get in shape girl

i am not sure it is a big secret for those that know me well that 1- i really enjoy running and tend to do lots of it, and 2- that i have severely let myself go since january.  it was a very busy bassoon winter, and running seemed to have been pushed almost entirely out of the picture.  and all my clothes shrunk.  don't you hate it when that happens???  damn clothes.

it's exciting to now only have bassoon to worry about and not bassoon, part-time job, and school, AND i have no excuses to not run.  that is except for the heat.

OH.MY.GAWD.

my first week here i saw a total of zero people running here in culiacan.  zero.  i was of course only out during the hours of 10am-4pm, i suppose.  and i should probably add that i wasn't running either.  then when i moved into my house and have this:

as the view from my bedroom window.  that's our backyard, and in the background is a running track, that has trees and stuff!!  and to the right of it is a botanic gardens!  it really is such a beautiful area.  

my first run was at 7pm the day i moved in.  there were lots of people out, and the numbers dwindled as dusk rolled in, and i finished just in time for darkness.  all i could think was, ohgod it's hot.  so the next morning i went for a run at 7am.  not as hot, but super duper sunny.  but, the morning weather is still much better for running than the night.  and there's tons of people out in the morning!  most are dressed like it's 50 degrees outside, or colder - in long sleeve shirts with their hands covered, and sweat pants.  and i'm dying in my running shorts, and tank top.  i mean, it is ONLY 80 degrees out with full on sun at that hour.  i must be nuts to be in shorts!!!  

i must be nuts to be out running.

my goal this week was to run 5 miles one day.  i made it to 4 on a "cloudy" morning.  perhaps 5 will come tomorrow?  it's just so.stupid.hot.  and all i want is water.  i need one of those hand held running water bottles.  or a portable air conditioner.  holy hot.  

i figure at least i'm out there, doing something i enjoy and feeling better about myself once it's all over with.  we'll see how i feel about this in a few weeks, apparently the heat hasn't hit bad yet.  

oh no.

night lights

i have been thinking that this blog is probably going to be quite boring, because, well i'm just not that exciting...even in mexico.  i still do the same old things day in and day out, i'm just living in another country and don't really understand the language.  when i told a friend this today she told me she was interested and wanted to read all about it.  and so now i write another post.

the thing i want to talk about the most right now is that i have been alone in my house ALL day.  no joke, after our morning rehearsal ended my roommates went to a friend's house to watch a futbol game, drink beer, and eat pizza.  i declined my invitation because yesterday i did something that made me feel terribly irresponsible and i had to make up for it today.  see, it's only been about 100 degrees out lately and all that sun and heat seems to do is force me to take an afternoon nap.  i do not think i am kidding when i say that i have taken a nap every single day since i got here.  i haven't been able to help it!!  and yesterday i felt like my nap cut into precious practice and reedmaking time.  so today, instead of getting to know people better, i went home and spent some quality time with my reeds and bassoon.  i am super cool.  (it is also important to note that i TURNED DOWN an opportunity to drink...who am i?!?!?!?!)

today was the first day i've profiled cane since i got here and apparently suitcase travel makes profilers get a little out of whack.  so what i intended to take 30min-1hr actually ended up taking 2hrs because i had to adjust my profiler.  and i'm not sure if i'm happy with it.  i guess i'll find out once this batch of reeds is made.  having to deal with a frustrating game of set-up made me feel like i had a very long afternoon of reeds and i was SOOOO wanting to take un poco el gato siesta (a little cat nap - altho i'm sure you'd say it another way).  instead i made some tea and played around on facebook for a while.  then i forced myself upstairs for some bassooning.

NERD ALERT!!!!!!
i am always amazed at how comforting the milde scale studies make me feel.  (can you feel comforting???  hmmm, you all get to see my terrible grammar, eh???)  i'm not sure what it is about them, maybe that i've been playing them for over half my life (ohmygawd) and they just feel like home.  or maybe it's something about the continuous fluidity of the technical and musical lines, or rather the striving for continuous fluidity.  i admit, it's a bit weird, but they made me happy that i chose bassoon over siesta today!

sometime in the middle of that practice session a friend texted me asking if i wanted him to come pick me up to hang out with everyone.  i once again denied an opportunity to drink!!  (for real, who am i?!?!?!) i would later regret this because as it became dark i suddenly began to feel like drinking and not getting anything done on bassoon was a much better option than being alone, in the dark, in the house.

it was after this practice session when i came downstairs and was fumbling for every.single. light switch along the way.  i had also kept our back sliding doors open in an effort to cool the place down.  so now i was walking downstairs, into darkness, and an open back wall of the house.  (we have a cement fence that's like 10ft tall or something around the backyard, someone would have to really WANT to get in) i was a bit freaked out.  i might also add that i have yet to encounter anything unsettling here...except for a dark empty house.  i was really wishing my guard dog, dobby, was here to protect me!!  or that i had said yes to either of the drinking opportunities offered today!!  i ended up leaving every light in the house on and locking myself in my room for the rest of my practicing tonight. it was ridiculous.  for real.  i mean, what did i think was going to happen?  it's funny really.

my roommates are now home and i survived.  i guess i might be afraid of the dark.  or drug lords coming to my house for no reason (i do believe these said drug lords don't just go looking for scared girls in their empty houses, that you might actually have to be involved with the drug scene for them to make house calls, and my locked bedroom door would have TOTALLY blocked their crazy automatic rifles) and honestly i wasn't actually afraid of a drug lord, it's just something amusing to say.  i was more afraid of a big, dark, and empty house.  a house that has yet to feel like my home.  i have only been here three days.  and the entire time i've been here i've known (even in the dark) that there are three other people in the house with me.  i've always been a person that likes to be on my own, not having to bother with other people or worry about disturbing them or have them disturb me.  with the exception of one year, i've lived alone for eight years now.  and today, for the first time that i can recall, i was anxious to be alone.  and i was relieved when my drunk roommates got home.  maybe this is all part of me making mexico my home...learning my comforts and anxieties and allowing myself to act as i feel.  because you can never be home if you are always trying to be somewhere else.

next time, i'm going to go drinking.

and i think i'm going to set up strategic night lights.

i've always been a fan of night lights.    

music, beach, and mountains(ish)

today was mostly an entire day of luxurious and lazy rest, for which i feel semi-guilty.  but it's been a crazy week, and one hell of a past 3 weeks.  so i keep telling myself it's ok.  however, when i look at my schedule for the next 9 weeks i feel like i shouldn't have lost a precious day of bassooning and reeding.

thursday night was my first concert with the orchestra, and yesterday we traveled to Mazatlan, a resort city on the beach about 3hrs south of us, for a concert.  the orchestra was in 3 different hotels, and apparently mine was the oldest and most not nice.  ummmm, hmmmm...this was the view from my hotel room:

that is a mountain island in the middle of the ocean...obviously it sucked.  as did this:

life is real tough here in mexico.

and my attempt at a panoramic, had the ocean stood still for one measly second it would have been a very well matched photo!!

i had a very nice time there, i'm getting to know people better, and trying to find where i fit in.  luckily i have my bassoon (something that's been by my side for a very long time now) otherwise i'd probably be helplessly lost.  

today we came home and...i moved into my mexican home!!  i decided to live with three other people in the orchestra.  when i started looking around at apartments i realized that it would not be so easy or affordable to get a furnished place, and whatever i got on my own i would need to purchase things like a fridge, a washer, a bed, dishes, and all the other basics for living on your own.  i quickly began to see the advantages of living with other people.  luckily, three horn players had an extra room in their house.  and this house is AMAZING.  here is my bedroom at the moment:

i'm borrowing an air mattress from a wonderful couple in the orchestra.  from my understanding, most people that move here borrow this mattress for a bit, it gets around!  to me it feels like something of a rite of passage :-) the only thing i would really really really like right now is a reed table.  the floor just won't do.  unfortunately for my roommates, i might just have to settle for the dining room table.  

after i moved in i walked to the grocery store so that i could finally feel like i was someone that had a home and could make a home cooked meal.  i'm a little tired of eating out for every.single.meal.  my most exciting purchase??  CHOCOLATE SOY MILK!!  yes, they have it here!!  woohoo!!  i was a little sad to not find fresh mushrooms or spinach, so i ended up buying some frozen ones.  while at the grocery store i completely didn't take into consideration the fact that i'd have to walk BACK to my house with everything i bought.  i am not kidding when i say that i'm not sure i could've made it one more block with all my groceries.  

and that is really all that is going on.  i'm way tired and looking forward to a productive bassoon day tomorrow, i surely need it!!  i am still missing my dobby dog like crazy.  it's really hard not having him around, and especially now that i'm out of a hotel and "settling" into a big huge house with a great back yard, and it's one block away from botanic gardens - a perfect place to go for walks.  i miss his cuddles and kisses, his energetic never-ending love, and his big stubborn personality.  maybe i should've titled this blog "my adventures in missing my dobby dog." i'm sure this won't be the last time you get to hear about it.  before i work myself into a blubbering mess, i should move on...

next week we have kiddie concerts, for which i have music to learn, and the week after is mozart 40 and tchaik 4.  eeeekkkkk, i'm gonna have to be a responsible bassoon hermit for the foreseeable future. good thing i'm good at that and enjoy it!!  

well...guten abend meine fruenden, or ummmm, buenas noches, mi amigos!!  time to rest up for a wonderful sunday!!  love to you all!!

                                                          

house hunters, international

i know that you've all been dying to hear a detailed account of my travels to mexico ;-) i am happy to report it was rather uneventful.

the most exciting part was an interesting bag search in mexico city when i was going through security for my connecting flight to culiacan.  they, of course, had no idea what a bassoon was, or fagot, so this guy in line in front of me said a lot of words in spanish, then turned to me and said "i told them it was a musical instrument" whew, clear of that!  i also had a sharpening stone in my carry-on, the security senora looked at it, took it out of it's box and examined it, she asked me what it was and i thought "oh no, how do i explain this" i could just see how this played out "well, it's a sharpening stone, for knives, i don't have any in my carry-on, but i need that stone to sharpen the knives i do have in the luggage that just made it through customs" instead of saying all that i just told her it was for my musical instrument, she gave the security senor a quizzical look and then put it in my bag and let me on my merry way.

my connection was delayed quite a bit and i ended up landing in culiacan around midnight.  i was exhausted, and hoping to god that getting to my hotel would be as uneventful as the rest of my travels.  luckily (and those of you that know anything about my travel history know that i have a certain knack for having the WORST luck) a man was standing outside the baggage claim with a beautiful printed sign with my name on it.  it looked official, so i went with him.

when i got to the hotel i was handed a key and told some very quick spanish numbers and realized the man had just told me my room number and i had no idea what he said.  i looked at the key, hoping to see the numbers printed somewhere on the key.  nope.  so i say "what was the room number" poor senor, he gave me a stupid american look and then walked me to my room.  i tried to say gracias, but what came out was danke.  crazytown.

and that is my travel story.  so easy.  so uneventful.  so thankful.

and mexico, so far - ya know...the past 48 hours, has been much like my life in chicago.  i hit snooze too many times, get out of bed, go to rehearsal, walk around the city trying to avoid talking to people, go home, practice, go to bed.  exciting stuff people.  aren't you glad you're reading my blog??

today i went house hunting with the 3rd/contra bassoonist here.  he's been so helpful to me!  well, pretty much everyone in the orchestra has been great.  it was a very interesting and nice mix of places that i saw.  of course i wanted to know if these places could have dogs and i'm fairly certain the answer was no, but no one really cares if you do.  so i'm of course looking at places with dobby in mind!  i saw a super cute and cozy (ok, small) place that i rather liked a lot.  most places had two bedrooms, but this one was only one, with a small little living area (which would of course be my bassoon playing/reedmaking area) a nice kitchen, and a patio that was possibly larger than the entire apartment.  it was super cute.  tomorrow i'm seeing a few more and will make a decision.  i really should be on house hunters, international!!

besides all that, life is fairly normal.  rehearsals en espanol are totally weird and every time i order something to eat i say "no carne" like 3 times.  servers hate me.  i miss my dobby dog like crazycrazyCRAZY, but i know he is being well loved and taken care of probably better than i could right now.  and i'm ever so grateful for the internet and how advanced technology is!  i am still able to text friends with iMessaging, so it really makes me feel like i'm still not that far away.

once i'm more settled in, i'm gonna figure out how to spice this blog up - or at least the graphics on it, because let's be real, i'm pretty boring!!

buenos noches, mi amigos!!

not a moment too soon

whelp, it appears that the time for me to leave for mexico is tomorrow, and oh.my.gawd. i think i am quite relieved that 24 hours from now i will be absolutely done with the entire moving process.  what a crazy time it has been preparing for this move.  somehow i finished and got my little dobby dog to denver.  whew!!

the past few weeks have been such a whirlwind, which is a pretty great blessing.  it gave me little time to think about how much i might miss everything in my life right now and zero time to freak myself out over the fact that i'm moving to mexico.  i'm sure if i wasn't so terribly exhausted right now i'd find some reflection on all of it, but all i want to do is cuddle up with my dobby since we won't have our sweet cuddle time over the next couple of months, so i think it's bedtime.

my bags are packed (they each weigh in right at 50 lbs) and all that's left is to get on the plane and go.

my wild adventure begins.