I leave my house for my morning job around 6:35 am/6:40 am and I tell you what, 7 degrees sure is cold at that hour. That’s what I was dealing with yesterday. I came home after that, and towards mid afternoon I was feeling really cold so I turned up the heat at my house and also got into bed for a bit to try to warm up. Those were great ideas, and then I felt good enough to finish my teaching week.
I taught my morning improvisation class this morning (it’s online, though maybe someday it won’t be) and now we are planning to head out for a hike soon, after it gets just a bit warmer outside. I don’t have anything scheduled until Monday, which is fantastic.
It was a good week. Short because of MLK day, which helped, even though only two hours of work was canceled, isn’t that crazy? But I had a nice time with the students all week: holidays are fun, but it’s also nice to be in the groove of, see you next week, and the week after, and so on, and knowing that you can keep teaching them regularly and they’ll make progress (hopefully) if they are practicing.
I got asked to play a few pieces on a New Music Festival in March, and I decided to agree. It gives me a new challenge and an incentive to practice more regularly. I have already gotten into the groove now of practicing 15 to 20 minutes a day, which is way more than I’ve been doing. I have a few other things I need to learn as well, so I might end up practicing more as the next few months progress. It’s nice to have a few things on the calendar to work towards, though it’s also nice not to have too many, as teaching is pretty much all-encompassing.
I think I’ve got my college teaching schedule set and it worked out pretty well. The semester is looking good and promising. We are still up in the air on our summer plans due to factors, but I have a few things simmering, and at least one of them will work out. Next summer Louie will be done with his doctorate so we are thinking about planning a 3 to 4 week road trip then. The only thing to consider is the cats: that’s a long time for them to be on their own…we’ve done two weeks and that was long for them. But we’ll figure it out.
I still have to take down my Christmas Tree. That will get done this weekend. Or else it has to stay up all year then.