Spinning Plates . . .

How is it that the last post here was July 7th?

Obviously I have slacked off on my 365 Project this year.  I made it a little more than halfway, but I'm not sure I'm going to finish.  That makes me sad in some ways - I don't like to not finish something I start . . . but in attempting to be gentle with myself, I'm trying to let go of some stuff.

Letting go.  Once again, I have over-booked myself into oblivion this summer.  It's not good.  This is what my life feels like most days lately:

I don't understand how I do this to myself year after year . . . and every year I say I'm not going to do it again . . . but I do it anyway.  Silly me.  Now that I am piping seriously again, it behooves me to figure this stuff out.  I need practice time every day.  August will be busy, but I'm planning for things to calm down in September.

And speaking of piping - I just spent a week in SoCal at Bagpipe School.  It was just awesome.  My piping is better - I learned so much, and it was wonderful to actually see my teacher again. 

I met some amazing people there - people of all ages and abilities.  Ian and his co-teacher, Colin, created a great atmosphere of inclusion and learning. What an awesome week!

Not my pipes (I think they are Colin's), but I liked how they looked here, resting on the altar at the church where we spent our days  :-)  I can hardly wait until next summer to go back!  Hopefully by then I will be able to keep up better on my pipes.  I did well on my practice chanter, but my stamina is lacking on the pipes.  It didn't help that, although I had been working on my practice chanter again since mid-May, I had only started to actually play pipes again two weeks before school started. 

It was rough.  But I survived  :-D

I also did really well with food on this trip - it was much easier than my trip to Austin, earlier this year.  We stayed in the dorm condos at Marymount College, so had access to a kitchen, which made everything a lot easier for me.  Yay!  And we went out a couple of nights for dinner - once to an amazing seafood place, and another to a great Italian place where I was able to get something I could eat.  Double Yay!!

It was the first time I had been back to SoCal since I left nearly a decade ago - and I was reminded how much I do not like driving in LA . . . thankfully nearly all my time was spent in South Rancho Palos Verdes, which is right on the coast and is very lovely.  I was sorry to not be able to see any of my old friends while in the area, but the week was school all day and practice all night.  Seriously.  There was no time for anything extra, and I could not stay any extra days this trip.

Yesterday was my recovery day, but I spent part of it talking to the Windy City Gardeners in Oak Park - what a great group of people!!  I love that they invite me to come and talk to them every year about African violets.  So much fun!  Still, it was tough to go there the day after returning from a week away - but that speaking engagement was on the calendar before school was, so I could not not go.  See, this is how it starts :-D

So, I will go on spinning plates for another month, and collapse in September.  Wish me luck  ;-D