i got up early to practice before today's "back to work from spring break" rehearsal. it was held at an elementary school, not the main hall, which made it feel slightly inauthentic. this afternoon, j & i checked out a tango practica downtown. i danced only with him the whole time, as i was too scared/shy to dance with others. i don't have good tango shoes yet, and the ones i do have leave my toes pretty vulnerable. we only stayed for about an hour, and i was getting really toe-shy by the end, not following well (or so j claims). it's great to be able to share such an activity with a loved one, but it can lead to some tense moments. i'm always really sore after dancing. my bum is always sore from tensing my legs so tight, trying to balance on the inside balls of my feet, and from walking backwards. backwards is not an easy movement. my arms also get sore trying to maintain good pressure so moving can be communicated & shared. i was already sore from the climbing yesterday, and this definitely gave my arms even more of a workout. on top of the rehearsing & dancing, i practiced 3 hours, so right now most of my muscles are really killing me. when we arrived home, we practiced dancing for another hour in the privacy of our own home, without the crowd to manouver around. when we're at home, we both dance in socks, so if we step on each others' toes, it doesn't hurt. anyway, i made some headway with the wedding invitations. still lots of work to be done...

today is the last day of my spring break, although yesterday really was, because i have to teach this afternoon. last night j & i did happy hour with his soccer friends at one of the thousand bars in the portland metropolitan area owned by mcmenamins. i guess i promised j i'd go rock climbing today at noon at the gym in my alcohol induced stupidity, so i've gotta add that to the list of things to do today. i've been all consumed the past few days making big decisions about wedding invitations. after looking at the options at the local wedding store, i came to the conclusion that paying $580 for the ones i liked really wasn't worth it, and i could just make them myself. i think i've made five trips to the paperzone store, which isn't exactly in my neighborhood, and several trips to copy & craft stores. paperzone can be pretty intimidating. so many colors, sizes, tools for things i've never considered doing to paper... scary. amazing what an industry scrapbooking has turned into. anyway, the rest of the weekend holds a trip to the store to get other ingredients for chicken curry, teaching, probably watching some movies/tv, my first day at work back tomorrow morning, and some sort of exercise. and making lots and lots of invites. yipee!!! (at least there's no curling...)

well, my one and only spring break weekend is done. finished. kaput. back to teaching. i'm still off from orchestra, which leaves a lot of energy. after the wedding food tasting on friday, we left with canadian paul for bend. we arrived to j's brother's house right at dinner time, and we were lucky that their friends were there fixing up hamburgers to grill. so nice to not have to cook! (wait- i haven't really been cooking for a while...) it was fun seeing e & n, and my future brother & sister in law. their house is relatively new construction & looks really great. they all went out for a drink for st. patrick's day, while i drank my sleepy tea & sudoku-ed and went to bed. we woke up early the next morning & hit the slopes. the snow was great, as was the weather. it was pretty sunny, and not too cold. j & paul enjoyed skiing the summit lift, which is usually closed due to conditions. since i'm an eternal beginner, i stuck to basically one area. on one lift ride, i met some seventh day adventist kids from walla walla washington. they were surprised that i knew of both universities and people who had attended whitman or who went to the seventh day adventist walla walla college. anyway, after i told them i was a violinist, they told me they played stringed instruments too. one was a violinist, one was a bass player. one of them said "if michael were here, we'd almost have a string quartet!" funny. weird to hear nerdy musician things coming from little kids. anyway, i got more runs in than usual, without any major falls. we hit the deschutes brewery after we got home & called it a night. sunday we returned to mt bachelor for a half day of skiing. the slopes hadn't received any new snow, and the snow was a little crunchy & frozen in the beginning, making it a little difficult for me to move, but once the sun came out, everything softened up. we left around 2, and made our way back to portland. the return trip and especially santiam pass was a lot clearer and faster this time, and we were able to see lots of peaks- broken top, washington, jefferson... we had a few free hours before we were off again to try curling, which canadian paul organized. it was all their climbing friends, and i was definitely the most movement challenged one there. it wasn't such a fun evening as i wasn't very good at the launching of the stone, and they were actually playing a real game. i was also really really tired, not to mention sore from skiing, and was glad when we finally got home. long day, long weekend.

yay! it's spring break. so why do i keep waking up feeling sick to my stomach??? i know i'm not pregnant. i wasn't drinking the night before. it happens frequently. oh well. i got highlights redone today, so i have stinky hair, but the color is nice. i just had a private tango lesson, and we were working a lot in close embrace, and i felt badly because it must've smelled pretty badly. i only have one lesson to teach today, and i think we're going to try going to a milonga tonight. it'll be our first public dancing session outside of classes. i need to fit in packing for our little trip. we're going to bend tomorrow, staying with j's brother & fiancee, & skiing at mt. bachelor. i hope i don't break anything!!!

today wasn't too difficult. got up, did some research online... this took longer than expected, so i never had time to go running. haven't done the lifting forever. shame on me!!! i've just been going through some changes, and it's taken lots of thinking time. anyway, today was a 2pm concert time, and j came along for the ride. we went to the widmer brewery afterwards for their happy hour, & came home & watched bewitched. not such a good movie. luckily it was just through netflix. this almost felt like a normal weekend, except for the working part. the tchaikovsky suite keeps getting faster & faster every performance. my spring break is coming up very very soon - skiing time! we're going to spend a weekend in bend, skiing at mt. bachelor, staying with j's brother. this will be my first time this season, which has been a great one for snow.

wow. time off next year. what an idea. got the "sabbatical". no weekend concerts. no double sunday concerts. no more 12 hour days. it's a little scary. not sure if it's the best thing for a first year of marriage, but change is supposed to be a good thing, right?

it snowed it snowed it snowed it snowed!!! i woke up this morning and snow on the roofs, on the ground, nad it's still coming down very quietly. not much, but still. how could this happen? usually in these parts, snow that is coming is talked about for weeks. this was a complete surprise. the roads are basically clear, though. :( guess we have work today. speaking of, off to tchaikovsky suite...

this is one of those days where it just rains and rains and rains and rains. it's quite heavy rain, which has been usual for this year, but unusual to have so much. normally it's light misty rain. weird that i hear more fire engines on really rainy days - that just seems wrong. today is my "day off", although it's only a day off from the symphony. i still usually have teaching. a prospective student is coming today to meet with me. wednesday is also "massage day." i slept almost the whole way through today. i did get up relatively early for it being a day off. wow... can't understand how the ground can take all this rain. pretty amazing. and the lawn guy came today. so glad i don't have that job. i just mixed up a batch of white chocolate chip macadamia nut cookies; they're in the oven right now. baking is a good rainy day activity. did the running yesterday (also a "free day" - my first personal day of the season), so i actually could relax a little today. i've already practiced a couple hours. having days off in the middle of the week doesn't feel as nice as days off on the weekend. all i can guess is that it's because j is at work while i'm free. with all this rain, today would be a fantastic skiing day for me. lots of fresh snow to fall on...

e.r.

been a long time since i've watched e.r. noah wyle is back??? it's so luxurious to sit in front of the t.v., nothing to worry about, nothing pressing. what a life i have here. a house, kids (well, kittens), work, food, clean water, the list is endless. so much more than most in this world.