This is just one of those days that's hard to take. I'm tired, I'm distressed over various and sundry things (the biggest personal one: now it looks like my piano teacher may NOT be able to offer lessons in the fall. Can one progress on the piano as an autodidact? Are there books one can use to help oneself get better?)
(Yes, I know I sound like Twilight Sparkle but that has been my lifelong strategy: "Need to know something? Go find a book.")
I'm not sure I have adequate courage to knock on the door of one of the piano professors on campus and see if they'd take me as a student. Oh, I'm sure they're perfectly nice people but I just have bad past experience with being taught by Super Serious Musicians as opposed by someone who is primarily a music instructor, and whose main clientele is children. So, I don't know. Maybe this is the end of my learning at least for now. And that makes me sad. I'm not sure if my sadness at not being able to take lessons any more will overcome my reticence over maybe "wasting the time" of a Super Serious Musician when I don't really ever want to perform, I just want to play.
And the weather isn't helping. It's cold and rainy now and it looks like I will have to cover my tomatoes and beans tonight so they don't get frost bitten. (What the H, weather? Last week I was getting a dude out to fix my air conditioner!)
I also had to go to the grocery, but that was actually less annoying than anticipated. (Midday trip on a cold rainy day to the Wal-Mart: for once there were no hordes of people letting people off in the fire lane so they wouldn't have to get wet, while I trudged up from the Beyond Far East in which I usually wind up having to park - being unwilling to be a parking-space vulture and wait longer than it would take me to walk)
And these are the dimensions to which my life has shrunk: I was happy to find that they were once again carrying the "English Muffin Toasting Bread" that was low enough in sodium (105 mg per slice, or at least that's what is claimed) that I can eat it.
And going down the baking aisle, remembering I was nearly out of baking powder, I found they now carry "lower sodium" baking powder. It has some kind of calcium compound instead of one of the sodium compounds. (It still contains a little sodium bicarbonate; otherwise, it wouldn't be double-acting baking powder). And while baking powder isn't the big bad one (baking soda contains far more sodium), still, the thought of maybe once in a while being able to make cornbread (at least the Yankee style kind, without buttermilk) or muffins again without worrying as much about the sodium was a comfort.
Yeah, that's kind of sad that the highlight of my day was finding a lower sodium baking necessity. You take what you can get in this life, though.
But yeah. I was thinking today about how one thing I would really like, once in a while, would be to feel free to go to a restaurant - to go, and order what I wanted without worrying, without asking to see their nutritional menu (most chain places have those; I have no idea if the smaller individual places do). To be able to get an enchilada or a fried chicken sandwich or something and just eat it without thinking about what it would do to my blood pressure. And it's not just the food; it's the convenience. It's being able to go on a day when I'm tired and the thought of facing cooking is almost more than I can handle. For me, the main attraction of restaurant meals was as much the convenience as the food: someone would come and ask me what I wanted, and then bring it to me, and then take away the dishes when I was done - I didn't have to cook (staring into the abyss of the fridge to see what I wanted, wondering if I still had garlic on hand or if I was going to have to run out for some), or clean up, or really, anything, other than decide, eat, pay, and tip the person who brought it to me.
I have even more sympathy for the people who have to do gluten-free now. For me, if I happen to get a high sodium meal, it will probably flush out of my system in a couple days without too much trouble, whereas someone who has to eat gluten free can get really sick if they get even a little gluten because someone preparing their food made a mistake.
Some days I wonder if it really would be so awful to find some kind of equivalent of Purina People Chow, that was nutritionally balanced but had nothing I "shouldn't" have and just force myself to live on that, instead of all the label-reading, and the trying to substitute, and wharrrrgarrrbl, everything.
3 comments:
Re restaurant meals, I should think that if you took care to only order one thing that might be high in sodium and the rest of the meal lower in sodium, it wouldn't affect your blood pressure that much. As you know, the sodium will flush out of your system in a day or two.
On the piano lesson question, you might want to check with area churches and see if their pianists teach lessons. A call to the various church offices might be a way to find out. You could always ask your teacher if she's recommending someone to take on her students.
I've often thought that Purina People Chow would make things so much simpler. And, studies have shown that people who eat a repetitive type of diet weigh less, so double benefit!
Sorry to hear that your day has been crappy. Is there really only one music teacher in town? Would it be possible to find one through the school system or from the shops that rent out musical instruments? They often know of teachers and tutors.
Take care of yourself, and cover up your frost-sensitive plants, too. :)
I can appreciate the down day. I hope things get better.
You can practice on your own; most teachers are happy with students who do. However, you probably should have a teacher to touch base with, to add information, to provide clarity and context to what you read and to steer you away from any potential "bad habits".
Another suggestions on the lessons--do the Super Serious Musicians(TM) have students? We always had students approach my professor and he would refer the person to the studio, to see if one of the students (grad or undergrad) wanted to add a student. Many students are very good teachers; just as many are good working with adult learners (personally I liked the adult learners and preferred them as students). If you have a music ed department, check with them. Frequently those training to be music teachers will take on private students.
Unfortunately, you will need to interview them and "try them out". If you are low on physical and psychic energy, that process is not fun.
(sorry for the length--I had a private horn studio for 25+ years; I have strong opinions on this subject).
Good luck...
8)
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