What a weekend! First off, I didn’t have to work at all. (With the exception of a bit of emailing and a few tiny things, probably less than one hour’s worth of work.) Second of all, we went to TWO performances.
Friday night Louie and I went to the 560 Center at Wash U to see our friends Mark and Jae-Won play a lovely program of two piano music, all written by women. The 560 Center requires masks and either proof of vaccination or a very recent negative test. I really lovely the program, particularly Seis cantos de los campos (2013) by Gabriela Lena Frank and Kilter by Mary Ellen Childs.
After the concert a group of us went to Blood and Sand to celebrate. It was weird being in a restaurant in a group (we were all vaccinated, but who knows about the rest of the people…not too busy though.) I recall Blood and Sand being a “hot” place to go a few years ago…I suppose the pandemic has hit them hard because I was underwhelmed, and the prices were pretty high for St Louis. It felt more like a typical Washington Ave/Downtown St Louis restaurant, more flash than substance. It was a good time nonetheless.
Saturday was a relaxing day, and at night we went to Jazz at the Bistro to see Harold Lopez-Nussa play Cuban Music. Louie and I went a little early to eat dinner there, and it was as good as ever (that is, totally fine, not great, but not bad). My salmon dish was really well cooked, so I was very pleased with that. (Often salmon is overcooked and dry, and this was just right.)
We loved the program, and stayed for the second set as well. It was awesome to be back at the Bistro (who were also checking vaccination/negative tests).
Sunday I really slept in, it was almost 9 by the time I woke up! We took a walk in the afternoon, and it was HOT. I had a family zoom call and then a book club zoom call, and then it was time for dinner and bed.
Food wise: we made mushroom quesadillas one meal, tuna melts another meal, and pumpkin waffles (frozen from Trader Joe’s) and scrambled eggs one meal. Just to give you some ideas.
Now it’s Monday, and I already taught an early morning class. I have a love/hate relationship with my early morning job. I hate getting up so early. But I actually really love teaching the kids once I get going: it’s busy, stressful, and I feel like I’m really accomplishing things with them! But everytime my alarm goes off…ugh I really hate it and tell myself, that’s it, I’m quitting after this year. We’ll see how things go!
My online book club is with some old friends from when I lived in Cleveland. It’s weird talking with them: I feel like that time of my life was both so long ago and also not long at all. I also have been through a lot of life changes since then, and haven’t kept up very well with my friends from there, but it was nice to hear them talk about gigs I used to play there, etc. Sometimes I feel weird telling people that what I mostly do is teach, because I sometimes feel like I’m wasting my hard-earned playing skills not playing more, yet, teaching is fun, something I’m good at, and pays better (in my current life/city) so I’m happy with it, and I spend hours a day playing!
I guess it’s more like I’m looking at what my life might have been there if I hadn’t made the fateful decision to move here. I also sometime wonder, would I have moved here if I’d known that ultimately I would be basically giving up my performing career? I’m not regretting my decisions, because I enjoy my life and I particularly love being with Louie and love our life together, but I miss playing big orchestra concerts and I do miss some of my friendships from there.
And I do actually really enjoy teaching, which isn’t something I would have said 10 years ago. The pandemic pushed me to teach more, and over the years I enjoy it more and more. 10 years ago I taught some classes at various schools and really didn’t like it, but I’m really enjoying my classes now. I love teaching my college students at Wash U, and I have many private students that I absolutely adore. So perhaps it isn’t exactly where I thought I’d end up, but it’s something I’m currently loving. And my studio is running quite smoothly right now, and I’m happy about that as well. So that’s life for you, you don’t always end up where you expect, but maybe that’s okay.
Enough of my navel gazing. How are you on this fine morning? It’s quite windy, and we had some bad storms last night–we were lucky in the city but some people in the TV viewing radius were less lucky with tornadoes and storm damage 🙁 I stayed up later than I should have watching local news to make sure we weren’t at risk (I didn’t want to go to bed if there might be a tornado warning) and then morning came quickly because of my relaxing weekend. The rest of the week is busy enough, plus it’ll be Louie’s birthday!