of sundays and the keeping of resolutions

Oh Sunday. The most bittersweet day of the week. It’s still a weekend, and yet, the weekend is almost over. A Sunday following an impromptu 3-day weekend is even worse. The week ahead always feels somewhat daunting, and after sleeping in with no alarms, having set that 5:15am wakeup is extra painful.

Can we all just narrow our eyes in my boyfriend’s general direction – because he has ANOTHER snow day tomorrow!!! Most of the areas south of Boston seem to be adding another day of closed buildings and offices, where all of us north of the city folk will be getting up and driving to work. I suppose I shouldn’t be greedy and just be grateful for the one snow day we did get (on a Friday nonetheless) but who wouldn’t want just one extra morning of sleep?

Le sigh.

In other news, we finished Season 2 of Homeland last night. Consequently, this is me now:

Why aren’t there more?! Why do I have to wait until September?! Gaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhh!!!!

I suppose I should redirect my focus to the new episodes of The Walking Dead and Smash this month. And at least I won’t have as many weird nightmares about being sent to the Middle East on an undercover operation (which is what many post-Homeland sleeping patterns have produced.)

Now that the snowstorm is over, we were able to dig our cars out and venture to the outside world. Although, if I’m being honest, Boyfriend did most of the digging. Okay, all of the digging. I provided moral support though!

In an attempt of productivity and starting the week off right, we braved the grocery store, armed with a list of course.

I was surprised to find that the grocery store wasn’t all that crowded. I’d thought we’d experience a mob of people for sure.

To continue my smoothie / protein shake kick, I decided to try the fruit/protein blend by Silk that I’ve always noticed on the shelves when reaching for my usual red carton of soy milk.

This stuff is SO good! I can’t believe I didn’t try it sooner. It’s a good texture for protein shakes because it is on the thicker side, and it’s really flavorful.

I used it in a smoothie that I made this afternoon for lunch:

In the mix:

• 1 1/2 cups fruit & protein blend
• 1 tbsp vanilla protein powder
• handful of ice
• 1/2 cup sliced frozen peaches
• 1/2 cup mixed frozen berries

So good! I love how filling & satisfying a smoothie can be without feeling like you’ve consumed “a lot”.

In other news, I wanted to share that I’ve actually followed up on one of my New Years Resolutions from this year. In a previous post, I talked about getting a vocal coach and singing more. I’m happy to say that I did this! I’ve been taking lessons every Thursday evening, and it feels really good to do something for myself, to work on something that I am passionate about.

I’ve been slowly working through my huge “audition binder” that I used to lug around in a tote bag in NYC. My voice teacher is great because she’s really helping me strengthen the lower range of my voice, which is something I always thought I wasn’t so good at. As a soprano, I used to shy away from songs that required a strong lower register, but now I feel much more confident with the entirety of my range. I’m a musical theatre girl at heart, so having this in my weekly routine makes me feel more in touch with myself, and just happier in general.

Reader Question(s): What makes you feel like “you”? What do you wish you did more of?