1 More Day

I can't believe it. Today is April 29th, and after today, I only have one more day left of work. Last week I felt like the kids were really giving me a hard time, but now I feel the love and how much I am going to miss these kids.

As usual I have gone way to long since my last post, and there has been so much that has happened since.

Friday did end up being a beautiful 80degree day. I walked to work, spent the day outside with the kids, walked with a friend at lunch, walked to yoga and walked home from yoga. How could I not be in good spirits? Wed-Fri I also completed my 3-Day Green Smoothie Challenge. For drinking just smoothies I was surprised at 1. how energized I felt and 2. how little I needed to get me through the day. Since then I continue to have a smoothie each morning for breakfast.

Yoga training Friday night was pretty big for me. We were holding a posture (sleeping tiger with our heads up), and I "could not" do it. By "could not" I mean that I felt like I couldn't. My body could technically do it, but I was feeling a lot of pain and having a lot of doubts. Instead of pushing through, I gave up, which felt fine at the time, but really frustrated me afterwards. I think this is applicable to a lot of life situations for me, and I'm assuming a lot of other people. I went to be fairly early that night and woke up in time Saturday morning to go to yoga. (That rarely happens on a Saturday.) I waited until the last minute to pick up a gift for Jessika's bridal shower. All gifts were supposed to focus on the bedroom. I felt like I should do something practical, but when I went to Bed, Bath and Beyond, nothing on her registry covered the bedroom. Therefore, I went with something fun: stopped in Borders and picked up two books: "Do You Know Your Lover?" and "Position a Day (for Experts)." It was a mix of seriousness and humor. [Everyone really got a kick out of the second one. Ironically Jess just happened to open up to her wedding day: "Bend it Like Beckham." :)]

We went to Jess's sister's for the shower and then took a big van to Howl at the Moon. (I really do love that place.) Seeing as I don't drink anymore, I was really curious to see how enjoyable a bachelorette party would be for me. I had a great time. I was with my best friends from high school, singing, dancing and celebrating downtown. We planned to go to Cocktails in Boystown for some more fun but walked up to a door that read "NO Bachelorette Parties!" At the time it was raining and cool, so we jumped across the street to Roscoes. Wow, was I thrown into another world?! We didn't stay there too long, and instead decided to grab some food at Hollywood Grill. I am still impressed with myself for how late I was up. Karen and I finally decided at 4:30 that we should get to bed.

Cricadian rhythms woke us all up around 9/9:30. I hung out a bit at Grace and Charlie's and then headed home to meet my Dad, who was bringing my desk in from Rockford so that I have a place to study. Around 1 he dropped me off at Dave and Cristy's for Parker's little 6 month party. Oh my gosh... I cannot say enough about how much he makes me smile. :) When I walked in the door, I saw Ema and Lindsay too!! (I didn't think they would be able to come.) Marc Rossoff happened to be in town, so I saw him, and more of the crew continued to show up. I always cherish time over there, so leaving around 5 to babysit was tough. In talking to my Grandma on my way home, I realized that my weekend was so special because I spent time with yoga/Chicago friends, HHS friends and NU friends.

Monday was tough for me because there was a car alarm going off in front of my apt ALL night! When I was in a deep sleep, it didn't wake me up, but I was solidly awake basically 1-4AM. I crashed really early that night.

Now, for what most of you may want to know about, my date last night: Brian picked me up at 7:15, which gave me just enough time to re-get ready a little. I offered him a couple of restaurant options, but ultimately he told me to pick. I went with Opera in the South Loop-"Chinese with Modern Presentations." The restaurant has a separate vegan menu, which was a huge influence in my decision. I had not realized this, but on Tuesday and Sunday nights, diners have the option of a $29/50 three course meal. It wasn't applicable to vegans, but oh well!) I ordered orange tofu, and it was delicious! I had some of it for dinner, some more for lunch today and still have another portion. At dinner conversation flowed easily, and I felt really comfortable (which is huge for me after my some of the dates I've been on in the past). We decided to head over to the theaters after dinner and decided on I Love You Man; Earth wasn't playing until a lot later. I don't think a movie has made me laugh out loud like that in a long time. It helped that there was this guy behind us that laughed a lot and laughed often. It was a good "first date" movie, but I recommend that everyone see it. (I don't usually feel that way about movies.)

It's not like I actually have a checklist, but I feel like he did everything a "good guy" should do: opened doors, insisted on paying (which I don't think should always be up to the guy), valued my opinion, etc. I'm not sure when, but we plan to see each other again.