A couple of weeks ago one of my old friends from Clinton facebooked me that she and her husband were coming to St Louis for vacation and asked if I would be around.  (By old friend, not that she is old—in fact I am older than she is.)  Indeed I was, and we decided to get together for lunch.  They were planning to go to the Budweiser Tour before lunch, and when I mentioned how close that was to my house, they insisted I join them.

I was a little apprehensive, as I hadn’t seen Brooke since…well…maybe the late 90’s.  We used to ride the school bus together and attended the same church.  But here she was married with a small child—would it be an incredibly awkward morning?  Plus, you know how those small-town South Carolina people are…

I shouldn’t have worried.  Within a few minutes of meeting up, we were chatting away like old friends.  Not only that, her husband, Tim, was great and her baby was adorable!

ALMOST makes me want one of my own, but then I remember that they aren’t always so cute, they cost tons of money, and I would have to sacrifice so much sleep…

Anyway, I hadn’t been on the Budweiser Tour, so that was mildly interesting.  Tim brews his own beer so he was eager to steal insider secrets on how to make a ton of money. 

My camera battery was running very low so I didn’t take that many pictures.  The tour took about an hour and went around a variety of buildings.  Honestly it wasn’t that exciting, but still a nice thing to do.  It WAS free.

Also at the end you got free beer.

Each person got two samples and they were pretty generous!  I enjoyed a blueberry flavored beer and a raspberry one best.  I did not sample Bud Light.

Afterwards we went to lunch.  The best part of a six month old baby is you don’t have to act differently around them yet, like you do for a toddler who is talking and can repeat anything you say!

All in all it was really great to see Brooke and meet Tim and her baby.  I guess I haven’t changed that much since high school after all—we’ve both matured and grown up but our personalities are at heart still the same.  Goes to show you that people just don’t really change, and that is both a good and a bad thing.

Look at those fat little legs!!  At one point Brooke asked me if I wanted to hold him, but I did not.  Is there something wrong with me that I just don’t have that urge?  I did however want to make funny faces at him and poke him a lot.

Today:  lunch meeting, teaching, and run.  I need to stay busy.  It’s already 84 outside so I can already guarantee my run is going to suck.  Wait, that’s a really negative attitude.  Hmm…let me rephrase.  It’s already 84 outside so I can already guarantee my skin will really glow the whole time I am running.  Or should I go to the gym?  Either way I need to get away from the computer. 

For those of you interested in Alicia and Andrew, here’s a link to a website started to keep people up to date.

I’m curious about you, the readers!  If you are a reader, PLEASE consider introducing yourself in the comments.  Where do you come from?  Why do you read my blog?  Any questions or suggestions for me?  I’d love to hear from you!

www.marriedtothesea.com

Every single day somebody finds my blog by searching for “cheese” or “cheese slice.”  Do I talk about cheese very often?

Other searches this week:

very beautiful pedicure – why thank you, and a manicure now as well.

marathon running loses control of bowels – never fails, people love searching for this.  I had to take the picture down though. 

jon hamm personal email – if you find it, let me know!  I’m sure he’s waiting to hear from me.

getting into a symphony without a good resume – how about getting in without a good audition? But have you read my orchestra auditions for non musicians post?

i am a reader and a runner blog – I guess I’m these things…I hope they enjoyed what they found!  Remember I also play the violin and I’m mildly sociopathic with an inflated sense of self…just kidding!

violin cake – sounds delicious!

purple pig calamari – oh YES.  So good.  Also contains vegetables, a bonus!

outdoor hot yoga phoenix – wouldn’t that simply be doing yoga outside in phoenix in the summer?

There’s something narcissistic about having a blog and writing about yourself.  (I think that’s probably an understatement 😉  )  The question is:  have I become MORE narcissistic since starting this blog or have I always been that way?  Karen and I were discussing this the other night—she thinks I haven’t changed much since we were friends in Cleveland.  I guess I was narcissistic then as well?  I think I’m a good friend too though.  I try not to just talk about myself, in fact, since I put it all out there on the blog I can spend more time with friends asking about them and listening rather than telling them about my life.

Or am I deluding myself?  What do you all think?

Unrelated:  my weekend may have caught up to me last night during my run.  I was going for 4 miles, and only made it 2 miles before I had to stop and almost threw up.  I fought against nausea for the rest of the run…I could blame the heat, but I will probably blame my weekend activities instead.  No lasting harm done though, I’m sure.  Only up two pounds this morning…not great, not great.

Remember:  PLEASE introduce yourself in the comments here!  No more lurking 😉

www.marriedtothesea.com

I knew I’d be doing a lot of walking in Chicago, and when I was packing, I considered my footwear carefully.  I failed though.  I failed so much.  I spent several nights in severe pain.  I don’t understand what went wrong—I chose shoes I had worn for lots of walking in the past…maybe it was all the walking in the rain?  Either way, how gross are my feet right now?  And seriously, yes, some of those blisters hurt so much but there wasn’t anything I could do about it.  Become one with the pain, right?

I am vain enough that I wouldn’t consider wearing my running shoes around town sightseeing, so after a few days all I was left with were my old school, cheap (free from a wedding), old navy flip flops in black (versatile, match everything!).  And I wore them all day yesterday when Karen and I walked over 6 miles.  You might be surprised to hear that my calves and feet are really sore now.  Crazy, right?  

Every time I try to pack lighter, I wish I’d packed more stuff.  I always pack the wrong stuff.  I needed more shoes and more shirts.

It’s the big 3-0 for Leslie (my younger sister)!  Go you!

Halloween.

Rock’n’Roll Phoenix Marathon 2010

Leslie and Albergo the cat, Leslie from a younger time

Leslie and her fiancé Peter

(Really I’m just stalling here…I am done teaching and I need to get a run in to counteract the ridiculous amounts of calories I ingested over the weekend…and it’s really hot.)

And I forgot to blog about my brother Jesse’s birthday a few weeks ago…Happy belated birthday to Jesse!

I used to live alone, but it’s been a long time.  And of course I haven’t been "single" in a long time.  I am NOT used to being alone.  I do enjoy my alone time, but those two are incredibly different—being alone and alone time.  Chris is gone for just a few weeks and if I hadn’t made plans to go visit a friend I think I was on the verge of imploding.  Yes, I guess I truly am that codependent and needy.  That’s why Chris and I work so well together—we are both needy, codependent, and hate being alone.  (There are a whole host of other reasons too, in fact, many of those reasons are less pathetic sounding!)

Yet here I sit, alone in Chicago…which is fine, because my friend is just out for a run and then we are getting lunch.  I spent all morning alone too, and I didn’t mind a bit.  If I were sitting in my apartment at home I’d probably be going stir crazy (I know I was by Wednesday night), but here I did a 5 mile run up and down the lakefront, then read a bit, listened to music…all totally normal stuff.  But it feels better, and I feel more relaxed and calm than I did at home.  Of course, I don’t have to worry about cleaning, or clutter, or even wedding planning for a few days.  That helps too.

I think, however, it helps most being near an old friend.  I have made some wonderful friends in St Louis, but they are all "new" friends.  Karen understands me really well, yet still likes me.  She has seen me at some very low points in my life, and some very high points.  We don’t always see eye to eye, but we get where the other person is coming from.  It’s really relaxing being around somebody like that—not worrying about saying the wrong thing or embarrassing myself (sorry St Louis friends, but I worry about those sort of things all time!)  And she gives honest, practical, advice.  I think me being here is helping her out too–

It’s nice sometimes to just be Hannah too…since I moved to St Louis with Chris I have always been part of a couple for everybody there.  My old friends know ME and Chris both together and separate.  I fear losing my sense of self (have I already?).  In fact, I’m terrified of it.  My past, my present, my future.  These are things that Chris is a part of, but I still have my own life, and I don’t want to simply be part of a couple.

Does that sound terrible?  I don’t think so…I want to marry Chris because being with him is the only thing in life that has made me truly content and happy…but part of me is that I am not content and happy BEING truly content and happy.  I like to be a bit off kilter…to have a bit more excitement, even if that excitement ends with burning my finger on a skewer, or with a bunch of bruises on my legs, or even in tears.  I want the downs in life to make the ups that much stronger.  That’s why I love classical music…you get those ups and downs and in-betweens.  Emotions make us feel alive.  I believe that Chris knows this about me and tries to protect me from myself.

I feel like I’m being really introspective and dark for 2:30 pm.  But it’s GOOD.  It’s important to analyze ourselves and our motives. 

Sorry for the deep post!  Must be the heat, getting to me 🙂

That’s the view from Karen’s apartment.  Except now the view is this.

Yes, that’s a storm coming through.  She is in rehearsal and I was hoping to go run around the lake.  (By the lake).  I still have plenty of time though—hoping it’ll pass through.

Yesterday I drove in.  I got here around 1:30 and we had lunch then decided to go to the Aquarium.  We thought it would easiest for her to park at the Millennium Park Garage and then take a cab there rather than pay for parking.  We got a little "pick me up" at the Tavern on the Park first, to give us the nerve to fight through the throngs of children we would soon be dealing with ;)  It turned out that the cab ride to the Aquarium cost more than half of parking, so that was a disappointment. 

However, when we got in line at the place, an older woman came up to us and gave us "member" wristbands so that we didn’t have to pay a thing—I guess she was a member and was leaving for the day.  Rock stars, that’s us.  So we got into all the exhibits and shows for free. 

(Reenactment)

VERY hot and sweaty. 

In any case, the Aquarium was pretty cool.  My favorite part was this one tank where a bunch of the fish were hanging out in one corner, but WAY in the back there was this grumpy looking orange fish just hiding.  We left and came back to check on that fish later (maybe 1 hour later) and he was still there!  I hope he wasn’t sick or something.  We decided he just didn’t like the other fish.

The other thing that was really interesting was that I always think of fish as constantly moving around but it really seemed that a lot of them just sat still for a lot of the time.  I suppose that makes sense?  Weird though.

After the Aquarium closed we went to get ready for dinner.  Guess what we wanted to eat?

That’s right.  Sushi.

Karen wanted to go to an Improv club later so we picked a sushi restaurant near that club.  It was called Itto Sushi and ended up being fantastic.  I had some rolls I’d never had before, one with plum paste and another with fermented soybeans. 

After dinner we went to the club.  It was a place that some little groups do Improv Comedy shows every Thursday night, near Wrigley Field.  The cover was only $5, and the show was a lot of fun!  There were three different groups, and they were all very funny, especially the first group—their name was something Pizza.  I can ask Karen where the place was if anybody is really curious.

Today I’m just waiting out the storm.  Tonight Karen has a concert and I’ll go with her and then who knows.  Today is her busiest day while I’m here so I’ve also been doing some work-related stuff that came up (over 45 minutes of phone calls and busywork so far…).  Her apartment is on the 33rd floor, two blocks from the lake, so I definitely need to get out there.  Yesterday I didn’t exercise at all, unless you count walking several miles (which you probably could count, and my darned blistered feet probably count it), but I don’t ;)  It is starting to clear up outside and I’m worried it’s going to be awful and muggy.

Oh, and this is Centipede.  She slept next to me a bit last night.