Gee, the blog has been awfully quiet, hasn't it? Turns out I had a busy weekend. Busy with lots of stuff which I'll soon talk about, and busy with some pretty intense personal growth (which I won't). ;)
Day 41: Saturday
Saturday pretty much rocked. First Elyse and I went to the Taste of Greece festival at Tempe Town Lake. I'd never been there before, and I'm definitely going again next year. It was...
delicious...
exotic...
and tons of fun.
Regarding the food, we purposely picked food we'd never had before. Most of it (except the baklava) I'd never heard of and couldn't pronounce. Almost all of it was incredibly delicious. The weather was perfect, and the booths tempted us with beautiful hand-painted art (oh man), pretty jewelry, and the most gorgeous skirt I'd ever seen in my life. It was comfortable too. I'm telling you, this thing was a skirt in perfection. I'm saving up my money and buying it next year!!! ;)
Afterwards, we went to Fashion Square Mall (which I almost never go to) to try on clothes we couldn't afford. It was pretty fun, and solidified in my mind that the difference between a $15 t-shirt and a $109 t-shirt simply isn't worth the price. Or the envy. Yes, I actually tried on a t-shirt that cost $109, but Elyse tried on a dress worth $300 so she had me beat. I wouldn't even want to
touch a dress worth that much, for fear I'd "break" it and have to buy it! LOL.
Then she took me to the movies there and we watched X-Men Wolverine. Aside from one part that made me think "oh give me a break" it was a fun movie and I can't wait to see it again with my hubby. :)
After that... (done? No, we weren't done. Heck, we were just getting started...)
After that we met my friends from California at
Fleming's restaurant in Scottsdale. I'll back up a second and give you a quick run down of Friday night - a little easier to do now that I've had some sleep.
My friend
Lynn from California, who I'd met through Sparkpeople, came to town for a vacation. I was so stoked to be able to see her again. I just love Lynn. :) She came with her best friend Polly, who I'd met while I was in California. She's the kind of person you like pretty much immediately. She has that effect on people. So even though I'd only seen her one night in California, I was excited to see her again too.
Anyway, while in town for this visit, Lynn and Polly had gone to Fleming's their first night there (Thursday) and made friends with Scott the owner, Michelle their waitress, and I don't know who all else. They had such a good time that they decided that's where we'd have dinner together on Friday (which they so generously treated me to - a good thing too because I couldn't even afford a
tip there, let alone the dinner).
Dinner Friday night was amazing. The food was fantastic (I had seared ahi for the first time). I had a great time seeing Lynn and Polly again and enjoyed talking to Scott and Michelle too. They'd requested Michelle as their waitress again (she showed us pictures of her little girl, and she's adorable), and Scott spent most of the time sitting with us too. He's super nice and it was fun getting to know him. He had to get up periodically to take care of whatever it was he had to take care of, but he always came back. He pretty much ordered for us, had us try more than one appetizer and dessert, and more or less treated us like guests of honor. It was awesome.
In return we teased him about his pet peeve - water glasses that need to be refilled. "You should never have to ask for more water," he said. At that moment, I realized I'd been drinking water that whole time, never even noticed it being refilled, and there it sat in front of me. Full.
So, naturally, Polly dumped my water into her empty wine glass and we watched poor Scott go crazy while we waited less than a minute for this lovely busboy to come swoop my glass off the table and fill it with water. It was pretty funny.
Late in the evening, Scott came back from wherever he'd been that time to say his friend Perry had just come in. "Where's he at?" Polly wanted to know. "At the bar," Scott says. "Why didn't he come join us?" Polly asked.
Who on earth is going to come sit down with perfect strangers, right? But I think she was genuinely perplexed as to why Perry was at the bar instead of with us. By this time, I'd gotten to know Polly well enough to know that it wouldn't be long before Perry came to his senses.
Sure enough, despite Scott's explanation that Perry was in a grumpy sort of mood, Polly marched herself over to Perry and got him to agree to come over. In about 30 seconds.
I don't know how she does it. This is so NOT my personality. Once I get to know people I'm open enough, but for the most part I'm pretty reserved. I had a ton of fun watching Polly pull people into our circle that night and the next. I enjoyed meeting these people so much, it made me want to be more outgoing. I can see why Polly and Lynn are such good friends, because Lynn is very open and accepting of people too. I remember being nervous about staying at someone else's house in California, but she put me at ease right away.
But I digress.
Polly came back to the table, and a few minutes later Perry scooted himself next to me and joined us. He's a 54-year-old man in the "adult beverage" industry (read: liquor), who's a 14-year survivor of a rare and fatal kind of cancer. He's pretty rough around the edges, but nice and very inspiring too. After telling us about his divorce, his cancer, and his return to his dream (the drums) he expressed amazement that he was sitting there telling us his life story. We all opened up a little and it was a touching experience.
I really wish I'd gotten a picture of all these people. They were so fun to talk to. (Although actually, if you care to see a picture of Scott you can go
here. He's the cutie-patootie with the goatee. Now I remember that Steve came by to introduce himself as well, but we just saw him the once so it wasn't really the same.)
Hmm. Did I say the run down for Friday night was going to be quick? Silly me.
Anyway, back to Saturday. By the time Elyse and I were done with the movie, it was about 8:30 and we had a couple hours to before our next activity with Lynn and Polly. I knew they'd be at Fleming's, and I had a funny feeling they wouldn't mind us coming and hanging out with them, so that's what we did.
Fortunately they were done eating - that would've been awkward to sit there and watch them eat.
We certainly weren't hungry, between Greek food for lunch and movie theatre popcorn for dinner. ;) So Elyse got to meet Scott and Michelle. We both got to meet yet another new friend Lynn and Polly had made, Eli. He works at Fleming's too, and has only been here about a year after spending seven in Maui, and various other years in various other parts of the country.
Anyway, the reason Lynn came to Scottsdale at this particular time was because her divorce was finalized this weekend, and Polly insisted she had to do something fun to mark the occasion. It may sound a bit morbid, but I totally understand. Divorce, even when it's for the right reasons, is painful. Who wants to sit at home thinking "gee, my marriage is officially over today." No, no, no. I totally get the reason behind doing something fun instead.
Along those lines, Lynn wanted to have a toast in her wedding glasses and then smash them. Polly didn't want to see the pretty glasses ruined, which kind of surprised me. I was all for it. Poor Lynn had to explain her reasons over and over again, but she finally got to do it. Scott said she could use the firepit on the patio, so that's what she did.
Hooray!
You know, since this is my blog I have to insert an aside here. It breaks my heart to see marriages and families broken up like this. I'm not passing judgment on Lynn or anyone else. Not at all. But whether right or wrong, divorce is hard for everyone involved. It makes me that much more committed to my sweet husband and our family. Marriage is hard work. You have to love each other "intentionally", as Lynn's parents would say. You have to deliberately nurture that relationship and remember that above all else, you're still sweethearts. Sometimes it's hard to do that while you're dealing with kids and bills and all the lovely pitfalls of real life, but it's worth it. And necessary.
But I digress again.
So with glasses smashed and goodbyes said to our Fleming's friends, the four of us went to see Rock Lobster. Well, we didn't say goodbye to all our Fleming's friends. Eli actually met us there which was pretty fun. We tried to get Scott to go too, but apparently he has a family to get home to (whatever) and we tried to convince Perry to skip out on his plans to go to Sedona, but that didn't work out either (double whatever). ;)
Anyway, Rock Lobster is a fantastic 80's cover band and it was so much fun watching them play. Even though I felt a little self-conscious at first, I danced my heart out and ultimately had a great time doing it! We had a blast.
Here's a picture of the four of us, back at the hotel before saying our goodbyes. They thought I was crazy for suggesting a picture at 3:00 am, but you can't tell we're exhausted.
Can you?
Polly, Elyse, Lynn and me
So what was I grateful for Saturday? The whole day. And it may not make sense for me to say this, but I'm also grateful for the courage it took me to have this kind of day, and completely be myself while doing it.
Day 42: Sunday
1st item on the agenda: sleep in.
2nd item on the agenda: get up, go to the bathroom, get a drink, then go back to sleep.
Was that too much information? ;) I think this was the first Sunday I was glad for 2:30 church.
Sunday was an amazing day too, but since pretty much everything about that day involves private, personal growth stuff, I'll just say this. I'm deeply grateful for the Lord, and for the way He's helped me through difficult trials in my life. There have been so many people who have touched my life in one way or another - people who have been there for me during the last many months and weeks. I've needed it. Sometimes it's been something as seemingly small as a hug in the hallway at church. Sometimes it's something as huge as someone taking hours out of a busy schedule to talk to me, help me, strengthen me, and be the Lord's mouthpiece on the earth.
I have a testimony of the Lord's love for us. Of His love for me. Sometimes life hands us a pretty, little trial that simply knocks us on our rear, but if we can just keep our hand clasped tightly in His, He'll help us up and we'll be okay.
Day 43: Today
Honestly, I'm still so grateful for the life-changing nature of my entire weekend that I have to really stop and think about something specific to today.
Oh gee. Now that I have it, it seems obvious. Tonight we had one of those FHE's where the spirit was so strong. That just doesn't happen all the time and I'm always grateful when it does. We followed that up with a fun game of Sorry and some chocolate chip cookies.
What more could I want?
(See the token candle there? It only gets to stay until I acquire more art books - then it's all over for the candle.)
(Actually, this picture is old. I've already finished The Reader. Three stars. Worth reading. In case you want to know.)
First peach fit for human consumption!
Yum!
(It's no surprise I went with red, right?)
I'm not too crazy about this pic of myself, but I love Miss Lisa so here it is. I absolutely love working with her in the Primary. She has to be one of the nicest people I've ever met. I had a great time chatting with her (and meeting one of her clients, Sharon, who recently got back from a cruise to Australia and SE Asia - niiiiice!). 
