Friday, October 2, 2015

I was worried this would happen...

#newenglandconservatory convocation this morning. #jordanhall never ceases to amaze me. And then they gave everyone a free t-shirt at the reception afterwards!

Wow, is this my longest interval between posts ever? Oh no. I can explain:

GRAD SCHOOL ATE MY LIFE.

I'm enrolled in the maximum number of credit hours, serving as a TA for a challenging class taught by a brilliant professor, going to as many (mostly free!) concerts as I can, and trying to collaborate with as many other musicians as I can. I commute via train (in fact, I'm posting this from a train now: thank you, Amtrak wi-fi!) and subway and foot or bike, and I have to plan on a door-to-door travel time of a little over 2 hours, each way. I'm doing this commute almost every weekday. I get weekends mostly at home, but I spend a lot of weekend time practicing and staying on top of my coursework.

I am happy as a clam, folks, and loving every minute of it - living and breathing music, and not taking one iota of it for granted - but I really have to prioritize right now. I am not writing many letters or postcards... in fact, I am loathe to admit this but perhaps sharing it publicly will help me get it done: I haven't even finished unpacking my stationery or my etsy inventory! I'm searching for balance, and am still taking some serious time to unwind by writing a little bit of mail here and there, but... I don't think I'll be blogging much until I have a break. (Maybe lots of blog posts and lots of mail over the winter holidays?)

I did visit a great little stationery store on a wee getaway to Maine last month, and I took a couple of photos and got some great stationery (of course I couldn't walk away empty-handed, even though I'm hardly writing any letters these days!) so I hope to post about that next. But maybe get my stationery fully unpacked and organized, and re-open my etsy store, first!

I hope everyone is enjoying a lovely fall, full of good mail.

The photo accompanying this post is of the gorgeous Jordan Hall at New England Conservatory, where I'm studying, and I took the photo at convocation in early September.