Somehow during my workout with Mike yesterday we got on the subject of career goals.  He was talking about his, and suddenly asked me what mine were.  I paused and said, Hmm…I guess I don’t have any.

It’s not entirely true.  But as I said it I realized perhaps that was my problem.  I don’t have a goal to be in the SLSO.  Maybe I should but I’m just too darned practical at this point.  I guess I’d like to be on the sub list but I’m just so tired of the disappointment…though that’s why I’ve given myself so much free time, so I can {hypothetically} practice more.  Teaching wise I would like more students, and I’d love to have more advanced students, but that’s not really a goal so much as something that will happen with time if I stop moving and stay in one place.  I am happy just making an impact on my students and making them smile and feel like they can do something on the violin that they couldn’t do before they came in.  And I’m already doing that with my students.

Then I said to Mike, "I’d like to write a book."

Interesting.  Maybe I should work on that.

Thought I’d pop in here with a quick reminder about what you should be doing NEXT WEEKEND.  Yes, I know it’s almost Labor Day weekend (or is already for some of you lazy butts) but NEXT WEEKEND is more important and better.  No, I’m not talking about the tenth anniversary of 9/11 (though I told Chris I had a very special blog post planned, he said, you better not, and I told him now I did out of spite) but I am talking about the first concerts of the year with Chamber Project St Louis.  The first concerts where I am a core member of the group rather than a guest.  (Though the updated photos are not on the website yet.  Here are the founding members!  Laura, Dana, Adrianne, and Jen.  You may recognize everybody from when we were on television in January.)

“FOLK FREEDOM”
Thursday, September 8 2011, 7:30pm
The Chapel: A sanctuary for the arts
$12/4 Click HERE to purchase tickets online

Saturday, September 10, 8:00pm
The Tavern of Fine Arts
suggested contribution: 10$
gratitude contribution: 20$ – includes food and drink gift

Both concerts are the same program so you only NEED to come to one, though, as a student of mine said, haven’t you ever seen a movie twice?  (Yes, in fact, I’ve seen Titanic eleven times in the theater and countless times on video and dvd.)  Seriously though, you only need to come once and I’ll be your best friend forever.  Or not.  Whichever you prefer, actually.

My father may be there as well—if you aren’t a regular reader I will tell you that he is biking here ALL BY HIMSELF from South Carolina.  You can follow his progress on twitter @jerrydfrey.  (You can follow me on twitter @hannahviolin but it’s far less impressive.  Well, impressive in a different way, i.e. how can one person tweet so often yet say so little?  The answer: lots of free time.  Mike suggested I spend that free time running more or perhaps combing my hair or simply staring at myself in the mirror.  But I digress.)

You can follow Chamber Project St Louis on twitter as well @cpstl, like them on facebook, or like me, hannahviolin, on facebook.  Okay!  Enough with the social media, right?  Should I mention that I am “helping” CPSTL start a blog?  It will be launching very soon.

I’m off to teach now, followed by some girl time tonight with some of my friends.  I’ll leave you with a picture of an envelope I got today.  I have been asked many times if I am taking Chris’s last name (answer, not entirely sure, leaning towards not).  However, this was the first piece of mail I received that had my “married” name on it and I have to admit I found it both upsetting and hilarious.  Chris told me to get over it.  Which is FUNNY because he isn’t willing to take MY name.

I can’t!  It’s too much of the “a” sound.  It makes me cringe.  Sorry, Chris, nothing personal!  I think Chris Frey is a far better option.

This is one of those posts where I spill out random thoughts and then rather than edit or proofread, I’ll spend an equal amount of time searching for mildly related pictures or possibly totally random cat pictures.  It’s part of the “life” portion of my blog header.  It’s also one of my favorite sort of blog posts to write!

I was a talkative child.  My mother would always yell at me, “don’t contradict me!” I would argue that I wasn’t contradicting her, I was simply correcting her.

Yes.  I am aware it’s the same thing.  But I always thought if I just explained what I meant, it would make sense.

I’m a last word sort of person.  It’s not that I necessarily HAVE to have the last word.  It’s that I simply do often have the last word.  I think fast, I read faster, and I talk fast.  And a lot.  Sorry about that.  Occasionally I think I’m probably a little hypomanic.  (I’m really not productive enough though.)

My trouble is knowing when to let go.  I’m a little bit intense for most people, on occasion.  It waxes and wanes.  I’m fully aware of my shortcomings.  It’s just that changing myself isn’t something I can do easily.  And not that I should.  I’ve done pretty well so far in my life, so I’m not that worried.  Just spitballing here.

If you have a text conversation with me, I’ll probably write the last text.  Because I’ll always have something else to say.  Though I work really hard to not do that, sometimes.  I know it can be annoying.

I think people put up with me because I’m really quite funny.  I’m sure I have other good qualities too.  I like to think I’m a nice person and a good friend.  Or at least maybe I’m really adorable?

My biggest problem with teaching is talking too much.  I also forget sometimes that my students can’t change gears as quickly as I can (in fact, no one really can!  I can go from laughing hysterically to completely serious in about 1 second.) and they {likely} think I’m a little weird.  I’m cool with that.  My favorite teachers growing up were a little bit weird.

I think it helps me with music.  I’ve been listening (Suzuki style!) to all the music for next week’s Chamber Project St Louis concerts.  (9/8 at 7:30 at the Chapel, 9/10 at 7:30 at the Tavern of Fine Arts, please come!) I am really excited to play all the music and there is just so much emotion involved!  I love playing really emotional pieces.  I am not a terribly emotional person in my day to day life, but I really pour it into my music.

A few months ago I gave myself a facebook timeout.  I took over a week off from facebook.  I did it, I went over the week without checking facebook.  Which was GREAT.  Except then I started using twitter more.  And now I only use facebook occasionally (still more than most people, but trust me, less than I used to) but I’ve become obsessed with twitter!!  So…is this a bad thing?  Do I need to go twitter-free?  Do I need a social media timeout? I am tracking my dad’s progress via twitter so I don’t want to go twitter-free, but I could cut back.  I could also cut back on text messaging.  I don’t want to cut back on blogging though!

And on that note, have a wonderful weekend!  What is most annoying about you?  How can you change this? (I’m kidding, don’t do that.)

Does anybody else find it necessary to brush their teeth immediately after eating cereal?  Is that just me?  I often get up to brush them BEFORE I drink my coffee.  Weird?  It’s the only food that has that effect on me.

My father is in Bardstown, KY right now.  That’s just a bit south of Louisville (I just googled it.)  I want to be clear.  He is on a SOLO bike trip across the country.  I’ve talked to a couple people who asked how many other people he was riding with.  None.  He’s on his own.  Follow his progress on twitter @jerrydfrey.

Okay, I still owe you all some recaps from the Frey Sisters weekend.  Today will be a collection of photos from Friday night’s dinner out at Sanctuaria.  We met up with my friends Laura, Melissa, Jen, Katie and Ranya.

Some of these are obviously before shots.  We were ready early so we had a little digital camera fun.  Not sure why I look pregnant in that one photo but I’m not.  (In case you were wondering).

I’m off for a run.  I may just hit up the treadmill though.  Yesterday I spent the whole time outside feeling like I was going to die.

I want to keep this simple.  I received an email from my friend Emily this morning.  Emily was my best friend growing up in Clinton and is still a dear friend of mine.  I met her boyfriend Aaron last summer and thought he was a wonderful person!  He was recently diagnosed with lymphoma.  It always sucks when people get cancer, but it sucks more when it’s somebody young and (obviously) somebody close to you.

A lot of runners and bloggers do fund-raisers/bake sales for this sort of thing.  That’s not really my style.  I don’t like to make people jump through hoops for a donation.  I CAN do something like that.  I could say, hey, if you all help me raise $2000 I will run the Rock ‘n’ Roll St Louis Half-Marathon for the cause.  But let’s do this instead.  If you can, give a small donation.  If you can’t, that’s okay too.  But I bet you can give a little something.  Let me assure you that Aaron fully deserves what you can give. 

I’m going to put Emily’s beautiful email here.  Visit the link, see what you think.  Look within yourself.  Don’t make me sponsor a bake sale, please!

Dear Friends and Family,

Thanks so much for all of your kind words and encouragement since my boyfriend Aaron was diagnosed with lymphoma. He completed round #4 of chemotherapy last Wednesday and has a follow-up PET scan today to determine how effective his treatment has been so far. After this, we hope Aaron will be done with the chemo and start radiation therapy. I am happy to report that it’s been a long time since he’s been immobilized by the tumor in his hip — the road to recovery is long though. He so misses the outdoor activities he loves — mostly hiking, biking, and mountain climbing!!

Many of you have asked how you can help out Aaron during this time. As you may know, Aaron is a special education teacher at Chase Elementary School in Athens and he is unable to work until his immune system is stronger. Unfortunately, he’s also out of sick leave, no longer receiving pay and facing mounting medical bills. Several of Aaron’s friends and family have established an online fundraiser to raise donations for both his medical and living expenses. Our goal is to raise $6,000 for him by September 14.

Will you take a moment to read more about Aaron’s situation and consider contributing to his fund?

http://www.giveforward.com/helpaaronkickcancer

Again, thank you so much for your kindness and support. We both feel very loved in our community of family and friends.

Much love,

Emily

You all know that working out, and especially, working out with Mike, is an important part of my weekly schedule (and life).  So I decided that a fun activity for my sisters and I would be to all do a workout with Mike together. 

Originally we were going to meet at the park, but Mike decided it would be easier at the gym in the group exercise room.  We wanted to get fun outfits to wear, and we did!  We found these awesome t-shirts in the kids department at Target!

Now, I hadn’t worked out since the previous Thursday, and really hadn’t even run due to my cold, so I knew the workout would be challenging for me.  Carrie is a college student with no time to work out, and Leslie is a Jillian Michaels/Bikram Yoga/Occasional marathoner sort of exerciser.

Anyway, Mike was supposed to wear a costume too, but he texted me that morning to warn me to go ahead and be disappointed because he forgot.  I told him I was used to disappointment.

We got dressed and headed out.  Immediately upon arriving at the gym we ran into my friend Jon, who gladly took this picture.

I was wearing a pink headband on my wrist because I figured Mike could at least wear that.

When Mike saw us, he asked, "Where do you find this stuff?"  as if I constantly wear really weird clothes at the gym.  This from a man who owns short bright purple shorts.

Anyway, the workout was fun.  We did squats, lunges, thrusters (squat with shoulder press), planks, threw weighted balls back and forth, and all kinds of other stuff.  Carrie was DYING, which was (sorry!) kind of funny, and I was pretty tired by the end as well.  Leslie had never really lifted 10 pound weights before so she was working hard also.  Mike was his usual self, which (and I was glad to get confirmation from the girls) meant he was very talkative, but in a low-talker way.  Sometimes I can barely hear him, and I had assumed I was simply losing my hearing.  I was glad to know that they could barely hear him too.  Mike, speak up!  Quit mumbling!  🙂

I requested that they look "fierce."  Carrie wasn’t quite sure what that was. 

After the workout we went to Sweet Art for lunch.  It’s a bakery and sandwich shop that makes vegan stuff. 

I had a vegan philly cheese steak sandwich.  It was both the weirdest thing I had ever eaten and yet also kind of amazing.  The "meat" was made of seitan.  It really had the texture of meat, which was weird.  The flavor of the sandwich was really good though, but the whole thing was tough to eat, because it was really liquidy, and the bottom piece of bread was completely soggy.  I used a fork.  And I had a lemon cupcake.  Non-vegan.  Love that buttercream frosting! And yes, we were wearing our matching "Move your body" t-shirts the whole time.