Oatmeal Madness, Part the Second

Yes, I know I skipped a week.  But it’s time for week two of Oatmeal Madness!!!

(For part one, go here).

Last night Chris and I were discussing the grocery list (yes, it’s a discussion when I go shopping because I hate to bring a list unless I am making a big and important meal—I feel like trying to remember the list is a great mental exercise, so we talk about what we need) and I asked him if he wanted me to buy him more cereal.  He still eats cereal for breakfast, even though it is evidently THE WORST THING EVER.  He said yes, even though he admitted it was definitely the reason he was so fat (Chris likes to say he’s fat a lot.  For the record, he is one of the least fat people I have known.) Later that night I was changing and I admired my emerging abdominal muscles in the bedroom mirror.  Chris may have rolled his eyes at me, but I know Chris is totally jealous of my abs—abs that are starting to show SIMPLY because I no longer eat cereal.

Because that’s not a six pack.

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I am so much tanner.  And my abs are more defined now than in this picture from our honeymoon, but possibly only in my head.  I feel like taking a picture of them right now would be borderline pornographic, and that’s just not the sort of blog I’m running.  I’ll get a picture later, when it seems appropriate, like at the beach.

Boy do I wish we were on a tropical vacation now, that would be awesome! (pictures from here and here)  But I digress.

What was I talking about?  Oh right, oatmeal.

It’s been two weeks since my last post.  Since then I’ve eaten a fair amount of oatmeal.  I haven’t taken pictures of all of it though.  I had a bit of a blogger fail while I was at my parent’s house and didn’t take enough pictures.  Rest assured I have been eating either oatmeal or protein/fruit smoothies for breakfast.  My parents have a microwave so I decided to take advantage of it and make oatmeal in the microwave—quaker oats, water, microwave, stir, add protein powder and fruit on top.  Maybe a little milk to add a bit of creaminess.  Why yes, I am actually giving you a “recipe” for oatmeal.  Should I make a tab at the top for these recipes?

I got a few questions from my last post which I shall address now.  Leslie asked, what if I don’t want to cook in the morning, OR prepare my oats the night before?  That’s an excellent question.  My suggestion would be to try to get somebody else to do it for you.  That’s the best life advice I can offer you as well:  “Don’t do something yourself if somebody else can do it for you.”  It’s the opposite of what my friend Laura once said, which was “I prefer to do things myself rather than have somebody else do it wrong.” 

If you have any other oatmeal related questions (and I’m sure you do) please tweet, text, email, facebook, IM, google plus, or friendster message me.  You may also phone, telegram, mail, or send a passenger pigeon.  I’ll use some of the most popular questions in my next oatmeal post! Or I will make some up.  Either way, right?

*drumroll please*

Without further delay, here are some of my oatmeal pictures from the last two weeks!

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This looks to be regular oatmeal, yogurt and blackberries.  Always with protein powder, I’ve got a lovely cake batter flavor happening right now.  That looks really delicious!

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This is similar but it looks like I used a bit of peanut butter (or cookie butter, I’ll admit, I’m not above putting a dab of that in my breakfast even though I highly doubt Mike would approve) AND it looks too watery.  I only measure the protein powder and the oatmeal and then I add yogurt or milk or water to get what I think is the correct consistency.  This doesn’t look quite right.

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I decided to try steel cut oats again.  I love them conceptually, but they are so chewy without cooking them.  It makes a pretty satisfying breakfast though.  This looks like I just added water, no yogurt, and those are indeed blackberries.

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This looks like a winning breakfast, in my opinion.  And tons of delicious berries on it.  I would eat this all day long if I had enough.

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Overnight oats in a jar!  BLOG WIN.  (OOIAJ)

We finished off a jar of peanut butter.  Oatmeal, protein powder, milk, and some chia seeds because I added too much milk.  Oh, and if you are fruit blind, those are blackberries.   This was absolutely delicious.  Probably because it contained massive amounts of peanut butter.

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This made me gag a little when I took it out of the fridge.  Note to readers:  do not add chocolate peanut butter the night before.  It will look like poo the next morning.  Steel cut oats and strawberries rounded off this so-so breakfast.  And the strawberries were still a little frozen.  Not my favorite.

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I didn’t have enough strawberries here.  Rolled oats and yogurt.  The strawberries were nice and juicy though, and that added awesome flavor.  I love strawberries after they have been frozen and then thawed.

There you have it!  Any questions?  (In addition to the other ways I listed of asking questions, and I think I left Google Buzz and Myspace off that list, you can naturally leave your questions in the comments, please do so!)

That concludes week two of Oatmeal Madness.  Thanks for reading!

Gods on the Ceiling (Tuesday is the longest day)

It’s cool.  I love teaching for 5 1/2 hours after 4 hours of rehearsal.  My entire body aches.  I feel like I must be 90 years old.

I get to do it all over again tomorrow too!  My violin mark (on my neck) is a disaster and I think there is something seriously wrong with my shoulder.  Or there’s nothing wrong with my shoulder that a few weeks away from the violin (or maybe even days) won’t fix.  I don’t know.  I’ll find out soon.  Ice.  Ice is my friend.

But…Brahms.

Read today’s Chamber Project Blog entry!

(from the blog:)

Finally, our violinist Hannah answers a few questions about the program.

What is your favorite piece on the program and why or what do you love about the piece you are playing? I am torn between the Brahms Clarinet Quintet and the Martinu Duo.  Brahms is one of my absolute favorite composers, but (sorry Dana!) the [Brahms] Violin Sonatas are my first love.  Quintets are tough for a self centered violinist like me, because I have to share the spotlight more than I’d like.  Seriously though, the piece is absolutely genius, but I almost more prefer listening than playing (and yes, it’s been on in my car for the past several weeks!).  The Martinu on the other hand is so much fun to play.  I’ve already performed it in March with Laura, and I’m really looking forward to playing it again.

What is the most challenging aspect of this program?  Well, playing Brahms well is a weakness of mine.  Perhaps it’s a weakness for everyone…when he writes sotto voce I always freak out because I feel like a gorgeous soft sound is just hard to do.  I’m much better at loud and bombastic!  The other really challenging thing is this one run of octaves in the last movement of the Martinu.  It’s one of the most difficult technical passages I’ve had to play in a long time, and it happens twice.  I’ve been practicing it every day, but it just never sounds the way it should.  (Octaves, meaning two of the same notes, but one higher and one lower, and I have to use my first finger and my pinky finger while playing on two different strings and I have to move or shift my hand for EACH note.  Fast.)

Is there a ‘magical moment’ for you in this music? You’ll just have to watch my face to see.  There’s a place in the Hayden when the saxophone enters and it just cracks me up, the effect is so cool. Brahms is full of magical moments, though I have a couple favorites, like I said, watch my face and you’ll know…and I love the second movement of the Martinu–it’s so dark and icy, and reminds me a lot of some of my favorite Shostakovich Symphonies.

Read more here!

Look at the picture.  The far left corner.  Yes, that’s our lunch.  Jimmy John’s and a Diet Coke.

rehearsnig at tofa

Oh, and there’s a lot of blog entries going around about life in the orchestral world and such.  This is mainly in light of the mess the Louisville Orchestra is in right now.  I wrote a lovely post around a year ago that you should read if you haven’t (alert, shameless self-promotion ahead!)

Orchestra auditions for non-musicians.

It’s a tough world out there, readers.  I can’t actually afford to live on the salary I make working my butt off.  Or at least, as my parents put it, in the manner to which I am accustomed.  I feel like I’m constantly underwater, failing my students, just barely getting by, but yet if I had more students to make more money…I’d just be doing worse.  And it’s not like these concerts are paying the bills.

They could be though.  Did you know that Chamber Project St Louis is a non-profit?  You can make a tax deductible contribution to us!  I’d recommend you do so, and if you do you get your name in the program, plus I will totally pretend to be your friend 😉

Okay, I made that last part up.  (Don’t worry!  I won’t pretend to be your friend.)  But if you are looking to support your local arts community you couldn’t find a better way.  We give a variety of concerts throughout the year, many free, most are very inexpensive, and do our best to educate and entertain our audiences.  If you are seriously interested go to the website and read up on it.  The other members aren’t as crazy as I am either.

Let me just quote from last year’s blog post:

You won’t love what you do most days, but sometimes you will love it so much that all the pain and suffering is worthwhile.

And then just for fun…

“All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.” –J.R.R. Tolkien (The Fellowship of the Ring)

(I’m aware that April is the cruelest month for me…please don’t call in the men in white jackets.  I’m simply worn out.  June is just around the corner.)

Saxomophone

So…I wrote about our concert with Chamber Project St Louis this Friday here.

Then I went to rehearsal and our saxophone player, Adrianne, was upset by the line “and some other stuff too.”  I should have mentioned the other stuff too!  (I hope she wasn’t actually upset and was only a little ticked at me, because I certainly meant no offense…)

Anyway.  I’m a violinist.  Of course I love the Brahms and Martinu most.  And I’m not even on one of the pieces.  But Adrianne is an amazing classical saxophonist, a rare breed really, and if you like saxophone, or, frankly, if you DON’T like saxophone, you’ll love her performances.  She does some amazing stuff with the instrument.

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Friday night, 8 pm.  Last big concert of the season, and you won’t want to miss it!  Besides which, Chris and I are playing together, that’s a rare enough occurrence!

We’re all rehearsing like mad.  Please don’t ask how my shoulder feels.  We’re just putting everything on hold until after this Friday the 13th.  But I went to the gym tonight and it was great to be back.

Question:  is it okay to wear the amazing polka dot dress again or is it too soon?

Make your plans for Friday the 13th!

Come see me and my husband play with Chamber Project St Louis!

April 13, 2012  8:00pm

“Gods on the Ceiling”

 

The Chapel Venue

6238 Alexander Dr. 63105

www.chapelvenue.com

$12 includes concert and two drinks

purchase tickets online here or at the door

It should be a good concert!  Brahms Clarinet Quintet, Martinu Violin/Viola duo, and some other stuff too.  Follow the links there or email me for more information.  I hope to see you all there.  Seriously, Chris is a fantastic violist and puts the rest of us to shame—come for that reason alone.

(Am I transparently sucking up in the hopes that he’ll be nice to me at rehearsal?  Maybe… 😉 )

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Performing the Martinu Duo with Laura, now I have to perform it with Chris since Laura is having a baby

It’s always interesting working with Chris—I feel like we musicians are more accustomed to working with our friends than people in other fields, and it’s a constant struggle to keep business and personal life separate.  Chris and I have strong personalities, are very competitive, and both tend to think we are right, so we do tend to clash a bit in rehearsals.  I also take his criticism more personally than from other people (though exceptions come to mind).  But in other ways we work really well together, since we (obviously) know each other so well (too well!) and understand each other’s facial expressions and body language more than other people do. 

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Valentina and I are playing together again too—she is second from the right.

We haven’t had as many rehearsals YET as I’d want to, but they are all happening this week.  It should be a really awesome concert in the end, though this week is pretty busy and stressful…both with the concert and then the half marathon on Sunday.  (Goal:  don’t die.  I’m also hoping sheer adrenaline and willpower will carry me through under 2:30 since training sure isn’t.)

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Me, pumped last year.  Didn’t really help.  But I have a whole extra year of running behind me now.

Back to Titanic

Titanic Poster

How do I write about Titanic?  Very few movies and books have a significant impact on my life (I’m looking at you, Ender’s Game, and LOTR).

Remember when Avatar came out the other year?  I was reading an article in Entertainment Weekly, an interview with James Cameron, and he was asked, what if Avatar passed Titanic to become the highest grossing film of all time?  He said, well, I’ll just rerelease Titanic.   My heart stopped briefly.

And then last year.  I was driving, and I heard on the radio that it was happening.  They were rereleasing Titanic.  In 3D.  Which, honestly, I didn’t care about at all.  Up until the other day, I hadn’t seen a 3D movie, nor did I have a real desire to see one.

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And if you are a follower of mine on twitter you’ll know that I rarely tweet in all caps.  Rarely.

Let me back up.  Titanic came out in 1997, in December.  This would have been my junior year in college.  I lived in a lovely apartment with 4 other people near my school.  I didn’t see Titanic until after Christmas break.  And then over a period of several months, I saw it 11 times.  I don’t remember specific details, for instance, did I ever see it twice in one day? More than once in a weekend?  I remember I went with my friend Scott most of the times, but not every time.  Not only did we see Titanic, we became experts at the history of the Titanic disaster.  We even went to the library and looked at microfilm of the newspapers around the time of the disaster.  We read books.  I listened to the soundtrack at night to fall asleep to.  I lived, breathed, and slept Titanic.  I don’t know how I managed to do anything else!  That movie is LONG.  And then I got  a bootleg copy on video, so then it was game over.  I basically have the entire movie memorized (please don’t judge me.)

11 times in the theater, and then who knows how many on video, DVD, and on Television?  Dozens more?  Hundreds?

And how am I no longer in touch with some of my friends from this time?  It’s a real shame facebook didn’t exist back in my college days.  Can you believe people used to lose touch, before email, cell phones, facebook, and twitter?

My sister Leslie has seen Titanic a couple or three times as well.  In fact, we quote Titanic more often than one might even realize—many of the words and phrases in our vernacular are indeed, from Titanic.  Either actual quotes, or quotes we made up. (many Airplane quotes fit into Titanic.)

So.  Last week as you know I was visiting my family and playing a concert in South Carolina.  And I stayed a day longer just to hang out.  A day, that just happened to be the day that Titanic came out in theaters.

I hate crowds.  I was worried there’d be crowds.  So we went to the 11:30 am show.  My father pointed out that some people do actually work during the day (no one in our house at that time) so it shouldn’t be busy.  We bought tickets in advance, just in case (it was an hour drive to the movie theater, and I figured I’d be too stressed out otherwise)…and that’s when I started getting, shall we say…

REALLY EXCITED

Like, I don’t get excited about stuff that often.  I am a bitter, cynical, jaded, optimist.  How does that work?  Well, basically it means I expect that stuff will work out and be fine in the end, but that getting there will be kind of a pain and not really go the way I want it to and nothing will be quite as fun or exciting as I thought it might be.  You know, I’m a typical adult.

But I was ready to go back to Titanic. 

And it did not disappoint. Oh, Kate and Leo.  You are both so beautiful.  And young.  When did we stop being young?

From the moment the movie actually started (after those awful awful previews)…I was completely engrossed.  I’ve seen the movie dozens (hundreds?) on times on my television since 1998…but really, nothing compares to the big screen.  What a wonderful movie.

Who wants to go see it again?

And yes, you’re welcome James Cameron.  I have helped you become a very wealthy man.

Fool me once, shame on you

I posted something similar on my blog awhile back.  Last night I was hanging out with a friend and she referenced it.  She said it made her think—maybe I was just mean.  Then on the way home (I was driving, and she lives on the way) I missed her turn.  I said, oh, I was just going to my house.  She said, of course you were, because you only think of yourself.  And then we laughed and laughed.

One of my students yesterday asked if I followed the Cardinals.  Evidently he knows the new manager because he lives next door to one of the coaches.  I told him I did but was really a Braves fan.  He looked at me incredulously.  I said, yes, really.  And then he made fun of me.  I posted that on twitter, and got this response.

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Yep. 

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And that too.  Fool me once, shame on you.  Fool me twice…wait, if I recall W said it best:

"There’s an old saying in Tennessee — I know it’s in Texas, probably in Tennessee — that says, fool me once, shame on — shame on you. Fool me — you can’t get fooled again." —

(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KjmjqlOPd6A)

thoughts about violin, teaching, running, life.