After my “holiday” (playing The Nutcracker through December 24 doesn’t exactly make things a true holiday!) students who aren’t aware of what happened here have said, “I hope you had a great vacation!”

Being unprepared, I simply stated the truth.

I need to learn how to respond … what to say without making them uncomfortable. But today I simply hadn’t thought of what to say.

Meanwhile it really was good to get back to work today. Students! I really do love to see and teach my students. Tomorrow I also get to meet with a person who has been a reader of this blog (hey Ben!) … and he’s from Australia. Is that cool or what? I think I’ll be meeting another blog reader (hi Cooper!) in … is it February? I think so. And I’m looking forward to that as well.

There are a number perks to doing this blog thing. I admit I do this out of selfishness. I ramble freely. It helps me de-stress from this stressful job I do. I meet other oboists … and even other musicians that land here. I meet music lovers. I learn a lot. And I’m finding it even helps in the grief process, although I suppose that may get weary for my readers. I’d apologize … but I’m sorry to say (hah!) that I’m really not sorry.

So there you go. 🙂