Those of you who have known me IRL for a long time might be in the loop on my what my surprise talent is. However, this is a topic I haven’t discussed here at Hands Occupied – it’s kind of an emotional one for me. Since I’m trying to stretch myself as a blogger, I might as well rip off the band aid of avoiding the personal. Here goes. My name is Heidi, and I am an oboist.
Me, learning to play the oboe at age 10.
I started playing oboe when I was ten, and it led to several defining experiences in my life. It led to a job as a professional symphony member while in high school and a couple of scholarships to respected music camps and to study music performance in college. It taught me the value of working incredibly hard for small victories. I’m very lucky – a lot of kids who get to study classical music in a serious way don’t tend to be from a state like North Dakota or have totally normal, middle class parents. At the end of my first college year, I ended up changing my major from music performance after several bouts of carpal tunnel and tendonitis. I just knew in the end that being a full time musician wasn’t a sustainable career move considering I struggled to hold a pencil more than once by the age of 18.
One of my senior pictures.
I also had the opportunity to spend my college years playing oboe in a non-classical band with some of my best friends. (Hear some of our music here.) Playing in the band completely transformed my college experience and made making music a positive experience for me again, despite the injuries. I also met my husband the night we opened for another band in a bar 5 years ago. In case you were wondering, I still play on my own for fun from time to time and truly remember with fondness the time in my life that was almost entirely oboe-filled.
Falcorps, ca. 2007
Music made me love creativity as a healthy outlet for whatever life throws at me. Not doing music as a career led me to reconnect with other passions like crafting and learning new technologies like blogging. Even my oboe-related injuries opened some surprising doors – I can kinda write left handed now, and I can knit leftie too. How cool is that?
Me at age 17 in my uniform for Interlochen music camp.
Now, Green Giant (you know, ho ho ho?) has a surprise they want to share with you all as well – they have a new line of veggie chips. And they’re totally delicious. My husband helped me sample the chips, and we agree. They have a nice, flaky texture and are flavor-packed. Also, I think the package design is adorable. If you want to try them for yourself, Green Giant has shared a printable coupon for 85 cents off their new Veggie Snack Chips.
 There are a couple of things about the chips worth noting:
- The Green Giant™ Roasted Veggie Tortilla Chips – Zesty Cheddar Flavor are made with real vegetables, 17 grams of whole grain per serving (48g are recommended daily), and are naturally flavored.
- The Green Giant™ Multigrain Sweet Potato Chips – Sea Salt Flavor are made with real sweet potatoes and made with 14 grams of whole grain. Plus, they contains 40 percent less fat than regular potato chips*!
- *Green Giant Multigrain Sweet Potato Chips (6g per 28g serving) have 40 percent less fat than regular potato chips (10g per 28g serving)
 Thank you to The Green Giant™ for being a sponsor. Show the Giant your surprise talent at www.facebook.com/greengiant.
PS: Comments are broken on my site right now, so if you want to react to my giant surprise, you can Tweet @handsoccupied or comment on Facebook. I’m working to fix this. Â
