All posts by hannahviolin

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

Another rainy day

Today I really miss my kindle. I have a few hours to kill between a rehearsal and teaching but I am a bit too far from home to make it worth going there.

That’s another thing you should know about freelance musicians. There is a lot of awkward downtime. I am currently sitting in panera with my violin and a book. Pretty standard. I have spent hours shopping with my violin on my shoulder but I am sore enough from the gym that I didn’t want to deal with that.

We went to Scottish Arms last night to meet with a friend who was visiting. I was the only girl in the group, which was unusual as of late. I used to hang out with a lot more boys than I do now. I guess as an engaged lady it is more appropriate to have lady friends.

I am rehearsing with an ocarina player and a pianist for an online concert next Saturday at 6 pm central. It was great fun! I will try to find the info for those of you who are interested in watching.

On my way to work this morning I drove by some of the tornado damage. Wow. It looks a lot more awful in person. I got chills. How can I be upset over a break in when some people have lost everything? Or am I still in shock? Somebody today asked me, “how are you so calm? Aren’t you angry?” Of course. Of course I am. But what will that accomplish?

Four students and then the gym to run. Four more weeks of school. Four more.

(this should have posted earlier today.  meh)

Random thoughts

Bit the bullet

2 Comments

Okay, so I downloaded Windows Live Writer on Chris’s computer.  I have been seriously depressed the past few days because I had a bunch of pictures I wanted to show you all but couldn’t.  Okay, that’s a bit overkill, but I have been feeling down, and I do love blogging.  I want to blame it on the break in but honestly I was crabby before that.  I guess moods ebb and flow, and mine is ebbing (or flowing) now.

Picture time!

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At the ballpark Saturday.  Seriously my head looks GIGANTIC!

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The boys at the ballpark—notice Chris is on his phone.  This is normal.

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Rain delay.  And my favorite view from the stadium.  As weird and random as the arch is, you always know when you are in St Louis.

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At Easter brunch.  Can you believe the dessert buffet?  And I may have been squatting a little bit in this picture.  I was wearing 4 inch red peep toe heels.

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Getting ready to go work out!  I was PUMPED.  Mike was a downer today though—he was having serious wisdom teeth issues, as in, will need them taken out stat, and evidently was in a lot of pain.  Also he had busted his chin open doing burpees over the weekend.  Basically he was rough, and really probably should have been at the dentist instead of working.  I won’t be surprised if I don’t see him again this week.  Plus, I expect certain standards of entertainment which I just didn’t get…maybe that’s why I’m bummed out.  Then again, maybe I shouldn’t base my moods on how my workouts go, or on how entertaining my trainer is?  Maybe I’m just bummed because it’s actually nice and sunny today and I can’t run because I have to go teach.

Or maybe I’m bummed because somebody broke in and stole my stuff.

Is this one of those things that changes you forever?  I think I was a different person before my car was stolen.  That was one of those things that changed me.

Well, it’s Tuesday afternoon, so let’s keep it light.  On the docket for today:  teaching for over 4 hours, followed by meeting up with a friend from out of town at the Scottish Arms.  Tomorrow is BUSY with teaching and ocarina rehearsal (will explain more later).

Enjoy the sunny day if you are having one!  I’m back blogging as normal though 🙂

Weather

Rain rain go away

The sun was out this morning when I got up, but by the time I had finished breakfast the radar didn’t look good for running.  We had a ton of phone calls to make anyway so I had to go to the gym instead.  Had to call dell to get my serial number (PSA:  write down your laptop computer’s serial number), had to call the police to update the police report with a couple more items I had noticed missing, and had to call the insurance company.

State Farm is my hero.  My agent checked to see if it made sense to make a claim, and it did, so we made the claim.  (Another PSA:  have renter’s insurance.  Mine costs approximately $8 per month.  There is no excuse.)

I haven’t had an insurance claim in some time, but I’ve had two car related ones in the past.  Once my car was stolen–that was a real pain in the butt.  Another time my car flooded (was in a flash flood.)  When I called State Farm to tell them my car was in a flood, they asked “is anybody in the car?”  No.  No, I would likely be calling 911 then instead.

Both times they were quite prompt with their payments.  I remember when the car flooded, State Farm had my car towed away within 24 hours for inspection.  I had the money within a week or two.  I didn’t even have to sing the tune from the commercials (though I gladly would have as I love to sing.)

In any case, evidently the claims department is a bit backed up due to the tornadoes on Friday night.  The author of another blog I read sometimes had a great summary of the carnage.  I can’t believe Chris and I were at dinner, knowing it was storming a bit (the sirens actually WERE going off on my way home from work but I decided the radar was on my side and tried to get ahead of the storm), but completely unaware of the extent of the damage inflicted.  Later than night I heard that tornadoes had hit the airport, but didn’t really believe it until the next morning when I saw the footage.  My understanding is that no one was killed or seriously hurt, miraculously.  I guess everybody heeded the warnings!  It just reminds you that life is most important and that you shouldn’t attach to your belongings that much, I guess.

My landlord has been “improving” the property a bit today.  By that I mean putting some latticing/bars on the back window and a lock for the back yard.  I should probably be more concerned that I am about future break-ins, but I feel that it was a one-off/lightning strike type of occurence and could have happened anywhere (in the city) as it certainly seems that enough of our friends have been affected by similar incidents.  Remember to back up your important computer data also!  Mine is all backed up online and I am SO glad I have that.

Speaking of materialism (haha) I was so excited today to receive our first engagement gift.  It is a cheese plate (with spinner on the bottom) and matching knife, and is from some good friends of Chris’s parents.  It’s VERY italian, and I love it!  Perhaps this (awful) month is about to take a new turn…or maybe May will be better.

Random thoughts

Easter Sunday

I miss my computer.

I miss windows live writer.  It took WAY too long to put this picture up.

Speaking of, how great IS this picture?  Fat cat wine.  My friend Sarah posted it on my facebook wall to try to cheer me up yesterday.

It sort of worked.  I did pretty well until last night when I just broke down.  I was in the middle of a book on my kindle.  BASTARDS stole my stuff.

Today is better.  It’s just stuff.  My computer files are online even.  I can rebuild.  I also think the books I had on my kindle can be moved to a new kindle.  I will find out about insurance tomorrow.

They took my ALARM CLOCK.  Seriously.  Who does that?  Why take a decade old alarm clock that doesn’t even light up anymore?

How glad am I that most of my electronics are super old and crappy?  Evidently nobody wants CD’s anymore–remember when everybody was getting their CD’s stolen from their cars?  Not anymore!

How glad am I that I had my digital camera with me (diligent attempt at blogging) instead of sitting out somewhere?

How glad am I that the thieves didn’t know that instruments are worth money?  Then again, you can’t just get rid of them…you have to know how to do that.  And these people were evidently NOT smart.

Grr.

I may download live writer to this computer, but not yet.  I also will wait to upload some pictures from my real camera, so here’s one from the phone of this morning’s Easter service.

I played mass at St. Theresa’s in Belleville. It was a nice service and we played a rousing Hallelujah Chorus, among other things.

Yesterday:  we got robbed, then we went to the Cardinals game.  They lost.  There was a one hour rain delay.  We sat near some of the most obnoxious men you have ever met.  Basically it sucked.  Oddly one of the trainers at our gym (not my trainer) was sitting right behind us.  Odd.  I guess it’s a small world.

Today:  church gig followed by a fantastic brunch!  We went to Eau at the Chase Park Plaza for a brunch buffet.  Unlimited mimosas (light on the champagne though…), shrimp and crab, eggs, delicious quinoa salad, meats, cheese, bacon, biscuits and gravy, sausage, potatoes, salad, fruits, and a ridiculous dessert table.  I ate a ton.  Now I am attempting to digest.  It was delicious though, and will last me the rest of the day, most likely.

Tonight:  relax, watch a movie.  I’m actually NOT working out today, which is unusual.  In that I haven’t taken a day off in awhile.  Probably for the best.  I’ve gotten used to feeling sore somewhere on my body at all times.  Is that normal?

Tomorrow:  part holiday (no teaching until evening).  Some phone calls to make about the “incident”.  Probably shopping.  Running.  Cleaning?  The CSI guy said I need to dust more often, that it’s too hard to get fingerprints when it’s dusty.  He was just trying to be helpful, but it made me feel terrible.

Then back to work.  It’s almost May.  Concerts are coming up!

Random thoughts

Burgled

4 Comments

Just a quick stop by. We got robbed yesterday. The thieves took my laptop, the Wii, my kindle, my alarm clock (why??) and a bottle of vodka. Luckily that seems to be all (for instance, not the cat or the instruments), but any amount is too much.

I’ll be back to regular blogging soon I’m sure, but right now I don’t have the proper tools set up. Suffice it to say I am pretty pissed off. It seems they got in through a window in the kitchen that I swear was locked, but perhaps a good shove popped them open. The cops were really helpful though. They took down a report and soon I will have my copy of that.

Happy Easter to all who celebrate. I myself am off to play a service. Here’s hoping today goes better than yesterday.

Running

Question of the day

3 Comments

Okay, I’m going to talk briefly about a topic that we don’t generally talk about here on my blog.

Poop.

Evidently this is an issue runners have.  Before going for a run, you want to make sure you have “gone”.  But…if you are really pushing yourself in a race?

{image redacted due to copyright/legal issues and just good moral fiber 😉 but yes it was a picture of a woman who lost control of her bowels on the race}

http://deadspin.com/#!5793292/the-poopiness-of-the-long-distance-runner
http://blog.kropewnicki.com/2011/04/18/caroline-white-leaves-it-all-on-the-boston-marathon/

I originally saw this picture on Skinnyrunner’s blog but then I did a bit of internet research (that I am so known for) and found the above links.  The woman ran a 2:37 marathon on Monday in Boston, qualifying for the A group of the Olympic trials.  Not sure what the A group means, but that sounds pretty good to me.  That’s twice as fast as I can run!

So the question of the day would be:  is making the olympic trials worth the whole world seeing you with poop running down your leg?  (thanks to Leslie for the wording).

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