So FRIDAY is the trip to Italy. I have a long to do list, but it’s mostly fun stuff.

Tonight I played my last concert of the “season”. It’s been a CRAZY year but so much fun. I don’t know quite what will happen performance-wise over the summer other than a concert with Jen on July 31, but it’ll be nice to have some time to relax. I have a long to-do list of fun stuff I want to do in St Louis this summer too. (Note my usage of the hyphen this time. Which is correct, I’m too lazy to bing it. Trying that one out. Doesn’t seem to work, does it?)

But first, Italy! Let’s see. I found euros in an old wallet from my Paris trip of yore. I thought it was going to be a few, but it ended up being 35 euros. Did I already tell you that? That’s probably along the lines of a “and then I found 5 dollars” story but I was really pumped. I sound poor don’t I?

Fun things that have happened: (I’m going to number them, in no particular order and for no particular reason.)

1. Somebody wrote a blog post about the Perseid Quartet’s recent performance at the Kemper Art Museum.

2. Illumine Ensemble: Next to last performance, same as tonight. We didn’t have the full house we were hoping for, but we had an appreciative crowd and I’ll take that over numbers any time. Of course I’d prefer both, but I didn’t manage to market as much as I usually do.

For instance I didn’t post this until now. This is what we played tonight. It was a blast! The food was really tasty too, and the eggplant on the poster is really creepy…and hopefully didn’t scare people away. I scored a free Civil Life Brewing Company T-shirt for Louie tonight (I’m less of a t-shirt person).

3. We went to dinner at Lona’s Lil Eats and the SLSO concert on Saturday night. It was a fun night. Lona’s was in my old neighborhood, though not there when I lived there. The symphony was fun though I got a little emotional about it…sometimes it’s tough to see my ex there. We had a long time together, and not so long apart even though it feels like it. After the concert we shut down Urban Chestnut Brewing Company with our friends and it was a really fun night.

4. Cats. CATS.

I’ll miss those guys when I’m in Rome. A little bit at least.

5. I’m taking some time off from playing now (other than teaching the rest of this week.) I fell back in February and to be honest my pinky finger hasn’t really healed yet. I figure I’ll give it two weeks of honest to goodness rest and then if it’s still bugging me when I get home I’ll go in to see a doctor about it. I’m wondering if I have a small fracture or something. I have full mobility in it and it doesn’t hurt except when I do certain things on the violin, but it’s not right. Fingers crossed it’ll heal on it’s own: you know I am stubborn to a fault and hate going to the doctor unless absolutely necessary. I’m telling myself if two weeks off isn’t enough then the doctor is necessary.

Okay, that’s enough numbered lists! Tomorrow is Tuesday, and soon it will be time to go to Rome. Don’t hate me!