There was a blurb in the NY Times newsletter about how talking about how terrible January is can help us deal with it. I will say, yes, it’s terrible, it’s cold, it’s really cold, it’s dark, the holiday season is behind us and it’s horribly busy!
It wasn’t always this way. Well, it was always cold. But the busy! It’s been a very musically satisfying January, with all my concerts (including reading some late Beethoven and then performing it right away, what a thrill!). And our radiators are working great keeping the house warm enough (just a few drafty windows.) I was smart last year and finally bought a really warm and long coat so that’s been wonderful. And the car I usually drive places has seat heaters. There are many things to be thankful for!
I had my first colonoscopy on Tuesday: it went just fine. The prep wasn’t fun, but it wasn’t awful either, and then I spent Tuesday just lying around relaxing. Much like Miles in the above picture, except I don’t like to lie ON radiators but instead on soft things covered by blankets. I also took advantage of being home all day to make a loaf of whole wheat bread.
I made this loaf as part of Sally’s Baking Addiction Baking Challenge. My Mom bakes (or at least, used to bake, do you still bake bread, Mom?) whole wheat bread six loaves at a time and this was a big part of our childhood. I never really got into it at home, so it was fun to make my own loaf. She has this giant bread mixer machine thing–it’s not actually a machine but is hand cranked. Similar to this I think (or maybe that’s what it is). In any case this bread has been great for hearty sandwiches, which I had to pack for my dinner the past two nights anyway.
Today is a more relaxing day: the week was busy, but really it was just three days since I had my prep and procedure the first two days. But it packed in a lot, and I am tired! I have some lessons to teach and laundry to do, but otherwise we plan to go out to dinner and who knows. I had wanted to go for a hike today, but the weather is currently in the single digits, so I think I won’t get a January hike in.
How is your January going? Are you staying warm? (or do I have readers on the other side of the world, where perhaps it is hot?)
I keep asking time to slow down. I can’t believe it’s already mid-November and soon it will be Thanksgiving, then Hanukkah and Christmas. This is my favorite time of year and it’s going by so quickly!
November has been pretty busy: the usual overload of teaching, plus some weddings and a few extra things. We’ve gone to another symphony concert, and have plans for one more before Thanksgiving. I’ve gotten more used to my early morning schedule…I had a few nights this week though where I was in bed at 8:30 pm, though I didn’t always go to sleep right away, I was exhausted! Some of my colleagues live closer, but I do have a 20 minute drive, and I like to just start my day, have breakfast and coffee before so that I feel normal.
This week I’m starting another wonderful online course. I’ve taken quite a few and this is with a teacher I’ve heard great things about. It’s about a time in the development when bow technique really starts getting exciting and I’m looking forward to learning a few more ideas. I will say this, I have found most of the classes I’ve taken to be super helpful with ideas, and I’ve found my teaching to be much more enjoyable over the past year or two. Somehow, the more I do, the more I enjoy it. I don’t know if it’s old age, or just acceptance that this is my career now, or what.
I’ve been doing some decluttering as part of a group, and ran across this bookmark. Carrie is my youngest sister, and she gave this to me some time ago!
The one thing that bothers me is when people say things commenting incredulously at how many hours I teach. It’s really not a big deal. Yes, I teach a lot of hours (33-34 including before school, university, and private, plus a couple extra students right now for another teacher’s maternity leave) but if that’s all I do, my admin work is only about 1-3 hours a week (more when there are events/recitals/grading to do). I do some practicing, but I haven’t been doing much lately–I play a lot in lessons, so I don’t feel out of shape exactly, though I may want to add more in soon.
I guess my point is: yes, I work a lot. So do many people. It’s not like people pay me not to teach though!
Okay, okay enough annoyed ranting, I know, I know.
The weather this month is finally like fall! We had cold weather, hot weather, and cooler weather again, and the trees finally turned and the leaves are falling. It’s gorgeous outside. Except our front lawn where our volunteer black walnut tree lost its leaves right away and just looks craggy and dead. I put the garden down yesterday, took down my posts, yanked some stuff, put down cardboard and leaves and such. We had a good season, with basil, swiss chard, cucumbers, green beans, lettuce, and peas. I made a lot of dilly beans, pesto with chard and basil, some pickles, and we ate lots of peas, chard, green beans, and lettuce. I’ll decide later what to plant next year.
Last weekend we got over to Forest Park for a lovely hike, though it was pretty warm. Today we are thinking of heading to Creve Coeur Lake to walk around, though it’ll be much cooler.
Cooking wise this month: I’ve made a carrot cake, black pepper tofu and eggplant (for the second time, highly recommend this dish, it’s delicious!), roasted shrimp and pea couscous salad, and an improvised crockpot lentil, sweet potato and kale coconut curry. We’ve also started eating out more normally, having gone to Union Loafers for lunch and dinner–they are seating again though you have to order at the counter and then sit down, to Rooster on South Grand for lunch, to Little Fox for dinner with Louie’s family (delicious!!!) and to Lily’s Mexican Restaurant for dinner–lately I’m obsessed with the fajitas there.
Reading wise I haven’t done anything exciting lately. I’ve been reading some new titles from a cozy mystery series I had enjoyed before (Meg Langslow series) and that’s been pretty much it. I have to read a book this week for my book club though, so I’ll start on that next. (How the One-armed Sister Sweeps Her House.) TV wise we started Yellowstone, are watching Succession, and also started season two of The Morning Show.
What have you been up to lately? Any books or tv shows to recommend?
What a weekend! First off, I didn’t have to work at all. (With the exception of a bit of emailing and a few tiny things, probably less than one hour’s worth of work.) Second of all, we went to TWO performances.
Friday night Louie and I went to the 560 Center at Wash U to see our friends Mark and Jae-Won play a lovely program of two piano music, all written by women. The 560 Center requires masks and either proof of vaccination or a very recent negative test. I really lovely the program, particularly Seis cantos de los campos (2013) by Gabriela Lena Frank and Kilter by Mary Ellen Childs.
After the concert a group of us went to Blood and Sand to celebrate. It was weird being in a restaurant in a group (we were all vaccinated, but who knows about the rest of the people…not too busy though.) I recall Blood and Sand being a “hot” place to go a few years ago…I suppose the pandemic has hit them hard because I was underwhelmed, and the prices were pretty high for St Louis. It felt more like a typical Washington Ave/Downtown St Louis restaurant, more flash than substance. It was a good time nonetheless.
Saturday was a relaxing day, and at night we went to Jazz at the Bistro to see Harold Lopez-Nussa play Cuban Music. Louie and I went a little early to eat dinner there, and it was as good as ever (that is, totally fine, not great, but not bad). My salmon dish was really well cooked, so I was very pleased with that. (Often salmon is overcooked and dry, and this was just right.)
We loved the program, and stayed for the second set as well. It was awesome to be back at the Bistro (who were also checking vaccination/negative tests).
Sunday I really slept in, it was almost 9 by the time I woke up! We took a walk in the afternoon, and it was HOT. I had a family zoom call and then a book club zoom call, and then it was time for dinner and bed.
Food wise: we made mushroom quesadillas one meal, tuna melts another meal, and pumpkin waffles (frozen from Trader Joe’s) and scrambled eggs one meal. Just to give you some ideas.
Now it’s Monday, and I already taught an early morning class. I have a love/hate relationship with my early morning job. I hate getting up so early. But I actually really love teaching the kids once I get going: it’s busy, stressful, and I feel like I’m really accomplishing things with them! But everytime my alarm goes off…ugh I really hate it and tell myself, that’s it, I’m quitting after this year. We’ll see how things go!
My online book club is with some old friends from when I lived in Cleveland. It’s weird talking with them: I feel like that time of my life was both so long ago and also not long at all. I also have been through a lot of life changes since then, and haven’t kept up very well with my friends from there, but it was nice to hear them talk about gigs I used to play there, etc. Sometimes I feel weird telling people that what I mostly do is teach, because I sometimes feel like I’m wasting my hard-earned playing skills not playing more, yet, teaching is fun, something I’m good at, and pays better (in my current life/city) so I’m happy with it, and I spend hours a day playing!
I guess it’s more like I’m looking at what my life might have been there if I hadn’t made the fateful decision to move here. I also sometime wonder, would I have moved here if I’d known that ultimately I would be basically giving up my performing career? I’m not regretting my decisions, because I enjoy my life and I particularly love being with Louie and love our life together, but I miss playing big orchestra concerts and I do miss some of my friendships from there.
And I do actually really enjoy teaching, which isn’t something I would have said 10 years ago. The pandemic pushed me to teach more, and over the years I enjoy it more and more. 10 years ago I taught some classes at various schools and really didn’t like it, but I’m really enjoying my classes now. I love teaching my college students at Wash U, and I have many private students that I absolutely adore. So perhaps it isn’t exactly where I thought I’d end up, but it’s something I’m currently loving. And my studio is running quite smoothly right now, and I’m happy about that as well. So that’s life for you, you don’t always end up where you expect, but maybe that’s okay.
Enough of my navel gazing. How are you on this fine morning? It’s quite windy, and we had some bad storms last night–we were lucky in the city but some people in the TV viewing radius were less lucky with tornadoes and storm damage š I stayed up later than I should have watching local news to make sure we weren’t at risk (I didn’t want to go to bed if there might be a tornado warning) and then morning came quickly because of my relaxing weekend. The rest of the week is busy enough, plus it’ll be Louie’s birthday!
It is a beautiful sunny day. I hope thatās a sign.
Iāve been busy. Teaching, grading, practicing (especially improv stuff), working on creating and recording music for a play, judging students for an online MTNA competition. Itās been a lot of fun and a lot of learning and challenging myself, but itās been a lot. Iām looking forward to Thanksgiving week: Iām taking the week off from private teaching and looking forward to doing some canning, baking, cleaning and decorating the house, and hopefully some getting outside too, weather permitting. This weekend looks lovely as well.
Letās hope there is some good news in the election results. Our COVID numbers are terrible here. My zip code is particularly bad, which means that we give a wide berth on walks. I am still working from home with the occasional thing out, a few errands, visiting with friends here and there but only outdoors (that couldnāt happen for a while with a lot of rain and cold weather, but this weekend looks lovely), and takeout or cooking. We have tried to limit takeout to once a month, but got it twice on Louieās birthday week and tonight might be tempting!
We had a nice hike at Forest 44 Conservation Area last weekend. We chose it because it is never crowded. Someday we can go places that might be crowded, and someday we can go farther away, but not now.
I had to go on the campus of St Louis University last weekend to work on the play I mentioned, and it was so beautiful! Fall is such a gorgeous season, isnāt it?
Can you believe the election cycle is still going on? I am trying to think of ways to cope. Sometimes I get too upset and angry over things, both in the news and in day to day life, and I really need to work on staying calmer and reminding myself that the world is a richer place when people see the world differently. And reminding myself that I have chosen a different path in life.
SOā¦my weekend was crazy. Saturday morning was the Castlewood Cup, for which I was quite undertrained and so was Louie, but we had a great time and I didnāt even come in lastā¦even though I thought I did at the time. I am a seriously slow runner. All of you who say, oh, Iām slow. No. I am. And there was also so much mud, and I thought I was going to die and/or get sucked down into it, lost forever. I might write a proper recap another day. But we lived and we made it! And Louie is a more natural runner than I am and he did quite well.
Then it was pizza and showering and then a Perseid Quartet concert at the Tavern of Fine Arts. We played Dvorak and Smetana and had a great time. This ended up being one of my favorite programsāIām such a sucker for a romantic program. We had a large and enthusiastic crowd and just had a great time overall. I was starving by the time the concert was over and so really enjoyed my food there too. They have a relatively new chef and heās fantastic.
Sunday was a double opera rehearsal day, but at least I got to have a relaxing enough morning. The conductor for the opera, Darwin Aquino, is really greatā¦heās also a composer and Iām currently listening to a piece he wrote for violin solo. Iām brainstorming a solo violin (only me, no one else) recital programā¦there are so many cool pieces out there for solo violin, and Iām also finding some (and looking for more) by female composers. Thatās another blog post for another day too, probably
So then Monday flew by with lots of students, practice and a rehearsal. Today I had a short rehearsal and then a vet visit. Both of the pets are somewhat on the mendā¦Chloeās eyes have definitely cleared up though we have to continue her medication for that, and while Mackenzie isnāt exactly healed, she is doing a bit better for now. I will naturally keep you posted.
The rest of the week is for teaching, dress rehearsals for the opera, and rehearsals for a young composerās concert at Webster on Saturday. Should be fun, I guess?!
See what I did there? After blogging about fall and pumpkin spice and cooler weather (okay, I didnāt really do any of those thingsā¦but my last title had the word āfallā in it) itās been a really hot week and weekend, and I must sayā¦Iām over it. Luckily this morning hasnāt been so bad, mostly overcast and breezy, so fingers crossed we are moving on? (Full disclosure, I started this post last night, and today Iām already more pleased by the weather, soā¦maybe things are turning.)
This weekend was pretty fun! Louieās dad was visiting from Philly for a couple days so we went out to eat a few times and did a little sightseeing. We went to Treehouse, which is a vegan restaurant that I am conflicted about. I donāt like that their descriptions of dishes involve words like āsausageā or āchickenā and donāt specify how those things are actually made. I get that they want to show you that you donāt need meat, but to me it feels like deception. I had the seitan katsu, which was actually quite good, but the description said it was chicken (which I knew it wasnātā¦it was seitan!) which to me, is just weird. Nonetheless, the meal was tasty enough, especially the beetsāIāve become obsessed with beets! The other meal we had was at Olio, which is quickly becoming one of my favorite restaurants. My favorite dishes there are the smoked whitefish salad and the roasted beets with ricotta. Yummy!
We also went up to walk across the Old Chain of Rocks bridge. Iād been there on my bike before, but this time we just parked (on the Illinois side, the Missouri parking lot was closed) and walked across.
These little buildings fascinated us. It seems they are water intake towers and are inaccessible today.
Yesterday Louie and I met up with some people my friend Elianaās birthday. We had pizza at Deweyās Pizza and frozen yogurt at a nearby Tutti Frutti. It was nice to meet a few new people and celebrate her 30th (so young!) birthday with her. Itās always fun to chat with friends of friends and expand our social horizons.
And then this morning I ran 7 miles (around the Botanical Gardens and Tower Grove park from my house) and nowā¦getting ready to teach and must do a bit of practicing. Luckily there is leftover pizza to refuel after my run (great for carb-loading AND refueling, right?!).
Today I have a few students who wanted to take Labor Day off for various reasons, but Iām teaching the rest. I figured I started late enough in August that we didnāt need a break yet! Talk to me in a couple monthsā¦and Iāve set up a fall recital date for the students, which is a first for us. I have other ideas too, like some sort of ensemble Christmas performance with another teacher, but I also know things just get crazy around that time (for me and everybody else) and Iām not sure I want to tackle too much.
Oh, and I promise more trip recaps are on their way. Iām working on the Yellowstone blog postāitās just a long post but I am working on it, in case you are wondering. I havenāt forgotten, and I will finish!
