Sunday, January 16, 2011

The Joys Of Country Living

I love the slowness and smallness of PEI. I've done two things this weekend that I would never have been able to do in Montreal.

First, I've always wanted to learn how to play the violin. I bought one several years ago, and last January I took it out and tried teaching myself in earnest. But I can't really afford real lessons, and I'm terrible at practicing music unless I have a group to show up to. So on Friday, when I read in the Buzz magazine about the Definitely Not The Symphony orchestra, I decided that would be the perfect thing to get me playing on a fairly regular basis. No pressure, no skills, and no commitment needed, just a toonie a week and a good sense of humor. So I showed up with an instrument that I've never really played, got placed as a first violin, and sight-read the music for over an hour. And get this: I was doing just as well as everyone else. We're talking fifth-grade band, first week of school, but with a lot more fun and laughter. One of the quotes of the day, from the conductor: "Excellent! That was great! Now, for those of you who remembered that there's a B-flat in this piece ... maybe you could play it next time." LOL! I'm totally looking forward to next week. My goal: by May I want to be good enough to be able to bring my violin out to Montreal and participate in at least one irish music session.

Then tonight, my dad and sister and I went to see Despicable Me. But not in the theater. The junior high in the next school district was having a fundraiser for their end of the year trip, so they put Despicable Me on the projector in the gym and charged a toonie a person to go see it. They spread out the tumbling mats and we (meaning me, my dad, my sister, a few parents, and a zillion elementary school kids) made ourselves comfortable with little brown bags of popcorn and cans of soda. A lot of the kids were even in their pajamas. And everyone was laughing at all the poop/fart jokes and having a total blast.

And also, everyone at the miniature horse association party last night told me that my homemade peanut butter cookies were the best they'd ever had. One lady even asked for my recipe. =)

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