Journal of a Sucker

11-19-99

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The Figaros seem to sort of like me. Aida brought in an airfare discount she found online, showing the fare from Atlanta to Detroit. She went out of her way to look that up. The gesture's meaningful on multiple levels—it means she might give me a few days off sometime after Christmas.

They've also been training me to do new stuff. Today I did what's called a "fecal." Don't even ask. I also held down a teensy little puppy who had sarcoptic mange. After checking out those mites under the microscope, I scrubbed all the hair off my arms.

This afternoon I went to Macon to meet my two new students. Started off on the wrong foot; seems I'd arrnaged to come on the first day of their week-long Thanksgiving vacation. The older one, a horn player, turned out to like me just fine. His mom says that he went right upstairs and called his friends to say, "Guess what I just did!" and proceeded to read them my resume over the phone.

Kid #2, on the other hand, hated me. Well, he was just really not happy about being there. He cried through the entire 30 minute lesson. Sniffle, sniffle, tears running down his face and crying. His mom said he'd been hanging his hand out the car window on the way to the lesson and nailed a mailbox with it. Ow. So he was in a pissy mood, and he hated having his mother force him to play trombone for me. I don't know if he'll show up for his next lesson or not.

And weird: I'd agreed to pay her a third of what I charge for lessons, since she provides the space to teach and she gets my name out to band directors and potential students. That was set. So tonight I gave her the sheet with my rates on it and she said something like, "So, do you want me to pay you, or do you want to make it a trade for the space?" And my mouth popped open and said, "That would be great." We're in the middle of a conversation in which I've been agreeing with everything she says, and she asks me to teach her kids for free?

So I'm teaching her kids for free. I guess it will be okay once I gather up a few freaking students, so I'm actually making money. But right now I drive a half hour to Macon, teach two kids, one of whom could turn out to be a real dick, and drive home. For free. Is she taking a third of what I get for the other kids? Because she's scoring thirty a week off me in free lessons for her kids, already. In order to make that up I'd have to have about ten other students. If she skims a percentage off as well, and I had a total of ten students, I'd teach for 5 hours, make $150, take out $30 for her kids, and give her another $40 from the other kids.

Since the math is laid out for you right there, I might as well tell you what I make for teaching. I'm charging $15 for 30 minutes and $27 for 60 minute lessons. My normal rate is $20 an hour, but I jacked it up because of her percentage. If she's not skimming, then my fliers are all wrong.

So now I'm literally paying, in gas and Friday free time, to teach lessons. This school is an investment. I hope I can scrape up the students to make it work. If not, I'll have to change this to Journal of a Quitter.