July 2007

I left off at the end of June. We went to Cayman and Jagger’s birthday party which was a cookout and pool party. The boys had a really good time swimming and eating cake. I enjoyed the adult beverages of course. The next day I got an “IPL with Levulan” treatment. They put this Levulan gel on my face that made my face very photosensitive and they left it on for four hours. Then I went back for the laser treatment. By putting on the Levulan, it makes the laser really get down deep and is maybe the equivalent of three IPL’s. The downside is that my face was bright red and stinging for a day like a sunburn. Then it was bright red. And then pink and then it peeled and peeled. It took about a week to completely get back to normal and then I would say another week to actually look better than it looked before. I think in general my complexion looks better but not as big of a difference as I was hoping. They say you sometimes need 2 to 3 treatments but I am not sure I want to take it on again any time soon.

I reconnected with old friend of mine named Chrissy. We used to be neighbors from 1996 – 2000. It was pretty unusual that two single women the exact same age each bought a house next to each other in a neighborhood with a bunch of families. We lost touch after we moved to our new neighborhood but it turns out our neighbors across the street are best friends with her. She got married and had 3 kids since I last really saw her… we went to their house for July 4th and had a really nice time. She and her husband always put on great food spreads including homemade tortilla chips to go with homemade salsa. I couldn’t help but gorge myself.

Brian and I went out on a date to a new wine bar in Chandler. It was excellent. We sat at the bar and split a bottle of wine and ordered some appetizers and salads. This is my favorite way to eat dinner… not have a big entrée with a piece of meat… I would rather graze.

The next day I had brunch with Missie and afterwards we went to Nordstom Rack. I found a cool top even though it has an empire waist. Brian hates those tops and it seems they constitute 90% of what is on the racks these days. They do make you look kind of pregnant. After being pregnant and looking pregnant in the past few years, it’s not a look I want to have right now. I bought it anyway. Later that day, Sarah came over for swimming and dinner. We have been taking the boys out swimming just about every weekend afternoon and it’s a really nice time. Over a few mojitos, Sarah shared some details of her new long-distance relationship with a guy named Richard. There are some interesting challenges with it since he lives in Beijing so it’s not like someone who lives across the country.

Tuesday night was my first introduction to Bunco. This is a very easy dice game that women play as an excuse to get out of the house and drink with their friends. Pretty much like a book club. Ha ha. Chrissy had a wonderful spread again and I enjoyed meeting a bunch of new people. You need 12 players and you try to rotate houses every month. I had a really good time.

A couple nights later I went to a Party Lite party and bought a couple candle holders. Brian told me I couldn’t buy candles but he didn’t say I couldn’t buy candle holders.

Friday night Brian and I went to the Diamondbacks game with Pam and Murray and we stayed afterwards for the free Peacemakers concert. Brian and Murray are huge fans and were going crazy. I was surprised how many people stayed for the concert afterward. On Saturday we went to the Arizona Science Center with the boys and had a really good time. We ate a tea house afterwards and the boys were pretty decent. I thought it was a risk to go to a tea house with them. That afternoon I got a haircut that I really like. Shorter in the back and longer on the sides. On Sunday morning we got the boys’ picture taken. They were really good again and very cute. And then the highlight of the whole weekend was going to the Michael Bublé with Yvonne on Sunday night. I have always been a fan and have all his CD’s… but his concert was the best one I have ever been to (and I don’t speak in superlatives!) He really played with the crowd and had a great connection and even ran out into the audience and all around the theater. Everyone was going crazy. Yvonne and I had a great time.

I went to Gold Canyon candle party at my neighbor’s house. This time Brian didn’t tell me I couldn’t buy candles so I bought a couple. I don’t know why he thinks we have too many candles! I met a woman in the neighborhood I had met before once or twice who has two boys about Jack and Ty’s ages. We agreed that having two little boys was interesting and crazy and that we should get them together. Just have to find the time.

The next day we had a four hour work event at the F1 Factory Kart racing place… they have kart racing on an indoor track, rock climbing, a pit crew challenge where it’s a real car and real tires and you race each other to see who can do it the fastest and then a bunch of arcade games. I did the rock climbing which I haven’t done since I was at camp when I was 16 years old. It is harder now, even though I originally did it on real rocks where they don’t have really great hand holds. But I was much younger then. Then I did the kart racing which was fun… you are out there for like 15 minutes and it’s quite hot but fun. Then I did the pit crew challenge with Brian and this other guy from work. We went up against other teams of 3 to 5 people that were all men. We had the only team with a woman on it and we only had 3 people. And we won it! That felt great. Then I played the dance revolution game for quite a while which doesn’t require any dancing skills at all. In fact, it sort it worked against me because you have to stomp for the game to recognize your step. I am not used to doing such physical things through the day but I had a blast.

On Friday, I went to a going away happy hour for someone I have worked with for a long time. She is moving to Nebraska to marry the love of her life. What a good reason to leave the company.

So the dancing lessons are going pretty well. I go one time per week during my lunch hour and my instructor is named Will. He is about 23 years old. We’ve been working at getting me ready for social dancing. Social dancing means you show up to a social “open” dance where a DJ plays music that corresponds to all the ballroom, Latin and swing dances and you dance with pretty much anyone who asks you to dance (or anyone you ask). Given the sheer number of dances and moves to each dance, we’ve been focused on understanding basic patterns/rhythms and then my following skills. Obviously this wouldn’t work if I were dancing with a beginner so I have to count on dancing with someone who knows what they are doing. Friday night was my debut with the social dancing. I felt like I was going to throw up for most of the day. I was worried that no one would ask me to dance for one and secondly that if someone did, that I would be terrible. Sarah came with me for moral support. From 7:30 – 9 PM they do lessons and you keep rotating partners. At 9 they start the open dancing. Will showed up and surprised me by dancing with me for a lot of the dances at the beginning which I thought was really nice of him to do. I wasn’t expecting him to do that. So I really enjoyed that because he is a great dancer and a great lead and I can dance just about anything with him. I danced with a few other guys, most of them about 3 times each. Many were very good leads and I had a great time. Some were OK and we struggled a bit. One in particular wasn’t such a good lead and the West Coast Swing (my worst dance) was a disaster. My other disaster was the Viennese Waltz which I didn’t know the basic pattern for and it is definitely not like the waltz. But overall I had such a good time and I only sat out 2 – 3 dances. I left only because my feet were killing me and I got home a little before midnight. I am not going to be able to go every Friday night and if I’m lucky I can go 2x/months. Brian is going to hike rim to rim to rim in September so he got up at 4:30 AM to hike Camelback the next morning and I got up with the kids at 6 AM. I was so tired!