I’m nearly to my first weekend post Funny Girl and it’s going to be great! We are having some friends over for dinner on Saturday night–doing our go to of fish tacos, since we haven’t made them yet for these particular friends, so it should be low stress and fun. Sunday we have a short quartet concert in the afternoon and then I know Sunday night for many is the Super Bowl, but we aren’t big football fans here, so it’ll probably be dinner and watching something on Netflix. We started Griselda the other day so maybe that if we haven’t finished it yet.

It’s been a good week overall. I had an orchestra rehearsal last night for a group I play with: we are doing Tchaikovsky Romeo and Juliet and Mendelssohn’s Midsummer Night’s Dream along with some other stuff, and it was fun to play in a big group. My real love is orchestral playing, and I rarely get to do it, so it’s always nice.

The weather this week has been mild and lovely, and either we are going to seriously regret this in the summer, or it’s a nice respite, and I guess I’m saying nice weather in early February makes me a little nervous, but I’m still trying to appreciate it. If it hangs around for Saturday we’ll get out for a hike or trek in the park or something at least.

I haven’t been taking any interesting photos, sorry, so assume my cats are doing cute things. Miles has become more friendly and has started coming out to say hello to some of the students, which is a truly astounding thing: he has been so shy and his typical MO is to hide, so coming out to say hello is really exciting for everybody!

We had a meeting of the neighborhood movie club this week. Due to my schedule being tight, we attended on Zoom, which wasn’t as fun but it was less stressful and we enjoyed discussing Godzilla Minus One (perhaps a strange movie for a movie club, you might think, but it was really good with many layers and things to discuss.) It’s fun to have a little group, even though we are the youngest in the group…we won’t always be the youngest, so it’s probably fine to still be in that number.

How are you doing? Does nice weather make you nervous for the future? Any big plans for Valentine’s Day?

We got some snow last night!

This was the view from my bedroom window when I woke up. You can see there is a little snow, just enough make it look really wintry.

Louie is finishing up his “J Term” class this weekend. He’s been teaching every day since December 27, and tomorrow is the final exam. That means I’m just hanging around the house today: it’s cold and snowy, so why go anywhere? So far I’ve taken down the majority of Christmas decorations: I left up the trees as I’ll get his help with those (it’s a 2 person job) and the wreath outside and the window candles. Otherwise, ornaments, nutcrackers, and other random decor is in boxes and either down in the basement or awaiting that trip.

I do tend to get a few new items each year, but I also think next year I may have to get rid of a few things: there were definitely some decorations I chose not to put up this year, so I put those in a separate box…mostly…with the thought that when I decorate next year I will decide if I want to use them or maybe give them away. My Christmas decoration storage grows so much that I probably should try to pare down, especially if there are non-heirloom decorations I no longer like or plan to use.

In any case, tonight is my last Christmas concert, thus ending the season. That’s part of why I left up the outdoor lights: I want to see them one more time returning home from work, ha! Very festive of me.

I didn’t mention my Phoenix trip too much: I had a nice visit with my sister Leslie and her family. We went to the Zoo Lights, the Phoenix Symphony New Years’ Eve concert, the McCormick-Stillman Railroad Park in Scottsdale, and some other random places. We had some good food: Thai and Mexican, in addition to some amazing home cooked meals, desserts, and drinks. It was great to see everybody and especially the kids, as they are STILL GROWING, so fast, I can’t believe it!

Anyway, it’s an exciting month ahead: this weekend I’m finishing un-decorating, maybe going to see a friend play a concert/show on Sunday evening, brunch with a friend, concert tonight. Louie is finishing up his class so I won’t see too much of him, but then he’ll have a week off before the semester starts. This coming week is back to teaching, but not college teaching yet. We are also doing a wine dinner at the Whittemore House, the neighborhood movie club (we watched Rustin last night in preparation) and I’m getting ready for two chamber music concerts on Saturday. One is free and open to the public, and the other is at a retirement community.

Then (perhaps a little TMI, but oh well)…it’s time to prep for my first colonoscopy! Yes, friends, I’m having my first colonoscopy the following week. I am…not excited, yet, it’s still a new experience, so it’s kind of interesting, I guess? I expect to have a really not terrific day, and then enjoy relaxing and eating normally the day after. Also consider this your PSA that you need to make sure you are getting your suggested preventative tests and such. I know there’s that other option for the test, but my doctor thought that the actual colonoscopy was better so that’s what I decided to do. Hopefully all is in order!

After that, there’s another chamber music concert, and then it’ll be time for two weeks of Funny Girl at the Fox Theatre. I’m doubling violin/viola and it’ll be a lot of fun, but exhausting. That will bring us into February, which is where I’ll stop telling you stuff right now. The spring looks to be busy (of course, I’m always busy) but full of a lot of fun and interesting activities. And I’m looking forward to seeing students again this coming week, so there’s that.

I’m a few days belated, but I’ve been out of town and just got back this afternoon. I hope this is a good year for you!

I have been catching up and getting ready to work tomorrow. I have early morning class and a rehearsal, easy enough day. I hadn’t played violin in nearly a week so I spent an hour or so practicing after unpacking from my trip and repacking my backpack for my class tomorrow.

I also am writing this because I learned that some people aren’t getting the RSS feed anymore. I did something and perhaps this will work, but otherwise, hmm. How do you read this blog and get updates? Comment and let me know!

And here we are, already into December, again. Wasn’t it just December? Won’t it be December again soon?

I left off with the great disappointment of not having the Thanksgiving I was planning. They say life is what happens while you are busy making plans, but the truth is, you make plans, sometimes they work out really well, and other times you have to adjust. I was sad that my parents couldn’t visit, but Louie and I made the best of the situation. We raked leaves to the curb, revealing our yard for the first time in months. We did various house projects. We slept in, we read, we relaxed. It was wonderful. Oh, and I cooked and baked. And on Saturday he tested negative and his family decided to risk it and come over for the meal we were planning to have on Thursday. (As of today nobody has gotten sick from this meal to our knowledge, so that’s good.)

Louie took the picture, so he wasn’t in it. We also got a new tree for the downstairs, pre lit, and it’s a lot of fun.

Oh, there’s Louie! With his mom, stepdad, and brother.

A closeup of some of the food. Most of it was vegan, but not the turkey or gravy.

We had a nice dinner, and LOTS of leftovers! Louie and sent some with his family, and we ate leftovers for days. I thought the turkey turned out amazing (I dry brined it, which means I rubbed salt all over it, along with some lemon zest and spices, and then let the skin dry out, then cooked it to just under 165 all over and pulled it out and let it rest for awhile) and we enjoyed those leftovers for a long time. I made broth in the crockpot from the carcass and that’s in the freezer.

So that brings us to December holidays. We did a little decorating before the dinner, and then I did a lot of decorated the next day. It’s been fun decorating a new house! I had purchased some things on clearance last year after the holidays, knowing I would have more space to use, so I was excited to pull them out. We have a variety of things that have lights on timers that come on at night, and all of our Christmas tree lights (TWO TREES) are voice activated. And so far the cats haven’t done too much destruction, though they do enjoy watching the lights and wrestling on the white tree skirt.

It may seem a little extra to have two trees, but I wanted something downstairs AND in my teaching room. The tree in the teaching room is pretty old and the cats have done some damage over the years, but it works well in the corner. The other tree is new and I hope will last for many more years. We have the storage space now (the basement is roomy) so it made sense. I also put (battery operated, on a timer) candles in our front facing windows so I am sort of decorating the street. I may leave those up into January as well, to help with the winter gloomies.

My friend April sent me this picture of her house. Their neighborhood is having a contest and doesn’t her house look amazing!!!???!!!

And of course, some cat shenanigans. I know many of you are only here for that.

This week is a marathon: it’s open house week for my morning school, which means the students perform for their parents each morning (starting at 7:30 am, we arrive much before that!) plus I have four performances this weekend: Friday night a choir concert at Missouri Baptist University including Vivaldi’s Gloria, Sunday morning the Perseid Quartet is at Third Baptist, Sunday afternoon I play with the Cor Jesu choir, and Sunday night the Masterworks Chorale plays Handel’s Messiah. In addition to the concerts, there are rehearsals, so many lessons (last week of Wash U classes!) and a neighborhood party on Saturday afternoon.

None of the concerts will be particularly stressful or difficult, other than I hope to not be too tired to manage. I think the key will be getting to sleep as early as a can and not wasting too much time scrolling. This is definitely the “worst” week for scheduling: the following week starts crazy, but tapers off and ends up with some wonderful days to do some baking.

And with that, I’m off for chores and fun. I only have one student today and the rest of the day will be filled with home chores (laundry mostly) , hopefully a nice walk outside, and I’m not sure what else. We were going to go out to dinner with a friend but they might be sick so either we will go out alone or just cook at home. What are you up to this week? Is your December really busy so far? If you aren’t a musician, do you go to concerts in December?

Sigh.

It’s so easy to start forgetting about COVID, isn’t it?

So I was really excited about hosting Thanksgiving and having my parents visit for the week!

Louie had a cold over the weekend: he was feeling a little under the weather on Thursday or Friday, but just a cold feeling. He took two at home COVID tests as well, both negative and by Monday he was feeling back to normal. Then, he woke up Tuesday morning feeling sick again, and figured he’d better test again, since that was strange. Yep. COVID.

My parents had already headed out, so I called them, and they made the decision (best decision for them) to turn around, since he was sick, I was exposed, and we were supposed to be hanging out all week. It was the worst feeling. I just felt so sad to miss their visit (still do!) and guilty that they had to spend the day driving and wished Louie had taken a test first thing in the morning rather than waiting a little thinking he might just be reacting to the dry air in the house (he started feeling worse over the course of the day, to be fair.)

I had just picked up the turkey, making the final arrangements for a Thanksgiving dinner for 9.

So, now I have some days off stretching ahead of me, but it doesn’t seem fun at all, just disappointing. We are going to see if we can postpone the dinner until Saturday and maybe take that chance if Louie texts negative and I’m not symptomatic. Either way, the plan is to have the dinner ready on Saturday, and then either have the dinner or have takeout boxes for everybody to share.

I had planned the meal for several days of leftovers with my parents as well, so I may leave off one or two dishes. Some of the groceries will last longer than others, so things could be postponed. It’s also possible, though I think less possible, just because I had it much more recently than Louie, that I’ll get COVID too. Who knows, maybe I already had it asymptomatically and gave it to Louie!

Truthfully, I’ve been around quite a few people who were recovering from “colds”. And maybe they were, or maybe that “cold” isn’t what they think it is. And for many people, getting COVID isn’t a huge concern, but for some people it definitely still is. And then getting it certainly disrupts your life! So it’s still here, 3 years later, and still ruining holidays.

Sigh. It’s not the worst thing, but it’s really disappointing.

My college students show up each week for their lessons and sigh and tell me how tired and busy they are, and I feel empathy for them, and I think, yeah, me too! I know you are tired of hearing it, but it’s been a crazy semester. The good news is, it’s going by quickly. (Also the bad news, because who wants life to just fly by like it’s nothing?!)

I don’t think I mentioned that my friend April visited for a few days. It was wonderful to see her, even though we were both working and didn’t get to hang out as much as we would have liked!

While she was here we went to Corner 17 and to Schlafly Bottleworks. We also chatted a lot and enjoyed the lovely weather we had during that time! I miss her and wish she still lived here, but she has an awesome life in Atlanta now and I’m happy for her.

There are just a few days left until Thanksgiving. I am hosting dinner for 9, it looks like, and I’m excited and stressed out. The key, as always, is planning. And yelling at Louie for not planning, while he judges me for being “controlling”. (half kidding!) Here are the plans to make Thanksgiving happen and to finish this week.

Today: attend student recital at Wash U this morning, attend Symphony concert in afternoon, play concert with Metropolitan Orchestra this evening.

Monday: teach class in morning, do big grocery shopping trip, workout, catch up on at home business type errands (I always do my finances on Mondays, that sort of thing, and sometimes wait to send important emails until I have time on Mondays and Thursdays ), teach private lessons in afternoon and evening.

Tuesday: teach last class of week in the morning, pick up the turkey (I have a fresh one on order from Whole Foods). Teach last day of students at Wash U (last day before Thanksgiving break, that is, not last day of semester. Teach last private student. Cook: thinking of doing pie crusts, baking the cornbread for the stuffing, possible making the gravy ahead of time (this is a thing people on the internet tell you is possible).

Wednesday: house cleaning (we outsource this every two weeks, thankfully, and yes, I love the word outsourcing!), pick up rolls at Union Loafers (it’s so unnecessary but they only do rolls for Thanksgiving and Christmas and I love them so much) make pies, make green bean casserole (I am attempting a vegan recipe: I don’t always do green bean casserole, but I thought it would be a fun addition this year), assemble salad ingredients (shaved brussels sprout salad), toast stuffing cubes (dry them out, whatever is needed) and assemble stuffing, pre chop whatever I can (Louie has much better knife skills than me, so I may ask his help or even just have him do a lot of chopping on Thursday). My parents arrive this day at some point, and I’ll probably ask my mom to help out.

Thursday: I’m a workaholic/freelance musician so I’m playing at a church service this morning. Did you know people have church on Thanksgiving morning?? Our guests don’t arrive until 5 pm, so while I’m doing that, Louie will prepare the turkey and put it in the oven. I’ll get back and we’ll finish the rest of everything: potatoes, butternut squash, and getting everything cooked. We have a sizeable toaster oven and a small side oven which could also help.

Friday: Relax! Eat leftovers!

And that’s the week. When I retype my food plans it sounds like a lot, but I think it’ll be a lot of fun, and I won’t be doing this all by myself, it’s just that I am the on in charge. I will share the entire menu later, most likely.

Other things that have been going on that likely deserve more attention here but aren’t getting it today: squirrels in the basement, having a company come and remove a squirrel nest from the chimney, leaf pickup drama, and lots of good books read. I am planning a blog post at some point about books, and some of my favorites over the years.

Books, lately: I’ve gotten into the books of Katherine Center for easy and fun reads (How to Walk Away is my favorite so far), and the best book I’ve read recently not by her was Pachinko by Min Jin Lee. I’ve also gotten into books by Ben H. Winters including the Last Policeman Series, and I read Lady Tan’s Circle of Women by Lisa See and enjoyed that quite a lot. Looking back through my Libby app (the best way I know to keep track of what books I read on the kindle), if I haven’t mentioned The Covenant of Water by Abraham Verghese, I am doing so now because that’s another good one. I tend to like fiction that spans several generations and goes into great detail, and takes place in another country so I can feel like I’m learning something about a different culture, but there also has to be a good story with it. I haven’t read as many mysteries later, more into the “character learns something important about herself while making a major life change AND falling in love” genre, which makes sense since I’ve been so busy and stressed.

You might ask when I find the time to read: sometimes I’ll have a spare 30 minutes to an hour midday, and I’ll just cozy up for a bit and read. I read if I’m eating a meal alone, I read before bed, and pretty much whenever I have time. I know I’m always happier if I read a book rather than scroll, though I do both of course.