Recently Learned

Here are some things I’ve learned in the last couple of months:

• At the piano I’ve been working on a Chopin nocturne, and I have really been having fun learning some Chopin Mazurkas. I had not played the mazurkas in a very long time, and I forgot how enjoyable they are! I have also learned a short piece by Grieg, and a couple of Spanish Dances by Granados. I’m in the process of working on short pieces by Brahms and Borodin, along with a pesky Debussy prelude that I’ve been working on for months but can’t seem to quite polish the way I want it to be.
• A few weeks ago I took wedding photographs at a park on the other side of the city that I had never been to before. Not only did I learn that this beautiful park existed, but I also learned a lot about its crazy history. Local history in my city never ceases to surprise and entertain me.
• I learned that dark strips about 1/5 up telephone poles are placed there to prevent animals from climbing up the pole. I hadn’t even noticed the steps before a drive to visit my mom in North Dakota this summer.
• My mom was SO PROUD to teach me how to close all the open windows on my iPad. I’ve been trying to figure it out for months, since I got a new-to-me iPad with an updated operating system.
• Before the Olympics I was wondering out loud with the Devious Snail about how all the rowing shells got to the Olympic competition. By boat? By plane? The Devious Snail looked it up, and while the safest (but slowest way) to transport a rowing shell is by boat, at the Olympics only a couple of brands of rowing shells are legal to compete in. Rowing teams actually just order new boats from the companies who deliver them directly in tip top condition to the Olympics, so they don’t transport the boats that they previously used to train.
• If your teenagers locate your stash of fingernail clippers, you are done for. The chances of them simply using the fingernail clippers and putting them back are next to zilch.