Mrs. Veneman,
Hi, this is Christina Barrett, who used to take piano from you. I lived in Saint Augustine when I was 9-12, 1995-1998. I ended up majoring in piano for a year but was told to change to organ. I was also a Vocal and Instrumental Music Education major but was told not to do it, after a year, though I guess now that it was a good experience.
So, I know you're from Wisconsin... I liked moving to the New Orleans area. I guess something interesting was doing organ at Oberlin over the summer the year before college began. I had a good organ teacher and choir director, on my Facebook, Margaret Campo. She taught me carefully. I didn't learn much in college. My teacher was a POT major (piano organ theory) and taught me theory and was getting a doctorate at Eastman. I went up north during Katrina to the Cleveland area and went to a Methodist conservatory. I had a nice, young voice teacher, I think I remember her name, Tracy Brady.
I also play a little harp now, and it is very easy, a little hard to learn new songs, like when I was still newer to piano. I never advanced so much because I had such a hard time with school by then.
So, here's a video of me singing:
http://tiny.cc/2012-12-23-1.
I guess I prefer organ, but I thought maybe harp would be my new favorite.
So, anyway, I like the new picture of your granddaughter. She is so beautiful with blonde hair and blue eyes.
I've been living with my parents, recovering from school, just socializing online, living day to day, catching up on sleep, going through some obstacles so am still in a sedentary mode. I found karaoke communities online and am posting myself singing on YouTube. We lost the piano in Katrina, but I have a keyboard from 2005 in my room, which is the garage, though I wish we used it for cars, though it's sealed. My mom got in 2 car accidents and now wears glasses. She said it injured her eye|s. She only wears them for reading, maybe far away, and I guess driving.
So, in college, I had a good piano teacher. I discovered she was indeed related to my band teacher at the school I went to just for 12th grade. The band was new that year. My teacher was young and just had 2 daughters. She had reddish blonde hair and was pretty like spunked, big blue eyes. I guess the sisters's last names were Messina, so that's Italian. I went to music school in New Orleans the summer before my last year of high school and my last year of high school on Saturdays. She taught a preparatory program, and they had a Piano Pedagogy major, which they took away, along with the general Education program. She didn't teach many people. 1 of my best experiences was college University Band. I played the bells, of course, again, and had to do a solo part, which turned into a duet.
I know you'd really like the New Orleans area. I lived in Slidell. I met great people from the city, however. I forget what else I was going to say, quite a bit, too. Oh, yes, I did do tennis. I had a teacher from where Eastman is, and my youngest aunt, who is a year older than you, lived there a year with her daughter, my younger cousin, who is a year older than my brother. I won a competition at the club. I haven't been well enough to be active, lately, but miss being on the tennis court and work out now. I jog, like, every other day. I also did ballet, increasing amount as I grew older.
I guess what mostly keeps me going and what I live for is my blog, primarily. I started it when I ended up having to wind down and quit college, altogether, for years. I'm not even sure what my major would be, now. I didn't start blogging, right away, but I also post on message boards.
So, I'm looking forward to
Les Misérables. I really liked seeing Amanda Seyfried on "The Ellen DeGeneres Show." I had such a connection. She is a very good actor. I see she took voice lessons, in high school, I think. I started singing from musicals when we moved and there was no choir. I was going to start voice at 12 with a Russian piano and voice teacher, who was a soft tan with dark, smooth, curly hair, who was still young and in college. However, I was too shy to sing in front of her and then couldn't even finish my homework in time to practice piano. I had to change teachers. My new teacher went to Juilliard, however. I learned the most from the Russian teacher. Also, I was a big fan of Sweeney Todd because Tim Burton did it. I guess I liked the English influence. Maybe, the hint of
Charlie and the Chocolate Facotory is what made it alluring. I studied the story, a lot, because the people online were into it. It was pretty easy yet stressful. I got into the music, a lot. I tried doing it on piano and singing with it. It's very good background music. So, studying music was really fun, and now I kinda do it on my own. I had a hard time in history and couldn't really do it. I wasn't introduced to lectures and reading growing up.
I could probably write something different and something else but all I could think of now. Nice to see you're doing well. 3)
<3Christina
by 
Maybe, we'll go out to eat before the movie, too. Or, I'll just have to eat a lot at home.
I'll probably get a pizza and smoothie and a candy.
Soon it will be Christmas Day