21 days of consecutive practice

Today, I had a two-hour lesson at school with my guitar teacher. I wasn't feeling all that prepared going in because we had driven up to the Bay Area this weekend for a wedding, and though I brought the guitar with me, I didn't get nearly as much time with it as I would have if we had been at home for the weekend. But it was the first weekend traveling where I had to be sure to fulfill my New Year's resolution to practice every day this year. So on Friday, I made sure to practice before we left for San Jose- got about 1 1/2 hours in, on Saturday, I practiced about an hour before we got ready to leave for the wedding, and on Sunday, I practiced after the 5 hour drive back to LA when we arrived home at around 11pm. This one was a hard one. I wanted so badly to crawl into bed, but Paul reminded me of my resolution and helped me build the resolve to sit myself down. He also told me that if I practiced, I could have the sour gummy worms that we had bought for the road trip but had forgotten to bring with us. I jumped up- this was just enough motivation for my tired body to get on my red practicing stool. (I love sour candy.)

At the very least, I got some affirmation today at my lesson. Yesterday I barely got an hour in between cooking for our small group dinner, teaching my fifth-grade guitar class in East LA, getting a run in around the lake, finishing some reading, and being glued to the election coverage. But I did get about 1 1/2 hours in at the end of the night, and today after I played my piece, my teacher said these words:

"Wow! You've been working your ass off."

I beamed. He has never said this to me. In fact, I've never had a teacher say this to me in recent memory. It's usually, "Ok, good." Or, on a bad day, "Good piece, huh?" For someone that gets bored pretty easily, I've never been one to practice enough, ever. But I suppose the consistency is a great start. I've been working. And it feels good.