This is the Title of an Uncreative Violinist.:)

I'm a very impatient person.  It's probably one of my worst qualities.  If you asked my parents about it as well, they'd be more than happy to go into detail about it as my impatience was something they were very, um, impatient with growing up. It's not a quality I like about myself, but at the same time, it is a very big part of who I am.  I can use it or misuse it.  Most times, I misuse it--like when I'm driving.  I get road rage; definitely not the bad kind, but enough to teach me that it's best to not mess with other drivers.  The other day, I happened to be the subject of someone ELSE'S road rage, and while I did nothing wrong (except happen to drive in front of them during a merge, which I HAD to do), this person could not deal with it and took her road rage to a whole other level and followed me all the way back to my house!  Did she actually do anything to me? No, thank God.  She did stare for a good 5 seconds as she pulled up alongside ...

Today, I got up fairly early for a double whammy workout with my running buddy, Sandra.  Double whammy because we first ran up and down the huge steps at Alum Creek reservoir several times and then ran down and up the very steep hill, which was a GREAT cardio workout for us; then we promptly drove back to my condo to workout out at the clubhouse gym where Sandra guided me in lifting weights.  What an awful reminder of how WEAK I am!  My legs and arms felt like Jell-O today.  But, it felt incredible at the same time!  I loved seeing the muscles in my arms working as I did weights for my biceps and triceps--it's enough encouragement to keep at it because I so badly want to get toned.  I'm so tired of the "someday I'll get there" mentality.  No! It's going to happen RIGHT NOW. Since it's probably not a good idea to do weights every day, I was thinking about incorporating some P90X in the mix to keep things well rounded.  I don't trust myself to sta...

Sigh.  What a long weekend.  We had some company over the weekend and although I always love having people come over, seeing friends, etc.  at some point I'm just looking forward to peace and quiet again.  I have this Friday off completely and I'm really looking forward to it.  I was hoping my husband could get the day off as well, so we could just spend the day together, but not sure if that will happen. I did manage a couple of short runs early last week and then over the weekend, I went to the gym w/ the hubby and did a 5K on the treadmill.  This morning, I did 5 miles again on the treadmill and felt like I could have kept going, but our friend had to head back so we returned to our house for breakfast.  I still need to shower before heading out so I'll have to cut this short. Only three and half more weeks before all my students start school again!  Now that the weather seems to be getting back to normal, I'm wishing summer would last just...

I always thought that the warmer seasons were more favorable for when my special monthly "friend" stopped by because, to me, cold temperatures seem to make cramps feel even more unbearable.  But I take it back, because this sweltering heat combined with cramps result in nausea and dizziness.  Not the best feeling. BUT, now I know why my weight didn't budge at all yesterday despite eating less than I normally do and exercising more!  I know, I'm not very smart.  I should know when "my time" is about to come, but I always ignore it. Anyways, I set out this morning to my studio to teach ONE student and was a little aggravated 30 minutes later when she was a no-show and I had to come back home to do some stuff, only to have to drive back later this afternoon to teach 3 more students.  What a waste of gas.  I'm not sure if I should send an email to this student and "yell" at her for not giving me notice.  On the flip side, today is not a very busy...

I just went for a run around the neighborhood and--ARGH--it took me 31 minutes to do 2.8 miles?!?!  I can't believe it, but maybe I should believe it b/c it's still hot as a** and I was comfortably running on flat pavement the whole time. I'm not going to worry about it--I'm just going to plop down on the couch and pop in a movie. I was a lot more mindful of what I ate/drank today, but it didn't seem to make that number on the scale budge this evening.  Whatever.  Here is what I had: Breakfast -- coffee w/ sweetened condensed milk {I know that part is awful} and bowl of Kashi cereal w/ nonfat milk Lunch-- leftover chicken pad thai w/ bottled water Afternoon snack-- greek honey yogurt Another snack-- Zone bar Dinner-- spaghetti w/ meat sauce and herb salad I'm still hungry.  But my muffin top is screaming, "NO MORE FOOD FOR YOU!"  So it's just a measly bottle of water for me right now.

Is it too early to start dreaming about Fall?  It's just so friggin' hot right now!  I tried to go out for a run in between my morning and afternoon lessons, but I only lasted for a mile because I thought I was going to collapse from heat exhaustion.  I ended up just going back to my air conditioned studio to do a series of push ups, sit ups and other weird exercises that I figured would be good for me. The past few days, I've been obsessively stepping on the scale to see what my weight pattern is like.  I normally do not, if ever, check my weight.  Probably only a handful of times a year.  But noticing more rolls in, um, all kinds of places more recently, I started checking more often and I did NOT like what I was seeing! So I'm trying to be a lot more careful about what I put in my body.  I know I need to drink a lot more water and phase out any sodas and coffee, or just anything that doesn't adequately hydrate my body. {Woohoo!  I'm drinkin...

It's been a rather fast week (even though it's not quite the end of the work week, it feels like it to me since I've had a lot of students on vacation) and I feel like I've hardly been working, yet haven't been home much at all.  Just a lot of sitting around in my studio with either no-show students or students who I knew were on vacation which resulted in a ton of gaps in my teaching schedule. Wow. It's already the middle of July.  School starts in the middle of August for a lot of my students and I know that will be here before we know it.  Ugh.  I'm discovering that the older I get, the faster time flies by.  No wonder the past few summers have felt like a blur. Tonight, I attended a chamber orchestra concert put together by Chamber Music Connection in Columbus, which is a chamber music organization for kids that a few of my students participate in.  Two of my students--13 year old boys--played in the same group together performing a piece by Haydn; ...

Right now, I am hanging out in Florence, KY.  I left yesterday morning for Cincinnati to visit some friends over the weekend since I hadn't seen them in awhile and they just had another baby a few months ago.  Aahhh! Kids grow like weeds! My main purpose in coming was just to see them and hang out, but I also had a hankering for good Indian food since Cincinnati is littered with them.  For some reason, I cannot find a single good Indian place in Columbus.  Maybe there is one and I haven't discovered it yet.  But at any rate, we frequented Ambar Indian restaurant last night in the Gaslight district and it was wonderful.  I stuffed myself silly with Chicken Tikka Masala, mango lassi and garlic naan.  We then drove to Florence where I spent the night.  Today will probably be a very chill day, which is why I'm now writing this post! My running buddy, Sandra, and I went for a long run this past Thursday; we both hadn't planned on running for very lo...

I wasn't planning on running at all today, but my running buddy, Sandra, called me last night and I can never say no to her running invites:) Sooo, even though it was still kind of hot and muggy (or "moisty" as Sandra says) I got in a 7.6 mile run and I feel really good about it:P  I hardly ever do this, but I decided to get in one lap before Sandra arrived so that it would then force me to do a second lap once she joined me.  In between both laps when I briefly stopped to meet Sandra at her car, I was drenched in sweat and a little voice in my head said, "how are you going to do another lap?!" BUT I pushed that thought away and just DID IT and it was worth it. After our run, I looked at my friend and said, "Well at least now I know I can do a 10K".  She looked at me with a strange look on her face and said, "Ummm, you did MORE than a 10K just now, my friend, and we've done plenty of 10Ks on our other runs....of COURSE you can do a 10K, sill...

It was really, really hot today during our run.  We also didn't start until noon, so that didn't help.  It was HARD.  Highbanks Metroparks is exactly what it sounds like: hills, hills and more hills!  Gosh, every time I go there, it's like I'm doing it for the very first time because I can never remember where we are or how far we've run.  I'm also always surprised at every hill we encounter ("What? another hill!").  But, as always, we finished.  I forgot to ask my friend what our time was, but at that point, I don't think we cared too much--we just wanted to get to the end without breaking down:( I also realized how dehydrated I am. I don't drink nearly enough water.  I'm reminded of this every time I go for a run. I have to say, other than the run earlier, I didn't do much else and I only have one student today.  So I suppose that means that my long weekend has already started?  Sometimes, it's just nice to not have anything o...