April Showers

I had to make a decision to cancel my studio’s outdoor recital today due to inclement weather. I do NOT like making decisions like this, but I think it was the right decision as it’s raining and supposed to storm later.

I was looking forward to everybody getting together and playing and hearing each other! But April is just too rainy, I guess…I had organized the date with some other teachers, and we had planned to rent a piano, and it just didn’t work. I guess May would be a better outdoor month. And it was under a pavilion, but really, wooden instruments and storms aren’t a good idea.

Anyway, so that means the day suddenly became free, but then due to a fellow musician’s household getting COVID, I have things to do. I was going to attend the Great Artists Series Concert tonight at Wash U…originally I had planned to give away my ticket, but then when I canceled the recital I was planning to go (we hadn’t given it to anyone yet), and now I am not going after all. A silly day, indeed.

We went to the symphony last night. I didn’t want to go beforehand because I was exhausted: it’s been a rough week for me, with having a medical procedure on Wednesday, taking some days off, ending up with a migraine as well (probably from the dehydration?) and then finally feeling a bit better…I am hopeful this week will be back to normal. In any case, the concert was lovely and wonderful and I’m glad we went: I missed going to concerts during the pandemic, and I’m happy to be back, even though I am surprised by how few wear masks in an enclosed space with so many people! Masks are now optional and it was interesting to see which musicians on stage were wearing masks or not, as well.

This week is the last week of classes at Wash U! I can’t believe how fast the semester has flown by. Of course, I say that NOW, in hindsight, there were definitely times it dragged, or at least felt longer. I’ll be teaching an extra week due to our delayed COVID start (the students were remote the first two weeks, and we could choose whether to teach 1 or 2 of those weeks remote: I chose 1). We had juries yesterday and my students who performed played well.

There are still several weeks left of Kirkwood and I teach at home basically until Norway, but I am getting things ready for summer. My summer lesson questionnaire goes out tomorrow and is due mid-May, and I’m trying to get all the travel set up. I have some time off in August that is still a wild card, and it’s okay not to have everything scheduled, but I’m looking forward to our travels, visiting family (perhaps more of that in August?) and having more time to relax and not getting up QUITE so early.