Hope, Quarantine, Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving Break

I still have the rest of today, but it has been a wonderful and refreshing Thanksgiving Break.

One week ago today I had an online recital for my students and they were awesome. I was so proud of them for continuing to rise to the occasion.

Then I took off private teaching all week, which was a fantastic decision. I had a few things to do work-wise but I got to have my afternoons and evenings free AND I got a break from hearing violin over the computer. It was absolutely the best thing for me.

I did a few new to me things over the week, one of which was taking a short online workshop on “self-care for creative types.” It was amazing. I had forgotten to think about what I actually enjoyed doing as I have been so focused on “getting through the pandemic” and “keeping my students happy and challenged”. So I spent Tuesday after the workshop doing some brainstorming and starting to work through a book I’d bought a few years ago but never used called “Your Best Year Yet!”.

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Wednesday was lovely as I was able to sleep in a bit, exercise at my leisure, and spend some time cooking. For Thanksgiving I ended up making a cranberry-rhubarb sauce (which was delicious, absolutely delicious) with some rhubarb I had in the freezer, and Smitten Kitchen’s Corn Pudding, which was good but drier than I like (Louie absolutely adored it.) I picked up bread and rolls at Union Loafers and Louie picked up our dinner for the next day from Treehouse, a vegan restaurant we really like. (We decided not to eat a real turkey this Thanksgiving.) That night we went to the Garden Glow at the Botanical Gardens—it’s a light event they do every Thanksgiving through the New Year, and I’d thought of trying to go many years but we never did. This time the weather suddenly looked okay and I snapped up the last few tickets for the night. The crowds were capped at 25 percent of the original capacity, and it felt fine walking around with people wearing their masks and lots of space.

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Thursday morning I made an egg and potato casserole to go with one of the breads and then we met up with some of Louie’s colleagues (when you work at a college, you end up being invited to do things on Thanksgiving day!) and we took a nice long (masked) walk in Forest Park.

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After that we popped over to his mom’s house and visited on their porch for a bit and had some tea, before heading home to relax. We had some appetizers his mom had given up (prosecco, caviar and blinis!) and then after a few hours, started heating up our Thanksgiving dinner. Dinner was a delicious and we were pretty stuffed afterwards. We watched TV for a bit, and then managed some dessert as well.

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Friday we went to Rockwoods Reservation and hiked the Lime Kiln Trail to another trail and then across the road to the Rock Quarry Trail for a little over 5 miles. It was the most crowded we had ever seen it there and that didn’t surprised me as it was a gorgeous day outside! Louie had some work to do after that so we went home. I got all of my holiday decorations out and started putting up the tree. The cats really loved having a tree inside to climb, and I guess I am just fine with that.  At night we had Thanksgiving Take 2 and it was just as good as Take 1.

Saturday was an entire day spent at home, and it was glorious. I was able to again sleep in a bit, exercise, and finish decorating the tree—I ran out of hooks before I was done, so I’ll finish the rest in a few days after I get some more hooks. My trick with cats is to not put up my most breakable ornaments, and otherwise to shrug and laugh. The tree seems sturdy enough for them to climb up without it falling over. We put it in a slightly more central location than previous years since I won’t have any students coming and going, which meant I ended up being short on ornaments—I was used to having one side against the wall! I also went ahead and worked on Christmas cards and got those mostly done. I’m still collecting addresses and don’t plan to send them for another week or two.  We had Thanksgiving for the third time for dinner and managed to finally finish off a few of the dishes. There’s still corn pudding, salad, and cranberry sauces left, but otherwise we did a good job.

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And that brings us to now. I ended up waking up quite early, so I’ve already done quite a few things…I actually have realized it’s nice to be awake as the sun comes up since it sets so early (4:41 today, for instance). I thought having a teaching job where I had to get up so early would be a terrible thing, and while it’s awfully hard some mornings, it has been kind of fun. I’m trying to focus on the good things, and on some of the ideas that were brought up in the Best Year Yet book and the Self-Care workshop and between that and you know, a vacation, I’m feeling much more like myself than I had in awhile: more focused, relaxed, and enjoying life. This pandemic is still hard, and I believe some of the worst is yet to come, but we will (hopefully) weather the storm…

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Back to work tomorrow for just over 3 weeks…

Quarantine, Teaching

Recital day

I have this app on my phone called “Timehop” which shows me stuff I took pictures of or posted to instragram or whatnot 1 year ago, 2 years ago, etc. Today I saw a picture from one year ago of a studio recital. It wasn’t actually 1 year ago to the day, so the picture must have been something else, but just under one year ago was our last student recital together, in person (I usually do one the Sunday before Thanksgiving.) I miss seeing those guys in person…I haven’t been one of those teachers who is like “I miss my students so much” because I’m not that sort of teacher. But it has gotten ridiculous, and we are looking at several more months of online at least, and it’s tiring, because IT DIDN’T HAVE TO BE THIS WAY.

In any case, I’m excited for the recital today on zoom. Most of the students are playing live, and a few have recorded videos ahead of time to be less stressful. I told them they had a choice. Life is stressful enough these days for those who find playing on a recital overly stressful. Hopefully the next recital…or at least the one after that, can be in person.

I’m tired of hearing violin over the internet though. I’m looking forward to seeing them all again in person, and hearing how they actually soon.

I’m tired of a lot of things…but I’m really glad to have a week off (mostly) ahead of me. I’m looking forward to catching up on a bunch of videos of this and that I need to watch, reading some more books, doing some cooking, taking some walks and hikes, and decorating a bit for Christmas. I don’t know if I’ll put up a Christmas tree this year, but I’ll definitely decorate some. I don’t know if I want to go all out with just two of us here, but I will put up some nutcrackers and a few other things to make it festive.

We got a meal box from Purple Carrot this week. It’s a vegan meal delivery service, similar to Blue Apron except the meals don’t contain any animal products. I made two of the recipes and Louie made one. I thought my two were easier to make than most of the Blue Apron meals, and especially enjoyed the one I made last night. It was Sesame Ginger Noodles with Stir-Fried Greens and Toasted Peanuts, and I forgot to take a picture. I would make it again, though I might add some tofu if I did it on my own. Louie thought the burgers he made were a little more involved, and we wished they had had a few more carrots, but they were also tasty. We decided we would order again and perhaps alternate with Blue Apron (we usually do about one box a month.)

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Those are roasted carrots, and they were delicious, but there were very few of them. I’m greedy with my roasted veggies and always want a bunch.

In any case, if you like eating plant-based meals, I would recommend Purple Carrot. I don’t have any free meals to offer you right now, but I might in the future. (I do have referrals for Blue Apron and Imperfect Foods, so just leave a comment or email me if you are interested or if you have any more questions!)

I was supposed to get my hair done on Monday, but my hairdresser had to cancel due to a COVID exposure. Now I’m worried I shouldn’t have been going anyway, and should wait a few more months…I had felt it was okay since it was just her and me and we wear masks the whole time, but I am there for almost two hours if I do a cut and color and she definitely sees more people each day than I do. Or maybe I should just do one at a time, but that seems annoying because you end up wasting more time that way. This is my vanity speaking, of course, but I spend all day looking at myself on the computer! I will wait and decide what to do. Another few weeks won’t matter in the greater scheme of things, and I know that pandemic gray is a source of pride for some women.

I am debating if we are going to get to the Garden Glow this year. On the one hand, this is an event I have thought about doing every year for years and years and never made it due to work commitments. Perhaps this is the year to go! But yet, COVID. It IS mostly outdoors yet they still require masks and from what I’ve heard, people tend to follow the rules. Also they have limited tickets from usual years. But yet, still, I don’t want to get COVID and our community spread is terrible, and perhaps future years I will continue a similar schedule of mostly teaching with a few gigs here and there.

I spent a few years trying to take on as many gigs as possible, and it seems that that approach doesn’t help at all in the long term, as each gig disappears just as quickly as it appeared. Being a freelance musician has been the most stressful and thankless part of my career. I was thinking about how wonderful the people I teach are, and instead of a one thing here, one thing there, with the new person moving back getting the job I couldn’t do the one time and then suddenly all the jobs, I have a steady stream of young people (and older) wanting to learn…it’s a more consistent and less crazy-making career path. I would however, love to play chamber music with people who inspire me, or to play a Mahler Symphony again, but I’ve also been lucky enough in my life to have done those things many times.

I taught another Creative Ability Development (CAD) Class yesterday morning and had the most fun. Teaching kids to improvise and improvising myself has been my latest favorite thing (I looked forward to the class, enjoyed it throughout, and ran overtime) and I’m so glad I fell into it. My path to becoming an improviser has been (I think) unconventional and random, and I know I have a long way to go, but like a teacher I had recently said, the best way to really learn to do something is to teach it. (My class is open to anybody who can play a string instrument a little bit, so contact me for more information as well!).

I hope you have relaxing Thanksgiving Day plans. I hope you are being safe, and that you and your families are well. Oh, and check out this recording of The Winter’s Tale with me on violin ($6 to $9). It’s in the style of an Orson Welles Radio Broadcast and is really well done, and I helped create the music.

Quarantine

The Carrot or the Stick

The week has flown by, but it’s going well. We had a long power outage on Sunday due to a tree around the corner from us getting blown over in the wind, but after that things have gone smoothly.

Thanksgiving break is so close…I ordered Thanksgiving Dinner for us from Treehouse and got the dinner for 4. I’m going to supplement with a few extra dishes (roasted vegetables, cranberry sauce) and then we will have some Thanksgiving leftovers and save a bit more cooking. I’m excited to have a few days off from hearing Zoom Violin!

This weekend is a bit busy as I’m teaching an improvisation class AND doing a studio recital. Next week is a well deserved break!

I did some more canning on Tuesday. I made pickled cranberries for the upcoming holidays and I made a cherry almond jam recipe with frozen cherries I’d gotten over the summer. (Originally fresh). The jam is delicious—two of the jars didn’t seal so I have been having to eat it already.

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We are trying a meal box from Purple Carrot this week—I got it for free from a friend. Purple Carrot is a vegan meal delivery service, where they deliver the ingredients and you have to cook. We aren’t vegan (I eat seafood and dairy and eggs, but try to avoid most other meat products) but we enjoy eating vegan meals (hence the Thanksgiving meal). I made one meal last night and it was nice. Was it as good as Blue Apron? Not so far, but I actually think the meal I made was the least appetizing looking one (I chose it because it looked easiest) so we will see how the other two add up. I was a little concerned that there was very little added salt and pepper in the instructions and it didn’t use up an entire can of beans it provided and told you to save them, so I went ahead and added them. It seemed like from the directions they thought people might be limiting their calories more…I suppose people might eat vegan to be healthier, but I see it as more of an environmental and sustainable choice. I don’t think 500 calories is a good amount for a dinner for an adult, so I added some salt and used all the beans.

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It was called something like Tomato Gratin with Farro. It was tasty!

The news has been quite disheartening lately. It seems very few people are willing to continue making any sort of sacrifice to save lives. I am particularly frustrated at our lack of government help: it seems somewhat obvious that what we really need to do right now is pay people to stay home, and instead we are just shaming college students for not wanting to stay isolated in a dorm room.  I feel like everybody else is pretty much living life normally and complaining about things being online while the death toll mounts, and they warn us that hospitals will be overrun. I know over the summer we did a few things, but we really tried to analyze the risk involved, and currently the community spread of this virus is out of control, and you have to assume that you or anybody you run into might have it.

On a brighter note:

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If I’m stuck at home (and technically I’m not, I could be going to concerts, restaurants, and weddings) at least I’m stuck with these guys. Aren’t they the cutest?

Quarantine

Pandemic Life

2 Comments

I was thinking the other day how I often feel like I’m just counting down the days…counting down the activities each day until the end of the day. Is this normal? How do we live in the moment when the moments are all the same and feel unending but we know that it’s because we are living through a bad time? Am I just depressed?

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Anyway, it was a normal week. Cats, a little recording of Christmas music, lots of students. I’m looking forward to Thanksgiving Break and having some time off…it’s funny how weekends aren’t enough for me anyway. To be fair, I’m doing an online workshop for 10 hours this weekend so I’m pretty busy. We aren’t 100 percent sure on what we are doing for Thanksgiving (well, it’s mostly because I know what I want to do which is just eat at home, but Louie is waffling a bit and feels like we should try to eat with his parents who live in town, but I feel like that’s needlessly risky) but otherwise we are hoping for decent weather (unlike today, which is raining) so we can get in some good outdoor activities. I also want to do a little baking and make some cranberry things, and then decorate for Christmas. I don’t plan to decorate as fully as last year when I had company, but I’d like to make the place a little festive. That will happen AFTER Thanksgiving Smile

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A selfie while waiting to record two Christmas songs for an upcoming Opera Edwardsville video performance. I wore a festive holiday, as you can see. I am excited to see the video for that and also really excited to hear the recording of A Winter’s Tale that I did with the students at St Louis University.

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These guys took my seat when I had a short break from teaching. It was a bit of a challenge shooing them out of there! Kind of like herding cats.

I had a dream the other night that I overbought bananas, that we had 5 bunches of them in the fruit bowl, but that I also kept finding a bunch of them in nearly every basket and on every end table throughout the house! This was the same night I also had a dream that I was visiting a friend who said that they don’t wear masks but that it’s okay because as they are talking they move their hand up and down really fast to dissipate any virus in the air. Weird night.

I can’t decide if my early morning job is giving me a nice structure to my day or making me absolutely miserable with exhaustion. I think it’s somewhere in between. Last night I slept from 10:30 to 7:30, and only got up one time, and woke up to a nice rain, and I feel great. I know parents do this kind of thing all the time, but there are a variety of reasons one chooses not to be a parent, and while sleep wasn’t the main one for me, it is something I get to have for myself. I also haven’t been sleeping well for the past four years, especially lately, so it was nice to get a solid 9 hours rather than tossing and turning and maybe getting 5 to 6. I do enjoy doing the classes for students, and that age group (4th and 5th graders) is an age group that tends to really enjoy my sense of humor, so that’s good.

Thanksgiving dilemma: do I order dinner for 4 (for 2) to have leftovers and it’s NOT twice as much as dinner for 2? Or just dinner for 2 to be reasonable? I might still supplement with some bread from another place and a home baked pie and homemade cranberry sauce or relish. What would you do?

Hope

Relief

I feel like a huge weight has been lifted off my chest. I know that times are still tough and we have to get through the next few months, and this is bad week for COVID cases, but I feel like maybe we can do something different in our country.

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Fall is here, and it’s been a gorgeous month. Having more time to enjoy it on the weekends has been nice too.

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The leaves are so gorgeous and the weather this past week has been unseasonably warm and wonderful!

COVID cases are bad here…I keep waiting for another shutdown. I’m already working from home still so hardly anything more can affect me, but Louie has been teaching classes in person. Exponential growth is a scary thing.

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I do feel like the days are all the same though…I can’t decide what exactly I miss about my old life, but I miss it. I miss the freedom of it all the most. If everybody wore masks, we would get some of our freedom back, but that’s not the country we live in.

I thought about trying to book some sort of getaway for us over Thanksgiving, but if we are going to go somewhere and just be stuck avoiding people who aren’t taking the virus seriously I’d rather just stay home. I’m hoping the weather will be nice over Thanksgiving (it OFTEN is) as we have a couple of hikes further away that we might try. I also have a little more frozen fruit in the freezer that I want to turn into jam, and there are always baking ideas! There’s no shortage of things to do: my reading list is long, there’s plenty to do around the house, etc, but as far as things that take you away from the everyday…it’s harder. I just have to remind myself that I’m lucky to still be so busy with work, lucky to have a nice home to live in (not everybody would agree, but I like it), and lucky to have so many things to do.

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I’m enjoying the semester for the most point: my new teaching position has given a focus to my days, and makes me get started really early in the day (class starts at 7:15 am) which means nights have gotten earlier as well. It works well, but makes some days long. At some point it will be in person rather than in my living room, but not this calendar year. And I had a great time teaching a tiny Improv/CAD class on Saturday, and plan to go to weekly classes in the spring.

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This week I’m recording some music for a Christmas Concert, and I’m waiting to hear the final recording of the play I helped create music for last month. I also finally finished all my MMTA judging (so many fantastic student performances!) and I’m still participating in some teaching seminars. I’m getting tired of it all and need a break soon, so Thanksgiving can’t come soon enough. I’m not sure what we are doing, if we are going to just do Thanksgiving the two of us, and cook or order takeout dinner from somewhere, or try to do some sort of dinner with Louie’s parents where we mostly wear masks and stay far apart. We know just the two of us is the safest, but there are inherent risks in other activities, such as driving in a car for a three week road trip, and perhaps having a mostly masked dinner with a few other people who have also been being quite careful is okay? I also like the idea of getting a dinner from a restaurant and supporting them (I don’t want to make Thanksgiving dinner for two). 

What are you doing for Thanksgiving, do you know yet? How are you holding up?

Weather

Please vote

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It is a beautiful sunny day. I hope that’s a sign.

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I’ve been busy. Teaching, grading, practicing (especially improv stuff), working on creating and recording music for a play, judging students for an online MTNA competition. It’s been a lot of fun and a lot of learning and challenging myself, but it’s been a lot. I’m looking forward to Thanksgiving week: I’m taking the week off from private teaching and looking forward to doing some canning, baking, cleaning and decorating the house, and hopefully some getting outside too, weather permitting. This weekend looks lovely as well.

Let’s hope there is some good news in the election results. Our COVID numbers are terrible here. My zip code is particularly bad, which means that we give a wide berth on walks. I am still working from home with the occasional thing out, a few errands, visiting with friends here and there but only outdoors (that couldn’t happen for a while with a lot of rain and cold weather, but this weekend looks lovely), and takeout or cooking. We have tried to limit takeout to once a month, but got it twice on Louie’s birthday week and tonight might be tempting!

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We had a nice hike at Forest 44 Conservation Area last weekend. We chose it because it is never crowded. Someday we can go places that might be crowded, and someday we can go farther away, but not now.

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I had to go on the campus of St Louis University last weekend to work on the play I mentioned, and it was so beautiful! Fall is such a gorgeous season, isn’t it?

How are you all doing today?

thoughts about violin, teaching, running, life.