People get so angry about Pumpkin Spice. Or excited. Or both!

Anyway, I’m doing that thing where I’m entirely too busy for the whole month of September from here on. Remember me, back a few years ago during the pandemic, saying things like, oh, isn’t it so wonderful to have weekends free, I’ll never work so hard again, and then here I am.

I mean, granted, inflation hits hard. I haven’t gotten a raise at all in some jobs, and in others it definitely doesn’t cover inflation. I set my own rates for home teaching, so I have nobody to blame but myself. But my retirement savings also aren’t looking so good, and then just when I start feeling like I’m making a decent amount of money, I was seeing a teacher (somebody I don’t know, but follow on twitter as they are in the personal finance world) complaining about how little teachers make, like obscenely little, and then said they make $70,000 a year! Now, I know some teachers make less than that, but 70 grand a year is way above the median income and then I started doubting everything I’ve ever known about teacher salaries, and my own sense of what a good living is, and really, like I said, everything. I’m being slightly overdramatic of course, but still. I’m not telling you what I make, and like I recently said to Louie, I don’t even know what I make: I learn how much money I made when I file my taxes each year.

All those words to say: I’m happy to be busy this month because everything I’m doing is fun and things that I’ve chosen to do, but it’s also a little bit overwhelming looking at the calendar. It’s really just the next two weeks (not this one) and then it’ll be back to just normal busy and totally manageable. I’m back at it in my before school job, which simply means that I woke up very early to spend 50 minutes putting tapes on violins two days in a row, and will do the same tomorrow and Friday. I’m thrilled to be coaching a chamber music group at Wash U–I have been teaching there for 7 years but this is my first year doing a chamber music group, and our first rehearsal was really fun. And I played on a fun concert over the weekend.

Louie and I have a standing weekly lunch date, and we go somewhere on the Loop or nearby. Most recently we went to the Bahn Mi Shop. I highly recommend it, though I was afraid to eat the peppers.

I got my new COVID booster, very exciting! I wasn’t sure if I should wait longer, but I really wanted to just teach the students and not worry, so I went for it, as well as the flu vaccine.

It’s been nice getting back into the swing of things. I’ve mentioned before I’m sure, the semester has a rhythm to it, and I am used to that rhythm. People who don’t work in the college/school system may not feel the seasons so strongly, but each one has a different feel. Fall is the new start, the fresh start, before you get too tired and run down from the cold. Yet it’s also the end of summer, so there’s a bit of sadness (hence the pumpkin spice love) but it’s nice to get back into a routine. We will push through until Thanksgiving, and by then we will be utterly exhausted. But not yet!

How is your week going? Have you had anything pumpkin spice flavored yet?