Four Weddings, Two Filing Cabinets and One QuickBooks

July is nearly halfway over already? Where has this month gone? The office temp work isn't going so well. So far, I've only had one one-day assignment. I did register with a second temping agency (Mark Staffing), which sounded extremely promising and cast my resume off to a few community businesses. Someone has got to bite.

Oh I typed that in too soon. I just got a couple of phone calls - one from another temping agency that wants to see me and another from temp agency number one with a one week assignment next week. Things are starting to pick up.

In the meantime, Maestro and I have been keeping busy. We're having a lot of fun with our summer students, who are enjoying improvising, exploring popular and world music, and composing. I have completely caught up on the bookkeeping, including the adjusting entries for depreciation. Perhaps the biggest project that I finished was the filing cabinet merge/purge/clean-up.

I've got four wedding gigs slated for the summer so far, with two on the same day. Last night's rehearsal went all right. Unfortunately, the church doesn't have a piano, so the couple had to rent me a digital piano. Thankfully, I've got over a week to play with the sound settings.

This one is a unique gig because the bride is a friend and former co-worker. In the span of two hours, I wore four hats last night - hired musician, friend, kitchen helper and anime otaku. I'm looking forward to the wedding, which will be in English and Spanish. Of course, that's not the only reason why I'm looking forward to it. I'm always glad to see a friend marry a good guy.

Well, it's back to the grind. I promised Maestro an adventure as soon as I complete this afternoon's tasks.

(c) 2006 by Musespeak(tm), Calgary, AB, Canada. All rights reserved.

Summertime for Music Teachers

Most students take the summer off from music lessons. Only a small handful commit to summer lessons (to prepare for a summer exam, personal interest/motivation or parental interest/motivation). For example, I'm going from 40 students in the school year to about five for July. Where does that leave the private music teacher come summertime? Some teachers are able to take the entire summer off. From what I can tell, it's those who have a growing brood of children and a husband with a steady income and/or an established studio with no or little business debt. These folk are able to put away some money throughout the school year.

On the other hand, teachers with a relatively young studio, who have bought a house, got married and/or started a family recently do not have that luxury. Nor do teachers who wracked up some debt before starting a business (and just continued to add to it) or those who are married to someone who's also self-employed. For those of us in this category, there are but two options - run up the lines of credit a bit more (IF there's room) or get a job.

I had a wonderful interview with a temporary office staffing agency this week called OfficeJobs.com . A friend recommended it to me (her husband is the website guy). Part of me is cringing at the thought of re-entering the corporate world but another part of me is looking forward to doing something different. Give me some data entry, where I don't have to think too hard. Surround me with adults all day for a change. That's fine by me. I like my students but a change in environment is refreshing.

It'll be different from being an employee. Temps can avoid office politics, don't stay in one place too long and aren't usually given a lot of responsibility.

The change of scenery will be good. (c) 2006 by Musespeak(tm), Calgary, AB, Canada. All rights reserved.