Monthly Horoscope - Scorpio

Several planets in Aries, your solar 6th house clash with Saturn in Libra and Pluto in Capricorn this month. You can thus expect ongoing stress and strain in your daily work, as well as the potential for conflict with coworkers or supervisors. Try your best not to make snap decisions or act in haste, and do your very best to steer clear of power plays. Also be alert for anyone who might try to play the blame game at your expense.

Take a well–needed break at the end of March when the Full Moon on the 29th highlights your 12th house of past karma and self–renewal. Even a few days to enjoy your own company and the people you love will refresh you, body, mind and soul. You might even consider a long weekend at a nearby destination for an uplifting change of scenery.

Fun times, fun people and social events continue in the spotlight, thanks to the March 15 New Moon in your fellow water sign of Pisces, your solar 5th house. Plan an outing midmonth, when the odds favour a lucky connection – possibly a romantic connection, networking contact or a new friend. With Mercury the communicator in Pisces through the 16th, March is a great month for you to make new friends (something you don’t usually do easily). You have the right words and the right moves to charm pretty much anyone.

Good news too with Mars moving direct in Leo, your solar of career and social ambition March 10. Mars has been out of phase since last December and you have probably felt stalled and not moving anywhere career wise. Things are about to change and you will get a nice boost workwise which is exactly what you Scorpios need and want this month.

March is a really good month for you Scorpios, especially the first half. In fact the first 2 weeks of March will be some of the best times for you throughout the whole year. ENJOY!

Your March days to work it: 9, 14, 26 & 28
Your March days to lie low: 2, 16, 23 & 29
Friends: Pisces & Cancers
Frenemies: Aries & Leos
Lust after: Virgos & Taureans

- Universal Psychic Guild

Violin Repair

Recently, my mother found an add for a violin on craigslist that claimed it was at least 100 years old. The label inside reads, "Antonius Stradivarius Cremonenfis Faciebat Anno 17." We decided to go pick it up and we paid a total of 70$ for it. The guy we bought it from bought it from someone else, and he had no knowledge of violins whatsoever. 

This is what we ended up with. The case looked like it was made out of armadillo, it was missing a string, the bridge wasn't on, and the fingerboard was hanging on by the last strands of glue.  The bow wasn't even a bow anymore, none of the hair was attached or anything. The rosin in the box has turned into something you'd see in a Jurassic Park movie, minus the mosquito in the middle. It had a serious need for repair.

 

This could have been a pretty expensive repair. We took it to our friend Ed, owner of "String Doktor," a private violin repairing business he runs. He told us that the chin rest was a 3/4 violin size (which if you know anything about violins, a full size is a 4/4 and what most adults and high schoolers use) which made it a size too small for me. The bridge it came with was also a size too small, so the strings were too close together when you played. We left it there over night and he glued the fingerboard back down for us.

When we went back the next day, we purchased Vision Solo strings for my main violin and transfered my old dominants over to the violin getting repaired, and added some fine tuners. He was able to fix my bridge where it had the correct spacing so we didn't have to replace it, and we added a chin rest... and it was ready to go. We just decided to scrap the bow, because it wasn't very good quality and the re-hair would cost more than it was worth. We spend 145$ total, 70$ of which was spent on strings and a little other maintance on my best violin. 

Job well done. 

Boasting VS Confidence

Today I was informed by my orchestra teacher, Mr. Joel Powell, that he would really like me to play the solo for a piece that we're doing for Indiana State School Music Association (ISSMA) competition. I told him that I would be glad to do it, so I have to learn a whole new part by March 25, a month away.

Now... I'm not complaining. Not at all. But it did make me wonder... Is there a difference between boasting and acting better than everyone else, and having confidence in yourself? Could having confidence in yourself  come off as boasting, especially with someone of low confidence? I do not like people who act stuck up, and I always try to make sure that I am not acting that way, even if I am really excited about something. I do believe it could come off badly to somebody that doesn't enjoy what they do, isn't good at it, or has no idea how much effort really can go into something. 

I have a lot of confidence in myself when I play... Like Mr. Powell says, if you're going to make a mistake you should make it big. So that is what I try to do. I guess it always just comes down to this; be careful what you say, how you say it, and who you say it to. 

My Bucket List

This is a bucket list I've been working on for two years. A bucket list is a list of things you want to do before you die. In bold are ones I have completed. 

1 - Go to Paris

2 - Write a novel

3 - Go on an archeological dig

4 - Go backpacking through Europe

5 - Get my nose pierced

6 - Try Paragliding

7 - Go skydiving

8 - See the natural wonders of the world 

9 - Get a small tattoo

10 - Ride in a hot air balloon

11 - Learn to snowboard

12 - Learn to salsa dance

13 - Go camping 

14 - Learn to ice-skate

15 - Attend an Opera

16 - Ride the ten biggest roller coasters

17 - Run a marathon

18 - Go horseback riding on a beach

19 - Witness a miracle

20 - Plant a tree

21 - Visit Anne Frank's grave/memorial

22 - Walk the Great Wall of China

23 - Have a child

24 - Inspire someone

25 - Save/Adopt an endangered species 

26 - Play my violin somewhere famous

27 - Go ghost hunting

28 - See where they study the Titanic

29 - Climb Machu Picchu

30 - Visit Egypt 

31 - Mentor a Child

32 - Stay the night in an old castle 

33 - Watch the entire Gilmore Girls Series

34 - Own or work at a bookstore

35 - Learn to ski

36 - Learn to drive a stick shift

37 - Jump off a diving board fearlessly

38 - Graduate from High School

39 - Graduate from College

40 - Go to a blues bar in Chicago

41 - Speak French fluently

42 - Go to a cave

Food for Thought.

Throughout everyone's life, there has to always be one person, or several that you can't stand to live with but you wonder what it's like without. Sometimes you want to "rid" yourself of them for the benefit of you, first of all, and probably both of you in the long run. But as soon as you think you have completely erased them from your life, they come back, ruining everything you've started for yourself and not only making matters worse, but making it harder to go back every time. They bury themselves so deep inside you, like a tick, making it impossible to dig them out without hurting yourself. But you always heal, scar or no scar. Sometimes they just don't get it. But they end up pulling you in and pushing you under like the ocean. You're swimming around, blind and lost. Sometimes they do get it, and they take advantage of you, trying to control your emotions and put you on a roller coaster. 

Or, they write you, telling you they heard a song that reminded them of you, or they walked past a place you used to go, or did something they did when they were with you. Or maybe they just thought of you, or were feeling nostalgic. But maybe that's just it. Maybe it's the little things... a song, a store, a picture that reminds you of someone. I cannot walk past a rack of Bananas, or think of Nuns, rap, padding, TJ Maxx, Gilmore Girls, Swagger Wagon, etc... Without it reminding me of one of my best friends or a person who has made a noticeable difference in my life.  So maybe... it really is just the little memories and inside jokes you make that tie you to a person, bounding you together... Until you finally just decide to let go.

You forgive. You forget. Life goes on.

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