These Changes Ain't Changing Me

Me kayaking. I feel a new obsession coming on...

Hey, kids. Long time no talk at. My birthday was amazing. I couldn't have asked for a better day. I'm exhausted right now, but that's okay. I still have one more day off. I'll just talk about Friday and Saturday tonight and then tomorrow I'll cover Sunday and Monday.

Sooooo, Friday was great. I woke up and went running right away. I got tons of birthday greetings from friends and family by phone, text and Facebook. It was all very, very nice.

After I ran, I showered and got ready to kayak. I picked up a couple of friends and headed to Lake McBride. Some people were already there, so we hopped right to it and got our kayaks in the lake. I didn't tip it once, and took to it pretty naturally. In fact, I have a new love and his name is Mr. Kayak. He doesn't talk much, but we don't really need to. He relaxes me and makes me feel really good about myself. I can really see me spending the rest of my life with him...Or at least visiting him as often as possible when weather permits. Anyway, kayaking was a HUGE success and we all decided that we wanted to play hooky every Friday afternoon and paddle and float the afternoons away.

After kayaking, we did a little sunning before we went home.

After our kayaking, I went home to take care of my girls. Coadster ordered us a taco pizza from Happy Joe's and I got an hour or so to spend with my girls, before Coadster went to rehearsal and Stinky went to dinner with the girls she works with during Hawkeye football games.

I went over to my friend E.'s house. She had her boys and my friend Eggo and her husband had their son and weren't going to be able to hang out at the Dublin, so I wanted to spend some time with them before I met everyone else. They were eating pizza and watching the first Indiana Jones movie and it was really nice. At one point, the youngest of the kids was crying and the two other boys were being loud and running around and E. asked, "So, I bet you don't miss this at all, do you?" But really, I do. It's weird now that my girls are older and I rarely see them. I know I keep saying this, but it's as difficult a transition losing your kids to adulthood as it is becoming a parent for the first time. So, it was nice to immerse myself in the chaos of younger kids for a while.

The girl crush and some other hotties hamming it up on the dance floor. Hilarious.

I finally made my way to the Dublin and it was wonderful too. When I first got there, it was mostly populated with my guy friends telling dick jokes...Which, I still find funny, because even though I'm old, I obviously have never matured.

The girlies all came down about an hour later and we had ourselves a little dance party. The only problem with the evening was my stupidity....As usual. I spent almost the whole day outside in the sun and it was awesome, but by 9 o'clock and a couple of beers, I was EXHAUSTED. I seriously felt like I could just fall asleep in one of the booths. My eyes were also acting up. I have that weird dry eye problem. It hasn't been bad the last year, because someone suggested I take magnesium and for whatever reason, it's really helped. Of course, sun, wind, and being really tired are big triggers for it, so I was battling that lovely feeling of sandpaper eyelids. Finally, this creepy guy, who's nickname is Worm (for real) came up to me and told me that he didn't like my dress because it was too long and he couldn't see my legs, and I decided that was my cue to go home. It was a wonderful night, and I wish I could have lasted longer. I got a photo text from a friend at 1:41 am of a group of people who came down at bar close to see me, and that was really nice and all, but I was sound asleep by then.

Me and some of the Yayhoos from my birthday.

Saturday was hot, hot, hot. I ran in the morning to get a feel for what it might be like to run my 7 mile race next Saturday and discovered that what it might feel like, was shit. It was a hot and humid day, so lucky for us, we decided to go to a late lunch and a matinee of Inception. Stinky didn't really want to see the movie, but there wasn't anything else I really wanted to watch, so I played the birthday card and she ended up not hating the movie after all. It was very action packed. The ending was a little too tidy for me, but I say that about almost every Hollywood movie I watch.

We got home around 6'ish. I got a few calls from people asking me if I wanted to go out, but I didn't really feel like it. My birthday was great, but I was socialed-out and I needed some alone time. I stayed home and watched Run Fat Boy, Run, and it was okay, but a little too hokey for my taste. Then I read some more of The Corrections before I went to sleep. It was a nice mellow, and much needed Saturday night.