violinist & educator

Dear friends, it has been too long since I’ve written and I apologize. Too much has happened in the last few months. If you haven’t heard already, Randy and I have gathered up enough courage to make the Big Move… the move back to Hawaii! But before we did that, I spent two long months at a opera festival in Castleton, VA, we packed our cluttered apartment in less than a month, and then we went on a 10-day cross-country road trip, basically to ship our car from San Diego to Hawaii (heck, it was only $1000). So we did it! I am now writing this entry from a high-rise apartment in Makiki in downtown Honolulu. Life’s been pretty good and the weather has been consistently beautiful everyday. I already have teaching jobs lined up: after school violin lessons at Punahou’s music school and undergraduate applied lessons at Brigham Young University in La’ie. Randy is lucky to keep his faculty job at NEC and is still doing his cocktail mixology thing on the side. We’re surrounded by family and friends so we never feel lonely. Life is sweet right now, so enjoy the pics…

It’s wonderful to spend a holiday on the east coast.  There are many places to go, and so much to see.  This Fourth of July, Randy got a gig with the Rhode Island Philharmonic Pops, so that was a great excuse to hit Providence and see the fireworks.  Milton, my brother, was off-call that weekend, so it was great to hang out too.

Sunday started off with Randy and I playing in two church services where our good friend Greg works as the music director.  Both services were as different as night and day.  The first one featured a country/rock praise ensemble, which was hilarious in itself because the semi-serious congregational was punctuated by rambunctious, lively jamming from these guys.  The alternating contrasts was so absurdly shocking that I had trouble holding in some giggles.   The second service was more conservative; there was more classical music and a feeling of meditation over the congregation.  Both services ended with a national anthem of some sort to get everyone in the holiday spirit.  Chee-hoo!

We arrived in Providence around 1pm.  For lunch we stumbled upon Not Just Snacks, an Indian restaurant that received pretty good ratings on Yelp.   The food was yummy and cheap, though I think it’s a different style of Indian food.  I had my usual Palak Paneer, which was unusually creamy with stringy spinach, but tasty.

The rest of the afternoon was a blur: shopped at Providence Place, took a nap, watched Star Wars III…. Finally, we set foot to India Point Park for the concert and fireworks.  It was really nice out and not too many people on the lawn yet, so it was good soak up the scenery and chat with some friends in the orchestra.  The orchestra did a nice job and the fireworks were better than I expected.  It was a good day indeed!