My Birthday!!!

So, yesterday was my birthday! I had big plans for sitting in a nice little internet cafe and blogging away my morning, but my day turned out not to be nearly as solitary as expected, which is excellent. I went to Golden in the morning; one of my favorite places on the planet (not that I've seen a whole lot of the planet, but you know...) to go running along Clear Creek. Everytime I run there I feel like I must look like a crazy fool running along the path because I always have this silly grin on my face the whole time. There's not anything I can think of to make my mood better than to start the day running there. It's beautiful and I love how much more fresh it feels than running on the treadmill staring at the boob tube.





Granted, this picture was taken at the end of May when the creek is high and the leaves are green, but when the sun is shining in mid-March, it's every bit as gorgeous to me.




Even better, after my run I went to breakfast/lunch with my friend LD. I haven't seen her in at least 6 months, maybe more like a year (med school seems to change the time line for me...) and I missed her. We went to this great health food restaurant called Blue Sky Cafe (restaurant by morning, yoga by evening) and had a nice leisurely time. I had breakfast and she had lunch, and altogether I was full of food for quite some time. It always makes me happy to see that my friends are doing so well. I forget sometimes there is a life that doesn't involve school forever and LD embraced that and became a part time yoga instructor. She's hoping to eventually do it full time, and is hoping to go into therapeutic yoga some day. I have a lot of faith in the therapeutic value of yoga and maybe someday I'll be able to utilize her talents in my future practice. If you are looking for some great classes in Golden, or some private yoga instruction check out Mountain Moon Yoga, or email MountainMoonYoga@gmail.com.




After I got home and cleaned up from my run, I met my friend, also an LG like me, for ice cream at Bonnie Brae by University of Denver. Best ice cream ever. It was even nice enough to eat it outside. Afterward, we wandered through the shops of Wash Park. I definitely now have more activities to bribe myself with for studying. I always set goals and then tell myself if I reach them, I can go do "x". Well, now visiting the shops at Wash Park can be X sometimes too. If anyone ever wants to join, let me know!




After we grilled up some dinner, J's fam came over for some coffee and desert. I made a really awesome chocolate desert with peppermint frosting and J made Irish coffees for everyone but me (I'm sticking to decaf and no booze for the moment). We developed a taste for irish coffees when we were in San Francisco last summer. It was so much fun there, and the Buena Vista had the best Irish Coffee's of anywhere we tried.




If you're interested, go to http://www.thebuenavista.com/ for directions on how to make a great Irish Coffee!

Since J had to work today, we decided not to go out for my birthday yesterday and save it for today. So tonight we're having dinner at the trattoria at Whole Foods. Whole Foods is pretty much my favorite place to eat so it should be a great night! I've always loved my birthday, it's great to have a whole day party just for yourself. But it's even better to have a several day party just to yourself!

Well, I might be another year older, but I can only think that's a good thing! I think the last year has helped me to grow a lot. I'm starting to see more than ever what I'm made of, and I find myself smiling a lot more often and frowning a whole lot less. I don't think I'll ever dread my birthday, even though I'm now closer to 30 than I am to 20, because every year marks a landmark in how far I've really come. And that is always a good thing to me.