Yearly Archives: 2013

{via}

Well, it looks like it is finally spring in the Roc City!

I say finally because it actually snowed two weekends ago and this is, without a doubt, the longest winter I’ve endured thus far: Texas spring started in early March. Michigan spring hit in early April, and Ohio spring in late March. So, late April is really pushing the envelope for me.

But this weekend we enjoyed two glorious sunny, cloudless, soft green grass, light breeze days of temperatures hovering right around 65 degrees. Absolute perfection. Plus all the trees are blooming with white, purple, pale pink, and bright yellow buds. The pretty purple lilacs are popping up just in time for the lilac festival too. Seriously gorgeous. They don’t call it the flower city for nothing.

For a weekend recap, our Stage Door Design students presented their final costume, lighting, sound, and scenic designs for The 39 Steps Friday afternoon followed by a pizza party in which I consumed waaay too many slices of meat lovers pizza. The students did excellent work! It was great fun to watch them develop as designers throughout this process. Friday night my roommate and her husband joined me at the theatre for a Geva Comedy Improv performance with a theme of TV pilot episodes. It was funny and relaxing, as usual. Just exactly what a Friday night calls for after a crazy week.

Saturday morning my roommate and I hit up the outdoor public market for some fresh produce. I scored a cantaloupe, a basket of fresh plump jalapenos we have every intention of turning into poppers, huge crowns of broccoli, and red, yellow, and orange bell peppers (all for only $5!), which have already been put to excellent use in fajitas! We also made sure to stop at Martha Jane’s Bakery for a freshly baked lemon lavender sweet roll and a delicious flaky spinach feta pastry pocket. After the market I took advantage of the amazing weather and went for a 3 mile run around the reservoir, ran some errands hoping to scoop up some deals on a few things we need for the townhouse (with no such luck unfortunately. I know I’m cheap, but when did shower curtain liners get to be $6? I thought they were like $0.74. They’re not.), and then went and laid out on a blanket in the park for 30 minutes because it was simply so beautiful that I could hardly stand it. After six months of winter, I certainly wasn’t the lone park dweller (although this picture says I am, I assure you I was not). I’m thankful all this rain has given us amazing plush green grass for sporting and snoozing and generally enjoying.

When I finally left the park just before sunset, I cooked up a batch of chicken fajitas with fresh bell peppers, onions, and homemade guacamole, which totally hit the spot. It’s not spring until you’ve had your first fajitas of the year! I finished up the night with a glass of finger lakes wine and reading a few chapters of The Great Gatsby for YP book club in two weeks. Amazing day! The only two things that could have possibly made it better would have been Ted’s company and a bubble bath. Two weeks…til husband and bath-worthy bathtub!

Sunday was more of the same – church, a short 1.65 mile run through Mt. Hope Cemetery, laundry, packing away all the winter clothes (yesss), facilitating a post-show talkback at the theatre, leftover fajitas, and more lovely weather. When did weekends get so short!?

What were you up to this weekend?

You know, sometimes after an excessively long and busy (yet wonderful) week at the theatre full of taking The Whipping Man workshops to multiple area schools three times a day for three days straight as an artist-educator, riveting student matinee performances and post-show talkbacks, and writing an epic discovery guide for A Midsummer Night’s Dream…you just need to not go running because it’s cold and rainy out, and instead pick up a bottle of wine, and plop yourself on the couch in front of Wife Swap with said wine, a bowl of beef with broccoli, and an entire angel food cake with a jar of Trader Joe’s lemon curd imported from England. And then when you’ve sufficiently slothed, you curl up in bed and read “The Great Gatsby” before falling asleep at 10 p.m. when that second glass of wine really hits you. You just gotta, sometimes. You know?

In other news, I now give you a few lovely things I would like for our new town home, if money were no object. So, in other words, a dream list, yes?:

{This handmade tree bark throw quilt for the footer of our bed. Make the quilt grey, carve in our initials, change the pink to green, double the size, and you’ve got a winner!}

{I truly believe this is the most beautiful bed frame I have ever laid eyes on.}

{We’ve been ogling these table lamps and matching floor lamp for well over a year now. Two table, one floor please!}

{This mirror. Awesome.}

Clearly, we’re into the woodsy look.

There’s more. Much more. Wanna see? Check it out on my Pinterest page here.

Happy Friday!

So, I’ve had a wicked craving to make these lately…

{via}

and these…

{via}

and these too…

{via}

Girls night?

(all recipes linked below the image)

Tap – Yup, still dancing. Still wonderful. Hoping we can afford for me to continue to take lessons for over the next few months with all the upcoming expenses of the move. But I love it and really hope I don’t have to quit.

Running – About 3-4 times a week, usually between 1.5-2.2 miles each outing along the canal or reservoir. Having a workout armband that holds my phone (with RunKeeper app!) and earbuds that actually stay in my tiny ears so I can listen to music and run hands-free has been a huge help (thanks Dad2!), and the nice weather has been a big motivator too. Except for the snow on Saturday. That was ridiculous.

Blood donation – Despite my first awful blood donation experience back in October, I decided to try it again this past weekend, hoping my body would react better this time now that it has had a chance to get over the shock of so much blood leaving all at once. I’m very pleased to say that this time the experience was much more pleasant (as pleasant as it can be, I suppose) and I’ll hopefully be able to donate a handful of times every year from now on. Continually drinking ice water throughout the ten-minute draw and raising and lowering my legs in addition to squeezing and releasing the stress ball in five second rotations really helped keep the nausea and overheating away. Plus they give you a sticker that says “Be nice to me today. I gave blood.” and usually a coupon for free food too so, you know, kind of awesome.

Work – I’ve been keeping insanely busy the past few weeks teaching Discovery Workshops for The Whipping Man, writing the Discovery Guide for A Midsummer Night’s Dream, hosting post-show talkbacks for the Mainstage, Nextstage, and for Student Matinee performances, and preparing for Summer Academy…among other things. Love it!

Food – Haven’t had much time for cooking unfortunately, but I did make some black bean patties and a delicious chicken and veggie linguini with a garlic olive oil this weekend. And Friday at work we shared a “comfort food” themed potluck with enough calories for the next month, lest you thought the eating healthy and exercising were actually doing me some good. There were two different kinds of homemade mac n’ cheese, scalloped potatoes, grits, a cheesy ham casserole, fried chicken, baked mojito chicken, fried jalapeno poppers, pigs in blankets, ziti, pasta salad, lentil loaf, mashed potatoes, chocolate chip cookies, carrot cake, apple crisp, peach sweet tea, and at least 5 other things I am forgetting about entirely. Needless to say, everyone yawned for about 45 minutes straight that afternoon before curling up under our desks for a nap, waking only to moan about our aching bellies and pop some Tums. It was excellent.

Shakespeare – Saw Measure for Measure with my friend Becca on Saturday night. The show was performed in an old church converted to a multi-use community cultural center with pews set up for in-the-round seating. This particular interpretation was set in December 1928, and featured speakeasies and clothing of the roaring 20s, the Salvation Army, and Kris Kringle (yes, Santa) as a main character…in a Shakespeare play…(a disguise for the Duke, if you’re curious). It was also a musical with original music and all kinds of lyrics added to the play. The songs were played live by a three-piece band. The actors and band also provided pre-show and intermission entertainment with renditions of popular jazzy songs. It was definitely a unique adaptation, but I was certainly entertained and had a really enjoyable time. Plus, Shakespeare’s stories are just so good.

What’s been going on in your world?

– You need to watch this. Truly beautiful!

– And this video because I am in love with this little guy. What a sweet, brave trooper! I would be so proud to adopt him!

– A lovely perspective about the running culture and those wonderful people who turn out to support them!

– And this needed to be said. We all share a responsibility in educating and holding accountable our young ladies, as well as our young men.

– Cats, Shakespeare, and snark…three of the things I love most in one dandy little package. Amazing.

– And finally…

So, we all know I have a fascination for abandoned places, especially abandoned theme parks and subways. In the past I’ve blogged about the abandoned Cincinnati water park Surf Cincinnati, the abandoned mall in Cincinnati, and the abandoned Cincinnati subway system we were super fortunate to tour last spring.

Imagine my delight to learn that Rochester too has an abandoned subway system!! Unfortunately, they don’t do tours of it or Ted and I would be all over that adventure as well. I also learned that Rochester has a gorgeous abandoned chapel in the Mt. Hope cemetery (which is literally across the street from where I live now). They don’t do tours of the chapel either, but rumor has it that they might renovate it? I sure hope so because it is beautiful. Anyway, enjoy some amazing photos of the inside of it here.

Late Saturday night Ted and I were on the phone and he was checking something weather related when the weather channel website’s travel section popped up some awesome photos of creepy abandoned theme parks and eerie abandoned islands (including one in NY that I must see!). If you’ve got 20 minutes, you really should see these pictures. There are 7 abandoned islands (each island featured has about 7 photos of it, so don’t miss any!) and there are 8 abandoned theme parks worldwide featured (each theme park has anywhere between 5 and 50 photos associated with it, so don’t miss clicking though those either!). Totally worth your time, especially if you are just completely fascinated by abandoned places like me. It’s just so amazing what people will leave behind.

If you’re extra enthralled, you should also check out these phenomenal jellyfish (it blows my mind that animals this beautiful even exist in the world, right beneath the water and we hardly ever get to see or appreciate them), these amazing bridges, and these amazing roads (my travel bucket list just exploded).

You’re welcome. Hope you didn’t have work you wanted to actually get done today or anything.

Saturday night my church held a spring garden themed Cupcake Extravaganza to benefit our young adults program. They had me at cupcake. Obviously. So I devoured like 8 cupcakes (no shame) and hung out with some friends. Pretty great Saturday night if you ask me!

These were only a few of the nearly 800 cupcakes in attendance. It goes without saying that I am limiting my intake of sweets for the remainder of this week.

Each display was entered into the competition for “People’s Choice.” The winning display was saved to serve as dessert at an upcoming supper program for the poor in our area, and the rest were up for grabs for folks in attendance to take some treats home.

There was also a live bake-off. 90 minutes, two different types of cupcakes and frosting from scratch, and one secret ingredient (Cajun seasoning) that was revealed right before the bake-off began. The competing bakers’ cupcakes were judged by a panel based on texture, flavor, appearance, and use of the Cajun seasoning.

I have so many amazing recipes I want to try out, I might have to actually participate in the bake-off next year :)

In the meantime, I’m cupcaked OUT.