Monthly Archives: June 2016

42nd Street (or So Much Tap Dancing!)

Even though my friend Dani and I got our Black Friday deal for the Pantages Theater a while ago, most of the shows in our deal weren’t until this summer. We had already seen “Mamma Mia”, but our second show from the deal was this week. This week, our show was “42nd Street” which I had never seen before! So I was pretty excited to check it out (plus we had some amazing seats!).

Before the show, Dani and I got some dinner at a sports bar on the same block as the theater. Dani has had some crazy work schedules lately so I haven’t seen her at workouts for a bit. So I had to update her on my running and all other things Orangetheory. And she had to fill me in on the craziness of her life! We actually were able to get to Hollywood pretty quickly, so we had a relaxing dinner and didn’t feel rushed at all.

We walked back over to the theater and I noticed a step and repeat set up right in the entry of the theater. Turns out, this show was the opening night of “42nd Street”, so they was some media outlets interviewing a couple of celebrities who were there. It was kind of cool to see, and since Dani doesn’t work in the entertainment industry I think she thought it was fun to see how the press line works.

With the Black Friday deal that we did, we got to choose any seats we wanted in the theater. Dani was the one who organized the tickets and she just selected the best seats available. We were toward the front of the orchestra just off of center! The seats were amazing and I had no trouble seeing the stage (except for someone 2 rows in front of me that had a super tall hairstyle).

42nd Street

We also checked out our seats for next season as we walked to our seats. We got a great deal where we are toward the front of the orchestra, but we are farther off to the side than we are used to. I was worried that sitting so far off to the side might make it tough to see everything on stage, but when we were checking out the seats we got for next season (we have 4 seats that are split up between 2 rows) I was pleasantly surprised to see that the seats are awesome and we should have no issues seeing the shows! Our next season tickets don’t start until November, but I’m already so excited for it!

We were in our seats close to when the show was starting, and the show started off with an amazing tap dance number! I’ve seen tap dancing in shows before (“Newsies” had some), but this show was almost all tap dancing! I was so impressed not only by the dancing but by how the performers could still sing after dancing like crazy for minutes! That is a serious cardio workout!

The show was really great! The cast was all “unknowns” but they did an incredible job and the opening night performance went really smoothly! The show was a lot less serious than some that I’ve seen in the past, but sometimes you just want to see a show that is light and fluffy and it was perfect for that!

My next show will be in a few weeks and then I have the last of my Black Friday shows in July. Then it might feel like a long wait until November when our 7 show season starts. But I know I’m so incredibly lucky that I have the chance to do this. Not only did I have the money saved up to buy tickets (or we found an amazing deal like the $99 for 4 shows Black Friday deal), but I’ve got a great theater like the Pantages not too far from me where I can see these shows! Every show I see inspires me more and more and I love that I have theater back in my life again!

May Challenge Recap (or It’s Time For Meditation)

We are getting close to the halfway point of the year! I’ve been keeping up with using my Spark Planner and I’m loving it so much! It’s such a great accountability thing and I’ve found new ways to keep myself on top of the tasks I want to get done. There’s still a ton more I think I could do with my planner, but I figure that I can figure those out in time. If I don’t do it this year, there are many more years to come to make sure I do.

I had a lot of goals for May, and unfortunately I didn’t get a lot of them done. I got about half done this time. I did push myself to do a bit more (like wanting to try new recipes or to do more yoga at home) and I know I could have done the things I wanted to do if I had managed my time better. Time management is on my list of things to work on, but it didn’t quite happen in May.

But of the things I did get done in May, I’m happy with what I did! I did 15 workouts at Orangetheory, I went out to 2 dinners with friends, I cleaned out my closet (I had way too many workout clothes and tank tops), and I read a non-fiction book (I read “I Thought It Was Just Me” by Brene Brown).

I also had 100% success with my monthly challenge for May. I wanted to search the acting self-submitting sites every day. I set an alarm that went off on my computer and phone every day to remind me to look to self-submit. Most days, I would forget to do it until the alarm went off so it’s clear I needed an alarm for this task. I have no intention of getting rid of this plan, so my alarm is set to continue indefinitely. Every single challenge I’ve set for myself each month has been something that I’ve continued every day without fail. I know that won’t happen forever, but to know that I’ve gained 5 new positive daily habits so far is pretty amazing.

I’m definitely starting to struggle with what monthly challenges I want to do each month. There are a bunch of things I’d love to do, but I know I can’t do them for an entire month (at least not yet). I also want to focus more on adding things to my life rather than trying to avoid things in my life. I did have the one challenge to not order delivery food for the month (which I’ve kept up), but I didn’t feel as empowered by that as I did with others. Not doing something is much more passive than trying to do something every day.

After some thought for the past few days, I found what I want my June monthly challenge to be: I want to meditate every day in June. I’ve tried in the past to meditate, but it hasn’t stuck. I know it can take a month or so to create a habit, so making this my monthly challenge is perfect! I have 2 different meditation apps on my phone, but after checking out both apps a bit more this past week I think I’m going to focus on Stop, Breathe, and Think.

Meditation

The mediations on there are free (you can pay for some, but there are a bunch of free ones) and they all seem to be pretty short. I have 2 alarms set every day for this, one in the morning and one at night. I don’t know if I will like to meditate during one time more than the other, so I’m setting myself up for success either way. I have a bunch of friends who meditate and I’ve only heard positive things about it. It can help to keep my anxiety and panic down, and anything that has the potential to do that makes me pretty excited! Worst case scenario, I don’t love doing this every day and I don’t continue it after June. It’s only going to take a few minutes each day so it won’t be a time waste. But if I love it and it makes a ton of positive changes in my life? I’ve got to try this out seriously to make an informed decision on if meditation is right for me or not.

I’m still working on the rest of my June goals like how many workouts I want to do and maybe even setting a goal related to running! But for now, I’m excited that I’ve set up my monthly challenge and I’m ready to start!