All posts by hannahviolin

I am a violinist. I also enjoy running, working out, reading, and hanging with my friends and cat.

Great Blackout of 2003

August 13, 2013 hannahviolin 5 Comments

I heard on NPR that tomorrow is the ten year anniversary of the Great Blackout! Do you remember where you were when the lights went out?

Wikipedia calls it the Northeast Blackout of 2003. It’s a pretty interesting article going into great detail on the cause and timeline. The NPR station had a teaser for a show about it and said something about it being caused by trees and sagging power lines.

(my now deceased cat Heifetz with the fatness, fall 2003)

Much like 9/11 and the Kennedy Assassination though, it’s really about where YOU were, right? The summer of 2003 was a transitional year for me. Due to variety of reasons I was taking a year off from my full time position with the Charlotte Symphony (with no intention of returning but I wanted to keep the option open) to be a freelancer in Cleveland, where I had done my graduate work. Yes, this is the opposite of how most people do things, but I was incredibly unhappy in Charlotte, and figured I’d rather make less money but live in the same city as my then boyfriend and also figured, if I was going to be dreading work, maybe it would be better if I were dreading different work rather than the same job every day.

Then in June of 2003 (still in Charlotte) my apartment complex flooded—not my apartment as I was on the second floor, but my car. I was able to easily break my lease that I had resigned, and towards the beginning of August I moved my furniture up to Cleveland, where I would be sharing an apartment with my sister Leslie.

I was reflecting on this move today. Can you believe my friends Zach and Mary Frances CAME WITH ME? I rented a U-Haul, loaded it up with my things, and somehow convinced Zach to drive the truck to Cleveland (this is an 11 hour drive in a car). I drove my car up, my boyfriend at the time met us there, we all unloaded, and then I drove Zach, MF, and myself back to Charlotte—and then lived in their basement for two weeks. I have so many amazing friends in my life and sometimes it is hard to keep track of the wonderful and generous things they have done for me. Also, a couch with a pull out bed is an incredibly heavy and difficult piece of furniture to move. So I am told.

(Mary Frances and Zach had just gotten married on my birthday in 2003.)

The second week of basement living Leslie joined me—Zach and MF were out of town so we had our run of the place. Mainly we were just killing time before needing to get up the Ohio, relaxing, watching television shows like THE OC (which premiered approximately ten years ago) and shopping at Target a lot to buy neat stuff for our new place.

Finally it was time to go up to Ohio (again for me). We were each driving separate cars but caravaning. I had two cats in my car who were unhappy pretty much the entire day. I recall stopping at a Taco Bell for lunch with Leslie and being so relieved to have a few minutes of respite from the yelling.

(who us, we would never yell!)

We ended up getting to the Akron/Canton area during rush hour, around 4:00, and I knew that Leslie would need to follow me closely to make sure we could get to the apartment. That’s right around when the blackout hit. Traffic was bad, and I thought about stopping for gas but decided I could make it. I tried to give her a call to make sure she was okay, but the call couldn’t go through, and then they started talking about it on the radio, how there were power outages all over the east coast, starting in the Akron/Canton area.

Our original plan had been to get to the apartment, unload our cars (you don’t leave valuables in your car in the city) and then shower and enjoy a wonderful dinner at one of my favorite places to go at the time, the Winking Lizard. Well. Because of the blackout, our new plan ended up being: unload the cars. And nothing was open. Grocery stores, restaurants, gas stations…everything was closed. There was a half drunk 2 liter of Diet Coke in the fridge from my original move in two weeks earlier and we located an open box of “Honey bunches of oats” cereal. That was dinner. Luckily Leslie had a flashlight handy in her trunk…and it was HOT. We never had A/C in that apartment anyway, but we were used to having tons of fans. Nothing.

It was a pretty miserable night.

Why am I writing this? I don’t know. It just made me think about how fast times seems to fly! Was that only ten years ago? So much has happened, yet I remember it so clearly right now (though other times it seems so long ago and fuzzy…memory is an odd thing, isn’t it—for instance, I’d forgotten until just today how much Zach and MF helped me with my move…).

If I recall correctly, we did get our power back on by mid-morning the next day. In case you were worried.

That’s an even older picture of the fatness. Back then we used to call her “little kitty.” I wonder what I’m going to do if she gets thin enough on her diet to not be “the fatness” anymore???

Random thoughts

Bacon and eggs

August 12, 2013 hannahviolin 3 Comments

*sigh*

Where did the weekend go?

Oh right, 9 hours of opera rehearsal.

Can anyone name this tune?

I’m playing with Union Avenue Opera the next couple of weeks. We are performing Wagner’s Die Walkure. It’s nice to be playing some real music especially since I didn’t get to go do that in Colorado after all this summer. (Readers can surmise little of my summer has been like I planned.)

Violin wise, this year I’m not playing with Chamber Project St Louis. I’m pursuing other more traditional chamber music opportunities (sonatas, piano trio, quartet) and hope to have a few performances this year. I’d go more into the reasons why, but it’s not important or professional of me to do so. (I wish them the best.)

Blogging is funny like that, isn’t it? You can’t actually say everything you want to. I’m sure you guys don’t really care, but with some very well read and well known blogs, people get upset when bloggers don’t share everything. The thing is—you just can’t, unless you don’t care about anybody else but yourself. You can share a lot, but there are things that happen in your life that you can’t share every detail of, either because it’s primarily not your business, or perhaps because professional it would be a very bad move, or maybe for potential legal reasons. Does that mean bloggers are liars? Yeah, probably that’s what it is. We are all lying to make you think that life is amazing and when you are feeling upset, you are being RIDICULOUS!

(No, THIS is ridiculous)

It makes blogging a challenge sometimes when things aren’t going as well. Plus, none of us want to be seen as a whiner, right? As much as people don’t think you should be happy all the time, nobody wants to read a blog of somebody who just complains all the time.

Recently a twitter follower asked me how do I decide what to blog about? Well, obviously I don’t make any decisions at all and simply blog about whatever is running through my head at the time. This is why nobody really reads this, which is probably for the best 🙂

Yes, I really do wear those giant glasses when I run. I don’t go fast enough that they catch much air and slow me down.

Cat

Operation Less Fat cat

August 6, 2013 hannahviolin

So I think I mentioned I’ve put my cat on a diet.

Don’t get me wrong. I think she’s adorable and perfect just the way she is. But honestly, she probably could stand to lose a few pounds. So I decided to give her a set amount of food per day and then that’s it.

For the first week she was okay. Since then she has been getting progressively sadder and more whiny about her food. Occasionally I’ve gotten concerned and given her a little bit more (I don’t want her to STARVE just lose weight.) But now she likes to try to get me up even EARLIER in the morning. Last night she barely let me sleep at all—as soon as it was light she was up and slowly moving things around on my nightstand. (She likes to just make a little bit of noise to annoy me but not shock herself by the noise—so she’ll slide my glasses around or move the alarm clock just a little bit.)

I don’t want to shut her out of the bedroom as that will just end with her yelling through the bedroom door or perhaps running up to it and slamming up against it in the hopes of opening it. (Which occasionally works, so it’s always worth a shot.)

I hope that soon she will adjust and enjoy a new svelter figure. It’s a tough battle.

Also I’d love for her to do the same to me. Just set out my food every couple of hours and THAT’S ALL I GET.

What do you think? Does she look slimmer yet? She feels a little bit small around the middle. Think of time she’ll save cleaning!

Random thoughts

Toenail Part the Second

August 5, 2013 hannahviolin 1 Comment

A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far, away, I used to be a runner.

And when I was, long time readers will recall, perhaps reluctantly, that I once lost a big toenail.

What I didn’t mention on my blog was that my OTHER big toenail also had something weird going on with it. It had been partly black, but I was never able to get the nail off. After worrying about it for awhile, I finally decided that I would just give up and ignore it and hope that someday it would be normal again.

Saturday after I showered I happened to look at my toenail (imagine me sprawled out on the couch watching Breaking Bad or How I Met Your Mother on Netflix, and randomly inspecting my toes) and realized that it was loose. I pulled on it and VOILA!

A big part of it came off! BUT underneath…was a brand new nail.

You can see where the toe went together the last time I got a pedicure (badly needed at this time, I apologize)…how cool is that? Now both my big toenails are basically okay! (The side of this one is still a little discolored, but I’m going to continue ignoring it.)

After this I naturally texted these pictures to my best friends. Most people were pretty grossed out (you’re welcome) but my friend Sarah made a meme of it.

Cat

Birthdays

July 26, 2013 hannahviolin 4 Comments

My family has a plethora of summer birthdays. It starts with my dad’s in May, then mine in June, then my brother’s in July quickly followed by my sister Leslie’s, which was yesterday. I was absolutely going to write a blog post wishing her a happy birthday yesterday but I got caught up in other more important things. So today is a blog post wishing her a happy (belated) birthday.

Us, looking all pretty and whatnot.

Leslie recently got a new phone that had the ability to use FaceTime (video chatting over the phone). We were talking on the phone and thought, let’s try it out. This naturally led to her pointing her phone at her cats and me pointing it at mine. Anyone spying on our conversation might have thought that the cats were having a little chat. (Anyone who knows cats would have known that the cats had no idea what was going on, as usual, and were simply busy grooming themselves, and for her cats, each other.)

(You’re saying, wow, GREAT STORY HANNAH. Yes, well, that’s how I roll.)

(One of my friends named Sarah went to New Orleans and brought this voodoo runner guy back for me. I love it!! There’s a bell on the top of his head so that everyone can hear him running.)

I could go on more about how adorable her cats are, but I suppose I MIGHT already talk about cats too much here.

Speaking of…I’ve decided to put the cat on a diet. My friend Karen’s cat successfully lost quite a lot of weight (I want to say 5 to 8 pounds but I’m just guessing) and she looks and acts really great. I figured the fatness could probably stand to lose a couple of pounds, so, like any responsible cat owner, I did some internet research on caloric needs and how many calories are in her food and that kind of thing, and came up with a plan for her feeding, that isn’t TOO much of a cutback, but just a little. I’m hoping that she will in time lose a few pounds and have a bit svelter figure. I also don’t really want her to be THIN but simply, less overweight. Is that wrong?? I think she’d look great with just a little bit of extra tummy, but less than she has now. I guess we’ll see how it goes. So far I am standing strong and I believe that she is doing okay.

Wouldn’t it be great if we could diet the same way? I want somebody to figure out my caloric needs and set out my food a couple times a day, and that’s it—when I’m done eating it, I’m done, and if I whine too much, just pat me on the head and under the chin a lot. Of course this is assuming that I’d be trapped in a small house with no means of escape and no ability to get any food for myself, and on occasion I would be able to eat a few delicious bugs.

I know. You’re saying, what are you even talking about Hannah? But people said, hey, just blog. It doesn’t have to be ABOUT anything, so that’s what I’m doing. I’m just writing. It’s a blog about nothing?

Have you ever put your cat on a diet? Suggestions? Moral support?

And again, happy belated birthday to Leslie!

Cat, Chicago

Lots of Good Things

July 24, 2013 hannahviolin 3 Comments

When we were younger, we’d often bug my mom as to what she was making for dinner. Sometimes this would be a leftover meal, and she’d tell us “lots of good things.” This was not always the truth…(sorry Mom!)

Anyway.

Cats, Chicago, whatnot.

Chicago: visited my friend Karen over the weekend. She plays with the Grant Park Orchestra during the summer.

The cat made it challenging to pack for my trip.

Where the orchestra performs (at Millennium Park.) Such a cool pavilion.

Mainly when you take pictures of the Bean, you are just taking pictures of people taking pictures. I wonder if back before cameras people simply looked at things and didn’t always pose. What does this say for us as a society? Have we evolved, or are we no longer enjoying things as they are, but simply as photo ops? As a blogger who likes to take pictures, I realize I’m part of the problem.