The concert yesterday went well, with one caveat:  the air-conditioning was broken!  They did their best to have fans and such, but seriously, it’s hot here.  I know people existed for a long long time without air-conditioning, but not anymore.

Thanks to all of you who came out though!  It was a full house, even with the heat.  I only played on the last piece, so I got to watch the first half.  Chamber Project St Louis did a fantastic job!

Afterwards we hit up the Three Monkeys where I decided to test out my new camera.  I need to play around with it more.  Plus, since I’ve been trying to be a good blogger and take more pictures, my friends are getting annoyed at me.  EVIDENTLY some people don’t just love getting their picture taken all the time.  But that is not my problem.  I don’t take pictures of people I don’t like (well, unless they are really funny looking 😉 ) so please consider it a compliment rather than a punishment.

Does anybody else find it strange that I have the exact same expression in both of these photos?

Melissa and me, Todd, Katie

Vanessa, Kyle (who played on the concert with me).

Some of the other pictures I took were terrible.  Oh well, you’ve seen the other people before.

Anyway, a quick public service announcement:  if you have pizza and beer late at night, chances are you will hurt in the morning when you go for a run.  Plus the self-hatred of having eaten pizza when you are supposed to be trying to lose weight.  Grrr.

Today:  First I am attending the dress rehearsal of The Death of Klinghoffer by John Adams.  It’s performed by Opera Theatre of Saint Louis with the symphony, and (naturally) I have a comp ticket (yes, they evidently sell tickets to the dress rehearsal as well.)  Then I go teach, my last day of maternity leave teaching at the St Louis School of Music.  I’ve had a wonderful time teaching some fabulous students and will miss them.  Tonight I’m getting together with some of my girlfriends for a quasi-ladies night, meaning, all ladies, but we may not do anything more crazy than simply gossip.

Tomorrow:  Two weddings, and then I’m going to St Louis Brewers Festival in Forest Park.  Likely Jen and I will simply camp there overnight and then wake up early to run…saves a lot of trouble.

Sunday:  My last student recital of the spring!!  Two of my students at St Louis Ballet School are performing on the recital.  I will be accompanying on piano…which means today I need to take advantage of the piano in my studio.

Do you have big plans for the weekend?

Tonight! Concert starting at 7:30 pm with Chamber Project St Louis at “The Chapel” (location here).  (This is the group that I was ON TV with in January.)  I play on the last piece on the program, but the whole program should be great!

I have gotten some nice feedback on my post about Body Image.  Thanks for reading guys!  And remember, you can comment ON the blog…

I haven’t gotten to much of the virtual retreat stuff the past few days.  I got really sucked into some wedding planning stuff (who would have thought that I really enjoyed thinking about invitations and paper…oh wait, that’s right up my alley) and have spent many hours doing stuff.  It’s amazing how much time I can spend on this stuff.  I guess wedding planning really DOES take up a lot of time.  But we’re doing well—venue, invitations, officiant, and we are currently working on music and photography.  One thing at a time (or two, if you split up)!  Plus I had my birthday and all…

Anyways, local readers, come to the concert tonight!

Other helpful things:  Vote for the St Louis School of Music to take 5000 1-8 graders around the world with the Ocarina.  Follow this link for information and to vote (it’s not automatic, you have to log in, annoyingly).  I would be involved in the project.

I read a great article by Peter Sagal (host of Npr’s Wait, wait, don’t tell me) about why he works out with a personal trainer.  It spoke to me, as I feel much the same way!  I recommend reading it.

Isn’t the day after your birthday the worse?  You have a whole year to wait…

I guess I have other things to look forward to in the meantime 😉

In any case.  How WAS my birthday you ask?  Well it was wonderful.  I only had one mental breakdown and that came earlier in the day.  Honestly, I remember I turned 30 with no worries, and now I’m starting to freak out about getting old.  Weird, right?  I will likely implode by 40.

BUT.  Chris gave me a fabulous pink camera.  I haven’t gotten around to figuring it out yet, but I will after I do this blog post. 

I had invited some friends to meet for dinner at Vin de Set.  They have a really nice open rooftop seating area, and we wanted to enjoy the weather.  It’s also the top floor of the building where we’ll be getting married so I thought it was meaningful.

Naturally I took some pictures, though on my old camera.  There were a few more people than this too, but not all the pictures were good (surprising!)

Can you believe Chris is SMILING in a few of those photos?  I’ve been telling him that he needs to get used to getting his picture taken.  Perhaps he has taken my advice to heart.  Or this was the first time he was genuinely happy?

After Vin de Set we hit up 33 Wine Bar (since I was actually turning 33).  We stayed out too late, but I think everybody had a good time.  I know I did!

That’s right.  It’s my birthday! And I’m actually wishing myself a happy birthday.  How self-obsessed is that?

(It’s not yet my birthday.  I’m writing this to the future.)

Today will be filled with working out, teaching, and then celebrating with some friends.  I rarely work on my birthday, but I don’t mind…it’s cool. 

Thanks for all the well-wishes (both those that have already happened and those that have not yet come to pass).  I am sure it will be a fantastic day.

I wanted to share some awesome links with you.  If you are bored, like I am, I recommend reading them!  (If you are a facebook friend of mine some of these will not be new to you.  Sorry.  I have to recycle my material sometimes.)

Firstly, a sad story about a friendless hedgehog.  If that doesn’t make your cold, black, heart grow…well, then nothing will. (thanks to Sarah for the link).

Here’s another great story from Sarah:  Tips for Single Ladies from 1938.  Some things never change! (That being that people are always trying to give advice).

Perhaps you’ve heard about the cicadas taking over St Louis?  Wonder how great moments in history would have sounded with cicadas?  No?  I recommend checking it out anyway.

This is less funny, but very interesting.  Did you know that women pass judgment on someone within 20 seconds of meeting them?  Does it take us that long? 

Next a youtube video.  Legend of Zelda for a cappella voices and violin.  Greatest thing ever.

Here’s one I lol-ed at from the onion.  Work Friend Accidentally Becomes Real Friend.  Hopefully that will never happen to me.

Here’s another good one, about a pitcher having trouble making his parents understand a no-hitter is still pretty good.  Any of you who have parents with high, exacting standards will appreciate that.

How about this?  A violin playing hitchhiker.  Just like that guy from Field of Dreams, I think.

Okay, all these links made me think of this video of a sheep wearing a mask.  It’s a few years old, but I still snickered.

And now for some random pictures that make me laugh (or cry):

And of course…(the greatest picture ever)…

As a blogger, I guess I should admit that I got free tickets to the circus.  Not because I’m a blogger though, but just because that’s how I roll. 

Everybody knows that depending on what business you are in you get certain perks.  Restaurant workers often get discounts or free food at other restaurants.  Celebrities get everything free.  Bankers and other wealthy businessmen get free Congress.  Since I’m a musician I get free symphony tickets and occasionally other stuff too.  One time I got a free viola A string, and I’ve also gotten some rosin and a gigantic stack of orchestra folders.  Crazy, right?  I believe I gave the A string to Chris and sadly he never said anything about it again.  Sort of like when I asked him a few months ago why he asked me to marry him…he said "I don’t know" and then we never spoke of it again.

But I digress.

Circus Flora was generous enough to offer comp tickets to the symphony members for last night’s performance of Vagabound Adventures.  As the usual date of a symphony member (or at least an "acting" symphony member) I was invited to go. 

They set up the "big top" in the parking lot next to Powell Symphony Hall (where the SLSO plays).  The tent IS air-conditioned.

Our friends Jon and Laura came along as well.

Laura’s more adept at posing for photos than I am since her group, Chamber Project St Louis (remember, concert next Thursday at 7:30) just had a lengthy photo shoot.

In any case, we weren’t supposed to take photos inside the tent so I’ll just tell you about it.  It’s set up in a circle with the action in the middle.

The show started with a narrator telling the plot.  I’ll admit, the plot was a bit thin, but who really cares about the plot?  There were jugglers first, lots of jugglers juggling in a variety of combinations of people.  Next was a contortionist.  First she brought one of her legs straight up in front of her body.  I leaned over to Chris and said, "well, I can do THAT, especially after attending Bikram Yoga."  Then she put that leg around back.  And then bend backwards and grabbed her ankles.  I can’t do those things. There was a funny act with a horse and then some acrobatics and tumbling by the St Louis Arches.  There was also a clown named Nino who kept getting in the way of things.

The big act before intermission was the Flying Wallendas on the tightrope.  I’d seen this act when the symphony played with the circus in the winter, but this time we were UNDER the tightrope.  And I mean, directly under, as in my neck hurt to look up, but yet I was afraid NOT to look in case they fell and I needed to move fast.  Wow.  Breathtaking.  (I recommend checking out those links if you are interested in the history of the family.)

At intermission we ran into a variety of people we knew—it seems many of the symphony members were eager to see the show for free!

The second act was again a mix of things.  A pair of brothers, "The Riding Donnerts", did a bunch of tricks while standing (or doing acrobatics) on the backs of horses going around the ring.  They were fantastic!  Then more clowning, more acrobatics, and then the finale–

The best act was at the end (as it should be)—the "Flying Pages" on the flying trapeze.  There were two trapezes and three landings and the whole act was incredibly exciting!  And yes, there was a net, unlike those crazy Wallendas.

In any case, I highly recommend seeing the Circus if you live in the area.  It runs all month, and you will love it.  We certainly did.

(See how I did that, as a review?  Aren’t I fancy?)