Day 12-a turn around

Have to be honest...the first part of today was terrible. A playground trip turned bad when we got there and found that it was closed for the winter as of November 1.

(And we wonder why so many children are obese in N. America...though I do remember that the playgrounds in Thunder Bay were never closed and it would be -30C for 2 months. Okay end of mini rant/comparison...)

The worst thing that children with autism have is the inability to adapt to transitions and changes in routine. It can create incredible havoc in a family and limit what they can do. My oldest (7) could not understand why we had to leave his favourite playground in order to find another one. Anyway we didn't make it that far. He proceeded to scream high pitches for the next 45 minutes. The length of the car ride home. Another pleasant day.

[And that's one of the reasons why I have fantastic concentration in performance. There's no need to practice viola with the radio on full blast. I have my own distractions always at hand. For example this past Saturday during the first movement of the Magnificat, all the lights went out and we all just kept playing for about 90 seconds for memory. Didn't even faze me. That's a piece of cake compared to a normal day for me.]

The next few hours I felt sorry for myself. And I really couldn't shake it. And I had a student coming for a lesson. Had to pull together. So I took the viola out of the case and recorded the Campagnoli study without warming up.

And it was really really good. Bordering on virtuosity save for three measures. Metronome came out and the offending measures were fixed. Okay now I know no. 38. Will work on a new one starting tomorrow. A nice happy one in d minor. (Just kidding...)

Then my son made this on the rug in the living room and it cheered me up in spite of the bad day. And gave me the tiniest hope that maybe things will get better. And tonight my husband got some good news regarding work.

So here's the picture. Back to Janacek tomorrow!