Hope, Running, Weather

Tornadoes

Today we are under another tornado watch.  These storms are just ridiculous.  I don’t know if it’s global warming, or simply the Midwest being a crazy place to live, but the past few months have been just awful.  First it was the New Year’s Eve tornado in Sunset Hills, then the Good Friday tornadoes, the tornadoes in Alabama, then the destruction of Joplin, Missouri.  And there are more today. 

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Here’s an article on what you can do for the people of Joplin.

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You can text REDCROSS to 90999 to donate $10 to American Red Cross Disaster Relief.  Or you can go directly to the website here.  If you can afford to donate and haven’t, please do.  I see lots of folks on facebook who say they are praying and that sort of thing.  Give money.  Or go volunteer, if you have the skills.  Do something tangible.  Don’t just update your facebook status.

Here’s an article summarizing the awfulness.

Okay, back to me 😉

I need to go to the Ballet School this afternoon for teaching.  I plan to leave early to get there (hopefully) before the storm hits.  It’s been a great day so far.  This morning we met with a possible officiant for our wedding (we are looking at one other person) and the meeting was really enjoyable.  After that I ran in the park.  I have made Wednesdays my official speed day so today I alternated sprinting with walking until I made it all the way around the park.  It was a very impromptu workout but I think, very effective (at least, I was sweating all over, hyperventilating, and felt somewhat nauseous.  If that’s not a good workout, I don’t know what is.) 

Tonight I look forward to relaxing at home and perhaps catching up on a couple of television programs (the Borgias and maybe the Office.)  Long term I am looking forward to my sister Leslie coming to visit at the end of August, and hopefully my other sister Carrie as well!!

Edited to add:

So I should have called ahead before heading to the ballet school, but I didn’t fathom they would close…right when I got off the exit.  So then it was a race back home whilst the sirens were going off.  Lots of worry and fingernail biting ensued, but I made it home without incident or death.  Then I holed up inside watching the weather, and heard some CRAZY hail outside.

I haven’t gone outside to inspect my car yet…my friend Jen says hers has some hail damage, and I’m just avoiding it.  From across the street it looks ok…

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These are what we found in the immediate vicinity.  Nothing like this photo I stole from Jen:

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from www.stltoday.com

Weddings

Files restored

I think I’ve finally got most of my itunes music back on my computer.  I had been using an online backup (dell datasafe online, since I had a dell before), and since getting my new computer a few weeks ago, I was having a ton of issues getting my backed up files restored.  I finally realized it just wasn’t going to work to do them all at once, and I needed to break them up into smaller parts, and voila! gradually I am restoring my music, my pictures, and all of the other important things I need.  I’m sure my itunes library will be a mess of duplicates though, since it seems every piece is listed two or three different ways. I guess that will be my next computer project.  I don’t even have a full size ipod!

That reminds me, a lot of times at wedding venues, they tell you, oh, you can even just plug in your ipod and play your music!  That makes me giggle.  I’m sure people would really enjoy listening to episodes of Car Talk and This American Life, Brahms Violin Concerto by a variety of artists, or perhaps a variety of violin orchestral excerpts, while trying to dance or talk with their friends.

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This is a picture from inside the Jewel Box in Forest Park.  I have played two weddings there this month, and I have at least 4 more lined up for the summer.  I think it would be a great idea to simply be the resident musicians for the Jewel Box, and perhaps move in downstairs.  That would save on gas.

Random thoughts

Bridesmaids

I saw Bridesmaids last night, SO funny!  Some of the parts were over the top, and I did actually become sick to my stomach during that one scene (I won’t spoil it for you, but even though I am often gross myself, and tend to discuss poop more often than not…I still could barely handle it.  Super gross.)  Super funny though.  And I loved Jon Hamm’s character.

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Other than that, fantastic weekend.  Friday night I already mentioned, Saturday was a student recital, wedding, and a relaxing night in watching Harry Potter movies on ABC Family and doing tons of wedding brainstorming.  Sunday I worked out with TWO guys, Chris and my friend Jon 😉 One of these days I should be able to plan my own workout, but not yet.  Not yet.

After that was some errands and cleaning, baking cake batter blondies again for my students, Dressel’s for dinner and the movie.  Good times!

Today is my last day of in school classes.  After that, it’s only after school teaching, and summer (and open schedules) ahead of me for a couple of months.  I’m feeling good!

Random thoughts

Dreams

I know that nobody really finds anybody else’s dreams interesting, but that doesn’t mean we’re going to stop sharing! 

Tthe other night I dreamt that the gym had some newfangled sort of equipment to help people learn to run with a better stride and with lighter feet.  Naturally Mike decided to make me use this equipment, and naturally I didn’t understand what I was supposed to do.  He got more and more frustrated, reiterating the same instructions until he lost his temper and starting yelling at me. 

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I told him the dream and he said, that sounds about right.

Last night I had a dream in which Zach Galifianakis thought we were best friends, and everything I tried to do, he was right there running after me.  By the end of the dream I was running around a parking lot in the rain, frantically trying to find my car and drive away before he caught up to me.  I woke up then, and was afraid to go back to sleep for fear I would reenter the dream.  I wasn’t frightened, just REALLY annoyed.

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(source)  I’m sure he’s a great guy in real life, but we are not best friends.

Every since I was a little girl I remember sharing my dreams.  My mom, Leslie, and I love sharing our dreams.  (Not our hopes, just our dreams).  I am good at remembering them, and I’ve had some really funny ones over the years.  I’m sure everybody has, even though I know some people (Chris, for instance) remember less of their dreams. 

I don’t take much stock in the whole "what does my dream mean" question though.  I generally assume dreams are random bits of things you’ve experienced, read, seen on tv, thought about, etc, and there isn’t a real deeper meaning (unless you want there to be, in which case, well, they are YOUR dreams).

My two dreams are easy to explain: 

Mike DOES get frustrated sometimes when I can’t do something right.  He’s never yelled, but other people have yelled at me, so I know that feeling.  He does want me to improve my running stride, plus recently we had another discussion about it (airborne running, if you recall.)

The other dream:  Well, Zach Galifianakis has been all over the entertainment news because of the upcoming Hangover Part II movie.  That’s probably all there is to that.  Or secretly I harbor a gigantic crush on him?  I suppose the dream is open to interpretation 😉

Do you like sharing your dreams?  Any funny ones you’ve had recently?  Leave a comment!

Cat, Weddings

Caturday

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I think this sums it all up.  (And it’s Caturday, so stop complaining).

I can’t believe this weekend is finally here.  I had a few rough weeks of busy-ness and stress…and now it’s basically summer.  And this is going to be my skinniest summer since ’98.  (Okay, I’m sadly excited about that.)

I taught yesterday and then went to Lemongrass with Melissa.  I branched out from my usual meal there of "seafood hotpot".  I love the hotpot because the rice at the edges gets very crispy.  I also love fishcakes, something I first had at Siam Cafe in Cleveland.  But I wanted to get something different so I got something with noodles instead.  It still involved fishcakes and shrimp.  All foods should contain at least a couple of shrimp.

Fascinating.  I know.  This would be a better entry if we hadn’t THEN gone to Absolutli Goosed and met up with some other folks.  Good times were had.  But I woke up feeling somewhat…dehydrated…to say the least, and I still wanted to get in a run.  I did the front loop of Tower Grove Park and returned home completely drenched.  With the thermometer only reading 70 degrees. I weighed myself before and after, and my scale registered a 1/2 pound loss from the run.  I don’t know how people deal with this heat.

Now it’s a student recital followed by a wedding at the Jewel Box.

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That greenhouse looking thing is the Jewel Box, which is located in Forest Park.  I have played dozens of weddings there, and have a half dozen on the schedule for this summer.  It’s a nice place, I guess.

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That’s Albergo.  And that concludes today’s post.  If anything exciting happens I’ll let you know 🙂

thoughts about violin, teaching, running, life.