how time flies - Kayla in the City

It’s already week 5 of camp, y’all? HOW IS THAT POSSIBLE. More than halfway through the camp season and I’m still learning staff members names….

When this summer began I started referring to it as “the last summer of childhood”. yes, I am 22, and the last summer of childhood should have happened approximately 4 years ago, but I am dead serious about this concept. It is the last summer quite possibly in my life that I will have a true summer. As much as I would secretly love to work at camps for the rest of my life, I sadly have the enter the real world of full time work for minimum wage and with no summer vacation.

While I am the least reckless, rebellious, exciting person ever, it is necessary to push myself outside my comfort zone and do things a bit on the wild side. There is a totally valid point to YOLO: you do in fact only live once, so why always play is so safe?

It all began with this

seeing the dark knight rises at midnight in the middle of a work week? Eh, not the brightest. But I can only be irresponsible and reckless for so much longer…

The midnight showing was brought to you by CAFFEINE

unfortunately starbucks in suburbia closes around 9PM, so I had to actually make coffee. Lemme tell you, this cup of coffee was absolutely necessary. Even so, I still managed to fall asleep during the movie. Multiple times. Talking about the movie with my friends feels like recapping a party I blacked out during. I kept going “WAIT, THAT HAPPENED?” So let this be a lesson to you all, don’t work a full camp day and expect to stay up for a 3 hour movie at midnight.

Thanks to the midnight showing I didn’t make it home til 3:30AM. Silly me ambitiously set the alarm for 6AM thinking I would actually be functional for bootcamp. LOLZ. I am a believer in no excuses when it comes to working out, however the exception to the rule is exhaustion. It is more important to listen to my body and what it needed. 6AM bootcamp would have been a silly mistake.

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post midnight showing was a full day of camp followed by a lovely weekend in the city with the boy.

the jam packed mini-vacation began with seeing Fela on Broadway. 2 years ago I saw the original broadway production and loved the energetic, emotional story of african musician Fela Kuti . This production is technically the tour making a pit stop on broadway for a few weeks. The touring production definitely matches the powerful original version.

Saturday was spent loving the beautiful weather in central park.

a bonus for the weekend was getting to see my very good friend Jenna on her 22nd birthday. We have a long history of spending summers together both at day camp and sleep away camp.

Saturday night was another broadway show, Bring it On the musical! I’ve been anxiously waiting to see this musical for over 2 years now! Back when I was 10 I was obsessed and watched the movie every single day on pay per view. An added bonus is that the creative team who wrote and directed the musical are some of my favorite broadway people EVER. It’s like they put together my dream team to create Bring it On. The musical does not follow the same story line as the movie, but has a similar style. I think people who like the movie will also enjoy the humor of the musical. I was thoroughly impressed with the musical especially the crazy cheerleading stunts. My hero Lin Manuel Miranda was also sitting in the row in front of me taking notes– made the whole theater experience even more magical.

Being in Manhattan also means being surrounded by delicious food all weekend long. The boy and I made sure to hit up as many of our favorite places as we could cram into the weekend. I also discovered a new favorite dessert place

meet STOGO, my new dairy-free obsession. Being an ice cream addict, but currently dairy-free I’ve been crying a bit missing my favorite frozen treat. Only a few blocks away from my apartment is STOGO, the greatest thing ever. I chose the coconut based chocolate chip vanilla and soy based salted caramel pecan. Both were good, but the vanilla was a bit bland after the outrageously awesome taste of the caramel. The boy refused to try it since it was dairy free and he thought it was weird. More ice cream for me 🙂

and what would a trip into the city be without a class at Yoga Vida! My body was crying for a yoga class, since I’ve been a bad bad yogi and haven’t gone to class since the first day of camp 4 weeks ago. oooh it felt so good to have a sweaty vinyasa class. I miss it so much. It is amazing what the body doesn’t forgot– the wise corrections and words of all my various yoga teachers and the things I realized when I did 21 yoga classes in 22 days only a mere 2 months ago.

there is nothing more lovely than walking in union square after a delightful yoga class with a soy chai latte

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returning to the city briefly makes me realize how much I miss it and how that island has become my home. the second I opened the door to my apartment I felt a sense of being home that I don’t think I will ever feel in suburbia

as much as I would have loved to stay in the city, it was time to back to my other home, my parents home.

after being on a workout break, it was time to kick my own ass again when I got back to the ‘burbs.

ugh, a dreaded 25 minute run.

but the weather was lovely at my old high schools track, a nice breezy evening

and I made a killer playlist of green day, katy perry and ska tunes to keep me moving.

So I kept on running

for 25 minutes.

the longest I have ever run without stopping in my entire life.

and really, it wasn’t so bad! Okay, maybe it was a bit rough during it at times, but it was all about not stopping. Knowing that I could do it even I wanted to stop because it was difficult. It didn’t matter how fast I ran, just that I was running for the full 25 minutes. And it was a bit glorious to know I accomplished something– something I have never done before. After feeling so brought down by my injury for the past few months, this feeling of accomplishment is even more rewarding..