Today my second morning class was “canceled” because the students had MAP testing.  Or something.  That might be the wrong acronym.  I am sure they are all learning as much from taking the tests as I used to.  So I drove approximately 1 1/2 hours round trip to teach a 4 student class.  With gas at $3.89.  I definitely lost money according to the IRS.

My hamstrings are totally sore from yesterday’s workout.  Today I was able to go for a short run in the park.  Today: the beginning of my “heat training” wherein I attempt to acclimate myself to summer.  It was about 72 degrees outside at 12:15 or so when I headed out.  I felt pretty good, albeit incredibly slow, and enjoyed wearing my new purple shorts.  I did not throw up.  (If I had, I now know I can just keep going!  Who would have thought?)

Life as I know it did not end on Monday as I had feared.  Though the weekend seems like a bust, life continues on.  I loved teaching last night—I am teaching some students for a colleague on maternity leave, and it was a true delight!  I may steal the students and never give them back.  No, of course I’m just kidding.  But it was great fun, and I think the next six weeks should be challenging in a good way.

I hate when people call me for lessons and the only question is:  “How much do you charge?”  It’s funny because I am not even accepting new students right now (starting in June I will be!) so my rate is irrelevant to them.  What’s relevant is WHY it is worth your while to wait a couple months to start lessons with me.

This is how I got Chris to propose. 

I remember a month or two ago I was super excited about wedding planning and now I’m not.  Of course I am still excited about GETTING married, but the planning is making me sleepy.

That’s me.  With lettuce on my head AND a bell! 

Seriously though, maybe it’s because I don’t care about place settings, or flower arrangements or stuff like that?  I don’t really care about my colors, unless you are talking about purple, which is awesome.  I just want a pretty dress, some great pictures, beautiful music and good food/drinks.  Music problem:  I will not be available to PLAY at my wedding as I am going to be getting married…so the music won’t be of the HIGHEST caliber.

Honeymoon ideas thus far:  Bora Bora, Venice, or skiing in Breckenridge (we love Breck in the summer, but what about the winter?), OR perhaps the alps.  I do love the mountains.  I also love pina coladas.  A cruise has not been ruled out.

Date range:  May, August, Christmas day, or maybe between Christmas and New Year’s even though SOME people say it’s tricky to travel then (I know, I do it almost every year).  Or maybe next summer   That’s what you are all worried about, right?  That we’ll wait until NEXT summer…mwah hah haaaaa!  

Still haven’t found my Garmin…I even felt the cat’s tummy to see if she ate it!  I have spent close to 2 hours looking for it.  Did I inadvertently throw it away or something?  Grrrrrrrr.  I guess I can just run by feel for a week or so while I keep my eyes open.

Does this make anybody else crave Taco Bell?

Well, things didn’t turn out in our favor today.  They could have been worse, but (seemingly as usual for the past decade) life will continue on a temporary part time basis.  Suffice it to say (for those of you not “in the know”) that being a musician is a tough job and auditions are the devil. 

What next?  We shall see.  Some things will become clearer over the next month, yet, there are a few auditions over the summer that could change everything.  I had hoped for more certainty in my life, but I suppose life is always uncertain anyway!  But how will this affect wedding plans?  Do we continue to wait to plan?  How can you plan a wedding without knowing where you will live?  How can you plan ANYTHING? 

What I do is, I pretend.  I pretend nothing changes.  I plan for the fall (and I do have plans) and you plan for things, and then plans change.  A few years ago some of my friends were overwhelmed by not knowing what would happen after college.  My advice was to look at the unknown as a grand adventure, something to be looked forward to rather than worried about.  Maybe I should take my own advice!

It was very hard to move to St Louis.  The decision was easy, I wanted to move with Chris and I was ready for a new adventure.  But it was hard.  I didn’t know people, I didn’t have any work.  I gradually met people, made friends, got job offers (though primarily in teaching rather than performing).  And now I am pretty happy with many aspects of my life.  But, do I really want to live here the rest of my life?  If we lived elsewhere, maybe I’d be able to perform more. 

I do enjoy teaching, but I prefer performing.  And ideally I would do both.  No offense to ANY of my students—it’s just that I never intended to be a full-time teacher.  I always want to be a teacher though.

And maybe we’ll end up here after all, but I’ll just consider this the grand adventure of life.  I have Chris (he has me!), I have my cat, and I have all my work experience to draw on.  I’ve led a fairly charmed life so far, why not presume that will continue on? 

I think I’ll take this advice! 

Okay, less serious.  Last weekend remember the boot camp I did with Jen?  This is a picture off their facebook.

Can you pick me out? 

Why couldn’t THAT have been the day of the Half?  Seriously.  It was the best weather ever for being active outside. 

Okay, I’m off to do other things today—I had to take off teaching for personal reasons.  I’ll be back and better than ever tomorrow.

I was looking at my phone and I realized I hadn’t uploaded all of my LOTR pics…I had actually meant to bring my actual camera, in fact, I even put new batteries in it!  Then I left it on my desk next to the box of batteries.  Smart.  (Should have stayed at a Holiday Inn Express, I suppose.)

You can read my earlier post here where I talk about going to see Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring with live music performed by the SLSO.  Obviously I attend a lot of SLSO concerts (and you should too!  they are fun!) but this was different.  Firstly, I actually had to pay (half-price) for the tickets rather than getting in for free (hey, dating a musician needs to have some perks), and secondly, it is one of my all-time favorite movies!  (List includes the other two LOTR movies, Titanic, Sound of Music, Airplane, Indiana Jones Trilogy…)  In any case, I loved the movie.

My only complaints:  the credits were super boring to sit through especially as I didn’t care for the soprano, and my seat was really uncomfortable.  Not only was it the tiny balcony seats I am accustomed to where my knees touch the seat in front of me even when I am sitting up as straight as possible, which I am loathe to do for a concert, but my seat was located directly over an air-conditioning vent, which was blowing cold air on me the entire time.  COLD!

Okay, here’s a few more pictures from the lobby:

I did not have this.  It looked weird.

I AM NO MAN! (apologies for the reflection…seriously was bad lighting for pictures, stupid glass)

I took this one very surreptitiously so the usher (pictured in the bottom right corner) wouldn’t come yell at me for taking photos like he did once.

Oh, and here’s another photo from my camera:

No.  The correct spelling is “potatoe”.  We learned that from Dan Quayle.

Oh, I forgot another thing Mike and I talked about yesterday.  He has actually lost 7 pounds (of the 10 he planned to lose in two weeks).  Jerk.  Though I questioned him whether that was wise.  He said he wanted to lose 12 or so so then he could gain back 2.  People are crazy. (Actual statement:  it’s not hard to lose weight since I usually eat so much.) Then he mentioned he wanted to take my measurements on Friday.  I suppose that will help with my online shopping…and self-esteem…  Maybe he’ll forget.  (I am aware that I’m an adult and could refuse, but I like to presume the expert knows what they are doing…as I expect my adult students to do for me!)

AND!  I made some tasty pork chops last night.  I didn’t use the cumin seeds, I simply used ground cumin.  They turned out great, and I paired them with broccolini and polenta.  The broccolini I sautéed with some salt and pepper and then added some lemon zest to it.  In any case, I’d definitely recommend the pork chops.

Follow ups (I read somewhere it is annoying to readers when you introduce topics and never continue them):

Wasn’t the NCAA men’s basketball final super boring?  Boo!

My calves still hurt a bit, but they are much better.  Tuesday they were super rough still and Mike stretched them before we worked out.  It helped!  Today I stretched them periodically during my run.

My diet this week is going pretty well overall.  I have hopes for some weight loss this week or next (this weekend will be carb-festy).

I still have puny-violin-player wrists.  I continually fail at a variety of wrist exercises.  I’ve decided to be okay with this.

I have now voted as many times in St Louis as I did in Cleveland—and I lived there many more years.  I suppose I’ve become more civic minded as I’ve grown older.

I was actually voting because of one thing on the ballot and hadn’t done my research on the other races. (I guess I’m not THAT civic minded).  Upon arrival at the polling place I was accosted by three different people (one a CANDIDATE) who wanted me to vote for them or their candidate.  All three were for the same race!  I didn’t know what to do…so I just left it blank…and felt a bit like a loser. 

That’s okay.  I voted for what I intended to.  And there were no lines! 

The last election I was going to vote in Cleveland for was for the last presidential primary.  I wanted to go and vote for Hillary Clinton…but when I got done teaching there was 1/4 to 1/2 inch of ice on my car and after scraping that off (and it was still freezing raining) I decided it would be safer to just go home.  So I never did get to vote for Hillary. 

(my favorite election motto)

Enough politics!  If I went the rest of the year without hearing about politics I would be a happy camper.  (That’s a strange expression…I don’t even like camping!)

Here’s a story from MSNBC about a girl whose parents wouldn’t let her get a horse to ride so she learned to ride a cow instead.  I highly recommend taking a look!