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…

Okay, so my morning post was a WEE bit overdramatic.  Couple that with reading an awful story on NPR about a photographer who was taking pictures of a little bunny and ended up CRUSHING the bunny by accident (I am not linking to the story, and I had to block it from my newsfeed because I kept crying)…and I was a bit of a drama queen. 

My wrist hurting is more than a first world problem, since it continues to plague me throughout my career.  That being said, I had the signs leading up to it all week. I am taking today off, and as I tell my students, if for some reason you can’t practice, LISTEN.  I’ll be doing that.

It’s just that I woke up early to practice all morning and then my schedule was off.  Those who know me well know I like having my schedule set, I like knowing what’s going to happen and where I’m going to be, who I’m going to see, that sort of thing.  Sometimes I get a little bit anal about that sort of thing, and I don’t adapt well to change.  Once change happens, I have a mini freak out, and then I am usually okay.  (Well, as long as large groups aren’t involved.  The older I’ve gotten, the more I just cannot handle large groups.) 

But I’m very resilient, I am okay NOT practicing today, really. At least I’ve gotten some good practice in this week, right?

See, aren’t I doing well?  Aren’t we all proud of me? 

Today’s workout was heavy on the deadlifts.  I was awesome and deadlifted an amount that my trainer reminded me, just a few months ago, made me cry and say "I can’t, I just can’t."  I took that to me I was getting stronger, he took it to mean that sometimes I tell myself I can’t do things that I actually can.  Agree to disagree.

No, that’s not me saying I’m a fast runner.  In fact, my trainer suggested yesterday that I might be faster in races if I walked—this is after I admitted that the run on Sunday only took us 5 to 10 minutes longer than usual.  I could tell he was really holding back the laughter.  Or perhaps laughed out loud.  I don’t know, I always forget stuff when I’m exercising.  I thought perhaps this weekend I’ll just walk the St. Patrick’s Day Race holding a bunch of green beers rather than run it…probably get a PR.

One of my students came in yesterday and said they were trying to figure out what to call this really warm season that is still winter.  She and her friends were puzzling between Sprinter and Wring.  I like them both!  (It’s like Brunch, why didn’t Lunfest get the prize instead?)

In other news, it’s been unseasonably warm here.  Everybody is freaking out that the summer will be boiling.  I went shopping yesterday for new spring/summer clothes. 

It’s the classic blogger pose of self-portrait in a changing room.  BUT…what does that dress remind you of?  I couldn’t resist, especially for the price. (Under $25)

If you guessed:

The bridesmaid dress from my wedding, well you win the prize!

Here’s the prize:

I’ll be shipping out the cats in boxes later this week. 

This is what temptation looks like.  Trick:  do not open any of the boxes.  Wait.  (Not sure what for.  A sign from God?  Perhaps for somebody to say, hey, Hannah, you’ve lost too much weight, you should eat some girl scout cookies?)  Darn adorable students selling cookies.

This is all the music I have to finish learning and perform in the next month. 

This has been a lousy running week.  Yesterday I managed a run/walk for 4 miles (was fine), today I didn’t go at all (stomach issues).  Tuesday I should have stayed at the gym and run but I needed to get groceries before teaching.  Maybe tomorrow I can do a short run after my workout with Mike, though I have a lunch meeting at work.  Saturday is also a strong possibility for a short run.  Sunday we are running 10 miles, rain or shine. 

(What I look like running in the air, a rare occurrence!)

Oh, and I got a text from Leslie last night asking when my half marathon was, and did I want to do a training run in South Carolina.  I can only assume she is already packing for the trip.  Leslie, shall we wear the green shorts and orange tops, or do you want purple shorts and PF Chang’s 2011 shirts?  Or Aqua shorts with green tops?  What are you thinking?  My current shoe choices are pink or turquoise, if that matters.