Happy Birthday to Me.

I'm winding down a weekend of celebrating my 32nd birthday. A little dinner, a lot of wine, good friends, good food, and a little time for reflection. I've been thinking a lot about balance -- a little of this to weigh in with a little of that. Around 5:30 a friend called to say she found herself with some free time and did I want to hang out a bit. I was just that minute sort of pacing around and wondering if I should get ready for bed and read for a bit or just pace around longer or maybe find someone who wanted to buy me dinner.
So we decided to leave that minute to go to a bar that was showing a television program that we both love to hate, or hate to love? I don't know. It was all very (uncharacteristically) spontaneous of me. We rushed off to the bar, struggled to find a seat, and waited for it to start. And we waited. And we waited. The show never started -- apparently they lost their satellite single. So we got to chat and have a birthday drink and I got to congratulate myself for going out to a bar on a school night and stay up past my bedtime even (and I did not get carded, by the way). And then I drove home and listened to smooth jazz. So you see? Balance.













Wine tasting in Napa on Saturday afternoon -- fabulous. Going to Chandon and standing 4-deep at the bar and deciding the wait wasn't worth it was not so fabulous. Dinner on Saturday night with a great group and great sushi was fantastic. Coming home and eating cheesecake and staying up so late I felt ill made me feel like I was laughing in the face of my many Birthdays. Even went to bed with my head spinning like I was in college. Got up too early on Sunday and Melis made a great brunch and we hung out on the couch and chatted for a while. Then we peeled ourselves off the couch and went down to the Sugar Mill for a little wine. I got a lovely bottle of pinot noir. Melis got a really good Zin that she's going to save for a special occasion.

I have good (and pretty) friends.
Ron and Christine:
A small group at that end of the table (when I went down to talk to them, I had to do a wall-sit and I was wearing boots with v. high heels -- it was a much better workout to talk to this end of the table than the other).

Brownwyn and KC:

Big ol' group of pretty people:Jen and Alison:Melis, Vanessa, and Jana:

Todd, Staci, Marcie:
Kris & Trish:


What's left:


Thanks everyone! I had a fabulous weekend of indulging. And it's nice to go back to my veggies and water. And I need a nap.

Learning new tricks -- and some sad news.

I spent all day Saturday in training for this fun to exercise program called Kinesis. The West Sacramento Rec center opens in ONE week and is going to offer it. I'm really excited -- and really sore! It's an awesome system -- a total-body workout in a 30 minute class. Here's a photo that sort of captures it.
The Rec Center looks great so far. Next Saturday is the ribbon-cutting, and it opens Monday the 26th for a FREE week and then Feb. 1 starts business as usual. The other instructors seem great (hi Darcy!) -- can't wait.

And for the sad news -- this will be my last week at 15th Street Fitness. I will miss teaching there and everyone in the classes (though I don't see so many 15th friends since they took the night classes away).

I hope to see some of you West Sac folks at the new Rec Center. Looks like it's going to be fun.







In about 6 days, I'm turning another year older. I have a line from Our Town in my head this week: "It goes so fast. We don't have time to look at one another."
Emily learned this only after she died though, so maybe my ruminations and rumblings this week are really just evidence that I'm ahead of the game.
I think I'd like to be seven again so birthdays are exciting and I can 'do whatever I want all day.' This was more exciting when I was 7 -- at this point in my life, I can pretty much do what I want all day anyway. Highlights then were choosing what we would have for dinner and getting to ride in the front seat all day. I'll have to think on what it is I want to do that would capture that excitement.

Backlog -- catch up from Post-New Year's visit.

I'm a little behind on posting. I have some photos from my visit with my sister and her family. And one little story.

We had a fun time -- and I got to spend a lot of one on one with my niece. We watched Peter Pan, we made gluten-free chocolate chip cookies (poor kid), we laughed, we cried. She's a pretty neat kid. Wicked smart. Her little brother poos a lot and wobbles around grabbing things. He knows a few things though: like if you ask him What does a doggie say?
He'll say: woof!
What does a Monkey say?
Ooo-oooo-ooo
What does a cow say?
Mooooooooo
What does a kitty say?
Meow!

Hey Dylan! Look!















COW!

Yeah. I guess when you teach a kid what the animals say, you need to use pictures (I admit that once he started calling my cat a cow, I kind of encouraged him a little).


He was more excited about the cat than he was about his Aunt, I tell you what.

Devyn's learning yoga in her gym class -- how cool is that? If you say "down dog" - both kids will go into the pose (sort of). I might not have the coolest kid-house ever, but there are some popular things around here that made it seem like I'm not the worst in the aunt department.


We got to go to Davis and visit the Farmer's Market --we had some hot chocolate, we bought some grapes, we tasted oranges, and , Devyn got to ride the merry go round (or is that a Carousel?).

Powered by Mrs. someoneorother's 6th Grade Class:







It's the sort of visit that makes me sad to live away from home where the kids are just growing up so fast. But then they left and I was kind of glad that my house was all back to normal and didn't smell like baby poo and cigarette smoke.

Ahh. . . family.

I'm old and broken

Oh dear. I've gone and hurt my back again. On Friday, I took a shower and stepped down in a fairly innocuous and routine way, and something tweaked in my back and suddenly I couldn't move. I made it to work (late) and made an appointment with my chiropractor for the afternoon, who told me to go home and ice, not go back to work.
By Saturday, I could walk around the lovely town of Auburn with a lovely friend, and enjoy the amazingly warm day. By Sunday, I could stretch a little bit and try to roll on the big ball for a while. Today . . . back to the chiropractor.

It was SEVENTY FOUR DEGREES in Sacramento today. And I couldn't bike. Bah.

With all the pilates and whatnot, I'm hoping this time it will heal right up. Maybe I'm just getting too old to do reckless things like take showers.