All posts by hannahviolin

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

Cats and Workouts

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Like I’ve said before, my two favourite things! (What.  I’ve been watching a lot of Downton Abbey, so favourite is correct, correct?)

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Cats: 

Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you probably heard that the newest Monopoly token is the cat, and the iron is NO MORE.  My first thought was, who is buying Monopoly anymore?  Doesn’t everybody already have a set that needs one? 

I mean, we don’t own one because Chris and I are definitely not allowed to play Monopoly (there was an unfortunate incident in late 1999/early 2000 and since then we have banned ourselves)…but my parents have a game so if we siblings ever feel like we are getting along too well or starting to feel genuine affection for each other…we can always play a game. 

Pro tip:  try to be banker.  If not, just bully your sisters into a variety of ridiculous trades by playing on their emotional attachment to the pink, purple and blue properties.  (I’m looking at you, Jesse.  Plus I know you had to be stealing from the bank, right?  Surely we just weren’t that bad at the game?)

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Workouts: 

I’m BACK to the gym and it feels fantastic.  For instance, yesterday was pull ups, dead lifts, shoulder press, rows, push ups, and something else that I don’t know the name for. 

Running…I need to get my act together, but I can’t just yet.  I’m prioritizing and the audition comes first.  Everything else is secondary until after that.  Plus I’m mad at running because it did this to me.  I was thinking I was all hard core and awesome…but really I just feel pretty gross and I’m ashamed.

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Not too ashamed to share here…but still.  That belonged to a toe, you guys.  YOU GUYS.  I painted my toenails the day before I realized it needed to go.  Don’t worry, I’m not posting any pictures of my toe, sans nail.  If you really want one, ask, I’ll email you.

What else is new?  I’ve got some giveaways happening here on the blog:  slippers, a PDF book, and an entry for a Fitness event at Wash U.  I’d recommend entering, it costs nothing…

P.S. I’m ridiculously sore and having trouble walking from the deadlifts yesterday.  YES.

Giveaways

Primal, a book by D.A. Serra

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Book Review and Giveaway:

PRIMAL by D.A. Serra (screenplay originally purchased by James Cameron)

The most dangerous place on Earth is between a mother and her child…

With everything at stake – what are you capable of? What if the worst happens and you’re not a policeman, a soldier, or a spy with weapons training and an iron heart? What if you’re a schoolteacher – a mom? In this gritty crime thriller a family vacation takes a vicious turn when a fishing camp is invaded by four armed men. With nothing except her brains, her will, and the element of surprise on her side, Alison must learn to kill or watch her family die.

And then, things get worse.

I read the book (received a copy for free in exchange for this review and participation in the “tour“, with no obligation for a positive review though)—I thought it was very entertaining.  I had thought the book would be primarily about the crime, but it was also about the aftermath…though as it turns out, the aftermath of the crime only led to further the story.  It was decently written and fast-paced, though the author is very prone to arbitrary dramatic statements…

In any case, it’s a page turner and you might be surprised by the ending!  I would give it 4 out of 5 stars.  And a side note:  James Cameron!  (Titanic!)

About D. A. Serra:

Deborah Serra was a screenwriter for twenty years and recognized by the Writer’s Guild for her long term continuous employment. She has written ten TV movies, four feature films, and numerous TV episodes including two years as a staff writer for NBC.  She worked for top producers, directors, and actors.  She has taught writing at the University of California, San Diego, Wofford College and at writers’ conferences nationwide.  Serra has now turned her attention to novels, and she was honored as a recent recipient of the prestigious Hawthornden Literary Fellowship, and as a semi-finalist for the William Faulkner-William Wisdom Creative Writing Award given by the Faulkner Society in New Orleans, LA.

Do you want to win a free PDF of the novel?  One winner will be chosen at random:  leave a comment below and I’ll pick somebody on Saturday, February 16, will close at 11 pm CST.  Worldwide! (Giveaway closed)

Giveaways

Celebrate Fitness!

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You all know I’m obsessed with fitness and cats, right?  (Well, at least cats.) But I like running (well…not as of late, but that’s due to being sick and extremely lazy) and working out (especially lifting weights and ANYTHING weight lifting that you do lying down is my favorite…I’m working out…and I’m lying down!).

My friend and fellow blogger Katie from Mom’s Little Running Buddy runs an event called Celebrate Fitness on March 9th of this year.  She told us about it in the St Louis Bloggers Group I belong to and asked if anyone was interested in giving away a free entry.  I jumped on the chance, because I thought some of you might be interested– There’s a race, but there’s so much MORE than just a race—there’s all kinds of other workouts you can do, and it would be a really fun event for families or group of friends!

(all pictures courtesy of Katie.)

I originally thought I’d be able to do it (I’d love to run the 10k with Chris! but it looks like I’m working that morning after all…) but I think you should all participate.

Have any readers done this event in the past?

Okay, here’s all the basic information you need to know:

Date: March 9th, 2013

Location: Washington University Athletic Complex

Registration Fee:

  • $30
  • Junior Registration for ages 13 – 19 = $20
  • Day of Registration = $35; Junior $25

Time:

  • 7:00 – 8:00 Check in
  • 8:00 – Opening Ceremonies
  • 8:30 – Run and workout

Event Options:

  • 10K Competitive Run
  • 5K competitive Run
  • 5K Walk
  • 1Mile Fun Walk
  • Boot Camp
  • Water Aerobics –Shallow
  • Water Aerobics – Deep
  • Yoga
  • Zumba

See the registration form for more details.

Participants get to choose between a shirt and a goodie bag.  Katie tells me the goodie bags are filled with great stuff and that that is one of her favorite parts of the event.  I have tons of shirts, so if I were able to sign up for this, that’s what I’d want!

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Katie has been generous enough to offer you guys a chance to win a free paid entry to Celebrate Fitness (Another blogger in the group, Angie, is also running a contest, so go over there and enter to double your chances to win!)  The winner will be notified by email after the contest ends so be sure to use a valid address you check. Contest runs through 11 pm CST on February 16.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Performing

The Ballad of Baby Doe

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This weekend I’m performing in the orchestra for Winter Opera St Louis‘s performances of The Ballad of Baby Doe by Douglas Moore.  We perform  Friday at 8 pm, Sunday at 3 pm, Chaminade Preparatory School.  It’s the regional premiere!

We started rehearsing yesterday.  The way this works is that we have a few orchestra only rehearsals (in this case, 1 or 2) and then a couple dress rehearsals and then BOOM it’s performance time.  The singers have been rehearsing for a couple weeks, because they have to have their parts memorized and of course there is staging and costumes and everything on their end.  We just have to hide below the front of the stage and read our parts and stay with the conductor, much easier, really!

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I play as concertmaster which means I’m the first chair, first violin.  For this performance there are only five total violins so that’s not really that impressive 😉  But it’s my job to help lead the orchestra and interpret what the conductor is saying and all that.

And occasionally play solos—last night in the second rehearsal there was a solo that I totally forgot to play.  We were rehearsing one of the arias with the singers and I was just listening (I think) and zoned out, and Steve, the conductor, turned to me, and said, um, you should be playing your solo right now.  It was only about four measures long…and I just missed it entirely.  Oops!  I appreciate that he knows me well enough to know he didn’t need to worry about it, and he didn’t stop or anything.  I’ll get it next time for sure.

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(I thought it was important for me to wear as many grey sweaters in this post as possible.)

So that makes for a busy week.  Some weeks I have tons of free time, and other weeks are filled with extra opera rehearsals and practicing (NOT for the opera, for that other thing.)

How was your weekend?  I hear there was some sort of football type sporting event people watched during my rehearsal yesterday?

Hope

Inspirational Photos

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I realized that I’ve been a pretty light blogger in terms of posts lately.  Maybe you are okay with that—maybe it’s better if I don’t blog as often.  But honestly, I’ve just been sick, and thanks to a suggestion on my post the other day (Hi Dad!) I’ve decided not to sweat the small stuff and PRIORITIZE. 

That means I only care about the audition.  The rest of the stuff, whatever.  No offense Opera or CPSTL, but you’ll be fine.  Other things I’ve learned in the past two days:  taking about a week off practicing is evidently just not that big of a deal.  (Not good things to know, and any students reading this, um, that’s for when you’ve been playing for a really long time like me!)  I didn’t even feel like I’d backtracked.  So while I’ve lost approximately a week of forward progress, I’m not also making up for backwards progress. 

The good news is that I’m not sick of all the audition music yet.  Usually by this point I’d be both hating my life and hating the music.  Now it’s still fresh and I’m not totally burned out yet.  Maybe this is brilliant and okay!

Oh, and I did make time earlier in the week to do a variety of “inspirational” photos.  I get so sick and tired of seeing these posted on facebook and other websites…to be fair I was still really sick that morning so it doesn’t count as failing at time management 😉

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The idea came to me during a twitter conversation…anyway you can see this is brilliant.

So then people started making requests. 

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Send me a picture of you, I’ll make it “inspirational!”

Go enter my two giveaways.  Slippers and Pain Relief Cream! 

Have a great weekend!  What are you doing for the SuperBowl?  I have a double opera rehearsal!  You can argue that I detest football, but that doesn’t mean I don’t love a good SuperBowl party, or any occasion for make unhealthy dips and chili.  Oh well.  Worky work!

Cat, Random thoughts

Back to Work

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It occurred to me this afternoon that maybe I’ve had the flu this whole time.  I wanted to practice this afternoon, but after about ten minutes of struggling, I realized I was UTTERLY EXHAUSTED and was missing shifts and really the whole exercise was pointless.  So I listened to some recordings instead and lay on the couch and rested up for my Tuesday afternoon teaching.

I asked Chris if he thought I was just turning into a cat and he told me that despite how much he knows I want that, it was highly unlikely.

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Nonetheless.  I’m trying to convince myself that one week of not practicing is not going to entirely derail several previous great weeks of practicing, so this is just a minor setback.  Flu or not flu, this was a nasty bit of something, and I’ve still got a bad cough.  I’m hoping that tomorrow I’ll have a bit more energy…or failing that, Thursday!  It will be fine. 

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This is one of those blog posts where I just had a few things I wanted to say so I’m supplementing with cat pictures. 

Have you guys seen Homeland?  We’ve been watching it on-demand.  We’re on the second season and it’s really good!  I recommend you check it out if you haven’t seen it.  Very well done and thought provoking, and I really like the haircut of the character played by Claire Danes.  I think maybe I need more layers in my haircut next time?

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My last haircut…what do you guys think?

Not the blonde—or should I do that too?  It’d be very St. Louis 😉

Okay, really, not the blonde, but some more layers?  My hair feels boring all of a sudden.  This is how I think–we were watching some really intense scenes from Homeland and then I turned to Chris and said, Hey honey, how do you think I’d look with her haircut? 

My husband thinks I’m a crazy person.  I’m pretty sure of that.  He also said, sure, why not?

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Red pants, purple shoes? I wanted to wear purple shoes and I thought I saw somewhere that red and purple matched.  I think I need a “fashion” page on the blog, don’t I?

storms

We had some crazy “spring” storms today!  I was happy to make it home from work safely tonight.  There was a lot of rain and water on the ground, and various tornado watches and warnings all afternoon and evening.  I guess it’s supposed to be cold again tomorrow.  What a crazy winter we’ve had!

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