It’s been a busy weekend!

I mean, not by pre-pandemic standards. But by my new “weekends” free standards: I had a gig last night AND this afternoon.

I played with a small group at a retirement community (The Gatesworth) last night. After that Louis heated up our Valentine’s Day Dinner: it was a meal from the faculty club at Wash U, the Whittemore House. We joined the club sometime in the past year, and they’ve been doing various takeout events, where you pick up food and drinks (sometimes) and then go home and you can heat it up to eat later. The previous owner of Stellina is the chef at the Whittemore house, so the food is tasty. We had agnolotti, short ribs and root veggies, and then chocolate cake for dessert.

I had a wedding this afternoon, which was perfectly nice. I feel tired…I’ve been pretty tired this whole spring semester so far, and I suppose it’s from getting up early, working too hard, all of that. I am not quite sure what to do about it, other than trying to get to bed early. I think I am more burnt out than anything…I’m not sure if I should resign from my early morning job at the end of the school year because it’s been so exhausting doing that and teaching, or if the exhaustion is unrelated and it’s simply…exhaustion from the pandemic, the worries, the stress, all of that. I find myself unable to simply live and forget what is going out around us.

I’ve been enjoying watching the figure skating, of course, though I’m pretty upset about the fact that one of the Russian skaters was caught doping and yet is continuing to be allowed to compete, and in fact, why was competing in the first place when she had failed the drug test over a month ago? I get so angry how there are people who just keep breaking the rules and other people who never get to break even one rule without getting extremely severe consequences (thinking of the track and field athlete in the summer who got disqualified for smoking weed).

I feel like my life is just one week after another, counting down the days until? I think the winter weather is getting to me, and spending too many weekends at home without social interaction. Too much of my social life was tied up with working on the weekends, I guess. But I’m also not super comfortable with groups of people, and I’m not convinced the pandemic is quite over yet, and I still don’t want to get COVID, so I don’t know quite what to do.

This is just me with a bit of the Sunday blues, I suppose. I guess I’ll fold some laundry and read for a bit more, or something. There’s no shortage of books to read, that’s for sure!

I leave my house for my morning job around 6:35 am/6:40 am and I tell you what, 7 degrees sure is cold at that hour. That’s what I was dealing with yesterday. I came home after that, and towards mid afternoon I was feeling really cold so I turned up the heat at my house and also got into bed for a bit to try to warm up. Those were great ideas, and then I felt good enough to finish my teaching week.

I taught my morning improvisation class this morning (it’s online, though maybe someday it won’t be) and now we are planning to head out for a hike soon, after it gets just a bit warmer outside. I don’t have anything scheduled until Monday, which is fantastic.

It was a good week. Short because of MLK day, which helped, even though only two hours of work was canceled, isn’t that crazy? But I had a nice time with the students all week: holidays are fun, but it’s also nice to be in the groove of, see you next week, and the week after, and so on, and knowing that you can keep teaching them regularly and they’ll make progress (hopefully) if they are practicing.

I got asked to play a few pieces on a New Music Festival in March, and I decided to agree. It gives me a new challenge and an incentive to practice more regularly. I have already gotten into the groove now of practicing 15 to 20 minutes a day, which is way more than I’ve been doing. I have a few other things I need to learn as well, so I might end up practicing more as the next few months progress. It’s nice to have a few things on the calendar to work towards, though it’s also nice not to have too many, as teaching is pretty much all-encompassing.

I think I’ve got my college teaching schedule set and it worked out pretty well. The semester is looking good and promising. We are still up in the air on our summer plans due to factors, but I have a few things simmering, and at least one of them will work out. Next summer Louie will be done with his doctorate so we are thinking about planning a 3 to 4 week road trip then. The only thing to consider is the cats: that’s a long time for them to be on their own…we’ve done two weeks and that was long for them. But we’ll figure it out.

I still have to take down my Christmas Tree. That will get done this weekend. Or else it has to stay up all year then.

One thing that COVID has really given us/taken from us (depending on your mindset) is that you can’t make real plans, be that travel, concerts, social plans, meal plans, etc. We had plans to see the St Louis Symphony last weekend but they canceled it due to COVID. I go to the grocery story and have a meal plan, but sometimes I have to switch it up. (Though that hasn’t happened much lately, unless I’m looking for bucatini pasta, which is rare.) Social plans are up in the air, and you feel like it’s a lose-lose–after so long it feels so necessary to see friends, yet seeing friends is a risk…I personally still don’t want to get COVID but at this point at least 25 percent of my students have had it (this is a quick estimate, not official) and therefore I feel like it’s inevitable, even though I continue to take reasonable precautions. I am not special, and I do my own grocery shopping, and we have continued to do a few in person things, because, and let me be honest, I am tired of having work be the biggest risk in my life, and if I get COVID I want it to be because somebody else did my dishes that night or because I visited with a friend.

COVID besides, I had a lovely weekend. It snowed Friday night into Saturday morning and so Saturday was a “stay in” day and I spent it reading the latest Outlander Novel. I’ve been rereading the earlier Outlander books in the series since mid December or so, and I finally finished the new book yesterday midday. Sunday was a cold day but sunny so we went for a nice walk around Forest Park. There were muddy places, but nothing too bad. Sunday night we had dinner with Louie’s parents, who we hadn’t seen since before Christmas. I’m teaching as normal this week, and have another free weekend coming up…

College classes start virtually: I’m writing this currently as Louie is teaching a class from home, and I’m starting my students next week. We are back in person then after that, so that will be nice. I am working on setting up my schedule, and I think I’ve got it for now…it’s always a struggle and every semester is different. I love teaching the college students, but scheduling is my least favorite part of the job.

As far as my mask dilemma a few posts back, I decided to order some KN94 masks in black to wear, but I’m still waiting for them to arrive. So we will see how those work out, when they get here.

That’s it for now! How is your January ticking by?

It’s been a busy month, but in a good way!

I’ve realized that when I don’t hang out with musicians as much I don’t experience the whole FOMO about gigs and stuff. Musicians are always, oh are you playing the such and such on Sunday and then you feel like if you aren’t that you should be, and that can turn into a vicious cycle. I’ve played so many gigs here and there and everywhere, and they all run together…spending a Saturday morning rehearsing with yet another church choir can be perfectly fine, but it’s not what I spent my childhood practicing for!

In any case, I’ve been busy doing all manner of holiday things plus the usual teaching up a storm.

Last weekend we finished celebrating Hanukkah. We found it tough to fit in lighting the candles each night after work, but it forced us to give that time, to stop working, to relax, and to sit together with the lights. I teach from early until late, and Louie works all day as well, hoping to finish his doctorate by the end of next summer, and weekdays are long as a result.

We attended a Jazz at the Bistro show with Keyon Harrold. It was packed, which is both fun and a little scary, as always. (They require vaccination OR a negative covid test, but that doesn’t guarantee anything, does it?)

Work wise, we did “open house” all last week at my before school job, which meant that each day some parents were there and the kids performed solos for them. This is no small feat, and very exciting and stressful for the students, to perform a short piece from memory in front of a group of people! Though I have some things to work on in my group teaching, I was overall pleased with how my students did.

Other happenings this week: we went to see A Christmas Carol at the Rep on Thursday night. I really enjoyed the production! I don’t think I’ve ever seen the play live, and it was a lot of fun. I only took one photo there, but it was very interesting, because I didn’t realize that so many of our traditions come from Victorian England. Or, that is, I probably did know but forgot, as I am prone to do.

It was fun to see a few actors I knew from my Runaway Cupcake days as well.

Saturday morning I attended a party that a student’s mom invited me to. I went with my friend who is their piano teacher, and we stayed for a bit. It was mostly outside and was a hot chocolate/cookie decorating party. I took home a small box of cookies to decorate and enjoyed chatting and eating spinach mushroom quiche baked in bread.

We had friends over Saturday night for eggnog tasting. I’ve made 4 batches of eggnog over the past year–if you add enough alcohol it will keep in the fridge indefinitely. It wasn’t a super scientific process, but the overall favorite was this recipe, which I made in January. I used Jim Beam Bourbon, Grand Marnier, and Xo VSOP Brandy instead of cognac. The second favorite overall was this recipe, made in October, though I don’t know which rum I used, I think whatever I had on hand. The other two batches were the same recipe from Serious Eats, from July and November, and while everybody liked them as well, they just weren’t the favorites. I suspect the Grand Marnier recipes had a bit more oomph, and the longer aged one with spices was just more complex and delicious. We have more eggnog left so we may do the testing again on a few more people, but the basic gist was that aged eggnog is tasty!

We also ate goodies: cheese ball, nuts, latke cookies, and so much more. I have been lax on my picture taking lately and I didn’t get a photo of a whole tray of cookies I put together (sad face) but you are probably tired of cookie photos anyway. We took a break from snacking to attend the Garden Glow at the Botanical Gardens, which was very well done. It was a nice night for it: cold but not so cold that wearing a coat and hat didn’t keep you warm enough.

Coming up this week is the last full week of teaching, woo hoo! No specific holiday festivities planned this week, but I have a concert this weekend my quartet is playing on (with the St Louis Chamber Chorus).

Today is a day off. I’m enjoying a slow start, a relaxing day, and planning another batch of cookies before starting to package them up for gifts. (I wrote gifting first and then said, what, no, no, I’m not doing that.)

I thought, hmm, haven’t blogged in awhile, but I feel uninspired to do so. I’ve been doing a fair amount of writing outside of the blog (some music reviews, a class assignment) and perhaps that is covering my wanting to write urges. Also, I’m tired, have had some headaches, and we’ve had Louie’s dad visiting the past few days.

I thought I should stop by and say hello in case you thought I’d forgotten about this space. October has been a bit more difficult than I’d thought, but it’s going okay, just busier and more emotional. My class job has been wringing me out, with two kids crying yesterday and me feeling like letting them feel like that was against what I wanted for my class and feeling like I failed them. I continually remind myself that class teaching is not something I’ve been doing a long time and I am learning along the way much more than in one on one teaching, and that I need to let myself be bad at it sometimes, but the thing is: if I’m bad at it then I’m failing the kids. I also know they were probably just tired and they wanted to move on and they weren’t ready quite yet, and I hope I consoled them well.

My weekends have been busier than I wished for, but I’ve been feeling useful which is worth something, and we did get out for a nice hike at Castlewood State Park on a nice day in between rainy days. I love Castlewood, but it gets so busy on the weekends, so it’s better to go during the week if possible.

This weekend has a few activities, including the Arch Cup for my students. Usually I attend, but this year I am unable to, so I’m excited to hear how they do without me hand holding them through it. I’m trying to push them to be more independent and I think they can handle it. The Arch Cup is in person OR online, so some students submitted videos already and others will be playing live, which is scary for them and I’m excited.

I got my COVID booster shot, Pfizer. I debated for a little while whether I should wait for various reasons, but ultimately decided that since I interact up close with a lot of younger, unvaccinated students it was for the best. I can’t teach violin without touching students and getting up close, and even though they wear masks, their mask usage is imperfect because they are children.

I just bought tickets for the Great Artists Series at Washington University this spring. I am thrilled for all the live concert events we have on the schedule. You know I mean classical and jazz shows, as that’s my style, but I’m thrilled for you if you are attending any live music events as well. I am always excited to show my vaccination card to any venue that wants to see it as I believe vaccination is our path back to “normal” and that we need to continue to work towards that goal. There was a time in my life where I played more concerts than I attended, but I absolutely love going to concerts with Louie now. I attend far more concerts than I play, and I learn from them and I enjoy them. I missed live music during the pandemic, and even though technically we are still in the pandemic, live music is back due to vaccines and it’s great!

Oh and we got a new stove! It’s an induction stovetop with an oven that can do convection and air fry. I haven’t baked anything yet but plan to do pumpkin bread and maybe fruitcake this weekend. I’m planning to do my own fruitcake this year just because and it needs to age 6 to 8 weeks before eating. And I have a few new pumpkin bread recipes to try: I have a tried and true one that I love but I’ve made it so many times over the years that I’ve been branching out to try new kinds. I’ll keep you posted.

What are you up to? Have you been apple picking or pumpkin patching? I have not, but it seems that many of my friends have been and it looks like it would be fun if it weren’t 90 degrees.