the following are all pictures from an orchestra party last sun night...

j's 29th birthday - lookin good, j!

this is from mother's day... a long time ago... with all the things that have passed since then, i feels like it was a year ago. this is j & i with our parents at brunch.

so much work, little play, but the end is in sight - yay! i've been spending all my time either teaching, practicing, or rehearsing. i'm almost prepared for all the mahler-ing we're doing in the next 7 days. seven seven seven seven days! sounds so short, but goes so slowly. we have social events the next 4 days, celebrating the near end of the season and j's birthday (he'll be 29 on monday!!! aren't i the cradle robber? heehee). looking forward to being able to concentrate on just wedding stuff & teaching. oops - gotta run to work!

is everyone prepared for mother's day??? if you haven't sent out cards already, you better order flowers online - don't forget!!!
i can't write anymore because i need to go practice...

time is scarce these days. ever since i returned from ireland, it's been one long race to get things accomplished. j & i were both gone from thurs to sun. i was on tour with the orchestra in baker city, which used to be quite the metropolis back in the day in eastern oregon. scenery was amazing. unfortunately, j had the digital camera on his trip, so i have no pictures to show. anyway, the weather was amazing, sights beautiful, which actually helped inspire me to do a little jogging on the trip. very unusual for me - i'm not usually that motivated. perhaps sitting in a car for 4.5 hours had something to do with it. j was on a climbing trip to city of rocks in idaho with 3 of his friends. he came back a day early, and all in one piece. yay! no major injuries. so many wedding things & work things to accomplish. ah well. such is life. i'm really lucky to have a job, a spouse (to be), & so many other things. i really can't complain. not at all.

the mounted police. fairly intimidating.

these are pictures of the rally on Monday. j & i were downtown checking out our wedding venue, and it just happened to coincide with the rally. we had to wait about 15 min for a break in the marchers before we could jump in the car & race off on a side street.

this is a pic of a chili dinner that our friends c & v cooked for us last sunday. great food & great company, & fun to eat outside!

happy birthday n!!!!! this is a pic from a few years ago, a trip of mine to new york city. the flowers were from my friend j. anyway, hope the birthday has been smashing!!

yesterday, i dropped my violin off for an "oil change" and spent the rest of the day teaching, making up for the lessons i missed due to the stomach flu on wed & thurs. my students' recital is coming up in two weeks, and i have to miss a couple lessons this week due to an orchestra tour, so i HAD to see them. j & i spent my last free sat night going out to dinner at a cheap italian joint in the neighborhood. not the best food, but really really good for not having to make it ourselves. tonight we're going over to a friend's house for his "famous" chili. not sure if my little tummy is up for that yet... anyway, it's a beautiful day out again. we made waffles this morning & ate outside, chatting with the neighbor kitties that came by to visit. i'm gonna steal j away from his on-call work to go for a run (more like an agitated stroll in my case) with me.

the night before we left was census night in ireland. everybody - visitors & all - had to fill out a census form. some of the questions were difficult for me to answer. for example - "what time do you generally leave for work?" um... often having to go to the hall twice a day, how do i answer that?

buskers outside of the wonderful brown thomas department store. the violinist actually sounded great. too bad it was all fluffy stuff like blue danube waltz. brown thomas is a store that carries super designer stuff like prada, balenciaga, etc. all really really expensive. $500 jeans. stuff i'd feel awkward even trying on.

pretty tulips in the park! too bad they won't be in season for our wedding.

sunday afternoon we spent in the st stephens green park, right across from our hotel, writing postcards. we took this ourselves!

j & i at the porterhouse.

saturday night, after the guinness & jameson's in the morning, and a big long nap in the afternoon, we met friends at the porterhouse in the temple bar area. these are our friends.
and me.

bobby yang... this one is for you!!! (check out his website at www.bobbyyang.com)
bob's at daytime...
and bob's at nighttime...

at the beginning of a tour of the jameson distillery, the guide asks for four volunteer tasters. at the end of the tour, they sit up front and taste different whiskeys & whiskys (the one with the e is irish, the one without, scotch & american). all except one preferred the jameson. j & i agreed we prefer scotch. we didn't get to try the four, but just one sample of the basic jameson. the main difference between irish whiskey and other whisky is that it is distilled 3 times, instead of american whisky, which is distilled once, or scotch, which is distilled twice.

this is the view to be had from the gravity bar. this includes the chimney tower, which one can ascend for a 360 degree view of the city. it was built by mr. jameson, the one of jameson distillery, which is where we went next. we didn't bother with the chimney, though. i was too tired from all the booze so early in the morning. we stopped at a below-par italian restaurant on our way back to the hotel.

oops- forgot this one. it's earlier in the tour. a little mini-tasting room... & j happy to taste!

a pic of me on our way up to the gravity bar - the final stop in the tour where you get your free pint of guinness, along with a great view of the city. orange... i love orange...

yo, brother-in-law-to-be: this one's for you!
these crabs were all over floor 4 (or was it 5?) , a floor dedicated to the history of guinness advertising. don't remember which year the crab was from...

this part of the exhibit was dedicated to the craft of the cooper, the ones who made the beer barrels. it was an esteemed craft back in the day, and not an easy one.

j is happily standing for me in front of a waterfall in the tour. guinness uses not water from the liffey river, which flows right through town, but from the springs of the wicklow "mountains" in their beer. hmm. wicklow "hills" is more like it.

this part of the exhibit shows the all important hops.

stairs to heaven?
haha. these are the stairs, or is the escalator, up to the guinness factory tour.

so let me recap... i spent a couple days visiting some museums - one of art, one filled with dead stuffed animals of all types (including fish & insects), and one of natural history with lots of artifacts. i had a difficult time adjusting to the time change, so i took lots of naps & took my time wandering around. on friday, c picked me up near the ha'penny bridge, and drove me out to malahide, of course with the cute c in tow. we spent the afternoon playing in the sand, watching other kids play in the sand, and then tackled the traffic & headed back to her place. we met the boys at a nearby bar to help them decompress, before heading back to their house where they cooked us a marvelous dinner of duck & lamb. c is such an amazing cook. especially considering the fact that she has a young one to look after - don't know how she does it. the following day, we hit the guinness factory at 10:15 am & then went to the jameson distillery.

fun with bubbles...

the whole cute family!!!

who's watching this kid???

fun with lisa's sunglasses...

c & c at beach at malahide, a coastal town outside of dublin.

courtyard at trinity college, which houses the famous book of kells.

we arrived safely back from the trip to ireland late mon night, around 11:30pm. i have more pictures to post, but haven't had time yet. had teaching yesterday, and i happened to come down with the nastiest stomach flu late last night. still waiting for my tummy to settle before taking tylenol for the temp. i feel like i got run over by a bus. :(

c & i! what a cutie he is!!!


c & her son in st stephens green gardens

a picture of the park in st stephens green. lots of seagulls & ducks!

fusiller's arch - on the northwestern corner of st stephens green. modeled on the arch of titus in rome, it commemorates the 212 soldiers who died in the boer war (1899-1902). names are inscribed on the inside of the arch. this is the main entrance to the gardens.


the picture of one entrance to st stevens green gardens.

after merrion square, i went to the national gallery. lots of jack yeats & other irish artists, a big show about prints, and a collection on the top floor of other artists from europe (vermeer, goya, picasso, etc.)

i met c, a friend who used to live in the states, whose husband worked with j, for lunch, with her adorable son. afterwards we went for a stroll in st stephens green garden.

oscar wilde's house on the edge of merrion square garden, now overtaken by the american university of dublin.

pretty picture in merrion square garden.
statue of michael collins, who was key in masterminding the campaign of violence against the british in the anglo-irish war. as you can see, he didn't last long after the anglo-irish treaty of 1921.
another pretty picture from merrion square garden.

a cute & colorful childrens playground in merrion square garden.

these are some busts in the merrion square garden right opposite the statue of oscar wilde.
statue of oscar wilde in the merrion square garden. another view of the statue of oscar wilde.

so i spent this morning doing a lot of walking and walking and walking. i started off in the merrion square garden, which contains many statues of famous irish people and different types of gas lamplights from the 19th century.

j& i at o'neal's pub in dublin. with our food, and guinness, of course.

this is j's lamb irish stew.

this is my fish & chips from last night that we had in a pub. the fresh irish guinness was great, but the ketchup tasted weird, like a ketchup mayo or something. i never figured out what the green stuff was. tasted sort of like peas.

ahhh... rainy green ireland. flew through chicago to dublin. all went well, especially considering had we left one day sooner, we would've been the flight that was diverted up to a remote air force base in canada, due to someone smelling burning plastic. had that been me, i would've been completely freaking out & losing it. so, all is well. the hotel is fine, although it's not as nice a room as the last time j was here. we had a bit of trouble with the luggage - my checked bag didn't arrive, but j's did. so we stood in line forever waiting to give them information, while i was thinking i'd have to kiss goodbye all the clothes i worked so hard to find (I HATE SHOPPING, and i have semi-expensive taste). we headed off to hertz, which was another long line of waiting, until we finally got the honda civic reserved for us. cars here are weird, steering wheel on the right & all. can't get used to it. glad i don't have to drive at all while here. we took a nap after some quick errand running, wishing we could sleep forever but knowing it's a death sentence for jet lag. took dinner at a noodle joint, & had an interesting dessert of unfamiliar fruits & ice cream. this morning, j headed off to work at 6:30 to leave himself plenty of time to find his way. he slept well. i, very typical of me, was awake from 4am until he woke up. i went to breakfast in the hotel (19 euros for buffet; didn't know this before going; won't go again; know where the grocery store is - much better value), and then took a long nap before leaving the hotel room to explore. we're right near grafton st, which is a huge shopping area. saw either really cheap clothes stores, or super expensive nice designer stores. nothing in between. before i left, i checked on the baggage and found it had been located & would be arriving later, so i didn't really have a reason to purchase anything. i did buy a current lonely planet guide to ireland & picked up brochures at the tourist center on bus tours before heading back to the hotel room. j just got home, and soon we'll head to dinner. i'm probably going to hang out with a friend tomorrow, someone who lived in the states & actually had a son there, as her husband worked where j does. they'll be back next year permanently. well... gotta get ready for dinner. i plan to have my first (perhaps last - i'm not a big fan of it in the states) pint of genuine dublin guinness. they say it tastes different here. stay tuned for more dublin reports, hopefully with pictures.

somehow, we were wrong. we actually leave today, sunday. lucky we noticed that! i'll take lots of pictures & try posting them here. in the airport now, waiting for the flight. thanks for the free hotel room, intel!

arrrggghhh!!!! i finally decided to get up for awhile, as i've been awake since 4-ish. haven't been able to sleep the past few nights with wedding stuff going through my head, and now something completely different to keep me up. j found out yesterday he has to go to ireland on monday, and as i'm off from work until may, i'm going with him! it's exciting, but i usually plan months in advance for trips like this, figuring out what to see & where to eat. weird. we fly on mon & return the following mon. at least the hotel & flight are out of my control...

so, the big announcement today at work was that our president is leaving. interesting...

it's been awhile since i've posted because i've been getting absolutely slammed at work. can't take it anymore. every little thing - traffic, wrong tone of voice from someone, sets me off immediately. a person can only take so much, letting things roll off one's back, before she reaches her limit, an' everything just blends together into one big awful mess. just 2 more months.

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.