Archives for December 2011

Scraping and Cookies

December 7, 2011 · by Ari ·

Hello, from Lux!

Lux is a super cute indie coffee shop downtown that makes me feel like I am not cool enough to drink coffee here. There’s not really a menu, and everyone pretty much seems like they are hip and cooler than me. I’m sitting here maybe their coolness will rub off on me 😉 I had a class out in the boonies today and I didn’t want to head home and then drive back downtown for rehearsal, so I packed my lap top and figured I could do some blogging in the in between. I ordered a chai latte which I am kind of loving right now.

It’s not super sugary like at most coffee shops, just chai spicy and delicious.

Tech week has been going well and all of my performances this week have been too. It’s always crazy when everything ends at once, but I have to admit I am looking forward to a little bit of a break. A break which will not happen if I keep scheduling through it. Whoops. But I am happy and humbled to continually be offered work in my field. I often feel so lucky to receive opportunities that I have a hard time turning them down and understanding that not every opportunity will fulfill me as an artist or make me a better teacher. But I have my East Coast trip that I’m looking forward to!! I think I will end up being able to see 10-15 people I adore all in one trip. Thanks friends for all living so close to New York. If it weren’t for Steve, Winston, Clementine and my bank account, I’d be right there with you. 🙂

After being scraped in physical therapy today, I spoke to 2 of the therapists there about my progress. They scraped all around my ankle today instead of just my achilles and it hurt a LOT today. KT (the therapist I’ve been working with) says she feels like we are constantly trying to play catch up with a problem that has been chronic for so long. It will start to feel better, and then I run and it feels worse. They know I’m not going to give that up, so it’s I guess like trying to put a bandaid on it and do what we can. They also don’t approve of the 2 pairs of shoes I just spent $160 on. Oy. I left honestly feeling a little defeated. I spent most of my life being overweight and practically sedentary. Now that I am healthy, I want my body to do what I want it to do. I am physically fit enough to do the things I ask of it. KT and Gabe even both talked about how I am strong and I am able to do everything they ask of me, and I am still able to run, so I guess I need to get out of my pity party and be appreciative for what I can do. I just can’t help but wish that I’d be able to do it with less pain. It makes me anxious because I fear that one day it will get worse and then I really won’t be able to do things. But again, that day is not today, so I need to quit worrying what if and just be grateful. Done. Thank you body for carrying me 11 miles last weekend. Please do a good job carrying me through my first 10k this weekend and through 12 miles next Friday. I trust you to do a good job 🙂

In other happy news, today as I was baking some of my own cookies to put myself in a good mood, the remainder of my cookie packages showed up! I seriously now have 4 different varieties of cookies in my house. That is bad news. I need to share them ASAP. I will take some photos tonight and then post all about the cookies and their awesome senders! I love presents. I love cookies. I love Christmas!

Ok I’m off to grab dinner and head to our dress rehearsal. Come see Fiddler. It’s really good I think. Ohhh!!! And we got asked BY THE GOVERNOR to perform at the official candle lighting ceremony on the first night of Hanukkah!!! So honored and excited!!!

Where Have I Been?

December 6, 2011 · by Ari ·

It is the busiest time of year for us youth performing arts folks. This week I am gearing up for 2 shows, while being at all of my Bravo! performances. Busy busy bee. In the time I haven’t been at work I’ve been enjoying the number of calories burned in an 11 mile run by eating delicious food, including celebrating Yogurtland’s 12 days of holiday flavors!

Nicole has been helping me enjoy the festivities.

And of course I convinced my family to take part as well

"Grandma, don't leave me for the fro yo!"

"Do I get to go for a ride to Yogurtland? I think they should have a bacon flavor for dogs. But I also like peanut butter."

And I’ve also been enjoying the change in weather.

How often does one really get to wear rain boots in Phoenix? I put them on at the slightest drizzle, because I have horrible fashion and consider a cute winter outfit anything including rain boots or leg warmers.

And then there was also a good amount of time spent on cookie baking…

Dear cookies, please stay fresh for your recipients! Please please please do not go stale because you tasted amazing right out of the oven!

Yesterday I was so busy I didn’t even get a work out in and I had to cancel my physical therapy appt. But today started out on the right ~~foot~~ pedal!

I know I always say spin class is hard, and today was the same ride as Thursday, but is felt sooooo hard. And the room felt like it was about a million degrees. I was very happy to be spinning, but even happier to be done!

Now, I've just gotta work my way up to running that far...

Today I have a run of the show at school, the final performance for one of my acting classes, a Bravo! performance and tech. Whew. I need to shower and eat before I never have time to ever again.

What Comes After 10

December 3, 2011 · by Ari ·

I love long runs. They are undoubtedly my favorite part of training. I mean, when I’ve only done 4 and want to be done, maybe for a minute I don’t love them, but I always at some point find myself so pumped during and after them. Today was Kara’s epic return post ankle roll injury. I mean, we did a short run on Wednesday, but today was really her big day back. The last time we ran together was when we did 8 miles.

Kara got to my house bright and early for some cinnamon raisin Ezekiel bread with almond butter and banana. I know that everyone eats nut butter and banana toast before long runs, but there is a reason. I felt fueled and energized the entire time. I don’t think I will ever do an other long run without this breakfast. We waited a few minutes for the sun to come out, put on our fancy new compression socks and we were off!

"Watch out run, we're coming for you!"

"HiiiiYA! Take that, road!"

I was feeling pretty good today and secretly the entire time I was wanting to do 11 miles. I haven’t repeated a number on a long run yet, and I am always anxious to cover new distance and do something I’ve never done before. I contemplated lying to Kara about how far we’d gone and then surprising her with a “Tadaaaaa, we actually did 11!!” when we returned, but I didn’t know if she’d appreciate that post injury, so I pretended not to notice that the Garmin beeped at 5mi, and then stopped at 5.06 and said “Ohhhh whoooops…” I made it a whole 30 seconds trying to be deceitful. Then I asked Kara if I could convince her to run for 4 more minutes before turning around, and because she is basically the most awesome friend and running buddy to ever walk the face of the Earth, she immediately said yes, and we changed the plan to 11. I was so excited I literally jumped up and down a little. New territory!!!! My favorite!!!! So we ran a few minutes longer until we hit 5.5, then stopped for some espresso love flavored Gu.

This Gu stop made me laugh for about a mile. I mean, I think the espresso flavor tastes pretty decent, but the stickiness of Gu sometimes makes me a little grossed out, but I look over and Kara is not at all phased and says “I’m thoroughly enjoying this!!” She straight up loved the Gu which for some reason was pretty hilarious to me. I’ve never heard someone say that I guess. We turned around and I continued to laugh about her and the Gu.

It seemed as if the second half of the run flew by. I was so excited. To run new mileage, to have my running buddy back, to be running. I finished the last mile of the run with a huge slapstick grin across my face. We finished with a respectable (for me) 10:11 average pace.

That is Steve's hand. I promise my hand is not hair like that.

Mile 1–11:12
Mile 2–10:36
Mile 3–10:32
Mile 4–10:25
Mile 5–10:25
Mile 6–10:05 (thank you Gu!)
Mile 7–10:09 (man so close to no positive splits!)
Mile 8–10:07
Mile 9–9:48 (that’s more like it!)
Mile 10–9:39
Mile 11–9:19

Really really close to negative splits!!! When we walked in the door I was just so happy. I get some serious runners high. I’m pretty sure I’m hooked 😉

Once we got back, I forced Kara to join me in some stretching and foam rolling.

Check out those hot sweat stains. It's no wonder half of my blog search terms include the word sweat.

"Aunt Kara, I will help you stretch! I am so good at stretching. How do you think I got this long?"

Then came the least fun part of all. I’ve been using the pool as my “ice bath” and as it’s gotten colder and colder outside, the icy pool bathes have gotten less and less fun. Today, it looked like this outside:

In Phoenix, 50 degrees is considered scary cold.

"AHHHHH!!!!!!!" and lots more curse words

Steve just made fun of us.

"Yeah, just keep laughing, jerk."

While Winston and Clementine were in full on play time mode. Thanks for the entertainment, puppies. You definitely made it suck less.

"Come out and play with me NNNOOOOWWWW!!!"

"Okay, you asked for it! Raaaawwwwrrrr!!"

It’s funny, once you’re actually in the pool, the only thing that seems worse than staying in is getting out and getting blasted by the cold air. Finally, once our toes started to go numb, we braved it.

Brrrrrrrrr

"Mom, why did you go in the scary water? I don't understand."

This much is true, ice bathes are better with friends.

Happy Half Birthday to You

December 3, 2011 · by Ari ·

In case you weren’t aware, I love to celebrate. Anything. Everything. All the time. I get that from my dad. I remember growing up, we would celebrate my 1/2 birthday, 1/3 birthday, 9/10 birthday, you name it. It even goes down to 7/8 of a decade and crazy things like that. Thursday was my dad’s 1/2 birthday, but I was in rehearsal so his celebration had to wait until last night. I called my dad to see what the plan was and he asked if I was on the no carb diet (aka the dark ages when I avoided carbs like the plague–don’t do it, trust me) and I laughed and said “I’m on an ALL carb diet!” No carb stands a chance against me. Especially the night before my long run. He got so excited for pizza, so I suggested getting Papa Murphy’s and bringing it back to my place. I love their deLITE crust, it makes me feel not so guilty about pizza eating 🙂

I got the Mediterranean chicken and a veggie and cooked em up along with some roasted green beans and onion.

Have you tried sriracha on your pizza?? I put this stuff on everything, but it is especially good on pizza!

I also did some baking, but I can’t share too much yet, because I loved what I made so much that I decided to nix my original idea for the blogger cookie swap, and make a little variation of these instead. But I have to offer a sneak peak 😉

I had to send them all home with my dad because they never would have lasted over 24 hours in this house!

My dad, Steve, Hermano and I enjoyed our dinner, watched Who Framed Roger Rabbit and then Hermano won at Life. I came in second. I hate not winning. In fact, I’m still slightly bitter. Watch out, Hermano.

I still have embarrassing childhood stories to tell. You better think twice before you try to beat me in a game!

It was really nice to celebrate, but stay in and relax and play games. Maybe I’m old, but 9 out of 10 times, that’s what I’d rather do 🙂 Happy half birthday dad!!!

Just Keep Spinning

December 1, 2011 · by Ari ·

HOORAY!!!!! After a ridiculous month long hiatus (how did it get to be a month?!) I finally made it back to spin this morning! I don’t know why I was being such a lame-o about it. I love spin. Minus the sprints. I do not like sprints. I do not like them Sam I Am. But I love spin especially Linda’s spin. Kara and I arrived super early and were the first on the list.

"Ummm, how do we work this bike again?"

I started the class with my flat road back at 9 (one lower than before) just in case I had totally lost some of my ability, but about half way through I ~~told myself to stop being a wimp~~ decided to step up my game and put it back at 10. Just in time for the steepest hill and sprints. Awesome. After some good sweat dripping action and singing along to Love the Way You Lie at gear 19, I was pretty happy with my ride 🙂

It feels so good to be back! No more time off from spinning for this girl!

Yesterday, I started the day with a way too early and cold run with Kara. We planned to do 3, but wimped out from the dark and cold after 2. Looks like now that it’s officially winter, we will be starting a little later and sleeping in–yay!! After our run, I headed to physical therapy where I got scraped again, but it wasn’t NEARLY as bad this time around! Pre-scraping, I hung out with my favorite football players at physical therapy. Those guys crack me up. The therapists always have them doing these crazy hard looking athletic things and I wanted to play too. I’m not at all competitive 😉 They were doing ladder work and making it seem really hard, then I skipped my little legs right through. They asked me if I used to play sports and I laughed and almost responded by saying “No, I’m Jewish.” but I think that’s only funny to me, so I just laughed and said no. I really like that in addition to making me feel better, my physical therapy sessions are giving me a little extra exercise time. I’m always surprised by how sweaty I am when I leave. But then again, we all know I have a sweating problem.

Tuesday night I went to Zoo Lights with my dad, Janie and Hermano. I was super excited because I figured Steve would be able to take all sorts of amazing photos, but he wasn’t feeling well that night, so I will just have to go back with him on a date night to get some pictures 😉 I did try to take a couple with my phone.

I ♥ lights!!!

And I also rode a camel with Hermano. His name was Isaac.

Hey Isaac, thanks for the ride! Look, no hands!

Today I am so excited to go to work. I love days like that. We start tech for Fiddler on Sunday, so I wanted to shake things up tonight and we are doing Fiddler on the Roof soap opera style for our run tonight. As ridiculous as it sounds, there is a method to my madness 😉 For those of you in the Phoenix area, I would love for you to come out and see the show! The kiddos have been working super hard and I feel hopeful that it will be good! Click here to order tickets!

Have a great day everyone!

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Archives for December 2011

Where Have I Been?

What Comes After 10

Happy Half Birthday to You

Just Keep Spinning

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