Reading machine

I am, that is. Here's some more books that I have currently started and am reading through all of them. (My brain likes having lots of books started).


The first one is a very dorky biography of (arguably) the most famous violin teacher ever. She taught at Julliard and 6 other universities and almost EVERY major violinist out there today has studied with here. Being a teacher of so many students, I'm REALLY enjoying this book and the ideas I'm learning from it.


I have somehow never read this, so I picked it up to read during some of my travels and it's quite good, even though I've only gotten through the first four chapters. Nothing quite like the "Ministry of Love". You'll know what I mean if you've read it.


This is an interesting comparison of religious traditions between the Orthodox Jewish and the Christian faiths. I identify with Christianity, while my grandparents are Jewish. So seeing the similarities is fascinating.


This is such a sad book. Jennifer is misunderstood by doctors for years of treatment and in a horrific case of anorexia, it ends up taking her life. This makes me hate ED that much more, for all the damage he has rampaged on beautiful, amazing young women!

Finally, this was my breakfast this morning. Kashi GoLean, strawberries and 0% Greek yogurt (from TJs). Plus coffee.

I didn't have any fat though, so I got hungry right away and I had a slice of ww bread with hummus and lf cheese.


I'm going to leave you with a video of my current song obsession. It's called "Erasers on Pencils" by Ceili Rain. They are an Irish band and this song speaks of forgiveness for imperfection. If you're religious it could be seen from the point of view as being forgiven for sins, but even if you're not, I think it's so helpful to see it as a reminder to forgive ourselves when we make mistakes. I know that I've wrestled with perfectionism for years (OK, to be honest, I still do, some days more than others!) and this song is so comforting. (The video is made in-studio but it's the best I could find.)



Have a lovely day! I'm off to get a deep tissue massage (being a violinist = chronically sore upper back/shoulders), then workout, then practice! And I have a FREE Friday night! No gigs, no rehearsals!! WOOHOO! But I have no idea what to do with myself! It will be enjoyed though! I'm interested in seeing Food, Inc. Have any of you seen it? What were your thoughts on it?

Long day to practice!

Good morning! I'm going to put up a quick post and then get to practicing. I need to learn three pieces for a concert coming up very soon. I'm the only violinist in the group and they are quite difficult! Later today I'm teaching and rehearsing an opera.

I have a few more random meals to catch up on so here you go.

This is a Boca patty (mushroom mozzarella, I think?) "burger" with a bunch of sauteed zucchini and onions on the side.

Eaten while studying this:

And since I was still hungry:

Breakfast yesterday morning was a bowl of oatmeal with strawberries, pumpkin and carob chips. I'm all out of strawberries and they are another "MUST" purchase today. Fresh strawberries are one of my favorite foods ever!


I stopped by Starbucks before teaching for 6 hours yesterday to get a venti skinny caramel latte. It's nice to have something with milk (calories + protein) to sip, especially since sometimes I don't have any dinner break at all. On those days I'll bring a Naked Protein drink which has about 400 calories in the bottle, but yesterday I had 20 minutes for dinner so I grabbed a 6 inch Subway ham on wheat with Pepperjack cheese. Sorry, no picture though.

And a quick snack.

Yesterday night I went out with my boyfriend (3+ months and he's still wonderful, sweet, and amazing!) and I gt a Hoegaarden beer plus 5 chicken bites (sort of like chicken nuggets, but way better) and some pitas to dip in hummus and guacamole. It was a lot of food for how late it was, but it was delicious! No pictures, because I haven't told him about the blog.

Anyway, the point is that I am reminded again at how good our bodies are at taking care of us. This morning I made 2 Boca sausage links and a bowl of (completely plain-gasp!) oatmeal. I only used about 1/3 cup of oats and I couldn't finish it. So I didn't, because my body told me I was full. To be honest, satiety is still a relatively new concept for me. In my ED/DE years I just never got full which led to binging and then either feeling guilty or trying to purge (and feeling guilty again). Only recently (after I gained enough body fat and was eating enough ALL THE TIME) did I ever start to experience the feeling of fullness.

I only have these two pictures for you because my roommate came out to the kitchen and I couldn't get any more.


And lastly, during some of my travels, I got the chance to stop at this memorial of Flight 93. It crashed in Western Pennsylvania and they have a beautiful and seemingly sacred memorial on that ground. There is something incredibly chilling to know that the passengers on the plane KNEW they weren't going to survive, so they worked together to force the plane to crash into the ground there, instead of letting it make it to its destination of Washington D. C., which is where the terrorists were aiming for it to go.


In memory of each person who died.

They had a large wall to leave stuff in memory. None of it ever gets thrown away, and is instead removed when it reaches capacity and starts to get too old.

GOD BLESS THE FAMILIES OF ALL THE SELFLESS PEOPLE ON THAT PLANE THAT REFUSED TO LET THE TERRORISTS TAKE EVEN MORE LIVES.

Happy hump day! I'm off to practice!

And so the hiatus ends...

Hi everyone!

I am so sorry for being gone SOOOO long! It's been over a month since my last blog! Wow, talk about negligent. What have I been up to? Well, I've played 3 weddings and prepared for 5 more coming up in August, played 8 shows, taught more lessons that I can count (~50, maybe?), moved to another house and mostly unpacked all my stuff, went camping with my boyfriend and his parents, finished three books, and started some others. There's been some other stuff of course, but that's most of it.

I'm mostly going to catch you up on a few blog-worthy meals that I've had on my camera for a while now.

Cold Uncle Sam's cereal with strawberries and raisins. So good!



I also had several amazing bowls of oatmeal. Here's a popular one:

-oats
-one chopped fig
-raisins
-cottage cheese
-P B (you can't see it, but I always have some kind of nut butter with most meals. I'm discovering how much better I feel consistently with a fairly high fat diet. Who knew?!)

***

Some sort of ww pasta, zucchini combo topped with feta cheese. I make wonderful "bachelorette style" meals...aka, throw together a bunch of healthy ingredients that I like and I'll probably like the finished product! :)


With an apple.

One of my more favorite snacks. :)


Tuna and spinach salad. Kind of plain, but delicious. I mixed the tuna with light Italian dressing.


And had these on the side. They are SOOO good; quite addictive actually. They are a new product and come in many different varieties including almond, cashew, mixed nut, and the honey roasted peanut shown below. Sorry about the blurry picture. I REALLY wish they were slightly less expensive because even on sale they're $2.50 a bag and the bags are small (I.e. no where near 5 servings that it says it has!)


As a self-proclaimed chocoholic, I had to try this when I found it at an out-of-town market.


It was quite good, and yes, I ate the whole bar.

I went to the Warped Tour, mostly to check it out (and my ticket is tax-deductible because I'm a full-time musician (job perks!) I unfortunately missed actually seeing Flogging Molly perform (the reason I went!) but I snapped a few pictures afterwards at their autograph table. They are an Irish punk rock band and I love them! They are one of my favorite bands ever and their music has powered me through more workouts that I can count.


Here are a few of the books that I've read or I am reading:


Purple Cow is an EXCELLENT book on marketing one's self especially in today's economy where a traditional advertising approach doesn't work. The premise is that if you're driving along and you see a cow by the side of the road, that's kind of cool. But if you keep driving they just start to get boring or even annoying. But if you suddenly, in the midst of the brown cows, saw a purple cow, well that would be remarkable. Even though I don't have a traditional job, it made me look at my profession in a different light and to try and brainstorm ways to be different and more exciting than all the other violinists out there.


I HIGHLY recommend this book to anyone under 30 or 40, especially if you don't have a great knowledge of all things financial. I really don't know much at all, and it's been so helpful to me! It's written in plain, down-to-earth English, with helpful and easy-to-understand definitions and graphs. I've only gotten to the first 3 chapters, but I'm excited to read more.


And Complications was so interesting! I loved it! Told from a surgeon's point of view, it describes the learning experience, the medical mysteries that still remain, and most importantly, it treats all of the patients' stories with an element of humanity and compassion. It's also really easy reading (no heavy medical terminology) and I really enjoyed it!

More book reviews to come in future blog postings.

Lastly, I got to go through the lovely experience of a finger staph infection. It hurt quite a bit! It got infected on a Friday, and by Monday and Tuesday it hurt so much and was so swollen that I had to call the doctor. It started oozing pus while still at home and when I got into the office they lanced it (to keep getting the pus out) and gave me a 10 day antibiotic. Warning, gross pictures below!



I PROMISE that I will update this MUCH MORE frequently than this past month! PLEASE don't give up on me just yet! :)