Last week was madness. I was in a terrible place prior to talking to Dr. K--not eating, not sleeping, super duper stressed. By the time I got to Friday, I felt like I was sleepwalking through life. Because I knew I had to judge a contest Saturday morning and I needed rest, I told my boss I didn't think I'd make it through the whole day, and I didn' ( Read more... )

There's a term I thought of last year, that I think of when I'm at work as well as at home: Dummyproofing. This is where you do your best to make everything as obvious as possible so that the failure rate is low. It's never zero. Some dummies have the ability to outsmart you. But it's not for lack of trying. Also...sometimes I'm the dummy. I have ( Read more... )

I am off band this week. Pretty wild. I only have one scheduled late night instead of three. I decided to use my time tonight to work on some of my solo contest notes. After each contest, I type up notes for each of them regarding who performed, what they played, how they did, etc. The notes for each individual contest already got done, but I ( Read more... )

The third and final contest I was judging for Mrs. S was last Saturday. Lucky for me, this one was for the smallest of the three programs and started later in the day, so I didn't have to get up at 5 AM! Woohoo! It makes such a difference getting to leave at 7:30 as opposed to having to be there at 7:30 ( Read more... )

This was a couple weeks ago now, but contests can be rather draining for me and I need to have the energy to be able to write everything up ( Read more... )

Today was my last of Mrs. S's solo contests. I've spent three of my last four Saturdays judging for her. I'm done. She has one more next week but I had to bail on doing that one--three in a row is too much for me, especially since both of my concerts are that following week. I'm totally feeling it. This week has been stressful. I've felt on edge ( Read more... )

It's been a long week, what with the weather setting me off, and I still have to get through tomorrow. I have one last contest to judge for Mrs. S. It's at the school I've only been to once before, last year, and even this late at night I'm still debating when to get up and when to leave. Part of that is I've just been tired this week, thanks to ( Read more... )

It's that time of year. I judged my first solo contest last Saturday. I would've written it up on Sunday, except it was the Super Bowl, so I watched all five quarters of that instead. Also, it would've been hard to type with mom leaning on me for half the game anyway. (But I do regret not having my iPad with me ( Read more... )

Here's another reason I was hesitant to go to the funeral last Saturday: My first solo contest is this coming Saturday. At least I have the next week off, but then I have two in a row. It would've been three, but I bailed on the final one. It's at Mrs. S' newest school and is the farthest away. I just can't. I don't have the energy. Plus, that ( Read more... )

We're getting there! I got asked last month if I could work a Saturday for the office manager. I then reached out to Mrs. S to make sure she didn't have a contest that day, plus asked when her contest dates would be. I hadn't heard back, and she hasn't had any contests in January, so I hedged my bets and told her I would not be available but to let ( Read more... )