Category Archives: Cat

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…

Cat, Random thoughts

Power Outage

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After I did a few things yesterday (errands and an airport run for a friend), I decided I wanted to be lazy (continue being) and watch TV and maybe a movie, all night long. 

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While I was watching I could hear a big storm coming through, but I didn’t think anything of it—I was safe and cozy in my home…until the power went out.

NOOOOOOOOOOO!

Step one: locate candles and flashlight.  Step two: go out to car to charge phone and bit more.  Step three: Annoy people on twitter?

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A picture of the houses in the area from my car. You can how dark it is 😉

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After about 2 1/2 hours the power did come back on, luckily.  I’m more accustomed to extensive power outages, OR power outages where you can’t run water either (at my parents’ house if you lose power, you lose water too because it is from a well, so you get ONE flush. Use it wisely—) so this really wasn’t a big deal at all. And I started rereading the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.

Do you guys remember or were you affected by the big power outage in the fall of 2003? I was just moving back to Cleveland, caravaning with my sister Leslie when the power went out. Things that suck: trying to move into a new apartment when there is no electricity or food, and all of the stores and restaurants have shut down because they have to power. We spent the night eating dry “Honey Bunches of Oats” and sweating from lack of fans and having to share one bed since that was all that we could manage to set up in the dark with just a flashlight.

The next day wasn’t much better—some restaurants were open so we were able to eat, but the restaurant didn’t have fountain Diet Coke! It was a nightmare.

We did finally get our power back on a few days later and in retrospect it was a wonderful adventure. Considering that the day I moved to Charlotte was September 11, 2001, the great Northeast Blackout of 2003 was really no big deal. I think the day we moved to St Louis was really uneventful in comparison though—the key is to have a day that doesn’t have a Wikipedia entry on it (the best I can find is it was the day Barack Obama was officially nominated for the Democratic Candidate for President, but that was a fairly foregone conclusion at that point anyway…). And I’m cheating a bit—my move to Charlotte was a multi day process—one day I moved from Cleveland to my parents house, then from there to Charlotte, and I made more than one trip. 

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My sister sent this picture of her new kitty, Catalunya. I wanted to just share it randomly.  I don’t know how her little body is able to support that head…

Were you affected by the blackout in 2003? I probably wouldn’t remember it so strongly if I hadn’t also been moving at the same time.

Cat

Fat Kitty

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My last student tonight told me that he had been without internet for about a week, so if anything super exciting had happened on my blog, he’d have missed it.  Adam, this is for you.  Actually I lied.  This is for everyone.  This is my favorite cat video ever.

I even told Mike he had to check it out and Mike is not a cat person (it was the working out bit that I thought would appeal…).  He asked, how do you FIND this stuff?  The answer is:  I don’t.  It finds me–people tend to share cat videos with me (they’ve learned that I enjoy them.)

I haven’t been responding to my comments lately.  Let me tell you: each and every comment is appreciated.  If you are on my home page, to comment just click on the title and that will bring you to a post with a comment form at the bottom.  I’d love to have a way to have people be able to comment on each post from the home page, but I’ll figure that out at some point (or hey, can anybody help?)  But I’ve gotten some really sweet comments from people and let me tell you: it means a lot to me.

Also cat videos.  They always help!

 

 

Auditions, Cat

Post Audition Stress Disorder

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I feel like I’m going through post-audition stress disorder.  It’s where you feel like everything you’ve been doing is all wrong and that you are a complete loser and you might as well find a new career.  That switches between, oh, hey, I’ll be great, and I can’t wait for the next audition and I just need to work a little bit harder…and then you think, how can I possibly do that, I’m so exhausted, I’ve never been in better shape and really, everybody can just bite me. 

I thought after the audition I’d be back to my normal self, but I’m still just so behind on everything and I feel like I’m walking around in a fog half the time. 

I’m sure it’ll pass soon.  What do you guys do when you’re in a funk and you feel like a failure? Or worse, you feel like this is just as good as it’s going to get career wise…

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The Book of Mormon was awesome last weekend. Definitely worth missing the Oscars for 😉

Then I spent a day just documenting my cat’s activities all day long.  Well, I also did other stuff that day, but every time I saw her…(from the moment I woke up to when I went to bed)…

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I can’t say I’m not jealous.

Cat, Running

Pictures of my cat and some blabbing about 80’s themed races and other stuff too

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Quick reader poll:  do you read my blog FOR the cat pictures, or DESPITE the cat pictures?

(note: I will not change anything based on this poll. please respond in the comments)

The other day the cat spent all day on the bed.  Yesterday she spent all day on the couch.  Today it’s the bed again.

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I had a workout with Mike today.  We are all (well, Jen, Mike, and I) getting excited about the Benton Park 80’s 5K, this year on June 1. 

We’ve run it two years in a row and are shooting for the third year.  (first year, second year, well worth checking out for the pictures)

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I’m hoping Chris will run and some other people (local readers come on out, and of course it’s totally worth flying in for as well, ROSE…) too.  This means we have to do a couple of important things:

1) Start thinking about costumes, of course

2) Get Mike, to perhaps win this year rather than coming in second again to the same guy.  We brainstormed ideas that might improve his time and help him win: great ideas, like, speed work and dropping weight, or “taking care of” the previous winner Tonya Harding style, or perhaps just showing up for the race slightly less hungover…all valid ideas at this point.  (except that second one.) Also helpful, mantras like “second place is the first loser”…also I’m trying to get other fast people to run to really put the heat on him. 

The good news is that I’ve run TWICE this week, approximately 2 miles each time and the second run was far better than the first.  Mike suggested I try for 3 to 4 miles since, after all, I was able to run a half marathon just over a month ago and I should be able to do more than that.  You’d think. 

Thoughts after the other day’s post.  I’m trying not to let negative thoughts get me down.  Let’s just put February behind us and try again, shall we?

Cat, Food

Sunday Night thoughts (mainly about cats)

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Today was the first day I wasn’t filled with time and schedule panic.  I slept in and I have already practiced several hours, along with having watched last week’s two hour Downton Abbey and spending plenty of time chatting with my friends on twitter.  (I lead a full, rich life.)  And here I am, blogging.  CRAZY.

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I’m starting to feel like this guy.  Just a fat blob, resting on the couch.  It’s cool though.  She’s pretty freaking adorable, so if I’m half that cute, I’m still okay, I think.

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(checking out the lovely flower arrangement Chris brought home)

Oh, and Happy (belated) Valentine’s Day to everybody.  We wanted to go out to eat (I know, surprise, us, going out to eat, that’s CRAZY) but we wanted to go somewhere new, so we went to Harvest.  Valentine’s Day is never the best night to go out to dinner, because it’s so ROMANTIC and the service was slow and the menu was a required prix fix menu, but the food was pretty good.  Chris was sad because they ran out of the dessert he wanted (goat cheesecake) but overall we enjoyed our meal.  We’ll probably go back and try the regular menu sometime, so that’s a good recommendation. 

I left my blogging hat at home and didn’t take any food pictures, but I believe Chris had the short ribs and I had something called the “duck reuben” which was really tasty.  Everybody told us to try the bread pudding, that it was to die for, and it was very good, though…I don’t know that it was my favorite.  It was weird because it was obviously made with the same bread that they had served on the table so it felt like I had already had it.  Though the caramel sauce was delicious.

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(my true valentine)

Even though generally we will sit in the same house for hours without talking, I’m always pretty proud of our ability to carry on a good conversation in public 😉  Is that weird?  When we were in Paris, we ate (very early) at a restaurant with only one other couple there at the time, and they weren’t talking.  It was totally weird!  We felt STRANGE having a conversation when they were just sitting there all disgruntled and awkward.  To be fair, lots of people were talking at Harvest and there were lots of awkwardly dressed couples which made for excellent people watching. 

I can see the light at the end of the tunnel.  This week is going to be stress city, but I feel fantastic.  No matter what happens on Tuesday in the audition, I know that I sound really good, that I can play the HECK out of my excerpts, and as long as I don’t freak out, I should have a good audition.  The results are irrelevant and out of my hands, but I can control how well I play and how I feel, and that’s my main goal.  I’ve done the prep (and a bit more left to do, but I KNOW everything really well) and all that’s left is to perform.  I’m ready to get back to real life as well, but I’m trying not to think like that.

Oh, and Friday night at 7 pm I’m performing with Chamber Project St Louis at the St Louis Art Museum.  Come out and see me play!

Oh, and my sister Leslie and her husband got a new kitten.  I’m totally jealous and trying to lobby Chris to let me get a new kitten (or dozen).  So far he is pretty convinced that it’s not the greatest idea at this time, but I bet I can wear him down.