Can you believe it’s May already? What does May mean to you? For me May is the last month of school (this matters when you teach school children, even though I’m self employed and aren’t tied to a school schedule exactly) so that means recitals, missed lessons, lots of rescheduling…and USUALLY hot weather.

Not today though. I went for a run this morning wearing shorts and a long sleeve shirt! It was around 60 degrees, which is honestly beautiful weather for running—but strange for May. At least in my recollection. Then again, maybe it’s perfectly normal. In any case, it was a nice day for a run, and I’m glad I got it in before any rain.

So, the weekend was a busy one—I actually had some rehearsals and a performance, plus a cocktail hour. It was a lot of driving to Illinois and around, but I suppose there’ s a good sense of accomplishment Honestly, it’s nice to play with people rather than simply being at home practicing and teaching, so I’m always really glad to have work!

The storms on Saturday were pretty amazing—there was a complete double rainbow. My view from the car wasn’t as nice…but it was still pretty gorgeous. Unfortunately this view meant we were driving directly into the storm!

Let’s see: just a bunch of random stuff. Saturday night Louie and I ate dinner at Sapporo 2  and then went to the second show at Jazz at the Bistro to see a saxophone player named Melissa Aldana. Dinner was really good—we split a few things including Bibimbap with Sashimi, which was unique and delicious. The show was good—the crowd was pretty chill and quiet (I was exhausted so maybe everybody else was too) but Melissa played well. She looked a bit like April from Parks and Rec and had a unique weirdness about her, but it only added to the charm and the fun of the show. I’d definitely see her play again!

Other happenings mostly include hanging out with and taking care of these ridiculous pets.

The next two weeks are pretty busy, and then it’s a week of family and hiking in Phoenix, Sedona, and the Grand Canyon. I can’t believe I’m really looking forward to camping, but I am. We are staying with my sister for a few days, camping for a few days (reread this blog post to see what I daydream about some days), another few days with Leslie (and my NIECE) and then home. This coming weekend Louie and I are planning a big hike in order to “train”.

I’m one of those people who loves planning. I love grand, elaborate plans, excitement, and breaks from routine. It’s part of why the freelance life appeals to me—every day can be different! But teaching can be much the same: every Monday might be the same. So it can get me down a little bit, and I think the past few months have been a bit of slog for me. Nothing against ANY of my students, but it’s more when you put it all together. I think I’ve been doing a bit more complaining here than I should, and I need to embrace things as they are, and I do indeed realize how lucky I am . 

(Lucky that is, if you like the smell of cat urine and enjoy giving twice-daily insulin shots to a cat )

And with that, I’m off. Things to do before I start teaching, as always! Looking forward to a good week.

How many colds do you get a year? I think I usually get two, one around NOW and one in October. I turn into a whiny mess, sometimes going around the house uttering, why me? I thought I had gotten away with a mild cold over the Easter weekend, but I was mistaken and by Saturday evening last I had a horrible sore throat. That night I slept very poorly, kept waking up drenched in sweat, even had dreams about running with sweat poring down my face! Anyway, that nixed our ideas of going south to hike at Pickle Springs and Hawn State Park (soon!) and instead I spent the day at home…but had enough energy to do my taxes. Yay.

So that’s where we are. Still recovering, feeling kinda lousy, trying to soldier through as best as I can, while having at least finished my taxes (and I overpaid, which means I overestimated my income last year, but whatever, still winning in some way!)

I haven’t taken too many pictures lately, so this will be a text only post. There are now TWO dogs at the house (yay, Mackenzie’s brother from the same litter Banjo is here) and things are a bit crazy in that sense!

On a personal note, I’ve decided to do some volunteering, or at least, signed up for a training session at the Clowder House. It’s a place where cats live, lots and lots of them, after their owners can no longer take of them (there is a charge for this service) and I’ll learn more about it in a few weeks.

Professionally it seems I will be joining the board of a local music teachers association. I’ve had a little more time on my hands during the day that I wanted, and I find if I practice more than 2 hours it can be counterproductive, so when I got an email about looking for people to serve, I responded. It’s that easy, I guess! I am looking forward to some new challenges and experiences with my volunteer positions. Of course I’m always looking for more work, but it is harder to fill my daytime hours than my afternoon/evening and weekend hours…always my complaint. Then again, I suppose other people have the opposite problem? I never know!

This weekend I am, assuming I feel slightly better, running the Go St Louis 7K race. I had been signed up for the half (I got a discount registration quite some time ago) but dropped down when I found myself more interested in hiking on the weekends than doing long runs. So a 7K seems perfect, and it’s a course I haven’t run before—it goes across several bridges and should be a lot of fun.

In any case, that’s pretty much it for now. I thought I’d just pop in in case you guys thought I forgot about you

Oh, and we got takeout Friday night from Lona’s Li’l Eats in Fox Park, YUMMY, so much vegetarian goodness (and was a gift certificate from a student, excellent) and leftovers the next day two. Thursday night we went to Publico for the second time—it was delicious and we split an entire fish, which was quite fun, but it is pricey and less filling than you’d think, plus so many dishes have meat. I am really becoming one of those people, aren’t I? (It took becoming a 95 percent pescatarian to understand how being on a restrictive diet feels, sometimes you want CHOICES, not just limitations and one dish to choose from…and sometimes you wonder if people could cook with less meat if they gave it a bit more effort. This is not a criticism of Publico so much as a criticism of MOST restaurants in St Louis.)

Anyway. Not going to lecture, because I still eat meat on occasion. But just thinking out loud!

I voted again this morning. We here in St Louis had another election today, only a few weeks after the primaries. Civic duty starts to feel like a real job sometimes!

I feel like time is just flying by. I’ve probably said that before. We all say it. It seems like it was just Thanksgiving, and now it’s nearly spring break! (As a self-employed violin teacher, technically there isn’t a spring break, but since I teach kids and have a boyfriend who is on an academic calendar, there is a spring break.)

I guess it’s part of aging. We all feel it, we all see it. The years go by so much faster as we get older.

In any case, it means (to me at least) that my time is MORE valuable, that I must guard it and use it wisely, and plan properly. Though I read yesterday that planning fun activities takes away the fun. I don’t know if I agree with that, but maybe it’s because I mostly plan fun activities! It’s interesting though, and I wonder, how does one make time for fun activities to happen spontaneously without planning for them? (Help!)

I got a keyboard! I got it from a colleague for a good price. It’s good enough for my needs at this time, which are mostly to accompany my students in their lessons. We’ve had a lot of fun the past two days playing with it, and I’m so happy I reached out to my facebook friends about this. I posted on facebook about wanting to borrow or buy a keyboard and got many wonderful responses. The power of social media! In any case, though I’d love a real piano at some point, it just isn’t practical at this time, both in terms of space and maintenance costs (in order to accompany my students it would need to be in tune and in good condition at all times). And though I’ll probably upgrade to a larger keyboard at some point, again, this one is just perfect for now. I found a copy of Bach’s Well Tempered Clavier and have been working through those—I read a blog where the author plays one each day or week or something, and it sounded fun, until you get to the third one which is in C sharp major and my brain might have literally exploded.

This week has been pretty relaxing. I’ve spent hours practicing both violin and keyboard, and have been able to stay on top of my to do list pretty well. Yesterday Louie and I popped into the Art Museum during the day for lunch and to see some art, and it was a really nice diversion. Sometimes I feel stressed out trying to relax during the day (if that makes sense…it’s hard to relax, even when you know you have enough time to do so) but I think doing that sort of thing could be really nice in the future. The lunch was nice too, and we split a cupcake from Jilly’s Bakery.

I love looking at the decorative furniture, vases, platters, lamps and such at the Art Museum. Wouldn’t this stained glass look nice in my home?

Anyway, today is a light (ish) teaching day, and then I have two days off. Tomorrow I’ll be running the St Patrick’s Day Race downtown with my friend April (shout out! do I have to say my friend April, I’ve mentioned her enough here that I probably don’t, but whatever, in case you say, huh, who’s that?) and then Louie and I have a short list of things to do around the house (donate some more junk, make a staircase out of cardboard boxes for Chloe) and maybe we’ll see a movie or something crazy like that.  Suggestions? Didn’t we just have a weekend? Or did I work three straight weeks? I can’t even remember anymore…

I am a big fan of making plans. I’m almost as good at following through on plans, and less good at changing plans without getting grumpy.

I was thinking about this as I’m on the computer planning a few things, some fun, some work-related. I feel like I am constantly researching and making new plans in my line of work, and it’s absolutely necessary if I want to keep playing concerts and being a good violin teacher.

More fun, however, is planning vacations. Louie and I realized that we are (most likely) in the same lucky position we were in last summer where we are able to take a longer vacation, if we keep it cheap. We have more time than money in the summer, so we are (again!) looking at a multi-week road trip. I’ve started the planning, because camping in National Parks can require plenty of advance notice. Since we are visiting Phoenix/Sedona/Grand Canyon in May, we are looking at Colorado/Utah/New Mexico in August. I’m already completely thrilled and diving into itinerary planning. I’ve learned a few things from planning last summer’s trip, and mostly it went really well, which tells me that I need to do much the same with a few tweaks.

Of course I worry about the pets while we travel. Though I’ve gotten a little better…things are ok-ish right now, status quo, nothing new to report.

I’m sleepy today. The weather is nice and warm, though lots of rain is in the forecast (fingers crossed for the St Pat’s Race on Saturday). The weekend was busy as I warned you all, but went well. The symphony concert on Saturday night was wonderful (heard a new piece by Tchaikovsky, Overture to Hamlet, and realized that Autumn Leaves must have been inspired by it) and we hung out with friends before and after. We’re trying to decide whether to buy a subscription for next season or just go a la carte on tickets. Random thoughts, I know.

In between starting and finishing this blog post I might have found a used keyboard to purchase. I haven’t owned a piano or keyboard of my own, and it would be lovely to be able to accompany my students in order to prepare them for recitals and things. I’m going to look at it tomorrow and fingers crossed it looks good. I used to be a decent pianist though I haven’t really played in a few years now, since my school closed. I don’t have very good technique and avoid the pedal like mad, but I can hit the notes and play well enough, especially if the music is easy. Maybe I’ll practice and get better!

So those are my random Tuesday thoughts. How is your week going so far?

I ate an early lunch. Often I try to hold off on lunch until at least 1 pm, since we generally eat a late dinner. (People are surprised by this, that I don’t eat dinner until I finish teaching, but I enjoy a relaxed dinner, knowing the day’s work is done. Often I go to bed directly after dinner, other times I watch a show on TV, or take the dog for a walk.)

So now I have a couple hours until I teach. Well, two. I’m debating on whether I should practice—I have opera tonight and my arms are feeling a bit creaky, so I’ll probably just play some things for tomorrow’s concert (new music thing) and some technique stuff (scales, etudes).

It’s been a busy but great week. One thing that I’ve been wanting to do for a long time finally happened this week: we hired a housekeeper! He will come  (housekeeper is his term, because he considers that he doesn’t just clean but he really keeps the house nice) every two weeks, and I couldn’t be happier after the first visit. I hate cleaning. I really hate it. And Louie does too. And we are both very busy, so we most would just end up arguing over who was doing more housework, and we had different styles—he’s a “focus on one thing and really make it clean” sort of person and I’m a “clean as fast as possible in a haphazard way” and as a result, the house was always on the verge of being taken over by dog fur. So this expense is a definite necessary splurge for us. We are looking forward to being able to spend our free time doing other things around the house (organizing, purging, and ultimately, remodeling?) rather than cleaning, or at least, stressing out over cleaning.

More time to do things that I enjoy…like running? (I look more like I’m dying than having fun, but that’s the beauty of it?) And making music, and reading and writing and staying on top of everything else. Like taking the pets to their appointments and all that. 

This weekend is full of activity, some work, some marginally work related, and some fun. Tonight I have an opera performance, tomorrow I’m playing at a composition workshop/concert, tomorrow night we are going to the Symphony, and Sunday I have lunch with a colleague to discuss future performing plans, then another opera performance, and then dinner with opera colleagues to celebrate being done. So it’s a mix of work and fun, as always, and I know that in the moment and looking back, days full of fun and interesting activities make me happier and more fulfilled than days watching TV on the couch, as tempting as it can be! Especially since I hear House of Cards is out…then again, I’m TIRED of politics…

The pets…they don’t worry about getting time to relax!

I’m trying to just take it easy about the animals, and not worry all the time. Chloe is difficult to deal with sometimes (the urination problems continue), and hard to handle—literally as we worry about her skin– but I have to remind myself we are doing our best, and that her life is still worth living as she likes to sit right by me, she likes to sleep with me, she loves eating. End of life care for pets is much harder than the rest of life, but it doesn’t mean it isn’t worth it, for all of us.

Mackenzie is doing a little better after another course of steroids, but I thought yesterday she might have been getting a little itchy. We had a great time out on a run earlier today—I don’t run fast enough for her but I’m trying to teach her that slow and steady…well, doesn’t WIN the race, but still finishes. It’s possible she is starting to grow some hair back, and it definitely seems that for now (knock on wood) she isn’t losing MORE hair. Poor thing.

So that’s it, my typical blog post…work, pets, running, trying to make life better, as always. What are you up to?