From this:
To this:
And finally, this:
All posts by hannahviolin
Sunny Day (or the blog post in which I used too many parentheses)
Another gorgeous day! I’d love to go out for a run, except for, well, firstly, my hamstrings are KILLING me (I can barely walk) and secondly, I have 4 hours of teaching ahead of me…
How weird am I? “I’d love to go out for a run”. Seriously. It’s not even that I truly enjoy running (though I do love the awesome feeling after a great run or race…not so much the feeling after a crappy run, or say, Sunday’s race) but that I want to get better at running (competitive spirit) and I know the more I run, the faster I will get. I am tired of being slow and pokey. Also, I’m enjoying my current tan arms from the past two weekends of running, and exercising outside means guilt-free tanning.
It’s almost Friday! Tomorrow night I am getting together with some friends at Bailey’s Chocolate Bar (ostensibly a girls’ night out, which I am much in need of). Chocolate plus martinis…my favorite combination (perhaps yet another reason I keep not losing weight.) No concert for me this weekend—I need an SLSO break for awhile.
Sunday is two gigs, one an outdoor service at the World’s Fair Pavilion. Home of the world’s hottest wedding (aka, my hairdresser’s wedding) last July. I hope that Sunday is nice enough (not too cold, not too hot, not ridiculously humid.) Then it’s a Palm Sunday evening service. Holy week is almost here.
Next week should be a little easier as one of my schools is on Spring Break (in fact, today was the last day for me before their break.) Perhaps I’ll be able to get in a couple additional runs…
Which brings us full circle today. Oh, and I should add that the cat is sitting in the sun, in the window, yelling at something outside. Rough life!
Found it!
Sweet, my Garmin has been found. It was in the laundry basket. No idea why. I was really tired on Sunday, so maybe I did something weird. Well, OBVIOUSLY I did something weird, like somehow put a watch in the laundry basket. Hmm.
I will again know how fast (or really, slow) I can run!
I stole this from a colleague’s (Jen—shout out!) facebook page. This is Cesar, the ballet school dog. He wasn’t feeling well, but HOW cute is he?
Cuter than this?
I had just finished folding the towels and she had to make herself at home.
Things I’ve learned
Today my second morning class was “canceled” because the students had MAP testing. Or something. That might be the wrong acronym. I am sure they are all learning as much from taking the tests as I used to. So I drove approximately 1 1/2 hours round trip to teach a 4 student class. With gas at $3.89. I definitely lost money according to the IRS.
My hamstrings are totally sore from yesterday’s workout. Today I was able to go for a short run in the park. Today: the beginning of my “heat training” wherein I attempt to acclimate myself to summer. It was about 72 degrees outside at 12:15 or so when I headed out. I felt pretty good, albeit incredibly slow, and enjoyed wearing my new purple shorts. I did not throw up. (If I had, I now know I can just keep going! Who would have thought?)
Life as I know it did not end on Monday as I had feared. Though the weekend seems like a bust, life continues on. I loved teaching last night—I am teaching some students for a colleague on maternity leave, and it was a true delight! I may steal the students and never give them back. No, of course I’m just kidding. But it was great fun, and I think the next six weeks should be challenging in a good way.
I hate when people call me for lessons and the only question is: “How much do you charge?” It’s funny because I am not even accepting new students right now (starting in June I will be!) so my rate is irrelevant to them. What’s relevant is WHY it is worth your while to wait a couple months to start lessons with me.
This is how I got Chris to propose.
I remember a month or two ago I was super excited about wedding planning and now I’m not. Of course I am still excited about GETTING married, but the planning is making me sleepy.
That’s me. With lettuce on my head AND a bell!
Seriously though, maybe it’s because I don’t care about place settings, or flower arrangements or stuff like that? I don’t really care about my colors, unless you are talking about purple, which is awesome. I just want a pretty dress, some great pictures, beautiful music and good food/drinks. Music problem: I will not be available to PLAY at my wedding as I am going to be getting married…so the music won’t be of the HIGHEST caliber.
Honeymoon ideas thus far: Bora Bora, Venice, or skiing in Breckenridge (we love Breck in the summer, but what about the winter?), OR perhaps the alps. I do love the mountains. I also love pina coladas. A cruise has not been ruled out.
Date range: May, August, Christmas day, or maybe between Christmas and New Year’s even though SOME people say it’s tricky to travel then (I know, I do it almost every year). Or maybe next summer 
That’s what you are all worried about, right? That we’ll wait until NEXT summer…mwah hah haaaaa!
Still haven’t found my Garmin…I even felt the cat’s tummy to see if she ate it! I have spent close to 2 hours looking for it. Did I inadvertently throw it away or something? Grrrrrrrr. I guess I can just run by feel for a week or so while I keep my eyes open.
Does this make anybody else crave Taco Bell?
Men are different
I can’t find my Garmin watch. I know I had it on Sunday afternoon/evening. I can’t recall if I charged it or not. I usually put it on my dresser. And I can’t find it now—I wanted to charge it to use for a run tomorrow afternoon. I looked for 45 minutes and nothing. It must be somewhere in the house!
That said, my legs are feeling pretty good. I met Mike today at the gym, and he made me do some workout stuff…including legs/hamstrings stuff. BOO!
We also shared race stories. He said he waited around watching for me but no dice. He DID see his ex-girlfriend, who {evidently} decided to run the half out of spite for him. Back story: a few weeks before, he mentioned to her he was running the race. She said, oh maybe I’ll run to. He said, really? As if he didn’t think she could do it. This was the last straw for her and that is when she dumped him. So then she finds him after the race and is all, oh, look, I ran it after all. I think that is just fantastic! I wonder if I would have had any easier run if I had had spite pushing me forward rather than fear of failure/desperation? (Obviously I am guessing here, she may have had other motives, I don’t know her at all.)
Mike already knew I had thrown up during the race, but I mentioned how at the end I was crying by the car, and that my friend Jen had also been rather emotional. He said, wow, women really are different. (Do men generally not cry at the end of races?) Is that what my mother meant when she said “Men are different”?***
Who wants to do this race with me? There are a few folks planning, the more the merrier, plus, I think costumes are definitely in order. That’s my next race! I am shooting to break 30 minutes, which I HOPE should be easy even in a costume. Maybe? Who even knows…maybe I’ll just end up at the side of the road crying and throwing up.
****My mom (who reads this) probably doesn’t even remember the Men are different story. It was several years ago and I was visiting home. I believe my sister Leslie was there as well. I was complaining about something or another about Chris (you know how we women are prone to do that.) She cleared her throat, sat up straight, and said, “You know…men are different.” Leslie and I leaned in, waiting with bated breath for an elaboration. How were men different? Why? What could we perhaps learn from her marriage of 40 odd years?
No explanation came. She didn’t speak again on the subject. Evidently all was said in those three little words. Men are different.
I have taken that advice to heart, and any time Chris, or a male friend or colleague, does something I think is strange, or crazy, or ridiculous, or downright moronic, I take a deep breath, and say to myself, “men are different.”
Grand Adventure
“All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.” –J.R.R. Tolkien (The Fellowship of the Ring)
And so my grand adventure of life continues. The events of the weekend (here and here) are in the past. And (not to be so terribly clichéd but clichés ARE there for a reason) all we can do is look forward to the next challenge, to the next adventure.
A friend said yesterday, well, yes, of course you can’t plan everything, but why not assume you WILL be here in St Louis and make your wedding plans accordingly. And then, if something changes, well, then you’ll just come back to get married. Wise word, indeed! (Using indeed because I am feeling wizard-y and Gandalf-y).
Right now the idea of wedding planning makes me exhausted, and yes, I am quite angry at this city of St Louis and all that goes into it, but there’s no reason not to start planning {again}. Maybe not this week as there are so many things I haven’t done in the past week or two that I must do, but shortly after that.
“When one door closes, another opens; but we often look so long and so regretfully upon the closed door that we do not see the one which has opened for us.” –Alexander Graham Bell
There will always be doors. We have worked too hard and have too much going for us to have the doors shut. But we must be careful of glass doors. Birds often fly into those.
Friends are relatives you make for yourself. ~Eustache Deschamps
Many people live near their parents and family. I do not. Those of us who live away from our families bond together. We celebrate holidays together. And we become each other’s families. It doesn’t mean we love our blood relatives less, because love is not something finite. My parents moved away from their homes to start their own lives and I always knew I would do the same.
