Happy Monday, dear readers.  I trust you all had wonderful weekends to relax and prepare for the upcoming week.  I don’t know about you all but I feel like I’m on vacation already, even though I do have a couple more days of teaching and a concert to play tonight.

Saturday I went to Dressel’s with Melissa and then to a concert at the Tavern of Fine Arts.  It was an early music concert, which isn’t really my thing, but man, the instruments sure are gorgeous.  The group, called Such Sweete Melodie, was very good though, so the concert was enjoyable.

You can see the man playing the theorbo in the background—it’s the really long guitar like instrument.  I think it’s a funny word.

And this is called a virginal.  It’s similar to a harpsichord.  AMAZING looking.  (I know you’re all snickering.  I’m pretending I’m mature, okay?)

Sunday we went to our friend Vanessa’s house for a brisket dinner.  Russell, her fiancé, spent days making the brisket.  It was well worth it, I’d say.

We realized there was quite the collection of symphony “one-year” musicians so I tried to get a picture.  This is actually the best one of a series of about six that I took. 

Brisket, chili mac and cheese (homemade chili over what the Canadians call “Kraft dinner”) and coleslaw.  YUM.  Russell is a genius.

This morning I had a workout with Mike at the gym.  Front squats, back squats, straight leg dead lifts, leg press, and back extensions.  When I returned to my car I saw this.

Somebody was trying to kill me!  Did you ever play Mario Kart?  I couldn’t stop laughing at this. (In Mario Kart, you can toss a banana peel at another player and they will skid off the road.  In reality, banana peels do not make cars do this, no matter how tempting it would be when somebody is tailgating.)

Leslie and Peter get back from their honeymoon soon, and I was thinking about them this morning.  I haven’t spoken to Leslie since she left (obviously) and I am excited to hear all about their travels!  Anyway, I was reflecting on their wedding a bit more, and I thought it would fun to post my toast—well, at least what I planned to say since in the moment I improvised a bit.  I also got some nice pictures from my Aunt Connie and thought I’d share a few—also some are my Mom’s…hope you ladies don’t mind I borrowed some pictures! (really, this is for Leslie who I’m sure will be eagerly catching up on my blog when she returns.)

The Girls!  and Carrie.

We are definitely wearing more makeup and have fancier hair than we should for those outfits.  Is something going on?

Look at those EYELASHES!

Chatting with the groom right before the first look pictures were to be taken.  Carrie is awkwardly carrying a few things.  Staying true to her name at least?

Sometimes nature is just the best, huh?  Though I’m pretty sure this was manmade, it still counts as nature, I think.

My Aunt Connie and my Mom.  My mother had a fall on a hike the day before—yet still standing strong.  Hard core, right?

The mariachi band was serenading us but evidently we were too preoccupied with our ceviche and guacamole to notice.

Okay, I promised you guys my toast.  I went last, and while I waiting for the three men to do their toasts before me Carrie and I decided I definitely should do a binders of women joke, so I led with something about how originally Peter was going to have only those three men speak (fathers of bride and groom, best man) but Leslie gave him binders of women who would be qualified and they chose me.  People laughed.  It was very topical 😉

Hi everybody! I’m Leslie’s older sister, Hannah. Leslie was my maid of honor back in January when I married my now husband, Chris (wave) so I guess she figured she owed me…and by owed me I mean wanted to get her investment back—I kept track of how many dollars she spent on me and have made sure to pay that much plus inflation.

I’ve been looking forward to her wedding ever since my own back in January. I tend to think of my wedding as the event of the year, so I guess this is the second event of the year? Or maybe the event of the school calendar year?

But seriously, as the oldest sister, I had to do a lot of things first growing up and then Leslie would follow after me, usually about six months later. Even though she’s three YEARS younger…yes, yes, I know. Hard to believe. In fact if I hadn’t told you I’m sure you’d think she was the oldest, am I right?

Like I said though, I had to do a lot of things first and then Leslie followed behind. I started playing the violin—she copied me about six months later—to be fair this was more our mother’s decision than anything, but still. Then I remember when wearing those white keds were all the range and all the kids wanted them. I begged and begged, and finally my mom broke down and bought me a pair—I believe they were the off-brand, but nonetheless good enough to be quasi-cool…and then bought Leslie a pair shortly afterwards. I also recall begging for permission to shave my legs, and then about six months later Leslie started shaving too. Either I REALLY needed to shave long before or she really was a very hairy young lady!

I guess that’s part of being the oldest sister—breaking down barriers and then making things easier for the younger generation. Carrie probably was born shaving and might be getting married next month, for all we know, but I’ll save my toast to her until then… It’s a lot of pressure sometime though, knowing everything I do, Leslie will copy shortly after wards! I’m still waiting for her to catch up to my height and shoe size.

I suppose Leslie did a few things first. She started getting into running before me, and I guess I might even say she inspired me to sign up for my first marathon in the spring, since she is going to run it too—but then again, after we’ve spent the last two years planning weddings, we’re going to need SOMETHING to do. And she was a maid of honor before I was too, and she set the bar pretty high for her toast. She also moved farthest away from South Carolina first, as evidenced by how far we all had to fly to get here—and growing up we both always figured the farthest from the south that we were the better off. No offense to Mom and Dad of course— (wink)

Nonetheless, we are all here tonight to not only laugh and make fun of the bride and groom, but to wish them a lifetime of joy and to show our support for their union…or at least to eat tacos and cupcakes on their dime! Let’s raise our glasses to Leslie and Peter and wish them the best, today and forever!

I thought this was a fun post last time, so here we go again. 

Yesterday:

9:15 Woke up

9:45 Downstairs, coffee, oatmeal, checking email, facebook, twitter, etc.

10:00 Wrote yesterday’s blog post

10:30 Washed dishes

10:40 More emails

10:50 Foam rolled

11:00 Practiced violin, tried to stay calm and relaxed about tonight’s concert and NOT PANIC OVER SOME OF THE SHIFTS THAT I KEEP FAILING AT.

11:50 Practice break

12:00 Got sucked into this article about the Williams-Sonoma catalog

12:20 Sent out Thanksgiving messages to people attending our Thanksgiving telling them when to show up and reminding them what to bring. 

12:30 Practiced more.  Spot practice.

12:55 Shower and get dressed.

1:30 Make sandwich for dinner, heat up leftover pasta for lunch.  Eat.  Read other blogs.

2:00 Dry hair/do makeup/take videos of the cat

2:15 Practice violin

3:00 Leave for teaching

3:35 Arrive at the school, set up my room, tuned, mental preparation for teaching.

4:00 Teach

5:30 Change for the concert

5:40 Drive to the concert—Chamber Project St Louis at the Schlafly Tap Room.

6:30 Arrive at the venue.  Short warm up

7:10 Concert starts.  I am on the second piece.  After I played it was intermission, then another half which I watched.  I didn’t keep track of the exact times, but I did lots of chatting and schmoozing with everybody there—we had a great crowd!

8:30 Downstairs for dinner.  Mahi Mahi Tacos.  And had a few bites of some Sticky Toffee Pudding for dessert.

10:00 Moved across the restaurant to the pool and darts area. 

11:30 Went home.  Went to bed.

So there you have it.  Another day in my life.  I never know what to do with the tenses when I write these things.  Past tense?  Present tense?  Should I be doing some sort of futuristic tense?

I haven’t bitten my fingernails since October 18.  I went with my sister Leslie to get mani/pedis before her wedding, and I decided to get a manicure even though my nails were gross and really short.  Once I had the manicure I couldn’t bite them—they looked so pretty!

Apologies for the blurry picture.  And we’ll tackle not chewing on that index finger at a later date—yes, indeed, that callous you see is from me chewing on it.  Like I said, later date.

Since then I haven’t bitten my nails.  Two or three weeks ago I had to remove the pink polish because it was looking awful.  I considered getting another manicure but decided not to spend the money.  I considered painting my nails myself but I knew that would look bad and defeat the purpose.  So I just kept trimming my left hand nails (I need them really short for the violin) and letting my right hand nails grow  a bit more.  I just remind myself that I don’t bite my nails anymore.  I constantly remind myself of this. 

(I had fake nails put on for my wedding day…they looked great!)

I’ll catch myself with a nail in my mouth, particularly when driving—that is my most vulnerable time.  People have all kinds of suggestions, but it boils down to this:  you can quit biting your fingernails using the same technique you can use to quit anything else.

1.  Decide to quit.

2. Continue not doing it.

Like any bad habit you want to quit, the key is in number one:  deciding to quit.  You have to really want it.  You can’t do it for somebody else, you have to do it for you, and decide whatever it takes, you will quit.

I’m there with my nails.  I’m tired of being ashamed of my hands.  I know it’s taken a long time to get here, but I’m ready.

Look at that white bit at the end of my nails!  CRAZY. 

Yesterday I was pretty stressed out and my nails looked really tempting.  I fought through and ended up not biting them.  I felt pretty accomplished by the end of the day too!  See, you can quit a bad habit AND pat yourself on the back about it. 

Have you ever been successful at quitting a bad habit?  How did you accomplish it?

(Note to readers:  it’s been less than a month for me so I’d hardly consider this a surefire success, but I’m feeling good about it.)