I keep waiting for the extra time I calculated from no longer having college classes to materialize but it really hasn’t yet. Of course, playing 8 shows of Phantom of the Opera each week cuts into that time…
I attended a board meeting for a music teacher’s organization I’m a board member on. While I haven’t been able to contribute as much to my position as I feel I should, I’m still glad I’m doing it. I learn so much from the meetings and the other people! Most of the other members are piano teachers, but they run such creative and amazing studios and want so many opportunities for their students and I find it inspiring. It’s also nice to learn about organizing events, disagreeing with other people yet remaining civil, and how to stay organized while remaining so very busy. Though as the woman sitting next to me said, well of course you’re busy—you teach at so many different colleges! I realized, as I’ve said here, I may have bitten off too much. I’m allowing a small amount of attrition in my private studio to let myself breathe a bit (though, in all honesty, it’s mostly because I have 7 weeks of shows booked for the fall and that means so much evening teaching I’ll need space for rescheduling.)
Nonetheless, there were years here in St Louis where I felt like my musical experience was completely underused and underappreciated, and the other day when I got another request which I unfortunately had to say no to, and was feeling bad, Louie said, well, isn’t it great to feel so in demand? And yes it is! Right now I feel like things are at a point where I will continue to have a reasonable amount of work without panicking …and that if things start to dry up because I had to say no to too many things I have so many contacts that I will have no problem making things flow again. And that feels positive!
Of course, often I worry about being positive because then that’s when things go wrong, right? Eh, I think this time things are looking up. I just have to figure out how to balance it all so I’m a little less overwhelmed than I was last semester!
I was delighted last night when one of my student’s families came up to the pit at the end of the show. They didn’t even know I was playing, but were just looking into the pit to see all the musicians, and we were surprised to see each other. I love that they were curious about the music!
I’m lucky to have the opportunities I’m currently having too—as much as I complain about my stress levels and such, I’m lucky, I’m grateful, and yet I also know I’ve worked hard and deserve some measure of success, even though that measure is different for everybody.
The other thing I deserve IS time off. I’m looking forward to taking a short trip to Rocky Mountain National Park. We are camping for four nights at Glacier Basin Campground (we’ve stayed there before) and I’m really excited. I’ll be celebrating my 40th birthday while I’m there, and we are definitely taking another downhill bike tour. Other than that we plan on lots of hiking, hopefully seeing a bunch of critters and animals, taking pictures, and hanging out by the campfire.
Planning is in full force! It isn’t a crazy trip like we’ve done in the past, just going there, camping, and coming back, and I’m really looking forward to it!
Until then, teaching, playing, and lots to do around the house! I’d better go work out, run a few errands, hopefully do some practice, and then teach.