Pushing Myself In My 30th Year

It's my 30th year of life (I'll hit the big three-oh on June 1, fyi), and I'm trying to get myself out of my comfort zone and push my limits. I did that twice this weekend.

If you had asked me to run outside in cold weather a year or two ago, I would have said, "No way, no how, forget it!" But that was before I fell in love with running.

I decided back in late January that I should sign up for a 5K in March. I missed the 'race atmosphere.' And it would hopefully be warmer then! The more snow I shoveled, the more I looked forward to March. The race is a St. Patrick's Day one on March 15th, and people are encouraged to wear kilts!

Well, it turns out we shovel snow in March just like every month that might border on winter. (I did know this based on last year, but I had hope!) Although I am seeing a trend toward a bit higher averages. As in high 20's vs. 18°.

So back to March 15th. That's in less than a week! And, sure, I've been running. Inside, on an indoor track at the Y. I finally had to make the executive decision that the weather probably ain't gettin' better in a week, and I better get my butt out there! I had to go to the local running store the other day to get a few things to help. (Who said running was a frugal thing?? That ear warmer cost almost as much as my race entry!)

I suited up yesterday afternoon, walked out our front door, and I did it! 3.1 miles in our neighborhood. It was about 31° at the time. Sure, I had some annoyances since I'm used to minimal loose-fitting clothing when I run (mostly that I had to keep pulling my Under Armour shirt down), but overall it was good. I had to stop and walk a few times due to some other issues, but it wasn't because of the cold. I don't really love the feeling of my ear buds underneath my ear warmer, but listening to the "Wait Wait Don't Tell Me" podcast was the best thing to keep my mind off the cold and not worry about pacing. My run was slow, almost 5 minutes longer than I usually run a 5K. I was previously scared of the burning in my lungs, but I didn't really feel it. The sun was shining and beautiful, and I think it helped a lot. I even saw a woman out for a walk, bundled up with a scarf covering her mouth, and she gave me a wave. I felt like I just joined some type of crazy Midwestern bad-ass club!

The other thing I did this weekend to push myself? Auditioning. They scare me. I've mentioned I'm a singer on this blog here and there, but I have only posted videos of me singing within a choir or something from 10 years ago. I'm not some belting Broadway star, sorry. Actually I'm NOT sorry because I know that is not where my voice sounds best.

My audition was to sing the national anthem at a minor league baseball game. And as I continue to push myself, I might as well share my version on my blog. I'll find out in a week or so if I got it, but I heard some other auditions while I was there and let's just say there is some fierce competition in this town!

(This version is from Thursday, which was the first day after I had recovered from my illness enough to even hit every note. But I don't feel like doing another take, so there ya go.)

What I Wore Sunday (Vol. 8)

I'm back at this again!

Link up with these ladies

It looks like the 5pm Saturday vigil is becoming our mass. I don't really like that, but B has been working every Sunday, so it's just another sacrifice of married life (and him being employed, which I am very happy about). I find the vigil is hard because it feels like just another thing "to do" on Saturday. I was bumming around in a hoodie and jeans all day, complaining about constantly being cold, and it just didn't feel right to wear that to mass. I looked like a mess and felt like one too. Changing my clothes immediately brightened my mood.

Don't mind the little bokeh spot

It probably also helped that of the five pieces I wore, FOUR of them were new (to me).

Button-up shirt: The Limited (thrifted way back in high school) // Vest: NY&Co. (hand-me-down from my sister) // Skirt: Ralph Lauren (thrifted) // Leggings (fleece-lined!): Target // Boots: Bare Traps from DSW (my Christmas gift from my mommy)

That third picture is THE COAT. I mentioned it a few weeks ago, and now it is finally cold enough to wear it.

Coat: Kenneth Cole Reaction from Burlington Coat Factory

The coat probably could stand to be a bit warmer, but at least I felt pretty and fabulous in it. I have found out that this coat exists in two other colors, but they are out of stock everywhere online. If they ever come back in, I'm buying both! I really like how the hood is removable (it zips off) and it looks good either buttoned all the way up or leaving the top two buttons undone.

I get cold very easily, so hood went up!

A few observations on mass for this 4th Sunday of Advent: sitting up front is the absolute-hands-down best way for me to pay attention. All of the other times we've gone to this church, someone's head has been blocking my view, and it causes me to lose focus. We found an open pew in the very front this time, and it was so much better for me. 

Also, I don't know what's up with this church, but the congregation LOVES to sing. It is fantastic. I love to sing, and at previous parishes I often felt like I was just an extension of the choir or a cantor-wannabe. (True story: at my church in Norfolk, a visiting priest made everyone sing "Jingle Bells" in the middle of July because he said that we didn't sing loudly enough.) 

But that is not a problem here. I first noticed this when we went to the most recent holy day mass. The choir (might have just been a few cantors, actually) did a song during the Offertory that I had never heard before. They don't generally do sing-along songs for that part of mass--they just show off their musical chops with something choral. Well, I looked around and I noticed all kinds of people singing along. And singing along to the different parts, too. Old blue-haired ladies and teenage dudes in letter jackets alike. I seriously did a triple-take. Maybe I can point this out and finally get B to start singing at mass.

I will leave you with this photo because it caused me to laugh hysterically:

Baby is a total camera ham (I promise I'm not scolding her) BUT WHO IS THAT ON THE COUCH??!?
This pretty much sums up our family.

a little Christmas music

This past weekend, B and I had the privilege to attend a performance of Handel's Messiah by the Choral Society of Pensacola.  I actually had hoped to be singing with the group we saw, but decided not to push it with the pregnancy.  I also purposely didn't join the other (less-involved) choir I had sang with in the spring because their only concert for the fall was on the same night as this one!  (I really think the directors need to get together to plan around each other.)

Anyway, the concert was being held our our beautiful church, and we showed up ready to buy some general admission tickets.  The ticket gal asked, "Do you want some reserved section tickets?  These were just returned and are already paid for, so you can have them for free."  Sweet!  So we sat 8 rows back and listened to beautiful music for the next 2 hours.

They actually did the ENTIRE Messiah oratorio (all 3 parts), not just the traditional Christmas section with the "Hallelujah" chorus tacked on like I was expecting.  The soloists and choir were fantastic, and I loved hearing the other parts that I wasn't as familiar with.  I was so jealous that I wasn't up there singing myself!  But at the "Hallelujah" Chorus part (end of the Easter section, of course), you stand up (it's tradition!), and at this concert, the conductor turned around and conducted the audience so it was okay to sing along.  I sorta sang, but I was exhausted, making me realize that I made the right call about pregnancy vs. singing.

Here is the Atlanta Symphony and Chorus performing the first choral part of the Messiah, "And the Glory of the Lord":

I must sing with a symphony orchestra once again!  I miss it.
p.s. If you want to hear the "Hallelujah" chorus, check out this post I did at Eastertime.

a 5k and a song

This has been one of the harder ones so far, but it was awesome!

✔ 21. Run a 5k with B - use the Couch to 5k training plan to do it

If you just recently joined me here, or if you forgot, my first few weeks of Couch to 5k were summed up in this post.  Around Week 6 of my 9-week plan, I started getting shin splints.  The shoes I had been running in were ancient and didn't have much support to begin with.  I found some new shoes, but because of the extra support, they weighed more than the old ones.  I ran just fine with them, but it sounded like I was slapping the pavement the whole time even though I was running in proper form.  Some days I absolutely loathed running.  Other days, I was neutral about it.  I don't think I ever fell in love with the sport.

Anyway, I purposely got up super early Friday morning to catch the Royal Wedding and also as a way to adapt my internal time clock for the next day's race.  Saturday morn, we got up around the same time and headed to downtown Pensacola to catch the bus for our Fiesta 5k race.  It was a point-to-point race, so a bus took us to the starting line, and we would be finishing near where we parked the car.  We ended up catching the very first bus and had to wait almost an hour at the starting line.  B was whining about it the whole time.

I didn't bring my camera--this was taken after we got home and I'd taken off my knee brace by then.

However, it was a beautiful morning and a beautiful course that was mostly downhill.  I had a few goals for this race: not walking, not puking or feeling like I needed to do so (this happened the last time I attempted a 5k because I hadn't trained at all).  Another goal was to finish with B and maybe even hold his hand across the finish line.  You can imagine how he felt about the latter.  He picked up some speed on the downhill part, so I had to work really hard to catch up.  At the very end of the course, a 9-year-old boy bolted with the two of us to the finish line.  I was sprinting against B, and he was trying not to beat the kid and have everyone hate him.  I did grab his hand as I finished slightly ahead, so it kinda looked like I was dragging him.  We both finished with a time of 31:08, coming in 161st and 162nd.  It definitely helped that all the really fit people were running in the 10k and not the 5k part!  Also, the first 10k finisher did not beat us, so that's a triumph right there (his time was 37:26).

My sweet race bib, with electronic timing strips on the inside.  Fancy.

As much as I thought I hated running, I felt AWESOME after this race.  We even got free bagels from Bagelheads!  I think I might even do some more this summer, if I really love the charity where the money is going.  I may not do them with B though, since he'll just whine the whole time.  His co-worker likes to run though, so maybe I'll just do them with her.

So this weekend also included my two choir concerts.  While we were waiting around for the start of the race, I started singing one of our songs to myself.  It's called "Guide My Feet," and I know it's cheesy that I took a metaphor completely literally like that.  But I convinced B to record it yesterday, so here's the Gulf Coast Chorale singing it.  I'm toward the top left, behind everyone, the youngest-looking one in the group.



(Yes, this was at my fabulous church here in P-cola.  I love the color, and the acoustics were impressive.  It's hard to find a Catholic church built in the past 15 years that isn't stark white.  Also, B was sitting too close to get the whole group in the picture. This is about half of us.)

my life's parallel to last night's "glee" episode

Many people know I'm a singer.  A choral singer.  I started singing around the time I could talk and apparently never stopped.  From church choir to high school concert choir to college and beyond.  Yes, I was a Glee-clubber. But in the real world, the University of Georgia Women's Glee Club was just a large female choir.  No, we didn't dance, and neither did Men's Glee.  That is called a Show Choir, of which I have never been a part.

Anyway, even though they're using the name incorrectly, I still love the show "Glee."  And last night's Britney/Brittany episode brought back a few interesting memories.  (If you didn't see it, click the link to watch it on Hulu.)  The part I'm talking about was when the club was performing at the assembly, and Sue pulled the fire alarm on them declaring, "It's a Britney Spears sex riot!"  Ah, Sue, hilarious as always.

No, I've never performed a Britney song (I don't think?), but I have had a fire alarm go off in our set and had to evacuate the building!  It happened in my last semester of college, when I was blessed with the responsibility and respect of being the Women's Glee Club president (no solos required).  Our Women's Glee had the AMAZING honor to be invited to perform at ACDA Regional Conference in Charleston, WV.  Quite a ways from Athens, GA.  It was such a huge deal because our group was a non-auditioned choir.  Why the heck were we so awesome?!  (While I think our fabulous director had a lot to do with that, the girls who couldn't hack it pretty much weeded themselves out during Drop/Add week.)  No, it wasn't a competition, just a wonderful privilege and a possible ticket for our director to take a group to the national conference in a few years. 

Our trip to West Virginia had already gotten off to a rocky start even before we left.  We did a preparation concert in Athens at a local church, and one of our girls passed out in the middle of a song.  I think I heard a thud, but just thought it was a shuffling chair or something, then noticed our director cutting us off.  (Fainting actually happened to us AGAIN later in the semester when performing for a lunch meeting of the Kiwanis Club.  Different girl though.)

Less than a week later, at our biggest performance to date in Charleston, we had just started the last piece in our set for these big-wig choral directors.  I believe it was a difficult jazz arrangement of "My Favorite Things" from the musical The Sound of Music.  There are a lot of things you can tune out when you're performing, but a blaring alarm is not one of them.  Our director cut us off ever-so-professionally, and we shuffled out of the building into the cold.  Luckily, the building was not on fire, and we were soon informed we could go back in and finish our set!  Yay!

 The problem with an interruption like that is that it kills your momentum.  The set was laid out in a specific way to showcase our versatility as a choir and capitalize on audience interest.  Well, just like in last night's "Glee" episode, the momentum was lost, and I'm pretty sure all we were remembered for was being the unfortunate victims.  However, we're good sports and like to say that our ladies were so hot, we set the place on fire!

And while I don't have a video of me singing with my college choir, here's a video from last year of me singing with the old ladies Bellissima! Women's Chorale in Virginia Beach.

 

And now I need to find a choir here in Pensacola.  Or maybe I'll try some theater instead?

hurry up and wait: my day as an extra

Today I had the opportunity to help a friend who is in film school at Regent by being an extra in her newest project. I believe it's a pilot episode for a TV show.  I'm usually a singer (although not much of a soloist) and have done a very small bit of acting, but lately I've started to feel the acting bug.  And as they say in 'the theat-ah', "There are no small parts, only small actors," so I'll take any gigs that I fit into my not-so-surprisingly empty schedule.

If there's one thing I've learned about being an extra, it's that most of the time you have NO IDEA what is actually going on in the scene. I couldn't hear the actors talking, and I hadn't read the screenplay so I didn't know the plot either. Nor did I really even care. All I could really tell is that this project was slightly comedic and there would be bowling alley scenes (since that's where we were).  The only sounds I could really hear above the din of falling pins were "Speed!" (said after by the sound person I think?) and that lovely clicking noise of the clapboard.  Also, sometimes the extras just have to make up some dialogue to pretend like you're talking in the background. We had a few "How 'bout the weather today? I want to order a hot dog. Now where is my 8 pound ball?" conversations.

After we shot and re-shot and re-shot the scene where I walked by and picked out my ball off the shelf, all I really cared about was whether we were "pretend bowling" (for noise reasons) or I could actually  throw my ball at some pins.  But we did eventually get to bowl . . . a lot.  I bowled five games with a complete stranger, a retired Air Force man who looked remarkably like my father.  My new BFF extra/father figure and I ended up discussing everything from our history in glee clubs to his recent lap-band surgery (ew) to our experiences at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics.

Beyond the reminder that there certainly isn't such a thing as a 'free' lunch, probably the most important lesson I learned from this experience is that rented shoes actually hurt like hell after about four hours of relatively non-stop bowling.  And for those of you keeping score at home, my best game was a perfect . . . 100. Ouch.

Those five games pretty much tuckered me out, but all told, it was a great way to spend a Friday.  And that's a wrap.