This year I decided to take an actual spring break. I realized that most of my students had their school spring breaks on the same week (and as far as I can tell, those that don’t simply don’t have spring break at their school so it isn’t that their break is the week before or after) so I declared that to be spring break week for my studio. Not every year is so lucky, in fact, I recall one year where I was teaching kids and there were three weeks in a row that different people had spring break. It’s not that I necessarily need a spring break (well, I do) but it’s that when say, 1/3 of your students are missing it STILL feels like a regular work week since you are usually still teaching from 3 to 8 or 9, and yet you aren’t making as much money. This year is different, and after a concert this afternoon I’m officially on Spring Break (capitalized!) until the following Monday.

So I’m off to Phoenix to visit with my niece and Leslie and Peter. And by visit I really mean babysit while they are at work, but I’m sure it will be delightful and we will really bond.

Unfortunately Louie had some time off that didn’t coincide so he won’t be coming along. I believe they say that absence makes the heart grow fonder, don’t they?

I had to do some digging yesterday to find if I had any shorts that fit to bring to Phoenix. The answer: two pairs. It’ll do for the week, but I’ll tell you, I keep finding myself without clothes that fit properly. I wish I were one of those people that could maintain a size from year to year, but I haven’t managed to do that. It’s a goal of mine, to be able to change from winter to spring wardrobe and still have plenty of stuff to wear from the year before. Shirts are easy, but pants/shorts are just ridiculous. Like I said though, I do have a couple pairs. I fully expect everything I bring along to be either spit up on or peed on so I’m sure there will be laundry done. Ha! Babies! They make a mess, right?

So far March has been flying by. I attended a Suzuki Teacher Workshop the other week—it was taught by Nancy Lokken and it was shorter than I’d thought it would be, but I learned a few things and got some new ideas about how to teach my students to have a beautiful tone and how to insist on it. I played with Winter Opera St Louis and  we had a conductor emergency and had to get a new conductor for the final dress rehearsal and performances. It was stressful but went well. I played Irish music for a little concert with some folks and had a good time. I’m playing on an all-Bach choral concert this afternoon. I’ve taught a million (probably an exaggeration) lessons and my students have tried my patience in every single way, though hopefully I’ve maintained it nonetheless.

(onstage for our Irish music concert)

Outside of work, I’ve managed to squeeze in a few social activities. Last night I went to see Manuela (the other violinist in my quartet) play a wonderful recital with Diana (pianist who we played with in the fall) at the Tavern of Fine Arts. It was great seeing her perform and was very inspiring! And yes, that counts as a social activity. I’ve also met up with a few friends and eaten too much Mexican food. The weather is nice so I’ve made it on a few short runs, and though I haven’t gone to gym in a few weeks, I’ve done some body weight workouts around the house and I’m feeling okay. I think it would be fun to train for a race again!

(slightly obstructed view seats at the Tavern)

Here’s the question: I don’t want to bring my violin to Phoenix. I don’t think I’d have much time to practice anyway, but really I want to take a break from it. My concern is that when I get back I have some rehearsals right away and some performances coming up. I do think that my wrist is pretty tired and my pinky still hasn’t totally recovered from my fall back in February and a few days off would likely do wonders (or a week!). I’m leaning towards not bringing it but asking Leslie if I could play on hers a bit if I felt the need to practice. I guess it’s not really a question. I don’t want to bring my violin, but I don’t want to feel guilty about it. Help!

Well, so far it’s just a regular day for me because I don’t start teaching until 3:30. How is it out there? I’m safe and warm at home and enjoying a lazy start to the week…as usual.

Valentine’s Day Weekend was fun.  We went to the Missouri History Museum on Saturday to see the 250 in 250 exhibit (about 250 years of St Louis History) before it closed. I’d gone with my parents but Louie hadn’t seen it and I thought it was good enough to see again. It was freezing cold and as we power walked from where we parked to the museum, I tripped over a small bump in the sidewalk and fell. As I landed I bent my pinky and wrist backwards, hit my left shoulder and almost hit my head!

Walking is hard, evidently. More concerning was how much my pinky finger hurt (remember, I play violin, so that’s important.) I haven’t played since then…my pinky is feeling a bit better today but it’s still sore at the joint and it worries me a little. It’s definitely improving though, so hopefully by tomorrow I will feel confident practicing again, because SATURDAY is our first quartet concert of the year and I really want it to go well.  I’d had high hopes of doing a lot of practicing over the weekend, but what can you do? Playing on a hurt finger doesn’t make it better.

We went to Five Bistro for V-day dinner. We’d thought it would be pricey, but we had NO idea! (I suppose we could have called). The prix fix menu was delicious, but the weird thing was that when it was over we were still kinda hungry and wished there had been more food. Every course was delicious but tiny. We were glad we went out though, and despite the meal costing as much as a plane ticket enjoyed ourselves. We also enjoyed being in the restaurant with a ton of other people, all of whom were likely experiencing the same sort of thing..awkward sticker shock by the menu, deciding to stay anyway, enjoying the taste of their meal, noticing how little lamb chop was served, realizing they were paying this much and considering running through Taco Bell afterwards. We did the wine pairings too, and the one thing I will say is that I enjoyed ALL the wines, even the white wines, which I never have in the past.

Front and back of house scenes of a snowy day. The front steps will definitely need to be shoveled. I suppose that would be an excellent workout for today!

And check out this awesome picture Leslie sent me of my niece:

I should get a matching “I love my niece” onesie.

Scenes from the “zoo”.

How much snow did you get? I won’t complain a bit thinking of all the people who have just been getting hammered this winter! It’s pretty to look at, though I’m glad I haven’t had to venture out in it yet. Since it’s a holiday I suspect the roads are a little worse than they might be normally.

I’ve had a wonderful weekend. I’m not going to lie. It’s been awesome and lots of fun and I’m sad that it is nearly over.

The fun started Thursday night when I met April for dinner at Gringo. I don’t know if I’ve mentioned but Louie and I have decided to follow a vegetarian diet for about a month. So it’s been a fun challenge to see how to avoid eating meat. We are still eating cheese and eggs and all those delicious animal products but avoiding actual flesh.

So I read the description of my meal and I’m not sure what I expected but it was basically nachos with egg and avocado. Not too bad but not what I thought I was getting! We also split the guacamole which I love and had a few margs…well I did at least 😉

Friday was a busy day. It started with a trip to the dump and ended with dinner at Ranoush on the Loop and watching The Imitation Game. The movie was very good but I had a lot of questions afterwards about what was fact, what was fiction, and how a bunch of cryptographers failed to initially check for the most common word combinations when trying to crack a code. Turns out that part was fiction.

Saturday afternoon we took a hike, another from the book, 60 Hikes within 60 Miles of St Louis. I picked a hike around Howell Island Conservation area, but we made a few mistakes with that. Firstly, it was incredibly muddy at the beginning of the hike…which was also the end of the hike. And we didn’t realize there would be hunting. I think I read the phrase “conservation area” and assumed that meant “not killing stuff” and didn’t keep reading. But we did the long loop anyway, didn’t get lost in a field where the trail went kind of cold, and had a great time.

It was kind of a bleary day, but was actually really nice for January. It started drizzly towards the end and we got a bit nervous but it never turned into much.

After the hike we decided to go out to dinner, so we hit up Stellina Pasta since they had a few good looking vegetarian options. I got tagliatelle with spinach, mushroom, and a garlic cream sauce and it was really delicious. I wouldn’t ordinarily order food with a cream sauce, but the beauty of not eating meat is that you can get your calories from other fatty sources. Or at least I tell myself that. It’s nice, by the way, following a diet that isn’t about ME and is about not eating meat. I don’t know how I feel about this sort of thing sometimes…it’s hard to know what the best thing to do is, but it does seem that eating less meat is probably a good thing. I haven’t missed it too much because I’ve upped my pasta intake. I also plan to return to eating meat, because I don’t want to WORRY about things.

Today we had a family brunch (well, Louie’s family) with delicious pumpkin waffles made by his brother! I think I ate about 100 of them. Or four. Also the grapefruit was excellent. Then I actually had to do some work (ugh, work!) on the computer for a variety of things and we did manage to get to the gym. One of the things we are both trying to do is get workouts in when we can, and if that means mostly on the weekends (this time of year my weekends are light and freer) then we do it then. It works for me. I’m trying not to stress over what I can’t do and focus on what I can.

Oh, and I’m NOT watching the super bowl. I didn’t get any party invites and I don’t watch football (possibly related) so I’m just at home, thinking about dinner and Dr Who. And my to-do list for the upcoming week, which is of course huge and much more than I will actually accomplish.

I considered waiting to publish this until tomorrow due to the game, but then I remembered 1) any readers won’t be watching either, they will be just playing with their cats and 2) I don’t ACTUALLY have any readers since I don’t blog regularly enough nor on any actual topic.

This year I took an additional week off from teaching in January than I often do. It DOES make the month fly by! This week I started up again, and though I must admit I was dreading the first day of lessons, it ended up being a fun week seeing everybody again and getting back into the swing of things. Some of my students impressed me and practiced tons over the break. Some took some time off and are (hopefully) ready to get back into a routine. One told me he hadn’t practiced much at all, and while we were discussing how much he could practice this week to try to get back on track his mother overheard and told me that he had actually taken one week off from practicing over Christmas but then after that practiced every single day except the day before.

Incidentally, it’s been a busy week. I’m practicing for a quartet concert and a sonata concert in February. I met a couple of new people for “networking” purposes, one a long time twitter friend and freelance photographer, another a musician who lives nearby. I found out that the director of the band I gave way too much time to last year has decided to “let me go” because he deemed that a violinist who can also sing backup would be a better asset…which is okay because several of the other players that I admired most and enjoyed working with won’t be returning either, nor was I planning to, I was just waiting to get paid…(sigh).

One of the things that came up during one of my coffee meetings this week was my freelancing life. And it also came up talking with a friend from the band. That I am a fairly successful freelancer AND somewhat experienced at it. I keep forgetting how long I’ve been doing this…sometimes it feels like I just got started. But then people ask questions, and I find that I have (some) answers, and that while I make plenty of mistakes, and don’t make enough money, and probably let too many people walk over me, I have learned quite a bit over the years and might have advice to give people.

Okay, this sounds ridiculous, but it really struck me the other day when I thought, HEY I am doing some things right and I do have knowledge and experience in this and I am doing okay! Like, look at me. I’m a freelancer. I make a living playing and teaching the violin and (here’s the real kicker) some people might think that that is pretty cool and be perhaps, even slightly jealous. Not that I want them to be jealous, nor do I think they should be, but that all over the world there are people who wish they did music full time…and here I am doing it. Living the dream, if you will.

So I’m trying to think of myself as more of a success story than a failure. Granted, I worry about money quite a bit, and don’t have nearly enough saved for retirement at this time. But I’ve only been doing this for around 15 years, and I could probably work mostly full time another 30…so that means I’m only 1/3 in. Plenty of time to save, to earn more, to create, to learn, and to dream. (I added that last phrase for cheesiness purposes.) But honestly, looking at myself as a successful musician, a person who has been successful at making a living as a violinist her whole working career…that’s a really strange way to think about things for me. But I kind of like it. Perhaps this is the year of thinking more highly of what I do.

This year I decided to take an additional week off teaching over the Christmas break. Some of my more conscientious students were worried, but I felt due to how busy my fall semester had been and due to some remodeling projects at home I would need the extra week. What I didn’t think about was how I’d need the extra week just to catch up on emails and phone calls! This is only a slight exaggeration. Slight in that I have done neither of those things. I probably have voicemails on my phone from before Christmas that I need to return. (If you called and I haven’t called back, I’m so sorry! I was working so hard, and then I needed a break, and now I’m working on getting back to people slowly. Feel free to call again!)

Here’s another order of “business”: we got our CD’s in December and I didn’t tell you guys! If you want one, I can sell them to you for $20 with shipping and handling or $15 hand delivered. All of the proceeds go to the St Luke’s Life and Hope Fund, which helped my friend Jen out when she was going through her breast cancer treatments. We’ve already donated over $800 to the fund and have more CD’s to sell. You can pay via credit card and I’ll cover the fees, so just contact me if you are interested! Hannahviolin at gmail dot com. It’s a live recording of our recital together in October, and once they are gone, they are gone!

Fun stuff. I’ve decided to do one of those photo a day challenges on instagram. So far so good. I feel the urge to do interesting things in order to take photos of them. That’s probably a good side effect but might get exhausting. (I’m hannahviolin).

I like to think of looking back over the year and seeing a picture from each day though. Seems like fun. And I haven’t even used any cat pictures yet, unbelievably.

I mentioned a bathroom remodel. Here’s some awesome wallpaper that was uncovered!

And a horrific mold situation that is, yes, gone now, so don’t worry.

I’m going through some photos I might not have shared with you 🙂

Cinnamon rolls for Christmas.

Sad that I had to go to work on Christmas Eve.

One of my new year’s “resolutions” (I used quotes because I didn’t type up and laminate them) was to try to blog more regularly. I like the outlet social media and blogging gives me and I feel more connected to people through those things. I also like feeling creative and writing helps with that. So maybe you’ll see more of me in this space this year.