week 3, survivor bootcamp

i ended week 2 on a bit of a lazy note. i wasn't feeling well since a) it was that time of the month and b) everyone at work is sick and i just happen to have to sit in meeting rooms with these people for extended periods of time. i warmed up with only two laps, and after the circuit (only two of us were there!) i walked the hill twice. just. could. not. bring. self. to. move. any. quicker.

monday evening i made up for it though. somehow i got this boost of energy as soon as i started running and i did four(!) laps to warm up!! i felt like i could go on for another lap too, but since everyone else had already warmed up early, i didn't want to hold up the class. i even managed to semi-jog the hill at the end of class! i was so proud. i also used the heavier weights for the arm exercises so i could get some pain and some gain - graduated from 5lb to 10lb for some of them!!

tuesday morning i went and did the exercises by the skydome again. i think i did better this time, but it was still really hard because of all the cardio-intensive work. terence came with me and although he claims he felt it was kinda easy, he admitted today he's a tad sore. ha!

today was core day, and i went downtown again in the morning. i like morning classes more because i get my evenings to myself...although for the past two days i haven't really had an evening but those are other stories. anyway, i pushed myself really hard for the crunches and the push-ups and the planks, and even managed to do the circuit runs a little faster than usual. i'm really hoping to see results here!

speaking of results...none yet. i forced the tape measure but it just won't budge and admit the truth. i haven't weighed myself yet and i am not sure if it would be any help since i may have gained muscle from all this intense work. i feel better - my stomach feels leaner when i sit and stand and my arms, when resting, look skinnier too. the tape measure just sucks. also, i think i am motivated to continue bootcamp until we go to spain - i can get in another 4-week session before leaving, so it'll be perfect timing! i see some difference, and since the tape measure isn't showing that, i am determined to do it until a point when the tape measure agrees with me too.

this week has been sooo hectic so far and i'm feeling a bit deflated. tuesday was a full day starting from bootcamp at 6am, and i also taught my first official kaplan class. it was hard. it wasn't hard to teach the material but it was hard to sustain the enthusiasm about math! at one point i thought to myself, i am SO freaking bored i could walk out right now. immediately after i felt really guilty for thinking that. i think a lot of prep work has to go in to be 110% prepared, confident, and happy about the syllabus. BOOHOO. i didn't get home until 9:30 last night, then it was back out the door at 5:45am this morning for bootcamp.

i stayed late at work today to figure out the mess that is with our current campaign. a month old and it's wreaking havoc in our lives still. you'd think it's smooth sailing now that it's launched and in market. apparently someone has a great sense of humour and wishes me a heart attack or two in the near future...by the time i left, it was basically because if i didn't leave, i would probably have started banging my head repeatedly on my desk. alex and i then went to pick up the dining table that we bought on craigslist. we're going to re-finish the table (which costs 4x the actual cost of the table), but for now it'll have to be weird pine-y colour table sitting in our dining room, i think. i'll have to call around tomorrow to see what the timeline would be like to get the table re-finished.

i can't seem to stop rambling but i do need to make sure i'm maximizing my precious time before hitting the sack at 10, so i'll save the ranting for another day.

crazy week

the past week since i last blogged has been absolutely nutty that i have neglected to do anything on the computer. i think today is the first day alex's laptop is even set up since the weekend.

saturday night, i was invited to the party i'd been waiting for, the roger's cup players party at ultra. the invite was all black, it was sponsored by moet & chandon and belvedere, and i felt posh just whispering that i was going to the party. (i had to keep it on the d-low for political reasons.) anywayyyy, mr. roddick showed up, did the press wall, did the rounds with media (5 minutes), and left. the patio was sooo crowded with wannabe's (only a section was blocked off) that i didn't even see him come and go!! boo. however, we met novak djokovic, who's currently 3rd(?) in the world, and his entourage (i.e. coach, health trainer, friends, etc.), and some brazilian coach and his player, and daniel nestor, the best thing that canada ever had in tennis (so far). i don't think nadal showed up even though he was supposed to. all night though, champagne and vodka drinks flowed freely...nice. i must've had at least 3 glasses of each, plus a few we purchased on our own. good times! if i ever locate the press wall pictures, i shall post them. the four of us definitely made efforts to look good!

on sunday evening alex and i went to the gym, where i ran intervals on the treadmill again, in hopes that come monday, i wouldn't "forget" how to run the track three times as a warm-up. i'm impressed with myself.

monday was the very first arms day. i find that with arms, at the time of the exercises, my arms get really tired and sore, but there's never really lingering pains the following days. does this mean i'm not killing myself enough?

tuesday i had to attend the morning class because i've started teaching at kaplan again. so at 6am, i was standing by the cn tower...and then running from the steam whistle around to the other side of the skydome. that run is not fun; it involves way too many stairs. or so i thought. we ended up using stairs pretty much the whole time...up and down, up and down, up and down, up and down, the long long long stairs outside the skydome. if you haven't been, just think of the stairs in a major ball park - they covered that on the outside of the skydome too, and that's basically what we used. alex came with me, pushed himself like crazy (show-off), and then sat out the second half of the class because he was basically green and ready to throw up. i think part of it was because he foresaw the suicides, done on the stairs, TWICE!! i actually didn't mind them, because as a closing exercise, the stairs are much more conquerable than the stupid hill in markham.

wednesday i had to do the downtown class again, because of the team offsite. core is always the easiest day, although i think i may have to start stepping up my game when holding planks and stuff. you know, be a keener and do the "extra-challenging" poses. ugh.

surprisingly on both days when i did the 6am class, i was able to wake up in time, do the class without feeling like crap, and continue with the rest of the day. it leads me to believe that i can probably handle the next session (if i sign up again) downtown, to make life easier. i mean, i get tired around the same time at night regardless, so i might as well be able to come home earlier every night instead of staying in markham till 7. this is all just hypothetical - i don't want to take my insane speak of waking up at 5:00 every morning seriously just yet.

today was the gauntlet again, and i felt a bit weird going in. i am exhausted because this week i've been away from the office or my desk everyday, so i have had to stay up late or go in early (7:15am and at my desk, yo) to get stuff done. i finished the three laps (barely), and had a huge headache. the exercises were OK, but i just didn't feel super great throughout. hopefully i'll be able to get a good night's rest tonight and it'll be good tomorrow to finish off the week. i can't wait till the weekend! i have no serious plans except going to the american idols concert (haha, i'm a loser, i know).

in other news, kingsley turns 1 on monday! i've really got to get on teaching the child how to say my name before he starts saying mama and dada. bwaha.

survivor bootcamp, day 5

day 5, friday, was a full body circuit. we started off with jogging the track 3 times, which was a huuuuge thing for me. i did all three laps fairly easily, and by the end i didn't feel like how i felt on monday after just 2.5 laps. not to say that i didn't struggle through all that breathing and convincing my legs to continue, but it was definitely an easier feat compared to monday. seeing that improvement, it made me feel so much better about the rest of the workout.

we did three circuits, four stations in each circuit, with an agility ladder as part of the running. activities included squats, lunges, donkey kicks, burpies (twice!), deltoid raises, push-ups, crunches, russian twists, upper cuts, and a whole range of other torturous activities invented by gym fanatics. i was doing OK on the stations until burpies came along. each burpie takes soooo long, soooo much energy, and was just soooo unnecessarily hard on my legs rather than my upper body that i literally had jelly legs after doing them. i felt quite dizzy a couple of times but continued on and i'm glad i pushed myself because clearly i survived. last thing on the list was two times up and down that damned hill again. i swear, i can't see how i will come to enjoy running up and down a steep hill, but it's something i will have to face for three more weeks so maybe by the end of this bootcamp i won't be whining about them as much.

i think my stupid jokes are annoying some people and perhaps even the trainer. i can't help it! i love saying, how about a nap now? or i need a little lie-down. i would actually really enjoy one so i joke to get myself more motivated. it works for me, ok?

i'm glad week 1 is over. sometimes during the exercises i am still questioning why i am doing this, but then i see my giant stomach and suck it up (haha, literally too). i was really looking forward to the end of week 1 too. i think i still haven't gotten to the point where i am used to exercise and am motivated to do it regularly. again, maybe by week 4 i will have changed my mind. we'll have to see!

the dreaded gauntlet - day 4

i made the mistake of googling blogs that would explain what the "gauntlet" entailed. after reading the blogs, i concluded the gauntlet sounded pretty intimidating. so i went off asking for expert opinion...the experts in question being people i know who exercise more than me. the unanimous response was "yeah, you're so going to puke" followed by some giggling. so i spent all afternoon psyching myself out, and at 5:15 i told steve just how mean he was being, and went and got changed.

indeed, the gauntlet is a hell of a workout. we started off by running to cones back and forth (5 in total), and each time we came back we had to drop and do 10 push-ups. at the end, plank hold for 30 seconds. if you finished early, you would start the plank early. luckily i had no such issues because i was (and will remain probably for a while) always last. then we did the same thing, but now 12 crunches. then we ran further, came back, and did work with the elastic thingies - squats (which, looking at my previous post this morning, was impossible for me. i could lower myself maybe a foot before i started cringing). then more running and this time we did arms - bicep curls and tricep curls. after that, just arms rotating between arm curls and shoulder raises, and deltoid raises and pumps (pumps are deathly - i wanted to drop the weights on my head). thennn we did suicides, a painful memory of why i stopped playing basketball in high school. finally, as a goodbye present, ari made us run up and down the hill (it's pretty steep!!) twice.

during the workout, i felt a tad sick as usual, and the exercises felt challenging for sure. however, i don't think i was as close to wimping out as the first day. i feel like my body has accepted this torture and is more willing to work with it rather than reject it completely. so at the end of the session, i didn't feel as whiny as the first day. it was intense, for sure, but my body is trying to figure out how to handle it rather than flat out hate it. so we're making some progress here...

i am still the last person in most exercises. part of this, i think, is because i'm such a princess when it comes to exercising. perhaps even life in general. when the going got tough, i was never really pushed (either by other people or by circumstances) to deal with it. rather, i was often encouraged to walk away or someone else would take on the burden for me. plus, there really weren't a lot of tough things in my little surrey life where fretting over what i got on a chemistry test was the biggest of my worries. not to say that i blame the people who raised me, because i love them for sheltering me from ever having traumatic disappointments in my life, but i think it makes me less tough and definitely more delicate. hence i usually dramaticize when i'm sick, when i'm hung over, etc. etc. even my flute teacher - he would tell me that if i felt like i was having an "off" day, just don't waste my time practising. so dealing with physical stress? forget it. this is a good lesson for me to learn in general to try to work up my stamina and my tolerance - like they say, so cliche, "good for my character".

when we were doing stretches some parents showed up in the parking lot to watch their kids play softball on the field close by, with mcdonald's. i blurted out how good it looked, and was punished to 10 extra push-ups. blah. kasia would know what it means to indulge in a big mac :)

anyway, i survived. tonight i'm getting very little sleep due to the dark knight premiere at midnight, so we'll see how i feel tomorow morning when i'm in mississauga at 8am for a darned meeting. i think tomorrow afternoon's full circuit will probably kill me.

no cheese

no whine.

day 3 was the "core" muscles so it was a lot of pilates, but enhanced with extra torturous positions to make sure that nobody was able to slack off. we did crunches, modified "100's", planks in all different positions, and some partner work with free weights and elastic bands. oh, and there was running. apparently as a warm-up, we run at least 800m daily. i wish someone had told me that before i signed up - it would've made me think twice.

also, i don't think the idea of "bootcamp" ever really clicked in my head. i don't know what i was imagining, but i blocked out the part where bootcamp trainers will push your limits to the extreme. i guess i thought there would just be "intense" workouts, but didn't really want to believe that it would be hardcore testing your stamina (mine is nonexistent).

i ran the laps with the other newbie yesterday. i know she could've run faster and passed me, but she stuck by me and chatted. i don't particularly enjoy talking while running (stitches anyone?), but the thought was much appreciated. i felt like forrest gump being cheered on.

today, i feel "interesting". my arms no longer hurt from monday (yay!), my core doesn't really bother me unless i go looking for trouble (yay!), but my poor poor legs!!!!! i feel like my thighs were crushed by a 300lb weight, and i can't even really walk with flats on! booooooo.

tonight's the "gauntlet", which is intervals and i overheard the word "running" a few too many times for my comfort. watch out for another whiny post after tonight's extravaganza...

elevator day

this is a bonus post because i just had to share my physical condition after day 2. considering day 2 wasn't even a "real" day 2 for me, i can only imagine how i would've felt had i actually done everything yesterday.

every day when i wake up, i think my muscles are asleep for another hour or so. therefore, i get this extremely misguided optimism that i can handle whatever is thrown my way.

not so much. first of all, you should know that if i'm not wearing flats to work, my heels start at 3.25" and up. second of all, i decided to venture into ironing my shirt this morning. i can honestly say that it was probably the third time in my life that i've completed an ironing job, and a shotty one at that. i accidentally hit my belly with the iron so now there's a tiny burn mark on my stomach. good way to start my morning.

so anyway, as i am leaving, i looked at my shiny patent leather heels and thought, well, i'm not feeling that bad today so i should give them a try. put on my brave face. i got to the garage and into the car, and drove up the street to pick up jovana. i waved to her, and my arm reminded me not to. on to markham and in front of starbucks...realized i was having issues unfolding myself out of the car. it was quite a dilemma - right foot first? nope. left foot then? nope. head first? ouch, my non-existent abs. it was ridiculous! hobbling into starbucks, i managed to get a nice fresh cup of coffee.

finally, at work, walking down the stairs to the basement was baaad. that was when i declared today an "elevator day"...

however, i feel pumped and ready to go for the third session, so we'll see how it goes tonight!

day 2 - homemade bootcamp

let me start off with "how i feel the morning after day 1":

i was absolutely exhausted last night after i got home and finally ate. as a side note, i crave some serious carb lovin' after the workouts so far. i woke up feeling OK, got dressed, wasn't tired, but had that hint of soreness when i moved around getting ready.

as the day progressed, i felt stiffness everywhere and was secretly glad i didn't wear heels to work today. then finally time came to get changed and as i was about to finish getting dressed, a siren went off in my head: i forgot my shoes!!!!!!! it was one of those moments where i could then clearly picture exactly where my shoes were (sitting between the boxes and the chairs in the foyer). resigned, i still managed to get to milliken mills high school in my flip flops. i felt like such a huge dork. after a lengthy discussion on how today was "legs" day, and how they were going to begin by running the track (WHAT?! i thought that was a day 1 special!) i was encouraged to sit this one out. ari gave me some exercises to do at the gym so off i went.

i'm proud to say i managed to half-kick my own ass tonight. i was instructed to do intervals on the treadmill with 1-5-1-4-1-3-1-2-1-1-1 rotations, starting from a one minute walk and a five minute run. you get the idea. by the end of the 22 minutes it took to do all this (switching gears included), i almost died on the treadmill. i felt like i was emitting heat, i had a primo headache brewing, and i wanted to throw up. the super buff ladies working out next to me might've added to the puke factor. ari also said i could do leg curls but i sat down, did five, and left. the pain from yesterday's "fit test" lingered too strongly in my thighs that it was absolutely torture. therefore, i only managed to half-kick my ass tonight.

onto tomorrow! will be doing a double check tonight in terms of packing up.

survivor bootcamp, day 1

first night! there were five of us - three returning and had just finished the week before, and me and another girl who are just starting. the first day is always the fitness test, so here goes my numbers!

measurements
- right bicep (flexed): 11.75"
- chest (widest part): 34" (let's hope this doesn't shrink down, because that would just be really sad)
- abdomen: 30"
- hips/glutes: 38" (i think my butt grew two inches in the last year!!)
- right thigh: 20"
- calf: 15" (this is abnormally wide. i blame my excessive walking around as a child, and my asian genes)

then we proceeded on with the actual fitness part of things, and here are my results.

fitness test
- 1 minute push-ups: 22
these were knee push-ups. not completely girly, but not manly either. for now, i am ambiguous.

- 1 minute sit-ups: 32
these were actually crunches, and i wasn't bad at them at all. i obviously didn't power through them because i didn't want to kill myself just yet.

- plank hold: 1 minute 34 seconds
i celebrated, thinking this was pretty decent, until two other people, including the other newbie, had to be cut off at 5 minutes 5 seconds. then i felt sad. apparently this is "mental" as well. i think whoever came up with it is mental.

- squat hold: 57 seconds (absolutely pathetic, as the other lady who ran 10k yesterday held it for 6 minutes 30 seconds and had to be cut off)
this is also "mental" - however, my legs were shaking so much i thought i'd spare everyone the cruel joke of watching me shake and just give up.

- 1k jog: 7 minutes 5 seconds
i told ari, the trainer, that i hadn't run like this since the end of grade 10 since gym class became optional. this time, the other ladies had to wait for me to finish. how sad.

(basically, at this point, i am completely out of breath and feel a little sick. i looked green, i'm sure)

because we had time, we did arm exercises with the weights. we did bicep workouts, tricep workouts, then some more muscles that i can't remember the name of, and then i had to have a little sit-down on the grass during the "pumping weights" part because if i didn't stop i was probably going to make a scene/throw a tantrum/puke on someone. i am soooo unfit and such an embarrassment...wherever did my parents get me from??

then came the stretches and i could still hear my heart pounding in my ears. i began thinking that maybe i have this deathly illness that's really rare, but basically it would mean that i can't exercise or i'd kill myself. kinda like that heart condition on one tree hill, maybe. this was so fantastical to me that i zoned out and ari had to ask if i was ok. i was...i was just lost in a fantasy where medical pros will have to declare me exempt from exercise for life. what a great concept!

finally we were dismissed and i was seriously questioning my sanity by then. so far when i've told people that i've signed up for bootcamp, i've gotten either really super encouraging (come to think of it, almost too enthusiastic) responses such as "oh my you'll be so fit! i'll be so jealous!" or the complete opposite - "you're soooo going to kill yourself. you're going to regret it after like, day three." well, it was day one and i already wanted to ask myself why...

good thing that i had water and some dried fruits and nuts in the car to take me home...or else i seriously wouldn't have made it. by the time bootcamp is done, it's 7pm and i'm typically starving and super grumpy by then that it is a dangerous place to be. that, and i have naturally low blood pressure and blood sugar that if i don't eat, i get all shaky and feel sick. so anyway, we'll see how the 19 days that remain go. i'd better be buff at the end of the session or else i just wouldn't know what to do with myself!!

for those who have google'd this entry because they're contemplating joining - please don't make a decision based on day one. you can wait another 19 business days to decide if this is worthwhile, and i'm your live guinea pig. (which also means, if the guinea pig dies at the end of an experiment? you probably don't want to tamper with whatever it is that did them in.)

Leveraged, challenged, managed, collaborated, and drove "idea generation"

i'm supposed to be working on my personal mid-year assessment document. this was due to my manager and director the week of June 30th. since i was on vacay, i was told i could try for today end of day.

today end of business day, i was nowhere near done. now that today has 2 hours left to go, i'm close, but more like halfway than 95% finished. p.s. i don't think my manager's interested in checking her email at this time for the doc anyway, so i'm officially late giving it to her.

big words are being used in this document! it's actually a really useful document and a great base for discussions on career advancement. the way it's done makes sure that all your successes and areas for improvement are highlighted and even at a glance you can tell how you're doing so far. however, putting it together is a huge pain.

so instead, since i've been working from home this afternoon, i have procrastinated and haven't done too much. i have done other things, such as:
- read are they ALL yours, the truth about motherhood, shawna and her boys, and a bunch of other blogs.
- read perez hilton
- read the globe and mail - arts, sports, news, business, etc. etc.
- researched travel possibilities in spain on budget travel and travel + leisure
- read up on the chapters/indigo events as of late and noticed i missed out on lauren weisberger because i was in vancouver. boo.
- ordered sweets to be delivered to iggs for her birthday from the bent fork
- played mario kart on the wii
- watched an episode (or two) of friends
- made myself a salmon and rice dinner
- napped for an hour
- caught up on facebook for half an hour

basically, the point is, on top of leveraging, challenging, managing, collaborating, and driving idea generation this year, i should also get awarded for procrastinating.

that's all.

why do all good things come to an end

(the madge really knew what she was singing about there)

i feel like since canada day, the days went by doubly fast.  i had to drive julia to a volunteering event on canada day, and while she was there, managed to take some ultra-awesome photos that i'm going to blow up and use in our gallery.  also stocked up on purdy's chocolates.  then for the rest of day mom and i just hung around the house and didn't do too much...enjoyed the nice weather and watched a bunch of episodes of her latest asian drama on dvd.

wednesday morning i went to wake up julia for our trip to victoria, and she greets me with "i got accepted to u of t."  i decided to do the most annoying adult thing i could possibly do, and told her to make the decision on her own.  meanwhile, we went about getting ready for going away for the day, as planned.  we were driving to the ferry terminal and julia wanted a fourth opinion from alex so we called him at work.  alex gave her some pros and cons, and mom continued to drive towards the ferry.  finally at the very last minute before we went on the ferry terminal road, julia decided she really wanted to go to u of t and not uvic.  so we veered off in the direction of stanley park and the aquarium!  at 10:00am as our ferry was sailing away, we set foot into the aquarium.

i swear, if/when i have kids, i would get annual memberships to this place.  the otters never disappoint.  with the new camera, i went crazy snapping photos of them.  we were also lucky to get in line and see the three-week-old baby beluga.  so cute!  we caught a feeding too!  apparently they only feed for 3-17 seconds at a time - how efficient.  belugas also sleep with one eye open!  they're able to shut off only half of their brain to make sure they can watch out for predators, swim without hitting things, etc.  in the end we caught the dolphin show where continuous shooting mode came in very handy...and i was a happy camper when we left.  i love the aquarium.  had lunch at the teahouse with a gorgeous view - but the sunsets there would be their claim to fame, so i'll have to catch that another time.  on our drive home we stumbled across the lululemon outlet - not that great.

thursday i went with jenn to try on dresses in vancouver.  she had three top contenders but then kicked out my fave because it was too mermaid-y that it was hard to walk in.  i loved that one!  we stopped by ikea on the way home, where jenn picked up a bunch of random things.  then julia and i bummed around the house together setting up her new macbook (which i'm using right now to blog), and read through her u of t stuff together.  i can't believe she's going to be so close!!  i have another victim to drag to stupid things i want to check out.

today i had a meeting at aeroplan, which was reallllly good.  i learned a lot and realized how much we can do with them so i'm pumped to go back to work on monday.  dropped off my present for my flute teacher (loooong overdue) and came home to pick up julia.  went to white rock to have fish and chips on the beach with a booster juice, then checked out the archives.  i got two prints that'll be done later, and one that they had on hand for much cheaper because it was already printed.  

i can't believe my vacation is over!  :(

he's no otter, but...

been bumming around the house lately.

saturday was a huge write-off because i was extremely exhausted and sick for no reason. i had to get up quite early to have dim sum with my uncle and his family because he was leaving town that night, but i just couldn't get out of bed! then i had the weirdest cramp throughout dim sum and was still so tired when we came home that i napped until 1pm. woke up feeling even sicker and couldn't keep food down, so spent the afternoon lying around the house doing nothing. finally at 4pm i gave in and decided there was no way i could make it to kristi's bachelorette because i wouldn't be able to eat much at the restaurant, and had no idea if my stomach would accept any of the food/drinks either. julia bought the nanny diaries and we watched it (second time for both of us) at night.

sunday morning julia had to work, but after she came home, we took a trip out to white rock to have dinner at cosmos. the greek restaurant used to be one of my favourite places, but we haven't been there in the past couple of years, so it was nice to go there again. the roasted potatoes there are fantastic! took a short walk along the boardwalk afterwards, had gelato from dolce gelato (local strawberry and creme caramel in a waffle cone). only when we were driving home did i see that there was a museum/archives-like place right there that i might've found b&w photos at! i think if i have time in the next few days i will stop by there to check it out.

today julia had to work again, but we had the car so mom and i ran a bunch of errands. we had originally planned on going to the aquarium/stanley park, but i just didn't really want to go if julia couldn't go. so we went to richmond and wandered around some of the shops, including daiso where everything is $2! i got a 6-people sushi set with plates and dishes for soy sauce. i was going to get a matching sake set or tea cups but didn't like either sets that much so for now, i will leave it. on our way out of daiso, we walked into my former flute teacher and his wife and his two little kids!!

now, he's no otter, but i was pretty darn excited to have run into him. i have a lot of respect for this man because he was able to sustain my attention in musical development for more than six months. in fact, i took lessons with him from summer 1997 to summer 2002! he was a wonderful teacher who always managed to challenge me just enough so i wouldn't be bored or disappointed with myself. he was also a great master of tonality that whenever i had a chance to play for a different audience, i would get a lot of comments on how great my "sound" was - that it was so clean and full, etc. even strangers in quebec made comments. i never really knew to appreciate the work we did on tonality but i do have a pretty critical ear when i listen to other people play.

since i moved away, i haven't seen my teacher at all. i had called him once shortly after i moved away, when i was auditioning for the orchestra at western. i needed some advice on the audition pieces and he talked me through them to make sure i was comfortable with what i was doing.
sadly, i also haven't played much since i stopped playing in the western orchestral band or whatever it was called.

anyway, it was just so nice to see my teacher again. i had picked up a gift for him in italy when we travelled through europe in 2004, but just couldn't work up the courage to stop by and say nothing except admit that i haven't opened my flute case for a long time. i really had a great time learning from this man, and he was such a huge inspiration and part of my life throughout high school that i don't think i'll ever forget all the great things he helped me achieve. now that i've seen him, and know that he has two babies now, i will definitely have to stop by and drop off the present some time this week.