Category Archives: Hope

Hope

Snow days

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This week has been crazy in its own way. Monday Louie tested positive for COVID and that means I had to mask and be stressed about whether I would get it or not. I let my students know and a lot have been virtual or I’ve been wearing a mask (CDC guidelines). I haven’t tested positive nor do I feel sick but I don’t know if I will over the next few days. We are not making a particular effort to isolate as we might have in 2020 or 2021. Thankfully his illness has been quite mild, more like a cold (which I was convinced was what he had, not covid!) and he is on the mend already (fingers crossed it doesn’t backslide). I have a concert Friday evening and I am still hopeful I can play rather than suddenly having to stay home from it. I did turn down a church job this weekend out of the fear that I would end up positive and need a last minute replacement: better to have somebody else do it when there were several days left to plan it (it was already a last minute job). Sigh. Better to be sick at home than in a foreign country, right?

Last week’s rehearsal for Friday’s concert.

The other thing was that we had a snow day yesterday…oh wow it was so lovely to sleep in yesterday and then again today (Thursday is a morning off every week.) The snow was a sort of bust: they were predicting 4-7 or 5-11 inches, and we got around 1, but it was still pretty.

The only picture I took of the snow, a bush covered in snow.

I should have gone over to the new house for snow pictures, but that will wait. I ended up mostly teaching online yesterday with a few brave souls coming for lessons in person.

I think we are getting close to setting our moving date. Painting is still happening (I haven’t been to the house in a few days, so I’m excited to stop by this morning, and then more work this weekend from our ends), and then we have the flooring guys booked for a few weeks from now. It’s looking like the move will happen over Spring Break, probably Wash U Spring Break, which should work really well.

Wish me good health and negative tests!

Hope

If the weather were like this all the time, nobody would be able to afford to live here

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We had a few days of cold weather but otherwise are having a really great fall.

It’s been a busy time, and I haven’t blogged recently, sorry about that! On the one hand, there’s not much new going on, but on the other hand, there is and it’s so busy. I’ve been working like mad, forgetting all those things I said during the pandemic about me time and balance and just saying yes, yes to gigs and playing so much. I’ve played with The Who on a big show at the Enterprise Center, I’ve played countless church services, several weddings, and have some really fun stuff coming up as well. I’ve been teaching so much as well, and in between it trying to work out, hang out with friends, take an improv class (on violin), read, clean and declutter the house, and deal with all the things that go with the fact that we are yes, moving, though the details haven’t been worked out (re: timing and such). I have to do so much and let so many people know and I’m waiting on just a few more things to know before that.

Onstage with The Who

We are also planning our Thanksgiving trip to New Orleans, which should be fun, and trying to enjoy this fantastic weather. We haven’t been able to get outside as much as we’d like, but Louie and I did enjoy a nice hike the other weekend and we’ve had some nice walks in the neighborhood. We went to the Lucky Accomplice for his birthday and to the Symphony last weekend (oh, and saw a coyote on Southwest Avenue, what), and this weekend we are doing a moonlight canoe trip with Big Muddy Adventures.

I’ve also been doing physical therapy on my shoulder (rotator cuff). I’m fully recovered from my surgery in August (unrelated) and feeling really great about that, but I have had a nagging shoulder problem since early spring. I also fell over a curb and really busted up my knee the other week, so I’m kind of a mess…but I’m on the mend. Honestly, things are looking up, and we are walking on air around the house thinking of the future and what our new house will be like and how to make it all work. It is a dream I never even had and it feels like a dream! I am excited, and worried, and all of that in between. (And like I said before, to any students reading, don’t worry, I’m not going too far and I will let you all know soon and it won’t be until late winter or spring.)

Hope

August Blues

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It’s August, and I could say, August already, but I do feel like I’ve been feeling the time passing pretty well in July. (June flew by).

It’s been a busy few weeks of actual violin playing, which has been fun. I joined up with a local group, the Gateway Festival Orchestra, for 3 concerts, which was fun, and then some chamber music, plus opera. And teaching! I’ve had plenty of time to relax and read as well. We haven’t done much outside as the weather has alternated between being super hot and flooding, but there were some nice days this past weekend and we got out for some walking.

This month I have surgery. I won’t go into details here but, it’s a big deal, but not a big deal, all at once. It’s a common surgery, mostly for prevention, and I’m feeling pretty good about it, but yet I’ve also been exceedingly stressed out at times and very emotional. I imagine now that this is how many people feel leading up to surgery, but since I have never had surgery before as an adult, I didn’t know how I would feel. Anyway, the date is August 17 so think of me then, and I’m taking two weeks or so off to recover, and hopefully that is enough. If not, I’ll take more as needed. I find that having this hanging over my head at the end of the summer has made everything more difficult, so I’ll be glad to have it behind me when I’m at that point. Sorry for being vague!

You can tell when I haven’t been doing much when I don’t even have any recent pictures on my phone. The cats have been boring (haha) and just sitting around sleeping most of the time. Louie is preparing to defend his dissertation, and I’ve been working a lot of evenings so we haven’t done too many interesting meals. But I figured I’d pop in here to say hello!

Assuming my surgery goes well, I anticipate doing a lot of reading and watching Netflix (and the like) during my recovery time. I have stacks of books and I’m sure plenty of shows to watch, but more recommendations are always welcome.

Deep Thoughts, Hope

2021: Looking Back

I promised a recap of sorts of the year. I sometimes forget about 2021, and think we just finished 2020…I’m not sure what that means.

Highlights: getting a new President in January, getting vaccinated in March, getting to see my parents in person again, taking a trip to Arkansas, weekly zoom visits with my family, actually visiting family in New York over the summer and having them visit us too, teaching in person again, having an outdoor in person recital in May, seeing students graduate and perform in person, attending concerts again, having meals with friends at restaurants, enjoying food from my garden over the summer, eating foods I’ve prepared (fresh, frozen, and canned!), getting outside for walks and hikes, summer “happy hour” outside on our new patio furniture, watching the cats on the catio, taking a few short trips, getting a new back porch built, getting stuck in a bison jam at Lone Elk Park, visiting family over Thanksgiving and Christmas, seeing so many different lights in December, hosting two small holiday gatherings at my house…

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.

Books: I’ve listed books throughout the year, but I thought I’d mention a few that have stuck in my head the whole year. The Girl with the Louding Voice by Abi Daré, Wish You Were Here by Jodi Picoult, How the One-Armed Sister Sweeps Her House by Cherie Jones, The Glass Hotel by Emily St. John Mandel, American Royals by Katharine McGee. There are more I enjoyed, but those I particularly enjoyed.

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?

Hope, Quarantine

Feeling Good

I got my second shot yesterday morning, and so far, other than a sore arm (which happens to me with flu shots too) I am feeling good.

I was tired all day yesterday, but that started before the shot. I attribute it to starting back at my early morning job and having a really long day on Tuesday. I probably teach too much, and I especially taught too much on Tuesday (I had 11 hours of teaching!) but it’s not like I do that every day. I told Louie, well, nurses work 12 hour shifts and nobody tells them, oh my god how do you do that? He pointed out they work 3 of those a week, and I countered that they usually do 4 because they love the overtime, and then we decided that probably working slightly more than 3 hours a day (what many people seem to think is an appropriate amount of teaching, what, how would I make a living) and less than 11 is a more ideal amount of hours.

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I also like to look at the overall week of work. Tuesdays this semester ended up being really busy because I have 3 1/2 hours of college students normally on Tuesdays. Last semester I had zero hours of college students on Tuesdays. I can’t move all my private students around every semester, so I just fit college teaching into the regular day. It’s a bit unpredictable, because I would prefer to put the college students on Fridays, and often manage to put a lot of them there, but it doesn’t always work out for them. Overall I’m averaging 38-40 hours a week of teaching, plus a few hours of commuting time, so it seems like a lot, but is reasonable. I don’t have a ton of admin as I’ve streamlined it quite a lot, so probably only 1 to 3 hours outside of that, depending on the week (maybe more at the end of the quarter or preparing for festival). I do have weekly grading to do for my school job, but it usually only takes 15 to 20 minutes.

I should say that I haven’t been finding a lot of time for practicing though, and would like to get into a better routine for that. I don’t see myself dropping back my teaching commitments any time soon though, so maybe I should just figure it out!

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Another important thing to note is that my work is seasonal, and that college semesters are really only 8 months of the year, and school is out June through August, so I like to work a little more so in the summer it’s okay to work a little less. Last summer I didn’t really work less, but I’m sure this summer people will be back to normal camps and such so they won’t be taking weekly lessons throughout the summer and I’ll miss some of the income/have more time off.

Just some random thoughts this morning! Keep wearing masks!

*it is worth noting that today ended up being a 3 hour teaching day though it was supposed to be four, and now I’m in a short break before a rehearsal for a Good Friday service. I started this post in the morning and then got distracted by various tasks. It is also worth noting I feel great and my arm isn’t too sore anymore either, I recommend exercise with lots of arm swinging!

Hope, Random thoughts, Teaching

March Goes Out like a Lamb

This has been my “spring break” from one of my jobs, which has been nice. I’ve gotten to sleep in a bit, and a few students have missed so I’ve caught up on some admin tasks and other things I needed to do.

Over the weekend, we planned to do a nice long hike because there was excellent weather, but I ended up hurting my lower back and had to scratch that idea. I’ve been getting better, doing yoga videos and taking ibuprofen and such, and I think I’ll just keep doing some of the yoga going forward because it has been a lot of fun and feels good.

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We did go over to some friends for dinner Sunday night and enjoyed outdoor time with people not from our household, which…was missed. I miss seeing people, and really can’t wait. I’ll get my second shot in less than one week though, so it is only a little bit longer until I’m fully vaccinated.

I’ve been working on some things for my studio, some policies changes for fall that I am working on and will announce to them probably at the beginning of May, and figuring out a “return to in-person lessons” plan. After Louie and I are both fully vaccinated, in late April, it seems like it might be time to start trying to get back to it, if we wear masks and take reasonable precautions. If the kids can be in school, I think they can come to their lessons, if they and their parents want…after my household is fully vaccinated. I hope also that the kids’ parents will be vaccinated, but it shouldn’t matter too much if we are wearing masks, if I run a good air filter, and maybe even leave the windows open (at least a bit), and limit the number of students at one time.

So that’s all exciting, but strange. I assume I’ll have a mix of in-person and online students for a bit, so I’ll have to work on the logistics, but I think it’ll be wonderful to start returning to normalcy. That might mean that within a month I’ll have to start wearing real pants to teach with!

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I thought the sky yesterday looked really cool in my neighborhood.

I got a few more plants and things yesterday at Home Depot. I am trying to grow a few things in pots as well and spruce up the front of our house. It’s a little tricky, I realized, because we don’t get much sun in the front of the house, but lots in the back. There’s a lot to growing things and gardening, but I have been enjoying just trying my hand at it. I have some brainstorming ideas as well, such as making a wildflower area in our yard to attract bees and tearing down the horrible back porch we have (it is just awful, needs to be redone, but we don’t know if we want to redo it in the same way, so my latest idea is to demo it FIRST and then see what we miss about it, which I suspect will be, a way to get out the back door upstairs and nothing else.)

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The front of our house is in need of some TLC, some paint mostly, but a bit of concrete work, but I thought flowers would cover it up and make people think we care a little bit. That white splotching is where the red paint has worn off, and there’s some white paint peeling in the front, maybe these are things to look at this summer? Home ownership can be a constant time suck, I’ve realized, if you let yourself get bogged down by all the small things that are wrong. I really don’t want to spend all of my free time doing things around the house and would prefer to read, but I suppose a few things are okay.

Books!

Recently read:

Super Host by Kate Russo: I enjoyed this book quite a lot, though there was a gratuitous (in my opinion) sexual assault scene that happened to one of the characters (spoiler alert, simply for that, it isn’t graphic, but it just seemed unnecessary). Otherwise I thought it was well done, a unique novel set up, and felt modern.

Wandering in Strange Lands by Morgan Jerkins: nonfiction, a Black woman tracks down her family history and roots, a great read, very interesting and thought provoking, highly recommend.

(forgive me if I already told you the following, but I couldn’t find where I did)

Between Two Kingdoms by Suleika Jaouad: I cried a lot during this book, so just a warning, but it’s good. It’s a book about the author, the story of her getting sick, dealing with it and the aftermath. I felt a personal connection to the story of difficulties Suleika was going through because I met Louie shortly after his wife died of cancer, and it made me see a bit more how that might have felt, from a different point of view. I think that’s partly why I cried so much, but it was a good cry.

Between Sisters by Kristin Hannah: good! This was a bit longer ago so I forget exactly, but I liked it quite a lot.

Maya’s Notebook by Isabel Allende: good in a different way. I need to read more Isabel Allende.

How about you? Any books to recommend? Thoughts on protocols for returning to in-person lessons?