Let’s recap again!  Things I am thankful for this month:

1) My cat

2) No more election campaigning

3) Being able to afford to buy food

4) Gorgeous fall weather

5) Processed cheese

6) Good friends

7) My strong legs

8) My pumpkin bread recipe

9) Days off

10) Being able to go on cruises (on occasion)

11) Hummus

12) Comp tickets to the Symphony

13) New clothes

14) Chris

15) My students

16) My hair towel

17) Tivo

18) Family

19) Women

20) Having a wedding free weekend

It’s getting to be a really diverse group of things.  What about today?  Today I am thankful that I live so near a park that I can run in!  I love being able to run in the park and not have to worry about stopping at lights or dodging cars.  It’s a beautiful place to run in and watch other people running, walking their dogs, riding bikes, etc.  I live just five minutes walk from the park, and it’s really wonderful and convenient.  Today I ran approximately 7 miles in the park…whew, my legs are exhausted! 

Today’s workout:  7 mile run, 7 points for the HBBC

I read a few “healthy living blogs” and came across this fun little holiday challenge to stay in shape.  I’m not that concerned as I have enough motivation from Mike and my half marathon training, but I figured, hey, why not?

HBBC Rules
1 Point per mile (run/walk/snowshoe)
1 Point per 3 miles biked
1 Point per 20 minutes of weight lifting, Pilates, yoga, stretching or abs
1 Point per 15 minutes of another form of cardio (i.e. kick boxing, aerobics elliptical)
1 Per day where you reach a minimum of 7 servings of fruits and veggies

Challenge will run from Nov 20 to Jan 7…this helps to cover you for the major holidays!

Additional points: Because I am all about taking care of your entire mind, body, soul connection there will be additional posts/questions where you can earn points throughout the challenge.

Today’s workout:  1 hour kickboxing video, 4 points!

I usually listen to NPR when I am driving around town.  Today I caught part of “Cityscape,” a local show that covers the arts in St. Louis.  Susan Slaughter, former principal trumpet of the SLSO was on the show talking about some upcoming brass holiday concerts (a yearly event, evidently.)  Susan was principal trumpet of the symphony for over 30 years.  She just recently retired, and is greatly missed.

In any case, she was talking about the challenges women playing brass instruments faced back when she was starting out (late 1960’s/70’s) and how they worked hard to pave the wave for women today.  She told a story about the former principal cellist of the symphony at the time of her audition and how he told her, years later, that he stood up and walked out during her audition, but then heard her play and hung around.  She mentioned that all she and the other women wanted was a chance to play an audition, and IF they were the best, to win.

Listening to the interview made me very emotional!  What a jerk, to walk out of an audition like that.  How is it any better that he came back because she played well?  I’m sure many men played poorly and he didn’t walk out!   I wish people would just put aside their judgemental presuppositions, and instead simply try to treat every person as they would wish to be treated.

In any case, I am certainly thankful of how far women have come.  I would never be turned away from an audition or job interview because of my gender (and string players certainly were, just not quite as recently as brass players).  It’s due to people like Susan Slaughter. I want to say, Thank you!

Here is a link to the interview.   It’s the first segment.

I am so thankful for my Tivo!  I am rarely home or available to watch my favorite shows when they come on…but my tivo records them for me to watch later.  The other best part is that I don’t have to pay attention when a show comes on–my tivo records it anyway.  Tonight it recorded a cool show I watched over the summer, “Human Target.”  I love action/spy shows–Burn Notice, Covert Affairs, Alias, etc.  And my tivo will record them all for me!  (Okay, not Alias, because that ended…but you get the point 😉  ) I never have to worry about forgetting to set the VCR.

(Yes, I’m tired.  But I do love my tivo, seriously! )

(P.S.  Jillian’s 30 day shred level 1 was pretty good–I sweated a lot and my legs/shoulders burned!  I’ll do it again a few times before moving to level 2.  Wish it were longer though…)

To recap:

1) My cat

2) No more election campaigning

3) Being able to afford to buy food

4) Gorgeous fall weather

5) Processed cheese

6) Good friends

7) My strong legs

8) My pumpkin bread recipe

9) Days off

10) Being able to go on cruises (on occasion)

11) Hummus

12) Comp tickets to the Symphony

13) New clothes

I haven’t been thankful for my sweetie Chris yet—and I definitely am!  He puts up with a lot from me (my perfectionist tendencies also carry over into my expectations for him , fair or not ) but also gives a lot to me and to our relationship.  He is trustworthy, caring, cute, talented, smart, and hilarious!  I can always count on Chris to make me laugh.  THANKS Chris!!

Just a smattering of Chris pictures.  I was trying to reflect the qualities I listed:  Talented, loving, funny, and basically up for wearing a funny hat, drinking a fruity drink, or dancing…whatever it was that I wanted to do

I bought a carton of delicious black bean hummus at the grocery store the other day.  I put some on my sandwich tonight instead of mayonnaise or mustard and it was DELICIOUS!

I also purchased carrots to dip in it.  I haven’t had black bean hummus before, but this was really tasty!  In fact, I’m still sitting here, an hour later, thinking about how good my sandwich was.  You know what that means:  hummus is on the list!  I am thankful for hummus (in all incarnations, from black bean to regular to spicy to garlic varieties).  I am thankful for whoever invented hummus also!  THANK YOU HUMMUS!  (trying too hard?)

Today was a beautiful sunny day.  I was walking towards my house this afternoon and I just couldn’t resist taking a few pictures of this gorgeous view.

The red color was really popping in the sunlight!