I’ve been a union member for a long time. Currently I’m a member of the AFM Local 2-197, which is the musician’s union here, as well as a member of the SEIU Local 1, which is the union I belong to for my adjunct teaching. Unions certainly don’t solve all the problems in the world, and certainly many of the union jobs I play should pay more than they do, but being in a union is still better than not being in one, and we definitely have the labor movement to thank for so many things many take for granted, things like weekends (though as a musician, that isn’t a thing for us) and ending work on time and getting paid for overtime and more. So, Happy Labor Day!

I’m taking today off from teaching, ostensibly because everybody wants to have barbecues or cookouts on Labor Day and nobody wants violin lessons, but it’s a gloomy rainy day and nobody wants anything really. It’s my last day off before the craziness of September really hits.

I know you are all wondering, how did my first week back after surgery go? Pretty well. The first few days were the hardest and then I was super happy I had taken Saturday totally off again and really got to rest some more. Yesterday I had the first rehearsal for something since before, and it went okay too, though I realized I cannot yet move while playing in the way I might want to. My incisions are healing well, but the stuff on the inside is still healing and that’s what I still need to be careful of. I have been frustrated sleeping sometimes because I can’t yet lie comfortably on my stomach but I really want to sometimes. But all in all, everything is going well. I’m glad to be back to teaching again, and I am looking forward to a bit of a busy September.

Things that are happening: chamber music concert with friends, starting up college teaching this week, starting up before school classes NEXT week, and then adding two weeks of a musical at the Fox the following week. Once that’s done, I think October will be a bit less hectic…I have never played a Fox show while doing the early morning classes, and while I’m excited about it, I know it will require more coffee than I usually drink–I’ll be getting home between 10:30 and 11 (depends on the length of the show) and then getting up to be at the school to teach by 7:15 am. It’s only two weeks though, and only 6 days of doing both so I’m sure I’ll manage. There is a bit of dancing/choreography for the show, so if you go (Ain’t Too Proud at the Fox) look for the musicians onstage at the end!

Louie has been doing great things around the house lately, or I should say, outside. He has dug a few drains to help our house and garage stay drier. He has done a ton of yard work as I sit inside, recuperating, learning Norwegian or Spanish on Duolingo, and reading. He has also taken over my usual house chores such as laundry and grocery shopping, though hopefully not much longer. He has been invaluable to me during the last few weeks and I am so grateful to him for his assistance, love, and patience. (He doesn’t even read here!)

I’ve been catching up on my music reviews as well the past week. I write reviews for the American String Teacher Journal. Every few months I get a half dozen or so pieces in the mail (this totally varies) and I am supposed to write a review of them for the journal. I tend to leave them in a pile and ignore them until I’m right up against a deadline and then I quickly sit down and write a few and it really isn’t a big deal. I’m trying to clear out my pile (two down this month, two more remaining) by the end of September, which should be easy enough. It’s quite fun to see all the music being published and getting to have my say, and of course it’s always great to see my writing in print. (It is a volunteer position, though I get to keep the music.)

In honor of starting teaching my college students this week, let me share this tweet.

I started back my fall teaching yesterday. I only had a few students because I wanted to get started but I am still recovering from surgery so I didn’t want to work too much. This whole week is fairly light for that reason. I start up my college students next week, and my public school job the week after that.

But, summer is lovely, as I’ve said. Not necessarily the weather, because it is sometimes too hot. But you always know you can walk out the door without a jacket! And that things are more relaxed, schedule-wise, and people travel more, and with the extreme exception of really bad flooding, you know you can just get in your car and drive to where you want to go without worrying about snow or ice.

In other words, “winter is coming”. And we are on the path. I finished up my last student at 8 pm last night and for the first time in months, it was dark when I finished. Also, they aren’t kidding about feeling like you got hit by a train trying to do too much after surgery. I was literally doing a job where I am basically just sitting in a chair and I was utterly exhausted and luckily had a 30 minute break to lie down because I was not doing great. It’s okay, I think it would always have been hard getting back to it, but wow, I was exhausted, and anticipate today being difficult as well. But I digress!

I was talking with Louie about it, how I’m sad that summer is over. And he started pointing out the virtues of fall: crisp, cooler air, less humidity, leaves turning, exciting activities, etc. And it hit me.

This is why people get so excited about the Pumpkin Spice Latte. Because at least we have that. We may not have summer anymore, and we may not {technically} be in fall, but we have to have something. So let’s stop taking that away from people, okay? Life is hard enough.

Because also, as Louie pointed out, after fall comes Thanksgiving and Winter Break! It may be cold, but there are delicious desserts, wonderful events, and lots of fun. It will be a good fall semester, I am going to make sure of it.

I’ve got my fall schedule organized, everything set up online for scheduling and billing my students.

I’ve got rehearsals and concerts lined up for the fall. Plenty to do!

I’m going in for surgery on Wednesday, and then I’ll spend some time recovering.

It’s been a busy end of summer but mostly just getting things in order, going to some parties, cleaning the house, and running errands. I played enough concerts and shows in July and August to really feel like a performing musician again, and taught more students than ever before. We had some lovely meals out at the Whittemore House Wine Dinner and at the Lucky Accomplice. Louie defended his dissertation! I read lots of books and started learning Norwegian just for fun.

Things are good, and will be even better once I have this medical stuff behind me. Wish me luck!

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!

How was your weekend?