Funny how little things can change your mood so thoroughly.
I woke up @10:30 after going to bed @6am that morning, dreading the planning I'd need to do for 25HR's final exam as well as English summer camp prep and finally grading the journal entries for my regular ninensei students. My mood was not helped by feeling guilty and ill-prepared for my violin lesson that afternoon, since I hadn't practiced at all the past week, and my intention to hang out my laundry was foiled by the rain that comes on like tap water in the summer months.
However, I was determined to get some practice in and to do my best during my lesson so that my teacher wasn't so disappointed in me. Somehow though, things quickly turned around. At first, I told her that I was having trouble with stacatto, a method of applying pressure on the bow at the beginning of the bowstroke and then releasing it for the remainder of the stroke. She observed, pointed out that I was putting too much pressure and corrected my technique. I quickly got the hang of it and she praised me, saying, Wow, you must've practiced a lot! (^_^;) but still, it was good. Then she showed me the new measure (my homework for the week) to develop rhythm and let me try it out. I tried to mimic her and again quickly got the hang of it, which prompted her to praise me for being a quick study! So we left it at that, once again feeling like, I CAN do this, all I need is practice and I'll be able to play.
After that, I headed back down to the basement of Parco to buy a couple snack items, since something in the deli caught my eye as I was walking to the elevator on the way to my lesson. At first, I saw that what had originally looked tasty was really just a Japanese-style beef stew, but I spied some marinated olives that I thought would be a yummy snack either tonight or tomorrow for lunch. I intended a quick walk-through just to see what else they had in the way of foreign foods since I'm well-versed in what Kaldi at the station has in stock.
I was pleasantly surprised to find white balsamic vinegar and herbes des Provençe vinegar and went back for a basket when I realized I might need one...It kind of went downhill from there, but in a good way. A very good way. I picked up some truffle oil and truffle pate, and then found the cheese corner where they were having a small sale. The cheese lady offered me a taste of one of the cheeses when she saw that I was scoping it out. It was good, but a bit like cream cheese with herbs (suitable for the Japanese palate since they don't like strong cheeses), but a bit weak for me. I continued to look some more and she kept offering me samples of them. I finally gathered the courage to ask her which one might be good with the Chablis I bought the other night, and she tried to help me. I'm not sure that she was that knowledgeable about cheese-wine pairings, but she was still really nice and friendly so I bought some cheese and said that I'd probably stop by again in the future.
After that, I was going to call it quits when I thought I glimpsed red globes of radishes in the produce aisle. Radishes, thanks to the French and blog writers, have become my new addiction, and I only had three left in my fridge, so I thought I'd pick some up. Again, it turned out that my far-sight was wrong and they were only cherry tomatoes, BUT above them was a GIANT zucchini and a more normal-sized summer squash. I had to have both. I rounded off my impromptu grocery shopping with a super-long baguette (a real one, not one of the Italian loafs that they pass off for them in my normal grocery store) from the bakery and left for the eki. It was then that I realized, many girls tend to medicate themselves with retail therapy after feeling down, and that while I do like to shop, for me buying good, quality food trumps all the stylish clothes in the world.
The icing on the cake was that, as I got to the station, I got a peep at the outside sky and whereas I had gone into Parco amidst grey clouds cloaking everything in their perpetual dreariness and threatening to drop more moisture from the air, the skies had almost magically turned clear and bright blue. Absolutely lovely, and suited my lifted spirits.
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