Hello readers!

As you most likely know, I’ve been dealing with a really bad cold over the past few days.  I’m trying not to absolutely stress out over what I’m behind on–particularly in terms of violin practice for a certain audition I am (still?) planning to take…every time I’ve tried to practice it has felt like playing underwater, or worse…and it’s not just the audition I have coming up—this weekend is full of Chamber Project St Louis rehearsals AND Winter Opera St Louis rehearsals!  I definitely didn’t have a bit of crying jag about this last night.  I do find that allowing oneself to get upset and then to mentally work through it can be helpful, don’t you?

Hopefully this will pass…and I will be back on schedule and back on track, both in terms of practice, teaching (I haven’t seen some students in a couple weeks and I miss them!), and of course working out and MARATHON TRAINING.  Running hasn’t happened since the race last weekend…but I’ll get back on track.  I’m far more stressed out about violin practice than anything else at this point.  Oh, and there’s the small fact that during a particularly violent coughing fit yesterday I sort of hurt my shoulder…let’s just all smile and whistle, shall we?  EVERYTHING WILL EITHER BE OKAY OR IT’LL BE OKAY IN THE END.

If you are by chance behind on my blog I have three posts from the past week you should check out.  One is a review and giveaway of a pain relief cream and a vitamin type thing (which hasn’t seemed to help me at all, but might help you!).  Then I wrote a fun post talking about Leslie’s wedding and showing off some great pictures of her and her wedding.  And of course the recap of the half marathon I ran last weekend, the Rock and Roll Arizona Race.

Another recommended read for you is the blog my youngest sister Carrie is writing about her group, Chartreuse, and their current tour of Norway. 

They ran a kickstarter to fund their project, and as one of their donors (and as a sister) I am eagerly following their progress.  They have been very well received and are learning so much while having a wonderful time.  I am often so impressed with what my siblings have accomplished in their lives  and struggle with feeling like my life is uninspired in comparison!  (We mustn’t compare ourselves to others though, should we, particularly our own siblings?)  Needless to say I am proud of Carrie, and particularly enjoyed this part of her blog:

Tonight we are planning to go out to a jazz club called Victoria’s, where there is a free concert by some of the jazz students (jazz here being a very loose term; what do you even call any of it now? they’ll be improvising music. That is what musicians do. They just play music).

I love that!  MUSICIANS PLAY MUSIC. 

Oh, and don’t use the hashtag “feet” on instagram, for fun, unless you want things to get weird.  I was being silly because I finally painted my toenails to cover up the nasty black nails and put it on instagram…I did not think that through.  Lesson learned.