My college students show up each week for their lessons and sigh and tell me how tired and busy they are, and I feel empathy for them, and I think, yeah, me too! I know you are tired of hearing it, but it’s been a crazy semester. The good news is, it’s going by quickly. (Also the bad news, because who wants life to just fly by like it’s nothing?!)

I don’t think I mentioned that my friend April visited for a few days. It was wonderful to see her, even though we were both working and didn’t get to hang out as much as we would have liked!

While she was here we went to Corner 17 and to Schlafly Bottleworks. We also chatted a lot and enjoyed the lovely weather we had during that time! I miss her and wish she still lived here, but she has an awesome life in Atlanta now and I’m happy for her.

There are just a few days left until Thanksgiving. I am hosting dinner for 9, it looks like, and I’m excited and stressed out. The key, as always, is planning. And yelling at Louie for not planning, while he judges me for being “controlling”. (half kidding!) Here are the plans to make Thanksgiving happen and to finish this week.

Today: attend student recital at Wash U this morning, attend Symphony concert in afternoon, play concert with Metropolitan Orchestra this evening.

Monday: teach class in morning, do big grocery shopping trip, workout, catch up on at home business type errands (I always do my finances on Mondays, that sort of thing, and sometimes wait to send important emails until I have time on Mondays and Thursdays ), teach private lessons in afternoon and evening.

Tuesday: teach last class of week in the morning, pick up the turkey (I have a fresh one on order from Whole Foods). Teach last day of students at Wash U (last day before Thanksgiving break, that is, not last day of semester. Teach last private student. Cook: thinking of doing pie crusts, baking the cornbread for the stuffing, possible making the gravy ahead of time (this is a thing people on the internet tell you is possible).

Wednesday: house cleaning (we outsource this every two weeks, thankfully, and yes, I love the word outsourcing!), pick up rolls at Union Loafers (it’s so unnecessary but they only do rolls for Thanksgiving and Christmas and I love them so much) make pies, make green bean casserole (I am attempting a vegan recipe: I don’t always do green bean casserole, but I thought it would be a fun addition this year), assemble salad ingredients (shaved brussels sprout salad), toast stuffing cubes (dry them out, whatever is needed) and assemble stuffing, pre chop whatever I can (Louie has much better knife skills than me, so I may ask his help or even just have him do a lot of chopping on Thursday). My parents arrive this day at some point, and I’ll probably ask my mom to help out.

Thursday: I’m a workaholic/freelance musician so I’m playing at a church service this morning. Did you know people have church on Thanksgiving morning?? Our guests don’t arrive until 5 pm, so while I’m doing that, Louie will prepare the turkey and put it in the oven. I’ll get back and we’ll finish the rest of everything: potatoes, butternut squash, and getting everything cooked. We have a sizeable toaster oven and a small side oven which could also help.

Friday: Relax! Eat leftovers!

And that’s the week. When I retype my food plans it sounds like a lot, but I think it’ll be a lot of fun, and I won’t be doing this all by myself, it’s just that I am the on in charge. I will share the entire menu later, most likely.

Other things that have been going on that likely deserve more attention here but aren’t getting it today: squirrels in the basement, having a company come and remove a squirrel nest from the chimney, leaf pickup drama, and lots of good books read. I am planning a blog post at some point about books, and some of my favorites over the years.

Books, lately: I’ve gotten into the books of Katherine Center for easy and fun reads (How to Walk Away is my favorite so far), and the best book I’ve read recently not by her was Pachinko by Min Jin Lee. I’ve also gotten into books by Ben H. Winters including the Last Policeman Series, and I read Lady Tan’s Circle of Women by Lisa See and enjoyed that quite a lot. Looking back through my Libby app (the best way I know to keep track of what books I read on the kindle), if I haven’t mentioned The Covenant of Water by Abraham Verghese, I am doing so now because that’s another good one. I tend to like fiction that spans several generations and goes into great detail, and takes place in another country so I can feel like I’m learning something about a different culture, but there also has to be a good story with it. I haven’t read as many mysteries later, more into the “character learns something important about herself while making a major life change AND falling in love” genre, which makes sense since I’ve been so busy and stressed.

You might ask when I find the time to read: sometimes I’ll have a spare 30 minutes to an hour midday, and I’ll just cozy up for a bit and read. I read if I’m eating a meal alone, I read before bed, and pretty much whenever I have time. I know I’m always happier if I read a book rather than scroll, though I do both of course.

We had a cold snap, but today is supposed to get up to 77 or 79 degrees (depending on which weather predicting service you look at.) So, it looks like fall, but it’s really practically still summer.

I haven’t been this busy since pre-pandemic or perhaps, since before I moved to St Louis. This month is flying by, I think I blinked and October was gone, and things are generally just a bit crazy. I do have a little downtime now, so I’ll fill you in quickly.

Halloween was fun: it was a cold night for trick or treaters. Louie and I made a fire in our fire pit and sat outside so we didn’t have to continually open the door. I was hopeful for more visitors and we ended up with a fair amount of leftover candy, so I made a bunch of bags for my college students, who were happy to get it!

Teaching has been crazy: I had the fall recital yesterday for my private students. 18 students played and it went really well! I rented a space at Wash U and it was really nice and easy to do, so I will likely do that again.

For college students, some recitals are coming up, the end of the semester is closer than we realize. For my 4th graders, I am not super happy about the progress of one class and gave them a lecture/pep talk today. We’ll see what happens. Let’s see if my talk inspired some of them to work a little bit harder or it’s going to be a long year.

Gig and concert wise, it’s been pretty crazy. I’ve played a bunch of weddings, a fun concert at a retirement home, and this week I have rehearsals for two different concerts: one a piece called the Suffragette Cantata with the St Louis Women’s Chorale, and the other the fall concert for the Metropolitan Orchestra of St Louis. I’ve also had a few church gigs, and there’s a pops concert on Sunday, so yeah…things are busy! Not so busy that I don’t get jealous of what other people are doing (yes, I’m insane) but busy enough that I can quickly remind myself that I am..well, a little more stretched but having a great time.

The time change was nice, that extra hour was lovely. My friend April is currently in town and staying with us and it’s fabulous to see her. Louie and I saw Bela Fleck and Edgar Meyer play a concert on Friday night.

We attended the neighborhood chili cook-off on Saturday and got to feed and pet alpacas, llamas, sheep, and more! I made a corn casserole for the dinner and it was very popular. When I went back to get a second helping 5 minutes later and the pan was empty! I also attended a neighborhood book club evening and really enjoyed it–I plan to attend again in the future when I am able.

The cats love the radiators. That is, when the heat is on which it isn’t today. And yes, Miles is usually very friendly and cuddly. Sometimes with Muriel, often with Louie, less often with me.

Anyway, even though my program here tells me I have no key focus phrase and some of my sentences are too long, I’m publishing anyway. You’re really here for the cat pictures anyway, I know.

I have been trying to fit it all in this month, and I realized that is not possible. By all I mean: work (ALLLL the work), exercise, fun things, seeing friends, etc. And honestly, it almost works, but I also have realized that lately playing music (work) has been really fun and great, and that means at least that the gigs I’m doing and the people I’m getting to play with has been enjoyable. I feel satisfied by my career right now, and my biggest concern is that I have too many students.

I keep thinking of how I should cut back on evening hour teaching, and really: I need to do one or the other: I can’t get up as early as I need to and teach as late as I do…cutting down on late teaching (I’m talking even ending at 6:30, some nights now I go till 7:45) would give me those nights for relaxing and then also for gigs when they pop up. The other option is end the early mornings, which depends on some factors (I’m trying to get a raise, so it will probably end up being contingent on that for next year.)

Truthfully I haven’t been able to fit in too many social and fun activities, but there’s been enough, and then I feel like some of my work is social (it is, for musicians this totally counts) so it works out. Today is a beautiful fall day as well, and it’s nice to have the house cooling down and be sitting here with a blanket over my legs.

I have been trying to blog more often, you might not have noticed this. I haven’t been taking as many pictures as lately for a few reasons: one, nothing terribly interesting is happening (ha!) and two, the cats continue to be adorable and precious but in ways that tend to resemble the previous 100000 pictures I’ve taken so I’ve been less likely to try to take pictures of them. But I’ve checked my phone and I do have a few you might like.

I do feel like there is slightly too much on my plate, but I’m managing to stay on top of things. Friday was a completely busy day with activity after activity and I got home at night and went straight to bed. Louie had gone to a wine dinner at the Whittemore House without me, so he had fun, and I was sorry to miss it. I was supposed to do two weddings on Saturday, but my contractor accidentally doublebooked one so I had the afternoon off. Louie and I took a nice fall walk through Forest Park and got caught up on everything. Then I played another gig and we went to Mi Ranchito for a later dinner. Today I have some things to do as well as an afternoon concert, but I’m looking forward to relaxing this evening (and likely folding laundry, as I’m working on that.)

Things that we aren’t getting done: yardwork (maybe next weekend) or anything at the old house. We know we need to do something about that and it’s a huge thing hanging around our necks, but it just isn’t a priority right now. We are lucky enough that it isn’t a financial necessity at the moment, but we need to figure it out…but I think we are doing pretty well with everything at the moment and I’m not going to stress out about it.

I read a few good books recently: Symphony of Secrets by Brendan Slocumb (didn’t enjoy as much as the Violin Conspiracy, but still a fun and quick paced read), The Covenant of Water by Abraham Verghese (very good, covers many generations of a family, learned a lot about India) and the latest Harry Hole book, Killing Moon by Jo Nesbo. I started reading the Harry Hole books because they take place in Norway, and in this book two of the characters go to Lorry, a restaurant that was near our Airbnb in Oslo and that we ate at twice!

I realized I didn’t have any travel on my calendar, and while I’m sure we will do plenty of fun stuff next summer, I decided it would be a good idea to take some time at the end of the calendar year to visit my sister Leslie (it’s the darn kids, don’t want to miss watching them grow!). I bought a plane ticket to visit right after Christmas. Thanksgiving we are planning to spend here and I think maybe my parents will visit. Oh, and did I mention I’m excited about Halloween as well? While we haven’t done any decorating, I’m told that our neighborhood is a big Halloween place, so I am planning to buy a bunch of candy to give out.

What’s new with you? Do you have fall weather where you are living? Read any books lately that you would like to share?

Fall is such a shock to the system after summer! September was a blur, and now it’s October, and it’s still hot…

We had a lovely concert last weekend: I played viola, Louie and I hosted a small chamber orchestra at our house for an after-concert party, and my parents ended up being in town for both. It was a lot of stress, but a lot of fun. I won’t deny I was relieved when it was over though! This past weekend was much more relaxing: we got in a hike at Greensfelder Park, had dinner with friends, I went to a friend’s birthday brunch party, and attended a concert as well.

The weeks have been hectic: teaching, insane amounts of bus duty as the buses are routinely 20-30 minutes late, more teaching, followed by teaching. My college students have been so much fun this semester, my private students as well, the school kids I’m still getting to know, and everybody, especially high school and up, seems overwhelming and exhausted. It’s going to be a rough year, but I think so far most people are managing. This may be a quasi-post-pandemic return to the normalcy of being completely overscheduled.

I’m not totally overscheduled, but Mondays are tiring, that alarm comes early. I am used to the long days by now to some extent, but I definitely wish for more days off. I can’t articulate what I would give up for that though, so I suppose it’s a good thing. Maybe Louie and I don’t have enough hobbies to work less anyway. (This is mostly sarcasm, as we have a lot of things we ignore, but we get there.)

Mostly I’m just complaining about my schedule. Boring, right? I finished Abraham Verghese’s The Covenant of Water and really enjoyed that. We are watching Suits (currently on season 3, no spoilers please!) and find it a diversion…I wouldn’t describe it as GOOD exactly, but it’s mostly enjoyable and the characters do stupid things that we yell at them about. It’s fun!

How’s your week going?

How does the time go by so fast?

September is almost over, and I feel like it just started. I know I say this a lot, and everybody says that busy isn’t a good word, but oh my goodness this month has been busy.

My before school classes started last week, so I was waking up early and going to teach a bunch of 4th graders how to hold their violins. I have two new colleagues in my classes and they are both amazing! We have three new people total, and I’m sure the third is amazing as well–I just haven’t worked with them in the same way.

I also had a performance this past week with several evening rehearsals. It was a solo part in the premiere of a symphony written by a really nice cello player named Alexander Groesch. The performance went well, though I was relieved to have it behind me. It turns out that many of my colleagues turned down the solo part because they thought it was too hard. I tend to not shy away from difficult parts, and frankly, it wasn’t that bad, just a few tricky spots and some things that just needed to get into my ears. I may simply be a sucker for punishment though!

I had an extra busy week as well due to a few appointments: the doctor, the dentist, and the vet. In the future I will try to remember to space these things out into different weeks!

We went to Urbana last weekend to visit our friends Michael and Heather and to see some concerts/shows at the Ellnora Guitar Festival. It was a wonderful trip–we saw three concerts: Rodrigo y Gabriela, Sharon Isbin and the Pacifica Quartet, and the Ron Carter Trio, which ended up being minus the guitar player who couldn’t find a flight after his initial flight was canceled. We stayed over one night, and also got to enjoy meals at a few local restaurants. It was a lovely time and we loved the variety of musical experiences!

Last night we saw “Space: A Celestial Circus Show” which was put together by a wonderful colleague of mine, Abbie Steiling. She composed and played the music (with some other players as well) and it was a fun show with circus performers and pictures of Space by Abbie’s husband, Frederick. Some of the audience didn’t know how to behave in public (a woman in front of us actually had a video playing on her phone WITH SOUND for her young child! you could only hear it during very quiet parts, but WHAT?) but we still enjoyed the show.

Anyway, we have some Trader Joe’s croissants coming out of the toaster oven, so I’d better go. How is your September going?

I had a funny conversation the other day on a family zoom: I mentioned how I knew many of them read my blog but never commented, and my youngest sister says, what, you are still blogging, I thought you quit ages ago!

Which, I suppose in a way I did, and then I kept it up! So here we are. It’s the first week of the fall semester for me, in a way, but also the end of summer, and it’s UNBEARABLY HOT outside. The humidity is real.

I say in a way, because this week I started teaching my private students fall schedule, but next week I start with the college kids at Wash U. I’m working on that schedule. And then a few weeks later I start my other school job where I teach before school, and along the way gigs and concerts start ramping up, and before I know it my schedule is super crazy!

But things are well. The summer was fun and relaxing and I did many of the things I wanted to do. Many are still left to do, and I’m trying to prioritize that. I weirdly hurt my shoulder last week doing something–literally I don’t even know–so it’s been feeling gradually better. I tried to run a few times in the horrific humidity: one time unsuccessful due to the shoulder pain, but the second time more successfully.

We’ve done some fun things lately: Saturday night was especially fun. Louie and I walked over to a place called Joe’s Cafe and watched some friends perform with a group there. It was a lot of jazz/latin music, some improv, some written, and so much fun! I always plan things to do, and then right before usually wish I could just stay home and chill, but usually the things are way more fun than staying home would be, and this was an evening that will stick with me for longer! Ranya is one of the first friends I made when I moved to St Louis, and she is an awesome cello player, and Alyssa and Asako were the two violinists, and they both have different styles of playing and are both terrific at what they do. The rest of the band was good too, and the group kept us entertained the whole evening.

I’ve been making a point to get together with friends more often: the pandemic got me out of that habit, and I know that it is so easy to do nothing and it’s harder to get that inertia going, but so well worth it. In the past week I’ve gotten together several times with friends and every time it was so much fun and made me happier. Which was absolutely the intention, and hopefully it did the same for them! It’s also nice to chat with someone other than Louie: we spend a lot of time together, especially over the summer, and it’s always good to get together with others. It’s so easy to just hang out with the other person in your relationship, isn’t it? And then you work a ton, and then just want to watch TV and rinse, repeat.

I’m looking forward to a wonderful semester. I know it will be pretty busy, but I am hoping to stay on top of things, have time for exercise and social activities and keep organized. I’ve mentioned I started using a paper planner again for day to day planning. I got into a planning podcast this summer which is by a blogger I’ve read for years (the SHUBox) and that made me want to try paper planning again. I’m using a 90 day planner by Savor Beauty, which is actually a little ridiculous, but I love the reflection pages, which are making me really think about what I want out of life. It’s so easy to get into the day by day of life and just let things happen rather than really considering what I want, and it’s been fun to work on that. I also enjoy having my goals for each day set out (for days when there is time aside from appointments) and then checking things off. I still of course use my google calendar for all things and My Music Staff for teaching lessons organization, but this is for the on the ground day to day stuff. We’ll see how it works during the hectic fall times!

Anyway, that’s all my boring stuff. I’ll end with a cartoon that I saw online that made me laugh.