Hurt my hand last year and had two finger hairline fractures which for the most part were okay as they did not interfere with my everyday use but it was frustrating as I did not realize how much I rely on certain digits.  For example, I never realized that I swing around an umbrella, a pen, and sometimes my bags around one finger – so I had to learn to use my whole hand to lift things again.

Physical therapy was not working well as I could not really make the time to drive around and take care of it but I did realize that some of the finger and hand strengthening exercises were similar to my piano playing movements.  So in the past year I have tried to play the piano once a week.  I have not always been successful in this endeavor as for most of the summer in China I had no piano and my pianos at home have been turned into beautiful but giant desks.  However, I am thankful that my current place has a piano – LOVE.

I even picked up my dusty piano books from home and brought them with me to China, so be still my heart, I am going to finally teach myself the Chopin nocturnes and waltzes that I love listening to and did not get a chance to learn with college applications, work, and graduate school commitments.

I even decided that if given the chance, I want to be the oldest competitor in the piano competitions around town because I do not want to lose my skills.  As it is, I play slower than I did when I did compete.  I do not have the attention span anymore to play long pieces.  Also, my arms and hands sometimes feel sore because I no longer have muscles in those places.  I need an incentive to maintain my training or else I am going to let it go by the wayside again.  Maybe I need to sign up to take the Royal Music Exam Teaching exams as I never took those in the past.

I did learn the other day from the Mystery of Museums television show that Beethoven intended his pieces to be played very quickly but most people cannot play them the way it was composed so musicians have altered the pieces to play them at a slower tempo.  For a minute there, I wanted to call all my former piano teachers and let them know that I do not play the pieces fast but they were meant to be that way.  I wanted to tell them that the piano competition judges were wrong – I played the pieces at the right pace; unfortunately for me my piano teachers are dead and the television show then started talking about chamber music ensembles versus orchestras 🙂

Current Mood – happy although sick of my habitual sinus infection situation.  Out of the low dose antibiotics 🙁  Trudging along and trying Traditional Chinese Medicine which seems to be working.