Recovery

When you pack several dozen young artistic type people in a relatively small space for several weeks at a time, inevitably, every once in a while the stars will aline and give you a night where- to put it mildly- the shit hits the fan. Every dramatic thing that has been simmering away in the summer heat will, all at once (with the help of copious amounts of alcohol), explode to the surface. One of these infamous night's took place on Friday. Friday was the opening night of Richard the Third. A night when somehow I couldn't turn around without seeing some dramatic story unfolding. Many a thing took place, many a tear was shed, and by the end of the night there were 3 drunken and weeping women in my dorm room (I include myself in this), each one more distraught than the last. Quite a sight to behold.

Now you dear readers (assuming I have any besides my mother- which I 'm really not sure I do)may be wondering what exactly went down last night. That I cannot share since it is possible that SOMEBODY I work with might actually read this (doubtful but not impossible) since I do put the links up on my Facebook. Suffice it to say that it was some theatre geek craziness across the board, but nothing to worry about. As far as I know, everyone survived...

And so Saturday was spent in recovery. My personal anger from the previous nights events was not completely abated, and upon waking up after heading to bed around 4am I celebrated surviving the night by hitting my end table, making my computer fall on the concrete floor. Ah the joy continues... so now my lovely laptop is some form of broken and has been sent off to Best Buy for repairs. But I'll probably loose all my info, pictures, and music. I suppose that's what I get for letting my anger bubble to the surface once every six months- apparently this is far too often as far as karma is concerned. So until I get it back there will probably be no more pictures on this thing.

Which is a shame because...what better way to recover from a frivoulsly tragic evening and a morning of breaking one of the most expensive things you own then with pancakes? I took some pictures of said delicious pancakes, but alas am unable to share them. But anyway they were whole-wheat oatmeal blueberry pancakes with crunchy almond butter and banana slices on top- and they were perfect. I made a few changes to the recipe- only used half the oil and used brown sugar instead of white sugar because I like it better. I mostly made them because blueberries were on sale this week and as a thankyou to Momma Bear Michelle for taking care of me in my state the previous evening. She enjoyed them immensely as well I am told. Not to mention that pancakes are the perfect hangover food. (I actually wasn't hung over, but I never need an excuse to eat pancakes)

And now that I am fully recovered I turn my attention to the ridiculous stressfulness that is sure to be STI. I am trying to be as prepared as possible- but this is difficult when one really has no idea what one is supposed to be doing. Most of the participants arrive tomorrow and on Tuesday the maddness truely begins.
On the plus side I am now moved into Greater Grace and have enough kitchen and fridge space to cook whatever I want- just not sure if I'm going to have any time. I guess we'll find out.

Too Darn Hot

What an excessively hot few days its been... Yesterday afternoon I decided it wasn't too hot for my thursday 5 mile run- I was supposed to do this run in the morning when it was cooler, but alas did not wake up- doing this run at 5pm instead was not the smartest choice I've ever made. It was HOT and by the end of it I was so dehydrated I drained my 32oz water bottle 3 times and still felt woozy and had stars in my eyes. Won't be doing that again. Its gonna be morning runs or bust from now on.

So I was so exhausted after this that I went to bed around 10:30pm- yes I'm lame- but I really wanted to be rested enough to do spinning class in the morning. And I did make it, although I took it really easy since yesterday was so tough.

In other news: its time to move... again. For the next 5 weeks I will be relocating to Grace Manor in order to better serve my duties as STI manager (ex: making sure they don't burn the place down). The up side? It's a single room with a bigger bed and nicer furnishings and I will get my OWN kitchen to use instead of sharing one with 25 people. The down side? I will have to leave my beloved Michelle for a time :( but am planning to have copious amounts of sleep-overs so hope fully the 5 weeks won't be terrible for us. Also I have to move all my stuff in the sweltering heat across town only to move it all back in 5 weeks. Such is my lot in life. What can you do?

Furthermore at the moment I wish I was doing this...

The Beach

Oh what an exciting couple of days it has been! No really! Can you believe it? Now... from the beginning.

Saturday was the official opening of The Comedy of Errors starring my friends from the Intern company and so I decided to commemorate the occasion by making some cookies for the opening party. And not just any cookies- Whole wheat oatmeal chocolate chip cookies- which I made from the recipe on http://www.espressoandcream.com/ one of the many foodie bloggers I read. And they were AMAZING!!!! I made them with milk chocolate chips instead of the dark chocolate ones the recipe called for- only because the dark chocolate chips were WAY more expensive. So here they are:


Dough- I made a double batch

and the final product

I meant to take pictures of everyone enjoying them at the party but forgot. But I can say there were 5 dozen cookies and only about 20 of us at the party- they were gone in 20 minutes so I guess they were a success!

Then Sunday was the 4th obviously and I took part in some events here at Shakes and Co in the afternoon before heading off to the airport for my impromptu VACATION!

After two flights, a car ride, and a quick trip to Wal-mart with Momma I made it back to the beach house at 2am. But that didn't stop me from getting up at 5am to go for my run. And this is the glorious morning I woke up to.

The sunrise run was lovely except running on sand is really hard and my shin was not happy about it. I only did about 3.5 miles total. And then went back to the house and took a shower outside- always fun and interesting- and went up for breakfast. And who was there to great me? Why most fave neice Allison of course!

So we had some breakfast and then as the rest of the house woke up we made our way down to the beach for some sun.

I of course hid in the sun shelter as long as I could since my skin is practically glow in the dark.

But eventually I was tempted out and I can say that my freckles are now a few shades darker... Don't know if I like that but there you have it. And after our afternoon in the sun (and me with 3 hours of sleep) Allison and I took a nice long nap.

Then yesterday we did one of my very favorite things- shopping! Sadly I was too distracted by that fun to take any pictures but suffice it to say I got lots of super cute summer clothing- THANKS MOMMA!

And after our long arduous day of shopping we came home to the boys who caught Spanish Mackerel on their fishing trip so we had that for dinner. It was pretty delicious.

And before I new it, this morning it was time to leave again. I had a great time visiting with my family though and seeing them all was just what I needed right now to get through the rest of this summer. And now its back to the grind I guess, STI starts up next week and from what I understand it may in fact kill me so wish me luck all- I may be stir crazy for the next 5 weeks...

Going places

Wow I'm getting pretty addicted to this blogging thing! I've been having so much fun looking at all these other peoples health and fitness blogs that it just seems like so much fun. And it is! Despite the fact that my life is incredibly boring at this point. Still I have much boringness to write about for your enjoyment. Dinner the other night at Baba Louie's was a bust thanks to the 45 minute wait and I super douchey host so Michelle, Meaghan, and I went to The Well in Great Barrington instead and had a grand old time.

There were lots of lava lamps. And I had a yummy salad and a chili cheeseburger with sweet potato fries.

Then yesterday involved further adventures is being way to domestic for my own good. I went for a bike ride after work and picked a lovely bunch of flowers to brighten up my room.
And then decided to make some rice krispie treat type things in order to use up some of the unhealthy foods in my cupboard. So I made cheerio squares with chocolate mixed in and sent them off the the Richard III tech so that I wouldn't eat them all. I'm told they were quite good.

Today was a beautiful day outside and ALL DAY I was aching to go for a run even though I went to spinning this morning already. So I did go for a short 2 mile run after Amorous Quarrel, unfortunately it was rather painful because I don't think my body is ready to run 2 days in a row yet. So I'm wondering if I'm going to be able to do tomorrow mornings regularly scheduled 4.5 mile run or not. I'm hoping it'll be fine but I'm also worried I may be getting a shin splint...eeep. I did reward myself for working out twice today though by having one of the delicious chocolates my designer on Amorous Quarrel got me on opening night as a gift.
Best opening night gift EVER. Thanks Amanda!

And more good news for today- thanks to my amazing mommy and jim I will actually get to join my family on our family vacation for the first time in 3 years. At least for a little while. I'm taking an extra day off of work and spending 2 full days in North Carolina on the beach on July 5th and 6th. And I think it couldn't come at a better time, I've been here now almost 3 months and I am definately in need of a little vacation from Mr. Shakespeare. Plus I've really missed my family and am now looking forward to running on the beach- getting some sun- and getting a bit rejuvinated to face the rest of a long summer full of no acting. Biding your time is an exhausting practice btw.

And for today I'll leave you with this lovely image of the pink skirt that will be the bane of my wardrobe mistress existance for the rest of the summer. It's adorable and awesome onstage- but it hates me- and it always will.

Flowerchild

Monday- also known as my DAY OFF! Unfortunately this Monday all my Intern friends do not have a day off so for most of the day I've had to fend for myself. So what to do with my wide open day? Well I got up at 7:30 and decided that since my usual 6am spinning class was cancelled I would try a new class. Its called ABC- abs, butt, core- clever... And while the class didn't give me much of a workout it was totally worth going to. You see many of the classes at my little gym Lenox Fitness are geared toward a slightly (or significantly) older crowd than myself. This class was in that vain- I was a good 30 years younger than anyone else in the class including the instructor, and the excersizes we did were obviously incredibly low impact. So why did I enjoy this when I was really in the mood for a good hard core workout? I have to say it was the soundtrack- which made this incredibly gereartic workout incredibly entertaining. The soundtrack was basically a techo-beat dance mix of classical musical theatre hits. Hilarious- and quite possibly the gayest music I have ever heard- and I mean that lovingly- I half expected Liza Minelli and a bergade of gays in purple jumpsuits to drop in at any moment. I sat there quietly giggling through my crunches as the music played through techo remixes of songs like "I could have danced all night" and "my favorite things". Somewhere Julie Andrews was weeping.

After my gym time I went exploring in Pittsfeild, as I had my eye on a vintage shop I saw a few weeks ago that didn't open until 11. So I walked around looking at the little shops and trying to find a decent breakfast- but upon finding somewhere decent to have breakfast I realized that last nights "Dip Fest" truely did not agree with me and I simply could not stand to put food in my mouth. Still queezy actually. Dip Fest was great- lots of yummy dips were sampled, but my stomach apparently disagrees with this. I went to the vintage shop as soon as it opened and had a grand old time looking at all the truely amazing vintage Victorian pieces they had (most worth hundreds of dollars- and rightfully so- most were silk, handmade, and 120 years old)which I could never afford, but I did manage to find a lovely dress from the 70's that I fell in love with and only for 25 bucks. It makes me feel like a true flowerchild.
I was honestly like a kid in a candy shop in this store- I don't think I've enjoyed myself so much in weeks- just looking at all the lovely pieces and imaging what the story was behind them (thats the amazing thing about vintage clothes, they always have a story). I will most certainly be going back- if only to admire the loveliness every once in a while.

As for the last few days- my running is going great- yesterday I ran 5 miles in the morning. And it felt great. I'm now looking for further ways to expand my usual route so that I can get it up to an even six and be running for a hour straight. I keep at a pace of about 6mph so it would be kinda perfect. Furthermore, I discovered on this last run that not only are my favorite summer flowers in bloom and readily available for the picking (Tiger Lillies) but all kinds of flowers are busting out these days- I have plans to brighten up my room with said flowers ASAP. I wanted to run again today but I'm wary of running 2 days in a row so soon because I'm worried I may be getting shin splints from doing too much too quickly. But TOMORROW its going to be another lovely 5 mile run and I'm already looking forward to it. Hopefully my stomach will be ammicable to some food soon. It better because Michelle and I are going to Baba Louie's tonight for woodfired organic sourdough pizza!

Adventures in the Communal Kitchen

As you may or may not be aware, here at Shakespeare and Company I live in a dorm type situation. And so for cooking and whatnot the Residents here at Larry Hall share one big kitchen. This kitchen is shared by a total of twenty-six people. So as you can imagine there are adventures galore. Space is obviously an issue- frequently- now cabinet space is readily available. The first pick is my lovely cupboard of goodness. Now fridge space- not quite so pleasant. We now have two fridges- one large cafeteria style fridge and one regular sized fridge. But for a while we only had the one... for 26 people. Not fun. This next picture is all the fridge space I have to work with. I put my stuff in a basket to get it out of there easier.

So, as you may have geussed, learning to cook healthy meals in this place- not the easiest task in the world. But I did manage to make one GIANT pot of very healthy veggie soup that will probably last me weeks- was really inexpensive and tastes pretty darn good. I wasn't really anticipating making quite this much- but I had not clue about proportion so... whatever it turned out great. And the WHOLE POT was less than 2000 calories.

Looks good right? I'm pretty proud of myself here. But alas- I was so nice and healthy all day- cooking lovely things from scratch and then proceeded to ruin it by going to Friendly's. A monumental mistake. I had a grilled cheese and french fries and ice cream. I woke up feeling like I had a hangover! My body was not pleased with me. I guess its good to know though that I'm getting used to all these fruits and veggies and whatnot. But despite my waking with a junk food hangover I still managed my 7am run of 4.5 miles. WOOT! And I did it in 46 minutes- not gonna win any races or anything, but I was pleased with myself staying at about 6 mph the whole time- even with the hills.

Tonight I made some oatmeal blueberry cookies. They were delicious- although not very cookie like- very crumbly. So I guess that's actually more junk food- but hey at least I know whats in them. And I used blueberries- I must get some points for antioxidants. I've been practically living off of berries now that they are in season and somewhat affordable.

But yes, the kitchen is an interesting place, a place where 26 people (most just out of college) have to live in harmony and keep the damn place clean. Quite a task if I do say so myself. I'm about to start freaking out if one more person leaves dirty dishes out overnight. There are 26 of us people. You clearly cannot leave your shit out to rot overnight. And I am trying desperately not to become the maid down there- but I always end up cleaning the place for at least about 1/2 and hour a day while I'm cleaning. But it hardly helps. 26 people 3 meals a day. I don't even want to think about how many dishes that is. And if even one person doesn't clean it sucks for everyone.

Listen to me- I'm like a crotchety old woman. Well- at least my mother will be proud- when home I am far less diligent about my dishes. Sorry mommy. It really fine though, we've been sharing the kitchen for about a month and there have been no MAJOR problems just yet. No fires, no fingers cut off- knock on wood.

I dunno, its weird, I get the feeling lately that I'm turning into a real person. I have things that I do that are just my things that I like doing for myself. I've been practicing my music a lot more lately. I think in college I forgot how much I actually enjoy singing- just singing for myself. I think college made me forget why I liked it in the first place and made me concentrate much more on trying to improve, or on comparing my little voice to all the gigantic and perfect ones I was constantly surrounded by at BW. Singing is just good for the soul though, and now I can really feel free to sing whatever I want instead of whatever someone else thinks is right for me.

Still I'm missing home a bit, my friends, my family. I've been away a long time. But now time seems to be flying around here. June is practically over! And its only a little over a week until my first 5k. Still haven't picked a goal time yet, need to do that. Maybe somewhere in the neighborhood of 27 minutes would work.

Ah and just a reminder to all that I still LOVE getting mail. You can find the address in one of the posts below. Think about it!

Vegetables and Being Domestic

A lovely day yesterday. Full of yummy food and summer awesomeness. After a morning in the office dying to be outside in the sun... I escaped with Michelle, Jason, and Shawn to the Lenox Friday Farmers market. I got my usual apples, strawberries, and spinach. And then I got some more rhubarb! to try a new delicious rhubarb recipe. I also got my usual cookie and this time also tried some other goodies (sorry diet of mine) including some berry pie and a rhubarb crumble that just looked too good to pass up.

Then we had another dress rehearsal for Amorous Quarrel which was fun- nice and short. I kinda love that its only me. I can show up whenever I think I need to instead of ridiculously early just because someone else thinks its neccessary. And perhaps I won't get in trouble for my choices of black clothing so much this year. Dare to dream

And after the run- it was time to COOK! I made this rhubarb reduction I geuss which was really good- I put it in my oatmeal. And then I started on the oatmeal rhubarb crumble. I did double the topping because it just didnt seem like enough to me to cover the pan.


Based on Andre and Michelle's enthusiasm to try it I'd say it was a success. It was quite a domestic day for me... cooking, laudry, sewing, cleaning, and in general being awesome. I'm enjoying learning to cook (although that was mostly baking) I'm thinking I'd like to try some more complicated stuff. Maybe actually cooking a more complicated meat than eggs, or turkey sloppy joes. It would be nice to actually have a clue as to how to cook a piece of fish.

Plus I think this whole healthy eating thing would be much easier if I didn't have to buy anything processed and could still make anything I wanted. I am making progress. There is now no Mac and Cheese in my cupboard- but there is a fair amount of canned soup. Perhaps for next week I ought to try making soup then... hmmm... I like this idea.