Random thoughts

Pity party over

Okay, I’ve declared this evening the end of my pity party.  Well, not exactly, but we’ve moved on today into…

strange gym injury party time!

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That’s my left pinky.  Suffice it to say it feels much worse than it looks.  What happened?  Well, it happened really fast.  In a nutshell, v-sits holding a 10 pound weight to press up while moving legs forward (I need to start taking pictures during my workouts, huh?).  At the end I was exhausted so I leaned over to drop the weight first, and proceeded to somehow drop it directly onto my pinky finger…which hurt A LOT.  Then I spent a minute or two lying on the floor holding my hand in agony, while Mike either laughed at me or debated calling 911.

Summary:  I am really clumsy.

Other summary:  Mike had a tooth infection.  Evidently he needed a root canal.  He thinks I need to start foam rolling my legs.  His ex-girlfriend wants to get back together but he claims he doesn’t want to.  I also mentioned my blog today, maybe he’s reading this (probably not).

Then I headed off to my ocarina trio rehearsal followed by another lunch at Panera (started reading Water for Elephants, love it so far!) and 3ish hours of teaching.  Finally my day is done! 

Things that are uncomfortable:  trying to play violin with a wonky pinky.  Let’s hope tomorrow goes better since I have TWO weddings to play for.

Next Saturday, May 7:  I am playing for a live internet concert.  6 pm Central Time. Go to this link and it is advertised as “Heather’s Free Live Concert.”  I am playing with Heather!  If you want to catch it from the beginning please visit the link a few minutes early as evidently you are required to watch a couple minutes worth of commercials. 

Teaching, Weather

Sunny Day

Today is the second sunny day in a row!  Unfortunately my current schedule is such that I am barely able to function, much less spend any quality time outside.  Okay, it’s not THAT bad but I am too busy to go for a run or anything without waking up way too early (for me).  Besides which Chris pointed out that it IS a little strange to not be able to walk properly for close to a month now and maybe I need to rest a bit more. 

Primarily this week (it seems) I’ve been sitting around feeling sorry for myself.  One of my students yesterday asked if I had gotten any better at Mario Kart Wii—we had discussed my general lack of video game skill.  This gave me an excellent opportunity to tell him about the break-in.  He was confused why somebody would do that (a sign of a fantastic kid!) and seemed flustered.  FYI:  this is the student who asked earlier about the race picture, and did I win.  He is also a fantastic violin student.  Soon I plan to teach him vibrato and I am banking on the John Kendall step 1:  First ask the student to play vibrato—they may just be able to working out really well.

We actually did some wedding planning last night.  We’re now looking at the first week in January.  It means another year of filing my taxes as single, but that’s probably okay.  We actually sent emails to a couple of venues to maybe check them out over the weekend.  I have to try to remain calm through this process, as I have not been dealing with stress very well lately.  I may have had a couple of freak outs this week which ended in me curled up in a ball sobbing.  Perhaps the robbery IS affecting me.  I’ve also been starting to freak out about my impending 33rd birthday…I guess my 30th is finally catching up on me.  Am I going to look like an old bride?? 

Okay, sorry for the maudlin-ness of this post.  Let me leave you on a happier note.

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We watched Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom the other night.  Harrison Ford proved it is most definitely NOT necessary to have a “six-pack” in order to be ridiculously good looking without a shirt on.  That’s a PSA for all of you men out there:  don’t worry about your abs too much.  Instead work hard studying archaeology and practice your combat skills.

Performing, Random thoughts

Another rainy day

Today I really miss my kindle. I have a few hours to kill between a rehearsal and teaching but I am a bit too far from home to make it worth going there.

That’s another thing you should know about freelance musicians. There is a lot of awkward downtime. I am currently sitting in panera with my violin and a book. Pretty standard. I have spent hours shopping with my violin on my shoulder but I am sore enough from the gym that I didn’t want to deal with that.

We went to Scottish Arms last night to meet with a friend who was visiting. I was the only girl in the group, which was unusual as of late. I used to hang out with a lot more boys than I do now. I guess as an engaged lady it is more appropriate to have lady friends.

I am rehearsing with an ocarina player and a pianist for an online concert next Saturday at 6 pm central. It was great fun! I will try to find the info for those of you who are interested in watching.

On my way to work this morning I drove by some of the tornado damage. Wow. It looks a lot more awful in person. I got chills. How can I be upset over a break in when some people have lost everything? Or am I still in shock? Somebody today asked me, “how are you so calm? Aren’t you angry?” Of course. Of course I am. But what will that accomplish?

Four students and then the gym to run. Four more weeks of school. Four more.

(this should have posted earlier today.  meh)

Random thoughts

Bit the bullet

2 Comments

Okay, so I downloaded Windows Live Writer on Chris’s computer.  I have been seriously depressed the past few days because I had a bunch of pictures I wanted to show you all but couldn’t.  Okay, that’s a bit overkill, but I have been feeling down, and I do love blogging.  I want to blame it on the break in but honestly I was crabby before that.  I guess moods ebb and flow, and mine is ebbing (or flowing) now.

Picture time!

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At the ballpark Saturday.  Seriously my head looks GIGANTIC!

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The boys at the ballpark—notice Chris is on his phone.  This is normal.

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Rain delay.  And my favorite view from the stadium.  As weird and random as the arch is, you always know when you are in St Louis.

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At Easter brunch.  Can you believe the dessert buffet?  And I may have been squatting a little bit in this picture.  I was wearing 4 inch red peep toe heels.

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Getting ready to go work out!  I was PUMPED.  Mike was a downer today though—he was having serious wisdom teeth issues, as in, will need them taken out stat, and evidently was in a lot of pain.  Also he had busted his chin open doing burpees over the weekend.  Basically he was rough, and really probably should have been at the dentist instead of working.  I won’t be surprised if I don’t see him again this week.  Plus, I expect certain standards of entertainment which I just didn’t get…maybe that’s why I’m bummed out.  Then again, maybe I shouldn’t base my moods on how my workouts go, or on how entertaining my trainer is?  Maybe I’m just bummed because it’s actually nice and sunny today and I can’t run because I have to go teach.

Or maybe I’m bummed because somebody broke in and stole my stuff.

Is this one of those things that changes you forever?  I think I was a different person before my car was stolen.  That was one of those things that changed me.

Well, it’s Tuesday afternoon, so let’s keep it light.  On the docket for today:  teaching for over 4 hours, followed by meeting up with a friend from out of town at the Scottish Arms.  Tomorrow is BUSY with teaching and ocarina rehearsal (will explain more later).

Enjoy the sunny day if you are having one!  I’m back blogging as normal though 🙂

Weather

Rain rain go away

The sun was out this morning when I got up, but by the time I had finished breakfast the radar didn’t look good for running.  We had a ton of phone calls to make anyway so I had to go to the gym instead.  Had to call dell to get my serial number (PSA:  write down your laptop computer’s serial number), had to call the police to update the police report with a couple more items I had noticed missing, and had to call the insurance company.

State Farm is my hero.  My agent checked to see if it made sense to make a claim, and it did, so we made the claim.  (Another PSA:  have renter’s insurance.  Mine costs approximately $8 per month.  There is no excuse.)

I haven’t had an insurance claim in some time, but I’ve had two car related ones in the past.  Once my car was stolen–that was a real pain in the butt.  Another time my car flooded (was in a flash flood.)  When I called State Farm to tell them my car was in a flood, they asked “is anybody in the car?”  No.  No, I would likely be calling 911 then instead.

Both times they were quite prompt with their payments.  I remember when the car flooded, State Farm had my car towed away within 24 hours for inspection.  I had the money within a week or two.  I didn’t even have to sing the tune from the commercials (though I gladly would have as I love to sing.)

In any case, evidently the claims department is a bit backed up due to the tornadoes on Friday night.  The author of another blog I read sometimes had a great summary of the carnage.  I can’t believe Chris and I were at dinner, knowing it was storming a bit (the sirens actually WERE going off on my way home from work but I decided the radar was on my side and tried to get ahead of the storm), but completely unaware of the extent of the damage inflicted.  Later than night I heard that tornadoes had hit the airport, but didn’t really believe it until the next morning when I saw the footage.  My understanding is that no one was killed or seriously hurt, miraculously.  I guess everybody heeded the warnings!  It just reminds you that life is most important and that you shouldn’t attach to your belongings that much, I guess.

My landlord has been “improving” the property a bit today.  By that I mean putting some latticing/bars on the back window and a lock for the back yard.  I should probably be more concerned that I am about future break-ins, but I feel that it was a one-off/lightning strike type of occurence and could have happened anywhere (in the city) as it certainly seems that enough of our friends have been affected by similar incidents.  Remember to back up your important computer data also!  Mine is all backed up online and I am SO glad I have that.

Speaking of materialism (haha) I was so excited today to receive our first engagement gift.  It is a cheese plate (with spinner on the bottom) and matching knife, and is from some good friends of Chris’s parents.  It’s VERY italian, and I love it!  Perhaps this (awful) month is about to take a new turn…or maybe May will be better.

thoughts about violin, teaching, running, life.