Ups and Downs but Mostly Up

Yesterday was a day of ups and downs. I am going to start with the downs because it is always better to end of a high note.

Two things happened. 1. I didn't get the job with OpenEnglish.com and 2. I left my music stand in the taxi on the way home from shopping at Tottus for our mattress. We did get a mattress though!

So I am definitely a bit bummed about not getting hired to teach, not only because I spent money on headphones that I don't need anymore but because I know that my mock teaching session did not reflect how well I can actually teach. On the bright side, I can now dedicate my time to practicing my violin more, gigging and getting students. It makes more sense to dedicate myself fully to something than to be stretched in many directions. Eventually, my work everywhere would suffer without sufficient time and dedication for each one. I am not completely getting rid of odd jobs though. I got my first job on odesk.com transcribing two youtube videos! Let the freelance work begin!

As for the music stand, I will just have to get another one. You would think I'd have learned from the last time I left my stand in a taxi. It doesn't help when it's night time and you can't see the black case among the rest of the things you have in the car with you. Oh well. There is nothing I can do except be more vigilant next time and try not to go shopping with my stand in tote.

For the ups, I had my first gig in Lima last night. I played in the Church Virgen de Fatima in Miraflores. It was a funeral for a 20 year old kid who seemed to be American from what they were saying about him and his experiences in Peru. I think he may have had family that is Peruvian. Anyway, the entire gig was improvising. There were 5 singers and a pianist named Mr. Maldonado aka el Padrino (The Godfather). I was given the keys and off we went. I played with a guy named Perseo. He used to take lessons from Cecelia, Flor's daughter. He now plays in the Orquesta Juvenil in Lima. He plays very nicely. He loves to talk too. He told me that he works as an animador, which is a person who gets others hyped up about things. They typically work in clubs and other big events. All in all, it was a good experience and I made contact with Mr. Maldonado, the pianist, and his wife who was one of the singers. They organize various events and I am excited to work with them again.

In other exciting news, we are going to get our new bed today and we are going to check out the location of where our wedding reception will be. We will see about pricing but from the looks of it, I don't think it is going to be too bad.