This is the Title of an Uncreative Violinist.:)

This weekend, I attended my first OSU Buckeyes game in the entire 4 1/2 years that I've lived in Columbus.  That shocks a lot of the locals, but honestly, I'm just not a football girl.  My brother and sister-in-law had extra tickets (they both attended OSU) and we like hanging out with them, so Ryan and I thought it'd be good to go.  Initially, I was pumped and tried to get into at the beginning...and I was pumped when the marching band came out.  But then more people started showing up into the game and we had limited seating space, so halfway through, I was squeezed between a larger man and my husband with no wiggle room and I was HATING it.  And there was still 2 hours left in the game when the discomfort started.  You want to know what I was wishing the last 2 hours of the game?  That I'd rather be running for 3 hours straight than to sit through another football game, lol! [I actually almost did earlier today, but I'll get to that in a sec.] Fin...

This whole week I've wanted to post something but have been feeling uninspired.  After the race last weekend, I took a hiatus this week from running which I feel absolutely horrible about--there is really no good reason to take that big a break from running other than I was just a lazy bum this week.  I also wasn't feeling too hot on Monday, so I took the day off and stayed in bed most of the day.  This weekend, my brother and sister in law are coming into town again (they were just here two weeks ago for the OSU game) for another game and invited us to go, so we'll both be going to our first buckeyes game in the whole time we've lived in Columbus.  Ryan and I aren't really football fans, but we'll be with people we know and will be going out for a nice Italian dinner afterward, so it's all good:) I saw this on another blog and I've been wanting to do a questions post just for the heck of it: A. Age: 28 B. Bed size: Queen.  C. Chore that you hate...

This is a random pic from the Hocking Hills Park's website. I did not take this man's picture and unfortunately, do not have any pics of me running it, but I swear that I did! Wow.  What a race!  Truly one of the best--and hardest--races I've done so far.  I wish I had taken pictures but I was so nervous/excited for the race, I didn't even think about taking pictures!  I have a feeling, though, that pictures wouldn't do the scenery there justice. I think I only got 3 or so hours of sleep last night--I was so worried about not hearing my alarm that it actually kept me wide awake:P  Anyways, I was up around 5:40am, hopped in the shower (yeah, I like to take showers before AND after a race, that's just how I roll), got dressed and then had my coffee and toast w/almond butter.  My friends showed up at 7am and we headed to Hocking Hills.  We arrived on site around 8:30 and picked up our bibs and chip timers.  There were a few waves of 20Kers, so ...

Getting ready to head to bed earlier than I normally do b/c of the race tomorrow morning.  I wasn't really super hungry for dinner tonight because I had Chipotle for lunch and gradually ate all of it in between my breaks while teaching (and I had a TON of breaks today....two sick students in a row!) so I kind of felt like I got all my carbs in for the day, but when I got home I realized that I am still very much a married woman and if I don't cook for my husband, he'd probably starve to death.  SO, I made pasta!  Every runner seems to recommend eating pasta before a big run, so this was perfect.  I tossed angel hair pasta with peppers, red onions and grape tomatoes in a garlic cream sauce and made pan-fried chicken on the side.  I feel huge right now.  Good thing I'm running over 12 miles tomorrow:P On his way home from work, sweet hubby also picked up some gels for us and picked the mocha and espresso flavored gels for me.  I've never tried gels bef...

Yesterday's run:  8.2 miles, 1'26" I had an eye exam yesterday morning and the office was literally right across the road from the Olentangy Trail head at Worthington Hills, so I headed over as soon as my exam was over and met my friend for a run.  Even before we started, I felt cranky!  I made the huge mistake of running out my door that morning without eating anything substantial (just a few dollops of greek yogurt and a swig of water) assuming that I would have enough time after my eye appointment to grab a power bar or something at the market behind the trail.  Well, this market sucked and didn't even have a health food section.  I walked out empty handed and started our run.  Physically--as far as muscles and bones go--I felt okay; mentally, I was a hot mess and couldn't stop thinking about my empty stomach.  My friend also made me pinky-swear to drink more water this week before we attempt a 12 mile run this Saturday--I'm a very bad water-drink...

I discovered an interesting documentary on Netflix called They Came To Play ; it follows several amateur pianists from around the world as they prepare and compete in one of the only international competitions for amateur pianists over the age of 35.  This grabbed my attention for obvious reasons--I am pretty fascinated by and fixated over the possibilities of continually improving as a musician and being given the opportunity to share and display that at any age. I will admit, when I was younger, I had selfish and shallow reasons for desiring to become a successful violinist.  I recall one time, when I was 12 years old, my parents brought me to the Cleveland Institute of Music to audition for Linda Cerone because we felt I needed a better teacher and CIM is an excellent school and had a great preparatory program.  After I played for her, she asked me why I wanted to become a violinist, and I couldn't think of a good answer and so I said, "because I think it would be f...

Haha...well so much for a 2 hr run....I overslept.  Sooo, now it'll only be an hour run before my friends arrive.  Maybe I'll stay over after they're done.  Normally when we go to this park, we only do one lap of the 3.8 pathway. I was hoping to do 4 laps.  Maybe I should only shoot for 3. My friends are disgusted by this, but as I'm overdue for a big grocery trip, I have nothing worth eating in my house for breakfast, so will probably stop at a McDonalds for breakfast.  Don't judge me!  I can NOT eat on an empty stomach, so sue me!  I usually get their breakfast burrito...that's healthy, right?  Whatever.  I'll just run the calories off anyways. Gotta go!

I'm seriously considering leaving Facebook.  I'm sick of it!  What a time waster, plus I just get mad whenever I'm on it.  I should make a new rule for myself:  for every minute wasted on FB reading people's stupid comments, I have to run the equivalent--if not more--amount of time that day.  So basically, I need find four hours each day to run.  I'm kidding!  I don't spend THAT much time on FB. In all seriousness, though.  I might take a breather from my one social media outlet.  Blogs don't count because they seem to have the opposite effect on me--I get really pumped and inspired by other blogs. Anyways, I need to fall asleep sometime soon since I'm planning on waking up early to hopefully probably not run for approx. 2 hours before meeting up with friends to do a few miles.  I didn't tell my friends that I was planning on showing up 2 hrs early b/c chances are if I told them, I wouldn't even do it AND they already did their long...

The three day weekend really threw me off as I spent the first half of the day thinking it was Monday today!  I'm so glad I was able to spend this weekend with my family, plus I got to see an uncle I haven't seen in over 10 years.  Time really flies.  I can't believe I graduated from high school ten years ago!  Yikes. Unfortunately, my running fell by the wayside this weekend, although yesterday, I "ran"/walked a 5K.  "Ran" because I had my yorkie poo with me and was taking a walk with my dad and husband, as well.  Phoebe, my dog, is such a loyal sweetie--she tried so hard to run the whole way, but she's a tiny thing, only 7 lbs., so we could only sprint once in awhile.  I'm hoping I can get my butt out of bed early enough tomorrow morning so I can go for a really long run since my last long run was about a week ago. Hmm, what else is going on? I was asked to judge violin seating auditions for the Columbus Youth Symphony later this week, so ...

I wasn't planning on writing any posts this weekend, as I am at my parents' house for the Labor Day holiday, but I was woken up by my dogs panting for water at 3am this morning and couldn't fall asleep after that.  It is now 6am and I'm completely wide awake with a grumbling stomach. I think I couldn't fall asleep for two reasons:  1) My old bedroom is the most isolated room in the house and is super hot and stuffy in the summer, and freezing cold during winter.  As a result, my hubby had to have the AC unit turned way up, and it caused my sinuses to flare up.  2) I can't stop thinking about my 94 year old grandmother who is currently out of the hospital and at home with us, but probably most likely, has ovarian cancer.  For the first time since I found out she became ill, I cried as I lay in my stuffy bed, realizing how very real it was that someone I love and have known my whole life could leave us very soon.  Yes, she is old--but she's always been in e...

Here is a wish a list of things I either want or need (or both!): 1.  Violin cases that look more like cello cases I'm drawn to the yellow and sage green...and pink!                                   2.  Garmin Forerunner  (right now I'm borrowing my husband's Garmin, but I'd rather have my own) 3.  A Westie....JUST KIDDING...I have enough dogs right now...but still!                      aaaaAAAWWWW!                   4.  Bangs.  I had them once, but I also got a bob haircut and it just didn't work for my face shape.  But I'm curious to see if they will look better with longer hair now that mine has grown out. And there you go--a well balanced wish list of both shallow and deep, necessary and whimsical wants.:) Can you tell I'm a littl...

I had an audition last night for a community orchestra near my city that has a mixture of professional musicians from the CSO (Columbus Symphony Orchestra) and students who pay tuition to be in the orchestra.  I resigned from the orchestra in Springfield that I played in last year, because I just got so tired of driving there, plus I just didn't really enjoy it all that much. I probably won't be paid to be in this orchestra, but that's okay because they seem to be playing good repertoire this year. I went on another long run with my friend on Tuesday morning--bright and early at 7:30--and we did around 9 miles.  We've been planning for two half-marathons in the next two months, but today my friend told me that she was signing up for the full marathon.  Ack!  Of course, I know I'll want to do that with her, too, but I think we're going to have to go on a couple more extremely long runs in order for me to make that assessment correctly.  I'm guessing, thoug...