I have to say, this month has been the busiest in awhile. I think I say that every month, so I don’t even know anymore. I do know that I have 7 more mornings to wake up for class and then it’s SUMMMMMMMMMMMERRRRR!!!!
Last weekend was full. It started early with a Thursday night mini golf evening with Louie and a friend at nearby Magic Mini Golf. We were going to get dinner there, but the kitchen was closed (at 7:30pm?) so we went to Nudo House first and enjoyed dinner there instead. The weather was crazy, with heavy rainstorms all night long, and we definitely got a bit soaked going back and forth but we had a fun night with quite a few hole in ones. Holes in one?
I had two concerts Friday evening so I was busy working! I wasn’t super happy with my performance on either concert, but I suppose they were okay. I was really focused on getting my students ready for Festival the same weekend and hadn’t been able to practice as much as I might have, plus the constant weather changes were negatively affecting the way my violin sounded and bow felt, so I was a bit out of sorts.
Saturday was festival day #1 with 5 students playing, and afterwards we walked up to the Thurteen Carnival for a bit (before it was shut down), and then went to the Symphony concert that night. It was a nice concert with better seats than we usually buy because we got the tickets from some friends 🙂 They played a lot of Sibelius which was fun (and was getting us more excited to visit Finland this summer.)
Sunday morning I was at the festival all day, proctoring and grading theory tests. I didn’t get back until late afternoon (it was an easy job, but I just needed to be there for a long time.) I had 3 students perform that morning as well. After that we wanted to just do nothing, but Louie and I had made plans to do some work at our old house (someday this thing will go on the market but not yet) and then grab dinner nearby. We started watching Killing Eve that night as well, which is a fun show with Sandra Oh on Netflix with four seasons (at this time?).
Monday was back to work except that night we went to Louie’s mom’s for a Passover Seder, so it was another late night. It was just the four of us and we had a nice time.
And then the rest of the week just flew by: teaching, getting juries ready, getting performances lined for students, getting some things ready for four gigs this weekend, and keeping the house running (laundry and groceries are my main jobs). This is the last week of classes at Wash U: next week is juries and a few makeup lessons. I have 3 more weeks of private teaching but only 2 until the recital, and we are hard at work getting the school (my before school program) kids ready for their spring concert. I also have one student playing a concerto with his college orchestra (not Wash U, a local community college), and another playing with her school orchestra the same night as my own school that I hope to attend afterwards (she is sure it will be a longer concert and she is near the end, fingers crossed!). This weekend is mostly full of work for me: a wedding, a mass, a memorial service, and a concert, plus the Great Artists Series on Sunday night. If I can make it to May 13 things settle down tremendously after that.
It is not to say that I have been running around only working, but simply that I have been working enough that I haven’t had much bandwidth beyond that. I read a fun book this week: The 7 1/2 Lives of Evelyn Hardcastle (not to be confused with the 7 Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, which I am pretty sure I did for awhile). I’ve gotten in some nice walks and exercise, and listened to lots of podcasts. I have NOT done much cooking, but that’s fine, and I have done more practicing this week than last, as I didn’t care for the feeling of not playing as well as I would like last weekend. It makes me grumpy 🙂
How has your week been going? Any fun plans for the weekend?