Wow. Since my last post 88 days ago, written in a moment of great leisure on vacation in Barcelona, I have been through a vortex of time and space. It has been a wonderful but somewhat delirious 3 months of my life and I have had zero seconds to compose an account of it, which I will finally do here and now, sitting in my new studio in my new home with free time that I now have since school ended last week. Things are different now: Alaina is pregnant again and we moved into an amazing home in Kensington, Brooklyn. The move has been a dominant daily feature in my life for most of the past three months and will continue to be, in some way, for years. The boxes and home improvement projects are endless and I can think of a few that are calling my name right now, but I need to make me time too.
School has been another major black hole of time. I had the pleasure of teaching every student in the school, Nursery to 4th Grade, this year and I loved it. It was a challenge with great rewards, as I learned from and was inspired by each student. I have been teaching music for 13 years and almost all of it has been with kids under 5. I was working with kids up to 11 this year and I am so impressed by the skills and passion they are bringing to music. I was interacting with some phenomenally talented children, whose instrumental abilities are infinitely beyond what mine were at that age and who demonstrate unadulterated excitement for all aspects of music. It has really been one of the most interesting and fun work experiences I have ever had and I will miss it next year when the esteemed Ms. Nelson returns from sabbatical and resumes her position. While I will miss the job, I won’t miss the long hours, typically 10 hour days, that I’ve been working over the past year. I would love to have more time to spend with Alaina, Ivy and the incoming baby, as well as a few more hours per week to make my music and maybe write about how great my life is. This blog has, I realize, just become insufferable gloating about my awesome life, but I can’t help it. I feel so lucky to have great people, homes, vacations and sports teams in my life and I need to express my gratitude somehow.
Ivy is really fun. She talks a lot and some of it is indecipherable, but when she can communicate a food or activity preference or a song request (we have listened to Bop To The Top and Let It Go hundreds of times in the past three months) I am truly amazed at her growing ability to shape her life experience and fascinated by the choices she makes. The one aspect of Summer break I am looking forward to the most is not traveling or composing music or visiting friends and family, but simply spending five days a week with her. She is joyful and always learning and exploring, teaching me about basic survival and a world of wonder. I feel my Love expanding every day and I look forward to sharing my life with another baby soon!
