Year Two, Day 197: Balancing Act and a Back-Up Plan!

In my library office.  My hair was a victim of the rainstorm! Here to pick up a book on hold....

I admit that I felt a bit out of sorts today.  I had talked with my new friend S yesterday about trying to seek balance in my life.  He told me that he writes poetry.  I had an "aha" moment during our conversation and realized that I had not been making music lately.  I have been so worried about bills and trying to decide if I should get a part time job, that my creative juices had stopped flowing.

I had been halfheartedly looking for a church pianist job online to no avail.

But this morning I woke up at 3:00 a.m. Wide awake. And I had a talk with myself. I have been in this place before.  Finding balance between work, my music, my family and my interior life. And now my social life!  And when the money coming in does not cover what is going out, stress arises. So having time to ponder and wander through life is lovely, but if I can't pay my bills, I spend my extra time worrying.

I know in the past that when I have to dig in  my heels I do. My new friend suggested that I get a "regular job" for  now to get caught up.  Then when I am ahead, then I can thinking about finding balance.

That sounded good at the time. But when I looked online at "regular jobs", my stomach felt queasy.  Why not first look for what I am qualified to do. Yes, I teach, and I love it. But in between terms, I starve.  Church jobs are great stability.  But they are hard to come by.

So, I just dug in my heels and went online. I typed in "pianist" on craigslist.  And I immediately found a gig just posted earlier. It said "volunteer pianist" for a Thanksgiving homeless meal. But it is at a Catholic church and to them, volunteer means they give me lunch and pay me $50 for 1 1/2 of doing something I love.

I emailed my reply immediately and now I have a gig on Thanksgiving!  This warms my heart because I have a passion for helping the homeless. The chamber group I used to play with has also asked me to play several homeless meals near Christmas, which I am happy to do, but they are absolutely volunteer gigs.

Then I got an email from a woman who I am working with at a magnet school. She puts on musicals.  We have one coming up in mid December. She wants me to do an extra rehearsal.  Cha-ching! And I love working with her! We are doing a musical with kindergartners and 2nd graders. Adorable! And fun music. :)

And there's more! A cellist friend of mine has asked me to accompany his cello students in a recital in December. It is the same day as my student recital.

So, you know what? All my ridiculous worrying was for nothing but a few more gray hairs. I now have enough work to see me through Christmas break. Winter term starts back up the beginning of January and I will be plenty busy with students. But I do need to be prepared for these down times.

I need to become better acquainted with  my piano.

But just in case, I am brushing up on medical terminology. As a pianist, I type at lightning speed. I spent several years working part time as a medical transcriptionist when I was raising my kids. 

This is the book I had on hold at the library...

It really would be good to have a back up plan!

It seems to me that mastering this thing called life has a lot to do with finding balance. As a mercurial, possibly bipolar person, this can be challenging.

Perhaps that is why God gave me my musical gift.  I need to embrace it!

Thankfully, I had enough sense this morning to eat a small breakfast....I am hovering around 188. I gained back about 3 pounds after my back injury when I was eating like a bird.

Breakfast: 1 egg, 1 potato, 1 piece bacon on whole grain tortilla with a slice of grapefruit

I used my back injury as an excuse when I talked to my brother about Thanksgiving dinner. He loves a big, table sagging spread. He does a great turkey! But I always overindulge and feel horrible later. I know, my fault.  But when I asked him what I could bring, he said they had about everything covered. I told him I was coming up off of an injury, and would be happy just to bring beverages. So, what a relief! No cooking tomorrow...I'm just going to buy some sparkling cider for the kids and hard cider for the adults.

This Thanksgiving I am putting my balancing of life act into play.  I think I may even try small portions? Yikes! There is hope for me yet!



Happy Tuesday!

P.S. "S" texted me a "Good Morning" this morning. I was pretty pre-occupied with my job searching. But I wonder if we met too soon. He certainly was nice and a gentleman, but we don't really seem to have anything in common other than he thinks I'm cute and I think he has a nice smile and is very gentlemanly.  I'm thinking I need to let my balancing routine include taking it very slow and in the moment with friendship and dating.  If it is meant to be, it is. But right now I need to spend time with my piano that I have been neglecting. Perhaps I should date my piano! lol