Random thoughts

Easter Sunday

I miss my computer.

I miss windows live writer.  It took WAY too long to put this picture up.

Speaking of, how great IS this picture?  Fat cat wine.  My friend Sarah posted it on my facebook wall to try to cheer me up yesterday.

It sort of worked.  I did pretty well until last night when I just broke down.  I was in the middle of a book on my kindle.  BASTARDS stole my stuff.

Today is better.  It’s just stuff.  My computer files are online even.  I can rebuild.  I also think the books I had on my kindle can be moved to a new kindle.  I will find out about insurance tomorrow.

They took my ALARM CLOCK.  Seriously.  Who does that?  Why take a decade old alarm clock that doesn’t even light up anymore?

How glad am I that most of my electronics are super old and crappy?  Evidently nobody wants CD’s anymore–remember when everybody was getting their CD’s stolen from their cars?  Not anymore!

How glad am I that I had my digital camera with me (diligent attempt at blogging) instead of sitting out somewhere?

How glad am I that the thieves didn’t know that instruments are worth money?  Then again, you can’t just get rid of them…you have to know how to do that.  And these people were evidently NOT smart.

Grr.

I may download live writer to this computer, but not yet.  I also will wait to upload some pictures from my real camera, so here’s one from the phone of this morning’s Easter service.

I played mass at St. Theresa’s in Belleville. It was a nice service and we played a rousing Hallelujah Chorus, among other things.

Yesterday:  we got robbed, then we went to the Cardinals game.  They lost.  There was a one hour rain delay.  We sat near some of the most obnoxious men you have ever met.  Basically it sucked.  Oddly one of the trainers at our gym (not my trainer) was sitting right behind us.  Odd.  I guess it’s a small world.

Today:  church gig followed by a fantastic brunch!  We went to Eau at the Chase Park Plaza for a brunch buffet.  Unlimited mimosas (light on the champagne though…), shrimp and crab, eggs, delicious quinoa salad, meats, cheese, bacon, biscuits and gravy, sausage, potatoes, salad, fruits, and a ridiculous dessert table.  I ate a ton.  Now I am attempting to digest.  It was delicious though, and will last me the rest of the day, most likely.

Tonight:  relax, watch a movie.  I’m actually NOT working out today, which is unusual.  In that I haven’t taken a day off in awhile.  Probably for the best.  I’ve gotten used to feeling sore somewhere on my body at all times.  Is that normal?

Tomorrow:  part holiday (no teaching until evening).  Some phone calls to make about the “incident”.  Probably shopping.  Running.  Cleaning?  The CSI guy said I need to dust more often, that it’s too hard to get fingerprints when it’s dusty.  He was just trying to be helpful, but it made me feel terrible.

Then back to work.  It’s almost May.  Concerts are coming up!

Random thoughts

Burgled

4 Comments

Just a quick stop by. We got robbed yesterday. The thieves took my laptop, the Wii, my kindle, my alarm clock (why??) and a bottle of vodka. Luckily that seems to be all (for instance, not the cat or the instruments), but any amount is too much.

I’ll be back to regular blogging soon I’m sure, but right now I don’t have the proper tools set up. Suffice it to say I am pretty pissed off. It seems they got in through a window in the kitchen that I swear was locked, but perhaps a good shove popped them open. The cops were really helpful though. They took down a report and soon I will have my copy of that.

Happy Easter to all who celebrate. I myself am off to play a service. Here’s hoping today goes better than yesterday.

Running

Question of the day

3 Comments

Okay, I’m going to talk briefly about a topic that we don’t generally talk about here on my blog.

Poop.

Evidently this is an issue runners have.  Before going for a run, you want to make sure you have “gone”.  But…if you are really pushing yourself in a race?

{image redacted due to copyright/legal issues and just good moral fiber 😉 but yes it was a picture of a woman who lost control of her bowels on the race}

http://deadspin.com/#!5793292/the-poopiness-of-the-long-distance-runner
http://blog.kropewnicki.com/2011/04/18/caroline-white-leaves-it-all-on-the-boston-marathon/

I originally saw this picture on Skinnyrunner’s blog but then I did a bit of internet research (that I am so known for) and found the above links.  The woman ran a 2:37 marathon on Monday in Boston, qualifying for the A group of the Olympic trials.  Not sure what the A group means, but that sounds pretty good to me.  That’s twice as fast as I can run!

So the question of the day would be:  is making the olympic trials worth the whole world seeing you with poop running down your leg?  (thanks to Leslie for the wording).

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Weather

Storms

We just keep having storms!  What happened to our beautiful spring weather? 

I am looking at the forecast for the weekend—thunderstorms and showers every day.  In fact, all next week as well.  It’s really annoying!

I was woken up during the night by a thunderstorm Sad smile

Tomorrow we are going the Cardinals game.  So much for a pleasant, warm, sunny afternoon.  It will probably rain all afternoon, making the game miserable.

Tomorrow before the game Jen and I are planning to run (just once) around Forest Park (6 miles or so.)  I guess we’ll see if that can happen.  I would love it!  I figured out yesterday if I run slower I can go farther without stopping…I should say, I remembered that.  Easy run equals actually run slowly.

I know the hot weather will be here soon enough.  I’m simply impatient.

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Today:  workout with Mike, run, teach for a couple hours, dinner with Chris (my thank you dinner for getting taxes done), girls’ night get-together at a friend’s house.

Tomorrow:  run with Jen, Cardinals game (baseball, for those who are not sports fans)

Sunday:  Easter gig (early), brunch with friends

All of these things would be better with lovely nice warm weather.  Especially Saturday’s events.  But everything would be nicer!  I could wear a lovely spring dress on Easter…(I know, whine, whine, Jesus had it worse on Good Friday, walked uphill both ways to school, etcetera)

Oh well. 

And did I mention after this week there are 4 more weeks left of school teaching?  Just putting that out there. 

Enjoy your weekend, readers!  Hopefully you are less whiny than I am.

Running

Bolt for the BSO

2 Comments

I am not entirely sure how I feel about charity runs.  Probably the same way I feel about charity gala dinners.  On the one hand, it’s great that you are supporting a great cause.  But…couldn’t you simply support the cause without making the person run or without having a fancy dinner that costs money to put together?  Your dollars would go farther.  Nonetheless, I suppose anything that gets people to donate money to non-profits is a good idea.

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I received this comment today:

bolt

It seems like a great idea!  Go visit www.facebook.com/boltforthebso now, especially if you live in the Baltimore area.  The active giving link didn’t work for me though.  I wonder if other orchestras have had experience with this?

I wonder how many musicians are also runners?  I know quite a few marathoners—what I’m wondering is if a higher percentage of musicians are distance runners versus the normal population?  Distance running requires discipline and the ability to do something for a long time.  In my mind, those are skills that we honed in the practice room.  Granted, musicians also love rich food and wine, but the two are not mutually exclusive.  Are you a runner?  Are you also a musician?  Does anybody know the statistics on this?

Then again, as I’ve said before, if I ran faster, I wouldn’t have to run for as long.  Better get going then!

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Food, Running

Peeps

1 Comment

Again I am blown away by how many folks are reading my Auditions post.  Thanks for reading!  Some of you have left comments.  I’d love to hear from more of you!  Feel free to comment, don’t be shy…after all, one commenter claims all musicians are unknowingly “dead inside.”  You can’t really top that, now can you?  (This is not a challenge, actually.  Just saying, maybe YOU have something you want to say.  Unless you are actually dead on the inside?)

I was a fabulous (read: bribing) teacher today and brought candy for my students.  (Sorry to their regular classroom teachers.) I find that people fall vehemently into the “love peeps” or the “hate peeps” categories.  Where do you stand?  I’m ashamed to admit I could probably eat large quantities of them in one sitting if I didn’t watch myself.

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Though, to be clear, my most favorite Easter Candy is this (*drools*):

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So good!  Those I could probably eat for days on end.  I did actually purchase TWO today at the store.  One for me, one for Chris.  Aren’t we ridiculous in our “moderation”?  I WANTED to get the six-pack (I wanted to get several six-packs of them, or perhaps the gigantic one I saw) but I thought one each was enough.  Joe would be so proud.

Now, TODAY was a great day for a run.  Just around 50 degrees, and sunny.  I started out cool, but was sweaty by the end. (I am still comparing all running days to that ridiculously hot day I ran my last half marathon Sad smile )

I took a few pictures at the turnaround in the park.

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And I wore my new Go! St Louis Half Marathon shirt—it’s VERY bright.  I am fantastic at taking pictures of myself.

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Oh yeah!  Look at my beautiful smile!!

I hope you are all enjoying this beautiful Wednesday…after the storms we had last night, it’s a welcome relief.  Let me be clichéd and ask, what is YOUR favorite Easter candy?

thoughts about violin, teaching, running, life.