I mean, not by pre-pandemic standards. But by my new “weekends” free standards: I had a gig last night AND this afternoon.
I played with a small group at a retirement community (The Gatesworth) last night. After that Louis heated up our Valentine’s Day Dinner: it was a meal from the faculty club at Wash U, the Whittemore House. We joined the club sometime in the past year, and they’ve been doing various takeout events, where you pick up food and drinks (sometimes) and then go home and you can heat it up to eat later. The previous owner of Stellina is the chef at the Whittemore house, so the food is tasty. We had agnolotti, short ribs and root veggies, and then chocolate cake for dessert.
I had a wedding this afternoon, which was perfectly nice. I feel tired…I’ve been pretty tired this whole spring semester so far, and I suppose it’s from getting up early, working too hard, all of that. I am not quite sure what to do about it, other than trying to get to bed early. I think I am more burnt out than anything…I’m not sure if I should resign from my early morning job at the end of the school year because it’s been so exhausting doing that and teaching, or if the exhaustion is unrelated and it’s simply…exhaustion from the pandemic, the worries, the stress, all of that. I find myself unable to simply live and forget what is going out around us.
I’ve been enjoying watching the figure skating, of course, though I’m pretty upset about the fact that one of the Russian skaters was caught doping and yet is continuing to be allowed to compete, and in fact, why was competing in the first place when she had failed the drug test over a month ago? I get so angry how there are people who just keep breaking the rules and other people who never get to break even one rule without getting extremely severe consequences (thinking of the track and field athlete in the summer who got disqualified for smoking weed).
I feel like my life is just one week after another, counting down the days until? I think the winter weather is getting to me, and spending too many weekends at home without social interaction. Too much of my social life was tied up with working on the weekends, I guess. But I’m also not super comfortable with groups of people, and I’m not convinced the pandemic is quite over yet, and I still don’t want to get COVID, so I don’t know quite what to do.
This is just me with a bit of the Sunday blues, I suppose. I guess I’ll fold some laundry and read for a bit more, or something. There’s no shortage of books to read, that’s for sure!
We had a nice ice/snowstorm last week. It started Tuesday night late with ice, then a bit of snow, then a break, and then it starting snowing early Thursday and snowed practically all day. I had off school for my early morning job, and then taught online Wednesday and Thursday. Friday I did go into the college to teach, though I borrowed Louie’s Subaru rather than drive a Corolla.
It was beautiful to watch, and I’m glad we got the snow, but I’ll be glad to see it gone. Today the high is in the 40’s so I’m hoping it makes things easier to get around in and that I can start driving my own car again without concerns.
This weekend has been mostly at home relaxing, but we’ve done some interesting things over the past few weeks. One day we hiked the Lewis and Clark trail–it was after a snow, and there were some icy bits but mostly it was a wonderful day of hiking, and the weather was perfect: sunny and in the 40’s. It’s nice hiking in St Louis in the winter when it’s warm enough, because there are no bugs, and if it’s a scenic hike you get more views.
Quite a lot of the hike was along the Missouri River. It had a lot of ice floes traveling along it. The hike was about 8.5 miles. This was the map from Louie’s watch. You can make it a 5 miles hike, or shorter if you just do the out and back to the first river overlook (which is very nice) but I have to say, the whole hike is really nice! It isn’t terribly steep overall, and so much of it is along the river that it might be the most scenic hike in the St Louis area.
We also walked around Forest Park a few times and enjoyed the scenery there.
We often park near the World’s Fair Pavilion to start any walks in Forest Park. This was on a cold day after a bit of snow.
We haven’t been out much otherwise, lately. It’s cold and you know, omicron. We’ve eaten out a few times though, at Lily’s Mexican and a place near our house. And last night we got takeout from Himalayan Yeti, which we had almost forgotten about! There are some leftovers for lunch as well.
Cooking wise I’ve made a few delicious soups lately. I might have already told you about the Broccoli Cheddar soup, but I’m not sure. That one we ate with leftover rolls from Union Loafers: I had bought some things from them for Christmas, but froze the dinner rolls as we couldn’t eat it all at the time. I wish they sold them year round.
I also made the potato mushroom soup linked here. I made a few substitutions based on what I had, but I chose it because I had mushrooms and potatoes to use up and we wanted a soup. Highly recommend.
TV wise we’ve been watching 1883 and Euphoria as they come out, we just finished the latest season (or half season?) of Ozark. Last night we watched figure skating and other things on the Olympics.
Books: Non fiction I’m reading a book on the Marquis de Lafayette, Hero of Two Worlds by Mike Duncan and They Were Her Property: White Women as Slave Owners in the American South by Stephanie Jones-Rogers. I am slowly working through my nonfiction book stacks.
I also read Beautiful Country by Qian Julie Wang which was a memoir showing a family of Chinese immigrants and their great difficulties living in NYC. Very thought provoking and well written.
Fiction wise: I recently read Mrs. Dalloway for my book club.
Eight Perfect Hours by Lia Louis, a cute romance
The Heart Principle by Helen Hoang. I would have liked this book better if the main character hadn’t been a violinist as I found most of the violin parts to be pretty bad (poorly researched), but the rest of the book to be wonderful.
It’s another week ahead of me, and it looks to be a “normal” week, weather reports look fine, it should be back to work, teaching, getting the spring festival application done, and a few other things. I slept poorly last night worrying about stupid things, and had some weird dreams of trying to get to various gigs in Ohio, but otherwise, no complaints! We are preparing for a performance in late February at the school, which gives us a good direction for the next few weeks of classes.
What have you been up to? Read any good books lately? Goodness knows I don’t actually need any more on my lists, but I’m always up for me.
I leave my house for my morning job around 6:35 am/6:40 am and I tell you what, 7 degrees sure is cold at that hour. That’s what I was dealing with yesterday. I came home after that, and towards mid afternoon I was feeling really cold so I turned up the heat at my house and also got into bed for a bit to try to warm up. Those were great ideas, and then I felt good enough to finish my teaching week.
I taught my morning improvisation class this morning (it’s online, though maybe someday it won’t be) and now we are planning to head out for a hike soon, after it gets just a bit warmer outside. I don’t have anything scheduled until Monday, which is fantastic.
It was a good week. Short because of MLK day, which helped, even though only two hours of work was canceled, isn’t that crazy? But I had a nice time with the students all week: holidays are fun, but it’s also nice to be in the groove of, see you next week, and the week after, and so on, and knowing that you can keep teaching them regularly and they’ll make progress (hopefully) if they are practicing.
I got asked to play a few pieces on a New Music Festival in March, and I decided to agree. It gives me a new challenge and an incentive to practice more regularly. I have already gotten into the groove now of practicing 15 to 20 minutes a day, which is way more than I’ve been doing. I have a few other things I need to learn as well, so I might end up practicing more as the next few months progress. It’s nice to have a few things on the calendar to work towards, though it’s also nice not to have too many, as teaching is pretty much all-encompassing.
I think I’ve got my college teaching schedule set and it worked out pretty well. The semester is looking good and promising. We are still up in the air on our summer plans due to factors, but I have a few things simmering, and at least one of them will work out. Next summer Louie will be done with his doctorate so we are thinking about planning a 3 to 4 week road trip then. The only thing to consider is the cats: that’s a long time for them to be on their own…we’ve done two weeks and that was long for them. But we’ll figure it out.
I still have to take down my Christmas Tree. That will get done this weekend. Or else it has to stay up all year then.
One thing that COVID has really given us/taken from us (depending on your mindset) is that you can’t make real plans, be that travel, concerts, social plans, meal plans, etc. We had plans to see the St Louis Symphony last weekend but they canceled it due to COVID. I go to the grocery story and have a meal plan, but sometimes I have to switch it up. (Though that hasn’t happened much lately, unless I’m looking for bucatini pasta, which is rare.) Social plans are up in the air, and you feel like it’s a lose-lose–after so long it feels so necessary to see friends, yet seeing friends is a risk…I personally still don’t want to get COVID but at this point at least 25 percent of my students have had it (this is a quick estimate, not official) and therefore I feel like it’s inevitable, even though I continue to take reasonable precautions. I am not special, and I do my own grocery shopping, and we have continued to do a few in person things, because, and let me be honest, I am tired of having work be the biggest risk in my life, and if I get COVID I want it to be because somebody else did my dishes that night or because I visited with a friend.
COVID besides, I had a lovely weekend. It snowed Friday night into Saturday morning and so Saturday was a “stay in” day and I spent it reading the latest Outlander Novel. I’ve been rereading the earlier Outlander books in the series since mid December or so, and I finally finished the new book yesterday midday. Sunday was a cold day but sunny so we went for a nice walk around Forest Park. There were muddy places, but nothing too bad. Sunday night we had dinner with Louie’s parents, who we hadn’t seen since before Christmas. I’m teaching as normal this week, and have another free weekend coming up…
We went by the skating rink and got to see the Zamboni at work!
College classes start virtually: I’m writing this currently as Louie is teaching a class from home, and I’m starting my students next week. We are back in person then after that, so that will be nice. I am working on setting up my schedule, and I think I’ve got it for now…it’s always a struggle and every semester is different. I love teaching the college students, but scheduling is my least favorite part of the job.
As far as my mask dilemma a few posts back, I decided to order some KN94 masks in black to wear, but I’m still waiting for them to arrive. So we will see how those work out, when they get here.
The World’s Fair Pavilion with some snow. It wasn’t as much as they predicted but was pretty.
That’s it for now! How is your January ticking by?
It’s funny, I didn’t realize what a wonderful year I’d actually had until I just scrolled back through my posts and my calendar. I thought of 2021 as being a pretty blah year, but really, we did a lot of really fun stuff and I need to be better about counting my blessings, as they say! It had some downs, but it had a lot of ups as well.
Concerts/Shows: We saw Opera, symphony, jazz shows, so wonderful! I particularly enjoyed watching my student Catherine play her Senior Recital live at Wash U, seeing my sister Carrie play a Doctoral Recital streaming, seeing the Clark Terry Centennial Concert at Jazz at the Bistro in December, seeing Opera Theatre St Louis’s production of Highway 1 by William Grant Still, and seeing a few SLSO concerts in the fall, though at the moment none in particular are sticking in my head. I also loved seeing A Christmas Carol at the Repertory Theatre.
Food: homemade fruitcake, homemade eggnog, orange chocolate chip ricotta cookies, dilly green beans for canning, dinner at Louie, dinner at the Crossing, corn casserole, cinnamon rolls, frozen peaches at my Mom’s, fish tacos and shrimp fajitas at Lily’s Mexican Restaurant, goodies from Nathaniel Reid Bakery for Louie’s birthday, dinner at Brave New Restaurant in Little Rock, swiss chard pesto with bucatini pasta, tofu enchiladas at Mezcalitos’ in Atlanta, and more!
Downs: there are many I won’t list, but the attempted coup/insurrection on 1/6, people taking the side of the virus for political gain, having to keep worrying about COVID and losing work again, getting things canceled due to COVID, people getting sick, worrying about family, being busy and stressed out (especially in the spring), not being able to travel freely, having to worry about the reaction of other people in rural areas when we wear masks in public, having to wear masks in public still because not enough people got vaccinated to avoid more mutations, etc, etc, lots of downs due to COVID concerns and worries. (And it’s a new year, I know, but I have students who are currently sick with COVID and missing their lessons.) Ugh, and feeling like my go to cloth masks aren’t good enough but not likely any of the other mask options I currently have…
So, here we are on January 10: what’s next? I don’t have any real New Year’s resolutions, other than, get through it! Hoping to travel this summer, planning not to take on too many commitments, see more concerts, cook more, do a garden again, read a lot of books, exercise, hike and walk, keep decluttering the house, maybe get a new roof, do activities with friends, and who knows what the year will bring!
Did you make resolutions? Did you have a good or a bad year, or somewhere in between? Read any good books lately?
Happy New Year! I feel like I should give you all of my New Year’s Resolutions and wrap up my favorite parts of the year AND tell you all about my Christmas Vacation, but since it’s already January 5, hmm what to do?
I’m back to work officially now, though I have the rest of today off. I taught my class this morning, and thought, since I’d been wearing cloth masks and everybody says cloth masks are bad I’d try a surgical mask instead (what I had on hand). I don’t know how people play the violin in a surgical mask, it is impossible and it pokes me in the eyes. Sigh. I’m not quite sure what to do as the only masks I have found that I can play violin in are cloth masks.
Yes, isn’t it great that the pandemic has grown so large again and things are being canceled? So, maybe that’s where to start telling you about my break. We were told oh yes if you are vaccinated/boosted it should be fine to travel, don’t worry, and then suddenly everybody was getting COVID anyway. But we decided to risk it to see our family, because at this point it’s been nearly two years, and it was fine to avoid activities for a bit, but you have to live your lives. I mean, driving down to South Carolina was still probably the most risky behavior.
The last week before Christmas was busy with finishing up teaching, packing, playing with Mannheim Steamroller, seeing my friend April, seeing Louie’s family, and playing Christmas Eve gigs.
Christmas Eve selfie (me in a mask in front of a Christmas Tree).Swedish Christmas Dinner at Louie’s mom’s house–she has several of those chime candle things that the chime turns from the heat of the candles.
We had a wonderful dinner with Louie’s family, lots of good Swedish food, including a homemade Princess Cake. It used to be that no one knew what a Princess Cake is, but now, thanks to the Great British Baking Show, they not only know but they have very strong opinions about it.
The Princess Cake.
Truthfully, I do not love marzipan as much as some, but it was a lovely cake.
We drove to Clinton, South Carolina (my hometown) on Christmas Day, which was a terrific drive. It was warm enough that we ate lunch outside at a rest area, at a picnic table! I’d packed egg salad from AO&CO which was a fabulous idea–it made for a lovely picnic and a treat. Driving on Christmas Day meant that most restaurants would be closed, but that the traffic was nonexistent! We made excellent time and were at my parents house (also known as home) for dinner. My mom had a few casseroles for Christmas Dinner, so we enjoyed corn casserole and sweet potato casserole with chocolate cake for dessert (I think!).
The next morning we had my family’s traditional Christmas Day brunch (though it was the day after) of cheese grits and fruit cocktail. We also had shrimp cocktail, which was traditionally eaten on Christmas Eve. My other siblings had other Christmas plans this year, so it was just the four of us, which was very nice and low key. We hung out, went for a bike ride, and visited.
My dad helping me get set up on the electric trike for our ride.My dad adjusting the seat.
My dad has an electric assist “trike” and he just happened to have an extra one on hand that he had purchased for one of my aunts. Louie had to ride a regular bike, though he got a chance after our first ride to switch out.
The next day we drove down to Columbia to visit Congaree National Park. We weren’t the only ones with the same idea, and while it wasn’t as busy as Arches or Grand Teton, we did have to park in the “oversized vehicles” lot as all the regular spaces were taken. There are boardwalks through the swamp area that you can walk on, as well as many miles of trails and canoeing to be done. We opted for just the boardwalks since my parents weren’t up for more extreme hiking.
It was a beautiful day, eerily warm, but lovely to be outside. We walked around for about 2 hours and then had a small picnic.
Lots of swampy waters, though it seemed like a pretty dry time. I imagine it is much swampier in the spring and fall. My dad was likely pointing at a large loblolly pine tree, since that was a big feature of the park. You can see some dwarf Palmetto trees in the background.
We also went down to the Riverwalk to walk along the Congaree River near downtown Columbia, but didn’t go too far: my parents were tired of walking and in the words of my niece, it smelled like Chautauqua Lake in places.
It was my parent’s wedding anniversary so we wanted to take them out to dinner. (They tried to insist on paying, but that’s how things go). We ate at the Bonefish Grille on the way back to Clinton and enjoyed a lovely meal outside. We didn’t want to eat inside with them as to avoid anybody getting COVID.
The following day we went up to Greenville to walk around and have lunch. We also visited an electric bike shop and test rode a few bikes with electric assist. We learned there are two different kinds, torque assist, where the bike goes according to your pedaling, and I forget the name, but the bike just sorts of goes faster. These were Pedago bikes and even had a throttle, you could simply go up to about 20 mph without pedaling at all!
Our next stop on the trip was Macon Georgia to visit Louie’s in laws from before. They are wonderful people and very supportive of his relationship with me, so it was a fun time. The mom and two sisters were visiting, and we had a great time eating, drinking, playing games, chatting, and doing a little sight-seeing. They had two dogs there too, so the house was a bit louder than at my parents’.
We had some great meals, a good seafood and tapas dinner outside a restaurant, a fancy Christmas dinner with some more family (mushroom wellington for the vegetarians, along with potatoes, brussels sprouts, homemade rolls, and tomato salad), and New Year’s Eve with fancy appetizers and leftover dinner from Christmas. We were so glad to spend time with everybody!
The table, set for Christmas dinner.
COVID wise we saw a few more people than we might have felt comfortable, but everybody was vaccinated, and a few even took rapid tests here and there, but so far we are still not showing any signs, so I think we might be safe.
After that we drove up through Atlanta and spend a day with my friends April and Charlie. It was something close to 80 degrees so we hung out on their front patio and then had dinner at a really good Mexican place near their house. Louie and I both had the tofu enchiladas which came with a mushroom sauce and were amazingly delicious. We have already attempted to recreate them but ended up making enchiladas with mushroom gravy–oddly tasty, but perhaps not quite right.
April and Charlie’s house, fully decorated for Christmas!
We headed back home the next day, and hit every possible traffic spot, stuck in traffic in Chattanooga for probably 1 1/2 hours, another 1/2 hour in Nashville, slow downs north of Nashville due to snow and traffic, and finally got out of the snow and the traffic to get home around 9 pm. The cats were thrilled to see us!
So now I’ve been back a few days. I’ve spent a fair amount of time simply reading and relaxing. Today my plan is to start packing up the Christmas Decorations, and then read some more. Tomorrow I’m teaching some private students (officially the semester starts Monday, but I’m doing some makeup lessons from last semester) and then Friday the same plus my early morning job. Next week we are back to my full teaching load at home plus early morning, and then the following week is the start of the college semester, except we are online for the first two weeks, so I’m not sure how that will affect things (i.e. which of my students brought their instruments home?).
How was your Christmas and New Year’s Eve? (if you celebrate) Did you get some time off? Did you get COVID? Did you see family and friends?
