Lately I’ve mostly been taking pictures of all the animals…I guess that means I’m not traveling and I’m just hanging out at home working. And that the animals are adorable, when they aren’t being really annoying and yelling at me for food.

How cute are they all?

Okay, maybe you aren’t here for the cat pictures (are you crazy?)…oh, but one thing about Oistrakh, aka Dr. Oysterman, the cat formerly known as “fatness” who has successfully lost a few pounds…okay. So in the middle of the night I’ll wake up and hear her just YOWLING away, sounding like she’s trapped or in trouble, and I go to see what’s wrong, and there she is, sitting near a couple of ponytail holders. Cats are crazy.

I had been avoiding lifting weights at the gym for…several months…and yesterday went to do a bit of a full body workout. So I’m really sore today and debating if I’m going to go for a run in a bit or just take the time to stretch and foam roll and run on Friday (tomorrow is too busy). It might be wiser to do the first.

Wednesdays I only have 4 hours of teaching, so I feel like I have lots of time to get things done. Monday I spent 2-3 hours working on a newsletter for my studio. Seriously, that long. I was working with a new system and using MailChimp, which was recommended by a colleague, and now I’m finally probably in 2009 as far as technology goes. I think the finished product was a definite improvement to my typical “block of text” emails (that hardly anybody reads) so I hope that this will improve studio communications. After all of that it still had an incorrect date…I should get somebody to proofread things before I send them out, I guess. (Would this also apply to blog posts?) The other neat thing about MailChimp is that I can see which of my students have opened what I sent out! And which haven’t, though I don’t know if that means it went to junk mail or they just haven’t checked their email yet, or what.

Are you an “inbox zero” person? As in, do you try to get your inbox down to no emails? I’m never that extreme, but I try to stay on top of my emails and always read them. I love when my inbox all fits in one screen, without scrolling. I use Gmail, and I tend to leave the emails in the inbox until the conversation is done or if it’s about an upcoming gig, until the gig is over. I could archive those things, but I find that it’s easier to bring up information on my phone if I leave the email in the inbox rather than another place. (Sometimes it seems like my phone is unable to find archived emails at all). But that means when I have a lot of “unfinished” conversations going and several upcoming gigs or concerts, I have more emails in my inbox than I’d like.

In contrast though, I’ve seen friends log onto their email and they will have hundreds or THOUSANDS of unread emails. That would drive me completely bonkers! But I assume that a certain percentage of my students are like that, and that’s why it’s hard to communicate with people. (This particular newsletter was about a policy reminder and the date for the fall recital). I know everybody is bombarded with lots of emails, plus I imagine all the activities your child is enrolled in send emails about important dates and things…and it seems like email and mass communications don’t always make things easier. But in the past I probably would have mailed important information to people, and they might not have read that either, so I’m sticking with what I’ve got!

How many of you use timehop? I added the app a few months ago. Each day it shows you pictures and things you posted on the same day in past years for instagram and facebook. Sometimes I get a little sad seeing posts (and remember how much BETTER my life is now!) but mostly it’s a real delight, especially seeing photos like the one above!

Getting divorced and ending a 14 year relationship isn’t easy. Though it’s been a few years now, sometimes things still hit me from my previous life. One of things that I struggle with the most is feeling like what I do is important…I’ve lately realized (and I’m not trying to lay blame here, just to analyze) that for years I felt that what I was doing with my life was less important, that freelancing wasn’t satisfying or something to be proud of, that I was wasting my conservatory education. I think of the number of times my career and jobs were mocked, both by my previous partner, and various friends and colleagues…and it’s no wonder I’ve had a hard time feeling good about myself. It’s unfortunate how I let people make me feel so worthless.

I thought of that because  I had a rehearsal last night with the Metropolitan Orchestra of St. Louis. We were playing Beethoven’s Symphony #6. I used to play in orchestra all the time before I moved to St Louis, but I remember so many conversations where anything I missed about living and freelancing in Cleveland was ridiculed and mocked…and I apparently had internalized that enough that I was okay with it! I let other people project their own insecurities onto me to bring me down…it seemed for awhile that it was a really common thing for people in my age group to do!

So, yeah, I’ve come a long way. Last night’s rehearsal was fun. And teaching is so worthwhile, (even though politicians doesn’t think so) and playing in my quartet and playing with various pianists like my friend Jen and others…this is all worthwhile stuff, and I do have things to offer the world, even if I no longer am a full-time orchestra musician. Who said that was the only respectable job? 🙂 And why would I let people demean me so much?

So there’s me being a bit introspective…thanks a lot timehop! But in all seriousness, mostly I’m appreciating how much I’ve grown and how much stronger I am today than in my “3 years ago” posts.  And how appreciative I am that today the people who are important in my life build me up rather than tearing me down! And I hope that I am doing the same to them.

And that no matter what life brings, I will always wear ridiculously large sunglasses.