I had a busy weekend and I was dealing with a head cold the whole time, so I took this morning off to just relax. I had some errands to run in the afternoon so I did that and now I’m back, killing time until I have a rehearsal tonight.

It’s a busy week ahead, but I’m looking forward to it. I’m still a little worried about being overwhelmed in the fall, but I’m trying to stay positive and organized. I’m coming to terms with some things in my head, and I think after another year I might make some tweaks, but I can do it!

I sometimes think about what the future will bring. I have done a lot of different things in my career so far, and anytime I think I know the future things tend to change. I’ve been in St Louis for about 10 years now, can you believe it? I’m still considered “new” because I didn’t grow up here, but that’s almost as long as I lived in my “hometown” before college started! Louie and I occasionally ponder if we should stay here or consider moving elsewhere, and while I won’t be repeating my earlier mistakes of moving for a guy without a financial guarantee from him, I don’t want to live my life in fear of making mistakes! I haven’t in the past, and while I find myself wanting to be more cautious as I get older (isn’t that normal?) I still don’t want to be afraid to make any changes.

I know this is vague sounding, but it’s vague just because…I don’t have any concrete plans. Right now I’m just trying to figure out how to keep my stress levels down and how to have some semblance of a life while I’m working. I used to worry about work-life balance, now I feel like I’m so far tipped towards work that life went out the window. I don’t feel that I have close friends like I used to—I know that everybody says this is normal as we all get older and we are paired off—but I also see that many people I know seem to have close friends still, so I know it’s possible. Maybe it’s not possible for me, or maybe I’ll have to settle with a few decent friends rather than really close ones I can discuss hard topics with, but I can dream!

I went by the library today to renew my expired library card, but I couldn’t find it so I assumed I had left it in another wallet. A little later I did find it, but “renew library card” is still on my to-do list. I did get to the bank, though I have to go back later this week for another task, and it’s possible what I did at the bank won’t work so fingers crossed. (Transferring from one IRA to another…there were difficulties, which made me glad I enlisted help rather than doing it myself!)

Now the choice: what to do with the rest of the afternoon? Practice, read, clean? I think I know the answer to that one. Remember, I’m still getting over a cold and I already cleaned the upstairs thinking I was going to teach (student got sick).