praticing....

I should be practicing right now, but I'm not. Why you might ask? Not because I'm procrastinating. Nope that's not it.  Not because I just don't want to (cause I admit sometimes that happens).  No.

The reason I, Lisa Tatum, am not practicing right now is because there aren't any open practice rooms.  Now at my old institution I would have been proud of the fact that the 30 or so practice rooms were full (cause trust me that was a rare occasion) and just gone outside to play my daily routine (where it averages 20 degrees warmer basically year round).  But here I'm mostly just annoyed.  Probably cause there are only about 20 rooms and this time of day the are only filled by certain musicians who are practicing before a certain ensemble.  Do they practice ANY other time of the day here? Ok, maybe one or two do, but the other 95% of them don't. Its not fair. All I want is a room of my own.  I'm almost wishing the school checked out rooms for certain times of the day so I would at least KNOW I have a room at a certain time.


AASHDASHFJKHAFJKHAFJAJHFJAKHFAJSK****..........
Ok.
Venting done.
Over it.  

Fogo de Chao

....ugh...Too much steak and lamb....can't fall back asleep......maybe I'll try counting backwards????

11 10 9 8 7 6.......

How time flies....

Well so much has happened since my last post.  The recital is done.  It truly was a blast.  Thanks to ustream.tv I was able to stream my recital and my friends and family all over the country were able to watch live.  My brother in California, my dad in Alabama, my aunt in Illinois, my colleagues in Ohio.  At one point some of my friends counted over 20 people online watching. Incredible.  It really was a fantastic night. I've already got ideas swirling in my blonde head of what to perform next year. =)

Spring break has been really great.  Very relaxing and nice to get away.  I started in San Antonio, Texas.  It was so nice to see my old friends Laura and Jared.  They're doing really great out there and have some really exciting things happening in the near future.

Got to San Antonio on Sunday and left on Tuesday.  Had a quick layover in Atlanta.  Just long enough for me to grab a Sweet Water.  Sweet Water is a beautiful thing.  I miss it. It is definitely a nice treat whenever I am in the dirty South.

Now I'm in D.C. hangin out with Jennifer.  She has a big girl job down town and has to work during the day, so I've been off exploring.  I've been to the Holocaust museum, the American Indian museum, and the Botanical gardens.  I went to Georgetown and found Georgetown Cupcake, the shop that is filmed for TLC's DC Cupcakes.  I had the mint cookies and cream cupcake, which was delish btw.  Jen took me to this cute little cafe the other night for dinner and I had seared salmon over a sweet potato and andouille hash.  Life changing.

I took Jen to her first Bikram Yoga class. It was really cool to try out a different studio. Man its funny how different 90 minutes is at sea level verses 5500 or what ever Salt Lake is.  I felt really confident in the class. I'm looking forward to going to the Salt Lake studio again when I get home.

Last night our old friend Phil got in town from NYC.  I made the comment how I love how we've all spread out: DC, NYC, and SLC.  I thought it was funny.

My plans for my last two days here include Ben's Chili Bowl , Fogo de Chao, and the lovely cherry blossom festival that starts Saturday morning.  Luckily my flight does not leave until 5pm on Saturday so I should have plenty of time to check stuff out in the morning.

I'm looking forward to being back in my bed.  I'm looking forward to some sunny skies in Salt Lake very soon.  Crossing my fingers for a warmer than usual April in Utah.  All you people complaining in the Southeast that it is already too hot? Just stop it right now. = P   It could be way worse.  You could still be dealing with freezing temperatures and snow right now.  Awwww the grass is always greener is it not?

Oh and cross your fingers. I'm still waiting to hear back from some summer opportunities that could prove to be huge.  I'm not really betting on it, but I did my absolute best and that's all I can ask of myself at this time and point.

Dexter.

Started Dexter season 4 tonight.  And the obsession ensues. :)

I'm a Chickadee Ski Master

Well I did it!  Yessiree!  And I totally have the ski bug!  It was so much fun! Such a better experience than when I was 16 and tried to ski at Ober Gatlinburg in Tennessee.

I got the beginner special at Snowbird.  $90 for a 2.5 hour lesson, a day pass for the beginner slope (Chickadee), and full gear rental.  Pretty sweet deal if ya ask me!

My ski lesson was a group lesson with about 5 other adults.  We had two instructors, Andrew and Lauren. They were so good.  Both of them were really patient and really great at helping us figure out how to get around the slopes!

The lesson broke at 12:30 and can I just say that I was FAMISHED!  Went and stuffed my face with some pizza.  Yeah, pizza.  After hearing them tell all the little kids to "PIZZA" to slow down I has a huge craving...Go figure. It was no Pie, but definitely awesome when I was so hungry.

After the PIZZA break (heheehe) we went back out on Chickadee to test it out sans instructor.  So much fun.  SO MUCH FUN. : )  I can't even count how many times I went down the slope.  I was so exhausted afterward.  I took a looooong nap when I got home.

I really can not wait to go again!  I want to get off of the beginner slope and test my new skills!  Nothing too fancy, of course.  Taking this one step at a time. Give me a few more weekends and maybe I'll be ready for a black course!

I want my own boots.  I'm officially on the look out for a pair of second hand or whole sale ski boots.  I also need to buy a ski outfit.  Thanks to Aidan for letting me borrow one of her ski suits for the weekend.

All in all I would have to say this weekend has been pretty fantastic.  Beginning to end, a very good weekend indeed. 

Love.

Don't rain on my parade.

Well its raining in Salt Lake City....  Come on blue skies and 60 degree weather! (I really want 75 degrees, but at this point 60 is just fine).  I dream about shorts and chacos on a nightly basis. 

I'm going skiing this Saturday. It is official. Already paid for the lesson. No big storms up there this weekend, but that might be a good thing since I'm lacking in basically any experience period.  The last time I tried to ski I was 16 and it was on fake snow in Gatlinburg, Tennessee.  Not really the best conditions.  Plus that was 8 years ago.  I feel like I need to give it another chance.  More to come on that at a later date. 

Women's basketball at the U is done.  Thank goodness!  I only have one more event at the Huntsman Center and that is the last gymnastics meet of the year.  I'm looking forward to weeks of not having to be at the Huntsman Center 3 nights a week.  

Also, be on the look out after Spring Break.  I'm starting a new project. Its gonna be big. Huge in fact! More to come on that later as well. 

Love.  

Adele and Edamame

Edamame might be one of the best snacks ever. Love it. Especially when steamer bags are on super sale at Smiths. 

 Also, I have an obsession with Adele.  She is FABULOUS.  Love her.  Her new album is freaking fantastic.  Like she sings exactly what I'm thinking...all the time. Here are some good ones:

A new blog, a new day?

Don't ask why, but I thought I'd make a new blog.  Maybe I'll blame it on my friend Amberley, who has the cutest blog ever.  Why not?  My other blog is strictly food/exercise so maybe it'll be fun to have a different one?  Who knows.

Why the name? Well I do, in fact, have an addiction to coffee. There could be worse things! I'm even drinking a cup as a type this. The other day I realized I had made it to 4pm without a cup of joe.  What did I do?  Make a cup, of course!  My Keurig that my momma gave me back in August is quite possible one of the best gifts I've ever received.  Now that I think of it...I'm almost out of KCups!

.........Ffffeeeeehh   One quick trip to amazon.com and the problem is solved!  Gotta love that Amazon Prime free two day shipping.

What to write about...what to write about... oh! Climbing!  My new love.  It might be my new favorite thing...ever.  I can NOT wait for it to warm up so I can go climb on some real rock...outside...opposed to hanging in the climbing gym all the time.  This past weekend I went to the climbing gym with my friend Katy.  Well she usually boulders when she climbs and I've pretty much only done routes on the top rope.  So boulder we did.  Two hours later my hands were dead and my forearms were killing me.  (Which they still are.)   What an awesome, fun work out.  We definitely had to start on the "easiest" routes (V0 and V1).   Some of the guys in there were just killin it on the super difficult ones (V7 and up).  Amazement. I'm not sure I will ever be that good, but I definitely enjoy it. I love figuring a route out after the 10th time of trying to make it up.  I love feeling the rope on top rope and being able to trust that my friend has me and won't let me fall.  I love moving up a level!  Like on Sunday when Katy and I moved up a level from V0 to V1. Its crazy how much more difficult one level up can be.  And I couldn't stop laughing cause I was so excited!  I love it when complete strangers (who CLEARLY have more climbing experience than my 5 months of weekly or biweekly visits to the gym) are willing to encourage and help a newbie.  So fun. So so fun.  You really should try it.  

This past Sunday I started working with the kids department.  I'm helping teach the 3rd-6th grade Sunday school classes.  It really reminded me of how much I miss teaching elementary school music!  But so anyway the lesson for the week was on Luke 18-9-14, the story of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector. The subject was pride.  The good kind and the bad kind.  Well to start off the lesson every class gets a "clue capsule" that has a clue to what the lesson is about.  Well the clue was a bike horn.  Old school and awesome.  So we passed the horn around and everyone was supposed to say something cool about themselves and then honk the horn, as they were "honking their own horn."  I laugh now as I type.  It was way fun and a good way for me to start to get to know these kids.

Well now that I've mentioned all that....I need to "honk my own horn."  :)  I had my preview for my first masters recital yesterday and it went so well.  It was so much fun!  Man, can I just say that moving to Salt Lake City is probably one of the best things I've done.  It has been such an amazing experience.  Not all good. In fact some of it has pretty much been awful, but isn't that apart of growing?  But so anyway, my recital is in about 13 days!!!!!  So excited!  It is definitely gonna be a celebration of growth.  Can't wait. 

One last thing before I end this first post. "500 Days of Summer."   Not a movie I would have picked out on my own, but a friend suggested it and said it was done really well.  Oh man, what a great movie. Watch it.  It truly was very well done.  Watch it.  You won't be disappointed.