Random thoughts

The great makeup debate!

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Everybody is weighing in on my makeup pictures 🙂  I notice no one has mentioned my hair… (please don’t.)

To put things in perspective, I did this myself (and this photo is edited already, by the wonderful Sarah Crowder).  I’m wearing what I considered to be a ton of eyeliner, and it basically disappears.  Now, Chris isn’t wearing any makeup, and honestly, I think his eyelashes and lips disappear (yes, but would I want to marry him if he wore makeup…hrrmmm…).

It’s amazing how many different opinions people have!  What that means (to me) is that I can’t lose.

Next question:  Should I wear a veil or not?  I have a little hairpiece that came with my dress.  Are you married?  Did you wear a veil?  Do you have pictures to share with me?  (You can email!)  Also pictures of you and your makeup are welcome!

Remember how the other week we ate dinner at our rehearsal dinner venue?  It was delicious.  We learned today that they changed their menu, and neither of the entrees we tried (and loved) are available anymore!  Hopefully the new menu will be as good…we were initially disappointed, but ultimately I’m sure it’ll be wonderful.

Do you like bacon?  Do you like peanut brittle?  Click here for bacon peanut brittle!

30 days of Thanksgiving:  (did I already do this today?  I can’t be bothered to check—I should stop posting twice a day, huh?):  I’m thankful that tomorrow is Friday and I have a facial AND a Twilight mini-marathon planned (with friends!) after work.  We are going to watch the 1st and 3rd movies.

Food

One week until Thanksgiving

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Thanksgiving is possibly my favorite holiday.  Don’t get me wrong, I love Christmas, but there is just something about Thanksgiving (maybe it’s the fact that it’s just one day and you don’t have to worry about buying gifts) that makes it feel amazing and special.

What do you do for Thanskgiving?  For the past several years Chris and I have celebrated with our friends.  Usually he has to work and in the past I’ve had to work too, not on the day but on the days around, so we aren’t able to travel.  I consider this a blessing—I hate traveling at the same time as everybody else!  I enjoy travel and going new places, but not at the same time as the rest of the country.  For instance, when we go on our honeymoon, it should be LESS busy because it will be right after the New Year.

I got an email from Laura who is hostess for this year (second year in a row, she’s amazing!) with the menu.  Oh my goodness.  It is a fantastic looking menu.  Turkey, two kinds of stuffing, potatoes, brussel sprouts salad, other vegetables, mac and cheese, cheesecakes (yes, plural), bread pudding…we are going to be so fat by the end of the day!  I can’t wait!

I want (need) to go for a run today but my legs are super sore from yesterday’s workout.  Too many lunges!  I will try anyway, the twitter consensus is that I should go out slow and it will help.  Speaking of consensuses, there certainly isn’t one as far as my wedding day makeup goes.  Some people love it, some think I should wear no makeup at all, some like parts and not others.  Who knew makeup was so controversial, haha?

Weddings

More makeup or less makeup?

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I think, in case there was any wonder, I have officially turned the corner into vanity-land.  Today I had a makeup "trial" for my wedding.  During that the makeup artist suggested that I consider doing a series of microdermabrasion facials (or something like that) to really clear up my skin.  I thought, you know, why not?  You only get married once!  (fingers crossed).  So between hair, makeup, and skin care, I’m going to the salon almost every week between now and the big day.

Which is six weeks from Monday.

OMG.

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I look a little unlike me in this photo, I think.  I’m thinking about the eyeliner.  I’m told it will make my eyes pop in the photos, but it’s a lot!  I also feel like I look older.  Then again, self portraits are not my forte.

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After that I went to teach.  I left the makeup on to see how it would hold up. 

One of my students asked why I was so tan and wearing so much makeup.  I told her it was because I was getting married.  At which point she squealed "Your boyfriend asked you to marry him??"  The thing is, I didn’t start teaching her until after I was engaged.  She must have heard that somewhere.  Thank you society! 

I’ve been getting more comments that have the sentence "When YOU have children."  I suppose as a woman, that is my only next move.  Engaged, check.  Married, soon.  BABIES.

I suppose it never ends.  People will never be happy.  Because one baby is never enough.  Plus then that baby has to grow up and get married.

Couple of fun quotes.  The first one I saw recently and loved.  I don’t remember it from the books?

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This one I love.

I’ve been thinking about that one recently.  And here’s an article about somebody who just wouldn’t quit.

(When did I start being a motivational type person?  What’s wrong with me?)

30 days of Thanksgiving:  I’m thankful for my loyal blog readers and friends (don’t care if I’ve used that already, you guys are the best, and I love the comments lately).  I’m also thankful for my fuzzy velour pants that I am wearing right now. 

Cat, Food, Hope

Online bake sale starts now!

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What: Baking BeCAUSE Online Auction

Where: www.sweettaterblog.com

When: Wednesday 11/16 from 10am EST to 10pm EST

Benefitting: Beards BeCAUSE for the United Family Services Shelter for Battered Women

Twitter hashtag: #BakingBeCAUSE

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You know you want a loaf of this.  Go bid!  Proceeds go to help battered woman (of which I swear I’m not, that band-aid was totally covering a pimple!).  Okay, that’s probably a completely inappropriate joke. 

Oh well.  You know me.  As my mother told me, I take after my father.  Sometimes people don’t realize we’re joking.  In this case I am joking.  Whatever.  I can make jokes, at least I am donating my delicious chocolate chip pumpkin bread to charity, right?  You’ll love it!  Go bid!!  There’s lots of stuff up for sale.

Also the author of the blog has two awesome cats.  I used to have two awesome cats.  Now I have one.

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Though I have to admit I’m a little miffed at her this morning.  She was super annoying and spent a good hour trying to wake me up by making little noises and slowly moving stuff around.

Random thoughts

Yawn

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I went to see a friend’s new baby today.  I found it very interesting that her baby weighed less than my cat.  Yes, it’s true!  She said the baby was about 11 pounds, and my cat is approximately 13 pounds.  BOOM.

Did I ever tell you all that one of my best friends is pregnant?  Laura (of Laura and Jon) is due in April.  They find out what the baby will be next week.  I’m hoping for a herm!  (Just kidding.  I’m hoping it’s a giraffe, or perhaps a kitten.)  If you are obsessed with hermaphrodites, like me and my sister Leslie are, you should be sure to read Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides.  It’s wonderful! 

(The thing that’s awesome about "herm" is that it is both short for hermaphrodite and a combination of him and her.  Just delightful all around.)

(PSA:  Do not do a google image search for hermaphrodite cat, unless you are prepared for the results.  Sign that I am tired.  I was not prepared.)

Unrelated:  Chris and I just did a count on our wedding guest list and realized we may end up SHORT of our original estimate.  I guess we’ll just have to see.  I guess people don’t really like us after all.

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30 days of Thanksgiving:  I’m thankful for my wonderful friends and family who are able to attend my wedding! 

Teaching

Kids say the darnedest things

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I’m thinking of Bill Cosby as I write that title.  More importantly, Bill Cosby as he is depicted on Family Guy.

My students often ask great questions.  I had quite the range of questions in my teaching yesterday. 

Let me preface by saying I’ve been having a little bit of trouble with my forehead lately.  A few weeks ago I got a pimple on my forehead.  No big deal, right?  Except, knowing me, I can’t leave it alone, and keep picking at it.  Suffice it to say, the scab is still there, and yesterday I needed to have a band-aid over it.  I figured, whatever, so it looks crazy but it’s better than the alternative. 

Every single student asked me about it.  And I didn’t really want to go into what was really under the band-aid because I was a little embarrassed plus it’s mildly disgusting…and none of them would let it go.  They refused to accept my answer of simply having a "boo-boo" under my band-aid.  They wanted to know more details.  How did it happen?  How big was it?  Did somebody else do it to me or did I do it myself?  Was it the cat?  They just wouldn’t let it go.  I guess an adult having a band-aid on her forehead is a pretty big deal!

(quick google image search for cats and band-aids…PSA:  animals have claws.  deal with it.)

On the other end of the spectrum, sometimes my students ask really good, interesting, unique questions.  I’m teaching one of my students vibrato and we were working on the exercises yesterday.  He stopped and asked, "Do you use vibrato in orchestra?"  I said "Why do you ask?" and he said, very thoughtfully, "If everybody is vibrating at different speeds, won’t that sound bad?"  I had a really hard time answering that question!  Since the answer is both yes, and no.  I ended up talking a little bit about chamber music and matching vibrato, but I may have just confused him.  I just thought it was a great question.  He then followed up with "Should I be practicing more than ten minutes a day?"  To which I replied, "YES" since I didn’t realize he was only practicing ten minutes a day!  I guess I need to ask more questions about practicing….

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thoughts about violin, teaching, running, life.