It’s funny not having any cooking to do this week! We are eating out for Thanksgiving, so I won’t be making anything.

I forgot in my last post to tell you about a fun adventure we had, so I’ll do that first. Louie and I went on a “Full Moon Float” with Big Muddy Adventures. We canoed down the Mississippi River at night! This might sound scary, but it was awesome. First we met up and loaded into vans and drove upstream a bit. We put two large canoes into the water and then boarded, sitting two by two with a guide in front and back. We paddled across to an island that was mostly made of sand and enjoyed a bonfire and lovely dinner (seriously, it was delicious, cheese and crackers, fresh guacamole, flank steak, butternut squash lasagna, salad, etc) and then once the sun set and the fire died down, we all loaded up again into the canoes and headed down to the Arch. It was a fantastic day and we would recommend the trip to anybody who enjoys a little outdoor adventure.

We’ve had a few little snows so far this winter, which have been pretty enough. I’m glad it’s just been a little bit…I’m not in the mood for snow.

I got a new violin case, finally! I ordered it months ago and it has been backordered.

It was a busy weekend of recitals. Saturday morning was a student recital at Wash U and Sunday afternoon was my studio recital. I was proud of all of the performances! I’ll have a few more student performances before the semester is over.

We went to a play on Saturday night. We saw Upstream Theater put on “The Good Ship St. Louis” at the Marcelle Theater. It was a nice production and we really enjoyed the evening. It’s nice to see small, more local companies doing things, and I would recommend you see the show except I believe the run has already ended. One of the actors was someone I had worked with on The Runaway Cupcake and with a production at St Louis University I did the music for and it was great to see her in a different role.

We are moving slowly with buying the house…inspections are basically done, painters are lined up for after closing, but now it’s mostly a holding pattern. We went under contract early with the idea that the tough things would be done before the holidays and then we would just wait until the current owner is ready to move out (the date is set for that). I haven’t started packing yet, but I am THINKING about it, and getting other things in order. I can’t quite wrap my head around the whole thing, but it is going to happen and we will be ready when it does.

I’m finishing up errands and getting ready for our trip today, doing some teaching, and that sort of thing. Tomorrow we hit the road for our Thanksgiving trip. As always, the cats are in good care with our sitter, and they will likely spend a lot of time sitting on the couch.

What are your Thanksgiving week plans?

It’s been a busy October as well. I think I thought after the show at the Fox (Ain’t Too Proud) finished I would be more free, and while I am, it’s really only an extra two hours a night! Life is busy, I have all the students, plus extra concerts (playing with the Who today, for instance), and additional appointments like physical therapy for my rotator cuff or the like. I’ve also mentioned in passing that we are house hunting and truthfully looking to buy a new house, and a lot that goes into it. It’s a big deal, and feels like a dream, and there’s just so much to do before it becomes reality, but I’m excited. I remind myself that people move all the time, and just because I haven’t moved in 8 years doesn’t mean I can’t do it again!

I had a period of time where I moved every year or every two years. My 20’s were a time of moving a lot, changing cities, changing apartments, etc, and moving wasn’t a big deal then. When I moved in with Louie I was in my 30’s and it was my 3rd move in as many years! So I was happy to sit and I honestly thought I might live here for the rest of my life. But as it turns out, it seems that’s not going to be true, and while I don’t like to get ahead of anything, I can say with certainty that I won’t live here the rest of my life: we have decided no matter what happens with this particular house we are looking to buy (and it’s looking promising) that we are moving.

Of course, interest rates are through the roof, and things are uncertain in the world, and perhaps we don’t even want to be in Missouri or the United States anymore, but we live here now and there’s no reason to make yourself suffer more than needed, ha! I remind myself that people buy houses all the time, that people buy houses even when they are sad to leave their current house and its memories, and it is okay to have mixed feelings about things, when mostly those feelings are that it’s a good thing to move. It will change things for my students a bit, though I’m not going far, but in case any are reading: I will let you know when things are certain and you’ll have plenty of time to work things out.

Anyway, the cats are snuggling more lately as the weather cools down, which is of course adorable. And we got out for a nice hike last weekend at Greensfelder Park. We took the Eagle Owl Trail and got a bit lost at one point, but we were always on a A trail, just not the Eagle Owl, and we found our way back. I think that has happened before as well, so who knows what the deal is. Perhaps we will go the opposite way on the loop and have slightly better luck next time. The fall leaves were beautiful, though I didn’t take many pictures, and the weather and temperature were absolutely perfect.

I have a busy weekend ahead: I had thought I might be able to take Sunday off but I needed to do some makeup lessons for things I missed, so I’ll work in the afternoon.

I did have time to read a fantastic book: Sea of Tranquility by Emily St. John Mandel. Highly recommend! (I love all of her books, especially Station Eleven, but this might be my new favorite).

I read an article yesterday about all of the admin work that we need to do in our lives and how to cope with it. It is sometimes ridiculous how much there is to do outside of work: you’d think you’d have work and then free time, but it’s work, more work, paperwork for work, and then all of the household stuff, and then hardly any free time at all. Granted, I do too much of the “work” part, but the household stuff tends to expand to take up as much space as possible!

Nonetheless, I am mostly keeping my head above water. I’ve had a good first week of the shows, and I love the show I’m playing (Ain’t Too Proud, it is great!) and we start week 2 (the last week) tonight. I’ve been teaching otherwise, and even managed to watch the latest episode of Rings of Power last night. I haven’t done much outside of work, but I’m keeping up with everything…life will get more back to normal next week. I scheduled a grocery shopping delivery for tomorrow because I didn’t want to spend precious time grocery shopping when I could blog instead.

One of the nice parts of waking up really early is getting to see some beautiful sunrises. I don’t mind getting up early so much, but it’s been a little bit of burning the candle at both ends. There’s only a few more days of that and then I’ll be “back to normal” next week. I’m sure the cats will appreciate having me around more, as well as Louie.

Unfortunately, soon it will just be dark when I leave, and then also cold. But in the meantime I can appreciate the sun, and the lovely fall temperatures.

Sometimes during busy times, it’s easy to start looking forward too much, but I am trying to “live in the moment” and appreciate what I am doing. I forget sometimes how unusual it is to spend my life trying to teach people how to play the violin, what a weird thing to do! And to get paid to play the violin as well, and the viola, and get to experience two weeks of a Broadway Musical up close and personal. I got an email recently from my alma mater about a potential meetup reception in a few months, and my first thought was, ugh, I don’t want to meet up with all those symphony musicians because I am a failure compared to them. My second thought however, was, my career is more of an interesting thing that students should know about, because not everybody can get a job in an orchestra, and not everybody wants that, and perhaps a career path like mine would be interesting for young people to know about. And I shouldn’t feel bad! (I don’t, normally, I just imagined the event in my head briefly in a certain way.) As a high schooler, I didn’t know there were options like what I do, and there is a lot to know about how to run a freelance and teaching career like I do! (And things NOT to do, as well.) Then again, perhaps high school me would have run screaming 🙂

I don’t have too much time to chat today, but just a quick hello. My first week fully back at work went well: hectic, but good. The new classes are going well, the new students are good, and the weather was better when it was a little cooler rather than today’s heat and humidity.

My mom asked me how I was feeling, post-surgery, and I said, pretty much back to normal, and she asked was that normal September, when I’m really tired? (I’m totally misquoting this conversation, sorry Mom). The answer is yes and no…I do feel like the early mornings are easier for me this year than last year: that’s probably a cumulation of having done the job already now for two years. But the next two weeks are crazy busy with the Fox show and all my teaching (I’m excited, but totally apprehensive), so I imagine I’ll be fairly tired.

On top of that I’m dealing with a little shoulder injury. It’s been bugging me since the late winter/early spring (not exactly sure, as something happened and then I assumed it would start feeling better over time and it did a bit but not really). In any case, I finally saw a doctor about that today and I am supposed to do some physical therapy for it. That will start in October. Exciting times, getting old, am I right? I’m fortunate to have good insurance, but I am using it a lot recently and feel like doctor’s appointments are happening entirely too often. Sigh.

We met a friend for brunch recently and ordered beignets, which I had actually never had. They were, of course, good. We are planning a trip to New Orleans over Thanksgiving Break, so we’ll try them again then. (Of course pastries covered in sugar are good. It’s a no-brainer.)

I’m off to more work! How was your weekend? Did anyone get to the balloon glow, local readers? What are you up to this week?

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.