Monthly Archives: November 2010

Running, Weddings

Weekend Recap part 1

I’m going to go out of order a bit (and save my race for later).  Yesterday I played two weddings.  The first was at St. Cecilia’s Church in South City.  It is a beautiful church, over 100 years old.  Evidently the area it is in used to be a German area and is now Hispanic.  The inside of the church is very shiny and ornate.  It’s really amazing what people used to build for their churches…it must have cost so much money!

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Just a few pictures of the inside.  If you visit the website there are a few more.  I didn’t have my good camera with me, and the lighting was bad.  Besides which, I am not a great photographer!

Wedding number two was at the City Museum.  If you are from St. Louis, you have probably been to the City Museum.  I went in June with a good friend and her boyfriend who were visiting.  It is a crazy place!  The whole building is a huge playground with things to climb into, over, and through.  It’s difficult to describe in a way that would do it justice. However, that sounds like a strange place for a wedding, right?  Well, they have a large room that is nice for weddings…except it was super loud where we were due to all the children outside the room, running around and screaming.  We were in the architecture room.  I didn’t take any photos yesterday, but here is one from my previous visit.

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The building in the background is the City Museum.  We could see this plane out the window from where we were playing, so that gives you an idea.

After playing two weddings, it was time to eat dinner and then attend the Symphony Concert.  Last night’s program was Prokofiev’s Classical Symphony, Leila Josefowicz playing Thomas Ades Violin Concerto, and Rimsky-Korsakov’s Scheherezade.   I really enjoyed the concert!  I usually don’t love new pieces, but I really loved the Concerto (and she played it fantastically, which I am sure helped immensely).  We then hung out with a few friends for a few hours and got to bed very late.

Now it’s time for my long run of the day—6 miles is on the docket for today Smile

Running

Time to relax/new clothes

I’ve been busy today–a race and two weddings. Now it’s time to relax, attend a symphony concert, and then over to a friend’s house to hang out. My race went great–I will write more about it soon, but…I improved again, 32:03 on a busy, hilly course! More about that later…

I really just wanted to say what I’m thankful for today. I continue to be thankful for many of things I’ve already listed the past two weeks–(I’ll recap in a day or two)…but something new…I’m wearing a new red sweater I got from old navy, and I am happy to be wearing it. So the verdict is: I’m happy to have a bunch of new fall clothes to wear–and thankful because I can afford them, and because I NEEDED them due to my weight loss! So I’m thankful for new fall sweaters, long sleeve shirts, and pants, and the opportunities that led me to be able to get almost an entirely new fall wardrobe 🙂

Teaching

Frey-day!

It’s Frey-day!  That’s pronounced the same as Friday, for those of you who didn’t know 🙂

Today is usually my quasi-day off, but due to Veteran’s Day, I had 8 students at one of my schools.  Since I teach the students during their regular school day, I was concerned that they would forget today was a make-up from yesterday (unusual for a school to close for Veteran’s Day and then have class on Friday) so I called everybody yesterday to remind them.  As a result EVERYONE remembered their violin (this is rare).  It was a good day–the kids seemed to be in better moods than usual and we (well, they) learned quite a bit overall.  Now I’m at home catching up on various at home errands/computer work and preparing for tomorrow.

Tomorrow is a fun day–I am doing a 5k in the morning (yes, yes, I’m getting out of control but having so much fun!), two weddings, and then I will attend the St Louis Symphony concert (can’t pass up Leila Josefowicz and Scheherezade) and hopefully go out for drinks/dessert or cheese after the concert.

I used to usher for the Cleveland Orchestra when I started in college.  Each Thursday night I would walk down to the street (a few blocks) to Severance Hall, help people find their seats, and then spent two hours hearing some of the greatest concerts ever.  Now I don’t have to help anyone find their seat, and I can do the same thing… 😉  I am THANKFUL that I can attend as many symphony concerts as I want for free (thanks to the boyfriend 😉 ).  THANKS CHRIS AND THE SLSO FOR SUCH A WONDERFUL OPPORTUNITY!

I will finish today’s thankful post with a new picture of my sister Leslie and her cat Albergo.

Awwwwww.....

 

Random thoughts

Hummus!

I bought a carton of delicious black bean hummus at the grocery store the other day.  I put some on my sandwich tonight instead of mayonnaise or mustard and it was DELICIOUS!

I also purchased carrots to dip in it.  I haven’t had black bean hummus before, but this was really tasty!  In fact, I’m still sitting here, an hour later, thinking about how good my sandwich was.  You know what that means:  hummus is on the list!  I am thankful for hummus (in all incarnations, from black bean to regular to spicy to garlic varieties).  I am thankful for whoever invented hummus also!  THANK YOU HUMMUS!  (trying too hard?)

Today was a beautiful sunny day.  I was walking towards my house this afternoon and I just couldn’t resist taking a few pictures of this gorgeous view.

 

The red color was really popping in the sunlight!

Cruise, Running

Carnival Splendor part the third

So the Splendor has been towed to San Diego.  Here’s a nice collection of video links from a variety of sources.  Naturally the media has turned this into a “why cruising is unsafe” incident, though no one was hurt.  Thank you media for always overreacting to things.

Today I went for another park run.  Ugh.  Rough run!  I’ll blame the near 70 degree temperatures…how can it be so warm and yet these gorgeous fall photos?  And how come some days running is so easy and others I struggle so much?   Is it just the weather?  Maybe I’m tired?

 

 

 

I hope Saturday is cooler than today (it looks to be cooler and no longer rainy!).

Now it’s time for a workout with Mike followed by 8 students at my house and a rehearsal for a program on Sunday.  My 8 students at Good Shepherd are postponed until tomorrow due to Veteran’s Day today.

 

Teaching

Time is running out

And so I’m too busy…I cannot add another student at my house.  I can’t remember ever being that way.  Yes, I probably COULD add another student, but seriously I would be exhausted and it would have to be an 8:00 student…which I was tempted tonight while talking to a very nice sounding young man on the phone.  Or maybe I should teach on the weekends…but I’m saving some time for some new commitments in the spring, and I can’t.  I just can’t.  But I feel bad, I feel like maybe I’ve overscheduled myself away from home and I should have focused more on simply adding to my home studio rather than trying to work outside the home.  But I can’t change anything now without disappointing a lot of people and I won’t do that.  Next year… we’ll see.  There are some things I definitely want to do, and I’ll need to remember this.  Maybe I can do three days at home next year.  Maybe not.  Maybe I’ll have to raise my rates… 😉

I can’t believe how fast my schedule filled up.

Does this mean the economy is recovering?