Cinderella

A couple weeks ago my friend, Mary, and I went to see Rodgers and Hammerstein's Cinderella for our annual birthday show!  Mary's birthday is actually today - HAPPY BIRTHDAY, MARY!! - but we both have a lot going on this July so we broke out our party shoes a little early this year!!

We had a great time catching up and watching the fabulous show!  The costumes were amazing and the story lines were really funny!  I wasn't entirely sure what to expect going into it.  I mean, I knew the story of Cinderella, but I wasn't sure how it would be portrayed on stage.  I was very impressed!  There was a tad bit of difference in the story line from what I remember of the animated version I watched growing up, but overall it remained the same.  And seriously, it was funny.  Like laugh out loud funny.  Songs were great, dances and dresses were fun, and the characters were believable! We really enjoyed it!! 

Mary was the first friend I made when I moved to New York City back in the summer of 2007.  We didn't know one another when we celebrated our birthdays that year, but we became fast friends that fall!  This is our 5th birthday show together now - Lion King (2008), The Little Mermaid (2009), South Pacific (2010), *visited Paris where Mary was living in 2011*, War Horse (2012), and now Cinderella (2013).  WOW!!  We have made some wonderful memories over the years for sure!!  What a blessing to have such a great friend and so many exciting times to look back on over the years!!

Andrea :)

Street Smarts

I always loved school, but to be honest I don't really use a great deal of the things I learned in my classes there.  Outside of school can be a dangerous, but beneficial place to learn.  I'll share a few of my street smarts with you today...

 

 

1 - Always carry an umbrella.  If it rains, you're covered - literally.  And if your luck is like mine and you bring it, the rain won't come!

2 - Treat other people the way you would like to be treated.  It's just common courtesy!  And I really can't comprehend how all people don't comply with this one!

3 - If you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all.  Sometimes holding your tongue is the best thing to do...even though it can be VERY difficult!

4 - Learn the names of the people around you and be genuinely interested in them.  It can make a huge difference!

Andrea :)

O's Game + Washington DC

This Weekend, I marked an item off my 30 before 30 list and had a lot of fun in the process!!  We spent the weekend in the Washington DC area with friends!  SO fun!

On Friday, I ended up on the longest bus ride ever when some crazy rain and threats of flooding delayed me arriving to the DC area by about two hours.  Boo for that...but it all worked out well even though we barely made it in time for the happy hour at the British Embassy.

 
We spent the evening socializing with friends over dinner at Capital City Brewing Company and a quick stop for froyo afterward!  YUM!

 
On Saturday, Chris and I drove out to York, Pennsylvania, to visit one of his college roommates, Josh, and his cute little family!  We had a fun time being entertained by Josh's two little ones and even got to have lunch at Chick-fil-A!  Unfortunately, I failed to get a picture...and I was super bummed as I realized it about 10 minutes after we got on the road back.

That night we went to Camden Yards to watch the O's and the Yankees.  Turned out to be a pretty lopsided game, but it was fun to be at the ball park!

 
On Sunday, we slept in a little and then went for brunch at Miss Shirley's in Annapolis - SO GOOD!!  There was a bit of a wait when we arrived so we looked around a little beforehand.  They had the cutest birds all over the place!

After brunch, we ventured out to Georgetown for a little cupcake fun before we left town.  We started out at Baked and Wired.  I tried the Strawberry there as that flavor has become my favorite these days.  I thought it was good, but my cake was a bit dry.  The icing was perfect and just the right amount.  These cupcakes were huge, too!  I did try a bite of my friend's chocolate one and it was much more moist.  Overall, I enjoyed it!

Next we ventured to the crazy popular Georgetown Cupcakes.  We stood in line for about 30 minutes which isn't terrible, but definitely more than I would prefer to wait!  I decided to try two different types here because I wanted to compare the strawberry, but I also wanted to try something different - carrot cake!  Both were tasty!  These were much smaller than the ones at Baked and Wired, but more than made up for the size with the mound of icing on top.  The cake of both was super moist and very good, but I had to scrape off nearly all the icing because it was just too much!  I loved the cute little fondant toppers on them, too.

After I got my cupcake fix, we ventured down to the river and hung out there for a bit.  Then we headed back into DC to grab dinner before we left for NYC on the bus.  The ride back was equally as dreadful, but I'm glad we went on the adventure!  It was a lot of fun!!
 

With our lovely hostess and fun tour guides - Noli and Rachel!

  

How was your weekend?

Andrea :)

Dance with My Daddy

This month, I donated to a wonderful charity - Dance with My Daddy. 

 Dance with My Daddy was designed to allow families to focus on the relationship a father has with their special needs child.  This annual event provides fathers and their child the opportunity to spend quality time together over a hot meal, dancing, and games.  The organization also provide access to other community resources.

This charity is special to me for a couple of reasons. 

First, the founder is one of my Georgetown College buddies!  I could not be more proud of him and what he has established with this organization.  He was always one of my favorites because not only was he a great guy, he was also smart and well rounded.  I knew he would end up doing some great things...and he has proved me right!  Congrats to him on such a wonderful idea and organization!

Second, I have family members with special needs and have seen firsthand how incredibly difficult every day ordinary things can become so I know how very important something like a dance and just general fun night is to these families.  

This particular donation is also timely due to Father's Day earlier this month as well as the book I am currently reading - A Friend Like Henry by Nuala Gardner - about an autistic boy and his very helpful dog.  Looking forward to reviewing the book for you in a couple weeks!

What are you doing to support wonderful causes in your neighborhood?

Andrea :)

Check Up Time...and a GIVEAWAY!

 
Earlier this month, I posted about my eight goals for June so today I want to recap my progress on them with you!  If you stick around to the end, there just might be a GIVEAWAY for you, too!

1)  Get everything prepared for our National 7-on-7 Tournament and first ever Lineman Challenge events to go off without a hitch just after the July 4th weekend.

This is going really well.  Surprisingly, actually.  I just hope things continue to go so smoothly for throughout the execution of the event in the next couple weeks!

2) Print out a running plan for this month...and stick to it!

This...sadly....did not happen.  I did print out a marathon training plan though so after the tournament I have something concrete to stick to for the next few months!  I hope!

3) Cut sugar out of my diet as much as possible.  Of course, exceptions MUST be made for cupcakes when Chris and I visit friends in DC at the end of the month!

This most definitely did happen....and it made a HUGE difference.  Generally, I felt better.  But I also lost around 10lbs and an inch off my stomach - yay!

4) Book travel for our summer trips.

We are planning to visit friends in DC, Chicago, and Pittsburgh as well as trek across the Atlantic so that I can meet Chris' family in England and we can go to my friend's wedding in Bulgaria.

Everything is booked except Pittsburgh and the NYC to England leg of the England/Bulgaria trip.  Hoping to get those squared away soon though!

5) Blog about one thing that really matters to me each week.

I only did this once.  You can check out that post here. Definitely something I want to make more of a habit though.  Just maybe not the best time to set it as a goal with so many other things going on.

6) Wake up earlier...which unfortunately means going to sleep earlier.  I am SUCH a night owl...so much easier for me to get things accomplished late at night!

I'd say I was about half and half on this one.  I've been trying to get up between 7-7:30am. Seem to be doing pretty good with it.  We'll see if I can push myself to 7am soon.  Oddly enough, I've found going to bed earlier really helps with this one...haha!

7) Solidify plans for my 30th birthday next month.

Done.  So excited!!

8) Get back on track with my reading through the Bible plan.

Unfortunately, this one didn't happen.  I did watch the entire The Bible series that had been on my DVR though.  I found it extremely interesting.  It made me want to do the readings and then watch that segment of the tv series again.  We'll see if I can get it together enough to do that.

NOW....for the GIVEAWAY that I promised you!!  I partnered with the lovely Mia over at The Chronicles of Chaos to celebrate her one year blogiversary!  YAY!!  Good Luck!!

a Rafflecopter giveaway  

Andrea :)

Book #9 - Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead

Our women's network at the office chose this book for our first book club meeting so I decided to join in the fun and read it.  To be honest, I had seen an interview with Sheryl Sandberg previously that had peaked my curiosity, but I just hadn't made the time to check it out before.  This was also the first full book I read on my kindle.  As a side note, I enjoyed reading from the kindle more than I thought!  Definitely going to be doing more of that in the future!

I had some mixed feelings about Lean In.  She included lots of personal examples and stories along with a multitude of facts and stats from various studies and research.  The only problem is that her field isn't exactly like everyone else's field so many of the personal examples didn't fully translate to other fields of work.  I did like her chapter on sitting at the table.  I agree that sitting at the table is very important.  It speaks volumes without saying a thing.  The other chapter I really enjoyed reading was titled "Don't Leave Before You Leave".  She was explaining that often women get ahead of themselves and rather than focusing on their career and potential advancements they may think ahead to having a family and not take advantage of current opportunities because of what they see for themselves in the future.  This is a tough one.  I won't say that I have ever past up an opportunity or stunted my advancement in the company due to being too future oriented, but I do think A LOT about adjustments that would need to be made in my current situation when I get to the point of having a family.  That being said, this chapter was truly insightful and beneficial for me.

At our book club, some of my colleagues brought up great points about how Sheryl seems to be insistent upon success being equal to a top leadership position in a company.  Our group addressed the fact that some women (and men) feel success is middle management.  That is the ideal goal for them.  It was the collective feeling that Lean In pushed women to feel like only the top leadership positions were worthy accomplishments. 

Overall, I thought the book was good.  There were plenty of interesting viewpoints and ideas to think about.  I didn't love the writing style, but I did enjoy the material that was presented.  I'll have to check out her TED talk because I have a feeling I will like her better as a speaker than a writer. 

Have you read Lean In?  What did you think?

Andrea :)

My first 10k...

I've been recapping the whirlwind London - Paris - Rome - London adventure that I experienced with parents back in 2011 the past few weeks.  Hope you have been enjoying reading about that super fun trip!  I know I will always treasure it!  However, the race I ran the following weekend is one that I'd rather forget.  I contemplated not even writing a recap of this race, but then I realized it is just as important for me to look back on the good racing times as it is the bad racing times.  And this was one of the worst.

It was October 22, 2011, just after returning from the whirlwind European adventure with my parents.  In retrospect, I probably shouldn't have signed up for this race given the surrounding circumstances, but I was oh so excited to be running my first 10k.  That was a distance I hadn't run before.  I had done a handful of 5k races and a couple of half marathons, but never managed to work in a 10k.  I thought this distance would be ideal - challenging, yet not too scary.  And if I had trained properly, I suspect I would have been right.

Pre-race :)

I'll just go ahead and let you know that I logged a time of 1:27:31 for the race.  That put me at over 14 minute miles...not exactly stellar!  I was pretty disappointed, but moreso because I hadn't trained properly than because I had a "slow" time.  Time isn't everything, but at 14+ minute miles a walker couldn't have moved more quickly.  Luckily, I had great support to cheer me up at the finish.  And I learned a valuable lesson - training is critical.  It is a must!  As I am begining to start that process for the NYC Marathon, looking back on this race is a great reminder of why it is important to work hard each day.  The race is only one day, but the lead up to the race is what makes all the difference in that one day going the right way!

Andrea :)