My birthday week has come and gone, so now I have a moment to sit down and review. I had the great delight of a week long visit with my BFF Vicki, and surprisingly, we did not do any sight-seeing at all. The only time I took out my camera was for our festive family dinner. We brought home a feast from Olive Garden, complete with their signature salad, spaghetti and meatballs, Zuppa Toscana, and of course bread-sticks with marinara and Alfredo sauce for dipping. Megan had great fun introducing Jordan to the zippy peperoncini (payback from a while back when he surprised her with a super hot jalapeño!). Laurent introduced Ruben to garlic buttered bread-sticks, with which he was greatly enamored, though not so much as he was at being held by his big sister. Despite missing Jacob from our crew (and believe me, he is missed by all!), a grand time was had by everyone.
The rest of the week we literally just “hung out” – watched the end of season 1 of Bosch, and took care of kids and driving during the days; attended a few movies, of course – Jeff, Vicki and I went to see Life and Going in Style; Vicki invited me and the girls up to see her vast hotel room (upgraded to the Presidential Suite, it was bigger than many apartments!) and then we went to see Kong: Skull Island.
We also visited a plethora of restaurants. We have so many boxes of leftovers in the fridge right now, it’s ridiculous. It was entirely too much fancy food for my system. I need a detox week to recover… Here’s the list, and I can tell you unequivocally that they were all fabulous. If I was a proper foodie I would have pictures of everything we ordered but I’m just not that good.
- Blaze Pizza
- Habit Burger
- Mimi’s Cafe
- Ah-So Sushi & Steak
- Kneader’s Bakery
- Raising Cane’s Chicken Fingers
- Claim Jumper’s
My big birthday present to myself this year was tickets to see the Southwest Shakespeare Co. production of Pride and Prejudice. I had the seats for Friday night, but unfortunately Vicki came down with a flu bug Thursday and was down for the count on Friday. Laurent was more than happy to take her place, however, and we had an absolutely delightful time attending a top rate performance. What a stunning group of actors – five people playing all the parts in that story! Tremendous talent. I loved it so much I wanted to go again – and by Saturday night, Vicki was up for it and sprang for the tickets – so I was blessed to go twice!! I’m even thinking of becoming a Bard Club member, since I know I will want to see several shows in their 2017-2018 season.
It would be appropriate to write something here about my reflections on this momentous birthday, but frankly, I don’t have a lot of excess mental energy to expend on such musings. My life and my home are running over with blessings, and when I have spare time, I don’t read, or practice music, or bake, or go for walks, or crochet, or blog – I nap. Seriously, I got a birthday card from my five year old that pictured me in two different poses with, according to him, my two favorite things – holding baby Ruben, an lying in my bed. It is a well known fact that women of 50 are not the ideal age bracket for raising babies and toddlers and preschoolers, for good reason. I love all these beautiful children God has brought to our home, but they are kicking my aging butt. If there’s anything I am reflecting on right now it is the imperative of getting in shape so I can keep up with everyone and everything. So I’ll be working on that throughout the coming year, and hope that I can ring in 51 with a great deal more vim and vigor! In the meantime, I am happy, grateful, and hopeful.
