It’s hard to believe September is almost over! Mostly because we have spent the month roasting in high 90’s temperatures here, and even today we are expected to see 90 degrees. So it still feels like summer, even as the fall workload takes over.

I have been working hard. Lots of students (45 counting my college students) and lots of gigs. Mostly it’s been weddings and some I’ve had to organize, so lots of putting music together in digital setlists and lots of communication. Coming up there’s Bach Society and a musical (Death Becomes Her) so I’m trying to get prepared for that. I’ve also been hitting the gym two to three times a week, and doing a weekly stretch session, which has been super helpful.

But we’ve been having fun as well, though a bit too aggressively at times: it’s easy to get to the end of the day and wish you could just stay home and relax instead of going to the play you bought tickets for! But that’s how I like to make a full life, by filling it, ha!

As usual I hit a low point on the Katy Trail. I never tire of making sure to pose for this picture.

We went to Black Mountain STL for dinner one night and it turned out to be a “pop-up” night there, so we enjoyed “Nugs and Bubs” instead. Then we went next door to see “The Mercy Seat” with St Louis Actors Studio at the Gaslight Theater.

Another night we saw “Come From Away” at Stages and then got a late dinner at Katie’s Pizza.

And another night I met a friend to see “Little Women” at the St Louis Rep.

The cats are worn out just thinking about it!

Then Louie and I got dressed up and hit our neighborhood’s Oktoberfest Party. In September, don’t judge. His outfit is from my dad, circa 1973 and my outfit is from online, circa 2026. We made a good pair, I think. Perhaps we also have our Halloween costumes already, as we may need to dress up for a party this year.

Louie is also wearing the Oktoberfest T-shirt from the previous year, though the straps cover up a graphic of a squirrel wearing Lederhosen. We didn’t do T-shirts this year. Anyway, the party was great fun: we talked with a bunch of people, ate pretzels and bratwurst, and drank beer from a keg, which is always a good time. I made an Apple Kuchen, though I had some trouble with the recipe: first I couldn’t find the one I’d made before, then thought I did, and realized it was a completely messed up recipe, probably somehow made by AI (I’m being absolutely serious, there is no way anyone submitted that recipe as it was a hot mess and didn’t work) and ultimately I had to start all over using the recipe…from my blog. Oops. I was too tired really and tried to do too much that week and rushed it. A lesson was learned, and all the kuchen got eaten anyway!

This weekend we are going to a symphony concert and hoping to get a hike in, weather permitting. October will fly by because there is a ton happening: regular work, a show at the Fox for two weeks, Louie’s birthday, and of course, Halloween. Let’s hope we get to at least enjoy some lovely fall weather before the ice and cold comes to get us!

Though it’s almost fall officially, and school has been in session for weeks, it is still summer here. I had an outdoor gig yesterday and it was 96 degrees, plus humidity, heat index of 108 or so. It was possibly the most miserable I have ever been playing the violin, or at least on the hot end of things. I didn’t think ahead to have something to wipe the sweat off my neck, so I kept using tissues and it was just gross. Especially since I detest wet tissues.

I have another outdoor gig today, but I’m thinking ahead and have a cloth packed to wipe my neck as needed. It may be slightly cooler, we will see. The forecast seems to predict that starting Sunday things will cool down, but…I’ll believe it when I see it. This is definitely our payback for those cooler weeks in June, or maybe just our payback for burning all those fossil fuels.

This has been a busy week, well, it’s getting into a busy couple of weekends. I was just getting used to teaching more and now the concerts start. I really just want to go on another trip, can’t I do that instead? We did see a play last night and have tickets for a musical on Saturday night, so it’s not all work, but there’s little time to relax. It’s always the issue with planning things, you know, you then have to do them.

I’ve been keeping up my gym going, which has been a lot of fun. The Wash U gym is a busy place, but I find the mid-morning time works pretty well (I get there between 8 and 9 usually, I bet it’s even a little better around 10 but my schedule usually doesn’t allow that.) I created a weight lifting routine using AI (I know, I know, but it was THERE) and have been tracking it on my phone. I also do the stairclimber for a short while and treadmill uphill when I have time. It’s a 15-20 minute walk each way to the gym so a visit takes at least 1 1/2 hours, which does require planning.

TV wise: I’ve been slowly watching the remake of The Little House on the Prairie. It’s not very good, but I’m watching it anyway. Louie and I finished watching the second season of 100 Years of Solitude on Netflix: I thought it was very good. I have not yet read the book. We started The Gentlemen Season Two but kind of hate it so I think we are going to abandon it for something better. The first season was much better.

Books: I’ve been reading mysteries, plus Their Eyes Were Watching God for an upcoming book club meeting. Have I mentioned reading Whistler and Yesteryear? The Shadow Land by Elizabeth Kostova, enjoyed it quite a bit though it was an emotional read. I need to get into more serious books and stop scrolling so much, probably.

Cat shenanigans.

The time flies, doesn’t it? I’m already two weeks into the school year, though for my college job that means I’ve only taught some students one lesson rather than two. It will be Christmas before we know it.

I read something on the internet the other day, it was a 20 year old asking older people, how long does it feel to live from 20 to 60? The first answer I read was, it feels very long while you live it, and then like no time at all when you look back at it. I suppose that’s true for everything in adulthood, isn’t it? The day of teaching feels plenty long, when you are helping students tune, making them “suffer through” their scales, making them slow down to practice things properly, bugging them about their technique, etc. And then at the end you go, where did the day go?

Since getting back from vacation we’ve been trying to make sure our day-to-day life isn’t just work/work/sit in front of tv/sleep/work/work/etc. It’s easy to get in that habit, and while I don’t think it’s bad for some of the days of the week (we’ve been enjoying 100 Years of Solitude on Netflix and watched Dark Matter before that), I want to keep getting out of the house and doing things.

Last weekend we had a flurry of activities: dinner at Madrina with Ben and Roz, dinner at Robin with Louie (I loved this place, it felt somehow more different than other restaurants around here), and then we had tickets to the Cardinals on Sunday and went with friends as well. I don’t take food pictures on a day to day basis like I do on vacation, which is a bit of a shame and maybe I should, but it feels weird when I’m a local, you know?

We had been worried about the weather/heat last Sunday, but our seats were in the shade and there was generally enough of a breeze going that it was quite enjoyable.

I only look a little crazy in my selfie there?

Anyway, the Cardinals lost, but our tickets included a hot dog and a soda so that was nice. We took the Metrolink both ways which was easy, and it was PACKED after the game, which made it feel like we lived in a really cool city. Also the B.O. was an issue, but luckily the ride wasn’t toooooo long.

This past week I mostly just taught then, and then last night we went out to visit a couple of friends who have a pool so we swam and then ate dinner together. No pictures, because, well, I just didn’t. Am I a real blogger or not? (Not, as those of you waiting to hear more about Japan and then Alaska know.)

Today is a wedding in Hermann and tomorrow an outdoor (perhaps ) concert, and then Monday totally off. I’m debating if I need to send a reminder to my students of NOT having lessons Monday, as the system I use only sends reminders of when they DO have lessons and sometimes people get on autopilot. (I actually just went and did this, I don’t want anybody showing up on Monday).

I’m ready for fall weather! This heat is horrible. We are in our fall schedules, we need some cooler weather!

I’ll take a break from (not very quickly) writing trip reports to writing about my day to day life as is. And technically yesterday was the first day of school, but today is the first day for some people.

The last few weeks before school started went by quickly, and I didn’t get very much done. I had some high hopes for a few home projects, but I found myself just wanting to catch up on my reading and podcast listening.

One thing Louie and I both did that has been fun is we joined a gym. We have been debating this for a little while, and we decided to join the Wash U gym, which is a great deal. You have to be careful about when you go because it gets horribly busy, but the first few weeks were great. Yesterday the students were back, but I found mid morning still wasn’t too bad. When we toured the gym the student made sure to inform us of all the pickleball options and also pointed out that most faculty show up early, around 6 am to get their workouts done before the work day. We are not most faculty, I guess!

Other fun things: Leslie stayed for two nights en route from New York to Arizona. We had food, chatted, and took a long bike ride on the Katy Trail.

Her cats lived in our music room for the time. My cats were upset by this, as you would expect.

I went to an art class at Bowood Farms.

Muriel enjoying the couch on another day.

We’ve also been to an opera and out for dinner for friends, and I’ve met up with a variety of friends for lunches and brunch. So, it’s not that I haven’t done anything at the end of my break, it’s just that my constant guilt of say, not having completely finished decorating the house kicked in.

I am looking forward to a good year! I am limiting my new students, in fact, not taking any new students at home for now. My schedule is pretty good and I have plenty of students, and the nice thing is that I only teach past 8 on one night instead of 3, so that’s better for getting to bed early, plus it’s better for the nights I have to reschedule for rehearsal: less students to reschedule. So either I get free time/more sleep, or simply less stress. And when I reschedule, it doesn’t always work out so I often lose that teaching income, so my hope is that having slightly less students still works out well.

Performance wise, there’s nothing terribly exciting in the immediate future, but more fun stuff later in the year. Maybe I’ll keep you posted!

The other fun thing later is that I finally caved and got an apple watch. This fits in with my gym going: I’m working on improving my fitness so we can do a bigger hike in Europe next summer, in addition to healing my feet, ha! So having a watch is a great way to monitor my heart rate and activities, but I learned yesterday that it picks up violin playing and counts it as steps, oops! So from here on when I play unless I want it to appear that I have walked extra miles, I have to turn off fitness tracking for it. I wish there were another way, but that’s what the internet tells me is the best solution: do you have any better ones? And putting it on another wrist isn’t an option, and I’d rather not just take it off.

It’s a stormy day in St Louis and so that brings to mind the tornado from last year, the day before we left for vacation. Oh, wait, that’s today too…here’s hoping no tornados and that our flight gets underway tomorrow morning with no problems.

Things have finally been settling down: I wrapped up teaching for the semester on Thursday, and had my last concert of the spring yesterday. I even had a full day off on Friday, it was GLORIOUS (I got a lot done, but also got out for a lot of nice walks and had time to read), and today is a day off too. Before that I hadn’t had a day off since March 8–there’s something about having nothing to do on the calendar, isn’t there? And it was a particularly busy spring, though perhaps a bit less busy than the fall had been.

In any case, today is packing and errands, folding laundry, and getting ready for Japan! We are headed out to Japan, flying into Tokyo and visiting many other places including Kyoto, Nagoya, Takayama, and Matsumoto. And don’t worry, I’ll tell you about it when we return.

Last night after my concert I met some friends at Sakatanoya Revolving Sushi & Ramen Bar on the Loop. There is a sushi train that goes around and you can choose things from that (different prices based on different plate colors) or you can order from the menu, which is a tablet, and then they bring your food via robot. It was a lot of fun, though a little distracting, haha!

Last weekend my parents visited for a few days and we had a nice brunch with Louie’s parents and then went to the Botanical Gardens. We also went to Noodle Story for dinner with them, and that was nice. Not my favorite noodle place on the Loop (sorry that’s Corner 17) but it was a nice time. You order from a tablet there too, and I recommend ordering dishes less spicy unless you really love spice. Or I’m just getting to be an old white lady who can’t handle spice?

Louie and I tried out Zhanglala Beef Noodles recently as well, and really enjoyed it. I had the pickled beef soup and it was great. We also went to Katie’s Pizza with a mutual college student who had just graduated, and enjoyed some morels there, though the morels portions were super skimpy!

TV wise we’ve been watching together: Ted Lasso (finally started, way behind the curve), Our Friends and Neighbors, Widow’s Bay, and Big Mistakes. I didn’t love Big Mistakes, it was okay but there was a lot of characters just yelling at each other. The other three are recommended, though Widow’s Bay is not all out yet, which we wish we had realized before starting, so now we have to wait!

Reading wise: I got into the Jackson Brodie series by Kate Atkinson. I also recently read Kin by Tayari Jones, The Keeper by Tana French, and A Marriage at Sea by Sophie Elmhirst. While none of these are must reads, I enjoyed all of them. Looking back more, since I don’t think I said, in March I read Buckeye by Patrick Ryan, Convenience Store Woman by Sayaka Murata, Kitchen by Banana Yoshimoto, and Butter by Asako Yuzuki, and then in February read Days at the Morisaki Bookshop by Satoshi Yagisawa, Breast and Eggs by Mieko Kawakami, and The Black Wolf by Louise Penny.

I really enjoyed the Louise Penny (Inspector Gamache is a great series) and the rest: nothing super sticks out though Butter was probably the most unique of the books. I was trying to read books by Japanese authors and thoroughly enjoyed doing so. If you don’t read Tana French, start with In the Woods which is so good and then you’ll keep trying to get that magic back, but her other works are worth reading.

I have some books loaded onto my kindle for the plane as well as podcasts and such. It will be the longest flight I’ve ever taken! Follow me on Instagram for pictures along the way, or watch this space.

This has been a rough school year: I have been incredibly busy, with entirely too many students. This is a problem of my own making, because I always think, well, what if this new student ends up being my most favorite student, and I also think, if I don’t teach them, who will, what if they can’t find a teacher. I have to let go of these thoughts for a bit though, because my goal for the next school year is to NOT accept any new students and pare my schedule down a little bit by attrition. I don’t actually think this will cause me to make less money, but it will help me be a little less stressed out. TIME WILL TELL.

Truthfully, being too busy doesn’t really stress me out. It’s if the “busy” stuff is stressful, i.e. difficult performances or things like that. Otherwise, it’s easy to go from thing to thing, but it’s annoying to realize you ate all of your meals in the car or that you haven’t had a night off to relax or a morning to sleep in (not that I can sleep in anyways, but you know, to relax) in weeks. I’m beyond needing a day off, what would I do with a whole day off work anyway, but what about an evening off?

The good news is: summer is near! Unbelievably yesterday was the last day of classes at Wash U, so I just have a few more makeup lessons to teach as well as some juries to listen to, and I’ll be done until late August. That’s about 12 hours of my life that will be free again, which is going to be huge. You might even get the last installments of my Morocco trip on the blog in the next week, if you are lucky.

I love teaching at Wash U–it’s fun, the students are great–but it’ll be great to have some time off. The semester really flies by though: it’s just 14 weeks of lessons, and boom, done. So for the whole year that’s 28 lessons out of 52 weeks. Seems very part time, doesn’t it?

As far as my private students: we had Music Club Festival last weekend and next weekend is the recital, with about 20 students performing. We have another week of lessons after that, a makeup week (I do one makeup lesson for the whole year, though they can rearrange into empty spaces through the year if they want), and then it’s vacation for a bit before summer lessons.

Socially I haven’t been doing much, but Louie and I have gone to a few cultural performances: in the past two weeks we went to two plays (The End of the World Cabaret with Upstream Theater and The Half Life of Marie Curie with the St Louis Actors Studio), and a concert at the Sheldon with Edgar Meyer and Christian McBride. I did manage to get breakfast yesterday morning with a friend and have some lunch dates on the calendar for the next week. I also plan to get my first pedicure of the spring. Things really are tapering off and summer will be here, and then I’ll say to myself, how did I manage that schedule in the spring?

Louie and I are planning to get out for a hike today. We did a short bike ride last weekend on the Riverfront Trail: it was my first time out on the bike in several months, since late summer or early fall I think, and I felt it the next two days every time I sat down! I don’t know if I mentioned but I had hurt my foot somehow in March and have been letting it heal. It’s finally feeling a bit better–I’ve been always wearing supportive shoes and that has helped a bunch–so now I’m trying to get back into building up my walking so that we are ready for our Japan trip.

I know many people have jobs that don’t change seasonally. To me that must be so weird, because my job is SO seasonal and the ebb and flow of the year is such an integral part of it. How does your job work?