not so super planning (12/365f)

we didn't plan on it, but there were a few doctors visits today, and that wasn't so fun and took up a lot of time.

but otherwise the day was quite nice but uneventful. 

nina brought over everything we might possibly need to use to fix a tiny missing stone from a necklace mary wears. it was a big bag full of beads, epoxy, resin and more, and she left it with us to craft with as we like since she's on her way to berlin for work. it's amazing - one mentions something once and she shows up with all possible solutions the next time.

centa and i went to inter-spar for tons of stupid groceries that i don't usually buy because we had one of those 20% off everything. but with my stupid back i didn't want to carry so much stuff, so centa did the bulk of the heavy lifting. 

there was a beautiful moment of theodore and agnes laying on the picnic blanket outside in the waning sun, playing cards together with tulips in the background. so lovely. 

i metal-laquered a stupid metal drying rack i found in the trash, and that was not so super fun, but i gave agnes' watch a treatment of the stuff - by dipping the band in the can, not by painting it on.

also agnes and i continued the origami phase from yesterday on a new level. i showed her how to make really crisp folds and such.

mary and centa and i made a little terrible improv band - mary on accordeon, centa on the cajones, and me on e-violin. lets just say it needs work. 

i was so happy to talk to brian before bed. 

a concert again! (11/365f)

 a remarkably short thursday even though i was up early - agnes woke me up bright and early to do origami RIGHT AWAY. we made tons of modular things, she even made some on her own. 

quintet was in the paper this morning advertising for tonights concert. 

at 3:00 i was so invested in getting theodore and henry to music theory on time at 3:30 and printing things and cooking lunch and everything that i completely forgot i had to leave with felix also to get him to choir at 3:30. so we were a bit late. he wanted me to wait for him so i went a bit shopping, for paintbrushes and for a nice black top and some fabric for juggling cloths because felix wants to learn juggling.

by the time we were back home it was essentially time for me to leave again. there was logistical stress in my mind about getting theodore and henry to be able to follow directions to get there on their own, and giving directions to mary and i'd never been to the place myself before. but in the end it all worked out. the concert was a big success, everyone loved it. felix didn't go because he didn't want to and I didn't want to force the issue. i threw back 2 ibuprofens before we played to give me mobility in my back. Hansjorg and Hildegard were there too, which was a super surprise. Hansjorg tried to talk to Agnes in english, and the best thing he could think of was "Are you happy?" which was quite funny.

win some lose some (10/365f)

surprise visit from agnes and mary made our day like 1000x brighter!

michi came over for a quick coffee/chat before brigitta picked me up with the bike and we practiced clarke and coates for playing in hungary next week. her son is not doing psychologically well at all, and she was sad and tired and worried, but as soon as we started to play her whole being changed. that's the healing power of music.

i picked up felix from school and we took the tram all the way to puntigam and back to go to the library there for a book about american baseball (there are seeminly 2 books in all of graz about the subject, and one of them is a dense terrible adult book about sports and sport politics in the usa) ... when we got back... MARY and AGNES were here! which was delightful.

i went AGAIN all the way to puntigam because henry, who went bouldering today instead of school, forgot his sports clothes there. it was rainy and cold and disgusting. that wasn't so delightful

Our evening was Nina time, and pizza / goat cheese tart / candied hazelnuts / champagne. Origami with Agnes. Mary was pretty beat from her trip so we didn't stay up too late.

under the wire (9/365f)

7 more minutes of today before tomorrow starts

i saw elke today for the first time in over a month what with sicknesses and holidays between ... it was nice. we worked on gordon jacob's variations for viola. she pointed out i should be more precise.

when felix came home he said he saw those kids again that bothered them yesterday. those stranger bully kids are stressing me out.

we saw the prima-la-musica award ceremony, my kids got their certificates. the new (communist) mayor of graz provided sandwiches for the end, so i guess my kids are real professional musicians now, since they got paid to play music with a sandwich. 

i left the kids home alone while i went to united intonations rehearsal. it was very low energy. olena is filling in for lana, and it's a bit... meh. it's fine. no idea when the kids went to bed. but all was quiet when i got back.

filing a police report (8/365f)

didn't want to even write about this because i didn't like the way it feels, but the small event just clouds over my day. in the end everyone is fine, and nothing bad happened. except we had to fill out a police report because felix was very brave and stood up for a friend of his being bullied by strangers (big kids) in the streets. unfortunately they crossed a line for me, and i had to take felix to the police station and have him tell him everything from beginning to end. the mean boys stole the scooter of felix's friend and felix chased them on his own scooter and braved threats, attacks and kicks to get the scooter back - and he did it! i'm proud of him, but also heart-broken that something like that can happen in broad daylight in crowded streets and nobody does anything at all. filling out the police report took a LONG time, like over half an hour, but it was very important to do i think.

the rest of the day was MUCH more delightful. like having coffee with nina for the morning hours, and walking her into the city. and practicing for the buffaloes and having rehearsal with the buffaloes, and walking through the city with felix. planting some plants. actually quite nice all together.

lilacs and forget-me-nots are around now. and for dinner i had the most wonderful salad with sweet-potato-wild-garlic pancakes and blue-cheese. wow.

sina introduces me to Schopenhauer and Heidegger (7/365f)

starting to feel good about writing every day again, didn't want to go to sleep before writing today either - second day in a row going to bed at 9pm... completely beat

i bought more plants at the Pflanzen-Raritätenmarkt, corn flowers, tomatoes, artichokes, a new rhubarb, some bleeding hearts and an easter lily. i dug places for them despite my aching back.

sometime around 4 centa asked if i wanted to go for a walk with her, and i didn't really feel like it, i didn't feel like moving at all, but i asked the fortune egg if i would go for a walk, and i said "UNSURE, ask later" 3 times in a row and then said "YES"... I got as far as keplerbruecke before I turned back because i was so achy. 

Sina needed someone to talk to so he came over, actually I met him at keplerbrueke, and walked him back with me. We sat in the garden and I listened to his problems. The kids got themselves back from the opera, their klagenfurt trip was a total success. I am happy about that. i was belly-aching (mostly about felix and how he would feel, especially in lieu of his tooth pulling the night he left)

dinner was an uninspired affair - bread and cheese and meh. the last of the easter-eggs did not smell good any more. 

fried for the day (6/365f)

I'm fried... Going to bed early (already brushed my teeth and heated rice bags)

After dropping kids off at opera to spend the weekend in Klagenfurt, I spent the whole morning in Eggersdorf with Brigitta, rehearsing a piece (4 miniatures by Paul Juon) with her and a clarinetist. I met the clarinetist for the first time, and it was just great to play together. He instantly loved me I think. We had coffee at a little tiny place in Eggersdorf center that was so very typical rural austria, it was adorable. 

There's a new bio shop on Lendplatz, and they were doing some sort of promotion, and Jacky was there for work handing out samples, so that's where I had lunch kind of. Had some wine and bread and vegan spreads made mostly with regional ingredients (except for coconut oil which I guess they don't grow here) 

Then I hung out for an hour or two at the botanical garden at the plant market, first looking for Fritz's stand with the abenteuerspielplataz, and then, once i'd found him, with fritz for kind of no reason... I'm all alone and don't know what to do with me time or freedom, and I guess I'm a bit lonely. Also its pretty cold and rainy and my back hurts (wwaaaaa)

talked to brian over video for about 30seconds, but the rural connection was so bad i gave up