Monthly Archives: December 2012

Cat

I suppose every day is caturday

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By popular request:

There was a box in the corner.

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What is this?

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Why are you taking my picture, Hannah?

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Triumph!

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Almost all the way in!

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Time for a break…so tired! (There was a period of cleaning and grooming in here but none of those pictures turned out good enough.)image_2

This is very comfortable.

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There you go!

A friend asked why I didn’t take a video.  I didn’t think of it until after I took about a dozen pictures.

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Oh, and this happened on Twitter the other day.  Whatever, it’s not creepy.  Or I should say, whatever, nothing wrong with being creepy.

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Cat, Running

Last week of teaching

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I have the world’s most conscientious students.  I gave some of my students extra practice assignments yesterday telling them it was because we didn’t have lessons for three weeks (I LOVE that I have some students that will genuinely, truly, continue to practice over break—this is why they are progressing well and sound quite good on their instruments—I love it).  And from more than one student I got a blank stare and a question: why don’t we have lessons? When I reminded them it was because of Christmas and New Years…they were SHOCKED.  And they seemed sad about not having lessons.  (Yes, I felt pretty awesome that they were going to miss their lessons with me.)

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A delightful gift from some students

Look what I got in the “mail”!

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If you guessed, new running shoes that I should have bought a month ago but finally ordered on Sunday, you’d be correct.  (Mizuno Wave Nirvanas, and I ordered online because they are the same model I’ve been running in successfully, well, as successfully as I run, for a few years now.) I’ll be testing them out a little later this morning.  After I drink some coffee, stop bugging me.

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My toenail is still hanging on.  And is still awesome! (This is from running.  Not a freak accident.  Though, I have a huge bruise on my left wrist that I have NO IDEA how I got.  None.  And it’s gigantic.)

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I decided to make pumpkin bread for some gifts.  Note to readers:  do not double the recipe.  It will not fit into your mixer bowl and then you’ll have to work really hard in a giant mixing bowl carefully mixing by hand and trying not to spill everywhere.

photo Still turned out pretty good though!

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I got my haircut yesterday!  Does anyone else have trouble knowing where to look at the phone camera?

Yes, it looks basically the same as it always does.  I like my hairdo.  I was thinking about it the other day and looking around the women at the party, and debating getting a different haircut.  I looked at one of my friends and thought, oh her hair is really cute, I should do that, and then I realized her hair was basically just like mine but a little longer and wavier! So I decided to just stick with what was working.

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And, on that note.

Random thoughts, Running

Silence is a tough one

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I’ve noticed a lot of blogs have a “day of silence” on their blogs today.  It’s a nice gesture, in light of current events.  I’m not doing it because silence has never been something I’m good at.  Plus, it’s not technically a day of silence if you post about it being a day of silence, is it?

(And I don’t believe that silence and prayer is the answer to our nation’s problem. I’ll leave it at that.)

That said…just a few things from the weekend. 

age group winner

Leslie won her age group in a race over the weekend.  Frosty’s 10 mile Run—1:31:50.  Very speedy lady.  As you can see she got a medal!  Her husband suggested she pose like that…she had a better picture of herself eating the medal on instagram but she didn’t text me that one.  I’ll add it later if I can. 

I can, I can!  She felt like maybe this wasn’t a big deal as there weren’t many people entered, but I disagree.  This, other than getting married, is perhaps Leslie’s greatest accomplishment!

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Anyway, congrats to her, she’s pretty awesome!

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We went to the circus!  (Circus Flora performed with the Symphony.)  And then, even more fun, at a party later we met one of the performers—he did “the straps” which involves going up really high in the air and doing all kinds of acrobatics.  His routine involved an umbrella.  It was so cool to meet a person in the circus and to ask ridiculous questions like, “how does it feel to follow your dreams?”  Yeah, somebody actually asked that.  It’s particularly funny when you know that this was a party full of musicians, and we were all thrilled to learn about somebody who followed their dreams…

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And then there’s this…

Running

Reindeer Run 5k

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This is what I wanted to blog about earlier.  I’m doing it now because I’ve had a nap and I’m feeling more positive.  Chris and I ran a 5k this morning.  (That bulge in my shirt is my gloves, stuffed down my shirt.  It wasn’t as cold as I thought. If I hadn’t just been trying not to pass out/throw up I might have removed them before we asked somebody to take our picture.)

It was Chris’s first 5k—he’d been training for about 4 weeks and was excited to test himself.  We were both ambitiously hoping to break 30 minutes, but it wasn’t to be.  I kept him in sight for most of the race, but each mile got worse (I guess my 9:30 or so first mile was a bit ambitious considering my training), and ultimately I finished in 32:41.  Maybe if I weighed what I weighed last year when I did this race I’d have done better, but I felt decent, my hip felt good, and the whole race was really hard (I always forget how much I hate 5k’s until I’m actually running the 5k).  Chris is on board for more races so that made me happy!  I’m hoping to cajole him into the half in April…

In other news, I loved loved loved The Hobbit.  We survived the midnight showing, got home around 3:30 am…haven’t seen that time on a clock while in the car in a long time.  (I feel really old right now.)

That’s a picture I took in the theater and then lightened it up on instagram.  Chris didn’t realize I was actually planning to post it.  (Does he NOT know me?)  Yeah, I know, we look great.

Midnight showing: we went with another couple (Vanessa and Russell, who have appeared here before!)who had bought their tickets separately.  We hoped we could switch around to be in the same theater.  We got to the theater around 10:40 or so and there was no line for the tickets.  The guy said, no problem, since theater 9 wasn’t sold out he’d just switch us to that.  We walked into the theater and there was a huge line…for theater 7.  And another huge line for theater 8.  I walked up to the usher and asked where the line for theater 9 was.  She said, oh theater 9 is already seating.  She tore our stubs and we walked right in, got seats towards the middle about halfway up.  It was AWESOME.

Anyway, I loved the movie.  I think we all did except maybe Russell who wasn’t as big of a Tolkien nerd.  I especially liked how the music absolutely fit in with the LOTR trilogy—when we were in the Shire or dealing with the Ring, or at Rivendell…the themes were still the same.  And there was a scene with a hedgehog, which cracked me up.  (Hedgehogs are totally hot right now.)

Deep Thoughts

hate cannot drive out hate

martinlutherking

(quote from Martin Luther King, Jr.)

I was going to come here this morning and write some mundane stuff about my life.  It even seems trite to mention that, oh, hey, not ONLY was there the tragedy (is tragedy the right word to use even—it doesn’t seem quite right either) in Connecticut, there was a shooting ON MY BLOCK yesterday.  I wasn’t at home, but Chris heard the shots and texted me.  I was on my way to work and was totally freaking out.  Then one of the other teachers at work who just had a baby was completely upset about the school shootings (as are we all) and I didn’t know what to say.  What do you say? 

I feel like something needs to change. 

I don’t want to move out of the city.  I enjoy living in an area where there are more trees than parking lots, where buildings and homes are full of character, and where restaurants are independently owned and operated.  I grew up in a small town and I’m not going back to that.  Ever.  The risks to my mental health are too great.

I’ll leave you with this link, which I recommend you check out.  The 30 Most Important Cats of 2012.  It’s meant for a bit of comic relief, to cheer you up. 

I’ll be back later today or tomorrow with a post all about me, don’t worry 🙂

Random thoughts

Very excited for the Hobbit

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This is either me really excited about the Hobbit, OR somebody just tried to take the one ring from me and my eyes bugged out and I went crazy.  No seriously, I’ve been chugging coffee all day in order to be awake and alert for the midnight showing of the Hobbit tonight.  Yeah.  I’m old…midnight is really late these days.

We have Red Bull in the fridge.

I do believe the last midnight movie I went to was Return of the King.  So it’s been awhile.  That was a great show…but I recall being SO tired by the end.  Then again, didn’t the movie last approximately five hours and fade to black countless times?  I presume tonight’s show will be less cheesy and shorter? (There’s probably a way to find out how long, but I’d rather be surprised.) (I’m pretty sure we went to the show after an Akron Symphony rehearsal.  Anybody able to back me up on that? I don’t have my calendar from 2003 handy…

Last night we met up with our Canadian friends Vanessa and Russell at Sasha’s on Demun.  Russell is a great jazz trumpeter and he sat in with the band there a bit.  I may be biased AND know nothing about jazz trumpet, but he sounded great.  Chris knows much more about jazz and he also thought Russell was awesome, so there’s that.

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Chris and Russell.  One of the greatest pictures ever!

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I look like I have lazy eye here.  Vanessa got a great haircut!

flowers

We tried to make our own flower photo, but failed in a variety of ways.  I blamed the photographer, but he didn’t think that was fair…it may be more than I had too much wine before the photo taking sessions happened? 😉

stuffed santa

One of my students brought me this yesterday.  She said it was a gift, but she also said I needed to hang it on the cabinet in my room.

holiday darth vader

I found this at Target today.  Chris was thrilled when I showed him.  It’s a Bobble head “Holiday Darth Vader”. I misspelled Vader on instagram today and I think he is considering leaving me.  Or making me watch all the Star Wars movies again.  I’m not sure. He was definitely embarrassed to be married to me.

foam rolling

Look, I’m foam rolling.  And yeah.  Grey.  Also my thigh looks weird and gigantic.  Hmm.  But there’s the proof (#proof?) that I’m continuing to foam roll, so I’m leaving it up there.  It’s hard to take a self foam rolling portrait.

Okay, other blog happenings, if you are behind:

Two book giveaways (seriously, enter if you like to read, I don’t sell your email or anything, and there’s no obligation):

The Painted Bridge

Hot Chocolate

And, if you haven’t checked out my sister Carrie’s kickstarter campaign to help fund her quartet’s trip to Norway to study and increase their exposure, please do!  I wrote a blog post about it, or you can click here to go directly to it.  She’s pretty awesome.  (In fact, she is the best thing that ever happened to us!)

Anyway else going to see the Hobbit tonight?  I’d bold this question, but I saw Rose do that earlier today and I figured I’d be different than the rest of the internet.  You’re smart enough to figure it out right? ANSWER IN THE COMMENTS PLEASE! OR COMMENT ON MY PICTURES.

(It’s a fine line between mocking other bloggers and being exactly like them.  I try to walk that line, but I know I err on the side of generic narcissist rather than being unique.)