Year Four, Day 46: I am Gak

I actually made it to the gym last night! I am most proud of myself!  

I spent a lovely day yesterday with my daughter and granddaughter. We mostly explored downtown Vancouver.  I must admit, after living in Portland for over 30 years, coming back to Vancouver is a bit of a culture shock.

On one hand, it is nice to not have to deal with traffic.  It is much quieter here.  But sometimes it is a bit of an eerie quiet.  And it is difficult to find out what is going on.  Like cultural events, children's play groups.  There is not so much of an online presence. You really have to dig. 

But after a bit of exploring and detective work, we have begun to find some wholesome, educational and family friendly facilities and events.  

We had a lovely lunch downtown and then walked around a bit.  We discovered there was a wine and jazz fest taking place in the early evening at Esther Short park.  

We were quite excited, since Baby Gracie loves music! It would be fun to see her react to live jazz.

Alas, when we got there we discovered that admission was $20 a person (baby was free).  And script for wine was extra.  

Well, neither of us drink alcohol (neither does the baby). We just wanted to kill an hour before my son-in-law got off work.  It simply wasn't worth it to walk around and look at booths and listen to music for $40, when we could hear it free outside the park!

So we apologized and rolled the stroller outside the fence. Then we walked up the street and got a couple of kombuchas (alas no Humm "Hopped Grapefruit"). Then we strolled over to the playground and played on the swings and slide with Gracie, serenaded by lovely live bluesy jazz!

I was a bit saddened to see the small crowd. We wondered if maybe it would pick up at night. If not, we wondered if it could have been better publicized?

Oh well, the quirkiness of Vancouver, probably keeps a lot of people moving there.  

Like Portland. It was such a lovely small, funky city until people got into it's weirdness.  Word got out, they made a television show, and now it is overcrowded. The freeways almost as congested as southern California!

I'm happy that I am able to live here and spend so much time with my granddaughter. She is growing and learning by the moment!  

But I am also happy, that I can go to the "big city" a few times a week.  I have the best of both worlds!

I was in Portland today, teaching piano students at a church.  It began with breakfast with my mother. Our favorite waitress is a Denzell Washington fiend like my mom and I! She just saw Blackkklansman with Denzell Washington's son, John David Washington. I will offer any spoilers. However, she gave it rave reviews!

My mother had her piano lesson first, as usual. She was in rare form. Did not even complain about her scales today.

Teaching was a little bittersweet today.  I will not be teaching all of these kids when fall term comes around. I have decided to limit my traveling. I will be only teaching at the music center. And not everyone is able to get in.

I have so many memories with all of these kids.  But I am comforted knowing I gave them all a good foundation in music. And we have good memories. Not just of music, but of many talks. Talks about school, friends, music and random life issues.

Today, one of my students who is going into middle school next week, remarked that she rewrote the lyrics for a piece she was playing from her lesson book. It is called "Famous People". It mentions Abraham Lincoln, Benjamin Franklin, Amadeus Mozart, and several other famous men.  Then only woman that is mentioned is at the very end "...and Cinderalla too!"

My student looked at me very seriously. She said, "The only famous woman in the song is Cinderella. And she's just a princess!"

My mouth fell open.  We both laughed. But she had a point.

I told her in all the years I had taught from that book, that had never occured to me!

I looked at her book and she had penciled in several famous female names. She has a book at home of female scientists, composers, inventors...

It was a precious moment.  I will miss her.

My last student of the day is the son of a pastor. He has been playing piano occasionally in church.  He is going into his sophomore year of high school.  He just returned from vacation, and is quite enthusiastic about a new piece he would like to learn. He plans on forming a little band at his church with his friends.  I wanted to pinch myself. Was this the same boy I started with several years ago?  The one who hardly spoke a word to me and didn't always practice much?

My heart was swelling with pride and amazement. 

Just then my daughter walked in with Baby Gracie.

She saw me and broke out in a toothless grin.

"Gak!", she shrieked. 

I am Gak.  We thought Zma would be a good name for me to differentiate me from the other grandparents and great grandparents.

But Gracie had other plans.  She calls me Gak.

And Gak I am!

After I finished with my teaching, we decided to go out for pho.  Ironically the church I teach at is just down the street from the first pho restaurant in Portland. And the restaurant I initiated all my kids, my nieces nephews, our friends and myself at.  

Pho Hung. The mother of pho in Portland.

The server came running out and hugged my daughter. And pinched Gracie's cheeks.  She has been our server for at last 10 years.  Gracie seemed right at home. We ate there last when she was in her mother's womb. She must have remembered.  She was very comfortable.  She ate sprouts, rice noodles, and bits of chicken by the handful.

We ordered and avocado shake.  Without sugar.  Gracie slurped that right up!

It felt like coming full circle.  We have so many memories in that restaurant.  

Just like I have so many memories with my students.

Good thing I am finally slowing down enough to enjoy these moments.

Life does go by in the blink of an eye!

Speaking of which, I spent 1 hour at the gym last night - at least 30 minutes on the stationary bike. The secret was a good program on television.

I was fascinated with the program put on by CNN, "The Most Powerful Man in the World".  Not sure if we will ever know the real story about anything, especially in this political era.  But it did shed some light.

And know I am more curious than ever about the Cold War and the fall of the Soviet Union.  And curious to see what comes next in this soap opera called American politics. 

So much to learn. So little time.  

But I did get a good workout in!  Thank you, Vladimir Putin!

Talk to you tomorrow!

Love,

Zita