Back to Dancing for Real Now

May is a big month for me with Mother’s Day and my birthday. On the Friday before Mother’s Day, Jack’s preschool had a tea for the moms. They had tea and muffins and brownies and fruit to eat and the kids sang us a song. They were really cute. On Saturday we went to Kierland Commons so that I could get a haircut. Sometimes we go as a family because it’s so nice to walk around. We ate at the News Café and did some shopping after my haircut. That afternoon I took Jack to a birthday party at My Gym or Little Gym… I always get them confused. It was a great little party… I’m always scoping out places for Jack’s birthday because it’s in August and unless you do something in the water, it’s just too hot to have a party outside. After getting back from the party, JenDawg showed up and we went to Nancy’s house in Timbuktu to visit the baby. We had some lovely sangria and enjoyed visiting for a quite a while. When we got back to the house, we had dinner and played with the boys. The next day was Mother’s Day. I had asked to spend half the day with the boys and the other half of the day spending time doing some guilt-free shopping so after spending the morning with the boys, I did some shopping, mostly at Nordstrom Rack. I decided I like Nordstrom Rack more than Nordstrom just because they have a lot of variety but you definitely need a lot more time to spend there. The best part about Mother’s Day is not cleaning the litter boxes.

On Tuesday Brian and I had a date which is a big deal for us. We went to Cheuvont Wine Bar and had pate and appetizers and a bottle of wine. Then we took a taxi to the Dodge Theatre to see Harry Connick, Jr. who is always very good in concert. The next day I went to lunch with a couple of co-workers, one of who was leaving the group and leaving the state. We decided that we should have a “drinking lunch” where we could enjoy some adult beverages. We didn’t do a happy hour because one of the guys is a single dad and hasn’t found a good baby-sitter yet. I only managed to drink 1 ½ mojitos because I had had enough the night before with the wine. The other guys managed to drink a bit more so it was mission accomplished. I found out a friend is pregnant through IVF (Yea, Heather). One egg implanted but it split into identical twins She is freaking out a little. Twins sound great for the first round but maybe not so much for the second round when you have a 2 year old to take care of on top of that. But everyone seems to manage. On Friday I had a consult at a laser place to see what I could do for acne, hyper-pigmentation and broken blood vessels. I opted for a procedure that will leave my face red and peeling for like a week but that should help all three of those things, plus help prevent skin cancer in the future. I had to pick a week when I could work from home so that will be the week of July 4. That night we had book club. We talked about the book a little bit but the three new moms showed up with all their little babies so there was a bit of baby talk going on. Still it was great to see everyone since it had been a couple months since the last book club. All the new moms are doing great and the babies are all very cute. Saturday was my birthday and I had a pretty hard time with my birthday this year. I really didn’t want to be turning 38… it’s getting awfully close to 40 and I don’t feel like I’m almost 40 years old. We took the boys the new play area in Tumbleweed Park that is just awesome because it is mostly shaded. I don’t know why we don’t have a lot more shaded areas in Arizona. They boys played for over 2 hours there before we left and had brunch at Brunchies. In the afternoon I took a dinner over to Jeanette’s and got to see Ava. She is very cute and Jeanette seems to be loving motherhood. That night we met Jill and Gert at La Stalla for dinner. Brian had asked if I wanted a cocktail party or a big going out thing and I decided I didn’t feel up to it. Maybe next year. And then something really big for my 40th! The next day I met JenDawg at Wildflower at 7:30 AM with the boys. She is great with the boys. Afterwards we went to the play area which of course was deserted that early in the morning.

On Wednesday a big group of us from work spent several hours doing volunteer work at St. Mary’s Food Bank. We do these events for “teambuilding” and to be honest I just love doing these volunteer things. I find it fun to work (usually some kind of physical labor) with my co-workers, just because it’s easy to interact with them and have fun when we are busy. I worked on the assembly line making emergency food boxes. They had a big conveyor belt where the first person put on a box, then the next person put in cereal, the next one juice, the next one vegetables, the next one fruit (my job) and so on. Someone stands behind you and feeds you cans of food. It was kind of physically demanding. At some point a tower of applesauce cans fell down on my leg. OUCH. It is now a month later and I still have a nasty bruise on my leg from that. I also had a lot of cuts on my hands from the cardboard boxes. But I still had a great time and would do it again in a second.

Saturday night of Memorial Day weekend we went to a wedding. Actually my last two weddings… I didn’t actually see the wedding part… it was just the reception. Maybe that is a growing trend now. My friend Missie and her husband were there so that was fun but the most fun was dancing. I was surprised how much of the Swing that Brian remembered so we really went for it on the dance floor. It was awesome. It renewed my desire to pursue a hobby of ballroom/Latin and swing dancing. We did other things like go to the zoo and to a new café where the parents can sit and drink coffee while the kids play. I even treated myself to a massage on Monday, my first one since my surgery. It feels weird to lie on my stomach because it feels like I am lying on two firm pillows, which I am. But it didn’t bother me.

The next weekend we went to the same playground in Tumbleweed Park and then went straight to the Kids Fare Expo in Glendale at the Cardinals Stadium. I had no idea what this was… all I knew is that Jack would get to meet Dora. Well, whoever organized it must not be a good organizer because they pretty much had one entrance and a bazillion people who showed up. You had to stand in line for like and hour just to get in. But for those of us who drove all the way there from the east valley felt we had to go through with it. Brian stood in line (no shade outside in the hot blazing sun) while I sat in the shade with the boys. We finally got our tickets and went inside and really it was just a bunch of people who had rented booths to sell their stuff or services. You had to pay extra to do the big bouncy thing. And then they had only one concession stand for all those people but only sold hot dogs and crappy nachos. We finally found Dora and the line was super long but we stood in it. Dora was leaving on her break apparently before it was Jack’s turn, only to be replaced the less desirable SpongeBob, so Brian busted his way up there and Jack was the last person to get his picture taken with Dora. After that, I couldn’t get out of there fast enough and I will never go to one of those again.

Sunday I had breakfast at Wildflower with JenDawg and Pam. We stayed for like 2 hours and it seemed we could keep going but we finally had to go. I swung by Target to buy the latest Michael Buble CD and the Nelly Furtado CD. I think there is a lot of good music out there right now. I bought tickets to see Michael Buble at the Dodge Theatre for July… Yvonne and I are going. Sunday afternoon we went to Ger and Ter’s for Terry’s birthday. I ate so much I could barely stand it. Someone had brought a delicious smoked salmon dip I couldn’t stop eating.

On Monday I finally did something I have been talking about for years. I took a private dance lesson, to be followed by others weekly. My goal initially is to become a good social dancer. This means that you can show up to dances and dance well with anyone who asks you. Yes, there are places you can go to ballroom dance where you dance with a lot of different people like every Friday night. So my goal is to be able to go to one of these and be able to dance any of the dances with anyone who asks me. My favorite dance is the samba so that is what we mostly worked on. I completely underestimated the effort involved in dancing for an hour straight. He didn’t spend much time showing me things… we were pretty much dancing the whole time and we were both sweating profusely. He said I learned more in 1 hour than most people learn in two months of group lessons. That is the benefit of doing private lessons… you can go as fast as you can go and don’t have to worry about anyone else. It felt fantastic and I liked the instructor (my guess is that he is about 16 years younger than me!) I did this during my lunch hour and it took a while for my sweaty clothes to dry and my red face to return back to normal. I will have to think more about how to handle this during my lunch hour without looking to disheveled in the afternoon. I am very excited for my next lesson (Monday!) Maybe you will see me on Dancing with the Stars (for seniors). Ha ha.