Today at work, I sat at the Black Kawai piano, playing for the dancers as they rehearsed their ballet combinations. I love choosing the songs from my repertoire list, and making them sound distinctly different and interesting each time I play them. I experiment with different chords and styles, and it keeps the long day interesting for me. However, I was immediately disappointed this morning, when I found that the low “G” on the piano was not working. It really put a damper on the music. If I meant for G to be the bass note, it sounded as though someone hit the “mute” button for a split second and disrupted the flow. I was too focused on avoiding that G and playing the lower octave, that I couldn’t concentrate on the overall cohesion of the piece. The longer I played, the more frustrated I became. Now no one will ever know just how beautiful Mozart’s Sonata K. 331, theme from the First Movement really is , I thought with dismay. When I mentioned it to the office so they could call a ...

I attended the funeral of a neighbor. And as I sat near the back of the room, I watched in reverent silence as the family grieved together and comforted one another. Surrounding the man's coffin, were dozens of bouquets and floral arrangements. There were tables displaying framed photographs of he and his loved ones. And there was an American flag draped over the front of the long, silver casket, as he was a Vet of the Korean War. I pondered the life he must have led. And then I was struck when the officiating priest read this poem. Perhaps you will take something away from it today. The Dash  by Linda Ellis I read of a man who stood to speak At the funeral of a friend. He referred to the dates on her tombstone From the beginning to the end. He noted that first came the date of her birth And spoke of the following date with tears, But he said what mattered most of all Was the dash between those years. For that dash represents all the time That she spent alive on earth And now ...

It's surprising what can be accomplished when you feel like you have nothing left to give, or just don't want to. I suppose it all goes back to self-discpline. There are days when I don't want to get out of my PJs, yet I have a mile-long list of things that need to be done. And so not out of desire or motivation, but necessity, I force myself to do them.  By the end of the day, I have 2 new songs to play for ballet rehearsal on Saturday, 3 songs transcribed by ear for the play I'm working on , and I finally got a good run in with Joy. I look down and have agree with the logo on my sweatshirt, "Just do it." And at the end of the day, that feels better than being lazy.  Joy , my running buddy. Sometimes she feels like being lazy too.

When I checked the mail today, I felt like a kid on Christmas morning. Months ago, I took the LSAT and applied to several Law Schools and have been waiting for a letter, any letter, to let me know the outcome.  The decision to take the LSAT was one of careful thought and enormous commitment. I studied for hours a day, driving myself to near insanity with practice tests, and still inwardly scolding myself for not studying even more. The test day was agony. I was literally physically ill with anxiety. The night before, I got no sleep at all, and the day of the test, I was light headed and shaky. I was absolutely terrified that all my hours of study would be for nothing, and I had to wait a dreadful 3 weeks to find out for sure. To my relief, my score was reasonable, not quite what I hoped for, but enough. I gathered everything needed to apply to Law School, and submitted all requirements to 3 law schools . After that, I put the matter out of my mind. I had done all I could, an...

There was a woman named Lyn who was a perfectionist in every way. Her house was always spotless. Her white carpet was never stained with a single drop, or sprinkled with a solitary crumb. Every item had its place and was organized into tupperware, folded on shelves, and stacked in order from tallest to shortest, biggest to smallest, or at a 90-degree angle. Should something be out of place, even if it was only a pillow that had gone astray from the neatly made bed, Lyn would become despondent. Even her yard was manicured to perfection. She had the greenest grass, the weedless-iest garden, and the cleanest sidewalks. In fact, her favorite day of the year was the first snow-fall, for this meant she had one or two days when she could take a break from her endless laboring and the yard would still look absolutely flawless when covered with a smooth, pure white blanket of snow. Today was that day. And it couldn’t come at a better moment, for her family would come celebrate the holidays ...

After a crazy last few weeks, I’ve finally had a day to realize, “Hey, it’s 2011. I was supposed to make a New Year’s resolution a few days ago." Instead of coming up with a dozen that I know I’ll never keep, I’ve come up with only 2 and I believe they’re reasonable enough to accomplish. Number one, to take my multi-vitamin everyday. Simple, right? The second resolution, maybe not so much. I have good friendships, and I’m grateful that once I find a good friend, I tend to hang onto that relationship for a very long time. It’s the making friends that seems to be difficult for me. In high school, I was pretty much a total wallflower and never felt like part of my student body until junior or senior year (and even then, I never went to prom or homecoming). Throughout four years of college, I finally warmed up to my classmates my senior year, and then we all graduated and moved away. And after four years in the Army, I felt close to a few fellow soldiers about 10 months before I got...

We arrived home to the aftermath of an outrageous blizzard that covered the New York and New Jersey area. Luckily, we missed the brunt of it. This video of "Stormy Weather" was taken at Grand Concourse in the Bronx. Hope you enjoy. To see photos from the Play Me, I'm Yours Project, click here . To see more videos, click here .