The semester schedule, especially for college, often just seems like a mad dash from beginning to end. It’s slightly less so for school before college since the semesters are longer, but there’s still that same feeling.

The days are longer, the birds are louder, the air is warmer, it was Spring for a few days, and may be almost there again now.

Life: life is hectic and busy. Louie is completely overworked right now, but his sprint only goes through the end of April. Mine goes longer, but I’m not as overworked. Still time to read, to plan upcoming trips, to relax.

I haven’t felt like getting into the garden yet this year. I’m not sure if I’ll do it or not. I think I’ll probably plant at least a few things, maybe beans and zucchini, but since we’ll be gone I want to time it so that hopefully it’s okay if I wasn’t there the whole time.

It’s been a tough semester, with some work reasons I won’t go into here. I will say: I’ve been working hard on envisioning my own life, what I want the rest of my career to look like, and coming to terms with the fact (probably 20 years late!) that what I see as success and happiness in my career is what matters, not what other people see as success, especially colleagues who may have very different world views. I am not teaching in order to make my students into competition winners or performers, I am teaching because I want them to love playing the violin like I do, but I also know that for most of them, this is one part of their lives, and that’s okay. I want it to be a good part.

The same with performing: I can’t do everything. I have said repeatedly that I’m glad to be doing less, and I’m still playing for sure. I’m saying yes, I’m saying no, making decisions for myself. Do I get feelings of jealousy when I see what other people are getting the opportunity to do? Yes, sometimes. And sometimes those pangs are very fleeting, because then I remind myself, you chose a different path, you had a lovely evening, you played that other job, you already turned that gig down because it conflicted with something, or whatever. You can control your second thought.

Maybe they are just bragging on social media to make themselves feel better anyway, because they are missing something in their life, or because the freelance game is like the Game of Thrones.

Or, maybe they are genuinely happy and sharing because of that, it’s possible! There is room for all of us, their happiness doesn’t take away from mine.

I got new hiking shoes! I am trying a zero drop shoe. I thought that I didn’t need new hiking shoes for the summer and then I realized that my shoes were actually falling apart and worn down. We went on the Lime Kiln trail last weekend, and my calves were working hard on the uphills, but otherwise I loved them. I’ll need to build up those muscles.

My old shoes treated me well: I hiked to the bottom of the Grand Canyon, all over Utah (we did 5 parks in one trip!), Colorado, Missouri, and more. These shoes are more trail runners, so they are lighter, and probably won’t last as long, but the lightness is a nice feature as well. They are the Altra Timp 3 Trail Runners.

You can see my old shoes in these photos: With Louie at Delicate Arch in Arches National Park, me hiking up to Mills Lake in Rocky Mountain National Park, and relaxing by Mills Lake in RMNP on my 40th birthday.

I’ve been reading the Inspector Gamache series of books lately by Louise Penny. I happened into the first one somehow and then have been reading as many as I can. TV wise, we’ve been watching Occupied, which is a Netflix show in which Norway is occupied by Russia for their gas…it really takes on a whole new level watching this show during the current atrocities Russia is committing in Ukraine, but the show is good and making us excited for visiting Norway.

Food wise: we attended a Wine Dinner at the Whittemore House last weekend. It was a pairing of Moroccan food and wines (not Moroccan, but just to pair.) We had a great time. I haven’t been cooking anything super fun lately, just quick dinners to get by, like frozen pizza, fish and roasted vegetables, pasta, that sort of thing. Oh, one favorite recipe lately is Black Pepper Tofu and Eggplant from the Smitten Kitchen.

How are you? How is your April going?