All posts by hannahviolin

I am a violinist. I also enjoy running, working out, reading, and hanging with my friends and cat.
Phoenix

December?

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I managed one post in November, yay me!

Happy belated Thanksgiving and Happy Hanukkah!

We traveled to Phoenix over Thanksgiving.

Wearing masks at the St Louis Airport.

I’d been stressed about getting ready for the trip for a variety of reasons. Leading up to it I had a busy weekend with a gig and three student recitals (in person!). They all went well, but I was exhausted overall from the year. Then I had to teach a morning class right before we went to the airport, so I had to be all ready to go by 6:30 in the morning and then trust Louie to finish up getting ready to leave the house empty for several days. He picked me up at work, and we got to Sky Park, through security, all that with no problems.

We flew Spirit Airlines since it was significantly cheaper than our other options. You are only allowed one free personal item, so we decided to pay for one checked bag (up to 40 pounds only, which wasn’t an issue for us but if you are considering it, just an FYI). Mask wearing on the flight out seemed pretty good, but the way back was NOT GREAT, and at one point the pilot came onboard threatening to land the plane in Amarillo and boot people off. It got better for a short period of time but several people near us took their masks off to “eat” and then never put them back on. When we landed back in St Louis mask wearing at the airport was about 50-50. Phoenix airport was very good about it though.

Anyway, we spent Thanksgiving week visiting my sister Leslie and her family, and my sister Carrie flew out to visit as well. It was nice to see them together, the weather was lovely, we made a huge meal, we ate that huge meal for at least three more meals, and it was nice to have a few days off teaching!

We did a short hike on Thanksgiving morning to work up an appetite!
Everybody except Carrie on the hike. Carrie took the picture.
At the playground on a different day. Carrie is picture, far right. Luca is swinging.
Oh, here was Carrie doing a proof of actually being there. I left my phone in the car because my pockets aren’t big enough so I had to depend on the kindness of others to share photos.
Chocolate bourbon pecan pie
Pumpkin pie
Old Fashioned Cream Pie, my favorite.

As pictured, we made three pies. We also made turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes and gravy, sweet potatoes, corn casserole, green bean casserole, brussels sprouts, and cranberry relish. I think that’s everything?

In addition to just hanging out, the hike, and the aforementioned playground, we went to Zoo Lights at the Phoenix Zoo. It was really cool! So many lights all over.

I loved this style of lights/decorations. There was a whole path of animals like this, set up in various habitats.
Lights reflecting off a large pond.

We flew home on Saturday in order to save money, so I was able to decorate on Sunday. (And catch up, clean, laundry, etc.)

Nothing to see here, just a Christmas tree with a large cat in it.

Anyway, I’m sure December will fly by! I’m finishing up the semester, a few more weeks of teaching, makeup lessons, open house performances at school, some extra gigs but not too many, and a few parties/social events.

We are doing the Garden Glow one night with friends and having an aged eggnog tasting afterwards–what snacks go well with eggnog?

Anyway, 22 more days until Christmas break! That actually includes two days off, which long time blog readers know is rare for me. Thanks to the pandemic for pushing me away from so many gigs, for cutting down on the number of gigs, and for making me see that having a day off here and there is nice…though I definitely have some creep of pre-pandemic busy-ness returning…I think it’s okay.

How was your Thanksgiving? What are you doing this month to celebrate the holidays?

Teaching, Weather

November

I keep asking time to slow down. I can’t believe it’s already mid-November and soon it will be Thanksgiving, then Hanukkah and Christmas. This is my favorite time of year and it’s going by so quickly!

November has been pretty busy: the usual overload of teaching, plus some weddings and a few extra things. We’ve gone to another symphony concert, and have plans for one more before Thanksgiving. I’ve gotten more used to my early morning schedule…I had a few nights this week though where I was in bed at 8:30 pm, though I didn’t always go to sleep right away, I was exhausted! Some of my colleagues live closer, but I do have a 20 minute drive, and I like to just start my day, have breakfast and coffee before so that I feel normal.

This week I’m starting another wonderful online course. I’ve taken quite a few and this is with a teacher I’ve heard great things about. It’s about a time in the development when bow technique really starts getting exciting and I’m looking forward to learning a few more ideas. I will say this, I have found most of the classes I’ve taken to be super helpful with ideas, and I’ve found my teaching to be much more enjoyable over the past year or two. Somehow, the more I do, the more I enjoy it. I don’t know if it’s old age, or just acceptance that this is my career now, or what.

I’ve been doing some decluttering as part of a group, and ran across this bookmark. Carrie is my youngest sister, and she gave this to me some time ago!

The one thing that bothers me is when people say things commenting incredulously at how many hours I teach. It’s really not a big deal. Yes, I teach a lot of hours (33-34 including before school, university, and private, plus a couple extra students right now for another teacher’s maternity leave) but if that’s all I do, my admin work is only about 1-3 hours a week (more when there are events/recitals/grading to do). I do some practicing, but I haven’t been doing much lately–I play a lot in lessons, so I don’t feel out of shape exactly, though I may want to add more in soon.

I guess my point is: yes, I work a lot. So do many people. It’s not like people pay me not to teach though!

Okay, okay enough annoyed ranting, I know, I know.

The weather this month is finally like fall! We had cold weather, hot weather, and cooler weather again, and the trees finally turned and the leaves are falling. It’s gorgeous outside. Except our front lawn where our volunteer black walnut tree lost its leaves right away and just looks craggy and dead. I put the garden down yesterday, took down my posts, yanked some stuff, put down cardboard and leaves and such. We had a good season, with basil, swiss chard, cucumbers, green beans, lettuce, and peas. I made a lot of dilly beans, pesto with chard and basil, some pickles, and we ate lots of peas, chard, green beans, and lettuce. I’ll decide later what to plant next year.

Last weekend we got over to Forest Park for a lovely hike, though it was pretty warm. Today we are thinking of heading to Creve Coeur Lake to walk around, though it’ll be much cooler.

Cooking wise this month: I’ve made a carrot cake, black pepper tofu and eggplant (for the second time, highly recommend this dish, it’s delicious!), roasted shrimp and pea couscous salad, and an improvised crockpot lentil, sweet potato and kale coconut curry. We’ve also started eating out more normally, having gone to Union Loafers for lunch and dinner–they are seating again though you have to order at the counter and then sit down, to Rooster on South Grand for lunch, to Little Fox for dinner with Louie’s family (delicious!!!) and to Lily’s Mexican Restaurant for dinner–lately I’m obsessed with the fajitas there.

Reading wise I haven’t done anything exciting lately. I’ve been reading some new titles from a cozy mystery series I had enjoyed before (Meg Langslow series) and that’s been pretty much it. I have to read a book this week for my book club though, so I’ll start on that next. (How the One-armed Sister Sweeps Her House.) TV wise we started Yellowstone, are watching Succession, and also started season two of The Morning Show.

What have you been up to lately? Any books or tv shows to recommend?

Food

Nathaniel Reid Bakery

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I mention them in the title, because GO GO GO right now.

Louie’s birthday was Tuesday, so I went to Nathaniel Reid Bakery to get some breakfast treats. Once I got there, everything looked great, so I got croissants, quiche, and little cakes, for a full day of treats.

We had almond croissants and apple pie croissants first.

The almond croissant tasted like what all other almond croissants I have ever eaten aspired to be but weren’t able. It was delicious.

Then we went on a lovely hike in Shaw Nature Reserve. We’ve both had some time on Tuesdays the past few weeks to get outside, and it’s nicer hiking and being out when less people are (versus on a lovely Sunday afternoon when everybody is free.)

I believe this is the Meramac River.

Every time we go to Shaw Nature Reserve we say we should go more often! It’s just a little further than some of our other go-to places, but we always enjoy it. It was a lovely day, sunny and a little cool. We aren’t in full fall colors yet, but some trees are turning.

Then for lunch we had pieces of quiche from the bakery with side salads. Then we worked, and at night with dinner we had a little cake…and then one the next night as well.

If calories didn’t matter, we would eat this way every day. These pastries and cakes and quiche (not picture, it was wedge shaped, yellow, and OH so creamy and custardy) were amazing. I’m glad Louie had a birthday.

Random thoughts, Weather

An Almost normal weekend

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!

Books, Hiking

Bison Jam

It’s been a busy week, but we’ve made time for some fun as well.

Over the weekend I decided to do some baking to test out the new oven. Verdict: terrific!

I made pumpkin cranberry bread: I made it vegan to share, and at first I was doubtful, but by the second day it was fantastic. (It turned out my first bite may have been tainted by some expired crisco I’d used to grease the pan. The loaf we are giving away doesn’t have that issue.)

Then I made fruitcake to age for Christmas. I don’t know how it turned out, exactly, but I think it’ll be really good. You may say, fruitcake, that’s gross?! but you would be wrong. Some fruitcake may be gross, but some fruitcake is fantastic, as long as you like dried fruit, nuts, and really moist (yes, moist) cake.

We’ve been managing to get some weekday hikes in, and this past Tuesday was no exception. Louie and I went to Lone Elk Park to hike the White Bison Trail, advertised to be 3.2 miles. We’ve hiked it several times before, but never during this time of the year, which we highly recommend.

We saw several groups of elk along the way (give them space, they ARE wild animals–one group was fairly near the trail–10 to 30 yards away–and the male was standing in front defensively watching us hike by!) and then after our hike we went driving around. We saw another group of elk right near the roadway (in fact, we may have missed a “one way” sign and gone the wrong way down a road due to our excitement over the elk) and then we headed for the bison area.

A bunch of elk just hanging out. This was the women and children: the male elk was on the other side of the road keeping an eye out.

Bison, yes. If you aren’t aware, there is a bison herd at Lone Elk Park here in the St Louis area. They are in a fenced (electric) area and can’t get out, but they have room to wander.

We thought it was a bust at first, as we didn’t see any bison where we have in the past, and were able to leave disappointed, when lo and behold, we came up on a line of stopped cars, and there we were, in a good old-fashioned bison jam!

A bison jam!

We watched the bison from the car, taking pictures, admiring their strange large heads, slowing driving forward when possible.

We were probably “stuck” in the jam for about 15 minutes and it was glorious. If you haven’t been out to Lone Elk Park, I highly recommend it.

Anyway, other than that, teaching, etc, I’ve read a few books recently. I particularly enjoyed Emily Henry’s Beach Read, Tia Williams’ Seven Days in June, and Marie Benedict’s The Personal Librarian. Before that (not sure if I already recommended these books): Katherine Henry’s Early Morning Riser, and the Royal We series by Heather Cocks, Kristin Harmel’s The Forest of Vanishing Stars, V.E. Rue’s The Invisible Life of Addie La Rue, Kristin Hannah’s Magic Hour, Jennifer Weiner’s Mrs. Everything, and Kiley Reid’s Such a Fun Age. TV wise, I just finished watching “Only Murders in the Building” on Hulu and found it quite entertaining.

How is your fall going? Have you decorated for Halloween?

Random thoughts

Feeling Uninspired

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I thought, hmm, haven’t blogged in awhile, but I feel uninspired to do so. I’ve been doing a fair amount of writing outside of the blog (some music reviews, a class assignment) and perhaps that is covering my wanting to write urges. Also, I’m tired, have had some headaches, and we’ve had Louie’s dad visiting the past few days.

I thought I should stop by and say hello in case you thought I’d forgotten about this space. October has been a bit more difficult than I’d thought, but it’s going okay, just busier and more emotional. My class job has been wringing me out, with two kids crying yesterday and me feeling like letting them feel like that was against what I wanted for my class and feeling like I failed them. I continually remind myself that class teaching is not something I’ve been doing a long time and I am learning along the way much more than in one on one teaching, and that I need to let myself be bad at it sometimes, but the thing is: if I’m bad at it then I’m failing the kids. I also know they were probably just tired and they wanted to move on and they weren’t ready quite yet, and I hope I consoled them well.

My weekends have been busier than I wished for, but I’ve been feeling useful which is worth something, and we did get out for a nice hike at Castlewood State Park on a nice day in between rainy days. I love Castlewood, but it gets so busy on the weekends, so it’s better to go during the week if possible.

This weekend has a few activities, including the Arch Cup for my students. Usually I attend, but this year I am unable to, so I’m excited to hear how they do without me hand holding them through it. I’m trying to push them to be more independent and I think they can handle it. The Arch Cup is in person OR online, so some students submitted videos already and others will be playing live, which is scary for them and I’m excited.

I got my COVID booster shot, Pfizer. I debated for a little while whether I should wait for various reasons, but ultimately decided that since I interact up close with a lot of younger, unvaccinated students it was for the best. I can’t teach violin without touching students and getting up close, and even though they wear masks, their mask usage is imperfect because they are children.

I just bought tickets for the Great Artists Series at Washington University this spring. I am thrilled for all the live concert events we have on the schedule. You know I mean classical and jazz shows, as that’s my style, but I’m thrilled for you if you are attending any live music events as well. I am always excited to show my vaccination card to any venue that wants to see it as I believe vaccination is our path back to “normal” and that we need to continue to work towards that goal. There was a time in my life where I played more concerts than I attended, but I absolutely love going to concerts with Louie now. I attend far more concerts than I play, and I learn from them and I enjoy them. I missed live music during the pandemic, and even though technically we are still in the pandemic, live music is back due to vaccines and it’s great!

Oh and we got a new stove! It’s an induction stovetop with an oven that can do convection and air fry. I haven’t baked anything yet but plan to do pumpkin bread and maybe fruitcake this weekend. I’m planning to do my own fruitcake this year just because and it needs to age 6 to 8 weeks before eating. And I have a few new pumpkin bread recipes to try: I have a tried and true one that I love but I’ve made it so many times over the years that I’ve been branching out to try new kinds. I’ll keep you posted.

What are you up to? Have you been apple picking or pumpkin patching? I have not, but it seems that many of my friends have been and it looks like it would be fun if it weren’t 90 degrees.