The summer sunsets are getting earlier and earlier, which always makes me sad. The days of June feel so hopeful when it is light at 5:00 in the morning and doesn't get dark until 10:00. Now autumn is coming, and with it a return to the weekly schedule. And rain. And more darkness. The flowers are winding down. We aren't starting our fall teaching schedule until the second week of September, although some of the districts around us go back to school in just another week.
This weekend felt refreshing and heavy, both. I needed a little space and time without events, because I was SO tired. And all weekend I felt inordinately sad about not taking any of our annual camping trips or going on any of our favorite hikes this summer.
Last year we said a pre-emptive no to all camping trips, with the intention of making time to work on the garage. Then we did not work on the garage, because we ended up preparing for a concert, which takes daily focus and preparation for weeks and months. At the end of that summer, we regretted the camping ban, and vowed never to have a no-camping summer again.
This summer I planned at least one camping trip, which was then cancelled due to exhaustion and actual work on the garage. Then in addition to a remix of the same concert from last summer, we got asked to do a much bigger concert in September. So that means lots more preparation for weeks and months. Which I, for one, am behind on, on account of slicing my finger two weeks ago. It is not completely back to normal and may not be for some time, but I am able to use it at about 90% normalcy now when I am playing.
The upshot of our vow to enjoy summer is, we got to go to the beach for a few hours on July 4, but there was no camping. We still haven't had a chance to do anything for our anniversary yet, which was a month ago. I had to back out of going on my brother's birthday hike at Mt. Rainier yesterday due to needing to practice and family logistics. Also this was the weekend I would have planned to do my annual birthday camping trip at Mowich Lake, which of course, was out of the question, too. Plus if we want to back up for some added drama, we didn't get to do Jared's annual birthday trip to Hurricane Ridge in January as the government shutdown meant they didn't plow and no one could get up there.
About the birthday this week... I'm feeling sad about that, too. Turning 29 was really hard on me. Painfully hard. 39 coming up doesn't seem quite so bad, but I am feeling like it's the end of a good era... Why are we Westerners so obsessed with numbers? I always have been, and I always loved math. There is no escape.
What I want most is to cancel all obligations for the next week (not possible!) and escape to the rugged wilderness of this beautiful state. I'm paying out the ears to live here for a reason.
While I watch summer winding down and am investing time trying to get my fall schedule organized and recruit more students to fill it up my empty hours, I keep waiting for my summer to start. The time when I go swimming and climb mountains and watch my kids play at the beach. I guess that will have to wait for next summer...
Monday, August 19, 2019
Sunday, August 11, 2019
Mayhem in Review
Starting from the last week of June:
Week 1: Jared was out of town. I was alone with three kids for the first time. Anne had her last day of kindergarten and her first day of summer swimming. I taught a few lessons and hosted an end-of-year party for Anne's class. No one died, but there were meltdowns amongst my kids.
Week 2: We had a few days off due to the Fourth. There was garage-cleaning and planning that happened in addition to teaching and rehearsing.
Week 3: We taught our in-house group class workshop all week, and had an electrical team here to put the line and panel in for our garage conversion. And also rehearsed with Linda.
Week 4: We taught lessons and my dad came to stay with us and do all the interior electrical work on the garage. Also, we had five evening rehearsals in Seattle with Linda and Adam.
Week 5: We taught at the Walla Walla Suzuki Institute. It involved a road trip (not so fun). It was kind of an easy week there since we had Jared's parents there to do EVERYTHING for us. They took care of the little kids while we were teaching, took Anne to all her classes, took Anne swimming daily, and cooked dinner for us. And the campus is so small and everything was clustered right together.
Week 6: We taught lessons and gave a full-length (sold-out! :-)) chamber concert with Adam and Linda in Kent. And painting over the graffiti that showed up on our garage door while we were out of town the previous week. Also Anne had her first vacation Bible school experience nightly, which she loved.
Week 7: Zombie week. We taught at Japan Seattle Suzuki Institute, and thankfully this year cut out hours of commuting by staying in the dorm. But we had piecemeal hour-by-hour childcare that I didn't always have lined up until 45 minutes before it was needed. Some incredibly generous people helped us out! Also, the night before it all started, I smashed my middle finger on my left hand. It bled for several hours, and had to be iced. I thought of going out to find a doctor on Sunday night, but trying to find something on our insurance while packing for the early morning departure was not awesome, so I used bandaids and paper towels. Thankfully, my group class pianist at the institute got me some super glue, and by the third day of the institute, my finger was no longer bleeding, and I could start to play a little bit.
Now we have three easy weeks. Just some summer teaching, in-house rehearsing for our pair of chamber concerts in Bellingham the first week of Bellingham, and working out the fall teaching schedule. There are some big changes coming to group class (I think?), and thinking about childcare, and recruiting some new students to replace our moving-away and graduating and changing teachers students... And maybe cleaning out the huge and disgusting pile of boxes left over from last year's move, which are now in an unattractive and somewhat soggy pile under a big, blue, wet tarp in the back yard.
Week 1: Jared was out of town. I was alone with three kids for the first time. Anne had her last day of kindergarten and her first day of summer swimming. I taught a few lessons and hosted an end-of-year party for Anne's class. No one died, but there were meltdowns amongst my kids.
Week 2: We had a few days off due to the Fourth. There was garage-cleaning and planning that happened in addition to teaching and rehearsing.
Week 3: We taught our in-house group class workshop all week, and had an electrical team here to put the line and panel in for our garage conversion. And also rehearsed with Linda.
Week 4: We taught lessons and my dad came to stay with us and do all the interior electrical work on the garage. Also, we had five evening rehearsals in Seattle with Linda and Adam.
Week 5: We taught at the Walla Walla Suzuki Institute. It involved a road trip (not so fun). It was kind of an easy week there since we had Jared's parents there to do EVERYTHING for us. They took care of the little kids while we were teaching, took Anne to all her classes, took Anne swimming daily, and cooked dinner for us. And the campus is so small and everything was clustered right together.
Week 6: We taught lessons and gave a full-length (sold-out! :-)) chamber concert with Adam and Linda in Kent. And painting over the graffiti that showed up on our garage door while we were out of town the previous week. Also Anne had her first vacation Bible school experience nightly, which she loved.
Week 7: Zombie week. We taught at Japan Seattle Suzuki Institute, and thankfully this year cut out hours of commuting by staying in the dorm. But we had piecemeal hour-by-hour childcare that I didn't always have lined up until 45 minutes before it was needed. Some incredibly generous people helped us out! Also, the night before it all started, I smashed my middle finger on my left hand. It bled for several hours, and had to be iced. I thought of going out to find a doctor on Sunday night, but trying to find something on our insurance while packing for the early morning departure was not awesome, so I used bandaids and paper towels. Thankfully, my group class pianist at the institute got me some super glue, and by the third day of the institute, my finger was no longer bleeding, and I could start to play a little bit.
Now we have three easy weeks. Just some summer teaching, in-house rehearsing for our pair of chamber concerts in Bellingham the first week of Bellingham, and working out the fall teaching schedule. There are some big changes coming to group class (I think?), and thinking about childcare, and recruiting some new students to replace our moving-away and graduating and changing teachers students... And maybe cleaning out the huge and disgusting pile of boxes left over from last year's move, which are now in an unattractive and somewhat soggy pile under a big, blue, wet tarp in the back yard.
Saturday, August 3, 2019
Outsider Eyes
During our week in Walla Walla (more properly, the adjoining smaller town of College Place) I took a lot of photos during my early morning perambulations. I was fascinated, looking at the place with eyes of an outsider. The town started in the 1890s with the construction of a Seventh-Day Adventist College, truly out in the middle of nowhere. It is in high desert, not dissimilar to parts of Arizona or West Texas, for those of my readers more familiar with those landscapes. You wouldn't know that from these pictures, because the area is HEAVILY irrigated. I tried to capture lots of pictures from around town which contain the water tower - a central landmark which the locals probably give very little thought to, but is the only thing making the town a green and even agricultural oasis, rather than hardscrabble desert where nothing grows taller than the tumbleweeds and grass. The church is a central influence, and this particular university church is more progressive in its traditionally conservative SDA theology, with its quirky 19th-century eschatology and emphasis on holy and practical living. It is certainly, also a college town, with lots of small rentals. A third influence, which I did not get a photo of, is the Super Walmart which has invaded the town in recent years and is open until quite late. And a fourth is the Fort with its canons, which was built to defend White invaders (aka settlers) from the Natives whose land they stole. (Again, no picture.) The town is so small that in only a few blocks of walking you are not "in town" but in rural agricultural areas. Then you are in the Interior American West with its Go West Young Man concept of limitless land and limitless resources for the exploiting (and keep your hands off my business, buddy.) College Place has had homes built in it from every decade from the 1890s through the present. Truly fascinating.
Currently abandoned, my best guess is that this was the very first house of worship built in town:
The tallest building in town, by far, is this dormitory:
Seventh-day Adventists have their own scouting organization called Pathfinders:
In town, there are alleys between all the houses pre-1940s:
Someone has found a way to harness the sunshine which is in full supply here to subsidize modern life:
The cemetery here is called New Hope, and was founded in 1892, just a year after the college. Life and death go on and on. I walked in it last year, but I couldn't bear to do it again, because I can't stop myself reading headstones, and the headstones of children are particularly heartbreaking.
And a little piece of family history. Nancy's grandparents lived in this house, and she visited them here frequently as a child. I captured all the descendants in front of it.
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