be expected. The doctor might stop the chemo drug that cause the uncomfortable tingling in his fingers and toes before the 12 treatments are up. Most people aren't able to get the full 12 treatments of that particular drug because of the side effects.

This past semester I taught my first college course. It was soooo cool! Though, I don't really feel that it's fair to call me a "teacher" or an "instructor". The course is online and was already set up, for the most part, before I took over. I have added some assignments and deleted ones that I didn't like. Hopefully, I'll get to teach the course for a while. It's a really good side gig. Summer semester starts up on Tuesday. I hope everybody does well in my class!

My violin isn't being too neglected (though I'm not practicing nearly as much as I should). I've played two weddings recently and I have a concert with the new orchestra at the end of the month. I really need to practice for that concert! I've been "promoted" to 2nd stand in the 2nd violin section. I need to sound like I know what I'm doing.

Oh! Right. My biggest accomplishment lately has been all the jewelry I've been making. Mom says I should be taking pictures of everything I make, but I keep forgetting. I've made over 100 individual pieces and sold quite a few of them. Most of the ladies at work are sporting handmade, one-of-a-kind necklaces, earrings, and bracelets. Several of my pieces have been given as gifts. Everybody who gives one of my designs as a gift always tells me how much the receiver liked the piece. And, everybody who buys something usually always stops by my office to show me their jewelry when they wear it. I love making jewelry! I really do need to post some pictures sometime.

Googlesites Sucks

Excuse the strong terminology, but it's true.

Googlepages died and Googlesites has taken its place. Googlepages was good. Googlesites -- not so much. Googlepages didn't translate directly over into Googlesites; so, now all of my layouts are funky and I can't get them to look like they used to. Well fine. I'll take my ball and go home; or take my blogging elsewhere.

From now on I'll blog directly into our Blogger blog.

Unfortunately, all of the pictures in this here blog were linked to the pictures uploaded to Googlepages, which meant their address was for somewhere within Googlepages. Now all of those pictures are in Googlesites. So Blogger can't find those pictures anymore because their address changed and they didn't leave a forwarding address. Bah. Oh well. Don't worry. Those pictures aren't gone forever. They're in one of the two Flickr albums or safely saved on the computer.

I've uploaded the latest updates in the Story of Us Saga. Parts II, III, and IV are basically in the form of emails that I've sent out to update family and friends on Jamie's emergency hospital stay (Part II), his surgery (Part III), and his adventures in chemo (Part IV). Links to these are located on the right-hand side of the blog.

Now I need to go pay some attention to the hubby because he is feeling neglected. :)

February 8, 2010

Hmmm...where to begin. We (ok..mostly Jamie) have been through quite a lot since I last posted on this blog, as evidenced by the new additions to our Important Dates column.

Our grand adventure started with Dominoes pizza and wings one night for dinner, which led to a trip to the ER for massive dehydration due to throwing up for 36 hours straight, which led to a colonoscopy, which led to a diagnosis of Colon Cancer, which led to a total Colectomy and Chemotherapy.

I plan to put the whole story here, but first I have to organize it! It's mostly in emails that anybody who might read this blog has already received, but I want the story all together in one place.

Check back later for how the story begins.

October 29, 2009

I'm a lazy blogger.

We haven't disappeared off the face of the earth. I promise.

We've been moderately busy during October. October is one of my favorite months. The first weekend in October I played for a wedding in Fuquay-Varina. It was an interesting experience between a pianist who really didn't have much classical music training and no legible road signs for getting around town. Jamie and I took off to Raleigh on the morning before the wedding to see the museums. YAY for FREE stuff to do! We visited the NC Museum of Natrual Science and the NC Museum of History. I took some pictures and they're uploaded to the Flickr album.

I entered five of my photographs in the Dixie Classic Fair's Amateur Adult Photography Contest. I didn't win any ribbons, but my photos looked just as good as the other non-ribboned photos I saw.

Keeping with fall tradition in my family, we went to an October race. But we didn't go to Charlotte. We checked out the short-track action at Martinsville last weekend. Getting there and back were the most interesting part of the day since our Mapquest directions got us lost in the middle of nowhere, rural NC. The trees and vistas were very lovely, though we did drive probably half an hour more than we had to. I took more pictures and they're uploaded to the Flickr album too.

Our little house was about to burst at the seams. We had six people stuffed in it. Mom came up with Mema, Grandpa, and Aunt Gloria for the race, though we left Grandpa at home on Sunday, which was A-ok by him. Mom and Aunt Gloria will be back in a couple of weeks after a Camp weekend. Then Mom, Mema, and Grandpa will be back for Thanksgiving. I'm soooo excited! Food and family and shopping and CHRISTMAS decorating!!!

As much as I complain about stores setting out Christmas stuff before Halloween, I do secretly LOVE seeing all the Christmas stuff. Like tonight, I was drooling over some very adorable holiday plates at Target. As I get older, I love Christmas time more and more and I'm very disappointed when it ends. I love the lights and decorations!