SHREK EARS!!!!!! I got Shrek Ears!!!! Aura, Charisse and I went to Universal Studios today, because our annual pass is about to be up in a coupla weeks, and we havent gone since the first time! It was a wonderful time. I was carsick on the way there, but as soon as I got out of the car, I felt a lot better. We saw the Terminator 2 show, which was really cool, and we also went to sit the Studio Ride, which took us all over the compound. We saw the new set for the movie War of the Worlds. It was an awesome set--it was chaos, because the movie is about a plane that crashed into a little neighborhood. On one side was the mutilated airplane, on the other side was a totally destroyed neighborhood. Charisse and I saw the Shrek Ears sometime on the way, and we both wanted it, so we both got it. And we wore it all day because we were so proud of it. Now I am the proud owner of Shrek Ears. All in all, it was a great day. I didnt dare ride the Mummy ride, but I'm glad I didnt, because apparently our locker that we left our stuff in didnt close. It was unlocked the whole time. I was waiting for the girls, and for some reason I thought to go in to check the lockers and that's when I found out. So I took all our stuff out and hung on to them while waiting. Thank God none of our stuff got stolen. We ate funnel cake, and it was really good. We did the same thing last year too. Oh yeah, we also watched the Animal Kingdom show. The animals were really cute. All that said, I have one more thing to say.....
SHREK EARS!!!!! I GOT SHREK EARS!!!!!!!!

I'm in love. His name is Corey Delillo, and he is 2 years old, and 2 feet tall. He has, get this, RED CURLS on his head, and beautiful hazel green eyes. He kinda has a monkey face, but he has got to be the cutest little boy I have ever seen. And I think everyone in church agrees with me. We all just want to look at him all the time. I want a kid just like him. Jena and Lauren tell me, Possibility, maybe. Probability, zero. Sigh......

Last Sunday was Chino Hills' Annual Recital. I had 17 kids take part in it, and all in all it was a great time.
The day started out with group lessons, and Jerry and Synthia had their hands full as they are the only 2 group class teachers there. Joshua's group performed during that session too. It was held at the Recital Hall of Mt Sac. and I thought it was the prettiest recital hall I've seen. The school did it up very very well--decoratively and acoustically. Anyway. We had 6 sessions, and the 2nd session was all private students. One of my students, Pristine Wong, was to perform during that session. Pristine is 8 years old, and she's very petite. But she is very smart, and talented. On top of that, she works hard. So I gave her 2 pieces that were pretty challenging for her. During lessons, she played them pretty well, but I always felt she could do better. There was always something that could be improved. So when she got on stage last week and started her first piece, I started to panic because she played at a speed that to me, was very dangerous. But OH MY GOSH, she sailed through it like she's been doing it for a long time! Aura was next to me, and she said, she's your student right? I said yes, and she said, Wow, she is good!! Later on, I found out from her parents that the people sitting next to them also said the same thing. Pristine's 2nd piece was a quieter piece called All Through the Night. It's a very pretty and very expressive piece. A big contrast to her first piece, and she did that really well too! I wanted her to do well because she's worked hard, and she totally rose to the occasion. I am so very proud of her.
My student Allen is a teenager. He's 15 and he loves playing. I gave him a very pretty piece to play, and he did really well. What scared me the most was that he was to do a duet with another girl. She and he are schoolmates, but she is not my student. Jessica was Ron's student. (Ron is a fellow teacher). She stopped lessons sometime in January, but she really wanted to do a duet with Allen. So she picked the theme from "The Simpsons". It was a very challenging piece, and for Allen, it stretched him a lot. It had rhythms that he wasnt used to, and I know he had to put in a lot more effort than he thought he had to. The Monday before the recital was the last time Ron and I heard them, and we wanted to get together with them again, but Jessica had other plans lined up already. So we just told them to practise together on their own. That Monday, I was thinking, it will be a miracle if they pull this off. Things were still very iffy, and they were still making mistakes. So when they got on stage, I basically held my breath. As soon as Allen started playing, I thought, OH NO! IT'S TOO FAST! I was just waiting for something to happen, someone to break down, someone to get lost, and screw everything up. I sat at the edge of my seat with my hands on my face. I think I had this panicked look too. But NOTHING happened! They played like pros, and nearing the end, I started to get excited because I thought, maybe they will actually pull this off! When they finished the last note, I raised both arms in exultation and whispered, YES!!!! (apparently my whisper wasnt too much of a whisper. Others heard me and started laughing.) I think I took my first breath only then, I was so nervous. That was a great feeling. It felt kinda like the high I get when I get done with my recitals.
The rest of my students did well too. One little girl, Becca, was sick with a high fever that day. I only found that out much later in the evening. She got on stage, and her first piece was pretty good. But her second piece was not a reflection of her abilities. She started on the wrong spot, and I think it threw her off some. But bless her heart, she tried and tried and tried to recover, because she remembered that I told her, if you make a mistake, GO ON. Finally I had to go on stage to help her finish because I didnt think she could do it. Poor girl, I think she was crying by then. But I made her take a bow anyway, and I felt so bad for her. The audience was very supportive, and gave her a really good round of applause because they knew that she tried. Later on when I called her, her mom told me that she had a fever that day, and she was really looking forward to the recital so she refused to stay at home. I think she's very brave to have gone on stage and perform with a high fever. Kudos to her.
We finally got done at 6 pm. It was a long long day that started at 10 am. Congratulations to all my students who participated. They worked hard and they did well. Till next year!

A coupla weeks ago, someone very instrumental in my life died. His name is Victor Doggett.
I met Mr Doggett when I was 8 years old, and had to audition to get into his music school. I didnt know that I would be seeing a lot more often than I really wanted! Every year that I took an ABRSM exam, I had to go in for 2 hearings. One in Feb to see if I am good enough to be entered, and one in July just before my exam. Sometimes, if my July hearing didnt go good enough, I would have to have a re-hearing. All those times were very stressful because Mr Doggett was strict, and he knows what he likes, and what he doesnt like, and he's not afraid to tell you! But under his tutelege, I grew as a musician. I didnt like the hearings, but on hindsight, he really pushed me to do better than I thought I could. I did my LTCL teaching diploma with the Victor Doggett Music Studios, and one part of the exam was an interview. Mr. Doggett gave me a mock interview just before my exam, and asked me a question I didnt know. I hemmed and hawed, and came up with some strange answer. He gave me the best advice then. He said, NEVER be afraid to say you dont know the answer.Then he took a chance with me and gave me some students of my own, and I became a piano teacher at the VDMS.
I thought life would be so much easier now that I'm the teacher and not the student. But he was just as strict with the teachers as he is with the students. If my students didnt perform well, I got called into his office. The first few years were horrible because I was constantly afraid of him, and as a teacher I didnt do so well. But again, Mr Doggett pushed me and pushed me, and I became more confident in my teaching abilities. He forced me to take responsibility for myself and my students. And he was quick to praise when my students did well. He not only helped me mature as a musician, but as a boss, he also helped me mature as a person. I started out cowering in his presence. By the time I left the studios for studies abroad, I was able to joke and laugh with him and carry a conversation with him.
Mr Doggett wasnt always strict. He had a ready smile, and he had a pretty good sense of humor too. We had music appreciation every other Saturday, and one Sat he turned on the CD player, and no music came out. He fiddled with it some and turned to the class and asked, Do you hear anything? We said no, and he said, Well, Neither do I! I dont know why that was funny, but the whole class bust out laughing. Then he had to go get Nick to help him.
Mr Doggett was very very passionate about his music. One of his favorites, I believe was the Rite of Spring by Stravinsky. I thought it was the longest most strange piece I've ever heard, but as I watched Mr Doggett as the piece was playing, he had this expression of pure joy and appreciation on his face. His head was tilted back and his eyes were closed, and I think he just soaked it all in. He expected the best playing from all his students, and I think the younger ones didnt understand, but as always, hindsight is always 20/20, and it is now that I appreciate what I mistook for his passion for the music for strictness.
My dad went for his cremation, and I'm glad he did. If he didnt think of it, I was going to ask him to go on my behalf. I owe a lot to this man. More than I thought I did. Afterwards, my dad wrote me an email telling me about it, and here is an excerp of that email:

"Personally, I felt that I was in the presence of a great man - a man of vision and purpose, who contributed much through his dedication and unwavering focus. That's what makes a man great, and unforgettable. I was very glad that my 3 children all came under his pupillage in one way or another, and had come in contact with him. You yourself can do no better than emulate him. When we were in the viewing room before the coffin was wheeled in for cremation, a tear involuntarily flowed down my cheek."

Thank you, Mr Doggett, for showing me what being a true musician and a person is all about. You taught me so much more than just how to play the piano or play the music that is set in front of me. You taught me to go deeper than the notes, to the core of the piece, to the heart of the composer. Thank you for making me pay attention to the smallest details of the music, so that it's not just me playing the piece, but me expressing myself. Thank you for forcing me to rise up to the occasion, not just for my students, but for myself as well. For pushing me to my limits, and then pushing me over, so I could see what more I can accomplish. You gave me confidence I didnt think I had. Thank you, Mr Doggett, for everything. May you rest in peace.

I was on a Salmon kick a while back, as you all may recall. I bought a lovely piece of salmon and actually wanted to cook it that night, but didnt get to cook it till about a week later. I'm glad I had the foresight to put it in the freezer first! So here is the account of my adventures with the salmon.
I decided last Friday night that I would cook the salmon the next day because I got off work in the afternoons on Saturdays, and would have plenty of time to make it then. How hard could it be to make a piece of fish!? So I remembered to set it in the fridge Friday night to let the thing thaw. I bought some leek to go with it because I like the taste of leek. So when I got home Sat afternoon, got the fish out and started to wash it. And then something reflected in my eyes, and I thought to myself, ARE THOSE SCALES I SEE???? And I looked again, and it was! The fish was not descaled!!! Nasty nasty nasty. I used a knife and went against the scales to get rid of it. It was all over the place. Then I chopped up the leek and stir fried it up first so I could put it on top of the fish later. I had thought about baking the fish instead of pan frying it, so I turned on the oven at 375 degrees. Then I thought, well, why dont I just pan fry it a little, at least on the outside first. I tried putting the whole slice of fish in my pan, but it was too big, SO I had to take it off and cut it into half. I started frying it up and thought, wow this looks pretty good, maybe I dont need to bake it afterall, since the oven hadnt reached the temp yet. So I turned the oven off, and let the fish fry instead. And then I flipped the fish over, and cooked the other side, and I flipped it back over to cook on the other side. And it didnt seem like the fish was being cooked very quickly. I was told fish cooks really quickly, so I was ready to eat by then! Then I thought, what the heck, I'll just bake it again, so I turned the oven back on and waited it to heat up. But then it took so long to heat up that I thought, SURELY my fish would be cooked by then, so after awhile, I turned it back off. But the middle of my poor little fish didnt seem to want to cook! It still looked really orange! So I cut up my fish into smaller pieces to hurry it up. FINALLY after about an hour after I started cooking, my fish was done. And you know what? It took me 10 mins to eat it up because I was so hungry by then. It's so NOT worth all the work I put into it! I think the next time I have a salmon kick, I'm going to the Japanese restaurant and ordering it there. Let someone else deal with the cooking.
I watched the Passion of the Christ on Sunday. They showed it at church to kick start 3 weeks of small group in preperation for Easter. I really didnt want to watch it, but I felt I needed to. So I went. It starts out with Jesus talking to God in the Garden of Gethsemane. Everything was in Arabic I think, so there were subtitles. I had someone sitting on either side of me, but all of a sudden I felt like I needed to be alone when I watched this. Like I needed to it to be personal, and needed to feel the pain for myself. So when Dad called for our weekly chat, I took that chance and moved back a row which had noone sitting in it. I held it pretty much together until they started whipping him. They used a cane thing first, but the tears really came when they started using the whips to torture him more. I couldnt bear to watch it, I had to close my eyes. Throughout the whole movie after that the recurring thought in my head was, Stop beating Him!!! Just stop beating Him!! The Roman soldiers were relentless in the beatings. Even when he was carrying the cross and walking the streets, they beat Him. Every few seconds I would a soldier beating him. But the kicker wasnt a torture scene. The kicker to me was the scene with Mary. As she was watching her son carry the cross to be crucified, she had a flashback. It was when Jesus was a little boy, and as he was running, he fell, like all little kids do. She dropped everything, and started to run to him. When she reached him, she picked him up and said Here I am! Here I am, to comfort him. Back to the present, right at that moment, Jesus fell because he was so weak, and Mary sees it, and is stunned into motion. She runs to Him crying and says, like she did when he was a little child, Here I am, Here I am!! THAT was when I started bawling. I dont think there was a dry eye in the audience after the movie. You just dont know what to say or how to react after watching a movie like that. It is a very hard movie to watch, and I dont think I will watch it again. But I think it is a movie Christians should watch, at least once. It is a good reminder of the suffering of Christ for our sins. And He really suffered.
I am going to see the lawyer today to start my GC process. I am nervous and excited at the same time. But I have confidence in her, because she's done so much of these things. I would appreciate prayer for this whole process to go smoothly and without a hitch.
To Mom, Faith and Ai, HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!! I hope you all have a wonderful year ahead, filled with God's blessings!
Ok, gotta start getting ready for work. Talk to you all later!