Picture Update

In two hours I'm leaving for the airport - I still have some things to wrap up at Job #1 and I have to finish packing, so here's a quick picture review of what I've been up to!

High School String Quartet

High School Choir

RPO Woodwind Quintet

RPO String Quartet

RPO Woodwind Quintet

RPO Woodwind Quintet

As you can see I've been organizing a lot of performances and running all over the place to make them happen.

Andy shopping at Hickey Freeman

The winner! 

I got one for my Dad too!

The Hickey Freeman factory is here in town and they were having their once a year blowout sale. Now both Andy and my dad will be wearing suits that (should have) cost more than my own wedding dress!!! In other wedding news we also picked up and paid for our wedding bands, and also found an officiant. Phew!

Vanya's Birthday

Vanya's birthday marked that start of my downhill slope of eating. I've just shoveled baddies into my face non-stop ever since.

And on that note! Time for me to sign off. I'm so glad I'm going to be home tonight on the Best Coast. I'm relying on my mom and dad to help me get back on track and motivated again - I know they will!

Working Hard

Hello friends!

Things are looking up! Food and exercise are going great, work is busy but I'm getting a lot done, my allergies aren't bothering me quite as much, and I'm going home in a week! Woohoo!!!!

Here are some pics from the week so far...

String Quartet at a school... I've been arranging a lot of these

Anna raising money for Job #1!

Katy's birthday at Job #1 - I made her crown, lol

Nothing really too exciting. Tonight is "Music Educator Award Night" for Job #1, which means that I'll be busy with that tonight. Once the concert is over there's a reception. >:-( But! I have a tactic. At REDO on Monday we had to list situations that we would consider "risky" and one of mine was a party/reception. By talking it through, I realized alcohol + limitless food is not a good combination for me, especially because I rarely drink so even a little wine loosens my resolve. REDO has us make a mini goal each week so I said I would not drink wine at tonight's reception. Our leader said that wasn't good enough - I needed to replace it with a different drink I felt excited about. So... I'm going to get a latte to take to the reception! And I'm actually really looking forward to it now because I know the latte is going to be really good!! Way to go me. Thank you REDO.

And on a final note, the best part of my week happened yesterday when I got to see Seetha! We mostly talked about what's going on in her life. Please send loving thoughts out to Seetha - she needs them! But in the midst of all of that she gave me an exercise to do to help with my stomach pooch. I tried it this morning. Holy cow.

Weekend Update

This last weekend was really busy, and going into it I didn't think it would be all that fun. Turns out it wasn't so bad - I felt healthy and productive, my two favorite things. Not a whole lot more I could ask for I guess (except maybe some more free time).

Friday night I had to attend a benefit recital for Job #1. I was dreading it. I knew there would be a dessert buffet and people I wouldn't normally choose to spend a Friday night with. But! There was also tea and coffee so I helped myself to both instead of the desserts, and the recital was mildly entertaining, which is way better than I was expecting. Best of all it was in a newly renovated recreation center that is free and open to the public, and... I found out it has an amazing gym! I'm really excited to go back to workout there sometime. You know, mix it up.

Benefit Recital - looked more like a high school dance...

On Saturday I worked Job #2. Then............................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................ I finally picked up my wedding dress. Yikes!!!! I've been so nervous to get it because the truth is I've gained weight since I bought it and I was sooooooooooo nervous it wouldn't fit. Rose was an amazing friend and went with me. The good news - it zips!!! The expected news - it is SUPER tight. But I'm glad I finally got it. If I had to get married today, it would work. Thankfully I don't have to get married today so I have time to work on my body. And talk about motivation - I've been a rockstar with food and exercise since picking that puppy up. I still have a long way to go, but I'm starting to feel more confident that I'll get there.

After the dress trip I worked out (haha, or course). The evening was spent with Andy, Will, and Rose. We had dinner at Chipotle and then saw Spiderman 2. I'll admit the only reason I wanted to see the movie was because part of it was filmed where we live, and those scenes were cool for sure, but the rest of the movie... oh brother. There was a moment where we all literally started cracking up laughing because it was SO cheesy. But whatever, it was still fun.

Sunday was a GREAT day. We started off bright and early running the Lilac 10k!

Babs and Carrie

I ended up running with my old running partner in crime, Carrie. It was really nice to catch up, and she was very kind and stuck with my slow pace. However, I will say I finished in 1:03:44 which is a 10:16/mile pace. Post surgery without much running... I'm really proud of that! Andy and Sarah also ran too - of course they were much faster but they waited for me to cross the finish line, which is always an extra bonus.

Carrie, Sarah, Babs, and Andy

Sarah got a new PR - GO SARAH!!!! And Andy also killed it finishing in just under an hour. He and I both believe doing T25 has made our legs stronger and made it possible for us to run a 10k on no training without too many aches and pains. Yay for T25!

I spent Sunday afternoon running a bunch of errands and cleaning. For dinner Andy and I grilled bison steaks - I really like buffalo meat... you should try it sometime. Then he had a concert that evening that I went to. It was a chamber music concert and was pretty enjoyable. I don't hear a lot of chamber music anymore, so it was kind of nice.

And there you have it! Not a lot of downtime, but a successful weekend nonetheless.

Week in Review

Ok now that I've finished my NYC posts, here's what I've been up to this week.

First and foremost. I've been scratching my eyes out and sneezing until my throat feels raw. I hate spring.

Itchy watery eyes of death

Other than that, things have been busy at Job #1. The first day after we got back from NYC I had to organize this mini-concert for a group of under-privileged string students. It was sort of a mess, but it worked out. Whatever. The cool thing was that it was part of a John William's concert - he wrote the music for a lot of famous movies. Let's just say, people came in costume...

Not everyday you take a selfie with a storm trooper

This week were also all of the tiny tots concerts for the orchestra. The tiny tots are one of the bigger parts of my job. I'm really proud at myself for not getting overly stressed out about them. There were some definite "surprises" - like 100 kids showing up that we didn't know about, putting the hall waaaay over capacity - but somehow I made it all work.

Tiny Tots Concert

One of my favorite coworkers also celebrated his last day on Wednesday, so the office closed half an hour early so we could get a drink to send him off (I had coffee).

Goodbye Michael!

I also got back to doing T25 - 5 days straight now, woohoo! And I got back to eating healthy again (with a slip up last night, but I'm back on track now). Today marks 3 months until the wedding so there's no time to lose!!!! This afternooon I'm going to pick up my wedding dress... I'm incredibly nervous that it won't zip since I'm 10 pounds heavier now than I was when I bought it. I'll let you know how it goes....

NYC Day 2

Sorry, again, that it took so long to write the follow up to my last post. Also sorry that I start every post off with an apology for it being so long since the last time I posted. Oh well!

Day two in NYC was awesome! Andy, Anna, and I started bright and early with a run around Central Park - 6 miles total. Not only was I happy to be in Central Park for the first time, but I was thrilled that my knee held up for 6 miles! That hour in the park though is what sparked my allergies - which I'm still suffering from big time as I type this today.

Babs and Andy :-)

Babs and Anna!

 

After the run we grabbed some coffee and took quick showers. Then Andy and Will went off to do clarinet geeky things, and Anna and I went shopping!!! I can't express enough how thankful I was to be with Anna. She knew all the best places to go!

World's best tour guide/shopping buddy

We went to this store called Century 21. Amazing!!! I bought two dresses, a shirt, and a pair of shoes. One of the dresses will work well for either a wedding shower or rehearsal. :-)

Calvin Klein on super sale!

Anna also took me to this great grocery store for lunch. We did not get one, but we did see a cronut! Well... their version of a cronut at least.

"D'oissants"

The orchestra had to rehearse in the afternoon so I was left to my own devices. To keep a long story short, after an unsuccessful trip to Kleinfelds (even if I had found it, it turns out they're closed on Wednesdays...) I ended up wandering the streets and doing more shopping. In the process I learned the NFL draft was going on and I saw this....

Fox Sports set up on the sidewalk

Finally it was time for the concert at Carnegie Hall. I had never been to Carnegie Hall before and I'll admit it was a lot smaller than I imagined, but it was still very beautiful.

Sitting with my friend Brigid (she works at Job #1 with me).
You can see the allergies are affecting my eyes here...

Multiple levels of balconies

The orchestra came out on stage - I can't tell you how excited I was to see Andy on the stage of Carnegie Hall! I'm so glad I got to go. 

RPO at Carnegie Hall

They handed out handkerchiefs to everyone who had traveled to see their hometown orchestra. There were a lot of people there that had made the trip!

Everyone waving their "flag"

Anyway, the concert was good. It was a staged opera. I actually like opera a lot, but the subject of this particular one was about the Puritans, and they're never that exciting to me. Surprisingly I wasn't as turned off by the subject as I thought I would be. Maybe it was just the excitement of the trip - who knows! But people gave a standing ovation and everyone seemed to really like it. Success!!

After the concert there was a VIP reception at the Russian Tea Room, which was right next door.

See all of those glasses? Yeah, it was an open bar...

Babs and Andy

Here I am with people from Job #1

The reception was ok. In addition to the open bar there was a dessert buffet where I seriously lost control. Ugh. It ended at midnight - people were still pretty lively so a lot of people went out afterwards. The coworkers I'm with in the picture above all went to a bar and ended up meeting Michael Irvin, past Dallas Cowboys player. Sorry I didn't go with them Mom! :-) For the record though, they all said he was very nice and ended up taking pictures with them. How cool!

While everyone else was meeting Michael Irvin, Andy, Will, Byron (another member of the orchestra), and I went to this bar called Valhalla. It was gross and smelled like pee. I sat and drank water while the menfolk got pretty drunk.

Will at Valhalla

This is what happened when I asked Will to take a picture of Andy and I... haha

Here - he got it right!

We didn't get back to our hotel until at 2:30am. Yikes! I haven't stayed up like that in a loooooong time. Andy was hilarious - on the walk back to our hotel he was singing show tunes, haha. 

The next morning we had to be on the bus at 9:00am. Let's just say getting up was not pleasant. Thankfully it was raining out, which made it easier to get back on the bus and leave.

Bye Bye NYC!

There you have it! I had a GREAT time. I spent way too much money. I ate way too much food. And I slept way too little. But I had a ton of fun. :-)

NYC Day 1

Hello from Job #1 where I look and feel like hell. Spring + Barbara = Allergies. Barbara + Allergy Medication + whirlwind trip to NYC = death. Hopefully this post will make sense, but I do feel like I'm half asleep and half drunk so it could be a little jumbled.

We left on Tuesday morning at 9am. Andy and I woke up extra early so that we could do T25 before getting on the bus. :-) Anna and I were bus buddies - it was a lot of fun sitting next to her. She came very prepared!

Getting prepared to leave!

Ready to hit the road :-)

The bus ride was long but fun. We were even able to stop for lunch at a Wegmans in Pennsylvania. That's right... we had to go to Pennsylvania and New Jersey only to get back in New York State - so weird.

Pennsylvania never makes me want to smile...

After a long bus trip and an hour or so in bad bad traffic, we finally made it!

NYC!

The plan was to drop our stuff off in our hotel room and then head out to go shopping. We had a slight delay when Andy and I opened the door to our room and there were boxer shorts on the floor and a toothbrush on the counter... obviously someone was using that room! It took much longer to resolve than it should, but soon enough we were moved to a different/clean room. Our hotel was located in Times Square. Thankfully Anna was the perfect "tour guide" and swiftly guided us out of the Times Square tourist trap and into some good shopping.

We eventually made it to SOHO (I think), about 3 and a half miles away. We did a lot of walking! Our dinner reservations weren't until 9pm, so we stopped at Eataly for a snack. Eataly is a Mario Batali creation... sort of a restaurant/market fusion. While the products were nice, the service SUCKED. I am too lazy to do an official review on a website someone might actually read, but let it be known here... EATALY SUCKS. I tried to buy an apple but they couldn't ring me out because it didn't have a barcode. ....? What?! Then don't sell them! Bah. Anyway, after that Anna took us to Uniqlo where the three of us did a little shopping. Then we checked out Topshop - Kate Middleton shops there sometimes, so that was especially exciting for me!

Anna had made a reservation for us at Otto, another Mario Batali restaurant. I was so surprised that a restaurant would be so packed at a 9pm on a TUESDAY, but I guess that's just NYC! Everything we had, from the drinks to the food was amazing. Amazing! Our dinner at Otto was one of my favorite parts of the entire trip. Will was able to meet us there too, making it even that much more fun. Here are pictures from dinner:

Andy and Babs

Anna - both of our wines were really good!

Andy got a girly drink...

...and really liked it, haha

Andy and Will

TONS OF VEGGIES!

Anna and Babs

So when it comes to Mario Batali places, here is the conclusion: Eataly - Bad. Otto - Good.

After dinner we took the subway back.... we were all pretty tired. Again, I was so thankful Anna knew where to go. :-)

Riding the subway - consulting the map

And now we've made it to the end of day one! Andy and I fell in bed. It was an exhausting day, but really really fun. :-)