Birthday Update

So, my birthday was this past weekend. We won't go into my age as I don't feel that old, at least not today. I opted to celebrate in style...I did this by taking Friday, Monday, and Tuesday off work. Here is how I spent my time:

Friday:

• I slept in, well as late as Devil Dog would allow.
• After I got up and had some icecream for breakfast, I shooed DD out into the yard and went up to my studio and finished work on a growth chart quilt for my friend Angie's boychild. (I have pictures of this but have not gotten them off of the camera, so that will be posted at a later date.)
• I then got myself around and packed up to go visit Angie and her family.
• On my drive over to Angie's, I stopped at a liquor store to purchase a gift for her husband. Sadly, the town in which I live is dry, so I needed to figure out where to stop on my way. Thank goodness I can count on Sara for her quick research as she was able to direct me to which exit to take. However, the liquor store that I stopped in looked as if they were going out of business as their shelves were bare. I found this to be odd since it was Friday afternoon and I would think they would be fully stocked in preparation for the weekend (they did say the truck was on its way, but not in time for when I was there). I grabbed a bottle of Captain Morgan and went on my way.
• I had to return to my house as I forgot to pack my skydiving DVD, which was one of the primary things that I was supposed to bring with me.
• I eventually made it to Angie's house where we spent the afternoon/evening hanging out and visiting.

Saturday:

• We all got up and headed out to Scarborough Faire. Angie and Seamus, her husband, have season passes and do the full dress. Since they are full dress people, I too opted for the full dress for this visit. Here is a picture of me in costume. Okay, so not a full picture of me, but you get the idea:

 

• Great fun is always had when I'm out at a fair with these folks. Primarily we do lots of walking and people watching and just generally nothing, but it was great because we were out doors and enjoyed the fresh air.
• Once we were finished at the fair, we stopped at her folks' house for dinner and then headed back to their home where I spent the night.

Sunday:

• On this morning, we got up and hung out. Angie and I had some more really great conversation and visiting time.
• Around noonish I headed out to my sister's to meet up with the family to celebrate my birthday.
• While at my sister's we watched my skydiving video (good thing I went back for it) and looked at my niece's prom pictures (can't believe she is a Senior and graduating).
• Because I'm such a high maintenance person I required much work on my family's part for the meal.... Marti had to call Mama's Pizza and place the order and Chief had to drive there to pick it up.
• We also had cake and since it was my birthday unwrapping presents.
• Mid to late afternoon I headed down to my parents' house to spend the night down there. We sat out on their back patio for a while just enjoying the breeze and watching hummingbirds and butterflies. It is always so relaxing and enjoyable to just sit outside when over at Mom and Dad's. We also scanned through my London and Rome travel books and talked about things to do on my trip.

Monday:

• We, Mom, Dad, and I, slowly got ourselves around. We had a leisurely breakfast, after they sang "Happy Birthday" to me, and completed our crossword puzzles (oh yeah, I did the New York Times one almost completely on my own).
• We then headed down to Grandbury, TX to wander around the square for a bit and have a bite of lunch.
• I then headed back to my own home.
• Sara came over to celebrate my actual birthday dinner with me. She brought Double Dave's and bubbly for dinner. We topped it off with cupcakes that my dog walker made and left for me in the fridge.
• Sara and I also expanded our minds by watching two weeks worth of Biggest Loser.

Tuesday:

• To top off my 5 days of visiting, I decided to pamper myself.
• I started my day with cake for breakfast, I mean if I have it I might as well partake of it, right?
• I then went for an hour and a half massage.
• After the massage, I did a little shopping for things that I didn't really need, but I had a coupon and a gift certificate so heck why not go for it.
• I then went and got a new cut and color. I went for a really short style this time as I want to have very easy hair while on my trip. I don't have a picture, but will post one as soon as I do.
• I finished the vacation off with some mind numbing television watching and playing with DD.

All in all, I had a really great birthday weekend.

I'm Becoming My Grandmother

My mom's mom, Grandma V., introduced me to massages 14 years ago in Hot Springs, AR. Grandma always loved getting massages when she and Grandpa would go to Hot Springs, so even though Grandma was no longer able to go get one for herself, she insisted that my sister and I both go and be massaged. As I said, Marti, my sister, and I had never had massages before.

The place that we went to in Hot Springs was an old school "spa" with the mineral baths and hadn't really been upgraded since they opened in like the 1920's (I kid, but still). So we go down and check in and we are pointed to these little closets and are told to put our clothes on the hooks there and somebody would come and wrap a sheet around us and take us to the relaxation area. Mind you Marti and I are the only people in the spa area that are under the age of 50 in the whole place. Well, I'm in my little closet area and the person comes to wrap my sheet around me, what I didn't know is that I was supposed to turn around and face the wall, but I didn't. So, I'm standing there facing the little spa lady full frontal and she starts yelling me to turn around. That was discomfort moment #1. She wraps the sheet around me escorts me to the waiting area and then takes me back to this big room that has the mineral baths on one side and little cubicles with massage tables on the other. There are all these older women wandering around in their togas moving from salt scrub to mineral bath to God-knows-what. I lay down on my table and the wiry little masseuse starts giving me an old school rub-down. It was really not all that relaxing and very uncomfortable especially since I had to go to the bathroom the entire time.

I didn't go back for another massage for many, many years.

I was thinking about this today as I was having a wonderful massage at La Belle Spa by Donald and I started thinking about how much my Grandma would have loved this place. It started out with a nice foot soak with some crackers and nuts while I stared into a fire. Then Donald came and took me into a private room, with soft lights and soothing music being piped in...so very different than my first experience.

And as he proceeded to work the knots out of my back, I slowly began to relax and stopped resisting, and as I did so I tried to silence the running discussion in my head. I couldn't quite silence the voice in my head completely because as I lay there being kneaded like bread dough, I was thinking "how do I want to phrase this in my blog...."

2009...I'm promising myself more massages. They are SOOOO worth it!!