Weekend Recap: Fitnesswear to Formal

This weekend had quite a few polar opposites as I went from fitness gear to formalwear… but getting to experience all sides of the spectrum is exactly how I like it!

My flight got in a bit early on Thursday, which allowed me to meet a friend at Twelve Degrees in Louisville for a quick drink to kick off my time at home. Twelve Degrees is one of my favorite breweries in Colorado, and it had been a while since I’d been there. They had some new-to-me brews on tap, but I stuck with a classic – Walter’s White. Twelve Degrees specializes in Belgian-style beers, many of which have a really high ABV, so Walter’s White was the safe choice for a night I didn’t want to indulge much. It was good that Thursday was relaxing, because Friday was a really busy day at work – and I felt like I didn’t get nearly enough accomplished! But I was able to wrap up late afternoon with hopes of having a work-free weekend (fingers crossed).

Friday night kicked off with something a little different – a studio shoot with a local photographer. I’ve been selected as the cover story for our neighborhood magazine, Rock Creek Living, and they’ll be doing a profile on me for their July issue. I’m pretty excited about the opportunity, even if I find it a little awkward to talk myself up and pose for all kinds of pictures! But the photographer did a great job putting me at ease for the indoor shoot, having me swap from one outfit to another and directing me in various poses. I saw a few shots over her shoulder at the very end of the session, and they looked good! Hopefully I’ll get some new fun headshots out of this as well 🙂 Next week, we’ll be going to the neighborhood trails to take some photos of me running with the mountains in the background, and I’m much more excited about those.

After the photo shoot, though, there was still more posing to do. On Saturday, I had plans to attend a charity gala, and when I dug through my closet for some of my favorite black-tie gowns, I discovered that they were all a little bit big. Not complaining about the weight loss, even if I do think it’s more a result of stress than discipline! After checking out a number of stores and not finding anything I liked in person, I ordered a dozen gowns online with two-day shipping, and had asked a few friends to come watch my “fashion show” and help me choose. By popular demand, I also posted pics of each gown to Instagram Stories, and that ended up being the most comments I’ve ever gotten on things posted!

After my friends left, I cleaned up some things around the house and then got ready for an early bedtime. Before the ball, I was headed to Vail for one more morning of skiing!

The drive to the mountains was relaxing – I always use it to catch up on phone calls and listen to podcasts. I hadn’t fully decided until I was driving whether to go to Beaver Creek (my favorite) or Vail (bigger but I don’t know it as well): however, after getting a slightly later start than planned, I decided to take the closer option and go to Vail. I was on the slopes by 9am and skied just till 11:45am, at which point a lot of the fresh snow had already been skied off and the day was getting chilly. But, I managed to ski 20,863 feet in that time! And I also made it out of the parking garage before being charged for a fourth hour, which was a win 😉 Then, it was time to hightail it home so I could get black tie ready.

When I got home, I was pretty tired, so I decided to take a power nap, like I had the week before after skiing. I am not a napper at all, but these past few weeks it’s felt necessary to get through the day! This time, I conked out quickly but woke up groggy – so not quite as good as the week before, but I was still glad I did it. I had a long night ahead!

I showered and did my hair and makeup, then planned to put my dress on just before calling the Uber to the event. However, when I went to slip into the dress, I realized a fatal flaw – I had totally forgotten that it needed to be hemmed quite a bit! There was no way to wear it as-is, so I quickly dashed over to my sewing machine to take up a good six inches. With stretchy fabric, even a simple hem isn’t an easy task, and I knew as I quickly ran through it a few times that I’d need to rip out all the stitches and redo it later… but it did the trick, and I didn’t trip all night long.

I ended up arriving at the event about twenty minutes later than planned, but that wasn’t an issue – we had all night. I was really pleasantly surprised how many of my neighbors were there. It was great to see everyone coming together to support a great cause!

I really didn’t know much about A Precious Child before attending, but I learned that they provide clothes for children in low-income families in our community. I was really touched by the program, and am looking forward to volunteering with them in the future.

But in the meantime – it was party time! I definitely had my share of white wine, which may have contributed to my overly generous donation at dinner… oops. But it all went to a great cause, and I had a blast with my friends in the photo booth and on the dance floor.

Sunday morning I woke up pretty tired from all the excitement, but threw on some running clothes and headed up to Lyons, where I had plans to hike with Amanda.

Amanda has been out of town due to some family crises, so our catch up was long overdue. And while I was initially regretting the fact that all the mountain resorts were closing and ski season was over, our hike helped remind me that I really had no reason to be bummed about springtime. It had been so long since I’d gone hiking that I had honestly forgotten how much I love it, but now I’m psyched for summer!

After returning home, I settled in for another Sunday afternoon at my computer. This time, though, it wasn’t to do actual work; it was just to knock out my taxes. Blech! I always have to file in a whole bunch of states (everywhere I travel), so the annual chore is never easy, but I was happy to knock them out in just a few hours. Good thing, since I had uncharacteristically waited all the way till the last minute to file!

This week: I knew it would be a rough one at work, but it was definitely made worse by my not working over the weekend. I’m still trying to find work-life balance, and think the solution is for me to start saying “no” to more things. Let’s see if I can put that into practice…