I was going to wait another day to post this, but I figured, why wait.  Besides tomorrow is supposed to be the foodie pen pals reveal.

I’m introducing a new feature on my blog: OATMEAL MADNESS.  Not like March Madness.  No brackets, no upsets, just lots of pictures of delicious oatmeal.

For the past month I’ve been on a no-cereal diet.  According to Mike (my trainer), cereal is the root of all evils in the world (paraphrasing) due to the processed sugars and whatnot in the ingredients.  I argued that I’d been eating cereal my whole life and surely it couldn’t be the most awful of all foods, but he started ranting about bloating and xanthum gum and gesturing wildly at his (very flat) stomach (that’s where the bloating might occur, I guess?) and turning red, steam coming out of his ears (mild exaggeration, but he was definitely on a soapbox) so I promised I’d try to give it up.

This led to another problem though.  I don’t mind cooking.  That is, I don’t mind cooking after I’m awake.  And to be awake, well, that takes a cup of coffee (or two).  I’ll cook for lunch, dinner, afternoon snack, late night, whatever.  Just not in the morning.  Mike says, oh, make a couple of eggs, it only takes five minutes.  Make oatmeal, it only takes five to ten minutes.  NO.  TOO EARLY.  (Regardless of time, it’s too early.)  But…what about that phenomena that is so famous across the blog world…

OVERNIGHT OATS.

So I tried it.  Oats.  Water or milk or yogurt.  Protein powder.  In a container, overnight.  Then in the morning, stir, and add fruit.  (Or “nut butter”).

This, I realized, was something I could get on board with.  It’s sort of like cereal, but less crunchy.  And less processed, so Mike is happy.

Which brings us to where we are today.  Pictures of my oatmeal.  My blog friend Rose suggested it, and I will do anything she suggests since she is an amazing athlete and blogger.  (I’m totally sucking up to her, another thing real bloggers do.)

I hate that I embraced a blogger trend.  (See here for the last time I embraced a blogger trend…oh and linking to old unrelated posts is also an excellent blogger trend, you’re welcome!) But I’m told it is an old thing to do.  Overnight oats are actually known as Mueslix in other countries, like in Europe.  And nothing is cooler than Europe.  Yes, I’m aware Europe isn’t a country. *correction, my sister texted me to say that MUESLI is what I meant, not mueslix, mueslix being an evil cereal from Kellogg’s*

You can also put them in a jar of “nut butter”.  People call these Overnight Oats in a Jar, or OOIAJ.  I find this to be fairly tasty but I invariably end up spilling on myself.  It’s probably more “nut butter” than one needs.

You can also try steel cut oats, but those just don’t get as soft overnight.  I tried, because someone compared them to Grapenuts, which I like.  I tried soaking them for 48 hours and it still wasn’t enough for me.

Oh, and I don’t have a microwave, so don’t tell me to microwave anything.  Plus, that will kill you, the radiation.  (Says the girl who is always on the phone.)

So, I am not as good of a blogger as some people, and I believe it took 8 days to get 6 pictures of oatmeal.  I forgot one morning (blogger FAIL) and then yesterday I ended up just doing a smoothie, so I didn’t photograph it.  Also I do not have super creative bowls and utensils and placemats.  Oh well!

Here we go!  ARE YOU READY TO BE INSPIRED TO BE HEALTHY AND AWESOME LIKE I AM??????

*drum roll*

*disclaimer, I did not take these pictures outside in my backyard, nor did I use any sort of light box.  just my normal pink, point and shoot camera.*

Oh, yeah, OVERNIGHT OATS IN A JAR. Steel cut overnight (two days actually) with protein powder, milk, and some blackberries.  CHEWY.

Steel cut that I cooked before, left overnight, added blueberries.

Same batch of steel cut cooked.  Blueberries, blackberries, dollop of peanut butter (hiding under there!).

Still the same steel cut.  Texture not as good with these, you can see after a couple days they are a bit more liquidy.  With strawberries.

Rolled oats, greek yogurt, a bit of “nut butter” and blackberries.  This was insanely delicious.  For oats.  Not actually delicious, mind you, because there is so much food out there that is more delicious than oatmeal.

Same base, but with chocolate peanut butter (super healthy, right?) and banana.  Lesson learned:  be sure to fully mix your protein powder before adding fruit.  Dry protein powder does not taste good.  Some of this actually came back up. And a banana, could be healthier.  Bananas:  the most fattening of all fruits.

There you have it.  6 days of oatmeal.

I have lost 4 pounds since giving up cereal.  Is it related?  I don’t know.

I hope you enjoy my new feature OATMEAL MADNESS!  Please comment on how brilliant and amazing I am in the comments.  Also if anybody can design a logo (the more crudely drawn the better, SARAH) for this feature I would be delighted and repay you in kind by offering you various overnight oats recipes.

Leslie and I are the stars of Presbyterian College’s website right now!

I’d probably feel a little better about the upcoming performance if my shoulder weren’t a disaster right now.  Anybody reading my blog is probably better able to observe the train wreck of injuries I’ve been bringing upon myself (or not, I’m just a take responsibility type of person) but this is not good.  I’ll make it through the Bach, no problem, because I can power through.  I’m just a little worried.  It was hurting a bit during the long run on Sunday, and then yesterday at the gym something happened—I don’t even know what—and all of a sudden it hurt again.  Then it was fine unless I was teaching last night.  I was reaching towards a student’s music with my right arm, and suddenly I gasped in pain.

And from that point on the pain stayed with me.  And is still about the same.  I’m icing it, and hoping for the best.  I really need to practice, but I’m thinking that is just not going to happen today.  Or running.

At least I’m playing second violin.

This week seems to be going just about as well as last week.  Bright side, I have lost 3 or 4 pounds this month!

Yesterday Chris bought a Super Nintendo and Final Fantasy 2.  He had had a bad day, and needed a pick me up. (We both did.)  Since he had recently played the Music of Final Fantasy with the Symphony, it was on his mind.  He’s been playing it all night, and then got up several hours before me and has been playing.  Should I tell you people that?  I think it’s hilarious.  SUPER NINTENDO.   We own a Nintendo, a Nintendo 64 and now a Super Nintendo.  And that’s it.  We do not have any more recent game systems.  (We had a Wii but it got stolen last year.)

I was out with a group of friends (and Chris) last night—all guys who grew up in the late 70’s/80’s and they got into an intense discussion involving the history of video games and video game systems.  It was a bit much for me, but hilarious.  They referenced systems I’d never heard of, not that I’m a video game expert.  (Chris IS a video game expert.)  They sang the title themes, and looked up games on the internet.

I guess what I’m trying to say, it was another case of “Men are different.”

Last night was our concert at the Wine Press that I’ve been telling you about.  I was super stressed out about it for two main reasons: I had agreed to speak about a piece, and I was playing a solo piece from memory.  However, it went fantastic (overall) and I feel SO great for having risen to the challenge.

I learned that I really love to be a comedian.  My talk was full of jokes, primarily off the cuff.  I don’t know if it was any good, but people did laugh, and honestly, I love the feeling of a room full of people laughing at me.  Wait, did that come out wrong?

Warming up at home.  My neck muscle looks pretty strained…I need to think about that.  Isn’t the dress awesome though?  I can’t wait to wear it again.

My trick was to write the music on the inside of my eyelids.  That way I didn’t actually have to have it memorized.

My friend April took a couple pictures during the performance:

This is during the Prokofiev Solo Sonata (also for Unison Violins.  Think about that.  In fact, I suggested to the audience they imagine another dozen violinists playing along with me, clones of myself.)

Me and Laura during the Martinu Duo.  We had very similar shoes (I saw her wearing hers and I was inspired to buy a pair of my own.)

Jen, Laura, Valentina, and me.  Doesn’t everybody look gorgeous??

All in all, it was a great evening.  We had a good crowd (shout out to Suzanne and Michelle for coming out!) and I hope people come back to our future concerts. 

Next Chamber Project St Louis concert is on April 13 at the Chapel.  Lots of good stuff, including Brahms Clarinet Quintet and a repeat of the Martinu, but with a different violist since Laura will be due around then—it’ll be with my husband Chris.  Mark your calendars!

But it’s nice to have one!  Today I made plans to shop with my friend Laura.  My excuse was I had shoes for this weekend’s concert but I needed an outfit.  Since I plan to stand for everything (an unusual occurrence) I thought it might be nice to get a new spring dress—something I could wear for this weekend and then wear again for other stuff like dinners out, symphony concerts, or whatever comes up!  Laura wanted to go to Baby Gap.  (And I’m not going to lie.  I did too.  I haven’t had a real excuse to do that since my little sister Carrie was born, and I don’t recall ever going to Baby Gap then…don’t get excited though mom.  I want to see my abs first 😉 )

Lovely old St Louis streets (on my way to pick up Laura).

My rule for today was that I wanted to match these shoes (which are lighter than they appear here), and ideally get something with a nice spring color, not black, and also I wasn’t allowed to buy purple clothes since I have enough.  Note:  I have these shoes in black and wanted to get another pair after wearing them for a wedding and LOVING them.

But the other colors weren’t available anymore on Zappos.  I lucked into this pair the other week at either Marshall’s or TJMaxx (for less than half) and was SO excited.  I am pretty tall and Chris is not, so I don’t like to wear mega heels around him…also I don’t like to wear mega heels anyway because then I just tower over everybody.  But heels do make your legs look better…this pair is the perfect height, not dowdy, and is also pretty darned comfortable.  (I believe they also come in red…I should do some research.)

We hit up a couple of stores, and I even tried on this as a potential bridesmaid dress.  (What do you think, Leslie?  The skirt is too full for my taste and makes me look like a 13 year old…but otherwise?)  and no I didn’t try on all those clothes, they just needed to clear out the dressing rooms.  You know, it gets so BUSY on Wednesdays during the day at the mall.

We found this absolutely adorable onesie at Baby Gap on clearance.  Chris has a similar top but he has to wear pants with his.  I made an inappropriate joke about how that outfit would be excellent for date nights, what with the snaps around the bottom.

I found a dress at Macy’s that absolutely fit the bill!  And I bought it.  I’ll get a picture on Friday of the whole outfit.  Anyway, shopping success!

Then we hit up Sephora.  Laura said she can’t buy clothes now but she can buy makeup.

I broke my purple rule for some lip gloss.

Not sure why that picture has to be sideways, but evidently it must be.  It tingles a bit and I presume makes my lips look enormous and full and truly luscious.

I probably posted this before but tonight I’ve been doing a bit of interneting (while listening to the SLSO concert and waiting to go out with Chris and our friends Jon and Laura (in the home stretch before baby Ray-Ray comes!). 

I will say that my sisters are like, almost the smartest people I know!  After myself, of course.  And maybe our brother? 

We had a conversation on facebook the other night on one of Leslie’s status updates.  If you are facebook friends with us you should check it out.  Much like my conversations with my friend Sarah, rest assured that all comments are meaningful, thoughtful, and very likely are making fun of somebody or something from our past.  It’s a lot of pressure to be funny all the time, but the pressure is well worth the pay off. 

That’s how it started…

Comic gold, people.  Or…maybe you had to be there? I appreciate how quick everybody’s responses were.  Well done, girls and Carrie, well done!

I mean, really, it got so FUNNY on facebook…