Optimist Under Siege

I went out with a friend last night for Manicures and Martinis (it seemed epic enough to capitalize!). It was basically the perfect girly event. As you can see, we had our lovely fingers made even lovelier before heading out to grab some girly martinis. The fabulous martini in the picture is a key lime pie martini with a graham cracker rim and whipped cream garnish. It’s really one of the best things ever! The hand you see is actually hers, not mine, and is quite pretty, no?

As I recall, I rebelled against girliness somewhat while I was growing up. I was by no means a tomboy, but didn’t wear much pink, had never had a manicure, and didn’t really know how to apply makeup (I can’t really say I’m ALL that good at it now, to be honest!). In recent years, however, I have learned to embrace my girly side, to revel in the pink, sweet cocktail, cool clothing, mascara, frilliness of it all! I will drink my girly beer (ie. blue moon or wachusett blueberry), wear my girly high heels (thank you DSW), do my yoga (my husband claims this is a typical girl thing to like…so be it!), and read my cheesy Laurell K. Hamilton books (hey, I like them…back off!).

I would say that I am, at least mostly, at home with my girliness. Pink is not such a bad color after all. And manicures and martinis is just about the best thing to spend a Tuesday evening doing!

Today’s happy thoughts:

*I finally remembered to buy rice krispies and marshmallows. I haven’t made rice krispie treats yet, but I am VERY excited about the prospect!

*I did a solid “crow” yoga pose at the gym today, and a short version of “crane.” Yeah me!

*My WOW druid is level 70 and can fly as of this week. Yes, I’m a dork (or would that be geek?).

*I’m going to King Richard’s (Renaissance) Faire this weekend and I get to dress up. Huzzah! (Still a geek.)

*I have an excuse to put the light-up jack-o-lantern out in the living room.

*And it’s Friday. Enough said.

I’m flying down to Philadelphia tonight for another fabulous excuse to dress up and wear pretty clothes…um…I mean…to attend a wedding! I just LOVE having the excuse to dress up. And being in a situation where my husband is forced by social convention to dance with me, that’s excellent in my book! (Although, to give proper credit to my husband, he’s generally willing to dance if I ask him to.) And you know what else is great about social conventions?! They also mandate that he has to wear a suit. And those of you who have significant others who work in business casual offices understand how nice it is to get them to dress up.

So between the dressing, dancing, and vows, it should be a pretty fun event and I look forward to telling you all about it!

I just bought my first yoga mat on Amazon and I’m irrationally happy about it. It’s purple (yeah purple!) and it’s the “sticky” kind. Hopefully that will help my less than perfect yoga balance!

I haven’t really needed my own yoga mat before this because I’ve been doing yoga at my gym and they provide the mats. I’d like to be able to check out some classes at other places, though, and find the idea of paying extra to “rent” a yoga mat a very silly thing to do.

And so today I bought a purple yoga mat and I’m totally excited. I can’t wait to get it in the mail and play with it at home. I pity the poor furniture which may suffer when I try some balancing poses that aren’t one hundred percent successful. But hey, we can always get new furniture, right?

It may be “just a yoga mat,” but it’s purple and soon it will be mine. And that makes me happy! Yeah for Yoga!

Well, I made it back from our Minnesota boundary waters canoe trip last night and here’s what I can tell you.

I was happily NOT eaten by a bear, mauled by a moose, or eaten alive by everyone’s favorite critter: the mosquito (and actually, given the cool weather we really weren’t much bothered by bugs at all- which was GREAT!).

On the trip, it rained everyday for five days. Then on the sixth day it was so windy we’d paddle as hard as we could but not actually go anywhere. Oh, and it rained. And our last day it not only rained (do you sense a theme here?!), but poured. We waited out the thunder and lightning under a tree (hey, that’s better than in a canoe on the water!), but still had the pouring rain to contend with.

Following this, I took one of the best hot showers in the history of the world and ate the tastiest hamburger (which we did not have to cook for ourselves!).

And now I am no longer taking for granted how wonderful being dry, warm, and clean are. Every moment I’m not being rained on is a precious one in my book!

In all seriousness, though, we had a fabulous trip and have a lot of fun memories and stories (some of which I will share over time). We did some paddling, saw loons, otters, and a swimming deer, and had quite a few marshmallow-friendly campfires. A good time was had by all.

Three days left until I’m back in action in real time from my canoe trip in the Boundary Waters of Minnesota.

And hey, if you haven’t heard from me by the end of the day on Monday, send help! (Just kidding)

Five days until I’m back here in real time from my canoe vacation in Minnesota! I know everyone’s just dying to have me back (hey, at least pretend that’s true, please!)! See you all soon!

As you may already know from my last blog entry, I’m not really “here” right now. I’m actually on vacation canoeing the Boundary Waters in Minnesota. But I thought I’d take advantage of this opportunity, regardless, to restate my continuing obsession for (or enthusiastic interest in, yeah that sounds better!) yoga. I don’t understand it, but I just can’t seem to get enough. One of my new goals in life is to be able to do all sorts of funky poses including a headstand and a handstand. I’ve never really been able to do either.

As part of my new, um, enthusiastic interest in (obsession for) yoga- it’s been about four months now- I’m trying to do a little yoga on my own in the woods once we set up camp each night on our canoe trip. This is, of course, assuming that my arms aren’t ridiculously sore after days of paddling and that the bugs aren’t eating me alive. These may be lofty assumptions! In an ideal world, I may be out in the woods doing yoga right now…! See you in real time in another seven days!

I’m feeling very existential right now (and yes, I realize that may not be the perfect use of the word, but you know what I mean!). I’m feeling very existential because I’m not really here. Or, well, I won’t really be here when you see this blog entry because I’ll be (or rather, I am?) canoeing the boundary waters in Minnesota for vacation. So I’m here now, but I’m not actually here in your version of “now.” Trippy, huh?

As you read this, but not actually “now” as I write this (whoa!), I am probably in the front of a canoe being yelled at, lovingly, by my husband for not paddling hard enough (but I assure you, I am- or will be- paddling plenty hard!). It’s funny how I can predict this very well now as I write, before I’m actually doing it. I can almost guarantee this will be the way of things!

After the infamous tandem bike incident riding over the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco where he was sure I wasn’t doing my share of the peddling, the near future is clear! Did you know that the guy who rented us the tandem bike called them “divorce makers?!” Now I get it! (Although it was kind of a fun, memorable experience, I probably won’t repeat it!)

So I’m paddling. Quite diligently, I’m paddling. Enjoy your comfy couches, internet, and hot showers over the next several days!

I just know I’m forgetting something. I know it and I can’t seem to do anything about it! I’m doing the final packing for our trip canoeing the Boundary Waters in Minnesota and I have this annoying feeling that we’re going to get a day or two into the trip, be firmly in the middle of nowhere, and desperately need item “X” (whatever it happens to be that I’m forgetting but that is obviously vitally important to our upcoming happiness and well-being). Argh!!!

Well, with or without said all-important item, we’re catching a plane to Minneapolis tomorrow morning, renting a car, trying to avoid the last day of the republican national convention, and driving five-ish hours to Ely, Minnesota where we’ll spend the night in a “bunkhouse.” As of Friday morning we’ll be in a canoe, just my husband and I, for 7 days of semi-solitary reflection and physical exertion.

And that is why going to the bookstore today and buying a stack of books is very high on the priority scale. Not that my husband and I won’t have what I’m sure will be some fascinating discussions, but some vampires, magic, fairies or science fiction couldn’t hurt! For now, wish us warm weather, very little rain, no bugs, and many cozy camp fires!