cute commercial

that really makes me want to buy an audi

love (double-click)

Thank you 9gag.com

Singing Along is the Only Way You Really Can Watch

I drove with my mother and father to Phoenix, AZ a few months ago for my second niece's first birthday.  Her mom suggested I get a Disney DVD for her gift.  We stopped at a Target on the way down, and I saw something that just absolutely made my day:  Mary Poppins on DVD.

Now, you have to realize, Mary is one of my all-time favorite movies, ever.  Before I had to go to kindergarten, I'd watch it three or four times a day, singing with Julie Andrews at the top of my lungs, probably driving my mother crazy.  I still have all the songs memorized by heart.  I still have a crush on the exceptional Ms. Andrews.  I've finally admitted that all these years I've had a crush on Dick Van Dyke, too.

It is, quite simply put, supercalifragilisticexpialidocious!

I am Never Easy with the Rain

This gray-dripping day seeps
itself into the tight skin
of my heart,
muddying my daydreams like many
strokes of watercolor,
mixed, puddled--
a grayer rainbow on a plastic tray.

Heavy,
I sat at the computer this afternoon,
clicked on a photo my brother took

where you gasp
and you squeal

and squint
and laugh

where you're held
inside your grandma's smiling arms

a sprinkler flings droplets of water
like thin quick freckles on your skin

and carefree ecstasy
brushed brightly upon your face

I envy
these reminding moments you give my young brother
that your life is still sensuously enjoyed,
that you are pure, and still small--

that you are his.

Gibson Girl

I was at one of my favorite local coffee shops, chatting away with a snarky, black-haired,black-booted barrista when I noticed an intriguing tattoo on her forearm.  There was this beautiful Gibson Girl growing out of a rose.  It was stunning.  Really, honestly stunning.

"That's a gorgeous tattoo," I said, handing over a twenty dollar bill, admiring the work of whoever had been her artist.  "I love the Gibson girl--that Victorian ideal of feminine youth."

"I love her, too," my coffee girl beamed as she readied my latte.  "I've always thought she is so classy, so très chic and soooo pretty.  Who wouldn't want a girl like her on their arm?"

"Pretty girls weren't meant to hang on everyone's arm, darling," I teased,  "but I sure can admire a fine specimen when I see one and it looks like you are one lucky lady."

We laughed and she gave me my coffee and my change.  I smiled every time I thought about her.  I hope she smiled all day, too.

kind of amazing

Little Asian Children

I never imagined I'd spend every day of my life with Asian classmates or Asian professors, but I should've guessed. I'm a music student in the US. Conservatories and schools are full with with promising young students from the Orient. Competitions are won every weekend, and the prizewinners? Soloists from Taiwan, Japan, Korea and China whose note-perfect renditions of Lizst's Transcendental Etudes and Chopin's Ballades and Mozart's Sonatas and Bach's Fugues leave anyone who listened breathless, yet often emotionally unmoved.

My professor, Dr. Yang, has a six-year old student name Richie. I'm not sure what his ethnic heritage is, but he is a beautiful little black-haird, almond eyed little boy. He'll probably be the next Mozart. He played a Haydn Concerto for me today, and I was so impressed by his playing. I think I was even more impressed, though, when he and his 2-year old brother were running past me and some string-playing friends, chasing and laughing at each other in their own little language, an amalgamation of something like Cantonese and English.

They were so full of joy. They were so innocently happy. I remembered how some things make life sweet.

Even though Richie will probably be competing against my own future students and winning state and national competitions, both he and his little brother made me want to figure out how to have my own little ones, someday, running down the hall of some music school, making tired conservatory students smile.

been a while...

because i'm tired. healthy and happy, yes, but sooo busy, and thus, tired. Maybe because I'm learning this.



working on some ideas for posts, though. i'll write something soon.