I got my second shot yesterday morning, and so far, other than a sore arm (which happens to me with flu shots too) I am feeling good.

I was tired all day yesterday, but that started before the shot. I attribute it to starting back at my early morning job and having a really long day on Tuesday. I probably teach too much, and I especially taught too much on Tuesday (I had 11 hours of teaching!) but it’s not like I do that every day. I told Louie, well, nurses work 12 hour shifts and nobody tells them, oh my god how do you do that? He pointed out they work 3 of those a week, and I countered that they usually do 4 because they love the overtime, and then we decided that probably working slightly more than 3 hours a day (what many people seem to think is an appropriate amount of teaching, what, how would I make a living) and less than 11 is a more ideal amount of hours.

I also like to look at the overall week of work. Tuesdays this semester ended up being really busy because I have 3 1/2 hours of college students normally on Tuesdays. Last semester I had zero hours of college students on Tuesdays. I can’t move all my private students around every semester, so I just fit college teaching into the regular day. It’s a bit unpredictable, because I would prefer to put the college students on Fridays, and often manage to put a lot of them there, but it doesn’t always work out for them. Overall I’m averaging 38-40 hours a week of teaching, plus a few hours of commuting time, so it seems like a lot, but is reasonable. I don’t have a ton of admin as I’ve streamlined it quite a lot, so probably only 1 to 3 hours outside of that, depending on the week (maybe more at the end of the quarter or preparing for festival). I do have weekly grading to do for my school job, but it usually only takes 15 to 20 minutes.

I should say that I haven’t been finding a lot of time for practicing though, and would like to get into a better routine for that. I don’t see myself dropping back my teaching commitments any time soon though, so maybe I should just figure it out!

Another important thing to note is that my work is seasonal, and that college semesters are really only 8 months of the year, and school is out June through August, so I like to work a little more so in the summer it’s okay to work a little less. Last summer I didn’t really work less, but I’m sure this summer people will be back to normal camps and such so they won’t be taking weekly lessons throughout the summer and I’ll miss some of the income/have more time off.

Just some random thoughts this morning! Keep wearing masks!

*it is worth noting that today ended up being a 3 hour teaching day though it was supposed to be four, and now I’m in a short break before a rehearsal for a Good Friday service. I started this post in the morning and then got distracted by various tasks. It is also worth noting I feel great and my arm isn’t too sore anymore either, I recommend exercise with lots of arm swinging!