All posts by hannahviolin

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

Vacation Time

1 Comment

I decided to take two weeks off from teaching, which coincided with the days off from my school job. It’s not the same as all the schools, of course, and some students are very conscientious about life and don’t want any weeks off at all, but I think I needed the break.

It’s weird being IN the break, in a pandemic. I’m not used to having so much time off at home. Usually I go places when I’m off work (why wouldn’t you, with limited vacation time, of course you travel if you can afford it) so this is probably the longest I’ve been at home with nothing to do in a decade or more.

I’m glad I’m taking the break though. I could have taught some these first few days of the week, I’m sure, as most students are simply around, and the weather isn’t so great that people are dying to get out of the house. But I think taking a little break is good, and important, and soon enough we’ll be back to having lessons every week and school and that will go all the way through May, which seems like a few very long way away, but will likely fly by.

I am returning to “in-person” teaching for my school job. I say returning, but since it is a new job, I have never taught in-person there, so I’m a little nervous but excited about it. I’ll only be seeing students two mornings a week and the other two are online still. I feel reasonably good about the school’s precautions: I’ll be teaching a very small amount of students and the students stay in their classrooms. In school, they have only been staying with the other students in their classrooms, so we will teach the students in their classroom. The other thing that is good is that I’ll be there early, before school starts, so hardly anyone will be there and by the time all the students in the school are arriving, I’m leaving. And the school has done a good job keeping the numbers low and they don’t hesitate to quarantine classrooms as needed, which would involve me if necessary. I’m sure some of my in-person days will end up being online or canceled due to this sort of thing, but I am feeling pretty good about returning, and I’m looking forward to it (except for the cold, early morning commutes).

Teaching online for my private students will continue though, because it’s just too much, obviously, to have anybody come to the house, and I see too many kids spread out across various districts. I’m not sure when this will end…I needed a break from hearing violin over the internet though…it doesn’t help my headaches, being on the computer all day long.

We went to the Missouri History Museum on Saturday morning. We were probably two of about 10 total people that were there, so it ended up seeming like a good thing to do. I wanted to see the exhibit “Beyond the Ballot” which was about various women from St Louis or living in St Louis who helped or encouraged women’s rights over the years. I learned quite a lot, and then promptly forgot a large swath of it. One thing that stuck with me was that when St Louis become part of the United States (after the Louisiana Purchase) women lost a lot of rights they had previously had, such as the ability to purchase and own property. It’s amazing how horrible the United States has been in terms of white male supremacy for its entire life, and that as much as we are taught that it was same everywhere, I keep learning that it wasn’t.

After that we walked around Forest Park for awhile, which was lovely.

IMG_7459

After that we watched entirely too much TV and that was it for the day. I did start getting back into cross-stitch after taking off from it the entire pandemic! I was really gung-ho about cross-stitch last fall, and then did too much over last Christmas break, and hurt my hand a bit, so I took a break, for evidently about a year.

IMG_7483

I finished this little ornament which I had just barely started before. I also started on another project and have taken stock of what I’ve got on hand and what I want to do next.

IMG_7465

Sunday we went out to Greensfelder County Park and hiked the Eagle Run Trail, which is a really nice trail for the area, about 3.5 miles, nothing too steep but not too boring. It was a bit muddy in places, but nothing too bad. We did run into another couple who said there were places that were practically impassable, but I think we lucked out on a different path than they had been on. IMG_7473

This creek had frozen and then the ice was all broken up when we saw it.

Hiking in Missouri is, as always, mostly just wandering in the woods, but after spending most of the day in your own house, it’s a nice thing to do, wander around the woods.

After hiking on Sunday I did some things around the house and then did the weekly “roll call” zoom meeting with my family. It was my parent’s anniversary (52 years!) so we all had a nice time chatting about Christmas and seeing all the gifts we and other people had given my 6 year old niece. My nephew has learned how to say “bye-bye” on calls, so at the end he gets really excited and yells it a lot and it’s hysterical, I guess ending the call is his favorite part.

Oh, and yesterday my aunt’s box of cookies was delivered, yay! Only one more to go, with no word on it.

Today I have a dentist appointment: I called up yesterday to make my next appointment and they had one the next day, why not! And my jury duty I thought I had next week is now postponed a year (I started worrying and sent a concerned email and they just postponed it a year) so I just have a small handful of things to do: get grades in for my school job, write one thing for another job I’m doing, and at some point I have some things to do for an online pedagogy class I’m taking, but I think I’ll put those off until after the New Year. Otherwise, more needlepoint, cooking, working out, and reading. I could be doing a lot more things around the house, but that all just seems like NOT vacation to me. I did clean out one closet, and perhaps I’ll do one more closet that needs it before school starts up again, but also, maybe I won’t.

How are you doing? What are you up to over the holidays?

Christmas

Boxing Day

Merry Christmas to all who celebrate! We had a lovely day off work and today we are going to do some outdoor activities and visit a museum briefly before holing up inside again.

IMG_7413

I didn’t blog earlier because I got into “holiday” mood which meant after I finished teaching I didn’t want to do anything on the computer. The whole month of December felt like just treading water getting to the end of the semester, and while no, things weren’t as busy as normal years, I was so tired of teaching online and really needed a break. I’m glad to be here, and I’m also glad I had a few Christmas gigs to play, either recorded or livestreaming in front of no congregation at the church.

December flew by, didn’t it? I was extra busy with some things at work, an online class and a writing gig I picked up. I also did a lot of baking, as you know, and then put a bunch of goodies into boxes for my parents, my siblings, and my aunt Connie who has been coming to our weekly zoom calls.

IMG_7316

The postal service was destroyed by DeJoy though, and this meant that I couldn’t send “de Joy” before Christmas to my aunt or my brother, since they live too near Philadelphia. My parents, in small town South Carolina got their box in 5 days, my sister Carrie in New York in 1 week, and my sister Leslie in Phoenix in 9 days. The other two are “delayed” and sitting in processing centers. Priority mail flat-rate, y’all, and I worry this Christmas will be the final nail in the coffin as an excuse for the GOP to destroy the USPS for good. Just ask yourselves, why didn’t they hire more workers? They still could. They hired 50,000 extra seasonal workers, but why not more? There are millions upon millions out of work who might have loved a seasonal job for the USPS. Obviously that wasn’t enough people to do the work. I only hope my packages arrive in the next week or so, but I don’t know. I was pleased that the ones that were delivered arrived in good shape, however.

IMG_7337

We finished celebrating Hanukkah and made latkes from scratch twice. I teach late, usually until 8 or 8:30 each night, and it gets dark here at 4:30-4:45 in December, which meant that we didn’t light the candles until I was done working. It was a nice ending to the night, and I also lit an electric menorah in the front since our candlelighting wasn’t able to be in a good window due to the house setup and the cats.

IMG_7348

I kept teaching until the 22nd, mostly because 1) my school job went until then and 2) I have jury duty starting Jan 4 and wanted to start back teaching on the 6th and give two weeks vacation. Nobody was going anywhere really, though more students were traveling and seeing family than I would feel comfortable doing, but what can you do? Also I have my worries about jury duty and it was already canceled before and I feel like it has more reason to be canceled in January than ever, but I also don’t have a good doctor’s excuse to cancel it and I really just want to get it over with.

IMG_7396

I played a livestream service on Christmas Eve and then had a late dinner of appetizers with Louie.

IMG_7428IMG_7429

Shrimp cocktail and a cheese ball. I enjoyed this cheese ball but wished it were more cheddar-y, so I probably won’t make this exact recipe again. We also had some homemade (with alcohol) eggnog I’d made the night before. I fell into the aged eggnog rabbit hole on the internet and may be trying that next year…anybody do aged eggnog?

Louie and I decided not to exchange Christmas gifts (this is our general tradition) so that meant Christmas Day we had literally nothing to do… and it was glorious! We had a late brunch of bagels, smoked salmon, and french omelets, then watched TV all day while Louie worked on putting together a 3D printer for the house. We watched a few Christmas shows first, Charlie Brown Christmas and It’s a Wonderful Life, then watched a few episodes of the Great British Baking Show. We also talked with some family members and sent a lot of text messages.

I made a nice Christmas dinner for us of a Ground Beef Wellington, except with Impossible Beef, creamed spinach, a roasted vegetable salad, and a cranberry mostada. It all turned out really well except the spinach was super bland, which was disappointing as the recipe had looked really promising to me.

IMG_7444

Then back to 3D printer assembling and I started watching Schitt’s Creek, which Louie had seen some of but I had only watched one episode. I think I must have watched 8 more episodes before going to bed! Somewhere in there we had dessert.

I don’t know what led to this, but Louie and I had been talking about fruitcake at some point, and I had been searching the internet and found there was this supposedly delicious fruitcake made by trappist monks in Missouri. So I bought one and it had been waiting until this moment.

IMG_7448

IMG_7449

You may have an idea of fruitcake being really bad or bricklike…this fruitcake wouldn’t have appealed to me as a kid, but it was delicious! Full of nuts, fruit, moist cake, and the aroma of rum or brandy or some combination. I thoroughly enjoyed my piece, and there will be more eaten in the future. Perhaps this is a new Christmas tradition.

Anyway, the next week stretches ahead. There isn’t much to do, is there, due to the pandemic. I have a few things I want to do around the house, and of course take down the Christmas decorations before school starts up, but I think I’ll leave them up through the New Year now, and continue enjoying the lights and such. I did do a little needlepoint yesterday and will likely do some of that again.

Happy Christmas to you, if you celebrate. Do you have some days off of work? What are you doing over the break? Did you celebrate the holidays in unusual ways this year?

Christmas, Love

December Flies By

1 Comment

I remember when I was a child my mom would say, oh I can’t believe it’s almost Christmas again! And I would think, what are you talking about lady, it’s been FOREVER since last Christmas and this is the slowest month ever! (I wouldn’t actually call her lady, I’m taking a little poetic license here.)

In any case, I definitely  understand her sentiment now. Didn’t we just have a Christmas and now there’s another one? I’m so glad I had a huge family gathering last year and that we got to spend a few days together, since things look…a little different this year.

But things are good. I’ve done a fair amount of baking, and I added some decorations. We’ve also been celebrating Hanukkah in the household here since that’s also part of Louie’s background, and I figured we should celebrate his background as well as mine. I’m sure our holiday celebrations offend equally, but I’m also sure there are plenty of households out there who have reason to celebrate both holidays, and this year is definitely a year to find celebration where one can. It’s good to sit and reflect, and (in my viewpoint) consider where you’ve come from and what you can do in your life to make the world a better place. I hope my violin lessons and classes do that, help each student to have a better day and to be a better person through music.

8E1602D7-38E5-4FD4-8861-5CE2BEE00844

I had bought a cheap tree topper star a few years ago at Target and it broke this year. I was looking online to see what to have and found an awesome and gaudy light up star that you just plug into your existing light plugs (which I happened to have on top of the tree.) It did require a mechanical engineer to get it to stay on top of the tree, but it brings me great joy.

IMG_7181IMG_7270

I’ve been doing a “series” on Instagram with an ornament a day. This violin was a gift from my first violin teacher and I love it.

IMG_7272

The cats enjoying each other’s company. Or something!

IMG_7284

This little fellow is happy even without one of his arms!

IMG_7280

The first night of Hanukkah. Latkes, beet salad, a bit of caviar (we are fancy like that). We even played a bit of dreidel as we watched the candles burn.

IMG_7281

IMG_7298

I made a delicious orange chocolate chip ricotta cookie that will go on my “make again” list.

IMG_7313

I remember reading a book in which the Gingerbread Man was a dangerous serial killer but no one could catch him. What book was that? Jasper Fforde?

IMG_7304

Louie mentioned that eating blintzes was something he had done as a boy during Hanukkah so I made some one morning. They were great!

IMG_7324

I got a new nutcracker from World Market. They do a limited edition each year and I’ve gotten in the habit of buying it (at least I have the past few years.) Each year it’s a different Santa, usually something from around the world, and this year was Mexican. He is a cute little guy.

IMG_7312IMG_7321

A few more nights of lights. We don’t have a good place to light the menorah safely in front of a window (cats, cats, cats) but I have a delightful electric menorah in the front window that I turn on each night of Hanukkah.

Louie isn’t a real “plan for the holidays” sort of person, but I realized after a few years of decorating for Christmas that he was feeling like it wasn’t exactly right for his traditions without including Hanukkah. Since doing so last year, I could tell it meant a lot to him and that he enjoyed feeling more a part of the celebrations. He’s not a religious person, but he has his own traditions and sense of self, and holidays are such a part of that, aren’t they?

IMG_7230

Blue crinkle cookies in honor of our shared traditions. I started making these…last year..and I took a recipe, made it vegan to share with Louie’s brother, and they tasted sort of weird and like playdough. I made them again this year but a different way and they taste like weird cookies with a fake banana flavor, which is crazy because I used real bananas!

How is your month going? What unusual or strange traditions do you have in your house?

Hope, Quarantine, Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving Break

I still have the rest of today, but it has been a wonderful and refreshing Thanksgiving Break.

One week ago today I had an online recital for my students and they were awesome. I was so proud of them for continuing to rise to the occasion.

Then I took off private teaching all week, which was a fantastic decision. I had a few things to do work-wise but I got to have my afternoons and evenings free AND I got a break from hearing violin over the computer. It was absolutely the best thing for me.

I did a few new to me things over the week, one of which was taking a short online workshop on “self-care for creative types.” It was amazing. I had forgotten to think about what I actually enjoyed doing as I have been so focused on “getting through the pandemic” and “keeping my students happy and challenged”. So I spent Tuesday after the workshop doing some brainstorming and starting to work through a book I’d bought a few years ago but never used called “Your Best Year Yet!”.

IMG_7062

Wednesday was lovely as I was able to sleep in a bit, exercise at my leisure, and spend some time cooking. For Thanksgiving I ended up making a cranberry-rhubarb sauce (which was delicious, absolutely delicious) with some rhubarb I had in the freezer, and Smitten Kitchen’s Corn Pudding, which was good but drier than I like (Louie absolutely adored it.) I picked up bread and rolls at Union Loafers and Louie picked up our dinner for the next day from Treehouse, a vegan restaurant we really like. (We decided not to eat a real turkey this Thanksgiving.) That night we went to the Garden Glow at the Botanical Gardens—it’s a light event they do every Thanksgiving through the New Year, and I’d thought of trying to go many years but we never did. This time the weather suddenly looked okay and I snapped up the last few tickets for the night. The crowds were capped at 25 percent of the original capacity, and it felt fine walking around with people wearing their masks and lots of space.

IMG_7075IMG_7083

Thursday morning I made an egg and potato casserole to go with one of the breads and then we met up with some of Louie’s colleagues (when you work at a college, you end up being invited to do things on Thanksgiving day!) and we took a nice long (masked) walk in Forest Park.

IMG_7116

After that we popped over to his mom’s house and visited on their porch for a bit and had some tea, before heading home to relax. We had some appetizers his mom had given up (prosecco, caviar and blinis!) and then after a few hours, started heating up our Thanksgiving dinner. Dinner was a delicious and we were pretty stuffed afterwards. We watched TV for a bit, and then managed some dessert as well.

IMG_7126IMG_7131

Friday we went to Rockwoods Reservation and hiked the Lime Kiln Trail to another trail and then across the road to the Rock Quarry Trail for a little over 5 miles. It was the most crowded we had ever seen it there and that didn’t surprised me as it was a gorgeous day outside! Louie had some work to do after that so we went home. I got all of my holiday decorations out and started putting up the tree. The cats really loved having a tree inside to climb, and I guess I am just fine with that.  At night we had Thanksgiving Take 2 and it was just as good as Take 1.

Saturday was an entire day spent at home, and it was glorious. I was able to again sleep in a bit, exercise, and finish decorating the tree—I ran out of hooks before I was done, so I’ll finish the rest in a few days after I get some more hooks. My trick with cats is to not put up my most breakable ornaments, and otherwise to shrug and laugh. The tree seems sturdy enough for them to climb up without it falling over. We put it in a slightly more central location than previous years since I won’t have any students coming and going, which meant I ended up being short on ornaments—I was used to having one side against the wall! I also went ahead and worked on Christmas cards and got those mostly done. I’m still collecting addresses and don’t plan to send them for another week or two.  We had Thanksgiving for the third time for dinner and managed to finally finish off a few of the dishes. There’s still corn pudding, salad, and cranberry sauces left, but otherwise we did a good job.

IMG_7145IMG_7148

And that brings us to now. I ended up waking up quite early, so I’ve already done quite a few things…I actually have realized it’s nice to be awake as the sun comes up since it sets so early (4:41 today, for instance). I thought having a teaching job where I had to get up so early would be a terrible thing, and while it’s awfully hard some mornings, it has been kind of fun. I’m trying to focus on the good things, and on some of the ideas that were brought up in the Best Year Yet book and the Self-Care workshop and between that and you know, a vacation, I’m feeling much more like myself than I had in awhile: more focused, relaxed, and enjoying life. This pandemic is still hard, and I believe some of the worst is yet to come, but we will (hopefully) weather the storm…

IMG_7151

Back to work tomorrow for just over 3 weeks…

Quarantine, Teaching

Recital day

I have this app on my phone called “Timehop” which shows me stuff I took pictures of or posted to instragram or whatnot 1 year ago, 2 years ago, etc. Today I saw a picture from one year ago of a studio recital. It wasn’t actually 1 year ago to the day, so the picture must have been something else, but just under one year ago was our last student recital together, in person (I usually do one the Sunday before Thanksgiving.) I miss seeing those guys in person…I haven’t been one of those teachers who is like “I miss my students so much” because I’m not that sort of teacher. But it has gotten ridiculous, and we are looking at several more months of online at least, and it’s tiring, because IT DIDN’T HAVE TO BE THIS WAY.

In any case, I’m excited for the recital today on zoom. Most of the students are playing live, and a few have recorded videos ahead of time to be less stressful. I told them they had a choice. Life is stressful enough these days for those who find playing on a recital overly stressful. Hopefully the next recital…or at least the one after that, can be in person.

I’m tired of hearing violin over the internet though. I’m looking forward to seeing them all again in person, and hearing how they actually soon.

I’m tired of a lot of things…but I’m really glad to have a week off (mostly) ahead of me. I’m looking forward to catching up on a bunch of videos of this and that I need to watch, reading some more books, doing some cooking, taking some walks and hikes, and decorating a bit for Christmas. I don’t know if I’ll put up a Christmas tree this year, but I’ll definitely decorate some. I don’t know if I want to go all out with just two of us here, but I will put up some nutcrackers and a few other things to make it festive.

We got a meal box from Purple Carrot this week. It’s a vegan meal delivery service, similar to Blue Apron except the meals don’t contain any animal products. I made two of the recipes and Louie made one. I thought my two were easier to make than most of the Blue Apron meals, and especially enjoyed the one I made last night. It was Sesame Ginger Noodles with Stir-Fried Greens and Toasted Peanuts, and I forgot to take a picture. I would make it again, though I might add some tofu if I did it on my own. Louie thought the burgers he made were a little more involved, and we wished they had had a few more carrots, but they were also tasty. We decided we would order again and perhaps alternate with Blue Apron (we usually do about one box a month.)

IMG_7018

Those are roasted carrots, and they were delicious, but there were very few of them. I’m greedy with my roasted veggies and always want a bunch.

In any case, if you like eating plant-based meals, I would recommend Purple Carrot. I don’t have any free meals to offer you right now, but I might in the future. (I do have referrals for Blue Apron and Imperfect Foods, so just leave a comment or email me if you are interested or if you have any more questions!)

I was supposed to get my hair done on Monday, but my hairdresser had to cancel due to a COVID exposure. Now I’m worried I shouldn’t have been going anyway, and should wait a few more months…I had felt it was okay since it was just her and me and we wear masks the whole time, but I am there for almost two hours if I do a cut and color and she definitely sees more people each day than I do. Or maybe I should just do one at a time, but that seems annoying because you end up wasting more time that way. This is my vanity speaking, of course, but I spend all day looking at myself on the computer! I will wait and decide what to do. Another few weeks won’t matter in the greater scheme of things, and I know that pandemic gray is a source of pride for some women.

I am debating if we are going to get to the Garden Glow this year. On the one hand, this is an event I have thought about doing every year for years and years and never made it due to work commitments. Perhaps this is the year to go! But yet, COVID. It IS mostly outdoors yet they still require masks and from what I’ve heard, people tend to follow the rules. Also they have limited tickets from usual years. But yet, still, I don’t want to get COVID and our community spread is terrible, and perhaps future years I will continue a similar schedule of mostly teaching with a few gigs here and there.

I spent a few years trying to take on as many gigs as possible, and it seems that that approach doesn’t help at all in the long term, as each gig disappears just as quickly as it appeared. Being a freelance musician has been the most stressful and thankless part of my career. I was thinking about how wonderful the people I teach are, and instead of a one thing here, one thing there, with the new person moving back getting the job I couldn’t do the one time and then suddenly all the jobs, I have a steady stream of young people (and older) wanting to learn…it’s a more consistent and less crazy-making career path. I would however, love to play chamber music with people who inspire me, or to play a Mahler Symphony again, but I’ve also been lucky enough in my life to have done those things many times.

I taught another Creative Ability Development (CAD) Class yesterday morning and had the most fun. Teaching kids to improvise and improvising myself has been my latest favorite thing (I looked forward to the class, enjoyed it throughout, and ran overtime) and I’m so glad I fell into it. My path to becoming an improviser has been (I think) unconventional and random, and I know I have a long way to go, but like a teacher I had recently said, the best way to really learn to do something is to teach it. (My class is open to anybody who can play a string instrument a little bit, so contact me for more information as well!).

I hope you have relaxing Thanksgiving Day plans. I hope you are being safe, and that you and your families are well. Oh, and check out this recording of The Winter’s Tale with me on violin ($6 to $9). It’s in the style of an Orson Welles Radio Broadcast and is really well done, and I helped create the music.

Quarantine

The Carrot or the Stick

The week has flown by, but it’s going well. We had a long power outage on Sunday due to a tree around the corner from us getting blown over in the wind, but after that things have gone smoothly.

Thanksgiving break is so close…I ordered Thanksgiving Dinner for us from Treehouse and got the dinner for 4. I’m going to supplement with a few extra dishes (roasted vegetables, cranberry sauce) and then we will have some Thanksgiving leftovers and save a bit more cooking. I’m excited to have a few days off from hearing Zoom Violin!

This weekend is a bit busy as I’m teaching an improvisation class AND doing a studio recital. Next week is a well deserved break!

I did some more canning on Tuesday. I made pickled cranberries for the upcoming holidays and I made a cherry almond jam recipe with frozen cherries I’d gotten over the summer. (Originally fresh). The jam is delicious—two of the jars didn’t seal so I have been having to eat it already.

IMG_7004

We are trying a meal box from Purple Carrot this week—I got it for free from a friend. Purple Carrot is a vegan meal delivery service, where they deliver the ingredients and you have to cook. We aren’t vegan (I eat seafood and dairy and eggs, but try to avoid most other meat products) but we enjoy eating vegan meals (hence the Thanksgiving meal). I made one meal last night and it was nice. Was it as good as Blue Apron? Not so far, but I actually think the meal I made was the least appetizing looking one (I chose it because it looked easiest) so we will see how the other two add up. I was a little concerned that there was very little added salt and pepper in the instructions and it didn’t use up an entire can of beans it provided and told you to save them, so I went ahead and added them. It seemed like from the directions they thought people might be limiting their calories more…I suppose people might eat vegan to be healthier, but I see it as more of an environmental and sustainable choice. I don’t think 500 calories is a good amount for a dinner for an adult, so I added some salt and used all the beans.

IMG_7016

It was called something like Tomato Gratin with Farro. It was tasty!

The news has been quite disheartening lately. It seems very few people are willing to continue making any sort of sacrifice to save lives. I am particularly frustrated at our lack of government help: it seems somewhat obvious that what we really need to do right now is pay people to stay home, and instead we are just shaming college students for not wanting to stay isolated in a dorm room.  I feel like everybody else is pretty much living life normally and complaining about things being online while the death toll mounts, and they warn us that hospitals will be overrun. I know over the summer we did a few things, but we really tried to analyze the risk involved, and currently the community spread of this virus is out of control, and you have to assume that you or anybody you run into might have it.

On a brighter note:

IMG_7006

If I’m stuck at home (and technically I’m not, I could be going to concerts, restaurants, and weddings) at least I’m stuck with these guys. Aren’t they the cutest?