8 glasses a day.

Yesterday evening was my final lesson with my longtime (over a year) voice student, Michele. It was strange because I actually forgot this was our final lesson and on top of that I had absolutely no singing voice to teach with... so I kind of just gestured my way through the lesson. It's weird because this is a student I have worked with for enough time to see real growth and see her potential and that has become important to me, to have that weekly check in where we kind of grow together in a way. I know that may sound odd, but that is where I find joy in teaching I believe. I take as much as I give from the process. But, times are changin' and we are parting ways and it was sort of funny... felt like a breakup or something, but a positive breakup. One of those mutual breakups that I've heard about.

I received a bill in the mail yesterday from Northwestern Medical Hospital saying that I owed them $500 and it was being sent to collection agency. This shocked me because I have been meticulous about getting my bills paid from my broken elbow and I have actually called the hospital on numerous occasions to make sure that I had completed all of my payments. This letter came as a surprise, so I called the hospital this morning to basically ask WTF? I didn't use those words exactly but I wanted to because the thought of paying them more money made my heart sink. Turns out (after 45 min on the phone) they had made a mistake and I don't owe them anymore $, so that is a relief to say the least.

I get so frustrated while dealing with medical issues because I think about the fact that I am a fairly competent person and doing all of this is such a challenge for me... imagine if English was not your first language? or you didn't have the basic knowledge of how to deal with these systems? I think it is ridiculously irritating.

In other news, I've seen on three newscasts within the last two days that the old "8 glasses of water a day" has never been proved necessary. I've actually read something similar recently when I was reading about coffee consumption and the amount of water we take away from just drinking coffee when most people think it dehydrates you. This apparently is not true? although I usually drink a cup of coffee in the morning and then a bottle of water after? But regardless apparently the idea that you need to drink X amount of water a day has never been proved true and there is data that shows we get a lot of water simply from the foods that we eat. I personally like to drink a lot of water because it makes me feel more energetic... but they said that is not necessarily true either! Ha! I say environmentalists are probably behind this revelation because of the excess of plastic bottles we are going through due to bottled water. Just kidding. I don't know.

I also saw two reports on two different channels about doggy yoga ... or DOGA if you will.

I guess this news means Britney Spears is not doing anything shocking these days?