Quotes!

I often search the net for valuable or meaningful quotes given any situation. Last night I came up with a few of my own. They may not be 'professional' or 'good' or 'funny' or even 'enlightening' but it was a fun process! Here are a few:


"The greatest therapy I have experienced in my life, is arranging and manipulating musical notes together and then playing them in sequence. They tend to form a more coherent understand of one's circumstances. And, they don't have to be 'good', they just have to 'be'."

"Your fingers are sore? The best cure is to keep playing! Remember video game controller thumb? Yeah, neither do I...or, that Captain Crunch chewed up the roof of your mouth...?"
(If you know what I'm talking about on both these references, I want to give you a hug!)

"Oh...it's 3:00 in the morning? Should I stop playing?"

"They made violin cases for three reasons: 1) violins 2) semi-automatic weapons & 3) cat naps."

"I want to say, "Hi", to that violist over there, but, I don't speak Alto clef..."

"One of the greatest gifts from God is music. Even the Devil cannot compete with what is created from His children's souls."

"God gave me a lot of talent. He gave EVERYONE a lot of talent. Personally, I just have to listen to Him and figure out what He wants me to do with mine. What will you do with yours?"

"The violin is a very sexy instrument." (Complete quote below - Not for the faint of heart! You have been warned!)

"The violin is a very sexy instrument. What other instrument can...snapping your G-string, rosining your bow, counting your measures, plucking your strings, tuning your pegs, hitting your octave, staying in tune, never being sharp, never being flat, always being natural, making your chin rest comfortable, adjusting your shoulder rest, playing with the fingerboard, touching the belly, keeping your wrist aligned, strengthening your hand, strengthening your arm, minding your fingering, tightening your bow, playing with vibrato, crossing strings, double-stops, repeats, re-stringing your instrument, holding a fermata, breathing on a rest, feeling the beat, strumming, touching your scroll, adjusting the bridge, turning your fine-tuners, touching the tailpiece, and playing with your f-hole...sound so naughty?"


Where is your mind?


~Kris Van Pelt

Ritardando

I just realized that I've only done one post a month since I've started. Hmmm. My blog doesn't look like what I want it to look like...that's part of it. You could probably guess the other part. That's okay, though. I aim to post more frequently from now on. Well, off to work. It's been another interesting week among the embers. It's been a fantastic day playing music among the sparks!

When The Universe Tries to Get Your Attention...

I can still remember the dream as if it happened yesterday. This is the first dream I have ever died in and I can still remember how it felt when the blade of the knife pierced through my mouth and through the back of my throat, pinning me to closet door.

At least it wasn't as painful as I thought something like that would be, but there was a lot of blood and a lot of choking for air. I was still fully aware of my surroundings and aware of how deeply it felt to be powerless to do anything about it. Then, the blackness came.

In this dream, I was a bodyguard for a mob boss' daughter. We were in a house on the ground floor. I can still remember exactly what that house looked like and could even draw a picture of it. In fact, I think I will. I am still shaken up about the dream, even though it happened about five months ago, and maybe seeing it put down on paper will help me feel like I have some control or power over what happened.

I don't know the name of the girl I was protecting, but we were talking in the foyer/kitchen area. Suddenly, there was a knock at the back patio sliding glass doors. We knew something wasn't right so we took off to a small living area at the front of the house by the front door. I glanced at the back patio doors briefly before running with the girl into that room. There was a woman dressed in a UPS uniform with a package. The blinds on the back doors were shut and so I only got a glimpse of the woman as she was trying to peek in.

I have no idea why we thought hiding in that open room was best option, but I think it had something to do with the element of surprise. There was silence for a beat and then I heard the sliding glass door beginning to open. Of course that door wasn't locked! Or was it? The woman in the UPS uniform called out to us that she had a package that was addressed to the girl. I don't remember if I said to just leave it outside or not. Then, there was silence. A long silence.

I did what horror movie characters should never do. I peeked my head around the corner of the wall and, almost as if it was in slow motion, I saw the kitchen knife flying through the air straight at me with the woman standing behind it in my line of vision. There was not enough time to act or move out of the way. The knife went through my mouth and throat and pinned me to the closet door. The girl I was sworn to protect tried to run. It was then that I blacked out, choking on my own blood.

My husband's phone rang at that moment and woke us both up. I think it was about 3:00 in the morning. His good friend, that he had known since Junior High, whom he also played music with, had called. My husband took the call into the living room and had about an hour long conversation. This didn't bother me except for the fact that my husband doesn't realize how loud he can talk, and kept me up for that hour. I wouldn't have cared too much, but I had to get up in about another hour to go to work. My husband talked about wanting to play and write music with his friend again, and that he would like to take a trip down to his friend's city to visit for about a week. Then I got to thinking:

Why would I have such a vivid dream like the one I had just had, it being the first dream I have ever experienced in which I actually died in? Was there a connection between the dream and the person who called? All signs were pointing to yes. Since music is the number one priority in my husband's life, and his music buddy called out of the blue at a random hour, what was the Universe trying to tell me? To my dismay, the Universe was letting me know that my husband's views (whether he knows them or not) about his music and myself could not co-exist. This leads me to believe that my husband feels deep down that I will either be in the way, get in the way or hold him back somehow with his dreams in where he wants to go with his music.

This is when everything that has lead up to this moment, really started to heat up.