The story is really about how a carrot, an egg, and coffee beans react to hot water (pressure). When you put a carrot into hot water it becomes soft and mushy. When you put an egg in hot water it hardens and becomes a hard boiled egg. When you put coffee beans in water, they change the water into coffee. The moral of the short story is how does pressure impact us and in turn how do we impact our environment.

It's January, you have show music passed out and the first show is only weeks away. Maybe you did a short Holiday Camp, or you took that break off completely. Maybe you had some snow days in December like we did here in Cincinnati. Either way you are feeling the pressure of that first show. Are you behind? It probably feels like it. Should you be freaking out? It probably feels like it. So what should we do if we are in this situation?

It's that time of year where we review how the year went for us and start making plans for next year. I don't really know how to quantify this year as either good or bad. It was definitely challenging.

I was standing in line to check out with a few small ensemble collections and at the checkout table was a book called "Freelance: 10 Commonsense Keys to Making YOUR Music YOUR Business" by Josh Gottry. Now this book has existed for a few years (since 2021) and I see at PASIC every year, but never give it a second look. Mainly because I do read more now than I use to, but it still doesn't feel like a lot, and I felt pretty good on the business side of things.

This is the time to reflect and give thanks for the year that was.