Life is good.

I had my first piano lesson of the spring today. I've paid up for 10 weeks and it sounds like once those are up, there may be the possibility of more. (10 weeks is the rest of the spring semester plus a bit).

My teacher hugged me when she saw me again. I kind of think of her as a friend even though we don't really socialize (she lives out of town and we tend to run in slightly different circles).

I got a little nervous playing what I had been working on for her (stupid desire to please people, it gets in the way of my actually being able to play - I get too nervous with the "don't mess up, don't mess up" script running in the back of my brain) but did manage to drop into a good groove on "When You Wish Upon a Star" and she's going to have me work on it for another week but then probably move on. (I've already picked out another piece - "Always," a nice waltz by Irving Berlin. I like the song even though to my ear, it always sounds slightly, I don't know, nostalgic or maybe even elegiac....)

And I'm working on a "little" Spindler sonatina. And she's got me working on figuring out the chording for a hymn, which is coming easier than it once did.

She also commented that she respected my level of devotion to keep playing between 40 minutes and an hour a day (depending on time) even when I didn't have lessons (I do that. I figure the only way to ever get better is to keep on working). And I can tell I'm playing better - I started trying Bach's Invention #1 again a little while back and was surprised at how fast it came back to me, and how much more facility I could play it with this go-round.

I need this. For me. There's not a lot of stuff I do that is exclusively for me and for my own joy, and I need this.