At least for now. I just finished quartet rehearsal and I have the rest of the day off. I’m thinking I should start teaching some students on Friday but that means having 1) more students 2) those that want to come on Fridays. I don’t want to teach late on Fridays though, as it’s nice to occasionally have a social life.

Oh hey! I just dove right in there, and forgot to say Hi and welcome to my blog. It feels new, doesn’t it, since I have barely blogged recently. You are all probably wondering what on earth I have been doing.

(That’s not me, that’s my friend April)

The main thing I’ve been doing (besides teaching, of course) is getting ready for my quartet’s upcoming concert. Here’s the link to the facebook event page. We are playing Beethoven and Grieg at the Tavern of Fine Arts on January 31 at 8 pm. If you can make it, I’d love to see you there! If you can’t, we will be having more performances as the year goes by (we are busy making plans). 2014 is shaping up to be a great year of chamber music, between my quartet, playing sonatas with my friend Jennifer on piano, and who knows what other opportunities will come up!

We’ve been dealing with crazy weather here, like everywhere else. Extreme cold, tons of snow, oddly warm weather, extreme cold…January is hitting hard and flying by, and I’m happy about one of those. I’ve been doing some running, but it is just SO hard to get out the door when the wind chill is 5 degrees. I’m running fairly regularly these days, (albeit slow, I’m slow, I know, forgive me) as I’ve signed up for a couple races, some with friends. The soonest one is going to be a lot of fun: it’s the Stan Musial Veterans Memorial Bridge Run on February 8. The race goes over a brand new bridge they have been building here, and it’s a 6k so for me, automatic PR (ha!). I’ll DEFINITELY be there—I signed up with a friend and we have decided we are taking no excuses—we will run in the rain, cold, sleet, what have you– (Barring broken legs and that sort of injury of course)—so I’ve got that looming, and a half marathon in April, and all of that is getting me out the door. Well, mostly. I’ve been skipping the gym for a few months, but I’ve gotten back into home workouts as well, and have been enjoying a ton of body weight exercises in addition to whatever I can come up with with the hand weights I own. I’m feeling pretty good!

Last weekend was really busy with a few work things, including a Suzuki Teacher Workshop on Sunday covering all kinds of scale and advanced technique ideas for students. I love getting ideas on how to be an even better teacher. Teaching is such a solitary activity (well, just me and the students) so it’s wonderful when teachers gather together to learn from each other and bounce ideas around, or when a more experienced teacher gives a workshop. I try to attend as many of this sort of thing as I can, but my schedule doesn’t always permit.

I got this fun little Vegan Cuts Holiday Beauty Box in the mail as part of being a Girls Gone Sporty Ambassador and was asked to write a short review. I thought I’d share it with you guys too, in case you are into little subscription boxes.

I was really excited to open the box, because I love these kinds of boxes. I don’t always love paying for them (ha!) as I have to be careful what products I spend my money on and often end up with tons of stuff I don’t use much of. I really liked the collection of products. The variety is really nice: nail polish, lip balm, cleanser, soap, face powder, eye shadow, and a cute little change purse. I also love the concept that no animals were harmed and that makes me feel good about the products, even though I’m not a vegan. 

I would consider subscribing to the service for a reasonable rate ($10 or so, and unfortunately the subscription is twice that…) but wouldn’t want to get so many nail polishes again! I like the colors, but I generally only paint my toenails once a month or so (and not my fingernails at all) so it will take me a long time to even try them all. I love the face products and they are the perfect amount, or perhaps even more of the powders would be great. The change purse is adorable, like I said, and I enjoy getting a little something that you hang onto after trying the products.

This cat tricked me. I thought he was indicating that he wanted me to pet his belly, but I was incorrect. I did not correctly determine if there was empathy or murder in his eyes. I managed to escape unscathed, but it could have gone very wrong.

I feel like the time period between Christmas and New Years is like a lame duck session of Congress. People might be back to work but they’ll just be off again. You can try to eat better and get back in a routine but it’s just going to get messed up again. One almost says why bother?

Unrelated: I didn’t get these shoes for Christmas but I wish I had.

I’m heading home tomorrow. I guess I will be getting back on a bit of a schedule. It’s been a good few says but I’m ready to get back to my place. Visiting my hometown makes me feel like my life isn’t quite real and I’m ready to get back to my reality.

Just to be different.

I’m writing this from the airport. I think the airport is the place to be today! Everything is open but not too busy.

I’m headed to my hometown in South Carolina by way of Chicago where l will hopefully be meeting up with my sister Leslie for our final leg.

I hope you are having a good day! Thanks for reading my blog and sticking with me.

Last night I went to the Veiled Prophet Ball with my friend April. Her boyfriend Joe had to work at the ball and she had an extra ticket for a guest (not for dinner after, but just for the ball and festivities until dinner.)

I knew a few things going into the ball: I needed to wear a long gown, and I needed to wear long white gloves. And that there would be rich people doing those weird crazy things rich people do, like having balls at all, presenting their daughters into society in that weird debutante way (and of course, the organization has a history of racism and obviously classism, and sexism…), but that it would be a fun night with my friend April.

Posing in front of the ironing board is always a good place!

No, the axe didn’t belong to Gimli. But it might have.

My friend Sarah did my hair. Before and after—it held up pretty well!

The lighting was terrible in this location.

It is always important to wear white gloves when yielding an axe. Easier to wash the blood stains out after the carnage, am I right?

What did we do other than take pictures? Well, we sat and watched the grand spectacle of the ball. The girls were paraded out accompanied by live music (I recognized several friends in the orchestra though didn’t get a chance to say hell0…maybe another year I’ll be asked to play!) and the members of the secret society did all kinds of weird things, dressed in costumes, covered by veils, and all that good stuff that accompanies being a member of a secret society. I didn’t even know what was going on most of the time, and just enjoyed the show as a fashion show—so many gorgeous dresses, hair, and jewelry! The lights were terrible for taking pictures from my seat so I didn’t get any good ones.

After the ball there was champagne and a receiving line for the girls (women?) who were presented. There was a dinner later, but I didn’t want to buy a ticket for it (hundreds of dollars—I think it was a little out of my budget, ha!) so I left…exhausted, hungry, and covered in eyeliner! It was a fun night.

Running is hard, you know? But when it’s over 60 degrees in December you have to go outside. Today I did intervals of run 3 minutes/walk 1 minute, and I am beat. I feel very accomplished and whatnot though.

This week is flying by. It’s that whole: hey, I’m just back from vacation AND it’s almost vacation again, that the whole “work” thing just seems really easy. I suppose January and February will be long…one day at a time though!

Since I got back I’ve played a few weddings. And yes, people get married in November too. Not everybody has to get married in April or October!

This was at Westwood Country Club. My car never feels quite fancy enough to be at a country club.

This was a tent set up on a private residence. I loved the plastic chairs and the flowers.

And then I had a rehearsal in the Cathedral Basilica for this weekend’s concert. I find the history of the Basilica fascinating. For instance, they started the mosaics in 1912 and finished in 1988, and the mosaics cover 83,000 feet and contain 41.5 million pieces of glass. It’s absolutely breathtaking.

I’m also prepping for this year’s cookie exchange party. I’m doing it on a smaller scale than in the past, but I’m really looking forward to it. I think I’ve figured out what I’m making for it! I’ll tell you after the fact so as to allow for mistakes/mind changing (who, me?) AND as to not give anything away to any guests who might be reading. Suffice it to say the cookies will contain BUTTER.