lxforever

“I took the stars from our eyes, and then I made a map / and knew that somehow I could find my way back / then I heard your heart beating, you were in the darkness too / so I stayed in the darkness with you

—Florence and the Machine

2009 is over!

I never thought I’d be happy to see a nine go.

I mean, duh, but that’s become more and more apparent every day. Thank the heavens. If only I’d been born on 1/1/80, then I could also have my life-decade zeroes coincide with the year-decade zeroes. That’s fine, though; it seems that more or less that whole decade was a good package unto itself. And now to move on!

That made no sense, sorry.

Anyway. I had an amazing weekend and so I feel the need to document it, even though it’s already Tuesday.

FRIDAY: Had to be in early for the employment #s, so I grabbed some Caribou oatmeal (my latest luxury addiction, if you can call it luxe) and slid through the snow into work. That meant, however, that I got to leave early, and at the end of the day I headed over to Edison to do some coaching/gymnastics-watching/hanging out. ALWAYS a good time, and I always learn something. What a great group of girls with a super coach.

I then went home for a LateNightSkateDate with Jeff. I thought the snowy flutteriness would dissuade our skating, but no fear! We had some snacks and headed on over to Pearl Park. I found my favorite pair of loaner hockey skates and broke out the tricks….well, I tried; Jeff really did break out the tricks, he’s such a pro. We worked on my balance and circles and skating backwards amidst the crazy kids / under the bright night lights / through the bit of snow on the ice, and I had some HOT cocoa.

We then made our way to Longfellow Grill for their awesome late night happy hour and piping hot diner food. After a parking fiasco, we enjoyed pierogies and drink specials (Tequila Mockingbird, yes!) and then some very yummy, very calorie-y dinners. I love that place. Then home to an early-ish bedtime – skating can really wipe you out!

SATURDAY: Thanks to our early-to-bed-ness, we woke up well rested and at the same time, instead of me sneaking out of bed early, for once. We took our time getting up, reading and messing with our various electronic accessories (Touch, Wii, DS – it’s ridiculous at our house right now), and then finally got it together and went to the gym. A bit of an extra long workout with not too many Saturday gym freaks was divine. Back home to shower up, eat some eggs, and complete Saturday errands and tasks. Jeff did the grocery shopping while I enjoyed coffee and jellybeans and almost finished my book (Handle With Care, Jodi Picoult – I’m kind of addicted to her, and what a great but sad read that was indeed). (COFFEE! Black DD coffee [brewed at home – we don’t have DD here, people!] is my new fave, or sometimes with cinnamon. Who knew I’d become a coffee addict? Not me. Dangit! Anyway.)

Finally I felt guilted into starting our taxes, and that I did, after helping Jeff put away groceries. I do like doing taxes, except for when I got to the end of ours this year. Argh. (Suffice it to say I was expecting a refund and not a significant pay-in. Oh Well.) I promptly had a freak out and rushed off to pick Diana up to hit up the UMN gymnastics meet. It was best of MN. We were a little bit late due to my freak-out, but luckily Brandon had saved us seats. (Super crowded – it was Girl Scout night or something.) It was delightful to hang with D and Brandon and enjoy a VARIETY of gymnastics skills as well (yay for four teams and DIII AND DI at the same time). The gymnastics meet/seeing Diana was completely necessary as it distracted me from my tax freak-out. Thank GOODNESS.

Back home to find Jeff finishing up his version of our taxes in TurboTax. Turns out I am not a tax genius (note: I still think I am), but I don’t think TT is either. Enough! But, things were significantly better either way and so I felt good. We Hung Out for awhile longer and then to bed.

SUNDAY: I woke up super early (well, not super, but for going to bed at midnight/it being a weekend/me not having obligations, early) and expected to fall back asleep. However, I got very distracted by my book, and spent the next two and a half hours reading and finishing it. Ahhh! I hate when I finish a good book, because then I feel lost until the next one, but WCYD. I can’t make it stop! Anyway. It was sooooooooo wonderful to be cozy in bed just reading. What a ridiculously nice life I have. Just about the time I finished the book, Jeff woke up and we got started on our day. I played a little Wii and worked on Valentines and perused the paper. I’m not sure what Jeff did, ha, whoops. Well, we were Hanging OUT!

I then decided to (finally! I’d been meaning to for awhile) go for a swim, and peeled on my swimsuit and drove up to the U. It was truly meant to be – I found a FREE parking spot just a block from the Nat (note, NEVER HAPPENS) that someone was JUST pulling out of, then I got in the Rec center for FREE somehow. THEN, I got to share a giant lane in the Nat and watch some open diving (I’ll have to do that next time!), and THEN they moved us to creepy Cooke 15, which I actually kind of like, and then I got the lane to myself up there, since fewer people wanted to move. Woo hoo! (Hey, it doesn’t take much.) Swimming is so peaceful and wonderful. I <3 it. Need to do more of that. Showered and headed back home where we made up some pizzas and cookies and watched the Superbowl together - well, really the commercials and The Who. I think the Vikes not making it made it tough on some superfans (not me, but others). We had a little Hanging Out/watching stuff party! Yay. Then to bed at a decent time to cap off a wonderful weekend indeed. Yay for Feb. OK gtg, Jeff is picking me up, but this weekend I am off to SF! Does it get any better? No! Later (l8r).