Food

Barbecue Chicken

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Barbecue is one of my spelling bee words.  You know, the words you missed in the spelling bee, and will never misspell again.  Or perhaps even, the word that LOST you the spelling bee.  Separate (sepErate—in fact my father thought I spelled it correctly) is my biggest one, followed by candidate (canidate—hard to spell properly when the word is pronounced with a thick southern drawl).  But barbecue (barbeque) is one of them also.  Do you have any spelling bee words? 

I made barbecue chicken in the crockpot this week by putting a bottle of barbecue sauce over some chicken breasts, cooking, shredding, cooking more, and putting on a sandwich.  So far I’ve had it for three meals and have one more to go.  It’s delicious.  I need to find a good recipe so that I don’t use the store bought sauce though—I imagine it is pretty high in sugar and other processed stuff, (though tasty).  Either way, I’m trying to utilize the crockpot more—it’s so easy to use—set it and forget it.  (I do tend to stir the pot, is that wrong?)

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Running

Running Tuesday

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I saw this today—I couldn’t help but giggle at the acronym “bro”.  And I also couldn’t help but take a picture. 

I ran 9 miles today.  I found a loop that goes around the park and then the botanical gardens and is approximately 4.5 miles.  Perfect!  Part of the loop was on a dirt path by the gardens and that was a nice change.  I ran most of the way, only walking to drink some water or nuun.  I feel pretty awesome right now! (and my calves are sore.)

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Tall Mom started this challenge for the month.  I added up the mileage for my training plans for the month and I should surpass that if I manage to follow it (unlikely, but there’s wiggle room), so I signed on.  9 down!  It works out to 3 miles a day—walking or running.

I got part of the outfits Jen and plan to wear for the St Patrick’s Day race—obviously there will be pictures later, after the race.  I’m trying to convince Chris to come cheer us on, since it’s downtown, nearby and all.  And also trying to convince more people to run the race.  Anybody want to join us?  Should be great fun! 

Teaching

Crazy week ahead

15 hours of class with Pamela Wiley for the Mark O’Connor Method Teaching seminar since Friday…and now it’s another week.  I owe you a review.  I need to reflect and go over the books and CDs again before I write my full review.

What’s going on this week?  First off, Chris goes on tour to NY and Amherst, MA with the symphony so I’m on my own for next weekend.  Mike (my trainer) is out of town for the week too, and my muscles look forward to a short break.  I’ve signed up for a spinning class at my gym on Friday instead.  I am also behind on my long run so I’ve pushed that to Tuesday, and then again on Saturday.  I hope that’s not too close together. 

My to-do list is practically empty!  The only thing left on it right now involves a trip to the post office, which can’t happen until Tuesday anyway due to my schedule (If you are reading this and know something I have forgotten, please email or call me.)  A practically empty to-do list is SUCH a relief though!

Friday is the SIUE teacher workshop with Susan Kempter.  I’m excited to see her again, in fact, so excited that I went ahead and mailed my registration for Suzuki Camp in Ottawa (in June) so I can spend another week learning from her.  (There was a discount for getting the registration in early, so I took advantage).  I loved the camp in Kansas last year and was so inspired.

We start rehearsing for Cavalleria Rusticana this weekend for Winter Opera.  The performances are going to be on March 12 and 13.  If you want to come I would recommend buying tickets in advance as our last performances both sold out.

On top of all of that I have two weddings, numerous runs, and MANY students to teach. 

What is it they say about March?  In like a lion, out like a lamb.  So I’m in the lion phase…

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Is that a lion?

 

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Had you seen this picture before?  Isn’t it great? 

Grand Ideas

February recap!

I know there is one more day of February, but I wanted to go ahead and recap, since I am very busy tomorrow as well…I’ve been trying to keep up on my goals for the year.  It’s all part of my project to become a better person, a happier person.

February:  What a crazy and wonderful month!  It turned out to be a little different than I had expected (I did NOT anticipate that Chris and I would get engaged ) and as a result some things didn’t happen according to plan (no races or yoga).  However, I will NOT consider that as a failure, but as a tremendous success.  And I will just forge ahead and try to get back on track (particularly with my diet as February turned into a bit of a “celebration” month).

How did February’s goals go? Purple for stuff I did…twas a great month, lots of CHECKS

February Plans/Goals:

Books:  one classic, one related to teaching violin or children, one non-fiction—Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, The Wonder of Boys by Michael Gurian, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks (plus finish reading list from January–Teaching with an Open Heart and Fixing School Lunch) –finished my reading list entirely—CHECK!

New Restaurants: Nora’s, Cicero’s—Check!

Social: Dinner with Reycrafts at Café Mochi and the Gelateria, SLSO Concert then drinks at Robust with two other couples, lunch with Melissa at Nora’s, drinks with friends after opera at Bar Louie, drinks with friends after opera at Sub-Zero, Opera cast party at Dominic’s on the Hill, Jon’s Trombone Recital followed by drinks at Cicero’s—Lots of activities with friends, Check!!

Recipes (at least three): Blue Cheese Stuffed Chicken, Spicy Sweet Potato Wedges, Beef Stew, CHECK!

Continue attending spinning class—missed one due to laziness, one due to schedule…but still, Check!

Start using Groupon from Urban Breath Yoga—it’s for five classes, let’s try to get at least three in this month (it’s a busy month.) am postponing the start until my wrist is feeling better, I worry that yoga might exacerbate the issue, especially as it became much worse after I did a yoga DVD.

Frosty Five race on February 12 (5 mile race) DNS due to below reason….

Creative “date night” with Chris? Got engaged Winking smile  check, check, check!

Get rid of 11 things from ONE room— kitchen  cleaned out jewelry box instead plus got rid of more clothes, so CHECK!

Attended Mark O’Connor Teaching Training Workshop, continue Parents as Partners Online—Check and Check!  Plus my article got used for the Parents as Partners Workshop—follow this link and you might be able to read it…

NEW Goal for February:  No new clothes this month.  Exception:  may purchase new running shoes.  NOTHING ELSE for the whole month.  Ordered new running shoes from running warehouse…there is an updated version of my model so I am hoping they work well, no other clothes…it was tough but I told myself NO.  Check!

Let me add something about The Happiness Project.  At the beginning of the year I thought it would be something that I would work with on an ongoing basis.  But I’ve realized that even before signing up I was already influenced by Gretchen Rubin as I had recently reread her book, and many of my goals/plans for the year were based on ideas of things that I love to do (read, for instance) and was already participating.  Thus you won’t hear that much about the project specifically, but keep in mind that most everything I am doing here is really in that direction. 

Overall, February, though busy, was a fabulous month.  It started with a snowverreaction, contained some great reading, had a bit of crabbiness, GOT ENGAGED TO CHRIS, and finished up with a teaching seminar.  Basically I read, ate, worked, ran, and got engaged.  To be married!  After 12 years!

Yes, my favorite part was getting engaged. 

I didn’t run any races, but I trained hard and should be in decent shape for my March and April races…

Teaching

Mark O’Connor Method

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This entire weekend is dedicated to the Mark O’Connor Violin Method.  Last night for three hours, today for two three hour sessions and tomorrow the same as today.  The session is taught by Pamela Wiley who is a teacher in Charleston, South Carolina, is good friends with Mark O’Connor, and is an experienced Suzuki teacher who really seems to love her students.

I am Suzuki student at heart, and a well trained Suzuki teacher, who firmly believes that every child can learn.  I have studied Suzuki pedagogy with a variety of teachers and have been teaching for over a decade, so I have a wealth of my own experience to draw on as well.  So naturally I’ve gone into the seminar with a few pre-conceived notions of what works and what doesn’t work as well.  (I know I should try to avoid pre-conceived notions…but I am human.)

However, I’m going to wait to write up a full report until the seminar is done.  Some positive things:  improvisation is taught from the beginning, the children seem to really love the music, and the best parts of the Suzuki method are incorporated.  Some negative things:  without seeing the whole series as a whole it’s hard to say for sure what will happen (only two books are printed), and let’s not pretend that it isn’t greatly influenced by the Suzuki method, which was indeed groundbreaking and to pretend otherwise is frankly insulting. 

So that’s my two cents for now…more to come later.  I’m lucky to attend the workshop for a great price due to a grant from the Missouri Arts Council—so thanks to the Missouri Arts Council, you rock.

Here is a link to an article by Laurie Niles on violinist.com about the Method, and here’s a link to another of her articles about some Suzuki students and O’Connor students getting together…

Random thoughts

Landlords

I can’t believe it’s already Friday!  I guess starting the week with a holiday makes it fly by. 

Bad news though:  I don’t get a weekend—I am attending a workshop for teachers for the Mark O’Connor series all weekend long.  Naturally I am hoping to learn a lot, get inspired, and meet new people.

How many of you are renters?  I live in a duplex, and the upstairs neighbors have been troublesome this past year.  Nothing HUGE, but little things like not shutting doors…repeatedly, or using the wrong washer/dryer, or having a dog that barks for hours on end.  All these things add up.  And yet, because a few years ago I had the world’s worst landlord, I am always quite hesitant to complain about seemingly mundane things.  Luckily my landlord is actually really great and understanding, and a music-lover on top of that, so it’s fine. 

What makes somebody the world’s worst landlord?  I’ll just list a few things that happened in the past situation.  It was in Cleveland and I was living with my sister Leslie.

  • Somebody broke into the tenant’s storage units and stole some things and we were not told.
  • Repaired both front and back door problems on the same day so we were practically unable to get in or out of the apartment.
  • Closed down the mailboxes for a week without notice (we get PAID through the mail).
  • Paved the parking lot and failed to inform us in advance or make other arrangements for parking.

But the worst and biggest offense:

  • The furnace for the building broke, she took three days to repair it (in Cleveland, Ohio, in the winter) and then turned the thermostat down so that from that point on, for three months, our apartment was literally unlivable, never got above 62 degrees and was usually colder, lied to us repeatedly, lied to the city when we complained, lied to the court system, tried to intimidate us, and ultimately lied to our lawyer as well.  After months of this intimidation (and we moved out in the meantime, breaking the lease due to the place being virtually uninhabitable) we FINALLY got a settlement of our deposit back and some rent we had paid during the time the heat was not on to speak of. 

It was a very difficult situation.  We were incredibly stressed out, Leslie was in school at the time, we didn’t have a ton of money, and we didn’t really know what to do.  Luckily we met a lawyer who was willing to take our case for a percentage of the settlement (I don’t know if that is normal or not) and told us what to do.  I remember the day we met with him and he told us what we needed to do was move, right away.  We were so…relieved!  To think, we could (according to our lawyer who did turn out to be correct) legally break the lease and move somewhere else, and leave that place behind.  I’ve never packed and moved so quickly (three days from that meeting to living in a new apartment), and hope I never have to again. 

Ever since then, however, I feel LUCKY to have decent landlords, but don’t want to make a fuss or assume anything.  We were treated so poorly, called names on the phone, and basically told we didn’t have any legal or moral argument to wanted a heated apartment, much less anything more than that.  It was really a form of abuse for three months, and I realized today that I have never truly recovered from it.  Maybe that’s good in a way, because I will also be wary and careful of people in the future.  But it also makes me feel that as a renter I don’t necessarily deserve to have a place that is the way I really want it—and that’s not fair either, is it?  Many people have to rent for various reasons, and they deserve to have nice things also.  I hope to be a homeowner one day, but my life just hasn’t worked that way yet (and I am cautious financially so luckily I didn’t fall for the housing bubble hoopla). 

Have any of you had horrific landlords in the past?  Has that affected other aspects of your life in a negative way?

thoughts about violin, teaching, running, life.