Why my Chihuahuas are so Chunky?!
Last spring/summer, I took a nasty fall on a sidewalk and injured both knees, my foot and my wrist. I was really laid up for a while, and needless to say took a break from running. I don’t even know how I managed to run MDI last fall, but I did it thankfully. When I started walking again, after my injuries, we thought buying a stroller for the chihuahuas was a good idea. Instead of crutches, we transitioned to walking my chihuahuas in the stroller up a trail. Crutches are the worst, but it hurts so much to walk on broken bones. Bean boots can be a substitute for a walking cast certain times of the year, or even extra foamy Nike slides (or maybe I have bad advice). All summer, I did physical therapy rehabbing my injuries, it was pretty serious.
Every athlete has injuries at some point, I am happy that I bounced back and just have some battle wound scars on my knees and hand. It makes me look tough, and men truly like that toughness in a woman, perhaps it was a blessing in disguise, hahah. Take scars and money out of the equation thinking about long-term practicality, as well as questions like is he respectful, highly intelligent and athletic like I am? Is he really? Is the family educated? What career paths are we on? The seven levels of intimacy? Sometimes, when you find the ‘love of your life’, there are periods of time that you cannot be together, but you still want them to have a good time. When we were together, I had a marathon he could not attend, but ya know I still ran the entire thing having a fabulous time with a hotel room to myself afterwards, going out to dinner alone, buying my own drinks. At the same time, that race weekend I wore all the jewelry he bought me another weekend when he told me that he’s mine, and I still had him on the phone. Very relationshipy jewelry. There’s things that are a big deal, and then other things that are just a big deal to you, and you have to balance them. I know how to fly, and travel by myself as every woman should (Florida with my grandmother taught me all my travel skills). Over that summer, as a matter of fact I had grad school with a bunch of broken bones, and could not really spend the summer with them geographically wise. We never had that blissful summer in a movie, in all those years for whatever reason; it’s really funny. It just did not work. I think the worst times that we ever broke up were when my family had me go to Florida to take care of my grandmother two different Springs, when I went to Harvard to watch my friend play lacrosse by myself, the winter break I volunteered in Haiti instead of skiing with him, and the night before my 7am Calc II final my last semester senior year when he sarcastically proposed to me. That’s just apart of any relationship, that long drive from Portland in a blizzard to your calc final on those icy backroads. My professors made me a custom ruby ring with PID crafts just because they could, remedy my situation with magic rubies, it matches my Tiffany ring and I wear a lot of jewelry; things you can wear everywhere that match everything. My chihuahuas fight, but they are still best friends. However, we both end and pick up on good terms; just because you break up does not mean you hate them or you’re not friends with each other. In fact, I think it’s normal to take a break to breathe, and move on to experience different chapters, where it could go either way and that is completely fine; be ambivalent yet still living your lives. Smothered by all the love, and needing to breathe is a real thing, when you find a man who loves you he never wants to let you go; which is why you still need to date each other like you’re not comfortable, play blind date whom you met at a party. You can only be in love with one person at a time, but do they love that they love you? Sometimes, it feels like the rose ceremony in The Bachelorette; are you giving them another rose? Feel it out, whenever a boyfriend calls tell him that you are busy, always be too busy to talk. That tenacity coming off of an injury to be back in your sport, it puts you on a whole other level. When you know your reason to be, it is a very big deal, especially whilst coming back to life from a setback. My puppies love jumping in that stroller, though the three of us do not have a need for it anymore, however the stroller blends in walking on a golf course. The stroller with my puppies helped me stop using crutches to walk and strengthen my knees after my accident. I still let them go on a ride from time to time, because they are always so excited to jump in the carriage. :)
You find funny ways to overcome massive injuries, keep ya moving and grooving. Ughh, I am so happy those injuries healed, just thinking about it makes my heart fall into my stomach. Hopefully my injured runner days are over, and we hit that turning point where running is nice to me all the time and nothing hurts; something seriously miraculous. There is so much comradery in marathon running, no matter what fitness phase you are in; I am such a lucky lady to have a mature and nurturing support system in my sport. A bunch of mature adults with respectable lives, connecting to run twenty-six mile events, and reminding each other that we fall down to get back up again. Should I try a 100 miler or stick to 26.2? I have run 40 before, because I love adrenaline rushes.
I graduated from crutches, to the stroller, to slack line jumping between trees in the backyard, to running marathons again! I do enjoy having a good slack line to bounce around on! ;)
What am I listening to these days? I know you’re wondering…
I still like to watch Black Swan before bed, just to listen to the music and…
In my classical music video watching phase lately, this is the best duet version of Pachelbel’s Canon that I have heard. They have some very nice videos that I really loved watching. Every classical musician has played Pachelbel’s Canon, or you haven’t lived, it’s like a thing. When classical musician confidants get married to someone, they always have the best music for each other’s weddings. The perk of being a classical musician all of your life, is knowing more certain than god that music for your wedding will be perfect. Oh yeah you get Pachelbel’s Canon, everybody gets Pachelbel’s Canon! That’s why everyone should play string instruments, it gives you something to look forward to forever.
I really adore this video, because she is a prodigy and has such a bright future. What a gift it is to watch and listen to this extraordinary girl play the violin, watching this video is like getting a prodigy performance for Christmas. This video brought me pure joy, watching her play one of my favorite solos while looking so beautiful. I played this song for my boyfriend all the time when we first started dating, and I told him that I am a classical violinist, we even watched the Paganini movie with David Garrett playing the main character, together with popcorn; happy memory. It’s cute how she made her facial before the performance to make her glow, I used to make things like that and sometimes add glitter afterwards. My E string used to snap all the time, and I would have to run around looking for a replacement with my mama, they are so thin. I couldn’t believe she was using Dominant strings, it really brought me back, violinists have fun experimenting with other brands of strings later on. I appreciated going from Dominant to other metals later in my violin career, and it made me feel graduated, because different types of strings sound different which is cool to experience if you have the ear for it. Sometimes, I sing my part in an opera voice, in tune, before playing it. Little Women is one of my all time favorite books, and she’s reading it! How cool is it that she had a chance to meet Lindsey Stirling?! Vanessa Mae was like my Lindsey Stirling growing up, and it means a lot to meet or see your idol at a certain age, or anytime really; I would still be jumping up and down all giddy. Very inspiring to see in a video, this brought me pure joy! Very wowed by a violinist taking over Teen Vogue. I can tell that she loves the challenge of playing a masterpiece by how well she performs everything she plays; you see true passion in her eyes. Way over the top exciting for me to see Vogue praise a classical violinist, because she should be praised for playing Paganini exquisitely well by her age! AMAZING. I would like everyone to watch Pilar Winter Hill, in this special Vogue video feature. I love her strong name, Pilar Winter Hill, I love that she is writing a children’s book releasing in April 2021, and I love listening to her play lovely music.
I found a really good version of my MDI Marathon song too, Thunderstruck. It must be good, if they have that many views on YouTube. I can already feel myself jumping up and down on my starting line next fall, becoming motivated to move up that ginormous mountain in the first mile. Still sad over Boston and Berlin not happening this year, I need to get my world major in and enter my PhD & teaching while sitting in a chair all day chapter; versus running a hundred miles every week forever and ever and ever waiting to be 25 or not have everything canceled hahah. It is hard to be a good marathon runner for a really long time, you almost feel exhausted after ten years of marathon running, but all that hard work won’t fly out the window. I cannot wait to just coach and tell everyone to run around the track five times for me. I’ll make my team all be best friends and nice to each other, be a cool coach who bakes cookies for every invitational in the shape of runners and sneakers; introduce them all to marathon runners. Then again, I’ll probably have that and miss actually racing.
I could listen to Mari Samuelsen all day long. I love looking at her gorgeous technique in these video’s of performances, because not every professional violinist has her technique and it is special to watch.
Everyone loves a variation of Sugar Plum! You feel like you’re really in the ballet! I love Jennifer Thomas’s videos, because she does a marvelous job depicting playing classical music for ballerinas, like I was talking about doing as a job on the violinist side in my other post. It’s really like in her videos, they’re perfect for showing someone the world of classical music and theatre. When I have played my violin for ballet dancer’s, it’s just like in these videos. Dancers and musicians really are like living music boxes, I just adore these videos. I have played the song over and over and over, and a friend has performed the dance movement over and over and over, because our conductor and choreographer kept telling us to keep going and going and going.
A little Beauty and the Beast theme!
This is a pretty Sugar Plum!
Then, I found this music video to promote education on covid, and i thought it was really clever. Silenzium has a lot of very cool videos, fun to watch.