All posts by hannahviolin

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

Time to hustle

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I spent all weekend judging students for a local music festival.  Yesterday it was 8 hours and today was 4. I’m exhausted, and if I never have to write a comment again I’ll be happy. (I had to judge on a scale from 1 to 5 and give good and constructive comments.) It was neat to see so many students play, and I got to see some really great performances. And some not-as-great performances, but every student deserves accolades for putting forth the effort and giving it their best shot.

Then it was time for a run (the weather today is amazing) and then I finished our taxes. A whole day early!  It’s a lot less stressful running when you don’t have a looming half marathon. Weird, right?

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My room for the weekend. I was showing off my purple Toms.IMG_5938

The fatness hates when I’m gone too long and she refused to look at me when I got home last night.

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The weather today was insanely beautiful. I’m glad I was able to get a run in—it’s warm and windy, and just amazing outside. I wish it could stay like this all summer.

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Lunch both days was catered by Panera. I do love their sandwiches, and I’ve discovered a new love: their peanut butter cookies. Actually, that’s not really a new love. I rarely meet a peanut butter cookie I don’t like. I’m so thankful that I don’t have a peanut allergy! One of my friends does and I feel sad for her.

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I think I look funny wearing eye makeup to go run. But what do you do? I figure I’ll wash it off after when I shower. Plus it’s important to look pretty whilst running so more people honk and yell, right? Even though I like to leave a zit showing…evidently…

Things to do tomorrow: run again. Write my Go race recap—I am planning to write about my abject failure as a person and runner, and my lack of goal reaching and training and all of that. I’ve run more this week than in the 8 weeks leading up to the race. What does that tell you about me?

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Fat cat wishes she had been judging the students. She loves to judge.

Our concert Friday went well. It was really well attended and a great end to the season. I am often torn about Chamber Project St Louis, because I play with them quite a bit, and always tell you guys about it, and wish them well, but I am not actually part of the group. It’s occasionally an awkward situation. I do bring a lot to the group, and will likely continue to play with them in the future, but it’s weird sometimes, promoting a group that I’m not actually a member of.

I want people to come see me play with whomever I am performing. I guess that’s what I’m trying to say. And I love performing.

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Oh, and my biggest news, that I have known for awhile but haven’t been allowed to tell. The school I teach at is closing in the beginning of June. I’ve given it a lot of thought, and I’ve decided that I’m going totally private for my teaching. I’ll be taking as many students at my house as I can, and that’s a big step for me—I’ve always been afraid if I go completely private that I won’t have enough students, so I always chicken out and take a (lower-paying but more secure) school job.

While it will likely take a year or more before I’m back where I was, I think in the long run it’s the best move, and I’ll have more time AND more money, and more freedom. Freelancing is a tough business, and I’m going to have to hustle a bit more in the upcoming months, but I’ll get to where I want to be.

I’ve enjoyed my work at my current school though and I have some wonderful students. I love the high level of musicality we are encouraged to achieve with our studios, and the level of respect we all have for one another. I’ll miss many aspects of the job.

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But I am looking forward to my new challenges AND already have some wonderful projects and ideas lined up. I spent the other day rehearsing a Brahms Sonata with a wonderful friend and pianist that we are playing at the Ethical Society in June, and on a full recital in the fall. We are also in talks to create a piano trio. In the past weeks I’ve realized I’m tired of playing the victim (it’s a rare role I take on, but I was doing a bit of wallowing in self-pity) and needed to get off my butt and make my life happen for me. That’s where I am right now, and I have tons of ideas!

This blog post took a little turn, honestly, I was just going to complain about being tired, but ended up spilling my guts (ha! not really) about my career. One thing I’m pretty good at is being flexible and constantly recreating myself…so this is just another chance to do the same. And I might have more time to write too 🙂

Random thoughts

Tornadoes

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Last night was scary. I was teaching at the school, in Creve Couer, and the tornado sirens went off. My room doesn’t have any windows (and the school doesn’t have a basement) so we just kept going, but then the sirens went off again (I think), the lights were flickering, and the rain was awful sounding on the roof, so we all quit teaching and moved into a room more in the middle of the building. We didn’t really know what to do. It was me, two other teachers, our students and their moms. We waited about twenty minutes until the storm subsided. What a night!

It turned out that tornadoes did touch down in Hazelwood (near the airport in St Louis) and there were rumors in other areas, but I guess that was just strong winds? I don’t get scared too often, but I was scared then. I feel like the storms just keep getting worse, or maybe I’m just not from here enough…I dunno.

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I’ll just say it was really nice to get home after work and be safe and sound in my home, with Chris and the fatness. Even though she’s judging me in this picture.

I was eating dinner while watching Psych. There was a scene in the episode where the string quartet playing at a wedding suddenly pulls out guns and shoots the “bad guys”. Note to readers: when I play for a wedding I am unarmed.

Speaking of, I’ve been booking a few more weddings lately. I do love playing for weddings—if you are in the area and need a group of strings or a violinist, don’t hesitate to contact me! I’m also accepting new violin students.

And tomorrow night is the Chamber Project St Louis concert! Ticket sales are going well—but there are still tickets available!

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Wish me luck!

And yes, I will tell you about the race the other week soon. It’ll be phenomenal.

Random thoughts

Shameless self promotion and I ran over a tree

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I was interviewed for an online magazine called Regale and I realized I forgot to tell you!

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Screen grab of one of the pages—I cut off some of the bloggers who were interviewed in the interest of time—starts on page 42 here.

This morning Sarah Crowder (my wedding photographer, collaborator, and friend) stopped by with a surprise thank you gift for some things I’ve helped her with.  Metal pictures that are ready for the wall!

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I’d been wanting that black and white one for awhile, and the other one is awesome too. Except my husband now has a full beard…this doesn’t do the pictures justice of course, but they are super shiny and wonderful!  Thanks Sarah!!

Seriously love this photo.

And that’s the other one. Sigh. Where did my arm muscles go?

Sorry, I got distracted by my wedding pictures. Where was I? Oh right, I was going to tell you guys about my car.

So yesterday on the way to the airport I thought I had a flat tire and so I pulled over—it was making a horrific noise that sounded like a flat (and since I had one in the fall, I knew what that sounded like!). Chris came and traded cars so I could get her to the airport (note to readers, he and I can never go on the Amazing Race as we do not deal with stressful situations in a TV-friendly way) and drove mine the shorter distance home. He said it was fine on the drive home, so I was totally confused. I mean, it had sounded horrible!

I knew I needed to get it checked out, so I took it into the shop today, dropped it off and went to the gym (today was upper body day—lots of shoulders and chest—totally bench-pressed the bar PLUS weight which made me feel super hard core). After the gym I expected to have news on what the damage was…I called them back and they said I must have run over a tree. As in, there had been about a 4 foot branch stuck in the undercarriage of my car which was causing all the problems. They pulled it all out, and BOOM it was fixed. I was so thrilled because I was anticipating a much larger problem.

I don’t actually recall driving over a huge branch, but maybe I did. Or maybe it was sabotage.

I guess it’s like they say in Titanic: “Women and machinery don’t mix.”

Running

I didn’t win

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Unfortunately I didn’t win the race on Sunday. Yeah, I know we’re all disappointed. Next time I’ll try running beforehand 😉

I did finish though! And so did Leslie! I’ll tell you more about it later, but I’ve spent the past few hours in tax mode (oh, hey, isn’t that deadline coming up?) so I’m not up for the challenging task of writing a race recap quite yet. I’m also trying to get Leslie to write one, since I feel like hers would be more interesting (flattery…)

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So what do you guys think? This was the pink shirt the race gave out for women. The men got a lovely blue shirt. I’m not saying I don’t like pink, because I do, but I don’t that we got different shirts…I think it’s weird and sets a bad precedent. Thoughts?

Next year I think we should run the Paris Marathon instead. The author of one of the blogs I read ran it this year and though she hasn’t written her recap yet…I think it must be the most amazing race ever. I also love Paris, as you know (and if you haven’t read about my trip you totally should!) and hope that someday I can visit again. Does anyone want to sponsor me and Leslie for the trip? I’d train my BUTT off too, I promise! We’d even pay for our own food if we got our trip and lodging covered!

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Leslie and I were brainstorming other (more practical) ideas for our next race today. Anyone have any suggestions? We’re looking for something that is…a bit flatter perhaps…

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Did anyone catch last night’s Mad Men? I don’t think it’s a spoiler to mention that there was a violinist in a minor storyline. She wanted to go to Juilliard…now here’s the thing about music: there are other schools than Juilliard (well, a few others.) I wonder why no one suggested she try my alma mater, The Cleveland Institute of Music. Sometimes I’m sad that the only school non-musicians seem to know of is Juilliard.

Local readers: this Friday night I’m performing with Chamber Project St Louis—I’m playing on the Schubert and the Schumann, 8 pm at the Chapel. This link will give you all the information you need, and I’d love to see you there! The Chapel is a great place to see a concert because you can dress as casual as you like and you get two drinks (alcohol and non-alcohol options available) during the show.

Running

After this race I’m totally going to start running more often

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My friend Jen commented I hadn’t been blogging as much. I mean, it’s because I’ve been so busy LIVING life, you know?

That’s a joke. You know when bloggers do that, as if it’s so hard to spend a couple of minutes posting a couple of pictures with captions. I understand being too busy, sure, but let’s not pretend that blogging takes a lot of time. It doesn’t.

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Carb loading takes time though. My sister Leslie is in town now to run the Marathon tomorrow (I’m not sure why I capitalized that, but I feel it deserves it) and she wanted to go to St Louis Bread Company, also known as Panera, since they don’t have one in Phoenix.

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Naturally we also went to Taco Bell.  (Nobody appreciates Taco Bell like Leslie.)

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I was thrilled to try the cool ranch Doritos Taco again. I think Taco Bell should sponsor me because I would be an excellent ambassador. IMG_5774

Speaking of things that take time: selfie photo collages.

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So yes, we’ve been drinking a lot of wine and taking self portraits. But today the real work began.

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We had to go to the Expo for the Go St Louis Race–I’m running the half…totally not trained properly but I’m going with determination and the run/walk method to hopefully get me to the finish line before Leslie finishes her race. I’ve been getting back into running this week actually (too little too late but still good for the future)

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And…I decided to register for the RNR race in October. I felt like a real blogger then…signing up for another race at the expo. Plus there was a discount and I got a free tech shirt.

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I’ll show you a picture of the shirt from the race I’m running tomorrow in another post. But I was annoyed—women got a pink shirt and men got a blue one. I don’t like that kind of thing…why must women be pink and men blue?

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Wish us luck tomorrow! Oh, and how do you like my new sunglasses?

Cat, Weather

Winter Fat

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My sister Leslie flies here today! She hasn’t been to St Louis since the wedding…

Monday I met up with a twitter friend who was in town for business. We went to PI on the loop and then to Eclipse at the Moonrise Hotel (I’m too lazy to do links, but you can do a google if you are curious).

We tried to take a selfie of the two of us (that’s a very internet thing to do) but we couldn’t because we both had the same side part and looked ridiculous trying to catch our best angles.

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So I just took this one of her. She wasn’t in love with it but I think it’s cute. I hope she comes back to town again for more work soon and when I am less busy! In fact, I hope all my out of town twitter friends come into town for business. You know, St Louis has a lot of cool things to do. There’s the arch, great restaurants, the symphony, baseball, Forest Park, ME, and lots of road construction!

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The Moonrise has an interesting chair in the lobby.

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So many ways to sit on it! None of them comfortable…

It’s been a beautiful week of weather. Here are some pictures of Tower Grove Park. I took them whilst on a RUN.

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And now I’m off for another run. I’m getting serious about this thing. I have been sitting around long enough. Time to wear out my running shoes.

And lose some of my “winter fat.” Yesterday at my workout Mike pointed out how much stronger I had gotten over the past month—I was shoulder pressing a good ten pounds more than a few weeks ago, no big deal. Plus the dead lifts I mentioned before. And other stuff. I told him it’s because I’d been bulking up, and that under my layer of “winter fat” I was incredibly muscular. He started laughing and said humans didn’t get winter fat, that we aren’t like bears.

He is wrong though. It’s so much easier to go out for a run and eat healthier when it’s warm outside!

Mike is wrong a lot though. He once said that we aren’t dogs and don’t need to reward ourselves with food.

I’d love to see those muscles though! I shall try to maintain that thought when my brain tells me I want to eat cookies or the leftover cheesecake in the fridge…

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Speaking of winter fat…