Weekend Recap: From Workouts to Wine

This weekend started pretty rough. As I wrote about on Saturday, my grandmother in Poland passed away on Wednesday. It was something we were expecting, but the news was nonetheless sad. Furthermore, that left my family trying to figure out how to book last minute flights to Warsaw for the funeral. In the end, we decided to send my dad to represent our American branch of the family, and my brothers and I will go visit in a few months when we can spend more quality time with our family there. It wasn’t an easy decision, at all, but I think it was the right one.

Meanwhile, my townhouse in New York had something go wrong with the furnace, which caused not just one but every single pipe in the house to freeze… and then burst. Everywhere. I am fortunate to have an amazing contractor in New York that I trust completely, and he was on the scene immediately and sending videos over to me of the damage.

At first, the magnitude of it didn’t sink in… but by Friday, I was freaking out. It didn’t help that the insurance company was unable to send someone over all weekend to inspect the damage, and my contractor was supposed to not do much cleanup until that had happened. The house was already in terrible enough shape, and I didn’t want it to get worse! 🙁 Friday was a pretty packed day for me at work, but that was made even more crazy by needing to make all kinds of personal calls in between meetings, trying to sort it all out. By 6pm, I was ready to just take a break, so I unwound that night with a yoga/bootcamp class through FitBit Local, and then rounded out my night with a game night at my friend Cindy’s house.

I thought my weekend was going to be pretty calm, but Saturday I woke up needing to make more calls about the townhouse. By 9am, I had already cried twice with the stress of it all, so I was really glad to be on my way to the trails. Amanda and I had a date to run/walk around Table Mountain, and with how overwrought I was feeling, I begged for a low-key walk. We had a great time taking in the views and fresh air as we caught up on life, and I felt a lot better when I was done.

But if some trail time is good, more trail time is better, right? On my way home, I stopped at Flatirons Vista trailhead for a quick 3.5 mile run around the trails there. That was incredibly restorative, and I posted this pic on Instagram / Facebook, along with a caption about how it had calmed me down from the townhouse stress.

Well, that turned out to be one of the best things I did all weekend – because the response on Facebook was overwhelming! So many people commented how sorry they were to hear about the townhouse, and private messaged me words of encouragement as well. When things suck, it’s really amazing to hear from the many people I’ve met in many places, and it felt so comforting to know that so many people were wishing me well. This reminded me that the townhouse / money is really not all that important, and how lucky I am to have so many friends all over the world.

But to keep the stress at bay anyway, I headed up to Boulder for a free Core Power Sculpt class. There was a class of teachers in training who were “graduating”, and they jointly taught the class – which meant lots of hands-on corrections. I wouldn’t say that the Sculpt class is truly yoga, but it kept me distracted from worrying – so that was zen enough for me 🙂 Post-class, I met up with a friend for afternoon coffee, and then headed home to get ready for a night out.

My Saturday night plan was to check out the live music at Por Wine House in Louisville. Por is a fabulous low-key local wine bar, and on Saturdays, all their bottles are half off. Score!

Well, with all the stress of the week, I ended up really enjoying the wine… as well as some subsequent cocktails afterward at one of my other favorite Louisville spots, Empire Lounge. It was a good thing I had Ubered instead of driving! Haha. But I think that kind of night out was exactly what I needed this weekend.

After all the wine, and all the running around on Saturday, Sunday was decidedly low-key. I started with some lazing around watching Top Chef – I haven’t seen that in years! I heard the new season is all about Colorado, and I thought that’s what I was going to be watching, till I realized Hulu doesn’t have the latest season yet. Oh, well – Charleston is still interesting, and Southern comfort food is my favorite (and makes my mouth water in anticipation). Bring on the biscuits!

Then, it was onto several hours of miscellaneous chores around the house – not really fun, but totally necessary. And in the afternoon, coffee and catchup with my friend Mike at Hunter Bay Roasters, a new-to-me spot in Old Town Arvada, which had yummy homemade syrups. I got the lavender syrup in my decaf and wasn’t disappointed!

Mike and I hadn’t seen each other in a while, and we ended up chatting for several hours. That meant that I missed the daylight to hit the trails keep up my run streak… but I was still able to knock out the requisite on my treadmill once I got home. I’m pretty proud of myself that I’m halfway through the month and haven’t missed a day yet, even with the two mile minimum requirement rather than the standard one.

All in all, the weekend ended much better than it started. 2018 hasn’t had a very auspicious start so far, and there were times when this weekend felt more like “surviving” than “thriving.” But, I found that working out was a great way to distract myself from my problems… and the wine was welcome too.

I started today by booking a trip to Vermont with my brothers and dad for some quality time once my dad gets back from Warsaw. And on my layover in Charlotte, I talked to my contractor and started to feel like that will soon be under control as well. The combo of those two things plus me getting a ton of work done on my commute has made me feel like I’m actually in a decent place to start the week? I hope so!