A Wicked Weekend and More ;)

Apologies for the long delay between posts................just wanted to to be able to blog about my Sunday plans :)


So some favorites and myself bought tix way back in February (?) for Wicked at Kennedy Center for Sunday night.  And WOW, the show was great!!!!  I have to give kudos to the 2 great voices that played the Good Witch and the Wicked Witch.  These girls had an amazing set of pipes and their talents were very complementary in the show.


I had read the book back way back when in college, and I thought it was pretty good.  I was not a fan of the writing style of Gregory Maguire.  But the show was wayyyyy better than the book for me.  To say the least, I sort of felt mesmerized/enraptured by all the lights and effects and costumes!  Oh my gosh, the costumes were top-notch.  Oh (Ga)Linda!  Your dress was soooo sparkly!  If I had been able to take photos to share with you, I would've.........but truly, it felt very much like movie magic in that theater.  The quips were funny, the set transitions were seamless, and the story never stalled or was slow.  So those few hours in my seat were never really felt.  I guess that's the benefit of seeing a long-running show - it ends up playing out like clockwork.


As Beau and I had discussed after the show, we miss, somewhat, the days when actors took the stage with no mikes - like um, when we all were doing musicals back in high school.  There's some element of respect for talent when you can belt it to the back of the theater without any help.  And on a side note, we miss the days when everyone used to come to the theater in full formal dress.  Maybe it's because we don't get to go to these things very often, or maybe we're just old-school and ok... maybe overdressed, but I was in a dress and he was in a suit and boy was it nice to look nice (not that we don't otherwise)!


Anyhow, overall, I recommend YES, GO see Wicked if it ever becomes available to you!  It's absolutely entertaining and worth it's price.  And while I wouldn't go buy the soundtrack, the music goes with the story without feigning that old-Broadway vibrato but embracing some more modern melody. So take your mans too, he will likey!


Ok, and on a last but totally fun and important note, come FLASHMOB with me!!!!  Well, if you're in New York that is.....................Dhoonya Dance (the Bollywood dance company I teach with) is hosting its first flashmob in NYC on July 30th at Washington Square Park.  Here are the important deets:


Watch these videos to learn the routine and join us at Washington Square Park on July 30th! We will also be teaching the routine(s) in our classes over the next 2 weeks so definitely follow our facebook page (http://www.facebook.com/dhoonyadance) for more info on these classes.


Full Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D-9CbxHJSUA
Tutorial 1 (Sheila ki Jawani breakdown): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p8ydEq2U72Y
Tutorial 2 (I Hate You (Like I Love You)): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wSbOY8ZlJZ8

DETAILS
Email us at flashmob@dhoonyadance.com to get onto the listserv to receive all relevant information for the FlashMob!Location: Washington Square Park
Arrival Time: 6pm
Flash Mob Performance Time: 6:30pm
Dress: Anything bright and colorful--feel free to wear your Dhoonya tee if you have one!


Dhoonya Instructors will start the dance, all other participants will join in at the first Sheila chorus OR can choose to only perform I Hate You (Like I Love You).

Hope to see you guys there!

Ready, Aim, Fire!

I promised to post about my first experience at a shooting range so, here goes!

First of all, it was SO COOL.  I'm not gonna lie, I channeled my inner Tomb Raider (ack, sort of hate myself for the Jolie reference cuz I no likey her but...).  We went for my beba's birthday. He, myself, and his buddy Jason headed to a local gun range in Harford County MD.  Jason is the stuff of movies - ridiculously skilled in military expertise and an amazing shot.  Guess that's a given when you're in Special Forces ;)

Anyhow, he's trained Beau before so he ran various shooting drills with Beau and kept to the basics with me.  I didn't have any expectations going in, but my first impressions of the place itself were Hey, this is a small, stark place.  I'm talking very minimally decorated with just white, concrete walls and the shooting area itself is just like open stalls with a small chest-high tabletop to rest your gear on.

As Jason comes fully equipped, we didn't have to rent guns/ammo/etc.  So it was kinda cool to use top-grade stuff!  He brought three 9mm guns for us to shoot and something like 600 rounds of ammo.  I think we went through a little more than half of the ammo.  Anyhow, safety gear was just foam earplugs, earphones (from the place), and nifty Oakley eye protectors. 


With all that jonk on my ears, the actual sound of firing shots was not all that bad, and you sort of just tune it out after a while anyway.  Well, Jason very dutifully showed me the ropes of handling each gun including the switches to release the mag, turning the safety on and off, and hand placement on the actual gun.  Turns out, having little hands makes things a little tough and dang it, having nails makes it a little tougher.  Stuff on tv makes this jonk seem like it's just point and shoot, but there's definitely a certain amount of familiarity that needs to be in place in shooting a gun that I never thought about.  Thank goodness I was with a professional!  It wasn't until my 3rd or 4th handling of a gun to feel comfortable with all the switches and checks.  On a side note, did you know that you have to manually load the bullets into a mag???!!!


I anticipated having to fight the 'kickback' feeling, but it turns out that some good coaching can help overcome all of that.  It wasn't all that much to fight honestly.  I think maybe so because it was a handgun-sized weapon and not a rifle.  And I learned that each type of gun has its own feel and finesse in how you shoot anyway.  We shot 3 different kinds: the Glock, the Beretta, and the Sig (um, you google the differences, clearly I'm no expert).


Turns out I liked the feel of the "international legend" Beretta (seen on a book at the range) but had the best aim with the Glock.  The Glock was lightest and you didn't have to worry about a safety.  Go figure, I shot best with the most efficient gun, hhahahhaha.  Anyhow, I'm a pretty good shot!  Jason taught me some trigger control so I was able to shoot in almost the same place in multiple shots over practice.  AND it turns out that most guns have a heavier/more forceful 1st shot and lighter/easier 2nd shot, who freakin' knew?


My arms felt like they had a workout after all that shooting, though probably I was tensing quite a bit more than a regular shooter.  But to be fair, some upper body strength is to your advantage to be able to absorb that reverse impact from a shot.  And apparently, my aim became better with each round, yay!  I even kept the bullet casing from my best shot which was basically a bullseye (thanks for catching beba!).  I also found myself having to stop, adjust my grip, refocus, and relax with most shots.  There's a lot less glamour and a lot more serenity to shooting than I thought there would be.  Going in with a healthy respect for guns is just good smarts people.


So the 4 universal rules of shooting that I learned:


1.  Treat a gun as though it's always loaded even when it isn't.
2.  Never point the barrel at anything you're not willing to destroy.
3.  Keep your finger off the trigger until you're going to shoot.
4.  Know your target AND what's behind it!

Being me, and competitive as I can be, I of course asked Jason how I fared in comparison to other first-timers he's worked with.  And he said that in general, women tend to be better first-timers (more patience, no attitude/ego).  He said I took direction well and followed all the rules above.  So yay, I'm happy to say I was not a complete cluster*&%$ at this.


All in all, this was a really fun experience and I would love to go again and attempt to improve my skills and try out other guns - especially a big ole shotgun!  Special thanks to Jason for taking us out and being such a patient and knowledgeable instructor.


Here we all are, Jason all the way to the right, and me and Beau on the left. 

Oh! And here's my best shot's casing!!!!!

Shop Til You Drop....Good Thing I'm Sitting Down

Ok, so having already mentioned that I'm very much an online shopper, it's only fair to share with you possibly my most favorite site to peruse and buy.  Working in a cubicle all day and spending time with my favorites when I'm free leaves little time to actually go to a store anymore.  And to be honest, I've come to have a much shorter attention span in shopping - maybe because my job has slowly killed my memory abilities and maybe because I've just developed a more discernible eye on what I like and what suits my frame.

Whatever the case, I've discovered that there are some things to always take into consideration before clicking that 'Add to Cart' button:

• Price (duh).  But more importantly, shipping and return fees, if any.  There's too many sites out there to not be able to find free shipping somewhere. But let's face it, sometimes you find a one-of-a-kind item that steals your heart, so the shipping is negligible.
• Fit.  Look folks, if you haven't taken the time to be real about what your measurements are, your hunt online is a waste of time.  Grab a tape measure and know your numbers, regardless of what they are.  You'll save a lot of time and money buying the right size upfront.  Those size charts are there for a reason!  Put them to good use.  And ignore what category you fall into, S/M/L or whatever. Those fits are ARBITRARY and tailored to a given brand.  That's why knowing your numbers is important.
• Material.  Numbers will only get you so far.  You have to do a little in-person research to understand how different fabrics fit your body (that means go get in a dressing room every once in a while).  For me, I'm super conscious about the material because it will define how much stretch (usually seen as the percentage of spandex!) is in an item.  I'm a curvy girl, so a chiffon bust measured at 39" is going to be a tighter fit than one in jersey knit.

Ok, so what's the site I pore over?  This one!  They offer free shipping (both ways!) to the US and because it's a UK-based company, always have the most breadth of cuts, styles, and patterns.  Oh, and their Sale section has great prices on adorable looks.  I love having things in the closet that aren't being worn by half of DC already.  Here are some darling items I'd love to have (photos courtesy of their site):

Love the versatility of day/night options with this fun print -

There's something about these palazzo pants that take out that intimidating factor - 

And a yummy caramel color cincher with a nifty clasp -

And to show you the darling outfit purchased for this past New Year's, here's where I channeled by inner Beyonce:

Special thanks to my handy Beau for sewing the sleeve up for me the day of the party since it was long ;)

For help finding other sites to shop at, or just for a quick and dirty search for whatever you're hunting for, visit ShopStyle.  You can filter your search results down by size, color, price, and more!

Stay tuned for another post today about my first ever trip to the Gun Range over the weekend.....woot!

Welcome! I've finally given in.

Well, after much internal debate over just how lazy I can be versus how much I want to share with the universe, and much encouragement from friends to just do it as I apparently have a knack for writing as I speak, I've finally started my own blog!

The hardest thing about starting a blog (well, so far as I've found) is figuring out the scope of your posts' content.....I mean, I'm interested in such a variety of things!  So, inevitably, this site will encompass not only personal rants and cathartic musings, but also recommendations on products, places, and people.  Because one thing you'll discover soon enough is that I am a LOYALIST!  

To kick things off, I bring you a product recommendation I've been using for the past year and that has changed my skin:

Buf-Puf Body Sponge 

It doesn't appear to be in stores (anymore, booooo), but I LOVE online shopping so buying in bulk as a pack of 6 for a great price works out just fine for me.  This body buffer is 2-sided, one gentle scrub and the other a little rougher, and has replaced the loufah and exfoliating gloves.  Those small little bumps that I could never get rid of on the back of my forearms and tops of my thighs significantly reduced after using this for just a few days.  I've also noticed a much closer shave and the built-in exfoliation keeps ingrowns at a minimum to boot.  I can usually stretch one of these suckers for about a month's use before opening up a new one. 

My best pairing for a daily body clean:  Buf-Puf + Dial Antimicrobial Body Wash w/Exfoliating Beads. 

Happy Sunday all!