I love blog visitors.   So, if you are reading this, THANK YOU and please tell your friends.

I am able to see what it is that people search for that brings them to my blog.  I don’t have any fancy way to track statistics, just the ones that come standard with a word press blog.   (Blog).

Some of the searches are pretty obvious, such as:

Hannah violin

violin teacher

hannahviolin.com (why not just type that into the address bar and see what happens?)

hannahviolin banana bread

Then there are the people searching for my friends: 

Jen Gartley

Asako Kuboki violin

Valentina Takova cello

or sort of searching for my friends:

Gina Galati violist

Or famous people I’ve mentioned:

Mark O’Connor

Andre Watts

Leila Josefowicz

But then it starts to get more interesting, and I hope the people found my blog helpful:

pf chang half marathon medal

Suzuki group class ideas

rock n roll marathon tech shirt

spassfest

bacon bread

race to cure lymphoma

Washington Missouri catholic church

nachi cocum pictures (ah, I miss nachi cocum!)

Isabel Wilkerson

pancake wrist

You get the idea.  People probably find my blog helpful on occasion, right?  But then there are the funny search topics:

Colorado Christmas ornaments

rock and roll bathrooms

stage deli cheesecake

wedding church in front view

quartet music stand table

“Louis symphony”

what classification apple kuchen butter cake belong

strawberry shake the cheesecake factory

aught two 2002

what is word for recital pieces

salads for thanksgiving sooner

weightlifting Christmas ornaments

cat cutie sad

is there 6 more weeks of winter febuary 2nd 2011

code of pork with polenta

pf chang half marathon – I had to run for 30 minutes to reach the start line!

If you have a blog, what funny search terms have people used?  Also, does anybody have a better way to track my visitors to suggest?  Lastly, what is “code of pork”?

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!