All posts by hannahviolin

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

Cookies and Concerts

This has been the busiest December I can recall. Certainly since before the pandemic, so that’s something. I’m averaging 55-60 hour work weeks, which is insane and unsustainable…thankfully things are coming to a close soon and I’ll get some breathing time.

We haven’t been doing a whole lots of social activities here, as you can imagine. In a way some of my concerts are social as often there is downtime to chat with colleagues, so that’s been nice. I’m doing a cookie party in a few days, and I’m looking forward to getting a massage later this week. I’m finishing up teaching at Wash U on Tuesday, at my morning school on Wednesday, and at home on Thursday. And then I get a break for a few weeks, and I can’t wait!

I read some blogs and see people doing parties, and cookie decorating, and seeing concerts and shows, and I’m so happy for you all! I’m the one playing for all of those things (well, not cookie decorating.). I’ve played Messiah with two choirs, played with the 442’s (a local band), played at a variety of churches, played with backup tracks for a solo gig at a corporate event, even did a wedding (no Christmas music at all, crazy!). We did manage to celebrate Hanukkah and had a nice time with that, and I even accomplished a completely insane week where I added up approximately 70 hours of work. December pays for some other months, really, though it’s gotten to the point that I wonder which months that is. It’s possible I need to cut back, but I’m also having a good time, other than being tired.

Now, it’s ME so I’ve also done some baking, with more planned. I’m still getting used to my “new”oven. I finally ordered an oven thermometer and plan to use it later today to see what’s really going on: the oven definitely runs hot, but the other issue is that it’s not totally consistent through the space. Our old house had a wonderful convection oven, which we have been tempted on more than one occasion to bring over here (the old house isn’t sold, though a friend is currently living there.) I have had various successes and failures with baking, some due to my errors, some due to oven errors (and probably me too), and one due to misreading and putting the dish in a smaller pan than asked for AND overbaking it. Sigh.

These cookies didn’t spread at all, but they are delicious and fudgy and I love them. I did have some spreading issues, which makes me think that either my baking soda/powder isn’t working anymore (getting new of both to be sure) or I’m adding too much flour (though the dough has felt okay for some of the recipes) or who knows. I’m also thinking the oven being weird doesn’t help, but hopefully I can figure out what to do with that. Nonetheless the above cookies were delicious and some are still left…(actually many.)

Miles and Muriel really love the radiators when the heat is on. They are going to be so disappointed when spring comes! They spend most of their time going from one radiator to the next, together or separately. There’s no specific rhyme or reason to it, but I’m sure it makes sense to them.

I have a church service to play for this morning (Vaughan-Williams at Ladue Chapel), some lessons to teach, and a concert this evening at another church. Last weekend I had four different performances with rehearsals, which was a bit much. Seriously, this December has been crazy. I’ve said no to a ton of stuff too, which I always hate doing, but I’m happy to be so busy! In a way. Louie has been crazy as well, with finishing up classes, getting ready to teach a winter break class, and getting a paper ready to submit. We are both workaholics, which is a fundamental part of our relationship, I suppose. We talk about what is sustainable about this, and what might work for the future to slow down, but he has no intention of retiring early, and he seemed surprised when I suggested that I planned to retire at 65. I guess one can never tell the future, but sometimes I look at this and say, hmm, 20 more years and then I’m done!

We’ll see! How is your December going? Do you find this is the first year that things are REALLY back in full swing with events and parties and concerts? Are you leaning into the holiday craziness or stepping back and trying to focus on just a few things?

Cheeseball for a work party

One more thing: I’ve been listening to various podcasts about life balance, organization and such, and I’m thinking about my goals for 2024. I haven’t been setting specific goals or intentions for a few years (pandemic mind) but there are some things I would like to accomplish in the near future, and maybe writing them down and actually, you know, working towards them, would be a good idea. Perhaps I’ll do a goals blog post, with the ones that I would feel comfortable sharing publicly.

This was from a concert the other week. I thought it was a great photo: I took it from somebody’s facebook page to share with you all 😉

Christmas Music, Lights, and Cats…Must be December

And here we are, already into December, again. Wasn’t it just December? Won’t it be December again soon?

I left off with the great disappointment of not having the Thanksgiving I was planning. They say life is what happens while you are busy making plans, but the truth is, you make plans, sometimes they work out really well, and other times you have to adjust. I was sad that my parents couldn’t visit, but Louie and I made the best of the situation. We raked leaves to the curb, revealing our yard for the first time in months. We did various house projects. We slept in, we read, we relaxed. It was wonderful. Oh, and I cooked and baked. And on Saturday he tested negative and his family decided to risk it and come over for the meal we were planning to have on Thursday. (As of today nobody has gotten sick from this meal to our knowledge, so that’s good.)

Louie took the picture, so he wasn’t in it. We also got a new tree for the downstairs, pre lit, and it’s a lot of fun.

Oh, there’s Louie! With his mom, stepdad, and brother.

A closeup of some of the food. Most of it was vegan, but not the turkey or gravy.

We had a nice dinner, and LOTS of leftovers! Louie and sent some with his family, and we ate leftovers for days. I thought the turkey turned out amazing (I dry brined it, which means I rubbed salt all over it, along with some lemon zest and spices, and then let the skin dry out, then cooked it to just under 165 all over and pulled it out and let it rest for awhile) and we enjoyed those leftovers for a long time. I made broth in the crockpot from the carcass and that’s in the freezer.

So that brings us to December holidays. We did a little decorating before the dinner, and then I did a lot of decorated the next day. It’s been fun decorating a new house! I had purchased some things on clearance last year after the holidays, knowing I would have more space to use, so I was excited to pull them out. We have a variety of things that have lights on timers that come on at night, and all of our Christmas tree lights (TWO TREES) are voice activated. And so far the cats haven’t done too much destruction, though they do enjoy watching the lights and wrestling on the white tree skirt.

I got the tree skirt a little later than some of the pictures, I like the look though the cats keep messing it up!

It may seem a little extra to have two trees, but I wanted something downstairs AND in my teaching room. The tree in the teaching room is pretty old and the cats have done some damage over the years, but it works well in the corner. The other tree is new and I hope will last for many more years. We have the storage space now (the basement is roomy) so it made sense. I also put (battery operated, on a timer) candles in our front facing windows so I am sort of decorating the street. I may leave those up into January as well, to help with the winter gloomies.

My friend April sent me this picture of her house. Their neighborhood is having a contest and doesn’t her house look amazing!!!???!!!

And of course, some cat shenanigans. I know many of you are only here for that.

This week is a marathon: it’s open house week for my morning school, which means the students perform for their parents each morning (starting at 7:30 am, we arrive much before that!) plus I have four performances this weekend: Friday night a choir concert at Missouri Baptist University including Vivaldi’s Gloria, Sunday morning the Perseid Quartet is at Third Baptist, Sunday afternoon I play with the Cor Jesu choir, and Sunday night the Masterworks Chorale plays Handel’s Messiah. In addition to the concerts, there are rehearsals, so many lessons (last week of Wash U classes!) and a neighborhood party on Saturday afternoon.

None of the concerts will be particularly stressful or difficult, other than I hope to not be too tired to manage. I think the key will be getting to sleep as early as a can and not wasting too much time scrolling. This is definitely the “worst” week for scheduling: the following week starts crazy, but tapers off and ends up with some wonderful days to do some baking.

And with that, I’m off for chores and fun. I only have one student today and the rest of the day will be filled with home chores (laundry mostly) , hopefully a nice walk outside, and I’m not sure what else. We were going to go out to dinner with a friend but they might be sick so either we will go out alone or just cook at home. What are you up to this week? Is your December really busy so far? If you aren’t a musician, do you go to concerts in December?

A Great Disappointment

Sigh.

It’s so easy to start forgetting about COVID, isn’t it?

So I was really excited about hosting Thanksgiving and having my parents visit for the week!

Louie had a cold over the weekend: he was feeling a little under the weather on Thursday or Friday, but just a cold feeling. He took two at home COVID tests as well, both negative and by Monday he was feeling back to normal. Then, he woke up Tuesday morning feeling sick again, and figured he’d better test again, since that was strange. Yep. COVID.

My parents had already headed out, so I called them, and they made the decision (best decision for them) to turn around, since he was sick, I was exposed, and we were supposed to be hanging out all week. It was the worst feeling. I just felt so sad to miss their visit (still do!) and guilty that they had to spend the day driving and wished Louie had taken a test first thing in the morning rather than waiting a little thinking he might just be reacting to the dry air in the house (he started feeling worse over the course of the day, to be fair.)

I had just picked up the turkey, making the final arrangements for a Thanksgiving dinner for 9.

So, now I have some days off stretching ahead of me, but it doesn’t seem fun at all, just disappointing. We are going to see if we can postpone the dinner until Saturday and maybe take that chance if Louie texts negative and I’m not symptomatic. Either way, the plan is to have the dinner ready on Saturday, and then either have the dinner or have takeout boxes for everybody to share.

I had planned the meal for several days of leftovers with my parents as well, so I may leave off one or two dishes. Some of the groceries will last longer than others, so things could be postponed. It’s also possible, though I think less possible, just because I had it much more recently than Louie, that I’ll get COVID too. Who knows, maybe I already had it asymptomatically and gave it to Louie!

Truthfully, I’ve been around quite a few people who were recovering from “colds”. And maybe they were, or maybe that “cold” isn’t what they think it is. And for many people, getting COVID isn’t a huge concern, but for some people it definitely still is. And then getting it certainly disrupts your life! So it’s still here, 3 years later, and still ruining holidays.

Sigh. It’s not the worst thing, but it’s really disappointing.

The Goose is Getting Fat

My college students show up each week for their lessons and sigh and tell me how tired and busy they are, and I feel empathy for them, and I think, yeah, me too! I know you are tired of hearing it, but it’s been a crazy semester. The good news is, it’s going by quickly. (Also the bad news, because who wants life to just fly by like it’s nothing?!)

I don’t think I mentioned that my friend April visited for a few days. It was wonderful to see her, even though we were both working and didn’t get to hang out as much as we would have liked!

She had recently gotten her vaccines! Aren’t the trees gorgeous?

While she was here we went to Corner 17 and to Schlafly Bottleworks. We also chatted a lot and enjoyed the lovely weather we had during that time! I miss her and wish she still lived here, but she has an awesome life in Atlanta now and I’m happy for her.

There are just a few days left until Thanksgiving. I am hosting dinner for 9, it looks like, and I’m excited and stressed out. The key, as always, is planning. And yelling at Louie for not planning, while he judges me for being “controlling”. (half kidding!) Here are the plans to make Thanksgiving happen and to finish this week.

Today: attend student recital at Wash U this morning, attend Symphony concert in afternoon, play concert with Metropolitan Orchestra this evening.

Monday: teach class in morning, do big grocery shopping trip, workout, catch up on at home business type errands (I always do my finances on Mondays, that sort of thing, and sometimes wait to send important emails until I have time on Mondays and Thursdays ), teach private lessons in afternoon and evening.

Tuesday: teach last class of week in the morning, pick up the turkey (I have a fresh one on order from Whole Foods). Teach last day of students at Wash U (last day before Thanksgiving break, that is, not last day of semester. Teach last private student. Cook: thinking of doing pie crusts, baking the cornbread for the stuffing, possible making the gravy ahead of time (this is a thing people on the internet tell you is possible).

Wednesday: house cleaning (we outsource this every two weeks, thankfully, and yes, I love the word outsourcing!), pick up rolls at Union Loafers (it’s so unnecessary but they only do rolls for Thanksgiving and Christmas and I love them so much) make pies, make green bean casserole (I am attempting a vegan recipe: I don’t always do green bean casserole, but I thought it would be a fun addition this year), assemble salad ingredients (shaved brussels sprout salad), toast stuffing cubes (dry them out, whatever is needed) and assemble stuffing, pre chop whatever I can (Louie has much better knife skills than me, so I may ask his help or even just have him do a lot of chopping on Thursday). My parents arrive this day at some point, and I’ll probably ask my mom to help out.

Thursday: I’m a workaholic/freelance musician so I’m playing at a church service this morning. Did you know people have church on Thanksgiving morning?? Our guests don’t arrive until 5 pm, so while I’m doing that, Louie will prepare the turkey and put it in the oven. I’ll get back and we’ll finish the rest of everything: potatoes, butternut squash, and getting everything cooked. We have a sizeable toaster oven and a small side oven which could also help.

Friday: Relax! Eat leftovers!

And that’s the week. When I retype my food plans it sounds like a lot, but I think it’ll be a lot of fun, and I won’t be doing this all by myself, it’s just that I am the on in charge. I will share the entire menu later, most likely.

Other things that have been going on that likely deserve more attention here but aren’t getting it today: squirrels in the basement, having a company come and remove a squirrel nest from the chimney, leaf pickup drama, and lots of good books read. I am planning a blog post at some point about books, and some of my favorites over the years.

Books, lately: I’ve gotten into the books of Katherine Center for easy and fun reads (How to Walk Away is my favorite so far), and the best book I’ve read recently not by her was Pachinko by Min Jin Lee. I’ve also gotten into books by Ben H. Winters including the Last Policeman Series, and I read Lady Tan’s Circle of Women by Lisa See and enjoyed that quite a lot. Looking back through my Libby app (the best way I know to keep track of what books I read on the kindle), if I haven’t mentioned The Covenant of Water by Abraham Verghese, I am doing so now because that’s another good one. I tend to like fiction that spans several generations and goes into great detail, and takes place in another country so I can feel like I’m learning something about a different culture, but there also has to be a good story with it. I haven’t read as many mysteries later, more into the “character learns something important about herself while making a major life change AND falling in love” genre, which makes sense since I’ve been so busy and stressed.

You might ask when I find the time to read: sometimes I’ll have a spare 30 minutes to an hour midday, and I’ll just cozy up for a bit and read. I read if I’m eating a meal alone, I read before bed, and pretty much whenever I have time. I know I’m always happier if I read a book rather than scroll, though I do both of course.

I got a haircut recently and this picture from a recent gig really shows me I made the right choice!

Summer is back, or is this False Fall?

We had a cold snap, but today is supposed to get up to 77 or 79 degrees (depending on which weather predicting service you look at.) So, it looks like fall, but it’s really practically still summer.

I haven’t been this busy since pre-pandemic or perhaps, since before I moved to St Louis. This month is flying by, I think I blinked and October was gone, and things are generally just a bit crazy. I do have a little downtime now, so I’ll fill you in quickly.

Halloween was fun: it was a cold night for trick or treaters. Louie and I made a fire in our fire pit and sat outside so we didn’t have to continually open the door. I was hopeful for more visitors and we ended up with a fair amount of leftover candy, so I made a bunch of bags for my college students, who were happy to get it!

Teaching has been crazy: I had the fall recital yesterday for my private students. 18 students played and it went really well! I rented a space at Wash U and it was really nice and easy to do, so I will likely do that again.

For college students, some recitals are coming up, the end of the semester is closer than we realize. For my 4th graders, I am not super happy about the progress of one class and gave them a lecture/pep talk today. We’ll see what happens. Let’s see if my talk inspired some of them to work a little bit harder or it’s going to be a long year.

Gig and concert wise, it’s been pretty crazy. I’ve played a bunch of weddings, a fun concert at a retirement home, and this week I have rehearsals for two different concerts: one a piece called the Suffragette Cantata with the St Louis Women’s Chorale, and the other the fall concert for the Metropolitan Orchestra of St Louis. I’ve also had a few church gigs, and there’s a pops concert on Sunday, so yeah…things are busy! Not so busy that I don’t get jealous of what other people are doing (yes, I’m insane) but busy enough that I can quickly remind myself that I am..well, a little more stretched but having a great time.

The time change was nice, that extra hour was lovely. My friend April is currently in town and staying with us and it’s fabulous to see her. Louie and I saw Bela Fleck and Edgar Meyer play a concert on Friday night.

We attended the neighborhood chili cook-off on Saturday and got to feed and pet alpacas, llamas, sheep, and more! I made a corn casserole for the dinner and it was very popular. When I went back to get a second helping 5 minutes later and the pan was empty! I also attended a neighborhood book club evening and really enjoyed it–I plan to attend again in the future when I am able.

The cats love the radiators. That is, when the heat is on which it isn’t today. And yes, Miles is usually very friendly and cuddly. Sometimes with Muriel, often with Louie, less often with me.

Anyway, even though my program here tells me I have no key focus phrase and some of my sentences are too long, I’m publishing anyway. You’re really here for the cat pictures anyway, I know.

Fall is here

It’s lovely outside today, or that is, it looks like it. 52 degrees, mostly cloudy, high of 58. We are planning to go for a hike and perhaps do some yardwork (I think yes, but even though rain is not predicted I still wonder if it might rain.)

This week went by quickly. It had some good, some bad. I had to miss my Friday morning class because I wasn’t feeling well and had been up a lot the night before. I rarely miss last minute, so while I felt bad for it, I also knew I needed to stay home longer. I was feeling better by Friday evening, thankfully, as I had to perform on a concert at Wash U. It was just one piece with flute and piano, and we did well.

Yesterday was a busy day of gigs! Two weddings plus a church service (yes, on a Saturday.) I had been hoping to observe the partial eclipse but we had an overcast day and had no luck with that. It was fun to see pictures of the eclipse from friends and family in Arizona.

My morning church service was a Scottish themed one.

I have several students doing the Arch Cup today, so we’ve been working hard getting ready for that. They will be awesome I’m sure! (They have to play a piece from memory for a judge and receive a score based on their performance and get comments on what they did well and what they can improve upon.) Three weeks from today is our fall recital so that will be the focus going forward. I feel like my students are doing well this fall and so far I am doing well with pacing and making sure they are learning the skills they should be learning. Hopefully we can keep it up!

I’m making a casserole for a friend later (to drop off for her tomorrow) and doing laundry. This house is somehow easier to stay on top of, maybe it’s the fact that there is actually space for our things, or having a fresh start, or whatever, but I don’t have those feelings of constantly needing to declutter that I did in the old house.

Okay, truthfully it may also be because we did so much decluttering: we didn’t fill this house with a bunch of stuff we didn’t want! Also there is way more storage, which is great. But basically it stays clean and neat enough with much less effort, which is calming and makes me feel so lucky to live here.

You can bet Miles never takes it for granted.

I honestly sometimes just wake up and go, wow, I love my house, and start thinking of that song from the Sound of Music about how somewhere in my youth of childhood I must have done something good. I realize that’s not about a house, but is about love, but technically the two go hand in hand for me, and I want to remember how lucky I am. I think it’s easy to forget and start to take too much for granted, and I don’t want to do that.

This week is easier than some. It’s the end of the grading period at my school job, so we have off Friday and then the following Monday. So while I’ll have to do grades, I’ll have those two mornings off (well, the early morning). And then Friday is my niece’s birthday and also Louie’s mom’s birthday, so we are going out to dinner. Unfortunately my niece lives in Arizona, so I can’t celebrate with her, but I sent some books as a gift which she will hopefully enjoy.

What’s going on in your world? Are you getting fall weather finally as well?