This is the Title of an Uncreative Violinist.:)

What a great day.  Both my family and my in-laws drove into Columbus to help me celebrate the big 3-0.  Good food at an Italian restaurant, one of my favorite cakes ever, and overly generous gifts (even though Christmas was just days ago.  Sometimes a December birthday can be both a blessing and curse, depending on which end you're on).  I'm sure I need it, but it was still funny to receive an anti-aging skin care line from Mary Kay from my mother as one of my presents. Parents are staying in town for a few more days to hang out and I have about half a week left to enjoy my vacation.  House is completely clean, so I can truly relax these next few days.  I'm really blessed to have a great family and to have such great in-laws. Just 10 more years and I'm "over the hill"! Ahhh!  Nah, I'm completely looking forward to new experiences and growing older, and hopefully, wiser.

It's probably about time I updated, right?  What can I say, except I'm really trying to absorb and enjoy this longish holiday break.  Mine started on Friday when we drove up to my in-laws and surprised my MIL, since she thought we weren't showing up until Christmas Eve.  We spent five days there and decided to beat the snow storm and come home last night.  SO glad we did because we got snowed in today.  And that was totally okay with me.  I spent four hours cleaning the upstairs and have spent the last couple hours snuggled in bed with my pup, reading my Kindle, watching re-runs and scouring the internet. How was your Christmas?  Ryan and I were loaded with great gifts this year; lots of kitchen-related items, which is always great.  Lots of gift cards (also from students, which I'm always grateful for) and a TON of candy (still haven't quite gotten a handle on a solid workout routine...maybe tomorrow...) and half of my gifts from everyone alluded to our upcoming

It's been a long week, and it's going to be another long week and a half-ish until I officially start my Christmas vacation.  Including weekends, I have about 13 days off, thanks to Christmas and New Years both falling on Tuesdays.  Thank the Lord.  I need the break. Last year, I made the best chocolate chip cookie recipe ever to give to my students during the holiday; this year, I'd like to make a variety of cookies and/or baked goods to give away to students and also my fellow teachers.  So, I'm on the look out for easy, but yummy recipes and I hope to have a list and all my ingredients by the weekend, so I can get cracking on them before next week. I also thought about doing holiday letters to send to everyone...but that hasn't happened yet.  Ryan kind of frowned upon that (probably b/c he thinks our lives are boring and not worth sharing with the world...hello! I have this blog, so too late for that!), but if I can muster up the will to do them this weekend

Got home from teaching and hastily put together dinner from last night's leftovers (fish sandwich...SO much better than what I usually get from a restaurant) and then ran upstairs to change into workout clothes before I could come up with any excuses or get too comfortable on the couch watching a movie.  I did another 5K on the rowing machine.  Easy peasy.  After yesterday's workout, my upper arms felt sore...a GOOD feeling!  I think I need to work on better form with my rowing because after a few minutes, my back gets sore and in the past, I've always quit early on using that as an excuse.  The more I do it though--just like running or anything else, for that matter--I find I can tolerate the pain and/or the dullness of the workout. With that, I'm off to bed earlier than normal.  Another bad habit of mine--staying up WAY too late.  Only because I don't have to be anywhere in the mornings, but still, I could use that time to do tons of stuff.  Practically, though

My running buddy--whom I haven't run with in quite awhile--left a message last night asking if I wanted to go for a short run this morning.  I was all for it, but we both woke up to really yucky rain. She decided to go to her gym, and I decided to do a 5K on our rowing machine, which I haven't done in a very long time.  My runs have been sporadic and lately, I've been thinking of doing other things other than running. I've talked about my husband completing the P90X program, and now I think it's time for me to try it (for real) as well.  So far into December it hasn't really been that cold, and it's really okay for running--but if it's anywhere below 65 degrees, I just want to stay indoors to get my sweat on.  Which is why rowing and listening to Tony Horton is what I'm considering for the winter months. Something I wasn't expecting:  I lost 2-3 lbs. in the last month and a half, which is the period of time I've been working out the least

In conjunction with my new motto of saying "NO" to gig offers in order to preserve some of my sanity and enjoy family/home life, I've already turned down an awesome gig that pays well (which I did last year), incredibly easy music and actually doesn't take up too much time...but the catch is that it's for Midnight Mass at a large Catholic church across town on Christmas Eve.  Now, I remember last year--when I pretty much said 'yes' to every single gig that was thrown my way--I was running around like a crazy person, grumbling under my breath about how much driving I was doing and how I wished I could just be at home cooking dinner or hanging with the family.  The Christmas Eve gig, in particular, was rough;  the plan was for me to drive immediately afterwards to my in-laws, about an hour and a half away, to spend Christmas day with them.  Ryan was supposed to get a head start ahead of me, but it turned out that he got sick (started throwing up before I lef

Today was a fabulously leisurely day.  Woke up around 9:30, took the dogs out, checked email/blogs/other stuff, got ready and headed out for some Christmas shopping. When I was in college, I remember doing holiday shopping for several hours without tiring of it; now, I can NOT handle more than a few hours of shopping.  It's not even the walking around part that bothers me (it's a little ridiculous for a runner to complain about walking, right?) but the indecisiveness of what to get people.  After two hours, it gets old and I just want to come back home. Anyway.  I stepped into Anthropologie to donate a sweater and I found these two items that I thought looked cute on me:           I also found some apple wine from a store that is all local--not sure who will get that one, but I figure wine is always a good gift.  I also got a lot of stocking stuffer-type items from World Market: chocolates, candies, balsamic vinegar.  I'll probably go back again for more

Ahhh.  Well, Thanksgiving came and went.  So sad that it flew by so quickly; I feel like I hardly got to enjoy it :( I did end up making almost everything I set out to, except for the pumpkin spice muffins for breakfast.  I actually held off on breakfast (besides coffee) because my parents tend to have their Thanksgiving "dinner" in the early afternoon (they're friends with a lot of other OLD people who don't like to drive at night, lol) and it didn't really make sense to eat anything so close to a huge meal.  Plus, I was busy making three side dishes--one of which I shouldn't have even bothered to make as there was SO much food, it nearly went unnoticed (my parents and husband redundantly pointed out to me to NOT bother to make this particular dish again, ha!)--I didn't really have time to think about eating yet. I got rave reviews over the crockpot corn pudding and apple spice bundt cake (this one disappeared in less than 24 hrs! I didn't even

Okay, so here is what I am pretty sure I'll be contributing to Thanksgiving dinner.  Most of these I will attempt to make tomorrow (my day off) and refrigerate over night.  The easy stuff, I'll wait until Thursday morning to make, as I don't expect them to be too difficult or time-consuming. ********************  Breakfast : 1.  French-press coffee 2.  2-ingredient Pumpkin Spice Muffins (recipe found here:  2 ingredient pumpkin spice muffins ) Sides : 1.  Maple-Roasted Brussels Sprouts with Bacon and Toasted Hazelnuts ( recipe ) 2.  Crockpot Corn Pudding ( recipe ) 3.  Buttered Turnip Puree ( recipe ) Meat : 1.  Honey-Baked Ham Dessert : 1.  Apple Spice Bundt Cake ( recipe) 2.  Double Layer Pumpkin Cheesecake ( recipe ) ***************************** I know it seems like a lot of food to make for someone who isn't hosting the holiday--and my parents are also making a lot themselves (Turkey, mashed potatoes and sweet potatoes, a bunch of pies, stuf

Ahhh!!  Only three more days until we go out of town for Thanksgiving!  It really crept up on me, and I have NO clue what I'm going to make at this point. My parents are having friends over and everyone is bringing something, but since Ryan and I made this deal that we go to my parents for T-giving, and his parents for Christmas...for good (or at least until some changes are made over at his house, which is the main reason he's not too keen on going there for Thanksgiving anymore), I feel more pressure to make more dishes than usual, as well as making them GOOD, so that Ryan doesn't feel like he's missing out on his family's traditions. For example, his grandmother makes the best biscuits, dressing and corn I've ever had.  They're truly addictive.  His mom--my MIL--isn't a bad cook herself, but we tease her about taking 8 hours to make mashed potatoes :)  My parents, on the other hand, are more "healthy-conscious" and as a result, tend to mak

I've already decided that my biggest resolution for the new year will be to say "no" more often and "yes" to what is BEST for myself.  I'm always so worried about how things will look or what people will think if I decline a request or offer for something that otherwise I really wouldn't or shouldn't say 'yes' to. I was really looking forward to a slower end of year, but it looks like--due to my inability to say "no"--every weekend will be taken up by something :  a gig, a concert, rehearsals, makeup lessons, fund-raisers, attending a student's performance.  Something always comes up.  And I suppose the biggest reason I hesitate to say 'no' is NOT because I'm stingy with my time, but because of the expense it all adds up to.  I tend to be a lot more generous with basically all that I have much more so than my husband.  He's the "practical" one in the family, and I suppose it's good he handles our

This weekend: Got up at 6AM Saturday to go for a long run with an old co-worker I hadn't seen in over five years.  It was great!  We did 7.6 miles, chatting and bonding the whole time.  After, I rushed home to shower, change and drive to teach a student right before we both headed to another part of town for a studio recital.  Accompanied all my students on piano, chatted with parents/took pictures and scurried back to other end of town to teach another makeup lesson.  Had just enough time to change again at home for musical performance.  Hubby came with me (first gig he's watched me play in...gosh, don't know how long!  He hates instrumental performances, but loves vocal--especially baroque period), and then we discovered a 24-hr diner called The Hamburger Inn in Delaware, OH.  Came home quite exhausted. This morning, I finally got to enjoy sleeping in with husband and pups, and took my time making a pleasant brunch that we sat down at the table to enjoy.  Early aftern

Went for a very slow run this afternoon.  Wasn't feeling it, but felt like I had to do something other than moping around the house (yes, I'm grumpy today).  Current events aside, I'm grumpy that I have to make an unnecessary trip to teach ONE student simply b/c there was a miscommunication between the office manager at my studio and a parent and they failed to show up at their designated time last night.  I didn't want my student to miss two lessons in a row (same happened last week) so I decided to go in today on my day off.  Proving my point more and more that an office manager is simply unnecessary and I'm the only one who knows my schedule best. Anyway.  Hoping to keep up a few more runs this week and also scheduled a buddy run for this Saturday w/ a former coworker I recently reconnected with on Facebook.  As much as I hate that social network sometimes, once in awhile it's good for discovering like-minded souls who share your passions.  I'm glad we

8:00am:  Wake up, take dogs out, greet Dad visiting for the morning on his way back home. 9:00am:  Head out to vote down the street 9:30am:  Make breakfast, eat at a leisurely pace w/ dad, check email, watch news, straighten up the house. Early afternoon:  Dad goes on his way; continue doing small chores around the house. 2:45-6:30pm:  Teach 7:00pm:  Head home, have dinner w/ hubby, sit down to watch election coverage. 9:45pm:  Glued to the couch, stomach churning, biting nails, still awaiting election results.  Nerve wracking. Tomorrow morning:  Planning an outdoor run. Will it be a relieving, victorious run...or a workout requiring blowing off steam and frustration:  Unknown.

I signed up for Run Eat Repeat's Pile On The Miles 2012 challenge and really got off to a bad start as I missed the first three days and just got in my first run this morning.  Ugh.  Running sporadically is NOT a good idea.  When was the last run I did?  I don't even remember.  The last race I did was a month and a half ago.  This morning's run was on a trail by our house.  Ryan forced me to do 5 miles and I'm glad he did.  I was going to settle for just 3, but considering I did zero running this past week, more mileage is always better.  It's possible I may have set an unrealistic goal for myself, but I didn't sign up with the intent to win, but to have that little nagging voice in the back of my head say each day "You really need to get out there and do SOMETHING...don't SUCK today!!".  So I'd like to do at least 3 miles during the week.  Possibly more on the weekends.  Next weekend will be hard.  I have three more opera performances Fri.,

Tonight, I made another Lake Lure recipe called "Choucroute Garnie", which is basically sauerkraut with assorted sausages, potatoes, carrots and onions.  This was my first time making sauerkraut (NOT from scratch!) for a meal; I typically steer clear from German-type foods (even though this is apparently more of a French recipe) as I'm not particularly fond of them, but for whatever reason, this appealed to me and I had most of the ingredients.  Plus, I love using the crock pot so I thought I'd give it a shot.  I dumped everything in around 1pm, and by the time I got back home from rehearsal around 9:30pm, this place smelled yummy!  I walked over to the crock pot (Ryan never touches dinner--even if it's all ready to go--until I'm home. Before you go "awww, how sweet" it's really because he's lazy and would most likely starve waiting for me to serve him. True story.) and lifted the lid realizing that I maybe should have halved the recipe as

Ahh, it's already the middle of the week--where the does the time go?!  On Sunday, Ry and I spent our 6th wedding anniversary pretty low key by taking a pleasant drive to Granville, OH (very reminiscent of the kinds of towns you see in Stephen King movies) and having lunch + ice cream + a stroll with our yorkie, Zoe.  I was half kicking myself for not bringing along the camera for photo ops, but at the same time, I just wanted to enjoy the little moments!  I love Granville--especially in the Fall.  It used to be about a half hour's drive for us, but with the addition of a highway route it's now 15 min. away.  I expect more trips in the future! I'd love to live there, but there isn't a whole lot around there except Denison University, so probably won't be moving anytime soon:( Getting back into the work week, I resorted again to this amazingly yummy crockpot chicken teriyaki recipe for dinner last night and converted them into lettuce wraps for Ryan's di

I made lasagna for the first time last night.  Yes, you heard that right.  I've eaten lasagna tons of times, but was always too intimidated to do it myself and besides, Ryan has always made excellent lasagna dishes, so I just let it be "his" thing. But I just felt like having lasagna for dinner last night and I never expect Ryan to cook on weeknights when he's worked a long day, so it was left to me to find a decent recipe and see how it turned out.  Sadly, no pictures, as I've been getting worse and worse about remembering to take them immediately after they're completed.  But here is the recipe I found:  sausage lasagna.  Ryan gave it a thumbs up and we truly stuffed ourselves with still enough leftovers for tonight, so YAY for no cooking today!! Not much today except gave one of the dogs a much needed bath and teaching 2 makeups on my day off, then off to a rehearsal until 9pm. This Sunday is our 6 year wedding anniversary and I'm not sure what

Fellow blogger and violinist, Sarah Marie , has come up with a fun series called "One Little Thing" where she focuses on everyday little joys and has invited others to join her, too.  I love this idea because I love to slow down to savor life's little pleasantries.  Sometimes, it's really easy to get caught up in the drama of everything else and forget to remember how blessed I am.  Also, I'm with Sarah on the frustration of not being able to complete everything on my grand "to-do" list (although, she has more of an excuse than I do...she has a baby!) and I like the idea of focusing on just "one thing" that gets accomplished either each day, or each week..or whatever works for you. 1.  So today, my one thing (and I guess I'll throw in a few others, too) will be that I thought ahead this week about tonight's dinner and have planned a crockpot meal of chicken teriyaki w/ rice for when my parents arrive later today, and am REALLY relieve

I made salmon for dinner tonight and am completely stuffed.  I purchased rather large fillets (my eyes are always bigger than my stomach) anticipating Ryan to also eat some, but I ended up being the only one eating my creations as Ryan went to game #3 of the Cincinnati Reds (they lost again, boo) and then called while I was teaching to say he was getting burgers here .  I was just a little hurt he wasn't going to eat my teriyaki-marinated salmon, but that only lasted for 30 seconds when I realized it meant more for me and for leftovers tomorrow. I stopped by Trader Joe's on the way home to quickly grab something green to go as a side with my salmon and sweet mashed potatoes and then popped the salmon in the oven while I waited for Ryan to get home and watched some debate coverage in the meantime. Is anyone else as in love with salmon like myself?  I need to come up with some more creative ways to make it, but most times I'm pretty satisfied with just kosher salt and pepp

I am a TERRIBLE wife!  Why?  Ryan and I woke up on Sunday morning and just went about our business; while I was making coffee in the kitchen, I heard Ryan's phone ringing constantly and casually asked, "Who keeps calling you?" and he says "Just the moms..." Me:  "Mom..ss..plural?" Ryan:  "Yeah, your mom is calling me, too" Me:  "Uhh, why would my mom be calling you...she hardly ever does that!" Ryan:  "probably just wants to wish me a happy birthday" Snap.  I forgot my husband's birthday:(  This is probably the first time this has happened.  I felt so bad, even though Ryan shrugged it off.  No worries, though.  I made up for it by making him a Chocolate Lava Cake that evening and letting him invite his buddies over to play Battlefield into the wee hours of the morning (he's had the whole week off). Still.  I can't believe I forgot .  I was thinking about it all week, too.  I guess I just got preoccupied

I never get tired of gushing about how much I friggin' LOVE the month of October.  This year, I swear the weather fell right into lockstep with the arrival of Fall as the air felt more crisp and slightly cooler, but with the still welcoming presence of sunshine to go along with it.  Ahhhhh! My parents just left this morning after a short visit.  They arrived Tuesday evening so we could spend the entire day yesterday together.  Didn't seem like we did much, yet what we did do took all day.  We ran errands and gathered ingredients for a planned Hearty Beef and Lamb Stew for dinner.  I picked up more mums to decorate the back patio and front stoop (looking at Fall foliage and flowers makes my heart skip a beat!), and by evening, the whole family (including my younger brother who lives 20 min. away) was sitting around the table with stew in front of them, discussing politics and mulling around the house until the debate came on.  We then migrated over to the couch w/ pumpkin muff

What a funny study: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/9572187/Couples-who-share-the-housework-are-more-likely-to-divorce-study-finds.html So, according to this, Ryan and I should have a long, happy marriage!  Once in a while, I do hear others commenting on how chores should be split up because it just seems more fair that way, but in our case, I prefer to do the household stuff because a) I'm better at it b) I actually find it sort of therapeutic, as long as I'm not in a rush to get it done, and c) I technically have more time and energy to get it done since I work less hours than Ryan and am home more often anyways. In all honesty, I'd much more prefer to be a housewife any day than have a 9-5 job.  I totally love sprucing up the home, planning and preparing meals and enjoying the "quiet life" to quote the article. At any rate, I thought it was an amusing study.

I did the Hocking Hills Indian Run yesterday and unfortunately, I wasn't as excited about it as I was last year, AND I was 10 minutes slower than last year, too:(  Buuuut, on the up side, my being slower this time around may have benefited me in the end as today I am not really hurting the way I remember I was last year.  I could barely walk the day after last time. Another reason I wasn't feeling it was I ran it all by myself this time.  The same friends who went last year were up in the air about it, and my husband is on a 2-month break from running.  So, this is the second race I've done all alone (last one was the last 5K I did in August).  My little brother came with me, but even he wasn't really too excited about it, lol.  He pretty much brought a book and stayed inside the dining lodge the whole time I ran. It took about an hour to get there, and for us it was even longer b/c one of the main exits was closed off, so we got lost for awhile.  I started running an

I totally forgot to share the recipe for the beur blanc salmon--I got it from this lovely food blog Lake Lure Cottage Kitchen .  I don't even remember how I found it, but isn't that the way this blog world works: you troll blog after blog after blog and somehow you've amassed too many blogs to keep track of! Anyway here it is the link with much more appealing pictures!  Salmon with swiss chard and couscous I also made another Lake Lure recipe tonight-- Crockpot Teriyaki Chicken .  One of the easiest recipes I've ever made.  I dumped everything into the slow cooker, left to teach, came back this evening to enticing aromas, made some steamed rice and am enjoying every bite right now!  Mmmm, SOO much better than the stuff at the mall food court, lol! Enjoy!

This week--despite my icky illness--I've still managed to make meals at home.  Since I was home basically 3 days in a row trying to recover (still am, with a blocked left ear and cough), I had oodles of time to make dinner at a decent time, sometimes finished right when Ryan set foot through the front door!  Makes me feel like a 1950's housewife.  I should get a fancy apron to complete the picture. This week starting with my first day home: Monday-      Italian chicken soup/ Slow cooker Beef Chili Tuesday-      Jalapeno cornbread with leftover beef chili Wednesday-  Salmon with Swiss chard and couscous tied together with a beur blanc sauce Thursday-    Pasta w/ meat sauce I stole the salmon w/ beur blanc sauce from a food blog and it got high reviews from Ryan, although we both agreed the lemon was a little strong in the sauce, maybe not even needed.  And next time, it'd be interesting to try the sauce over crispy chicken, same greens and over roasted potatoes.

Ahhhh, I keep letting this blog-thing slip further and further away; before you know it, I'll be one of those bloggers that disappear for an entire year, pop in to say I'm still alive, and then disappear forever.  Eh, you know how it is.  Life has been pretty blah and I've been sick the last few days (canceled lessons today) so I've especially not felt like writing anything. I decided to make some chicken noodle soup since it's what you're supposed to have when you're going through a cold.  I simultaneously prepped some beef chili in the slow cooker for Ryan to have since he's more of a stew/chili kinda guy, and doesn't care much for soup or broth.  I picked an Italian chicken soup recipe that looked good on paper, but when I tried it, it was just 'eh'.  I think that the best chicken soup I've ever made, to date, is Rachael Ray's recipe from her 30 Minute Meals cookbook.  And I've only made it once, and it was for Ryan when he

It's always been a desire of mine to consistently make meals at home and never have to resort to take-out or fast food for dinner.  Sometimes, though, that's a lot easier said than done, and when a busy day gets even busier or unexpected things pop up in the schedule, an intended stop at the grocery store turns into a stop at the drive-thru.  I always hate it when that happens, not to mention it's just not good for you! This week was a good week in that I didn't cave into any last minute stops at a drive-thru or take-out meals.  I did one huge grocery trip and roughly planned out which days I wanted to make certain meals.  I didn't take into account, however, how much food would be leftover and one day this week consisted of purely leftovers for dinner. My parents came Thursday evening to help my younger brother move into a new apt. and they've just left; my husband also is out for most of the evening at another "nerd" party, so I'm left all alon

I'm noticing a pattern:  when I start to spend a little too much time on one thing and neglect everything else that's a part of my life, I get cranky, whiny, stressed, paranoid and overly indulgent in negative thoughts. Basically, I need to do more of pretty much everything else and keep teaching in the background.  When I let my teaching job come to the forefront of everything, I let little stupid things get to me.  Maybe a look a parent or student gave me, their tone of voice, or perhaps even something they said that I read into a little too much.  I REALLY appreciate the comments you guys left me and for the varying thoughts after my last post; the conclusion I've come to is that, yes, I'm still evolving, still growing as a person, a musician and a teacher and I need to quickly remove any notion that there is an end in sight for it all.  There will always be room for modification, for improvement and I have to understand that that is not the same as saying that I &

This summer will have been my fifth year living and working in Columbus, and as I experience a turnover nearly every single year, I've been pondering more and more in recent weeks that I need to change some things.  I don't think any violin teacher or artist out there ever thinks they are doing the wrong thing or teaching their students incorrectly--don't we all tend to like the way we think and/or do things?!  But, even though I come to expect turnovers in students as a regular and normal thing, this year has just been so...weird.  I thought that I had matured enough and was experienced enough to get over those humps and not take it so personally when students left or quit as I did when I first started teaching, but I really have to admit--I've been shaken by particular students leaving, and with specific experiences w/ some parents.  Feelings of doubt--even incompetence--have washed over me, and that quickly turns into anger and defensive reactions when I can't pu

This or That [ this is has been making the rounds  on various blogs, so I'm not sure of the origin. But it looked fun, so here goes!]: 1. Coke or Pepsi? –  Coke 2. Caramel Apple or Cotton Candy? –  I know apples are healthier...but the caramel sticks to my teeth, so it's cotton candy! 4. Salt or Pepper? –  pepper! 5. Pudding or Yogurt? –  Greek yogurt, especially from TJ's 6. American or Provolone Cheese?-  Provolone 7. Cookies or Brownies? –  Most any type of cookie!  8. Pretzels or Chips? –  Hmm, I suppose chips, although I don't really purchase or snack on either too often. 9. Cake or Pie? –  This is a hard one...it depends on what I feel like. I really can't choose b/t the two. I like both!! 10. Oatmeal or Cereal? –  I know oatmeal is healthier, so I've been eating more of that, but occasionally, I will eat Kashi cereal. 11. Mexican or Japanese? –  Ugh, I have to choose b/t two of my least favorite foods?  I guess Japanese since I like r

*Update:  I went to the race's website to check my official race time, and I need to shave 7 seconds off. Woohoo!  Official 5K time: 27:31 * Just got done with the Beat Beethoven 5K in uptown Westerville and I feel okay with my finish time--27:38, 8:54 min./mile average.  After finding out the 1st and 2nd place females' finish times, I wished I had pushed harder.  I think 2nd place finished in 24 minutes.  Granted, this was not a big race, so not that many people, and not that much competition.  Still, though, when you hear that, it makes you wonder what you're capable of!  Also, I've been rowing more than I have running, so it felt a little weird out there; I started out hard and passed a bunch of people, but then after about a mile, I got winded, started feeling stomach cramps, and slowed down to almost a 10 min. mile.  I felt like keeping that pace until the end, but I just knew I was going to kick myself later for not pushing a little harder out of my comfort zon

Ok.  Thanks so much for tolerating my silly vent--some of you suggested I "unfriend" the parent from FB: I thought about it, but ultimately decided that what goes around comes around.  The way I see it, I did nothing wrong and really shouldn't be in a tiff about it.  Yeah, I still find it annoying how she behaved one way w/ me but obviously acts another way with the new teacher--but it's not in my interest to bother even reading into it.  Besides that, I still teach a student whose family is best friends with this former parent/son--it just wouldn't look good on my end.  My solution is to stay away from FB. I hardly ever update my status like I used to, and I think long and hard before I consider posting something.  Politics are a no-no and random thoughts are refrained when I put myself in others' shoes and imagine how silly they'd seem if I were a stranger reading those ridiculous rants. I don't advertise my blog on FB so I'm not really worried

Remember that scene from Father of the Bride when Steve Martin has just met his daughter's fiancee and tries to advise his daughter to wear a jacket as she's leaving because "it's chilly out", and she proceeds to blow him off because he's just her silly old dad; her fiancee then chimes in "He's right, it IS chilly out" and she suddenly listens to him and says "Oh really? Oh thanks, let me grab my jacket". Yeah, that's how I've felt the past several months as I've watched students come and go; sometimes they quit cold turkey because they've gotten sick of practicing (or of me telling them to practice--I KNOW there was nearly no practicing going on) and others have discreetly found other teachers while still continuing study with me, and then have given me the boot.  But right before they decided to leave, I'd get clues about their intentions.  Like when their mom would ask me why other people would comment on her s