Finding Nemo? Captain Nemo? Blizzard Nemo?

Blech, I’m not a fan of winter. This mega blizzard  makes me real reminiscent for the Los Angeles sunshine.

Tomorrow was supposed to be my AFAA group fitness certification and exam. I already got an email that the exam has been cancelled. While safety is a priority, I’m definitely disappointed that I have to wait to take the exam. Between NASM and AFAA I’ve been non stop studying for an exam since October, so I was looking forward to finally being done. Eh, such is life.

Crummy weather did give me the excellent opportunity to tidy up my mess of an apartment.

 

YAYYY organized bookshelf. I’ve been living here since my junior year of college so all my old textbooks, notebooks and folders slowly took over my bookshelves. I was always too lazy to organize school papers and throw out what I no longer needed at the end of the semester. Today was finally the day! Ah it feels so good to have my school stuff organized by year and my books all organized. Making use of being trapped indoors, oh yeah!

Earlier this week I put my food processor to work and finally made some amazeballs. Just what I don’t need, more peanut butter in my diet.

 

Totally enjoyed eating the leftover “dough”.

 

Trust me… these tasty peanut butter balls are not gonna last long in the fridge. It’s taking a lot of restrain to not eat them all.

The theme of this week has been getting back to yoga and lots of spin classes. The perfect yin & yang. Whenever I took yoga in the fall my pesky, previously injured, right shoulder would bother me (really arm? Trapeze doesn’t hurt, weight lifting doesn’t hurt, but yoga?) Finally I can practice yoga without pain! I forgot how much I love yoga and how good it makes me feel afterwards.

I’m still on a total spin kick, which is hilarious considering I hated spinning the first 10 times I tried it. Actually, I hated yoga too until last year, I guess my fitness preference has changed. I love that spin classes are a guaranteed sweat fest– no matter what I leave a spin class drenched in sweat and feeling rather zen. Maybe spin and yoga are more closely related than I thought…..

Now it’s a lazy Friday. I thought I was going to spend the afternoon studying for AFAA but instead I’ve been lounging around watching Say Yes to the Dress. Gotta love Bride Day Friday.

Hopefully I’ll be able to leave the apartment tomorrow and get around the city….

what’s your current fitness obsession?

fellow northeasterners, how are you making the most of the blizzard?

sweat, soup and socializing

Guys, it’s national peanut butter day! Granted every day is peanut butter day in the life of Kayla, but still!

Unfortunately I couldn’t spend all of today hibernating, so my way of dealing with the cold? Sweat, soup and socializing.

First sweat session of the day? 7AM yoga at my favorite studio Yoga Vida. It’s been a while since I took a yoga class, but this morning’s vinyasa class reminded me of how much I love yoga. Recently yoga classes aggravate my old shoulder injury, but I’m hoping that the pain-free class this morning means that there’s a whole lot more yoga in my future.

After yoga class it was time to celebrate national peanut butter with PB on a whole wheat english muffin with honey. Oh wait, that’s what I eat for breakfast every. single. day.

Post english muffin it was time for sweat session #2: a spin class at Flywheels with Jesse Alexander.

I’ve got a few confessions to make.

1. The first time I took a spin class I hated it. Like loathed the entire experience and counted down the minutes to when it would finally be over.

2. Actually, I hated my first 10 or so spin classes.

3. But now, I’m obsessed. I’ve been spinning roughly every other day since I got back to the city.

4. and lastly, I’m a bit of a spin whore and I’ve been spreading my spin love around to various nearby studios. I just love each fancy studio so dang much in it’s own unique way.

So what’s Flywheels special thing? They add a competitive factor and throughout the class you can see how you are doing in comparison to your fellow classmates.

 

Go Kayla! You spun for 17 miles! Sadly, I definitely didn’t burn that many calories because they don’t calculate based on weight. And sadly I was in second to last place for most of the class. womp womp.

But, I must say todays class with Jesse Alexander was pretty freaken awesome.

He had some of the best quotes I’ve ever heard in a fitness class

“this is only 3% of your day”

(isn’t it crazy to think that exercise is only 3% of your day? That means you can totally give it your all during that 3%)

“sexy is an endorphin”

(if you say so 🙂 )

and the real reason he captured my heart? HE PLAYED GREEN DAY. I might’ve had a rather emotional experience when “Wake Me Up When September Ends” came on. The key to winning me over in life? Play Green Day…..

 

any ways. I highly recommend Jesse Alexanders class… even if you’re not a mega Green Day fan like yours truly. His class was definitely one of my favorites because he not only pushes you to keep going, but he also approaches fitness from a mental stand point– its about so much more than losing weight and looking hot.

 

After sweat session #2 I realized that the only appropriate cold weather lunch was soup so I made a pit stop at Agata and Valentina for some fresh soup.

 

Super simple ingredient list? Love it.

1 cup of this stuff + some turkey meatballs = the perfect cold weather lunch.

 

After lunch it was time for the final sweat session of the day: teaching a zumba class for kiddies! Over the past three summers I’ve worked at a day camp as the dance specialist where I choreographed dances for campers ages 3-14 in addition to teaching zumba classes geared towards kids. It’s been awhile since I led a kids zumba class but I forgot how much fun it was. I’m so used to teaching in the sweltering summer heat that I was actually thrilled to be teaching in cold weather.

 

and lastly my day ended with thai food for dinner with some friends from high school. A lot of my friends from high school and sleep away camp are either attending graduate school or working in Manhattan so it’s been great catching up with old friends. My dream in life is to some how make all the people I love in my life move to the city so that I can see them all the time. Not gonna lie, my dream is actually slowly coming soon since so many of my friends are now moving here.

oooof I’m sleeeeepy after all those sweat sessions. Time to rest up because tomorrow I’m attending an all day TRX workshop!

 

questions of the day:

anyone else celebrating national peanut butter day?

what’s your favorite cold weather food?

from the canyon to the sea

Los Angeles and I are having a fabulous love/hate relationship. At moments I love love love love love it here. Like want to transplant my boyfriend, family and Broadway shows here so I can live in California forever.

Other times it is hate. Usually those are the moments when I am stuck in traffic or can’t find parking. At that moment I miss my subways in Manhattan and the epic parking lots of suburbia.

There’s lots of thinking for me to do… where do I want to be this spring? New York or Los Angeles? What do I want to be doing? I change my mind approximately every hour, depending on if I am loving or hating LA at that moment. Decision making is not my strongest suit….

So this week in LA: Santa Monica Pier & Runyon Canyon. Obsessed with both.

Santa Monica Pier

while it was hella hot in West Hollywood earlier this week, it was the perfect breezy weather for  trapeze by the beach!

It was only my third class back after 5 months of injury. While my body is arguably stronger than it has ever been, my right shoulder is still not 100%. When in the air part of me is still a bit worried that one wrong move and I will be back to injuryland

I have a habit of comparing myself then to now. “Well in March I had a better force out”.” In March I caught this trick no problem”.
But this isn’t March, this is 7 months later. I have to keep reminding myself that I am where I am today. 

there is something a million times cooler and more terrifying about flying into the ocean.

I was a giddy child. Between being at the beach and getting to take a trapeze class I was the happiest gal in the world. Whoever decided to put a trapeze rig next to the ocean is my hero.

Runyon Canyon: Hiking

I’ve been dying to go to Runyon Canyon since the first time I visited my friend in California 2 years ago. I finally got the chance this week.

My first Runyon Canyon experience was a sweaty 2 mile hike.

 

 

I can’t even begin to explain how much I loved hiking Runyon, even if trying to run down hill terrified the bejesus outta me. I’ve honestly never seen anything like Runyon, hiking in Westchester is definitely not the same experience. If you ever have the chance to hike Runyon I highly recommend it, the views are absolutely worth it. It is also quite the work out climbing that mountain….

Runyon Canyon: Yoga

Today was my second Runyon Canyon experience– YOGA! This might be the California deal breaker for why it is a million times better than New York: they have donation based (pay what you can) yoga, outside, by the canyon. Um what better place is there to do yoga? No where my friends, no where.

I’ve never done yoga outside. It was distracting, hearing the birds chirping and people walking by on the their too and from Runyon, yet it felt like white noise at the same time. I loved being tickled by wet dewy grass whenever my hand crept off the mat. I loved that the ground was uneven which helped some poses that usually  challenge me, yet totally messed up my balance on other poses.

It reminded my why I fell in love with boot camp and running this summer– there is something amazing about working out outside, it feels so much better to breathe fresh air instead of the BO of the person running on the treadmill next to you.

Runyon Canyon, I’m sold. You are my new favorite place.

Has anyone else done outdoor yoga? Love it or hate it?

What’s your favorite way to work out outside?

Sweating Around Town

Greetings from my Manhattan apartment. I’m here for the next few days doing a job interview, cleaning my apartment, seeing some shows and saying goodbye to my city before the big california adventure in two weeks (!!!!!!!!!) It is definitely odd to be an alumni in NYU-land on the second day of school, I can’t believe I’m old enough to have graduated college!

Day 5 Share pictures of your favourite place to workout

My favorite place to run is my parents’ neighborhood:

My favorite places to sweat in the city are:

the trapeze rig

Yoga Vida

[source]

and Crunch

[source]

my favorite places to workout in Westchester are:

the awesome gym I belong to there…

[couldn’t find a good picture]

and getting my butt kicked at my local park 3 days a week at boot camp…

I feel like an exercise whore… I like to spread my sweaty love around to various locations throughout New York State….

Anyone else out there an exercise whore like myself 🙂 spreading their sweaty lovin’ around?

how time flies

It’s already week 5 of camp, y’all? HOW IS THAT POSSIBLE. More than halfway through the camp season and I’m still learning staff members names….

When this summer began I started referring to it as “the last summer of childhood”. yes, I am 22, and the last summer of childhood should have happened approximately 4 years ago, but I am dead serious about this concept. It is the last summer quite possibly in my life that I will have a true summer. As much as I would secretly love to work at camps for the rest of my life, I sadly have the enter the real world of full time work for minimum wage and with no summer vacation.

While I am the least reckless, rebellious, exciting person ever, it is necessary to push myself outside my comfort zone and do things a bit on the wild side. There is a totally valid point to YOLO: you do in fact only live once, so why always play is so safe?

It all began with this

seeing the dark knight rises at midnight in the middle of a work week? Eh, not the brightest. But I can only be irresponsible and reckless for so much longer…

The midnight showing was brought to you by CAFFEINE

unfortunately starbucks in suburbia closes around 9PM, so I had to actually make coffee. Lemme tell you, this cup of coffee was absolutely necessary. Even so, I still managed to fall asleep during the movie. Multiple times. Talking about the movie with my friends feels like recapping a party I blacked out during. I kept going “WAIT, THAT HAPPENED?” So let this be a lesson to you all, don’t work a full camp day and expect to stay up for a 3 hour movie at midnight.

Thanks to the midnight showing I didn’t make it home til 3:30AM. Silly me ambitiously set the alarm for 6AM  thinking I would actually be functional for bootcamp. LOLZ. I am a believer in no excuses when it comes to working out, however the exception to the rule is exhaustion. It is more important to listen to my body and what it needed. 6AM bootcamp would have been a silly mistake.

—

post midnight showing was a full day of camp followed by a lovely weekend in the city with the boy.

the jam packed mini-vacation began with seeing Fela on Broadway. 2 years ago I saw the original broadway production and loved the energetic, emotional story of african musician Fela Kuti . This production is technically the tour making a pit stop on broadway for a few weeks. The touring production definitely matches the powerful original version.

Saturday was spent loving the beautiful weather in central park.

 

a bonus for the weekend was getting to see my very good friend Jenna on her 22nd birthday. We have a long history of spending summers together both at day camp and sleep away camp.

Saturday night was another broadway show, Bring it On the musical! I’ve been anxiously waiting to see this musical for over 2 years now! Back when I was 10 I was obsessed and watched the movie every single day on pay per view. An added bonus is that the creative team who wrote and directed the musical are some of my favorite broadway people EVER. It’s like they put together my dream team to create Bring it On. The musical does not follow the same story line as the movie, but has a similar style. I think people who like the movie will also enjoy the humor of the musical. I was thoroughly impressed with the musical especially the crazy cheerleading stunts. My hero Lin Manuel Miranda was also sitting in the row in front of me taking notes– made the whole theater experience even more magical.

Being in Manhattan also means being surrounded by delicious food all weekend long. The boy and I made sure to hit up as many of our favorite places as we could cram into the weekend. I also discovered a new favorite dessert place

 

meet STOGO, my new dairy-free obsession. Being an ice cream addict, but currently dairy-free I’ve been crying a bit missing my favorite frozen treat. Only a few blocks away from my apartment is STOGO, the greatest thing ever. I chose the coconut based chocolate chip vanilla and soy based salted caramel pecan. Both were good, but the vanilla was a bit bland after the outrageously awesome taste of the caramel. The boy refused to try it since it was dairy free and he thought it was weird. More ice cream for me 🙂

and what would a trip into the city be without a class at Yoga Vida! My body was crying for a yoga class, since I’ve been a bad bad yogi and haven’t gone to class since the first day of camp 4 weeks ago. oooh it felt so good to have a sweaty vinyasa class. I miss it so much. It is amazing what the body doesn’t forgot– the wise corrections and words of all my various yoga teachers and the things I realized when I did 21 yoga classes in 22 days only a mere 2 months ago.

there is nothing more lovely than walking in union square after a delightful yoga class with a soy chai latte

—

returning to the city briefly makes me realize how much I miss it and how that island has become my home. the second I opened the door to my apartment I felt a sense of being home that I don’t think I will ever feel in suburbia

as much as I would have loved to stay in the city, it was time to back to my other home, my parents home.

after being on a workout break, it was time to kick my own ass again when I got back to the ‘burbs.

ugh, a dreaded 25 minute run.

but the weather was lovely at my old high schools track, a nice breezy evening

and I made a killer playlist of green day, katy perry and ska tunes to keep me moving.

So I kept on running

for 25 minutes.

the longest I have ever run without stopping in my entire life.

#proof

and really, it wasn’t so bad! Okay, maybe it was a bit rough during it at times, but it was all about not stopping. Knowing that I could do it even I wanted to stop because it was difficult. It didn’t matter how fast I ran, just that I was running for the full 25 minutes. And it was a bit glorious to know I accomplished something– something I have never done before. After feeling so brought down by my injury for the past few months, this feeling of accomplishment is even more rewarding..

now I have to mentally prepare myself for 2 more 25 minute runs this week. EEEEEEK

here’s to week 5 and the second half of camp. the last summer of childhood continues!

 

 

Back to Life, Back to Reality

ah summer laziness, you were lovely while you lasted.

Today was the first day of day camp. For the past three summers I have worked as the dance specialist at the day camp I went to when I was a lil’ one.

this means back to a routine, and back to super early morning wake up.
In order to make the brutal wake up before 6:45AM boot camp a little less painful, I left myself endless check lists and reminders so I didn’t forget anything on the first day.

towel for boot camp? check. Lunch box so I don’t forget to put chicken salad in? check. Peanut butter sandwich pre work out? Check. Luna bar post work out? check. and nom.

speaking up peanut butter sandwiches, I’ve finally entered the adult world of peanut butter

After being a devoted skippy’s customer my entire life, I knew it was time to break up with the sugary stuff and go organic– peanuts, salt and nuthin’ else. So far I am surprised how good this stop and shop peanut butter is. I learned online that if you keep it upside down, it mixes the oils. When I originally tried organic peanut butter I was disgusted by the texture. When it is mixed though it is oh so delicious.

I’ve been added a teensy bit of honey to sweeten up my peanut butter and whole wheat sanwich– sooo good.

—

To say it rained today would be a gross understatement. It all started when I was at 6:45AM boot camp. The sky was looking iffy during the warm up 1/2 mile run. It was honestly one of the most spectacular running experiences of my life– the air was cool, the clouds were quickly moving, the wind was picking up, and I was running my little heart out. Today I finally felt how much 5k training has been helping me with running endurance. I didn’t have to take any breaks during the warm up.

Immediately after the run the heavens opened up… and then continued to open up on and off all day.

A rainy first day of camp is not exactly a good first day of camp.

While there were some great parts of my first day of work, it was a rough day with lots of last minute schedule changes. I am terrible at “going with the flow” and being “flexible” when we are told last minute what to do, so it made for an anxious day with some unpleasant surprises.

—

Once home from camp I knew going to a yoga class was my best bet to de-stress.

I was super excited to enjoy my finally cleaned mat– I made a spray out of water + 20 drops of tea tree oil in a spray bottle.

plus

equals one happy and clean yoga mat.

—

Gah, yoga was exactly what I needed to decompress after a long day. Sometimes I swear the teacher can sense the exact theme I need, today was breath and focusing on breathing. Something I definitely need to be reminded of during the crazy work days.

and the most magical part of the evening?

seeing the most stunning rainbow ever on my drive home

the kind of rainbow that cars stopped on the side of the road to take a picture of

the kind of rainbow that reminds you that beauty can come from the crummy rain.

Love Tap

first things first:

my apartment building was in the background of a shot in the TV show GIRLS. that’s mah home!

now onto other things, like my thursday.

the day began with morning yoga. I am convinced that there is nothing more amazing than morning yoga followed by starbucks soy chai.

my post yoga lunch consisted of my usual turkey and hummus on a wrap, but today I decided to substitute my typical cheese filling for a dairy-free cheeze alternative.

I’ve been trying to figure out if dairy products have been to blame for some of my belly problems. While I don’t know if cheese is to blame, this dairy-free alternative made from rice milk was a lovely substitute

I swear it tastes just like Kraft Singles

so whether or not I’m lactose intolerant, I’m a fan of the fake cheese.

Later on in the day the boy joined me for a run as part of my 5k training. Instead of doing the usual run around my neighborhood I’m used to, we went to the track at my old high school. Man, it feels WEIRD to run that track 4 years later. I used to cry through the mile run complaining about how much it sucked, now I’m running by choice there

while I love the scenery in my neighborhood, running on the track was oh so cushiony for my poor legs

I haven’t had a running buddy since gym class when I used to bribe my friends to half run half walk the mile run with me while I bitched and moaned. It was nice having someone else there to amuse me and keep me motivated.

After our run the boy and I enjoyed a well deserved smoothie

a tasty concoction of almond milk, frozen strawberries, banana and a teensy bit of honey. Why haven’t I tried frozen fruit until now? THIS WOULD HAVE BEEN MY BEST FRIEND DURING COLLEGE. I have a habit of buying fruit because I’m craving a smoothie and then it goes back before I get a chance to make another smoothie with it. I’m super excited to cook with some frozen blueberries tomorrow.

 

 

and lastly, here is my sort of funny, sort of sad story of the evening. While driving from  kickboxing to fro-yo (so much attempting to be dairy-free, woopsie) a deer ran out in front of my car. Living in the enchanted forest, aka suburbia, I’ve seen a whole lotta deer while I’m driving. I’m usually pretty aware of them and know to honk at them to get them to run across the road so they don’t hit you. Well today’s deer was apparently on a suicide mission, and ran out from behind one of these kind of thingys:

no I wasn’t going 167, I was going 30 mph, the speed limit 🙂

Basically the deer ran in front of my car, but I couldn’t slam on the breaks because there was a car behind me. Fear not, the deer is still alive, and all the happened was it dented the front of my car a teensy bit and cracked part of my headlight. After that horrifying moment I DEFINITELY deserved the fro-yo.

While retelling the story to my parents my mom didn’t quit understand how the deer was still alive, so I explained “I swear, I just love tapped the deer”. My mother thought this was the funniest thing ever. and thats my lame story of the night.

oh man it is definitely bedtime for me, gots to wake up early for some intense bootcamp

Kayla [back] in the City [briefly]

after 3 or so week home in the ‘burbs, yesterday I went back to visit my lovely city, apartment, and neighborhood.

it was one of those perfect days that makes me wonder “why the hell did I ever leave the city in the first place”.

first was lunch, courtesy of my new neighborhood grocery store

I’ve been mourning the closing of my nearby d’agastino’s all year. I missed being able to literally run out and get groceries across the street. Agata & Valentina though is an EXCELLENT replacement. The brand new store is gorgeous and stocked with amazing fresh food. I enjoyed a chicken caesar wrap from the cafe. I have a feeling I will be a daily costumer at this new store.

After lunch it was time for a job interview that included getting a smoothie at my favorite restaurant/ cafe Grey Dogs.

Post smoothie I couldn’t resist stopping at a cute food cart to see what they had. The Squeeze was an AMAZING find, and makes me even more depressed that I’m not living in the city this summer. After sampling the coconut granola, I couldn’t resist taking some home.

this stuff is addicting. I couldn’t stop munching on it all afternoon

it is like a crunchy, nutty, pina colada.

I love that you can see the blue skies outside my apartment. My bowls in the city are so much prettier than at home 🙂

After eating lots of granola, it was time for a yoga class at my beloved yoga vida! I felt like a little kid going to Disney World I was so giddy to be back in their beautiful studio with a favorite teacher. Oh Yoga Vida, I miss you, your affordability and your 13 class times a day oh so much! Luckily they now have podcast of their amazing teachers. I haven’t tried it out yet, but will definitely be trying these out soon. While I’m sure it is no substitute for class, listening to a podcast and doing yoga on my back porch seems like a nice alternative.

Sadly it was time to go back to the ‘burbs after my quick visit to the city. I did however get to see a rainbow on the train ride home.

I like to think of it as some good luck and telling me that exciting new things are on their way

—

this morning I continued my recent cooking kick by making dairy free overnight oats courtesy of Peanut Butter Fingers. I’ve recently been trying to cut back on my dairy consumption, I’ve never really loved milk on it’s own and think that it might have been contributing to some stomach pains and ailments I was having during Spring Semester.

I love the concept of overnight oats because they are so simple to make. I tried to make a different recipe during the school year and wasn’t a fan of the final outcome, but this variation was super sweet and tasty.

Before heading to the gym for some Zumba I mixed the ingredients in a tupperware and left it in the fridge.

When I came home I had a refreshing brunch treat waiting for me.

Since I’ve been on a berry kick recently, strawberries and blueberries seemed like the prefect addition to this summer breakfast.

I’m thinking this might be the perfect lunch this summer. The day camp I work at is peanut free, which makes me cry a little every day because I just want a peanut butter sandwich for lunch. It does however encourage me to be creative with my food options. I might finally have something new to add to my day camp lunch rotation.

Tonight will be spent pigging out enjoying hibachi with my work friends from camp, and excellent way to kick off another summer working together.

Wedding Weekend and My Birthday 2.0

I am definitely enjoying a sorta lazy Monday after an action packed weekend with lots of celebrating. It was my cousin’s wedding weekend and Sunday was essentially my birthday, part two 🙂

friday night was spent shivering by a lake for the rehearsal dinner barbeque. Usually I am more than happy to wear a cute dress for any occasion, but it was shockingly cold for June.

somtimes I’m worried that what is fashionable and normal in New York City is a bit too out there for suburbia. Before leaving the house I asked my mama, who dresses less eccentric than I do “pink skinny jeans, too obnoxious, or just obnoxious enough….” my mama approved of the pink skinny jeans. My boyfriend however made fun of me when I purchased them last week. Pshh what does he know about fashion, now I wanna go buy more obnoxious colored jeans.

the bbq was delicious– instead of the typical hot dogs and hamburgers they had mini sliders with pork, lobster or veggie burgers. I only eat chicken and turkey, so generally bbq’s post a problem for me, but I was thrilled to have delicious veggie burger sliders to fill up on. and so a weekend of amazing food and excessive amounts of eating began

saturday morning I returned to yoga after a week long hiatus. Even at 8:30 in the morning it felt GOOD to be back on the mat. Post 22 day yoga challenge I ended up doing yoga for about 27 days in actuality. This past week though ended up being crazier than I anticipated, so my practice has been put on the back burner. It is definitely more difficult to keep up with going to class daily here in the suburbs– it takes about 20 minutes to get to the studio (in the city it takes 2 minutes) and there are only 3 classes a day (in the city I have 10 to choose from each day), but really, excuses are silly. I am hoping once I start my work schedule and an actual summer routine that involves waking up at the same time every day, yoga will be fit into that schedule permanently for the remainder of the summer.

post yoga was zumba class with my favorite teacher here. It is slightly ridiculous, but I treat Zumba like a treat– after a job well done in yoga or boot camp I look forward to Zumba as the dessert. Maybe I’m crazy (or just love dancing around like an idiot).

saturday night was my cousin’s wedding. I love an excuse to dress up all purrty and take pictures with my boy

the outdoor wedding was absolutely beautiful and I had a great night dancing with my family and the boy. Does that also count as a work out this weekend?

Sunday was my birthday 2.0 As you may recall I turned 22 in may. Part of my birthday gift from the boyfriend was tickets to see In the Heights on tour in New Haven

In the Heights is one of my absolute favorite shows. My family first saw it off-broadway in 2007 and new it was gonna be HUGE. It ended up transferring to Broadway in 2008 (my family saw it on Broadway for the first time the night before I turned 18) and went on to win numerous Tony Awards including Best Musical.

I’m not sure exactly what it is about this musical, but after seeing it the night before my 18th birthday I fell in love with the show. It hit close to home that summer, I was traveling Europe for 4 weeks, incredibly homesick and found great comfort listening to this musical that is all about taking pride in your roots and where you are from.

My freshman year of college I ended up seeing the show again…. and again and again and again. As a college student I felt myself connecting even more to the story– one of the main characters discusses her struggles at college and the feeling that she is letting her parents down if she doesn’t succeed. A feeling I felt quite often my freshman year at NYU. Whenever I needed a reminder of why I was majoring in theater and why it was important to continue to work my butt off at college, I needed to see this show. Sadly it closed after a great run in January of my junior year of college. I saw the show 16 times in all on Broadway. It was sad to see one of my favorite shows close on Broadway.

So for my birthday my boyfriend got us tickets to go see the show on tour in Connecticut. For me it was important that he see this show, a show that was such a huge part of my life before I started dating him. I shared my other favorite show American Idiot with him last December, but knew he had to see In the Heights as well. It is like sharing your favorite band with someone you love– it exposes a little part of you that is hard to explain in words.

Our adventure in New Haven began with pizza. Rumor has it New Haven’s pizza is better than New York.

while the pizza was pretty amaaaazing… I’m still a bit of a New York snob.

but seriously, it was goooood pizza.

if you ever find yourself in New Haven you must go to Frank Pepe’s for some awesome pizza.

after stuffing my face with pizza, it was show time!

American Idiot will be in New Haven May 2013? Count me in!

it was such a delight to not only see In the Heights performed on stage for the first time in 1 1/2 years but to also show the experience with the boy. It is easy to remember why my family loved this show when we first saw it in 2007 and when the CD has yet to leave my car in 4 years.

On our way home from New Haven I requested a special pit stop.

back in the day when I worked at sleep away camp there was this legendary smoothie place at the bottom of the hill. During periods off I would walk down the hill for a delicious treat. Everyone at the camp was obsessed with these smoothies.

I haven’t worked at that camp since summer 2007, but my best friend and I have made road trips to the legendary smoothie place since. Yes, we literally drove an hour away just for these smoothies.

summer 2010

Knowing we were pretty close to the legendary smoothie place, I begged for us to make a pit stop on the way home. Who doesn’t love a refreshing smoothie?

lemme tell you, those strawberry sunrise smoothies taste just as good as I remember them. TOTALLY worth the extra driving.

after a long weekend of celebrating the wedding and my birthday, the boy and I enjoyed a nice relaxing evening watching Up for the first time. I think we both might have a new favorite movie it was that good.

phewww, one long tiring weekend, no?

hope you all had a great weekend as well

summer in the suburbs

ah yes, I have now been home for a week in the lovely suburbs where I grew up.

the big question everyone has been asking me (and all my mama’s friends have been asker her) is aren’t you bored?

the answer? nah.
while yes, my hometown doesn’t have much to offer I have found myself ridiculously busy every day and making the most of my month off before work starts. My life has basically been working out, going to yoga and being with friends from camp.

some thoughts and random tid bits about life here:

— a huge part of my social life how been going to the gym with my amazingly motivating friend Annica

she’s the one in the stripes. I’m the super short one. Together we have gone to the gym every day for a sweaty group exercise class of sort– lots of zumba, step and making friends with all the little old ladies at water aerobics. It is wonderful to have a good friend to work out with and motivate me to wake up early during the summer

— I feel like such a newbie in the classes at this gym. I got very used to how things work at crunch, what classes I took every week and knew what was gonna happen in all the them. Taking Step? a whole new animal. It is like learning a new language— a very sweaty, quickly changing language. It is nice to switch it up and try new classes

— speaking of the gym, my gym here is ridiculous. Don’t get me wrong I love love love crunch, the fact that it is less than 5 minutes from my apartment and the fact that they offer great classes, but my gym here is like a mega complex. I swear it was more crowded yesterday than the nearby mall. you could easily spend hours there taking classes, making friends with the staff, eating at the cafe, swimming, relaxing in the hot tub… I could go on. Some how Annica and I always end up spending a good 4 hours there, most of it not even exercising….

–I FOUND MY SUBURBAN YOGA HOME! Liberation Yoga, a lovely and tiny studio in the nearby town of Mahopac. At first I was apprehensive to try it, but realized it is close to my gym and summer job so why not. I’ve only been there a few days and already I know it is an amazing community and offers the exact type of classes I was craving– physical demanding but also nourishing for the mind and gets you really thinking about yourself. The yoga room even overlooks a lake– you can’t get that in the city! The two owners are also incredibly welcoming people, I’ve taken class with both of them this week and leave each one thinking “wow, that was AMAZING”.

I’m so happy to have found this place!

— I’ve been trying to motivate myself to start choreographing dances for my summer job as a camp specialist. I average choreographing upwards of 30 dances every summer— that’s alotta dances. I’m absolutely obsessed with Pitbull’s new song “Back in Time” (it references the best scene in Dirty Dancing!) and Nicki Minaj’s Starships. what are your favorite new summer songs? I need a bunch of fun, high energy, contemporary songs to use with the kiddies.

— I got to see the Big Apple Circus! 

oh my god is was AMAZING! I’ve seen a lotta trapeze, and a lotta goooood trapeze from my teachers who have worked for professional circuses, but this trapeze act was LEGIT. those tricks were no joke. Before I was born my dad worked for a circus (no he’s not a lion tamer… he worked in marketing) and every summer when my dad’s old circus came to town we went as a family. I still love going to the circus and find it just as magical years later.

— it is weird, the more years I’ve lived in the city, the more out of place I feel when I come back home. While I am enjoying my time here, I also know it is my last long stretch of time living in this town and quite possibly living in the suburbs.

while this is the town where I am from and lived for the first 18 years of my life, I feel like a visitor from Manhattan who is out of place

— we finally have some beautiful blue skies and sunshine! Time for me to get outta the house and enjoy it. The boy and I are gonna attempt to make some homemade dinner tonight