You guys.

It’s the violin from the Titanic. Go here to read the article about it! (Also here to read another article I just saw a student shared with me!)

I had a good day on twitter.

I’m right, and I have amazing intonation. What else could a girl want?

(I debated tweeting this screencap…but instead I’m blogging about it.)

And one of my friends sent out this tweet. We are obsessed with the banana emoji on many levels (not the least of which is my nickname for years has been Hannah Banana…).

I’m coming up on Spring Break from my school. I have a couple of days off teaching, and I’ll have some spring cleaning and catching up around the house to do. Mainly I’ll be blogging and watching TV I imagine 😉 And Twittering, and taking pictures of the cat, and doing some extra working out, and maybe even practicing again (I’ve been taking some time off to let my shoulder recover to not risk another incident like last year.)

Hey, there’s a pair of socks on your back!

Yeah, I should probably get to bed, huh? Happy Friday!

You know you’re in a weird place when people ask how your weekend was and you stop and think, when WAS the weekend?

My view from the pit—Gina Galati and Steve Jarvi welcoming the audience.

I spent a lot of time in the pit for Winter Opera St Louis‘s production of Tosca.  I thought it went really well.  That’s the end of the season—nothing until the late fall.  The company has been doing one fall production and two winter productions for a couple of years now. 

I also played a couple of weddings.  It’s not really wedding season yet, but the post holiday lull is definitely over and things are kicking back into gear.

I took some pictures of my cat.

And I got my hair cut today.  I went on a little bit of a self portrait kick, because I realized I’d been feeling bad about my appearance for the past month or so and hadn’t really taken many photos (for me), and I like my new haircut!  I also don’t think I look nearly as fat as I feel…spring is here though, and I’m back into running and working out regularly so I know I’ll be back to “myself’ (aka lose the five pounds or so I gained stress eating my way through February and then into March).

Serious Hannah.

Instagram filter!

Out on the back porch.

The middle picture was pre eyebrow shaping, which frizzed out my hair a little, but I still like it.  The receptionist was laughing at me, but I told her I was taking pictures to send to my husband (I did do this of course!) and no, I didn’t need her to take one of me. 

I’ve been taking time off practicing.  My shoulder is definitely better because of it.  (Better.  Not perfect.)

Did you read my previous post about the Dirty Girl Run in September?  I know it seems a long way away but that time will fly!  Come out and run/walk/get muddy with me.

The chamber group I play with occasionally, Chamber Project St Louis, performed at the St Louis Art Museum last night.  We are repeating the concert this next Friday (I included this and next to be super clear that I’m not talking about yesterday, how’s that for grammar?) at the Chapel (visit CPSTL‘ s website for more information on all of that.) 

The concert poster.

Last night’s venue.

Warming up amongst the art.  My stand was behind the LINE but no guards yelled at me.

Performing one of the pieces.  That’s my friend Laura standing because the piece (Derek Bermel’s Soul Garden) was for viola and string quintet, which meant her part was more important and we thought she should stand up to reflect that.  She sounded great.

Jen and Vince playing some Piazzolla.

If you are local and don’t have plans next Friday night, I’d recommend you come see me (us) play!  The tickets are very reasonable ESPECIALLY since they include two drinks (alcohol AND non-alcoholic beverages are offered.)  If you have any questions, feel free to ask, but remember, it’s a concert for everyone, not just classical music buffs.  Plus I’ll be wearing more color for the next one, which should be incentive enough.  Maybe I’ll wear purple.

Is that title too long?  Mike asked me this morning how my weekend was.  I laughed at him.  WHAT?

In the pit at Winter Opera St Louis. 

Me in the pit.  My friend Sarah caught me taking a selfie and she may have mocked me mercilessly and used the phrase “duck face.”  I think you can tell that’s not a duck face, right?  That’s just my face, and I consider self portraits to be important documentation of what is happening in my life.

So so much of this.  Drone, drone, drone, slow practice, slow practice, slow practice.

A new addition to the fridge—a postcard from Carrie in Norway.  Welcome back Carrie!

I’m dropping the marathon.  I’m only running the half.  I had too much going on, and I had to make some choices.  I chose the audition and work.  Everything else had to go.  I’ll start catching up next Tuesday.  Considering that I haven’t actually run since my race in January…yeah.

This was me texting my sister Leslie that I was dropping down to the half in April.  I’m the one in blue.

And with that…

Hello readers!

As you most likely know, I’ve been dealing with a really bad cold over the past few days.  I’m trying not to absolutely stress out over what I’m behind on–particularly in terms of violin practice for a certain audition I am (still?) planning to take…every time I’ve tried to practice it has felt like playing underwater, or worse…and it’s not just the audition I have coming up—this weekend is full of Chamber Project St Louis rehearsals AND Winter Opera St Louis rehearsals!  I definitely didn’t have a bit of crying jag about this last night.  I do find that allowing oneself to get upset and then to mentally work through it can be helpful, don’t you?

Hopefully this will pass…and I will be back on schedule and back on track, both in terms of practice, teaching (I haven’t seen some students in a couple weeks and I miss them!), and of course working out and MARATHON TRAINING.  Running hasn’t happened since the race last weekend…but I’ll get back on track.  I’m far more stressed out about violin practice than anything else at this point.  Oh, and there’s the small fact that during a particularly violent coughing fit yesterday I sort of hurt my shoulder…let’s just all smile and whistle, shall we?  EVERYTHING WILL EITHER BE OKAY OR IT’LL BE OKAY IN THE END.

If you are by chance behind on my blog I have three posts from the past week you should check out.  One is a review and giveaway of a pain relief cream and a vitamin type thing (which hasn’t seemed to help me at all, but might help you!).  Then I wrote a fun post talking about Leslie’s wedding and showing off some great pictures of her and her wedding.  And of course the recap of the half marathon I ran last weekend, the Rock and Roll Arizona Race.

Another recommended read for you is the blog my youngest sister Carrie is writing about her group, Chartreuse, and their current tour of Norway. 

They ran a kickstarter to fund their project, and as one of their donors (and as a sister) I am eagerly following their progress.  They have been very well received and are learning so much while having a wonderful time.  I am often so impressed with what my siblings have accomplished in their lives  and struggle with feeling like my life is uninspired in comparison!  (We mustn’t compare ourselves to others though, should we, particularly our own siblings?)  Needless to say I am proud of Carrie, and particularly enjoyed this part of her blog:

Tonight we are planning to go out to a jazz club called Victoria’s, where there is a free concert by some of the jazz students (jazz here being a very loose term; what do you even call any of it now? they’ll be improvising music. That is what musicians do. They just play music).

I love that!  MUSICIANS PLAY MUSIC. 

Oh, and don’t use the hashtag “feet” on instagram, for fun, unless you want things to get weird.  I was being silly because I finally painted my toenails to cover up the nasty black nails and put it on instagram…I did not think that through.  Lesson learned.