Hello! Maybe you thought I forgot about this blog. I didn’t. I was just doing a million other things. September was a rough month: I knew it would be rough, I had a wonderful time being extremely busy and working the equivalent of two full time jobs, and now it’s done and behind me, and I have money in the bank, and finally a bit of free time. Now I’m only working 1 1/2 full time jobs so I feel like I have these decadent hours of free time here and there, and I even got done working today at 6:30, which was insane!

So here we are. I finally managed to change the strings on my violin, and I cooked myself a dinner, and I am now relaxing in front of the computer (Louie is off at a conference so I’m on my own this week.).

It was a crazy month. I played 30 shows of Evita at the Repertory Theater of St Louis, and the truth is, I had a great time. I also taught as many of my students each week as I could…I have, by my current count, 43 students. I actually thought it was less than that, so I’m not sure what that means. I remember there was a point last year where I realized I had 45 students, and then I’ve lost a few, but somehow I’m still at 43, and I feel like my teaching schedule is light. You get used to what you get used to, I guess! I also am teaching a chamber music class and not counting those students, and in September I also played a few extra gigs and did a quartet concert.

Oddly I found I had enough time to FINALLY put some stuff up on the walls in my house, and I began reorganizing my music collection. I’ve bought a few frames and things like that in order to put up pictures and I am super happy with what I’ve done so far. But that was all in September. Now I’m in October, and I’m getting lazy again already…I’m just kidding. I did skip an online workshop I was considering doing in order to have lunch with a friend, and that was so worth it. Seeing friends is definitely something that I put by the wayside this semester, at least so far, and while I haven’t missed it too much (I still have Louie, and perhaps at this time of my life that has to be enough), PLUS I had fantastic colleagues for Evita that I saw constantly…I forget the beginning of this sentence (how do people write long sentences? Editors, I suppose?).

I had some fun with selfies during the show. I just went back through my photos to see if there was anything worth sharing for those of you who don’t follow me on instagram (I didn’t give up on doing social during the month, just blogging and having friends!).

I think this was early in the show’s run.

Just a note: because I needed to wear headphones that meant I had to wear my hair up and take off my earrings.

One of my favorite tops.

One of my colleagues made us some Eva Peron signs to hold up. I should mention, the pit was completely under the stand so the audience really couldn’t see us, so we got to wear whatever we wanted and be a little sillier than usual.

Why don’t they just share the hedge?

What else have I been up to? Browsing etsy for various décor has become a good pastime. I’ve also started planning a summer road trip for next summer (so far away, but I have big plans—Yellowstone, Glacier, and Banff- and it diverts my mind from the current political awfulness that is going on). And I’ve been reading, and doing a little practicing, and watching Ozark and Tin Star. And I got back into running, a little bit.

Plans for October: continue decluttering house. Continue adding wall decorations, both at home at and at my office at Wash U (I’m there only twice a week this year, but I am only sharing with one other person so I wanted to personalize it more), run 2 to 3 times a week, do blogilates 2-3 times a week, try to eat more vegetables and less snacks, see a few more friends, and facetime with Athena my niece more often! And teach those 43 students, keep up on my October gigs, and rest up for a three week run of Aladdin in November.

I might also finish blogging about the trip in August, if only to do a summary and tell you some fun things and remind myself for the future!