Saturday, March 5, 2016

Margaritas for Humanity

I hosted a small Cards Against Humanity party last night. Inspired by my birthday, I invited adults over to my house to have fun sans-children, with alcohol and delicious foods, and it was everything I hoped it would be. Since I was planning to make my favorite appetizer (my mom's Mexican cheesecake, of course), my favorite cake, and two pitchers of new drinks (mojitos and this ridiculous good pomegranate margarita recipe)- and I knew my friends were bringing more- I decided to take my lunch break at the Y to squeeze in a run. And as I ran, I watched the swimmers in the pool, noticing that one was quite a bit faster than the others. Hotter too.

Hello there stranger

Apparently James never checks out the women on the treadmills because he had no idea I was there until thirty minutes later when I kicked his feet mid-flip-turn. He was so excited to see me, and then after a cursory 30 seconds of small talk, asked me to take some videos of his strokes. I felt so used.

I finished work and party prepped. We had the kids in bed at 7:45 and friends arrived moments later. Our kids are super sound sleepers and they're always exhausted on Fridays so we didn't even hear a peep out of them, which was good, because we were not quiet and our discussions and incognito google searches were decidedly not kid-friendly.


I wore a new shirt randomly bought from Express while running through the mall to return something from Children's Place. It just jumped out and grabbed me and I had just stuck my snail mail Express coupon in my purse that very morning.


The party was so much fun. It was five of my favorite people, good food, good drinks (seriously make those margaritas), and I really love Cards Against Humanity. It's so educational. I feel like we all learned a lot.


Hiding from some new urban dictionary knowledge

We wrapped up a little after 11, which is pretty late for a group of people with small children, babysitters, and homes an hour away in Dallas. I felt very loved. And my face was red from laughing. And pink margaritas. And mostly laughing. Now that I know my kids can sleep through anything, we need to have get-togethers more often. It's like reclaiming a piece of our life that has been missing for years and years-- and then loving waking up to Cora pounding across the floor of the TV room chanting "Mama Mama MAMAAAAAAAA!". And finding 7 a.m. on Saturday a perfectly reasonable time to be awake. It's a beautiful blend of the before kids and after.

Speaking of blends, I taught my barre class today and since I'm missing the next two for our Great National Park Road Trip of 2016, I spent some time this morning practicing some new moves and series, including a bunch of plank work. Cora saw me and squealed from across the house, and as she does every Saturday when I practice my class, she climbed aboard. This time I finally got James to take a picture.


After 3 years of barre and nearly a year of teaching, I can hold plank for a good 15 minutes, but adding a toddler to your back who is trying to ride you like a horsey definitely kicks things up a notch, though I did not add this move to class.


Following class, Landon had his Texas Nature Club at the Zoo which remains adorable and awesome and man do I love living so close to opportunities like that. We picked him up at 4 and went straight to the movie theater for Cora's first ever movie experience- and the first movie we've taken the kids to in at least a year. Zootopia! Cora won't watch TV, so we weren't sure how well it would go over, but she's also usually game for anything and intimidated by nothing, so we took our 50-50 odds and ran with them. Tickets at this old theater were $3.50 each and my beer was only $4. Expectations were low and Cora blew them away.


I adore this picture. Never attended a movie, never had popcorn-- TOTALLY an expert at both.


The movie was super cute. Cora ate all of my popcorn, all her m&m's, and then got annoyed in the last 15 minutes because were out of both. James took her out to the lobby while the big kids and I finished the show and we returned home with three kiddos high on sugar. Whoah. It was a little intense. Luckily we put them in bed a few minutes before 8 and everyone seemed to immediately pass out in a well timed sugar crash.


And now James and I are 3 episodes in on Season 4 of House of Cards and trying to decide if 11:53 p.m. is too late to press play on the next one...

7 comments:

  1. Yay for Cards Against Humainity! I am going to plan my own partyn ow! And an adult coloring party. Complete with wine!

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  2. Love CAH! Also, on around the same episode of HoC. I am not a very political person at all (meaning I have my thoughts/opinions but don't share them publicly) but I LOVE that show.

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  3. Wait.... hold it!! You can hold a plank for 15 MINUTES?!?!? Wow, super impressive. I'm still working on 3! Based upon your barre love, I've been going to a class near me. My legs shake during the workout (at the end of the exercises) but I'm never sore the next day. How can that be? Maybe my class isn't intense enough. Are there good online classes or dvds you recommend? There is only the one class near me...and it's not an official Pure Barre or Barre Method class or anythting. Not a lot of options :(

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    1. The stretching along the way in class (assuming yours does that) definitely helps with soreness, and you're a runner, so you likely have a lot of leg strength to start with, but I'm a little surprised you aren't sore in some of the supporting muscles or hips or anywhere.

      My class is a little different- I work in more cardio, tons of core work and planking mixed throughout, and more hip work. As far as home options go, Tracey Mallett's Booty Barre videos are very good as are the Xtend barre videos.

      (And to clarify, I have never actually held a plank for 15 minutes without moving, but I have a plank series with different plank variations- side plank, mountain climber, dolphin plank, etc. that I once ran through for 60 seconds each position just to see if I could and finally collapsed at 15 minutes :). Barre has worked miracles for my core!)

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    2. Your class sounds perfect. I wish I could take it!! Maybe you should start your own series of work out videos ;)
      The only time I was sore was after my first class. But only in the arms asa result of the weighted arm work.

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    3. Hmmm, well it is completely possible your super strong runner's legs just mean you aren't that sore, but they really should at some point be hitting some of those small supporting muscles that aren't used to getting worked and usually complain about it. The stretching certainly helps though!

      And funny enough, my law school friends have been joking about a series of web videos. Maybe some short series covering things like glutes, hips, calves, etc. It would be super fun- I just need some empty studio time, a videographer, and someone more patient than I working with videos!

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  4. Oh that's a really good point. When I started I hadn't worked out in 10 years so I was uniformly weak all over :).

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