One concert down, one to go!

I invited Maddie from City in a Jar to attend our Chamber Project St Louis concert last night.  She wrote up a really great blog post about it.  Please go check it out.  I met Maddie earlier this summer at Will Write for Wine and we have become good friends on twitter.  It was nice to see her in person again!

My dad got into town around 1 pm yesterday on his bike.  I was not blog-prepared, in fact, I have taken no photos since then.  I’ll try to get one of him taking off so you can see how much gear he has on his bike—he said all in all it weighs about 75 pounds.  Imagine biking on that all day, every day.  Today is his first day off in about 16 days, and he will be heading out in a bit to make sure his new tire is working well before getting back on the road for real.  We also made a trip to REI to get a sleeping bag liner since the weather is cooling off.  He is planning to head towards Phoenix, Arizona next, and won’t be there for at least a month if not more.  He said the trip has been more difficult that he thought, but will be able to take more days off in the future—he was working hard to get here in time for my concert.

I was also delighted last night that a few members of the SLSO including my fiance Chris were there by the end of our show.  I had originally thought Chris would be able to attend but it turned out it was the night of their opening Pops concert at Forest Park.  However, he was there at the end and I was so happy he got to hear me play the Prokofiev.  It meant a lot to have him and my father there.

I keep forgetting to mention this, so I wanted to make a very special post about it.  Not really.  It’s Thursday morning, I got up earlier than I needed to, so I’m blogging.  It’s my hobby 🙂

Are you a healthy living blogger in St Louis?  Then join us for a meet up at 1 pm on September 25 at Pi on the Delmar Loop.  The meet up is organized by Real Fit Mama and so far only 4 of us are down for it.  I don’t necessarily consider myself a healthy living blogger per se—and maybe you don’t either.  No matter.  Go here and let Real Fit Mama know if you are planning to come!

If that doesn’t spell healthy living, why then I just don’t know what does!  It certainly makes my stomach rumble for that delicious cornmeal based crust…the first time I ate it I almost cried with happiness.  Oh wait.  I do that almost every time!

Okay, gotta do some minor preparations for my father’s visit.  He’s getting into St Louis around noon, evidently, and I am in no way prepared for a houseguest.  I am under a great deal of stress right now and just barely keeping it together.  Everything I am going through was as a result of choices and decisions I made, but knowing that doesn’t make it easier.

I love this picture.

Hi all.

Remember tomorrow is our concert “Folk Freedom” for Chamber Project St Louis.  We had the last dress rehearsal tonight and it’s going to be fantastic.

“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

Evidently my father is 25 miles south of St Louis right now.  He should be here by lunch tomorrow.  He’s been riding his bike from South Carolina, by himself, for the past two weeks and one day.  That’s a bike he’s pedaling, just FYI, not something motorized.  (I’ve gotten a lot of questions.)

I’m exhausted.  That dress rehearsal took everything I had.  And I didn’t have a whole lot to begin with.

The symphony starts up again tomorrow.  Fall is truly here.

I said fall, not fail!  Meh.  Same thing.

(I’m sorry.  This may be the worst blog post ever.  Come to our concert if you live in St Louis, you’ll love it!  Plus you can meet my dad.)

Doing this one Wordless Wednesday style, even though it’s Tuesday:

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.