- Got 7 hours of sleep almost everyday!
- Had extended meaningful scripture study almost everyday (and shorter ones the other days)
- Exercised almost everyday
- Only ate one meal out (and it was less than $4 at Costco, which is kind of lame but a good break on my wallet)
Bonus: played piano twice this week!
Not as eventful of a week exploration-wise, but I felt so much better about myself.
This is what I ate everyday (cooked a huge batch on Sunday) for dinner - delicious, nutritious, and cheap!
I felt super out of shape at the beginning of the week, which is one of the worse feelings ever (along with regret, but I'll get to that later), so I started with a music video by Beyonce haha. It's called "Move Your Body" and she made it last year to support Michelle Obama's campaign to fight childhood obesity. It's really fun and a super good workout if you really throw yourself into it, which of course, I did :)
Tuesday, I wanted to do my Ballet Conditioning exercise video but I also wanted to watch The Bachelorette. My roommate suggested that I do both, so I did (I have a widescreen laptop). It required advanced level multi-tasking skills...
I learned something really interesting about my body this week, thanks to my roommate, Nina. I was made to wear heels. PROOF:
Since I moved to DC, I've been walking a LOT more, and my foot arches have been hurting really bad in the last 2 weeks. I tried wearing only flats, but it got so painful on Tuesday that I could barely walk. I was freaking out that maybe I had some kind of disease (there's a mild hypochondriac in me) and needed x-rays, but decided to ask Nina first, who's studying to become a Nurse Practitioner. She said my feet might have gotten weaker since moving here because I'm not dancing everyday (much to my mourning) and my feet have gotten weaker. She suggested that I wear heels again, which I did the next day...and voila! I was heeled (pun intended)!
I miss ballroom so bad, and my extremely sore calves after ballet proved how fast I can lose muscle tone/strength. I am on a new mission to get my dancer legs back.
To help with this, I bought a 4-class Zumba pass at the gym in my complex (I love where I live!) and went to my first class on Wednesday. I've done Zumba before but every instructor's style is very different. The class was held on the 12th floor (I live on the 2nd) partyroom, which I hadn't gone to before. The view was breathtaking. Crystal City has alot of other highrises like mine but I thought the coolest thing was being able to see the Pentagon from the balcony.
Excited to go back next week!
Thursday: break
Friday: 4 hours of dancing at The Salsa Room with Michael. It was epic. Yes, I wore my heels. No, weekly salsa will not be enough to get my dancer legs back...
Saturday: Ate pupusas for the 1st time! The Spanish family ward in the stake was having a fundraiser to raise money for youth camps, which I whole-heartedly support because I strongly believe in the development of our youth through recreation. And the food wasn't bad either.
4 dense corn tortillas filled with beans/cheese/pork with some thin tomato sauce and Latino coleslaw. Delicious. Very very filling.
Then I met up with Stephen to rent kayaks on the Potomac!!! This was another 1st time so I was super excited. There are several companies in front of Georgetown that rent kayaks/canoes. I was really bummed we couldn't take more pics because we had to put our stuff in a locker before getting in the kayak, so we were only able to take pics afterwards.
It was a beautiful day.
We rented a 2-person kayak for an hour and it was an adventure trying to coordinate our rows - not super successful but it was a great arm workout :D, not to mention SUPER FUN!
I kept trying to think of all the teamwork/life lesson metaphors that could come from kayaking...I think it should be a required activity for marriage/missionary preparation classes. Think about it.
More water adventures to come!!
Then we walked around Georgetown looking for cool refreshment. I'm always drawn to frozen yogurt places, so I tried a new one - Iceberry. Plain and taro flavors, no toppings. So refreshing!
We walked around Foggy Bottom a bit, my neck of the woods, but ultimately decided to ride the Metro back to Costco (by our apts) to save money on dinner haha. We calculated that frozen yogurt is 10 times cheaper in Costco than at other fro yo places, although the taste and texture is very different. Still, dinner was under $4. Don't remember the last time I ate a hot dog.
Afterwards, we took the Metro back to DC to see one of the free concerts of the DC Jazz Festival. It was at a fancy hotel called Mandarin Oriental along the southwest waterfront of DC. We were way under-dressed in shorts and t-shirts so we sat in the corner haha.
But OH! The music was wonderful. Another one of those euphoric experiences that makes my heart smile and my soul sing.
This is the email I wrote to the band leader, Julian Hipkins, afterwards:
Hello Mr. Hipkins!I hope it made his day like his concert made mine.
I had the grand pleasure of attending your concert at the Mandarin Oriental last night (June 9). I was the Asian girl in the right corner who spoke to you after your first show. I had missed all the other DC Jazz Festival concerts this week but I'm glad yours was the one I saw. You and your band were so remarkably smooth and in the groove, which I know comes from dedicated training and rehearing. I'm a jazz vocalist myself, and I was absolutely inspired by the way you milked and caressed every word and every note in each song you sang. You also had remarkable showmanship and are a great entertainer. My senses were delighted and my soul was elevated. Thank you for so generously sharing the talents God has given you to make people like me happy to be alive.
Keep on keepin' on...
Best wishes to you and your band,
Linda F.
Like I mentioned in the email, I didn't go to any other of the dozens of jazz concerts this week, and I was practically kicking myself for it after hearing Julian Hipkins' band. I had failed in following one of my most important personal life philosophies!
"I'd rather regret the things I have done than the things I have not." ~Lucille Ball
So I spent a couple hours tonight going through my DC Visitor's Guide, the Washington Post local page, and various other brochures & websites to find cool things I wanna do and put them in my phone calendar.
Live with no regrets.
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