1.  If you like discounts and/or FREE books, check out my previous posts:

Win a free book (contest for a free book, ends tonight!)

This and That (scroll down for a makeup/hair care discount and a discount on CAFFEINATED BAKED GOODS.)

2.  Saw this on the Growler’s Pub Facebook Page

Probably I am doing something illegal by posting it here, but we’re IN the photo!  And while my facial expression is a bit suspect, I LOVE my shoes.  Taken by you know who. I’ll put in a little plug for Growler’s too, while I’m here—the food was pretty good, great beer selection.  And the patio was really nice, though I’m thinking it might be too cold now—don’t know if they cover it or something. (Now they won’t care about the photo, right? GO VISIT.)

I really love Chris’s purple shirt.

3.

This makes me want to get four more cats.  And a box, which goes without saying.

4. I’m bad at counting: Any local readers want to attend the Bach Society of St Louis’s concert on Sunday night, 7:30 pm, Powell Hall?  I have two tickets to give away.  I’m playing in the orchestra, the chorus and children’s chorus sound fantastic, and it’ll be a really wonderful holiday concert.  If you want the tickets, email me hannahviolin at gmail dot com.  Or leave a comment here, I’ll get that too. Serious inquiries only 😉

We lost a friend to pancreatic cancer yesterday.  It was very sudden and shocking.  He and his wife had been very helpful in our Paris research, and I am glad we were able to share some of our photos with him when we returned.

It’s funny when you have a blog—how much do you share?  You can’t pretend everything is roses all the time.  Well, you can—plenty of folks do, but is that fair?  To make your readers think that’s something that exists?  I’m pretty sure it doesn’t.

My grandmother is improving every day.  That’s really good news.  Thank you for your kind words and thoughts.

The problem with pancreatic cancer is that so often it isn’t discovered until it is too late.  But two weeks from diagnosis isn’t fair.  It just isn’t right.

We went over to some mutual friend’s of Jim’s last night and just hung out. It seems that the older I get, the more often each life experience makes me reflect back on other similar experiences.  I thought about how many times I’ve been hanging out with friends or family after somebody passes away, trying to hold it together, chatting about what happened and thinking about the person, but yet also doing other things—watching a game, playing with the dog, talking about other things happening in life.  I thought about how many more times in life this will happen too.  I think I’m lucky that it hasn’t happened too many times, but will probably become more common as I get older.

And as a musician, there’s always the question, will you play at the service?  And the answer is always yes, of course I will.

I think of this Ron Weasley quote often in hard times.  (Yes, I’m quoting Harry Potter, that’s how I roll.  It’s usually either that or LOTR.)  In the Order of the Phoenix, Hermoine is telling Harry and Ron what emotions Cho is going through.  Ron says “One person couldn’t feel all that.  They’d explode.”

And that’s true.  So I’m going to distract myself and share with you some pictures from the past few days.  Mostly of my cat.  I will finish writing about Paris soon.  But not today.  I’m good at compartmentalizing, and I’m going to look at pictures that make me happy and think about how glad I am to have known Jim as long as I did, and how I hope that when I get to be his age I have had a life that is even one quarter as interesting as his was.

The most wonderful time of the day:  feeding time.

Close up.  Sometimes I am struck with joy and amazement that a creature such as this exists.

USAF Band of Mid-America concert in Lafayette Park Saturday night.  I misunderstood what we were attending but realized I prefer jazz band to a “band” any day so I was actually quite pleased.  The weather was great for an outdoor concert. (Saxophone player on the far right is Derek, engaged to Adrianne, both of whom attended my wedding.)

Up close with my forehead.  That’s Jen next to me.

Country fried steak from Herbie’s.  A delightful brunch with Melissa.

I would like to try this!

Fancy Instagram filter.  Jen recently joined Instagram and she texted me and said “you have so many pictures…of your cat!”

So that’s where I am today.

You know that I generally try to avoid politics, religion, and talk of money on my blog:  I want this to be a place where people feel comfortable reading about cats, running, music, and whatnot.  But I just wanted to vent for a few minutes, and if you have an issue with that, well, then, I leave you HERE with this picture, and I honestly don’t really care if you have an issue with that, because I feel like this is a very important subject.

Yes, I’m talking about Todd Akin’s remarks about "legitimate rape."  I was under the impression that there was just one kind of rape:  the sort where a woman is forced to have sex against her will.  But evidently I was wrong.  There are all kinds—legitimate rape (the worst, I guess)…and then what?  He didn’t really clarify.  I mean, honestly, the whole thing is so awful to contemplate—to think that women are being told IF they get pregnant after a rape that obviously they wanted it to happen…

I just can’t wrap my head around it the idea that these men who are running our country think they can differentiate between forms of rape.  I’m pretty sure that if the basic definition of rape is there, it’s JUST AS AWFUL no matter what.  I’d like to think we can all agree that nobody should have to participate in a sex act that they don’t want to, but evidently we as a society cannot do that. 

This is why so many women don’t report rapes—they are afraid no one will believe them, or that it was their fault, or they are ashamed or scared, or many other reasons…we should be making it easier for women to report rapes and sexual assaults, not harder! 

And that’s what is just so upsetting about this.  That not everybody agrees that rape is wrong in all forms.  Then again, marital rape wasn’t a crime at all in the United States until the 1970’s, and that even today it carries a lower sentence than other forms of rape. 

What’s most frightening about all of this is that this "man", Akin, is running for Senator in my home state of Missouri.  And that he was projected to win until he "misspoke." 

This will likely be one of the few political blog entries I’ll write.  Let me just encourage you all to vote.  Are you registered to vote?  This election in November is very important.  Let us move forward as a society, not backwards.  Let’s continue to work towards equality for all people, including equality between men and women. 

I had to snack on this tonight because I was starving and there was nothing else in the house.  FOR REAL as we moved all the food to the new house.  Oops.  It was delicious though!  There’s still some left and I’m debating.  Chocolate, though delicious, is actually not that filling.  Who knew. 

I downloaded some instagram collage apps last night and things got crazy.  Don’t judge.  Actually.  Whatever, I no longer care.  Judge away.

I thought about taking that a few more steps, but I grew bored.  I may try again later. 

Tomorrow is the big move.  All of our stuff is boxed up and ready to go.  I’m feeling a little bit sentimental about it being the last night in this place, but I’m very excited for the new place.  My parents rocked out and cleaned a bunch—I think we should stay longer as my fridge has never been so clean…but it is empty except for a bunch of bottled water so that is not fun. 

Yeah.  I’m exhausted.  I should be sleeping, not blogging, but you know me.  Fight sleep, continue searching for entertainment.

Next time I’ll see you it’ll be from the new house!

I just found out about Statigram.  It tells you about your stats on instagram (follow me @hannahviolin, or don’t, because I totally post my "best" work here on the blog).  I think this photo pretty much sums up everything about me.

Yep. One sarcastic text convo with Sarah, two pictures of my cat, my dad on a bike, and me in my wedding dress, laughing.  What else is there?

Statigram actually suggested I should open the email this was sent in on my iPhone and then instagram the photo.  That may have been the greatest suggestion ever.  Here’s the result of that.

Now it looks OLD and even more awesome!  You’re welcome.