The best part of playing an opera is when you finally get to the performances. For the Union Avenue Opera, we had five straight days of rehearsals.

I get a lot of questions about how this all works, so I figured I’d explain it. Basically, for the first couple rehearsals (these are 3 hour rehearsals, with a 20 minute in the middle) we go through the opera without any singers. By the third rehearsal we are rehearsing with the singers, usually just them singing without any staging. We had three dress rehearsals, which are like the performance—the singers are in full dress and makeup, the lighting and staging is all being rehearsed as well, and we try to just run the entire opera through. We had three in a row, Monday through Wednesday of this week, so it was EXCELLENT last night to have the night off from playing Wagner.

Anyway, the performances are tonight, tomorrow night, and the same next weekend. (And no, we don’t rehearse in between.) If you have never seen an opera before, you should! It’s an absolutely gorgeous one (Die Walkure) and is the sort of opera that all other operas strive to be.

And you don’t have to dress up fancy—people always ask me what to wear to performances—you’ll see men in suits as well as men in jeans or khakis, women in cocktail dress and women in jeans or skirts. If I attend a concert or opera I generally wear the same sort of thing I would going out to a decent restaurant on a Friday night, but honestly you could be even more casual and NO ONE WOULD CARE. Wear a t-shirt and sneakers if you prefer.

(Before the first rehearsal with orchestra, the singers have usually been rehearsing for several weeks with a pianist, and we ourselves have usually been practicing our parts at home for hours and hours as well.)

This was delicious. I decided to be a good blogger and go shopping at Trader Joe’s. I bought a bunch of stuff there and felt very excellent about it.

I try not to eat this stuff very often but it’s a challenge.

I drove by here on the way to rehearsal the other day. (Don’t worry, I was stopped in traffic when I took the picture!) I really need to investigate this further.

I actually thought this cupboard had all glass panes until the cat climbed in. I like to think that a few weeks ago she wouldn’t have fit through. She’s not happy on her diet and whines for food a lot, but, to be fair, she did that a lot before! At least I am having success with my cat’s diet, if not doing so well on my own 😉

Note to local readers: I am trying to get the word out that I am currently seeking more private violin students—all ages.  Since my school closed in June I am only teaching privately and still have some openings. I’d love to have a fuller studio, so if you or anyone you know is looking for violin lessons, please pass my information on! Tower Grove Area, more information available upon request! (hannahviolin@gmail.com).

*sigh*

Where did the weekend go?

Oh right, 9 hours of opera rehearsal.

Can anyone name this tune?

I’m playing with Union Avenue Opera the next couple of weeks. We are performing Wagner’s Die Walkure. It’s nice to be playing some real music especially since I didn’t get to go do that in Colorado after all this summer. (Readers can surmise little of my summer has been like I planned.)

Violin wise, this year I’m not playing with Chamber Project St Louis. I’m pursuing other more traditional chamber music opportunities (sonatas, piano trio, quartet) and hope to have a few performances this year. I’d go more into the reasons why, but it’s not important or professional of me to do so.  (I wish them the best.)

Blogging is funny like that, isn’t it? You can’t actually say everything you want to. I’m sure you guys don’t really care, but with some very well read and well known blogs, people get upset when bloggers don’t share everything. The thing is—you just can’t, unless you don’t care about anybody else but yourself. You can share a lot, but there are things that happen in your life that you can’t share every detail of, either because it’s primarily not your business, or perhaps because professional it would be a very bad move, or maybe for potential legal reasons. Does that mean bloggers are liars? Yeah, probably that’s what it is. We are all lying to make you think that life is amazing and when you are feeling upset, you are being RIDICULOUS!

(No, THIS is ridiculous)

It makes blogging a challenge sometimes when things aren’t going as well. Plus, none of us want to be seen as a whiner, right? As much as people don’t think you should be happy all the time, nobody wants to read a blog of somebody who just complains all the time.

Recently a twitter follower asked me how do I decide what to blog about? Well, obviously I don’t make any decisions at all and simply blog about whatever is running through my head at the time. This is why nobody really reads this, which is probably for the best 🙂

Yes, I really do wear those giant glasses when I run. I don’t go fast enough that they catch much air and slow me down.

A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far, away, I used to be a runner.

And when I was, long time readers will recall, perhaps reluctantly, that I once lost a big toenail.

What I didn’t mention on my blog was that my OTHER big toenail also had something weird going on with it. It had been partly black, but I was never able to get the nail off. After worrying about it for awhile, I finally decided that I would just give up and ignore it and hope that someday it would be normal again.

Saturday after I showered I happened to look at my toenail (imagine me sprawled out on the couch watching Breaking Bad or How I Met Your Mother on Netflix, and randomly inspecting my toes) and realized that it was loose. I pulled on it and VOILA!

A big part of it came off! BUT underneath…was a brand new nail.

You can see where the toe went together the last time I got a pedicure (badly needed at this time, I apologize)…how cool is that? Now both my big toenails are basically okay! (The side of this one is still a little discolored, but I’m going to continue ignoring it.)

After this I naturally texted these pictures to my best friends. Most people were pretty grossed out (you’re welcome) but my friend Sarah made a meme of it.

This month has been a blur. I could say, oh, hey, sorry I haven’t been blogging as much. Or I could say, oh, hey, I know you don’t CARE I haven’t been blogging as much. Or I could just pretend that it doesn’t matter…because truth be told, it doesn’t!

One thing I’ve NOT been doing lately is really working out. I think I have run (note the grammar, please) three times this past month. I haven’t gone to the gym.

Result: okay, I’m probably less healthy and less strong. But I’m less hungry! And I haven’t weighed myself, but I think I’ve even lost a few pounds. I consider what I’ve been doing to be intuitive eating. I’ve been eating exactly what I wanted, and I’m not going to lie. Usually that’s pizza. But by telling myself I can eat what I want, I find I don’t want to go crazy, because then I feel gross and full. Weird, right? I didn’t read any books about it though, so there’s that. I’m just…eating what I feel like. And occasionally that even includes vegetables.

(this one never includes vegetables)

I’m actually back at the gym tomorrow though. We’ll see how my month of virtually not exercising has treated me. I did a bunch of body weight exercises last week—this included 100 lunges and 100 squats, and then I couldn’t really walk for a few days. I missed that feeling, but I do also like the feeling of being able to walk properly. I’m torn, I guess.

I’ve been obsessing over the show White Collar lately too. If you follow me on twitter you’ve picked up on this. Not gonna lie. This has something to do with it.

And this:

Plus it’s a smartly written show and very entertaining (I swear!). In the past two weeks since I became obsessed, I started to feel like I was ALSO in some complex world where I needed to stay 18 steps ahead of everyone and that everything that anybody said was richly laced with deep meaning. And then I realized that a) I’m not actually smart enough for that (I forgot the house alarm code once, just out of the blue, and once I put in an old zip code at the gas station pump, simply because I forgot) and b) most people are just living their lives and not everything everybody does has an agenda.

It must be exhausting to live like the people on that show! (yes, I’m aware they are actors.)

But still…worth it, right?

I know I shouldn’t objectify men and all that (or people, objectifying people is wrong, dear readers!). But..PRETTY! You should watch the show. (This is not a sponsored post, but I would be willing to get paid to watch the show, honestly. I’m not even making that part up. I would watch the whole series again if somebody paid me to.)

Excitement this week: My folks just stopped by on their way further west (driving, not biking), and I’m headed to Chicago for a long weekend visiting my friend Karen (Karen, if you’re reading this, I should give you a call or at least get your address) and hopefully eating at Avec… less side pony, more bacon wrapped dates! (intuitively that’s what I think I want).

Yes, I have to watch on my computer since the TV isn’t hooked up right. And no, it’s the middle of the afternoon so I’m not actually drinking right now—I have to teach soon! But, otherwise, that pretty much sums up my summer.

The other night I went to a new Mexican Restaurant named Gringo in the Central West End with a friend. I noticed it a few weeks ago when I was at Pi (LOVE PI) and wanted to return to check it out.  Leslie had been visiting at the time, and since she’s from Phoenix (home of thousands of excellent Mexican Restaurants) I didn’t go with her, but with another friend.

The first thing we noticed was that they have margaritas ON TAP. The waiter told us that the margaritas are mixed and then set up to go into the line (these are technical terms, don’t get too confused) so that no more mixing is required. They had two kinds on tap and then also numerous other kinds that they will mix for you. We tried the ones on tap, and they were very good (and a better value for your $$.)

The second thing we noticed was that there is a grasshopper taco. We were assured that the grasshoppers were free-range and organic, and the description of the taco was “like the texture of oatmeal with sunflower seeds on it.” I was intrigued, but decided to save that taco for a later visit—instead I chose a pork taco, a calamari taco, and a fish taco. We also split an order of the guacamole which is made tableside. It was delicious as were the tacos. I will be trying the grasshopper one on my next visit since I was impressed by the quality of the “normal” ones.

Overall it was a great meal! Fairly reasonably priced and very tasty. As usual I ate too many chips and guacamole/salsa, but it was a great evening.

I recently went for a run, and decided to sign up for a Fourth of July race downtown. It’s 4 miles and I’m not really ready for it, but I figured it’ll be a good time, and I’ll be just fine, and unlikely to come in last place.

Oh, and I don’t believe I ever shared this picture from the mall.

Okay more old pictures! I got a few more albums online from my mom (she had our old slides converted to digital photos, which is just awesome.)

This is to remind me of when I say, hey, I wonder how I’d look bald. There it is. That is my brother Jesse holding me awkwardly.

I think Jesse has me in a chokehold. Check out the old school plastic diaper cover!

My first birthday! I was a pretty happy child, evidently!

My brother and I taking a nap. Or at least me taking a nap and him posing for a picture. We are utterly adorable.

Another angle. You can’t see my little legs, but my head is pretty cute too.

Why are you interrupting our reading, Mom?

How stylin’ am I with my short dress and knee socks? LOVE THIS OUTFIT. I seem to be holding an art project of sorts.

I’m less sure about this outfit…but I had the legs for it, so why not, right? Jesse had the legs for his outfit too.

This picture is great because Jesse is giving a perfect look at the camera. He looks like a model and I look like I just rolled out of bed.

ONE foot in the air running! Longtime readers know that is rare for me.

I was so tired I just fell asleep like that, evidently. Interesting note: that bed is still in my room at my parent’s house.

I had a pretty awesome mohawk for awhile.

I joined a T-ball team for awhile. If I recall correctly, I never got a hit. (Process that…the ball doesn’t move.) I don’t have the greatest eye-hand coordination.

I did NOT know how to hold kitties when I was younger. I’m pretty sure this cat wasn’t enjoying that.

Case study on why NOT to tell kids to smile for a picture. Leslie is standing in front of me, and please note my “book it” button. I was WEARING that voluntarily at home.

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed those pictures! I know that (most importantly) I do. It’s fun to see pictures that you haven’t seen in years…because as awesome as slide shows are, they are a pretty inconvenient way to look at pictures.