Random thoughts

Wedding planning

I haven’t written about my wedding recently, so I thought I’d give you a little update.  I believe the last time I really talked about was after we set our date.

We’ve made a lot of progress, and I’m enjoying the planning.  Chris has been wonderful (of course) and super helpful, and we’re enjoying planning an event that will showcase our relationship and our love, yet also be fun for our friends and family (hopefully, and please try not to vom after reading that.)

Here’s what we’ve done so far:  We set the date of 1/2/12 at Moulin for the ceremony AND reception.  Our reception will be a sit down dinner, and there will be a cocktail hour in between.  We’ve hired an officiant to marry us, someone we have worked with in the past, a woman that will write a ceremony for us that we will be happy with.  We found awesome invitations online that just need a bit of tweaking to make them more special, and the woman who does them lives locally!  (We are super close to sending out save-the-dates…).  And most recently we hired a photographer who is the mother of one of my students who gave us an excellent deal plus we really love her style. 

What’s next on the agenda?  We are currently working on the music end of it—we want a band for the reception (let’s not go there yet for the ceremony…I can’t…I just can’t…  Also we are working on the registry, hotel accommodations for the guests, and starting to think about flowers, cake, and of course…my dress.  I also have generally figured out hair and makeup for myself and the bridesmaids.  When I get back from Kansas I need to do some dress shopping though, and I have two friends here I plan to bring with me to be brutally honest.

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So that’s pretty much what’s going on with wedding planning.  I don’t want to give anything away, so I don’t want to give too many details!  For instance, I’m super excited about our save the dates, but I don’t want to post anything here yet.  And the save the dates are part of a greater theme for our invitations, and likely for the programs as well.  It all works together, plus I realized that I just love paper.  

Unrelated to wedding planning:  My facebook free week is going pretty decently.  I had to log on the other day to verify addresses, and YES I post my blog there but that doesn’t require logging into facebook.  I am glad I’m doing it.  People doubt my ability to go facebook free, but seriously, it’s the best week ever 😉

Last but not least:  What do you think of this?

http://www.pottermore.com/

Try not to pee yourself with excitement. I may have.

Running

The more I think about it, the more I love the marathon course…but..

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I’m not ready to run a marathon.  But how awesome is this course?  Seriously.  I love it.

Or maybe I’m just still upset by a certain race in April and anything different is simply a grand improvement?  Maybe.  Maybe not.  I’m just not ready to admit either way.

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I can’t find anything better to post on the blog, but follow the link I posted and you can see it better.  Go run people!  The weather is fantastic, and if I can do it, you can do it.  I wasn’t even running a year ago and look at me now…sometimes both feet even lift off the ground!

Can you believe June is already halfway over?  I can’t.  I’ve finally got most of my summer mapped out, including a small trip to Chicago (woo!!  Yay for Avec and Karen!!!!!).  I love summer.

Running

Rock and Roll Course Revealed

This morning I was excited to see that the course for the Rock and Roll Half Marathon was in the “paper” (by that I mean I saw it on twitter and went to the website).

The race is on October 23 here in St Louis.  Here’s the link to the article about the course.

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It’s a nice course, I think, and it’s different that the Go! course from April which is awesome, since I am still pretty scarred from that.  What’s funny is that now I’ve run in much hotter weather, though not as far, but still, I would probably do FINE if the race were held today.  And maybe Jen wouldn’t have almost died.  Grrr.  I love that the course goes really near my house though!

It’ll be my second rock and roll race of the year (the first being P.F. Chang’s Excellent Tempe Phoenix Rock and Roll Adventure…or something like that…) which means I’ll also (upon completion) get another medal for doing two in one year.  I’m VERY fancy like that!

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Anyway, so I’m excited!  I would post it on facebook…but I’m on facebook break.  Honestly it hasn’t been so bad, and in some ways being away from facebook has been a relief.  Yes, I’ve stepped up my twittering, but I think that’s okay.

In other news, I have a blister like thing on the bottom of my foot.  I decided to do a treadmill walking workout last night, just something easy, and ended up hurting my foot so I can’t run today.  I remember it hurt while walking but I dismissed it as my foot callous needing to get built up again (which is probably true) and then decided I would be more hard core if I just pushed through the pain.  Which was probably pretty stupid, but I don’t believe any lasting harm was done.  Honestly I should have taken yesterday as a rest day, but I felt guilty since I had done that on Saturday as well, and plus seem to have gained a pound this week…and I just wasn’t thinking terribly clearly.  Besides, it was just walking.  Stupid blisters.

Food

Brewfest

I know my mother doesn’t want to read about it, but I went with some friends to a Beer Festival in Forest Park over the weekend called St Louis Brewfest. 

You should know that traditionally my family doesn’t drink.  My parents were brought up in the Mennonite Church and many of my relatives are still part of the church.  I was raised to believe that alcohol was wrong along with dancing and a whole host of other behaviors, ranging from listening to popular music to shopping for new clothes or other frivolous purchases.  I was raised as a Presbyterian, but my mother still insisted on many of her Mennonite values (or at least as I understood them to be, as I don’t even really know) for her children.  I attribute much of my guilt and self-loathing to my religious upbringing.  (Is that harsh?  Let’s put a 😉 there.)

In any case, four of us girls went to brewfest on Saturday night (after a long day of weddings…grr…)  Basically you pay one price for the ticket, get a little souvenir tasting glass and get to go crazy and drink as many samples as you like of a variety of local beers.  It’s out in a field at Forest Park under a tent.  I was the only non-single girl so naturally the secondary plan (other than tasting a lot of beer) was to attempt to meet people.  I used to be really good at talking to strangers (maybe briefly between senior year of high school and into college for a bit) and that’s a skill I’m trying to bring up again…it is a confidence thing (you must assume that you are interesting and/or attractive enough that strangers would WANT to talk to you) and since I have been feeling more confident lately (seriously thanks to my workouts with Mike) I figured that would be good.  I won’t hold you in suspense though, we didn’t really meet anyone, and simply ran into a variety of people we already knew, and I did inadvertently pick up a friend of a guy Jen knew.  But I digress (and use too many parentheses, right?). 

Why are you here?  Well, for the pictures.  I took lots of pictures and most of them were terrible!  But some turned out okay.  Please don’t comment on my tan lines, I really am not interested.

(And sorry friends, I will be taking MORE pictures in the future.  It’s fun, plus you all look great generally so don’t worry!)

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Adrianne and Melissa, Jen and I

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The view inside the tent.

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We split this giant pretzel from Companion Bakery.  While it won’t help me lose ten pounds, it did give me the ability to drink a little more beer.

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Overall it was a great night!  It was great to hang out with my friends (and again, just so pleased to have real friends in St Louis), and it was great to try all the different beers.  Ran into a few other people I knew including the ocarina player from my trio (Hi!).  And I would definitely go back next year.

Oh, and I may have been on tv…again…

Adrianne and Jen both had facebook comments that people saw them on Channel 5, and we were all there doing a toast in front of the cameraman.  Did anybody see me?

Grand Ideas

If it isn’t posted on the internet, has it really happened?

4 Comments

I feel that’s the updated version of the old "If a tree falls in the forest and nobody hears it, does make a sound?" 

Today I am going facebook-free.  I am NOT going internet-free.  I am NOT quitting facebook, because I am determined to do something in moderation, plus facebook is too awesome for that.  I simply mean I will not be checking facebook until after I get to Kansas (next weekend). 

Why?  Well, a few things have inspired me, and I woke up this morning and realized that a facebook vacation would be helpful.  Two recent blog posts triggered this idea:

"Comparison Shopping" by Eden’s Eats was one I read yesterday that really spoke to me.  I am terribly guilty of comparing my life and myself to other people and naturally I assume that I come up lacking.  I recall when I first joined facebook I would look at other people’s pictures and see how much more fun they were having than me, or read their statuses and see how much better their careers were, or people traveling to exotic locations while I sat at home with my cat.  It doesn’t help that so many of my friends DO have wonderful fantastic lives.  And while I am {generally} happy for my REAL LIFE friends who have wonderful lives, perhaps I can’t quite bring that same feeling to my so-called "facebook" friends.  And I try.  And the thing that KILLS me is that deep down I know I actually have a pretty freaking awesome life.  Which will in no way be improved if I lose 10 more pounds.  Because then I’ll just want to lose 10 MORE pounds.  (Though I DO want to lose ten more pounds, because that would make my thighs less jiggly looking and then I would look more awesome in facebook photos for the world to see, right?)

The other blog post was the one by the Shubox for the Virtual Retreat, "Taking a Break."  She has been going through some issues and has been feeling down for some time, but still manages to do all kinds of wonderful things for herself and others (including the virtual retreat!).  This week she decided to go "unplugged" and not look at blogs, the internet, or facebook for the whole week.  She is still checking email though (when people truly go "unplugged" I do wonder how they manage with work!) of course.  I am simply taking a facebook break, blogs and twitter and such are okay for me at this time.

(Oh, just to let you know, I will still be PUBLICIZING my blog on facebook, because that is different than being ON facebook or obsessively checking to see if anybody commented on my status update or photos.  I get most of my readers through facebook links and since I am not taking a blog vacation, I will continue to do that.  It’s not a double standard.  I am nothing if not practical.)

Okay, I just spent 5 minutes doing a google image search, and this the best I have for you this morning:

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So for this week, my life will not be posted on the internet.  Okay, sure I’m cheating a little, as I have a blog and a twitter (come follow me @hannahviolin) but STILL.  Really it’s more that I won’t be reading about YOUR life anymore.  And then when I return, well, we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it.

Maybe I’ll do a texting vacation next.  (HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!  No seriously that’s another problem I have.)

Random thoughts

Sunday night blues

Okay, I’m a BIT dramatic.  You all know that already.  I had a glorious weekend, and now I’m exhausted, sore, and plan to spend the night at home making dinner, watching a movie, helping with the laundry (I have a ridiculously awesome laundry situation), and perhaps dyeing my hair.  So there’s no real “blues” happening…especially since this week is pretty darned easy, and I no longer work Monday mornings.

*cue blues music*

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*turns off blues music*

It’s just that the weather today is SO beautiful, and I’m worried it’s going to go away.  Maybe I should check.

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Hmm…that doesn’t look GREAT, though at least the temperatures are reasonable.  I probably shouldn’t have looked.

Okay, so how WAS my weekend?  It was great.  I’ll share some random pictures and later I’ll tell you about St. Louis Brewers Heritage Festival, okay? (Later, as in, another blog post)

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In a nutshell this has been my weekend (in case you are behind on my blog, or we haven’t talked recently, heaven forbid!):

Thursday:  Hot Concert  (aka Chamber Project St Louis concert followed by the Three Monkeys)

Friday:  Klinghoffer (aka afternoon opera, teaching, dinner at Basil Spice and drinks at Frazer’s and Yemanja Brasil)

Saturday:  Two weddings, St Louis BrewFest, party in the backyard with the new upstairs neighbors.

Sunday:  Run around Forest Park (so EASY in this delightful weather), Recital at St Louis Ballet School (students played GREAT!), gym workout, and now doing stuff at home.  Just got “True Grit” for the tivo…anybody seen that?

What are you doing tonight to regroup?  I love having easy Sunday nights at home sometimes.

thoughts about violin, teaching, running, life.