After getting home from Norway, I didn’t waste any time in putting together a photo book. I got it last week and I’m happy with it!
I ended up spending about $40 on it from Snapfish after a sale code–I think it has about 200 photos, and took me a few hours to put together. First I picked out the photos to use, then I had their program organize them into the book, and then I went through and edited it to what I preferred. Overall I’m happy with the book and I’m glad to have a physical album for pictures. As far as Snapfish goes, never pay full price: make the book online whenever you want and then wait for a good discount code, they come around pretty often.
I haven’t done this in the past as much, and it’s my new goal to “catch up” on photo albums, and then have that be a new thing that I do RIGHT AWAY. So I also made a photo album this past week, for…some trips we took in 2017. I had never done anything with those photos and thought, well, why not now. Maybe it’s silly to print photo books and I won’t look at them much, but I imagine I’ll look at them more than I do a bunch of photos that are doing nothing at all. I have at least one more trip I want to make a book of, and that’s our trip from 2019 when we went to Yellowstone, Glacier, Banff, and Jasper. Otherwise, I’ll probably just keep book-making on my list of things to do post trip.
The last week went by quickly. It was busy with teaching and quartet rehearsals. This weekend was busy with opera rehearsals and a morning quartet performance. It wasn’t THAT busy though, except for yesterday, when I worked all day long. This week is also busy as we have opera rehearsals the first three nights and then performances start: I am playing with Union Avenue Opera (local readers, please come to see us perform Falstaff.) I am glad to be playing some opera after a few years–I am no longer with Winter Opera (I resigned due to a variety of reasons) and so I did miss playing some opera. I also enjoy working with colleagues–teaching from home is lovely but I have so many freelance colleagues that I like and don’t see that often.
The heat finally broke here, at least for a little while. Today’s high is only 84, after days over 100. It will be a nice respite!
I played an outdoor concert last night with the Gateway Festival Orchestra and afterwards I saw this little fellow.
I was thinking he was a frog, but Louie said he was a toad (or she, I don’t know how to tell) and I suppose I forgot about toads as an option. The toad stood very still as I walked by and took his picture.
The week went by quickly with teaching, practicing, and well, relaxing. Summer has been really refreshing for me. I’ve had plenty of work so I don’t worry, but between traveling and having more free time than normal, it’s been really wonderful. On the one hand, I wouldn’t be mad if life continued like this, but on the other hand, my monthly take home is a little lower than I want all year long. I do enjoy some of my other jobs (especially teaching at Wash U, I’ve had such wonderful students there!) but man, it is nice sometimes just teaching from home and playing some orchestra concerts and chamber music with friends.
There’s more chamber music this week, and opera as well. It’s perhaps my lightest teaching week all summer, so I have some “early” evenings (7:15 is early, I guess) and plenty of time during the day to do what needs to be done. This does not entail gardening this year: 1) too hot to do yardwork, at least for me. 2) I never did get the vegetable garden in last year.
I think what I need to do is in the fall I need to really put the garden bed away, do a lot of yard work once things die off and then make a real plan in the spring. I miss having fresh veggies, but then again, we may end up traveling a lot next summer too. Either way, we never did our fall “yard clean up” last year and we are paying the price this year with some overgrown stuff happening. (Alternately, we need to just pay somebody to come do that, plus take care of a few trees which are too big probably.)
Miles out on the catio.Muriel pretending to nap.Avocado toast and soup.Brown cheese on waffles with a side of scrambled eggs.
We haven’t been doing too much cooking, but I’ve got a Purple Carrot box coming this week. I think it’ll get us out of the rut, maybe. I want to do more meal planning and make fabulous meals, but then I remember there are only 2 of us…it’s much easier to just roast some broccoli and make a frozen veggie burger, or open a can of beans.
Book wise: I haven’t mentioned much lately, so here’s what I’ve been reading:
The Inspector Brunetti Series by Donna Leon (I’ve read about 15 of these)
Glass Houses by Louise Penny, Inspector Gamache series (loved this series for the most part)
Troubled Blood by Robert Galbraith/JK Rowling: I like this series, even though I am upset by Rowling’s anti-trans stance. I checked it out from the library so I feel like it didn’t really help her out, but I am conflicted.
Maid by Stephanie Land. I’d watched the tv show and the book was more detailed and really made me think about how lucky I am and how we can treat workers better.
The Ungrateful Refugee by Dina Nayeri. Great read, about an Iranian women and her and her family’s experience immigrating as well as other refugees as well. Reading too many books like this can be overwhelming, but it makes you consider your privilege, what you could lose, and how other people are connected to you.
The Book of Lost Friends by Lisa Wingate. Good read , recommend.
Black Cake by Charmaine Wilkerson. Also enjoyed this one, recommend. (I don’t have to write a book report, use google 🙂 )
Book Lovers by Emily Henry. Quick read, predictable but delightful.
We Are Not Like Them by Christine Pride and Jo Piazza. Very good, recommend.
Ruth Galloway Mystery Series by Elly Griffiths. I’m 4 books in and really enjoying it.
TV: Barry–we finished Season 3 recently. Not as good as Seasons 1 and 2, but still enjoyable.
The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel: currently watching. It’s entertaining but starting to feel a little bit cliche, like the characters are developed beyond being actual people and are now just the most ridiculous parts of their personalities. Or it’s always been like that but I’m just in a darker place now?
Anatomy of a Scandal: I wanted to like this, and I did for parts, but overall eh, not recommend.
Oh, and we watched the new Borgen show, I forget the name, while traveling. Loved Borgen, loved the newest season taking place in Greenland as well as Denmark.
We could probably use some television recommendations, as it feels like Netflix isn’t hitting the mark anyway and the other apps are super annoying to browse. Right now we have Netflix, Apple, Amazon and HBO (too many probably!)
Oh, and we went to see Eugene Onegin by Tchaikovsky with Union Avenue Opera. I thought it was well done, but I didn’t love it. The first act was slow and I wish there could have been a bigger orchestra for some of the music. It was nice to see though, I’m always glad to see new things and I was unfamiliar with the opera.
I guess that’s it for now! I have some practicing to do. Oh, and stay tuned, I am still planning to recap our trip to Austin and tell you what we did there, but I just haven’t yet.
I thought I’d pop in to say hi, in the midst of telling you slowly about all of our travel! Also today is my brother Jesse’s birthday, so happy birthday to him!
We’ve been gone A LOT this summer, because after Norway we took a trip to Austin (another work conference for Louie) and then went to Chautauqua, New York to visit family again. I’ve squeezed in some teaching and gigs in between, but this week I’m more “back to normal” and happy for it.
My summer teaching schedule is lighter, and I’m staying organized this summer with My Music Staff, which helps me so much with scheduling and reminding students of their times, since the summer is totally random and in no way related to the fall schedule.
Gig wise I’ve got a bunch of performances this month which is super fun. I am playing Falstaff with Union Avenue Opera, a concert with Brahms A Minor Quartet with my quartet, three concerts of orchestral music with the Gateway Festival Orchestra, another concert with a flute group called Clover Isle at a retirement home, and my band is playing a show as well, and then I’m taking a break for a few weeks to have a surgery and recover before school starts.
It’s funny, having had COVID this summer, now I feel like the rest of the summer I don’t have to worry about COVID. I’m aware that isn’t entirely true, and that people don’t really know, but in a way it’s like, the worst has happened? Or at least, something I’d been dreading happened, and it was okay and we made it through. I think that people aren’t sure what to do or how to feel anymore, and on the internet it seems like people are either “woo hoo covid is gone for good” or “covid is never leaving and you are a fool and total jerk to not wear a mask at all times” and there is no grey area. I’m aware the internet is not the place for grey areas, but it seems to me the truth is obviously in between: this isn’t the same covid we were dealing with before, but perhaps for some it can still be deadly, but that’s way less common and most people are totally fine…and we can’t stay inside avoiding people forever because the mental health implications of that are real and dangerous too. But with the lack of nuance and gray area (gray, grey?) we can’t say, oh, NOW is a good time to wear your mask, because cases are rising, we have to say one or the other.
I’m rambling now, so I’ll move on.
We had our annual Sublette Park fireworks party Saturday night. It was low key: I suppose we didn’t give people much notice and our friend group has shrunk over the past few years due to our busy schedules, but it was a fun time and the weather was perfect. One of my friends brought a date so that was exciting, and we had some good food and good conversations. The fireworks show was better than in recent memory, and we still have fridge of leftover side dishes to enjoy for a few days until we tire of potato salad and pudding.
Friday night we went to a Wine Dinner at the Whittemore House at Wash U. It’s a monthly dinner with wine pairings for each course, and this was the second we have attended. We don’t always want to eat meat, but sometimes we make exceptions, and this was one, for two reasons. 1) It was a “Nordic Wine Dinner!” and 2) Our friend Ben was presenting the pairings. It was a wonderful evening of food, wine, and conversation.
After traveling I have to recalibrate myself to focusing on the day by day and appreciating that. It’s always a tough transition, as the life of sightseeing can be so fun and wonderful, yet also quite stressful. I enjoy trip planning so much, but then taking the trip is a little different. I read a quote about how you plan the trip, but then you have to take the trip in front of you instead of the trip you imagined beforehand, and that is SO TRUE. But then you have to return to the day-by-day, and even though instagram will torture you with beautiful pictures of scenery whenever you log on, and it’s not really torture, but it does make you wish you could travel half the time and didn’t have to work at all. But regular life is nice too, just teaching, being at home, seeing friends, watching shows on TV, cooking, making my own coffee (almost always better than coffee in a cafe), using the bathroom whenever you need to, etc.
In addition to our travels, we attended 3 Opera Theater St Louis Performances this season, two as part of the Young Friends (yes, we are still “young” in the eyes of opera, though not for long) and one as a treat from Louie’s mom. I particularly enjoyed the Magic Flute, which I had never heard nor played before!
The bows for the Magic Flute.Every year except during COVID they do a program book that is worth saving.
I’ve also been getting back into violin playing shape. As you might imagine, after being out of town approximately 1 month of the past 6 weeks, that means not feeling super at home on the violin. And then I did some yardwork too, which made my hands very tired, a bad combination! But the weeks ahead will be “normal” and will be nice to have.
My early morning job is done for the school year! It ended after a Monday, which is weird, and some of my colleagues seemed to not notice that us part-timers were done for the year and didn’t even say goodbye, but whatever, I’m on summer vacation! I celebrated by falling asleep before 11 pm and waking up at 6:30 am. Since then I’ve updated my website, paid bills, and enjoyed two cups of coffee.
My summer is really starting to fill up with teaching. I’d be happy to have a few more concerts or gigs, but my teaching schedule is looking great. I’m probably averaging 18-20 hours, which is plenty. I said goodbye to a high school senior last night at her lesson, as well as goodbye to an elementary school age student who is leaving lessons. I got to have lunch with a former college student yesterday, which was wonderful. It was great to hear how she is doing in grad school and in life, and I was touched that she contacted me to meet up during her short visit with friends.
I have been struggling with feeling like I’m missing out—I haven’t been playing as much lately, which is a somewhat conscious choice, but I still get twinges of jealously seeing what concerts others are up to. I remind myself we get one life and we can’t fit everything in! I would love to do it all, but I can’t have a busy teaching schedule, travel with Louie to his conferences, and play all the gigs. I just can’t. And I have played things lately, and it’s been fun, and there is more on the docket ahead, but it’s also okay to not play everything…I mean, you can’t play everything, not even a fraction of it!
I would like to do more high level playing, either a more serious chamber music concert (I miss our quartet playing regularly) or perhaps a solo recital that I can sink my teeth into. I was stressed over my new music concert in March, but it was nice to have something to dig in and really work on. I enjoy sightreading tremendously, but it doesn’t give that musical satisfaction in the same way. I have tossed a program around in my head, and I suppose I should really just get something on the books at Wash U…but then I also really enjoy reading in my spare time. I can’t decide if I’m tired, burnt out, or just need something ahead to inspire me. It may be all 3!
In any case, I’m thrilled to be on “summer break” from my school job (okay, except I still have to get grades in) and my college job (truly done!) and just have my private students and gigs to deal with for a few months. Since our weather finally got hot last week, it does indeed feel like summer.
It’s been a minute since I blogged! I’ve been busy, tired, and burnt out, so I haven’t had much to say. Cats, teaching, worrying, planning for summer travel.
We had our big spring concert at my school last night. It was fun to see everybody all together! It was interesting to see how many people are absolutely okay being in a room, maskless, with hundreds of people…including other teachers. I wear a mask teaching, and have all year long. One of the schools that the kids go to is mask required due to the high number of cases, but those kids don’t have to wear masks other than at their own school, because…that makes sense.
Nonetheless, I have not been that worried about it lately. I have enough other things to worry about, and I just keep my mask on for work related things, because I decided awhile back if I was going to get COVID it would be NOT at work, but from doing something fun, and I’m sticking with that. I also wear masks at concerts and that sort of thing, because we are sitting there for 1-2 hours, side by side.
I digress a bit though. I didn’t plan to go on about COVID in this “post-COVID” world we are in, but it happens. I’ve been working hard collecting information about summer schedules for students, and tomorrow is the day I make the schedule, and I’m thrilled. I’ve been a little worried about it, but worst case not everybody will get a lesson every week they wanted it. I’ve taken on some extra summer students, and some of them have a lot of flexibility and it’ll work well, but others it turned out have less time and wanted two lessons a week during a 4 hour time period, and…we’ll see how that goes. I have decided not to blame people for trying, and I have learned a few more things about this year.
Okay, so I paused there for two days…in the meantime I got my summer schedule figured out and published to the online portal I use, woo hoo! Miraculously it mostly worked out and there were only a few days where I couldn’t fit everyone in, but mostly those students didn’t want a lesson every week anyway. I am coming up on the last regular week of teaching, then a 4 days “makeup week” for lessons missed during the semester (some were mine) and then, OFF TO NORWAY!
I’ve got a lovely trip planned for Norway. We fly into Oslo, spend one night there, then we take the train to Bergen. It’s supposed to be a really scenic train ride. We spend 3 nights in Bergen and then take a ferry to Balestrand as part of the “Sognefjord in a Nutshell” tour. We spend two nights in Balestrand, and will take an afternoon ferry trip to Fjaerland and the Glacier Museum, then finish our Nutshell tour with a ferry to Flam, a scenic train through the mountains to Myrdal, and then a train back to Oslo. We spend over a week in Oslo for Louie’s conference, and have a few activities planned there as well: a bike tour together (just regular bikes, not ebikes), and then I have two solo day trips planned while he is in the conference: a round trip ferry to Drobak and Oscarsburg, south of Oslo, and a bus trip that goes to Hadeland Glassworks and Kistefos Museum in Jevnaker. We are also planning to attend a few concerts in Bergen since we are there during the Bergen International Festival and we have tickets for Swan Lake at the Oslo Ballet. We may need a vacation from our vacation, (tripadvisor seems to think this is a bad thing, but I don’t, if it’s a sightseeing vation rather than a beach vacation) but I am so excited!
COVID gives us some worries of course, and we have to present a negative test to return home, which I think is ludicrous, but nonetheless still currently the policy. Why do I think it’s ludicrous? Because we aren’t required to follow any other COVID guidelines in the US,(such as masking on planes) and it seems completely outrageous that our own country could keep us from entering based on having a virus that…plenty of people here already have. So hopefully we won’t get COVID while we are there, because that would be a huge pain(especially as we are headed to another conference one week later) but I can’t worry about everything all the time! Norway has no entrance testing or requirements so that’s not a concern going there.
So that’s what I’ve been up to: teaching, finishing the semester, trip planning, scheduling, etc. Last weekend I finally got out in the backyard to do some weeding. I’m not sure my gardening plans this year: I keep thinking I’ll plant some things, but it’s looking less likely for this summer. We have enough travel going on that it will make it challenging to stay on top of things, though I still like the idea of fresh beans and maybe zucchini. I suppose I should decide and if so, plant in the next week!
This is officially known as “crunch time” in our household. Louie got an email from his job about how “crunch time” was a small but natural part of the year and listed all sorts of ideas on how to maximize your time. In any case, we keep yelling “crunch time” at one another here and there…the issue is perhaps that crunch time seems to run from September to May, but particularly from after Spring Break (late March) to May.
My students: got their festival videos submitted. It was a slog this year, I felt. I’m not sure what I could have done to help more, but I felt like I had to remind people too many times. Oh well! And now there’s a recital in one week, which is great timing for those that just finished their recordings because they really know their stuff and should simply have fun, but for others seems fast after Spring Break.
I’m trying a new system for summer lesson signups, where they fill out a questionnaire with their summer availability and then I fill in the schedule afterwards. In theory this is a great idea, because I’m tired of teaching everyday in the summer all day with weird 30 to 60 minute gaps throughout the day, never enough time to actually do something useful, but enough teaching to feel like I worked all day for the equivalent of 3 to 4 hours pay. So I have a new plan, and hopefully it works out decently.
I worked through the weekend: two services on Good Friday, a lovely Passover dinner afterwards at Louie’s Mom’s house, teaching during the day on Saturday, attending a student recital at Wash U, and then a Saturday Night Easter Vigil (which was lovely, but very long), followed by an early morning wakeup call for three Easter services. I got home around 12:30 and spent the rest of the day wiped out. I even took a nap, which is unusual for me.
This week is stressful because I’ve got a thing on Wednesday for a medical procedure…I won’t go into details, but it’s nothing serious, just that you should make sure you get your annual exams so if there is anything wrong it can get fixed before it’s too late. I’m taking off work a bit, all of Wednesday, part of Thursday or all, Friday morning as well. I feel like it’ll somehow be a vacation which perhaps tells you how exhausted I am. It’s poor timing with the recital this weekend, but I don’t get to choose these things. I’m teaching a little extra today and tomorrow to make up for it, but also just missing some lessons. I built a makeup week into the schedule for the semester for reasons such as this.
I will say that changing up my teaching schedule to a monthly set fee has worked out well, but also been exhausting: I think I have ended up teaching more than ever! I do plan to continue, but in the fall I’m making each semester 1 week shorter, for my mental health. I’ve been feeling pretty run down lately: I am really looking forward to summer and taking some time for myself.
I haven’t even been taking any cat pictures lately! They are enjoying the catio (on the back porch, there’s a screened in place to hang out that they can access from inside, and not actually go outside, but be on a little cat porch) when the weather isn’t too cold, and they love when it’s nice enough to open the window entirely (I’ll try to get a picture of that next time it happens, maybe this week?).
The weather has been blah, overcast, chilly, rainy…I’m ready for warmer weather. I think that the weather is contributing to my general malaise, but it’s also just burnout and feeling underappreciated. Anyway! How is your week?
