Hello friends!

It’s been quite a busy month. End of August honestly sucked, due to multiple deadlines at work and some personal stuff. But things are better and I feel like I can breathe again.

As usual, I have quite a few updates so will try to organize into sections so I don’t bore anyone.

Work

This section was originally a lot longer because I was geeking out over the projects I’m working on…I’ve edited it considerably. YOU’RE WELCOME.

I think I’ve mentioned that I’ve been focusing on groundwater injections – I’ve been wanting to get into this work for years. I have really enjoyed learning about it and am loving the projects I am participating in. I’m hoping I can provide field oversight for this work, too. And you’re probably like, “But Jen! You literally have a “Field Work NOOOOOOOO‘ tag, what are you talking about?” Injection oversight isn’t groundwater sampling! I really need to be in the field to get the experience I need to be a technical specialist. And my groundwater sampling days are long behind me, which makes me 19% nostalgic until I remember how much I hated it.

And, it has to be said – ADHD treatment continues to amaze me. There’s more space for my thoughts and I’m not constantly questioning or second-guessing everything I do. That leads to calmer work days, less judgment in myself, and more confidence. It’s not to say that I don’t ever feel anxious or overwhelmed…there’s just less of it because my brain isn’t running 300 mph. My new mantra at work is, “I’m doing my best, but sometimes that’s not good enough…and that’s okay.” And…I MEAN IT. This is the person who used to write that she was a stupid bitch in her work notes if she made a mistake. LIKE. WHAT.

Downsides of ADHD treament: I’ve had to eliminate just about all caffeine, and my screen time is OFF THE CHARTS in the evenings since I’ve stopped checking Reddit/websites/social media during the work day. I’m also a potato on weekends when I take my treatment breaks. The benefits outweigh the weekend potato feeling, but I’m still learning about what works best for me and optimizing how I feel on weekends. But I can at least relax during my potato phase, instead of constantly feeling restless like I used to…so I guess that’s another benefit.

Music

I’ll be honest, I nearly quit first violin at the beginning of last month. Not that second violin is *easier*, but there are less screechy notes on the E string. But two things happened: my concertmaster encouraged me to stick with it and told me it’s okay if I flub the notes, and I started learning third position during my lessons. I can now reliably read up to the first D on the E string without my brain freezing over, which has made a lot of the music much more accessible.

Do I mess up? All the time.

Do I still suck? Yes.

Can I play every measure of the music for our concert next month? Of course not. I’M LOOKING AT YOU, JOHN WILLIAMS AND YOUR SUPERMAN MARCH. “John Williams hates violins,” my concertmaster told me.

But for the first time since I picked violin back up three years ago, I’m FINALLY seeing some improvement. Just being able to kind of shift into third position has opened up a new level of playing for me.

And also? This is one of the songs we’re playing for our concerts next month, and it’s my favorite out of the bunch. The part I’ve time stamped here is what convinced me to stick with first violin. Again, I can’t play all the notes perfectly, but the communal feeling of playing this ending is phenomenal.

Other music updates:

-We saw Megadeth earlier this month – they were great! I last saw them in 2010 but wasn’t a fan back then (and it was when they played the entire Rust in Peace album – UGHHHHH, CAN I GO BACK IN TIME TO WATCH IT AGAIN?) Luckily they played a lot off of Rust In Peace for this show, and they wrapped up the show by playing this song live. Their drummer is fantastic. I need to learn how to play double pedal!
-We saw Beat last night – it’s a King Crimson cover band, with two of the original members from the 80s lineup (Adrian Belew and Tony Levin), Steve Vai (who is one of Husband’s major guitar influences) and fucking DANNY CAREY (drummer from Tool). I’ll be honest, the only King Crimson I’ve really listened to is Court of the Crimson King (I love that album so much – check it out here. “Epitaph” is probably my favorite, but it’s hard to pick just one). Beat only played the 80s catalog – I can’t say I resonated with the jammier songs (I’m not a jam band person, sorry!), but I enjoyed it overall. And seeing Danny Carey play was ::chef’s kiss:: I’ve only seen Tool once, and it was at a festival in Phoenix almost ten years ago…we were far away from the stage and that whole trip had been exhausting, so I wasn’t able to enjoy it much. Being able to see him play in a smaller venue was so cool.
-I’m officially obsessed with this song. It’s so catchy.

Miscellaneous

I’m simultaneously feeling like a potato/getting tired of making this update, but also wanting to get up off the couch and do something. It’s a weird combo. So I’m just going to make this a photo dump, slap on some captions, and call it a day. Sound like a plan? Thanks for reading through all of this. I hope you are having a great weekend and enjoying the fall weather (hopefully it won’t be 100 degrees today, HAH).