working for the weekend

Holy cow - what a weekend.

I'm completely exhausted. And a little overfed, for sure. I also am in desperate need of a good 12 hours of complete alone-time.

Let's back track.

First of all, as you know, I had plenty to eat at that Yom Kippur dinner on Thursday night. Marina served delicious food and I drank (more than plenty of) wine and had a really nice time. As you can see:




Friday was a tough day at work as I was completely exhausted. I did get in a nice workout on my lunch break, just a quick 30 minutes, but it was hard cardio and I felt nice and relaxed afterwards.

Then, that evening, my cousin Kalan arrived! We ended up having a really lovely weekend together. Kevin, being the great guy that he is, picked her up at the airport so she wasn't overwhelmed traveling into Manhattan for the first time by herself. They had a nice cab ride and then walked around 5th Avenue (my office is there), looking at some of the silly designer shops and fancy rich people. We did dinner in Brooklyn that night because all the Manhattan places just seemed like they were going to be packed. The place we LOVE in Park Slope, Brooklyn (Santa Fe Grill - amazing tex mex) was really busy too. We had to wait about 15 minutes for a table which absolutely never happens there. Weird. I was beyond starving by the time we sat down and ate many more free chips than I should have. I didn't have anything to drink but water because I was still pretty sore from the Yom Kippur drinking. I ordered chicken/guacamole tacos, didn't finish them, but had a few bites of Kevin and Kalan's meals. I was full when we left.

The next day, Saturday, was a beautiful day. The weather was perfect, even a little too warm at points, which I don't really mind. We woke up early, Kevin made eggs for us girls, and we all got ready to go do some sightseeing. We headed to Ellis Island, which I haven't been to since I was probably 10 years old. The ferry that takes you to Ellis Island stops at the Statue of Liberty for those who want to get off (we didn't), but we did sail by her so Kalan could see her and we also got to see some beautiful views of the city.



Ellis Island was cool and it didn't take us too long to move through the museum. We were all starving, sick of standing, and feeling really low-energy by the time we were ready to go. Luckily a ferry was about to pull away to head back to New York right when we exited the building, so we hopped on and were back on land in no time. I love transportation luck like that. ;)

We walked around a bit more in the Wall Street area, walked by the ground zero site, did lunch on the Lower East Side, and went home to Brooklyn to take quick naps and showers before a big night of rehearsals, two shows, and drinks with friends.

We headed back into the city around 5:00pm and I had two back-to-back shows with a little bit of downtime (for Chipotle salads) in between. Both shows went really well and I think (I hope) it was really cool for Kalan to see this part of my life/New York City culture. She had a good time.

We were completely drained by the time all was said and done, around 11pm. But we sat with friends at an outside table at a bar (weather still amazing) for a beer and some nice conversation with friends before grabbing a cab home. It was late and I was zonked.

We got up the next morning and took a (longer-than-I-thought-it-was-gonna-be) walk through Prospect Park to a little diner in another neighborhood in Brooklyn to meet up with Randy and Daniel for brunch. We had yummy breakfasts with all kinds of interesting dishes and then we all took another nice long walk to a nearby subway.

Kalan, Kevin and I headed uptown to see Central Park and the Upper West Side. More walking. I'm usually not very conscious of how much walking one does in this city but because I was with someone who lives in a place where driving in the primary mode of transportation, I was more aware of how much we were walking (dragging) her around. My mom, who is probably the fittest person I know (works out constantly, eats incredibly well, and has an amazing body) and lives in the suburban midwest, is always complaining about how her feet, legs, and hips ache when she comes to New York and spends whole days walking around for hours. I guess if you don't do it every day as your main way to get around, you would be in a bit of pain after a while. But even Kevin and I were hurting after all the walking we did with Kalan this weekend. Sunday afternoon, when we saw Central Park, Lincoln Center, Carnagie Hall, Columbus Circle, we were all so sore we kept stopping to stretch out our backs and legs every ten minutes. But it was still a very nice day. The weather was, again, perfect, and I was glad we were able to show Kalan more of the city. I think that girl saw almost all the neighborhoods we offer around here. ;)

After our afternoon of sightseeing, we headed to Trader Joe's to pick up groceries for our little dinner party. (It was the first one I've thrown at mine and Kevin's apartment - and maybe the first one I've thrown ever? Just seven people total. But a dinner party nonetheless.) I was planning veggie lasagna, my friend Faryn was going to bring a salad (thank god), and I was doing some appetizers and a big loaf of bread too.

We headed home with lots of groceries in tow. (TJ's was packed and the three of us took turns waiting on line while the other two people shopped. Kalan was overwhelmed, understandably. I warned her it might be chaotic in there - and it was.) We relaxed a little bit when we got home - Kalan had her first slice of New York pizza (she loved) - and then we decided to do an hour-long yoga podcast together before starting on dinner! (Kevin didn't join us. He did chores instead, the cutie.) It was so fun. I think Kalan, who is very physically active and ran a marathon at age 18 (she's now 22), had a hard time with the class because she wasn't used to the kind of yoga this teacher was doing, so I'm not sure she liked it as much as I did. I had a hard time too with some of the stuff, but it was still good to be active like that.

I hadn't done any yoga in over a week and it felt awesome on my body. I am sore today and my legs and arms definitely felt tingly when the "class" was over, but it was the perfect way to spend an hour before starting on dinner prep. Also helped to alleviate some of the guilt I was feeling for not having gotten in the exercise I'd hoped to earlier in the weekend.

Kevin chopped veggies like a PRO, and did lots of other odds and ends tasks to get the place ready for guests, Kalan prepared and arranged all the appetizers, helped Kevin with odds and ends things, and washed some dishes for me, all while I cooked and arranged the veggie lasagna. It turned out really well for my first ever batch. It. Was. YUMMY.



I will absolutely be making this recipe again and I was shocked to notice later on that each piece was only around 180 calories, or 4 ww points. And I didn't even use lowfat cheese or anything! The pieces were substantial with plenty of veggies (zucchini, carrots, and spinach - SO good), gooey cheese, and lots of sauce and flavor. I loved it. I already know a few alterations I'll make to the recipe to make it more my own next time around. The only regret I have is that there wasn't a whole other pan of it so we could have it for leftovers. (There was one leftover piece which I immediately snatched up, stored away, and just now ate for lunch! Yum!)

The guests arrived right on time and we had appetizers and drinks while the lasagna baked, then sat down to a most delicious dinner, complete with Faryn's incredibly tasty salad, which complemented the lasagna perfectly. It had all kinds of really delicious ingredients and she made a great dressing from scratch and the whole meal was just really lovely. We chatted about the economy over dinner, which is always fun.

Dessert was this INCREDIBLE cake - I only had a small amount of it so everyone only got a tiny piece, along with yummy sea-salt brownie bites from Trader Joe's and some organic vanilla soy cream. Everyone agreed that this cake was the best they'd ever tasted (long story about the cake, but basically, it's from an amazing delicatessen in Tampa, FL, and it's to die for) and we drank more wine, mourned our empty dessert plates, and chatted for a while longer until BOTH Faryn and her boyfriend fell asleep (!) and everyone finally made their way home.

It was a really nice night. I was completely full when it was over, although I don't think I overate on any one thing. I certainly could have had fewer pieces of cheese at the beginning of the night, but alas, what can you do.

The scale was up this morning, as I knew it would be, and will probably show a gain for my official weigh-in tomorrow. This will be the first time I've had a gain in 5 weigh-in's so I'm comfortable with it. I tried to make good choices this weekend and certainly succeeded often, but I was also hungry more often than not, after doing so much sight-seeing and generally exerting of energy, and I went over points every day. This past week will be the most I've gone over points in quite some time, combined with the least amount of exercise I've achieved in a week in quite some time (4 official sessions, so not too bad, plus all the walking, but still), but I'm not gonna sweat it. I'll get right back on track this upcoming week, workout often (already loosely planned out my workouts for the week), eat well, and spend some time with myself.

Things will ramp up again on Thursday night with a girls movie night with some friends and then an engagement/birthday gathering on Saturday, but I'm not worried. I'll take that gain tomorrow morning in stride and focus forward.

I had a great weekend with my cousin. I'm so glad she got to meet so many of my friends, see so much of my life, and I'm so glad I got to spend some time talking to her and listening to her articulate herself about her life and her career. She just started her first year teaching special-needs 8th graders (she's a saint) and she is such a smart, interesting, funny, opinionated young woman. My extended family is really close and we always have been so it's really cool to get to know her better as an adult and to get to spend time learning about who she has become and is still becoming. I also loved the chance to show her around the city, even though it was pretty tiring at points.

That said, I'm excited to have my life back tonight. I'm going to get in some post-lots-of-food cardio at lunch today, but I told Kevin I'm coming straight home after improv practice (of course I have improv practice tonight - I wish I could skip it but I can't - I'm going to fall asleep standing up), then I'm going to lay on the couch and stare at the television for an hour, and then I'm going straight to bed. I need some serious downtime. ZZZZZzzzz.

p.s. 28th birthday is coming up in 3.5 weeks!

p.p.s There's a very loud Columbus Day parade going on right outside my office right now on 5th Ave. We've been listening to brassy parade music for 4 hours straight!