Yesterday…
Jose went out to dinner with a group of guy friends. Their last get-together was in February 2020 right before covid started! The girls and I were on our own, so we ordered pizza for dinner and watched a show.
I played the piano for a bit. The piano is currently in my study/sewing room since its usual spot in the living room is occupied by our Christmas tree! I’ve been playing at least a few days per week and still using the Simply Piano app. I’m getting close to the end of the entire app (ha) and have been considering finding a teacher to do some actual lessons!
I prepped the hanging sleeve for my Game Night quilt. Hanging sleeves are NOT my favorite thing to sew, but needing a hanging sleeve means the quilt is hanging somewhere — and that’s a fun thing. Our family has seven quilts going to QuiltCon and only one had a sleeve and label. I’ve finished four more in the last week. Only two more to go! (But they are two of the three biggest quilts. I did the minis first, ha.)
I got my covid booster! I put it off through my surgery and post-op period, but with omicron on the horizon I knew I wanted it sooner rather than later. Yesterday I realized I either wanted to get it NOW or wait until January. If I had side effects, I didn’t want that to be on a busy weekend or lose a day over the holidays when we have visitors. So yesterday it was, and my local Walgreens is helpfully doing walk-ins for boosters. (It’s been about 18 hours and I’ve got a sore arm and a slight headache, but I’m otherwise ok.)
Today…
I have a long meeting this morning at work, as lots of people are trying to bring their topics to our program board before the holidays. I’ve felt very behind for the last month at work after taking off Thanksgiving week, and then taking medical leave the week after that. Time off is obviously fantastic — I am not complaining! — but the past two weeks I’ve felt pretty discombobulated with my work topics and tasks. I already know I’ll need to buckle down and do some catch-up in January.
I’ll stitch the hanging sleeve onto Game Night while I listen to my long meeting. When I return to the office, I will miss this aspect of working from home! I enjoy stitching, and having my hands busy actually helps me pay better attention to the presentations. Win win.
Charlotte’s class is having their holiday party plus Polar Express Day. Parents weren’t invited (and I couldn’t have gone anyway), so I look forward to hearing about it this afternoon!
I’m giving a virtual lecture to the Island Quilter’s Guild in Galveston tonight. I know several of their members and am looking forward to a fun chat about design inspiration and 100 days projects. This is my last teaching/lecture engagement of the year!
Tomorrow…
It’s “Quiet Friday” at work, so I’m taking advantage and starting vacation a day early (despite what I just said about feeling behind, oops). I’ve got a morning of quilt biz stuff to take care of including a tech edit and a podcast-style interview with another quilter. It is for a specific group that she runs, so unfortunately it won’t be available publicly, but I look forward to our chat.
It’s the girls’ last day of school for the year, and they have an early release day so they’ll get out at lunchtime. Emma’s class is having their holiday party, and parents are invited to a portion of it that’s being held outside.
I need to mail gifts to my cousin and my nephew. Our family draws names each year so that we can buy a single gift for one person instead of everyone. I got my cousin and Jose got our nephew. Emma got her uncle and Charlotte got my niece/her cousin — but I’ve already taken care of those gifts.
p.s. I’m doing a 31 day blogging challenge.
Yay, glad you got the booster! I too feel discombobulated at work—several things open and in the air and with various people off for the next two weeks it makes planning difficult. I’ve been wanting to play piano regularly again but have never found the time to dedicate. How many minutes do you do when you practice?
I spend anywhere from 15 minutes to over an hour depending on the day. Sometimes I work through the courses in the app, and sometimes I just play stuff in the app’s music library. They added a bunch of holiday music so that’s fun.
It’s not particularly focused practice, which is part of why I’m interested in actual lessons — for technique, practice exercises, skill building, etc. 15 years of flute playing means I know how to read music. Bass clef is still more challenging for me to read quickly, but I’m getting better. But 1 class in grad school is the extent of my formal piano training.
Still, just the act of playing helps, and I can definitely play better than I could when we first got the piano back in March.
I hope that you do well with the booster and have minimal / manageable side effects. For some reason, even though it was only a half dose compared to the first two vaccine shots, this one really put me out of commission the day after. Smart to take your time getting the hanging sleeves prepped and ready for all the quilts!