Rain rain go away

The sun was out this morning when I got up, but by the time I had finished breakfast the radar didn’t look good for running.  We had a ton of phone calls to make anyway so I had to go to the gym instead.  Had to call dell to get my serial number (PSA:  write down your laptop computer’s serial number), had to call the police to update the police report with a couple more items I had noticed missing, and had to call the insurance company.

State Farm is my hero.  My agent checked to see if it made sense to make a claim, and it did, so we made the claim.  (Another PSA:  have renter’s insurance.  Mine costs approximately $8 per month.  There is no excuse.)

I haven’t had an insurance claim in some time, but I’ve had two car related ones in the past.  Once my car was stolen–that was a real pain in the butt.  Another time my car flooded (was in a flash flood.)  When I called State Farm to tell them my car was in a flood, they asked “is anybody in the car?”  No.  No, I would likely be calling 911 then instead.

Both times they were quite prompt with their payments.  I remember when the car flooded, State Farm had my car towed away within 24 hours for inspection.  I had the money within a week or two.  I didn’t even have to sing the tune from the commercials (though I gladly would have as I love to sing.)

In any case, evidently the claims department is a bit backed up due to the tornadoes on Friday night.  The author of another blog I read sometimes had a great summary of the carnage.  I can’t believe Chris and I were at dinner, knowing it was storming a bit (the sirens actually WERE going off on my way home from work but I decided the radar was on my side and tried to get ahead of the storm), but completely unaware of the extent of the damage inflicted.  Later than night I heard that tornadoes had hit the airport, but didn’t really believe it until the next morning when I saw the footage.  My understanding is that no one was killed or seriously hurt, miraculously.  I guess everybody heeded the warnings!  It just reminds you that life is most important and that you shouldn’t attach to your belongings that much, I guess.

My landlord has been “improving” the property a bit today.  By that I mean putting some latticing/bars on the back window and a lock for the back yard.  I should probably be more concerned that I am about future break-ins, but I feel that it was a one-off/lightning strike type of occurence and could have happened anywhere (in the city) as it certainly seems that enough of our friends have been affected by similar incidents.  Remember to back up your important computer data also!  Mine is all backed up online and I am SO glad I have that.

Speaking of materialism (haha) I was so excited today to receive our first engagement gift.  It is a cheese plate (with spinner on the bottom) and matching knife, and is from some good friends of Chris’s parents.  It’s VERY italian, and I love it!  Perhaps this (awful) month is about to take a new turn…or maybe May will be better.

Easter Sunday

I miss my computer.

I miss windows live writer.  It took WAY too long to put this picture up.

Speaking of, how great IS this picture?  Fat cat wine.  My friend Sarah posted it on my facebook wall to try to cheer me up yesterday.

It sort of worked.  I did pretty well until last night when I just broke down.  I was in the middle of a book on my kindle.  BASTARDS stole my stuff.

Today is better.  It’s just stuff.  My computer files are online even.  I can rebuild.  I also think the books I had on my kindle can be moved to a new kindle.  I will find out about insurance tomorrow.

They took my ALARM CLOCK.  Seriously.  Who does that?  Why take a decade old alarm clock that doesn’t even light up anymore?

How glad am I that most of my electronics are super old and crappy?  Evidently nobody wants CD’s anymore–remember when everybody was getting their CD’s stolen from their cars?  Not anymore!

How glad am I that I had my digital camera with me (diligent attempt at blogging) instead of sitting out somewhere?

How glad am I that the thieves didn’t know that instruments are worth money?  Then again, you can’t just get rid of them…you have to know how to do that.  And these people were evidently NOT smart.

Grr.

I may download live writer to this computer, but not yet.  I also will wait to upload some pictures from my real camera, so here’s one from the phone of this morning’s Easter service.

I played mass at St. Theresa’s in Belleville. It was a nice service and we played a rousing Hallelujah Chorus, among other things.

Yesterday:  we got robbed, then we went to the Cardinals game.  They lost.  There was a one hour rain delay.  We sat near some of the most obnoxious men you have ever met.  Basically it sucked.  Oddly one of the trainers at our gym (not my trainer) was sitting right behind us.  Odd.  I guess it’s a small world.

Today:  church gig followed by a fantastic brunch!  We went to Eau at the Chase Park Plaza for a brunch buffet.  Unlimited mimosas (light on the champagne though…), shrimp and crab, eggs, delicious quinoa salad, meats, cheese, bacon, biscuits and gravy, sausage, potatoes, salad, fruits, and a ridiculous dessert table.  I ate a ton.  Now I am attempting to digest.  It was delicious though, and will last me the rest of the day, most likely.

Tonight:  relax, watch a movie.  I’m actually NOT working out today, which is unusual.  In that I haven’t taken a day off in awhile.  Probably for the best.  I’ve gotten used to feeling sore somewhere on my body at all times.  Is that normal?

Tomorrow:  part holiday (no teaching until evening).  Some phone calls to make about the “incident”.  Probably shopping.  Running.  Cleaning?  The CSI guy said I need to dust more often, that it’s too hard to get fingerprints when it’s dusty.  He was just trying to be helpful, but it made me feel terrible.

Then back to work.  It’s almost May.  Concerts are coming up!

Burgled

Just a quick stop by. We got robbed yesterday. The thieves took my laptop, the Wii, my kindle, my alarm clock (why??) and a bottle of vodka. Luckily that seems to be all (for instance, not the cat or the instruments), but any amount is too much.

I’ll be back to regular blogging soon I’m sure, but right now I don’t have the proper tools set up. Suffice it to say I am pretty pissed off. It seems they got in through a window in the kitchen that I swear was locked, but perhaps a good shove popped them open. The cops were really helpful though. They took down a report and soon I will have my copy of that.

Happy Easter to all who celebrate. I myself am off to play a service. Here’s hoping today goes better than yesterday.

Question of the day

Okay, I’m going to talk briefly about a topic that we don’t generally talk about here on my blog.

Poop.

Evidently this is an issue runners have.  Before going for a run, you want to make sure you have “gone”.  But…if you are really pushing yourself in a race?

{image redacted due to copyright/legal issues and just good moral fiber 😉 but yes it was a picture of a woman who lost control of her bowels on the race}

http://deadspin.com/#!5793292/the-poopiness-of-the-long-distance-runner
http://blog.kropewnicki.com/2011/04/18/caroline-white-leaves-it-all-on-the-boston-marathon/

I originally saw this picture on Skinnyrunner’s blog but then I did a bit of internet research (that I am so known for) and found the above links.  The woman ran a 2:37 marathon on Monday in Boston, qualifying for the A group of the Olympic trials.  Not sure what the A group means, but that sounds pretty good to me.  That’s twice as fast as I can run!

So the question of the day would be:  is making the olympic trials worth the whole world seeing you with poop running down your leg?  (thanks to Leslie for the wording).

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Storms

We just keep having storms!  What happened to our beautiful spring weather? 

I am looking at the forecast for the weekend—thunderstorms and showers every day.  In fact, all next week as well.  It’s really annoying!

I was woken up during the night by a thunderstorm Sad smile

Tomorrow we are going the Cardinals game.  So much for a pleasant, warm, sunny afternoon.  It will probably rain all afternoon, making the game miserable.

Tomorrow before the game Jen and I are planning to run (just once) around Forest Park (6 miles or so.)  I guess we’ll see if that can happen.  I would love it!  I figured out yesterday if I run slower I can go farther without stopping…I should say, I remembered that.  Easy run equals actually run slowly.

I know the hot weather will be here soon enough.  I’m simply impatient.

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Today:  workout with Mike, run, teach for a couple hours, dinner with Chris (my thank you dinner for getting taxes done), girls’ night get-together at a friend’s house.

Tomorrow:  run with Jen, Cardinals game (baseball, for those who are not sports fans)

Sunday:  Easter gig (early), brunch with friends

All of these things would be better with lovely nice warm weather.  Especially Saturday’s events.  But everything would be nicer!  I could wear a lovely spring dress on Easter…(I know, whine, whine, Jesus had it worse on Good Friday, walked uphill both ways to school, etcetera)

Oh well. 

And did I mention after this week there are 4 more weeks left of school teaching?  Just putting that out there. 

Enjoy your weekend, readers!  Hopefully you are less whiny than I am.

Bolt for the BSO

I am not entirely sure how I feel about charity runs.  Probably the same way I feel about charity gala dinners.  On the one hand, it’s great that you are supporting a great cause.  But…couldn’t you simply support the cause without making the person run or without having a fancy dinner that costs money to put together?  Your dollars would go farther.  Nonetheless, I suppose anything that gets people to donate money to non-profits is a good idea.

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I received this comment today:

bolt

It seems like a great idea!  Go visit www.facebook.com/boltforthebso now, especially if you live in the Baltimore area.  The active giving link didn’t work for me though.  I wonder if other orchestras have had experience with this?

I wonder how many musicians are also runners?  I know quite a few marathoners—what I’m wondering is if a higher percentage of musicians are distance runners versus the normal population?  Distance running requires discipline and the ability to do something for a long time.  In my mind, those are skills that we honed in the practice room.  Granted, musicians also love rich food and wine, but the two are not mutually exclusive.  Are you a runner?  Are you also a musician?  Does anybody know the statistics on this?

Then again, as I’ve said before, if I ran faster, I wouldn’t have to run for as long.  Better get going then!

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thoughts about violin, teaching, running, life.