Hi readers! I’m back home, I survived my two week vacation, and I’m back teaching and trying to get ready for an insane September.

The trip was really neat. It was different than some of our vacations the past few summers but was really fun. I thought about blogging the other day but instead I organized all my photos and ended up ordering a photo book online instead. So I’ll get to that soon. I’ll just tell you the highlights involve staying in a teepee and cheese grits!

Being back home has its advantages, of course. The cats, easy access to a variety of bathrooms…

I’ve been working hard finalized my teaching schedule for my private students and at Lindenwood. Wash U is still a crap shoot—classes start Monday and I know nothing about my students yet, so who knows how that will work. I have a 5 week run of Evita starting on Tuesday night (1 week rehearsing, 4 weeks of performances) and I’m kind of in denial about how busy I’ll be. I think it’ll be okay: things are always worse looking at them in advance than just doing them. And I’m looking forward to playing the show—I think it’ll be loads of fun and I am working with some excellent colleagues (and I’m not just saying that in case they are reading this, haha!).

It was also nice visiting my parents and my hometown of Clinton, South Carolina. People are always shocked that I grew up in the South, probably because I have no discernable accent and I don’t dye my hair blonde. But I grew up in a town of about 8000 people, in rural South Carolina.

Anyway. I’m off to do a few computer tasks, work out, run a couple of errands, practice, and then teach for 3 1/2 hours. Not a bad day!