Birthday Fun

Last week I celebrated my 36th birthday. It's not exactly a milestone, unless you count the Chinese zodiac, in which case, yes-- after 36 years, it's cycled back to my sign, the year of the Snake :-)

But it was probably THE most fun I've ever had!

It started out on Thursday, the actual day OF my birthday, when, in keeping with office tradition, my co-workers broke out the cake and ice cream, and we hung out in the conference room, chatting, snacking, and relaxing for an hour.

The next day, Friday, I took the day off work so I could accompany Todd at "Grandparents/Special Guests Day" at his school. I'm extra glad I took the time to go, because the look on his face when he saw me arrive for the flag salute in the morning was priceless. He was soooo excited to lead me to his classroom and partake of the planned activities together.

All the special guests got to sit in the kids' seats, and together we worked on making "quilt squares" out of construction paper together. Each quilt square consisted of cutout traces of our hands, common personality traits, favorite Bible verse, and a picture of a favorite memory. Afterward, we enjoyed a mid-morning snack together and then watched the kids perform a musical they'd been working on all semester. Here are some shots of the day: me seated at a kid's desk, our quilt square, and Todd right after the performance:

Traits on common: Sense of Humor and Love of Animals. Favorite memory: Fun trips together: Strawberry Festival (hence the strawberry), California Adventure (hence the turtle) and Universal Studios (hence the Hollywood sign on the hills)

After the performance, we headed to UCSB for lunch. It was the start of Staff Appreciation Week on campus, and Friday was a chancellor's luncheon on the grass by the lagoon. I set up our picnic blanket and settled Todd in with a sack lunch while I got my food. As it just so happened, another, unrelated group had set up bouncy castles on the same lawn, so Todd got to play on some of them! I took a turn once, too, and quickly realized why these things are meant for kids :-P

A bouncy sparring ring, with Storke Tower in the background

After lunch, we headed home to change and pack up... for a hike! Since Allan was still battling a bad bout of the flu, and since the hot weather meant that the rest of our friends preferred the beach or staying home, Todd and I went by ourselves. It actually ended up working out great, even though we'd never hiked that trail before. Since it was such a hot day, we could take our time deviating from the trail at various points along the way, splashing in the San Ysidro Creek to cool off.

That ice cold water was refreshing! Too bad every bug in creation had the same idea-- we had to fight them for clear spots of water!

Though I was a little concerned with the fact that we would be hiking alone, the trail was pretty straightforward and easy to follow, and we encountered plenty of other hikers/runners along the way. We ended up spending so much time playing in the creek that we had to turn around after going less than 2 miles up the trail, as it was starting to get late!

That evening, after returning home and washing up, Todd and I went out for dinner at Denny's-- again, just the two of us.

Overall, Friday was probably one of the best and most enjoyable days I'd ever spent. It was great to be able to spend an entire day with my little boy, and do all kinds of fun things together, by ourselves. And since it just happened to be the day after my birthday, I considered it part of my birthday celebration with my son :-)

The next night, though, was the adult party :-) We hired a sitter, reserved a couple of tables at our favorite karaoke spot-- Old Town Tavern, brought in sandwiches and cake, and celebrated with 17 friends!

I had fun with my dance and singing partners, respectively (aka the "other men" in my life) :

Our party practically took over the whole place! While there were a handful of other people at the beginning of the night, by about 10-11pm most of them had vanished, leaving only our big group to sing, dance, and patronize the bar :-) What a blast!

Despite the fact that I'm apparently staring off into space in the above photo, I had a good time, honest! You can tell how much by the gamut that my facial expressions ran:

All in all, I'd say this was one of the best birthday celebrations I'd ever had. One day was spent entirely with my son, the other was spent in the company of good friends, with lots of fun and laughter. Completely different types of fun, but both left me feeling pretty cheered and satisfied by the end of the weekend :-)

Now... what to plan for that upcoming milestone of 40!

The "Other Men" In My Life

... besides my husband, of course. There's the obvious: the boy. I'm not sure he really counts, though, because he's equally the "other person" in Allan's life, too.

But there ARE two other actual men in my life that fulfill needs that my husband can't/won't.

Hehe.

Ponder that one for a minute ;-)

Now get your minds out of the gutters :-P I'm talking about two of my hobbies: singing karaoke and country dancing.

For the past two and a half years, my buddy Nick has been my singing partner. He's an awesome singer in his own right, and we often tackle duets together at karaoke. I think we sound good together, mainly because he's so flexible, adaptable and good at harmonizing. I can always count on Nick to join me in something that I may not feel 100% comfortable doing on my own.

Here's a sampling, a song we've done so often that it's sort of become our "trademark": http://sandywessel.blogspot.com/2012/04/april-krod.html


More recently, I've taken up country dancing. It started with line dancing, as I had zero dance experience of any kind, and it seemed like the logical place to start-- very methodical with its prescribed steps, and a solo endeavor, so I could focus on my own feet first. After I took some lessons, I began going to Creekside for their Wednesday country nights, and that's where I met Mitch.

I didn't think I would be interested or even ready for partner dancing until Mitch roped me in during some of the two-step and West Coast swing rotations at Creekside. I decided it wasn't so bad after all, and we ended up taking a couple lessons here and there together. Since we were both beginners, it was nice to have a partner that I felt comfortable with. Not having to worry about being self-conscious allowed me to focus on learning how to dance. And though I've gained a bit more experience since this summer, and have danced with a variety of partners (some quite experienced, even!) at Borderline, Creekside, and UCSB, Mitch is still one of the best partners I've had. They say that a good lead makes even the most novice of followers look good, and it's so true!

So there you have it. Allan doesn't sing and he doesn't like country music, so I'm happy to be able to partner with Nick and Mitch on those endeavors!

Tired Feet and Breaking in Boots

This past couple of days has certainly been good for getting exercise in the form of country dancing! On Saturday, some friends and I went down to Borderline in Thousand Oaks, where we had a good time eating, drinking, hanging out, learning some new dances, and working up a sweat on the dance floor. I got a good mix of both line dancing and two-stepping in (it helps when you bring your own two-step partner along ;-) )

Me, Taryn, Amy, Tabitha. (Not pictured: Joe, who took the picture, and Mitch)

After I got home, though, I had a hard time sleeping that night, because my legs were sooooo sore and achy! It's a testament to how out of shape I am :-/ All day Sunday my legs were still aching, but they were better today, which was a good thing, considering I had to do a bit of walking around, shopping!

Saturday night at Borderline marked the second or third time I'd worn my new boots for some major dancing in a long period of time. So while they're definitely still in the "breaking in" stage, my feet, though tired at the end of the night, weren't hurting. I'm a big fan of the Ariat line-- good quality and great comfort. Only downside is that the shaft on them tends to be really wide, and since I have thin-to-average calves, they practically swim in them. Still, I love my boots-- from the deep oiled brown color to the pretty design to the scalloped top, and, of course, the comfortable fit!

Ariat Legend in Brown Oiled Rowdy

Today I went to Ventura to do some shopping, and stopped by Boot Barn to pick up another pair of boots: Durangos. The leather on these is much softer than on my Ariats, the foot is extremely comfortable, the shaft fits on my calves much better, and the square toe was narrower. And unlike the rubber sole of my Ariats, this one had a composite sole that was a little smoother, and hence easier to dance in without having to attach felt or some kind of cloth tape to the sole. Plus, it was a nice, neutral, tan color, which goes well with a lot of deeper-colored dresses I have, especially red.

Durango RD3478 in tan

Tonight, I got to break in my new boots with a two-step lesson sponsored by the UCSB country dance club.  The poor boots not only got some good use, but got stepped on a lot. Amazingly, you can't really make out the faint scuff marks that resulted. I guess that's the nice thing about a lighter color-- scuff marks don't show up as easily. As far as comfort goes, the sole of the Durangos don't have as much cushion as the Ariats. Plus, the heel is slightly higher, which gives rise to the usual high-heel-related leg/foot woes. That probably contributed to my having tired feet after less than 2 hours of active use.

Well, we'll see how they hold up on Friday!

Kick Up Your Heels!

I have two left feet. I don't really have a sense of rhythm.  "Graceful" is not in my vocabulary, but "lanky" and "awkward" are. I generally shy away from the dance floor and have been known to step on toes even when doing the completely generic hug-like slow dance. Let's not even think about dances that involve the minutest levels of choreography and set moves. Forget it!

Despite all that, in April of this year, I finally ventured out to the Creekside with my friend Tabitha for country night. While I had visited the Creekside several times for karaoke, I'd never been there for line dancing before. It sounded fun and interesting. 
We met up at 7:00pm for the lesson, and it happened to be a two-step (i.e. partner) dance. For someone with two left feet and ZERO experience with dance of any kind, let alone country dancing, this was not a very good introduction to the art. It didn't really help that my partner, whom I knew as a karaoke regular, wasn't too familiar with the dance they were teaching us either, but was also too stubborn to pick it up properly. He preferred to sort of do his own thing and wing it, which is fine if you know what you're doing, but was NOT helping me, the novice, learn! Anyway, after the lesson, I spent the remainder of the evening out in the sidelines, watching everyone else dance and have a good time. Not quite how I envisioned the evening!

After that, I vowed not to return to the Creekside until I'd had some formal lessons under my belt. When summer arrived and Todd went off to LA, I signed up for line dance lessons through our local parks and recreation program. The teacher was good, the pace was just right, and those lessons helped a LOT. Most importantly, I picked up a lot of dance basics, which helped enormously when it came to learning new dances. Though the six-week session only taught me about 6-7 dances, I had obtained enough of a basic groundwork to learn new dances on my own (i.e. through YouTube videos and written step sheets) from there.

When I finally returned to the Creekside, I discovered something else: since newer dances/moves were now easier to pick up, the muscle memory was faster in developing. And since my footwork could just go on autopilot, I was free to let my mind relax a bit, not focusing on every last step, and just enjoy the music. Next thing I knew, I started finding a bit of rhythm and actually moving more fluidly with the music. I mean, I'm sure I'm still pretty awkward and there are still numerous times when I just don't KNOW what to do with my arms, but at least the bottom half of me is moving appropriately and in sync. That's half the battle ;-)

Now that I'm a bit more comfortable with line dancing, my next pursuit is the two-step. Last week, the local dance center where I took my line dance lessons had an open house, where all its classes were free to try. I decided to try my hand at the two-step, both the beginner and the intermediate classes. Both really kicked my butt, because it was an entirely different game! With line dancing, the only person I had to worry about was myself: focusing on my own feet and getting the moves and the rhythm right. If I messed up, I only needed a moment to adjust and get back into the groove before continuing. But with a partner, I now had to be mindful of not only doing the moves correctly, but doing them correctly in sync with someone who probably prefers not to have his toes stepped on all the time ;-P It was quite a learning experience, and having a good partner certainly helps, but unfortunately, now that the summer's over, it's really hard to commit to a series of lessons. Someday soon, hopefully!

Oh, and one last added bonus? It's really good exercise! My last couple of trips to the Creekside left me tired and sweaty and achy and catching my breath... but it felt good! Fun AND health all rolled into one... can't beat that! ;-)

Viva Las Vegas in the Hot Summer Sun

Our much-anticipated weekend getaway to Vegas finally happened-- and what a blast! I booked the vacation way back in May, and we all wondered how we would survive the months till then. Well, somehow those months flew by and you know what? I'm glad we went towards the end of August-- one last hurrah before the end of summer.

This weekend trip incurred a lot of "firsts" for me:

• first time going to Vegas with friends (instead of family, like my previous half-dozen trips there)


• first time going out barhopping on the Strip at night


• first time splashing in a hotel pool


• first time wearing a 2-piece swimsuit in public since I was a kid


• first time wearing short skirts/dresses that I can no longer wear because they're only appropriate in Vegas anymore


• first time taking any sort of "dancing" class-- and it was a pole-dancing class, of all things!


• first time dancing in the middle of a group, and not off to the side where nobody can see me

We started off early Friday morning to pick up our rental van and load it up. The drive there was smooth and traffic-free, and we arrived with plenty of time to check in (we all stayed at Harrah's, right smack-dab in the middle of the strip) unpack and rest before heading out for dinner and drinks. We used the first of our Vegas Insider Card deals: 2-for-1 entrees at Bill's Gamblin' Hall and Saloon (formerly the Barbary Coast). It was the last time all 6 of us (Allan & me, Joe & Tabitha, Amir & Priyanka) would be together the entire trip until the very last day. We then headed off to the Imperial Palace for some karaoke! I wanted to make sure I got to sing in case I lost my voice again, like last time. Tabitha and I opted to do Gretchen Wilson's "Redneck Woman" together, paying $10 to have it recorded on DVD. Alas, it was not to be-- about 4 songs before our turn, a pair of girls got on stage and sang the exact same song!! We felt so robbed! Unfortunately, they were good, too, so we didn't exactly want to follow with the same song so soon afterward. Maybe if they'd done a poor job, we might've still stuck with it. So we scrambled to find an alternate, and wound up doing Carrie Underwood's "Before He Cheats" instead. A bit harder, and some of the notes got too low for me, but we'll see what the actual DVD looks like when I get a chance to watch it, and maybe post it :-)

Saturday morning Allan and I started our day with breakfast at the Harrah's buffet. All of us received 24-hour buffet passes with our room reservation-- allowing us to visit any buffet at 7 of the Harrah's properties as much as we wanted within a 24-hour period. I then headed off to Planet Hollywood (formerly the Aladdin) to meet up with Tabitha for our "Stripper 101" class, where we learned lap-dancing and pole-dancing techniques. The class was a lot of fun, and the pole-dancing portion was actually harder than it seemed-- a lot of balance, coordination and concentration required. We left the class wishing we could find a bar with a pole in it, to practice our newly-learned moves ;-) After lunch, Tab and I made our way to the pool at Flamingo while our husbands rested in the rooms. It was crowded in the water-- no surprise, as daytime temps soared to 105-110 each day, with "lows" dipping into the 80s. But in the shade the water was cold and refreshing and kept us cool for our half-block trek back to our hotel.

Dinner at the Caesar's buffet was delicious, and worth the half-hour wait in line to get in. Afterward, the "night out" began: Allan, Amir, Priyanka and I started out trying to find spots at the Venetian, but all of them were two noisy and crowded for our taste. We exited the hotel in time to catch the "Sirens of TI" show across the street. The scantily-clad pirate wench dancers were too far away to see, but we got a nice view of the fireworks show at the end. We tried to cross the street to get to Treasure Island itself but wound up having to go further north, past the Wynn/Encore complex, in order to do so. By the time we made it to TI, we were pretty tired from all the walking, and flopped down at the first quiet spot we saw-- the Isla Tequila Bar, which was actually pretty nice and comfy! We finished off the night with a trip to Caesars Palace, again bypassing the noisier bars/clubs and opting for the comfortable Seahorse Lounge, which offered not only a nice view of the aquarium with interesting sea animals, but made for great people-watching. It was 3am by the time we decided to call it a night. I can't remember the last time I stayed out that late!!

Sunday was another relaxing day. I tried to take Allan to the Flamingo pool but we were turned away. Guys really get gypped in Vegas-- girls get in free for everything, whereas guys have to pay. In the evening we got all 6 of us together again and drove to downtown Vegas, where we had dinner at the Firefly in the Plaza Hotel. It was a tapas bar, and the food and drinks were awesome! Since we didn't have reservations, we didn't get to sit in the main dining area (not without waiting, anyway) overlooking Fremont St, but we ended up with something better-- comfy sofas in the lounge area of the restaurant, which made dinner even more relaxing and enjoyable. If ever there was a must-eat place in Vegas, it's the Firefly. We caught the light show and then went into the Golden Nugget, where we found a nice cozy booth of sofas inside their Rush Lounge-- just in time for the live entertainment. It started off pleasantly and mellowly (is that a word?) enough-- Tabitha took a nap on Joe's shoulder and Amir recharged himself on the casino floor. By the time he got to the lounge, Tab was awake, and with all of us refreshed, we finished off the night with some group dancing in the middle of the lounge. What a way to end our last outing in Vegas with a bang! :-)

We got home late Monday evening, exhausted but happy. What a trip! I had originally intended to return to work Tuesday, but a few weeks ago, Amir wisely cautioned against it. So I took Tuesday off, and am I glad I did! I needed the extra day to recharge and rest and recuperate. Even today I'm not 100% there in terms of being at work, but it would've been much worse yesterday.

One last thing: early on in the trip, I decided to order the same drink wherever we went, so I could compare how the different bars did it. I started it off with a purchase at the Stripper Bar, where we got free drinks included in our Stripper 101 class: Vodka cranberry. It was delicious-- sweet, not too tangy, and barely a taste of alcohol (a testament to its smoothness). I ordered more at the Isla Tequila Bar, the Seahorse Lounge, the Firefly Tapas Bar and the Rush Lounge. They were all pretty good, but by far my favorite was the one from the Stripper Bar. Close second was the one from Firefly, and only because it was a tiny bit tangier and had the slightest hint of alcohol detectable. And no matter what, ALL of the vodka cranberries I got at the various Vegas bars were much better than anything I've ever gotten at a local bar here in Santa Barbara! :-)

Ah, Vegas. There's always something to see and do there, no matter how many times you've been there. And with friends, it's double the fun! :-) Here's to the next trip, hopefully while our coupon book and Vegas Insider Card are still valid!