Bikram almost made me barf

The wedding is over. It was beautiful and amazing, and we all had a fabulous time. It’s bittersweet it’s over.

I went to yoga last night for the first time in over two weeks. I needed it desperately, both mentally and physically. I have been running  a lot, usually 6 days/week, and my hips are starting to get pretty tight. Also, I have felt a little unbalanced lately, surely from lack of sleep and lack of yoga. So, I had a chance to go last night, and I took it. Boy, was it hard. Really, really difficult. I actually felt nauseous a few times. It was very challenging, and I was cursing myself for not going consistently, and vowed to go more often, even if just once/week. My body/brain needs it. Even though it sucked and was hard, and I felt like I was going to barf, I still made it through in one piece.

Saturday is my birthday. I am leaving for Boise Friday morning with someone very special. He is taking me to a place that means a lot to him, and I am very excited to: travel with him, spend my birthday with him, do all the cool things we’re going to do (climbing, hiking, camping, hot springs, college football game), meet his friends, and have a vacation. It will be really good for us, and not only is it my birthday, but it marks the end of my party-on summer. After this weekend, I will ease back into training mode. I won’t be super strict until January, but I will regain a lot of my focus, and be on more of a schedule, which I am thoroughly looking forward to. 🙂

 

BREATHE!

Wow. My life is crazy busy right now. I am trying to take as many deep breaths as possible.

My dear friend is getting married this weekend, and last weekend a group of girls ventured up to Vancouver for her bachelorette party. It was a blast. It was a perfect mix of partying (ooh, we partied like rock stars), mellow time, and active time. Friday night was a $hit show….fun, but I think I did about 2 years worth of partying in 5 hours. Saturday day, we lounged by the pool, and then I took a 3 hour nap while the girls went shopping. Sleep felt amazing.

Saturday night, we went out to a nice dinner. We were all so spent from the previous night, we just went back to our hotel to watch a movie!

Sunday, we got up and drove north to Grouse Mountain to go zip lining. WOW! It was amazing and totally unexpected. I was picturing us doing one long zip line through the woods somewhere, and I was pleasantly surprised with the experience. Grouse Mountain is a ski area. We began the journey with a gondola ride up, up, up. The views were amazing! We had a perfect day, weather wise, too. When we got to the top, we met our zip line guides, got our gear, and went to the first line. We did a total of five zip lines, scattered all over the mountain. One of them went over water, another was about 1000 feet up (maybe more!), one of them we got up to speeds of 55mph, one of them was pretty long, and the first one was short and sweet, to get us used to zipping. We rode a chair lift up the mountain even higher after the first couple of zip lines, and the views were even more remarkable. There were bears, wolves, a lumber jack show, paragliders, a ginormous windmill…it was all amazing. We could have spent the entire day there!

The whole weekend was great, and the bride had a good time, which was the most important thing.

I was missing someone VERY much, who I was so happy to see when I got home from our trip. Comforting, attentive, affectionate, interested, generous, thoughtful, complimentary: words I use to describe him. Happy, calm, relaxed, safe: words used to describe me when I am with him.

The wedding is Saturday. I am so excited for my lovely friend, and I am also excited for everyone to meet the man who makes me feel the way I do these days. It is going to be a great weekend.

So, I told myself this summer I would: start dating, take a break from training, and party. I succeeded in these goals. I am so good at achieving my goals! 😉 Although I am having a blast, I am ready to get back in training mode. Training without the distraction of DATING will be very nice, and I am really looking forward to sharing it with someone. He is, too! 🙂

 

I am the epitome of happy…right now

This is my Happiness blog. It has been a place for me to write about all the things in my life, which make me happy. I have written about some pretty great things, but now…right now in my life, EVERYTHING is happy. For a long while, although I only wrote about the happy stuff…or at least tried to, there was always so much else going on in my life that I wouldn’t necessarily say made me very happy. I avoided writing about it…I was dealing with it, yes, but I didn’t want to bring all of my readers down. I was working through it, and all the happy things I wrote about were what helped me get to where I am now. It’s a pretty amazing place.

I am doing everything I love right now…I am surrounded by people I love and who love me back. I feel great.

I wake up every day and come hang out with Baby H. He is my buddy, and my days are spent laughing with him.

While he sleeps, I do another thing I absolutely love: I write. I write a lot. I have a lot of different projects I am working on right now, and it all makes me happy.

Every day, I move my body and sweat: running, yoga, climbing, brisk walk with Baby H, hiking, stand up paddle boarding…anything that makes me feel good.

I have an amazing circle of friends who I talk to and hang out with as much as I can.

I recently met someone amazing whom I am thoroughly enjoying getting to know.

My life is calm, happy, easy, and fun. All the pain, hard work, and grief I have endured the past couple of years has paid off BIG TIME. I have learned how to take care of myself, how to make myself happy, and how to say no to things that don’t make me feel good. EVERYTHING is working out perfectly, and at the right time, and I am welcoming it all in with a smile on my face. Life is good…life is really good, and I deserve everything good that is in my life right now. 🙂

 

Wakesurfing!

Oh, just another awesome weekend…no big deal.

This weekend was arguably Seattle’s biggest weekend: Seafair. We all wait all year for this party-on-the water weekend: Blue Angels, boat after boat after boat, hydroplane races, pirates. The weather is hit-or-miss, but no matter who you are, you want to make sure you know someone with a boat so you can take part in the on-the-water fun. I have partaken every year for the past 15 years. This year, however, not only did I not have any plans a couple of days before the weekend, I didn’t really want to be a part of the debauchery, so…I headed east of the mountains to go boating instead. A much more low key boating, with a great group of friends.

It was awesome. I left early Saturday morning. I left Seattle, and its gray, drizzly skies, and chased the sun, which was plentiful two hours east. A small group of us rented a gorgeous cabin on the Columbia River for a friend’s birthday party. There were two boats, and plenty of fun. I tried wake surfing for the first time! It was awesome. The entire weekend was just perfect. There was no drama, and I had a smile on my face the entire weekend, and that smile even continued when I got home and settled into watching a movie with a visitor. 🙂

LOVED this weekend.

Lake Union 6 mile run tonight…I am sore from wake surfing!

 

Funnest day EVER (or, at least in a while)

And…just another great weekend. 🙂 We had amazing weather Saturday, and although Sunday started off a little wet, it turned out to be a gorgeous day.

I went to yoga Friday even though it was a beautiful summer evening. I needed yoga. And it felt incredible. Very hot and sweaty. 🙂

Saturday, I went for a run down at the beach, and then went to cheer on my old Sauceball friends on championship day. It was so much fun!!

Sunday was the best day I have had in a while. I met a new friend and we walked through the Fremont market, got snow cones, sat on a covered patio and talked, then went to Revel in Fremont, which is my new favorite restaurant. The kitchen is open to the dining room, and there is a big patio out back. Super cool spot…REALLY super cool. 🙂

After Revel, we went to Queen Anne to La Luna where you can make your own S’mores. The outside tables all have their own fires on them where you toast the marshmallows. Another SUPER cool spot.

Both of us didn’t want the day to end. We had an amazing time together and can’t wait to do it again. 🙂