Jump Back Ball 2014

This past Saturday, Nick and I joined our friends for our 4th Jump Back Ball in a row. If you recall, the tickets for this event sold out astonishingly fast-- in less than two weeks!!! I'm not sure, but if I were to guess, the appeal of the James Bond theme was just too much to resist.

As I've done with most special events lately, I started out my afternoon with an appointment with Carolina at Tease. Carolina totally gets me-- I take her a bunch of seemingly disparate pictures and she always turns them into a style I adore!! This time I gave her the extra challenge of saying I didn't want a whole lot of pins, and she LITERALLY SEWED MY HAIR INTO PLACE. It didn't' move all night, or even the next day (as you will see in the pictures that follow).

To start off the night, Nick and I took a cab (why don't we have uber?!) to Cowell and Hubbard to grab and early dinner.

My handsome date looking very bond-esque. 

The beginning of the end….

After dinner, we convened to Lisa and Kelly's room for some mingling and bubbs….

Sean and Matt looking dapper as always!

Our lovely hostesses both beautiful in gorgeous beaded dresses.

We headed over to Playhouse Square shortly after 8 pm to join in the festivities. I didn't really do a great job taking pictures (at this point I had consumed a martini, and a couple of glasses of bubbs) but my dress is a fuchsia chiffon J.Crew (other colors available on sale here), and I accessorized with earrings I wore on my wedding day, and this stunning Stella and Dot bracelet.

There was a lot of dancing, and drinking, and at some point I confiscated Donna's Pharrell hat cutout (I apologized on Sunday), but I was having a ridiculously fun time

Above: Allison and Kelly

Below: Allison mid-squeal

And then towards the end of the night, things started to get blurry and Nick and I (and my aching feet) cabbed it back home :)

I wish I could tell you about the bands or the food, but I was honestly having so much fun with friends, that I wasn't really paying attention to details. However, if you are interested in those details, you should read Kimberly's blog post. 

The next morning, I woke up none-too-worse for wear, and promptly headed to a Jump Back debrief brunch wearing my hair unaltered from the previous night. See, I told you it held up pretty well?!

Overall, another fun Jump Back Ball (possibly my most favorite one so far!) Sean has a fabulous idea for a theme next year, and I really really really hope the committee uses it!!

Disclosure: I was an official blogger for Jump Back Ball and received one free ticket to the event. As always, all opinions are 100% my own! 

Don't Be a Square...

2014 has been an incredibly exciting year for me so far: if you follow me on twitter, then you know that this is my last week doing my day job for a while. Starting Monday, I'm taking a six month sabbatical from my normal work to help run the intern program for my employer. I cannot even describe how  excited I am to have to this opportunity-- its going to be a complete 180 from what I'm doing now, and an incredible way to develop some new skills! 

But if you thought that was the only change I've had this year, then you would be wrong. In early February, I joined the Board of the very newly founded Young Professionals group of The Cleveland Orchestra- The Circle. 

The premise of The Circle is very simple: For $15/month ($20 for 2 people), your membership includes tickets to 6 concerts a year (one every other month). On the non-concert months, you will have a unique opportunity to network or volunteer and generally get to know other young professionals in the area. While the 6 concerts a year are intriguing and appealing on their own, its the non-concert months that offer a really unique experience.

February was a non-concert month, and our unique experience was a behind-the-scenes look at the upcoming presentation of the opera The Cunning Little Vixen. Yeah, you read that right--- THE OPERA IS BEING PRESENTED IN CLEVELAND IN MAY!!! The evening began with a short discussion led my Mark Williams, Director of Artistic Planning at the Orchestra. Mark told the story of how one night at a bar, he and director Yval Sharon  came up with the idea to bring The Cunning Little Vixen to Cleveland. Performed in Czech, The Cunning Little Vixen is a challenging, yet quick (only 90 minutes!) piece, the examines the transience of nature. 

Mark Williams (far right), Yval Sharon (immediately to his left) and the rest of The Cunning Little Vixen conceptual team. 

Then came an interesting piece of news--- this will not be a typical operatic presentation-- this one will be a multimedia presentation featuring live music and singing, video AND animation!! And THEN we got a peek of what that would look like, and I pretty much died and went to heaven.

Here are some screen shots from the presentation. The pictures don't really do it justice, but the best way I can describe it is this: the end result with have live performers of course, but the set itself will be animated and presented across three massive video screens, creating a panoramic video. The animation is a combination of digital animation and hand-drawing, creating a semi-3D experience. Its sorta like 80s Saturday morning cartoons + Pixar + live musical. And yes, there will be subtitles. 

The presentation and sneak peek was then following by drinks + snacks, and an opportunity to actually meet and talk to the director, animators and artists, who are incidentally really young, impossibly cool, interesting people. One of the artist/animators is actually going to have a show on adult swim in the next few months! I also spent some time chatting with some of the young musicians, who are incidentally all also members of The Circle and frequent its events! Who knew the Orchestra was this fun and approachable?!?!

Needless to say, I am SUPER excited to see this presentation live in May--- did I mention that TICKETS ARE INCLUDED WITH THE CIRCLE MEMBERSHIP?!?!?!? Some of the upcoming events include a Fridays@7 concert on March 7th, and a behind-the-scenes tour of Severance Hall on April 8th! Additional details on the upcoming events available here and while there's still work to be done on online membership, you can join (you can do a 6 month trial membership) The Circle by calling 216-231-1111. 

So if you're looking to experience something unique in Cleveland, or are looking to expand your current circle of friends and meet other interesting young professionals with similar interests, I hope you will consider joining The Circle. 

Disclosure: I am a paying member of The Circle. I am also a Board Member for The Circle. All opinions, as always, are 100% my own. 

Listening Now: Can't Remember to Forget You

I've been listening to a lot of Latin music lately, including a lot of latin pop. One of my newest favorites is this one featuring Shakira + Rihanna


ENJOY!

P.S. Shakira fans, her new album is out March 25th!

Weigh In and Brunching at Cleveland Museum of Art

So when I first posted my weight loss strategies, little did I know that dry January would be the hardest of all. Not surprising I guess, when one is invited to a FABULOUS Blogger Brunch at Provenance at the Cleveland Museum of Art, and such brunch features a heaping table of french pastries and lump crab quiche. Did I mention mimosas?

Lump Crab quiche

Brunch temptations not withstanding, this week I weighed in at 148.6 lbs, finally past the 150 lb barrier!!

Getting back to the brunch: a bunch of my friends (who also happen to be fellow bloggers) were invited to a spend a lovely afternoon at the Cleveland Museum of Art-- brunch was followed by a screening of Mademoiselle C, the oh-so-chic documentary featuring Carine Roitfeld and her foray into publishing her very own CR Fashion Book. 

If you're not familiar with Ms. Roitfeld, she is the former editor-in-chief of Vogue Paris, known for her oh-so-casually-perfect-smoky-eye, and unique "burgeois-slut" styling (P.S. I called dibs on using burgeois slut in my recap). Its a fascinating documentary-- a behind the scenes look at what it means to be one of the most respected women in fashion, similar to The September Issue, but different, because, well, Anna Wintour and Carine Roitfeld are very unique people! 

You can watch the first 5 minutes here….

 Documentary insights aside, it was also the first time I had watched a movie at the Cleveland Museum of Art; in fact, until yesterday, I had no idea that the Museum offers regular screenings of some very unique films! You may view the schedule of upcoming films here.  Spring is still a little while away, and an afternoon at the Museum really is the perfect prescription to the winter blues!! Hope I see you there!!!

Listening Now: Clean Bandit

I'm traveling today, but I didn't want to leave you without a new tune this week! This group is expected to explode in 2014, and judging by this song, I can see why!

Enjoy!

Hibernation

These super cold temps have had me hibernating. Although I have to say, I've used my hibernation wisely to catch up on must-see TV. As I mentioned in late November Nick and I had been watching Luther. Since then I've watched the following:

Orange is the New Black

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Ripper Street

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Da Vinci's Demons

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And of course we re-watched Sherlock in preparation for his return on PBS on January 19th!!

So what have you been doing during this crazy cold spell?

Listening Now: Jessie J

That Jessie J. Its hard not to love her. Last year, she shaved her head for charity, and has been rocking her new hair in such a feminine bad-ass manner! Not only that, but she has really catchy songs, including this new-ish one here.

Its not quite available on iTunes yet, but I remain hopeful….




LURVE HER!!