I’ve decided (after yesterday’s post) that there are still good people in the world, people who care about others and all that good stuff, regardless of religious affiliation.  I’m just being overly sensitive.  It also helps to turn off the news—I love listening to NPR while I’m driving and I love watching CNN at the gym, and not doing those things really helps with my mental state.  I’m going for CD’s in the car and something else at the gym (I like to listen to my ipod while watching tv, a bit of overload, but it distracts me from the treadmill pain.)

I had an awesome day: 

First, a workout with Mike during which I wore my new St. Pat’s Day shirt.  He was totally jealous since he didn’t get one even though he claims he ran the race in 30 minutes or so.  Whatever, if I don’t see it, I don’t believe it We also discussed poo, weather, the 80’s 5k in May that I am hoping to get a group of friends together to run and dress up, if you can bring anyone’s child to the gym’s day care (free to members), and some woman who likes to do crunches on the stretching table…I also ran a bit before and after the workout.  Go me!

Secondly, I met my friend Melissa at California Pizza Kitchen for lunch.  I had the fish tacos.  We had a great time.

Then I went grocery shopping at a different store than usual (on my way home from lunch) which made grocery shopping a new and exciting experience!  There were different brands and a different layout (okay, yes, I lead a fairly mundane life.)

Next was the work portion of my day, during which I had to teach.  Today’s students were delightful.  (Actually it was just one student.)  Everybody was considerate of everybody else.  I love my Tuesday student!

I came home and ate some delicious enchiladas—beef, mushrooms, a bit of cheese, tortillas, and enchilada sauce.  Yum!  With a side spinach salad—gotta have those green vegetables.  Hmm.  That makes today a very “mexican” day.  (fish tacos, enchiladas). 

Now I am heading out for a quick catch-up with friends at a local pub.  Two more workdays left!

My friend Sarah posted this on my facebook wall today: http://theoatmeal.com/comics/cat_vs_internet.  If you haven’t seen that cartoon, and if you are a cat owner or a cat lover, you should definitely look at it.  If you don’t like cats (or worse, fear cats) you will NOT want to click that link as it will just reaffirm your dislike or fear.

I’m actually writing this on Sunday night, but I can assume I’ll be a little annoyed to get back to work

The weekend was a great success, but exhausting.  I even skipped my spinning class to sleep in, but the time change is TOUGH at my age.

What did I do all weekend?

Winter Opera—two performances of Cavalleria Rusticana

Ran a race:  St. Patrick’s Day 5 Mile Race in downtown St Louis (just a few short miles from my house, though we drove, rather than running there, which my trainer was planning to do)

Taught a group class at St. Louis School of Music

Went to Herbie’s and Café Mochi for dinner and  Trattoria Marcella, and Sasha’s on Shaw with friends for drinks.

Went to the SLSO concert—fantastic performance of Shostakovich’s 1st Violin Concerto—one of my favorite concertos.

Ran 9 miles—I’m at 43 for the month—working towards 93, and I just might get there at this rate…

But now it’s back to Monday, and I’m sure regular blog readers are tired of me saying this, but I NEED SOME TIME OFF!  I’m exhausted and overworked.  What’s weird is that this is how I used to work every week in Cleveland—all the time.  Strange that I’m so much healthier now, huh?!?  I don’t know how I kept that schedule, but I do know I don’t want it ever again.

Next weekend though…I am OFF.  Starting Friday—no work at all.  No opera.  No teacher workshops.  No students.  No teaching.  I can’t wait! 

Then I get into spring break season. 

Spring break season, you ask?  Well, since I teach at four different schools, the spring breaks don’t overlap, so there is a series of weeks where here and there things are canceled.  I can’t plan a real vacation or anything, but it’s nice to have a bit more time to think.  Plus the house is a mess—maybe I’ll get some cleaning done, or start on my taxes, or run, or “hit the gym”, or perhaps drink more coffee…(I do love coffee).

So this week is the last full week before spring breaks start, and it’ll be fantastic to have the weekend off.  I’m hoping to go for a run in Forest Park with my friend Jen and maybe have some friends over to the house for drinks and dessert.  One of the donors/good friends of Winter Opera gave me a bottle of “bubbly” after the concert tonight and I need to share it with another lover of the “champagne”. 

Plus March Madness…I haven’t been watching as much basketball as I have in the past, but I still like to see Duke win  

All right.  And now we’re off.  Here’s to another week!  *raises glass*

I have wanted to say something about the events in Japan on Friday and continuing through the weekend, but haven’t known what…it’s just so utterly awful and tragic, and I feel so terrible for the people of Japan.  Having been lucky enough to never experience something like that in my life, I find I am completely unable to wrap my brain about it.  There just aren’t enough words. 

Remember you can text REDCROSS to 90999 to make a $10 donation to the Red Cross.  There are countless other charities to give money of course, but I do like the Red Cross personally—they are a trusted organization with international connections. 

A few blogs that I read have what they call “Wordless Wednesday” where they just post a bunch of pictures.  I get annoyed by this.  I enjoy pictures, but I prefer the words…so I’m instituting Wordy Wednesday on my blog!  (Okay, not actually, as this is a quick post.)

I finished Sense and Sensibility the other day so I’ve moved onto my next book for the month, The Warmth of Other Suns: America’s Great Migration by Isabel Wilkerson.  So far it’s a fascinating read.  I found a little article on the book and the author that you might find interesting.

Growing up in the south in the 80’s racial divides were still very strong and it’s awful to think of how much worse people were treated not that long before.  I know our country has come a long way, but we are not out of the woods yet.  I also think of the various other ways we divide people—not just black and white, but by religion, by income, by GENDER, by sexual orientation. 

I capitalized gender because I feel that is a great divide that still isn’t given enough attention.  As women: We are treated as sex objects first and human beings second more often than not.  We aren’t trusted to know what is best for our own bodies.  We are paid less for the same work…we are still expected to do most of the childrearing and housework yet also work full time outside the home…for less pay.  We are treated as if there is something wrong with us if we aren’t married with children.  We rarely have leadership positions in companies or in the government…probably because we are considered to be less intelligent than men.  Or perhaps because we are then looked down upon, if we don’t spend enough time with our families.  I know we women have it better now that our mothers did, but I get worried sometimes that things will be taken away from us.  Anytime you take something for granted or forget history you risk making mistakes and taking steps backwards.

That’s just some of the things I was thinking about…

Oh, and I finished my 10 mile run!  Just around 2 hours 15 minutes…nice and slow.  Now my ribs and hamstrings hurt from yesterday’s workout and my legs are ridiculously tired.  Good times!

I was feeling a bit “poopy” earlier, but now I’m feeling a bit better.  So you can cancel all of your “cheer up” bouquets and boxes of chocolates you ordered for me…I’m cheered up enough for now

I’ve got tomorrow morning off due to a field trip at the school, so I’m looking forward to sleeping in a bit and then doing my long run—10 miles on the docket.  My long run has migrated to the middle of the week, and will migrate back to the weekend next weekend.  But tomorrow shall be slow running for a great distance (all my running is slow actually…)

Hopefully it will stop raining by then…

Looks pretty good, right?  Remember, Saturday is the 5 miler. (I haven’t raced since Phoenix RnR, so I’m pretty pumped, if you couldn’t tell.)

I saw this on the internet and thought it was wonderful. 

Tonight’s dinner:  shrimp, couscous, broccoli.  Life is good.

I can’t believe it’s already Friday!  I guess starting the week with a holiday makes it fly by. 

Bad news though:  I don’t get a weekend—I am attending a workshop for teachers for the Mark O’Connor series all weekend long.  Naturally I am hoping to learn a lot, get inspired, and meet new people.

How many of you are renters?  I live in a duplex, and the upstairs neighbors have been troublesome this past year.  Nothing HUGE, but little things like not shutting doors…repeatedly, or using the wrong washer/dryer, or having a dog that barks for hours on end.  All these things add up.  And yet, because a few years ago I had the world’s worst landlord, I am always quite hesitant to complain about seemingly mundane things.  Luckily my landlord is actually really great and understanding, and a music-lover on top of that, so it’s fine. 

What makes somebody the world’s worst landlord?  I’ll just list a few things that happened in the past situation.  It was in Cleveland and I was living with my sister Leslie.

• Somebody broke into the tenant’s storage units and stole some things and we were not told.
• Repaired both front and back door problems on the same day so we were practically unable to get in or out of the apartment.
• Closed down the mailboxes for a week without notice (we get PAID through the mail).
• Paved the parking lot and failed to inform us in advance or make other arrangements for parking.

But the worst and biggest offense:

• The furnace for the building broke, she took three days to repair it (in Cleveland, Ohio, in the winter) and then turned the thermostat down so that from that point on, for three months, our apartment was literally unlivable, never got above 62 degrees and was usually colder, lied to us repeatedly, lied to the city when we complained, lied to the court system, tried to intimidate us, and ultimately lied to our lawyer as well.  After months of this intimidation (and we moved out in the meantime, breaking the lease due to the place being virtually uninhabitable) we FINALLY got a settlement of our deposit back and some rent we had paid during the time the heat was not on to speak of. 

It was a very difficult situation.  We were incredibly stressed out, Leslie was in school at the time, we didn’t have a ton of money, and we didn’t really know what to do.  Luckily we met a lawyer who was willing to take our case for a percentage of the settlement (I don’t know if that is normal or not) and told us what to do.  I remember the day we met with him and he told us what we needed to do was move, right away.  We were so…relieved!  To think, we could (according to our lawyer who did turn out to be correct) legally break the lease and move somewhere else, and leave that place behind.  I’ve never packed and moved so quickly (three days from that meeting to living in a new apartment), and hope I never have to again. 

Ever since then, however, I feel LUCKY to have decent landlords, but don’t want to make a fuss or assume anything.  We were treated so poorly, called names on the phone, and basically told we didn’t have any legal or moral argument to wanted a heated apartment, much less anything more than that.  It was really a form of abuse for three months, and I realized today that I have never truly recovered from it.  Maybe that’s good in a way, because I will also be wary and careful of people in the future.  But it also makes me feel that as a renter I don’t necessarily deserve to have a place that is the way I really want it—and that’s not fair either, is it?  Many people have to rent for various reasons, and they deserve to have nice things also.  I hope to be a homeowner one day, but my life just hasn’t worked that way yet (and I am cautious financially so luckily I didn’t fall for the housing bubble hoopla). 

Have any of you had horrific landlords in the past?  Has that affected other aspects of your life in a negative way?