Birthday Fabulosity

I have the most awesome and caring friends & family! J

I was offline all of Friday and Saturday, then panicked today seeing that my inbox was wellllll over the 200 messages - way more than my usual weekend load.

The majority was all birthday wishes!!

So, despite waking up with nasty asthma issues today (heat and humidity spike), once I got to email, I was feeling as happy as I was on my birthday and on Saturday.

For those of you who want to know how all of your positive energy was put to good use, here's how my days went:

My friend, Aimee Weinstein, let me go to bed early by covering my Foodie Friday blogpost! Here are 2 pix she sent me while she was making her Shrimp Parmagiana for her hubby-of-awesome:


Apology: Those are the only pix I have to share. I was too busy with everything to stop and remember to take pictures.

Friday started with the usual chiropractor appt. that Scott and I go to. (Writers, a good chiropractor is golden - especially since we spend so much time on our butts!) Since our chiro is already westbound from our house, I just headed right to my mother's place (where I grew up), in Springfield. Now, breakfast was great, but the strange and interesting thing is I agreed to go through some of the crap that was still in my attic bedroom that my mom (very kindly) has continued to hold onto for me since "I have no room in my house" or "I don't wanna go through old stuff now and then have to cart it home and find places for it!"

I was actually in the mood to do it this time, for some strange reason (Note: No, it's still not carefully put away in my current house.). So, besides reliving most of my pre-teens and teens via my EXTENSIVE (read as: I could open a friggen store) collection of costume jewelry. In addition to the jewelry and craft items I didn't bring to the house because I have craftier and even-more-artistically-inclined friends to whom I gifted some really cool stuff that I just don't have time to play with, I found even more of my art. More comic book creations (HOW did I forget how much I loved comics and comic art?) and some pretty cool still-lifes that I'd drawn in classes I took.

Lesson: I need to make time for my art. Maybe not all the extensive crafts I did when I was younger - but it's a part of my creative self I need to honor.

In fact - thought! - I found some beautiful cameo lockets that would look fabulous in steam-punk inspired necklaces. I asked Renée, Sean and Stef - the professional artists - if they could design necklaces for me… but, why couldn't I do it on one of my next visits to the glass studio? It doesn't have to be a long commitment to regular beading, but it would honor that part of me that needs to create beyond the keyboard.

:D See - even personal blog posts can be a discovery method if you're willing to listen to yourself! :D

Besides my stroll down pleasant memory lane with my mom and thinking creatively outside of words, I indulged in a long afternoon nap, and then went out to dinner with the husband-of-awesome (at a restaurant I also get paid to review - so, damnit, it was productive, too!). Dinner was fabulous. We came home to drop off some stuff (because the carload of "stuff" isn't something you want to park in Worcester), and then condensed ourselves to just one car (Yay! I didn't have to drive anymore!), and headed off to Sweet!, a great dessert-only café with fancy drinks and fancy coffees. I ordered a chef's selection.

The cheese cake was good, the fancy bread pudding was delicious, the bites of the spicy hot-chocolate sundae Scott had were great, coffee was most excellent!

But:

Croissant Donuts. Filled with Peanut Butter. Deep Fried. Sugar Coated. With Chocolate Sauce.

-Let's pause a moment in deep, meditative appreciation.-

Where was I? Oh - yeah. Fabulous birthday!

My Beltaine (May 1st), was also exceptionally great. We spent it in CT and it included grilling, more jewelry perusal, and another 2-hours of killer psycho-tennis that exercised our laughter muscles as much as anything else.

(For those unfamiliar with psycho-tennis, it's basically try and keep the ball moving and can include up to 6 people in the same game while equally trash-talking and supporting each others' fragile egos… while trying not to soil ones panties due to extreme laughter and horrible, horrible puns about balls.)

So, the moral/purpose to this post? Besides hopefully entertaining some of you … Don't forget to enjoy life. I have more writing fodder, more energy, and more overall jubilation from being disconnected from my e-life for those days. Also, though I didn't get to read all of your wonderful messages on my actual birthday - they manifested anyway. :D

Thank you - and spread the love!