Welcome to Ottawa and have a nice day

June 19, 2011 hannahviolin

Today I drove to Kansas. Along the way I listened to a CD that included Chariots of Fire and Raiders March. Then I listened to (and sang along with) the soundtrack to the movie version of The Sound of Music. Twice. And cried both times on a certain song. I am now in Ottawa, Kansas at the Mid-Southwest Suzuki Institute. Woo-hoo!

Last night Chris and I wanted to go out to dinner. Originally we thought we’d go get something good and healthy, but ultimately we ended up at Trattoria Marcella. Not unhealthy per se, but perhaps when you eat your entire plate of gnocchi. To be fair I hadn’t managed to eat lunch, but that’s totally not my fault. I played a 2 hour wedding mass and then had to run. Two hours. Seriously. And before you ask, no, it wasn’t the royal wedding. I know skipping a meal is bad, but I can’t recall the last time I did, so that’s probably a pretty good track record.

Chris had some fun with the water goblets.

A beautiful series of photos of me looking creepy…as usual. Why is that? I look really skinny though, huh?

Anyway, so far we’ve had three hours of class, one awful meal (ham, potatoes, iceberg lettuce—straight ahead!), and 30 minutes of waiting around for them to find my room key. However, now I’m settled into the dorm and I just have one more hour of class tonight. And might I impress upon you how much I love Susan Kempter? She is seriously awesome and brilliant and all of that madness. I rarely get this excited about people. Only about Titanic.

Originally I misread this sign.

Teaching

Off to see the wizard!

June 19, 2011 hannahviolin 1 Comment

I’m off to Kansas today for Suzuki Camp! I am taking Teacher Training for Book 5 with Susan Kempter at Ottawa Mid-Southwest Institute.

Picture of the dorm last year.

What is Suzuki camp? Well, firstly I should quickly answer the question, what is Suzuki? The Suzuki Method is a way of teaching children (primarily) to play musical instruments. The concept is that you learn your instrument the way you learn language—by starting early and hearing it all the time—and without pressure and with love. That is how I learned the violin and that is how I primarily teach the violin. I started at the age of five, and I listened to the music I was learning all the time. Was there pressure? Well, yes, but as you know I put pressure on myself all the time! In ANY case I am not going into my childhood story here but simply giving you a little information as to what I am up to this week.

Here’s the link to the Suzuki Association’s page “What is the Suzuki Method?”

The camp part is the next part of the question. Basically people come from all over and get together for the week for an intensive week of learning and camaraderie with other like minded people. For me, it’s continuing education. I am fully trained to teach the Suzuki method for all levels (there are 10 books), but I really wanted to take another class (here’s a link to last year) with Susan Kempter. Taking courses makes me a better teacher (and frankly, a better person!). I am really excited!

How many of you learned an instrument with the Suzuki Method? How did it impact your life?

Food

Saturday Storms

June 18, 2011 hannahviolin

Today is the day. I have a wedding today that I (for some reason) have been stressed out about for approximately three weeks. I’ll be happy when it’s done. I know it will be fine (they always are) but there is lots of score reading happening, and I am just a little nervous.

Jen and I had plans to run this morning at Forest Park, but when my alarm went off at 6:30, (yes, very early, it was to fit in the rest of the day) I was already awake. Why? Because of a gigantic thunder storm that was going through. We canceled the plans. I got two more hours of sleep instead. I can always run after my wedding, as all I have planned for the evening is prep for my trip to Kansas bright and early tomorrow. (Laundry and packing).

Last night I went to Coco Louco Brasil with Melissa. We hadn’t been before and had been meaning to try it for some time. The waiter was hilariously attentive—he appeared to be approximately 12 years old, and since the restaurant was suspiciously empty, he had some time to chitchat. He made numerous menu suggestions and we ended up discussing his future career plans with him. He’s thinking law school, in case you were wondering.

I ordered some sort of mixed barbecue thing that came on a skewer. Luckily the skewer was not super hot by the time I had to deal with it. I’ve had trouble with that in the past.

The skewer definitely looked more like a sword than anything else.

The lone green pepper. Why would I take that off? I hate peppers. Melissa liked that the pepper sat at the golden mean of the sword.

In any case, we couldn’t resist the tres leches cake for dessert (weight loss contest be damned! No, I’m just kidding, it’s just that occasionally one must have indulgences, right?).

Our waiter did a delightful job decorating this. He wanted to demonstrate that a philosophy major could have some skills.

It was delicious!

Overall the meal was good, but I think I prefer Yemanja Brasil, which is also closer to my house. I’m glad we went though. Oh, and the waiter apparently thought Melissa and I were together. Like dating. I guess we have a good rapport 🙂 Can’t two ladies go out on a Saturday night and share dessert anymore? I am pretty sure they can.

Last thought: I don’t know if yesterday’s fat post was harsh or not. I hope I didn’t offend anyone. I guess I was pretty mean to myself.

Really last thought: I think my new camera is taking better pictures, can anyone tell?

Weddings, Weight

My wedding: weight loss incentive

June 17, 2011 hannahviolin 2 Comments

I’m going to talk about weight loss here. Don’t read it if that is a trigger for you.

I wrote about body image a few weeks ago. I wanted to continue along the same lines.

I used to look down on people who wanted to lose weight for their wedding, or for other special events. After all, why not lose weight just to lose weight or to look great all the time?

Lately I’ve been putting together some old pictures for potential wedding stuff. And I’ve realized how FAT I used to look. This is partly because I am incredibly judgmental of myself. And partly because I WAS fat.

I am not as fat anymore. But I still want to lose more weight, as regular blog-readers know. But I’ve gotten lazy with my diet (not with my workouts though) and it’s harder to be as strict with myself without true incentive.

(Yes, that’s a garden gnome.)

And gosh darn it, wouldn’t you know that incentive comes from my darned wedding? I keep seeing pictures of women in wedding dresses…and my eyes go STRAIGHT to their fat. Is this fair? No. Frankly, I’m probably an awful person for it. But to be a little fair, these aren’t women I know in real life. I do NOT look at my friends like that of course, in fact, I always find my friends attractive. We all do, right? The more you like somebody the more attractive they seem.

But I don’t want people to see my fat in my wedding pictures. I want people to see long limbs and muscles. Well, long muscular arms, and a lovely back, and perhaps a thin face with fairly prominent cheekbones. Is that too much to ask? And then, ideally I would stay that way for years and years…

Not that people would think that I looked fat in my wedding pictures. But I would. And why not look my best?

But let’s not let my best be my best ever! Always evolving, always improving, right?

I’m winning Mike’s weight loss comp. Five pounds down since weigh-in day May 31. Six to go. I can do this. But I’ll want more. (He was perhaps more surprised than I was…but I have actually been doing pretty well. I’m just really critical.)

These are all me. Different years, different hair, different weights. I can’t throw away the fat pictures of me.

But I can keep there from being any more fat pictures. And whether that is because of my wedding or because I know I look a lot better now. And more importantly, feel a lot better. Nothing brings out confidence like being in great shape.

So here’s the deal: I’ll lose some weight for my wedding. But it won’t be JUST for my wedding. Is that still hypocritical of me?

Random thoughts

Thoughts on personal training

June 17, 2011 hannahviolin 5 Comments

Wow, the tops of my legs were really sore yesterday. I’m told those are called “quads”. I’m not a doctor, so I don’t know. I did spend about 30 minutes during “Covert Affairs” using the foam roller. That thing is painful! But supposedly helpful.

Chris often asks what I do in my workouts with Mike. The sad truth is…I usually don’t remember. He’ll ask what muscles I am working out, and I’ll answer, you know, legs, or arms, or whatnot. Even when I know what muscle an exercise is supposed to be working, often I feel it somewhere entirely different. Usually in my right wrist or left shoulder…oh wait, that’s probably a problem (violin-related I’m sure.) Oh, and sometimes I don’t remember because we goof off a lot and I am easily distracted. Nonetheless I generally get an awesome workout! Somehow. Or maybe I don’t. I could be totally wrong. I’m not trained.

I guess that’s why I need a personal trainer. I am completely unable to do weight lifting without being told what to do. It’s as if my brain shuts off when my muscles start working. Peter Sagal has the same problem (from Wait, Wait, Don’t Tell Me) and wrote a great article in the July edition of “Runner’s World”. One could argue that I COULD do a proper workout on my own and I simply don’t have to, therefore I can’t, but I might disagree. It worries me…what will I do when I no longer have a personal trainer? Yes, in an ideal world I would ALWAYS have one, but I’m sure there will come a point when I’ll stop. Or maybe at that point I will feel ready to move on? Has anyone experienced this? I’ve been working out with a trainer for about 1 1/2 years. (Mike is my second trainer. My first trainer left the gym to become a car salesman, but then came back. I had already moved on though. No hard feelings of course—Joe was and still is awesome.)

And no, I’m not rich! I just think it’s important, because I have never felt better in my entire life. Yes, I am lucky to be able to afford a trainer. But I rent in a cheap area, have a fairly small place, wear clothes from Target and Old Navy, and do not have a huge TV. Fiscal matters are often a matter of choice. My TV is over ten years old. Lucky too, because the thieves didn’t want it.

(that baby doesn’t need a trainer, he probably could train me!)

Okay, I AM rich. But not in money. In friendships and love and fat cats. And I am rich in comparison to most of the world’s population.

Now you know if you are a millionaire or not. I wasn’t sure before. Now I know. (I am not telling you the answer.)

How is your Friday going? I am looking forward to my day immensely. I don’t have any tremendous plans for the weekend, and Sunday I must wake up early and drive to Kansas for Suzuki Institute Teacher Training (can’t wait!) Should be great 🙂

Random thoughts

Cat Lady

June 16, 2011 hannahviolin 15 Comments

If you are coming here from Skinny Runner’s Blog, WELCOME!

You may have read a quick recap of me there: basically I blog about nothing, running, violin, teaching children, going out to dinner with friends, and wedding planning (fairly new). I play and teach violin for a living. I also have an adorably fat cat.

Yes, she’s judging you.

I wrote a post last night to post this morning about wedding planning because I did want to keep people up to date on what was going on…but it only has one photo…boring. I had more photos to share, but my camera battery was dead and I was recharging it.

It’s a brand new camera for me, a bright pink Canon PowerShot Elph, and I love it! It was a birthday present from my dear fiancé Chris, and so far has made one man practically vomit (funny story: my friend Jen asked him to take a picture of a group of us, he agreed, I handed him my camera, and in a funny, nauseous sounding voice, he said, oh my god it’s a pink camera. I just smiled.)

That’s my fiance, Chris. He thinks he’s bad at taking pictures, so we’ve been practicing. I mean, after all, I have a WEDDING coming up and he will be on camera all the time! Our photographer says she has lots of tips and she will really work with him to help out.

We went out the other night to celebrate our friend Kyle’s birthday.

I’ve been working on my candid shots. I took that picture and afterwards a few people looked up and wondered where the lightning came from. I like the picture though, really shows the seriousness of the situation. Birthdays are serious business.

Other than the fact that I seemingly have no eyelashes, I like this picture. I remembered to put my arm away from my body—that’s another tip from the photographer.

Last night I met up with my friend Laura and her in-laws to take a walk up to the Compton Hill Water Tower. It’s a cool looking water tower that you are able to climb up, but it’s only open on occasion Saturdays and evidently on the evenings of full moons in the summer. We noticed that was last night, so decided it was an excellent activity for out of town folks.

Views of the tower at night and at day.

View of Grand Boulevard from the top of the tower.

There were 198 winding steps up to the top. Since I am a super hard core exerciser (if you read previous posts you’ll know this 😉 ) it was NO problem for me, but I did start to get a little freaked out by the heights.

Today my legs are really sore. I don’t know if it’s from that, from my run yesterday, or from all the lunges my trainer made me in our workout yesterday. (Yes, I have a trainer. If you’re new you should know that. I have lost over 40 pounds in the past 1 1/2 years, and I workout with a trainer twice a week. He’s awesome, and we ran a race together last month. He beat me. He also beat almost everybody else. His name is Mike and you should train with him too. Then you can look like me.)