Birthday girl!!

Friday, September 24, was my birthday. Yay!!! But I started celebrating on Wednesday night. Yay!!! A college friend was in town, and since his wife wasn't able to attend (2 month old and 2 year old in tow), he offered me a ticket to see the Black Eyed Peas! That was a fun show! Lots of great, danceable tunes, Fergie sang great, and the dancers were off the hook!

Thursday night, Brian McKnight in a musical, "It's Cheaper to Keep Her". Unbelievable voice, and funny script.

Friday night, I gathered with a large group of family and friends for dinner at a Nepalese restaurant (ever, the foodie, I love having new food experiences and am a big fan of ethnic cuisine) in Berkeley called Taste of the Himalayas. Delicious!

After dinner, we all went dancing. No, not the typical "go to the club, get a drink and groove to the latest Hot 100 hits" type of dancing: we went to learn to FOXTROT! As you know, I'm a professional dancer in my dreams, and I've been crazy for dance classes lately. In my search for the right school (read: cheap with convenient class times), I came across the Linden Dance School. They offer free (YES! FREE) dance classes and social dancing afterwards. So, I dragged my friends and family to the studio, and we all learned the dance. It was so much fun! Even the non-dancers (ahem...I mean novices) had a great time.

Next stop: my house for karaoke...or something like that. By the time everyone came to my house, it was getting late, people were still slightly full from dinner, and worn out by the foxtrot, hustle, salsa, merengue, and bachata (yes, we did all of that in the social dancing segment), and only a few had the energy to sing while I played. But we had cake and good conversation, which made up for the lack of musical inspiration.

On Saturday, I drove up to the Lake Tahoe area with a few family members. One of my friends has a cabin (really, a beautiful contemporary house, decorated in a rustic style) in the mountains. This was just what I needed: a few hours of solitude, serenity and nature. I actually did not do any work for 2 full days! Full confession...I actually did some poetry writing for about 3 hours, but come on! That's pretty good down time for me!

I watched a few movies: "Why Did I Get Married Too" - UGH! Awful; "The Departed" - Pretty good, but more violent than I prefer; and "Billy Elliot" - OMG!!! Now on my list of favorite movies!!! WOW! Of course, it's about a kid who's passionate about dance. I love movies about kids overcoming obstacles and I love dance. Perfect combo!

Tuesday night, I was treated to dinner at Bocanova in Oakland. Yummy!!! The highlights of the meals were the delicious quinoa salad with avocado and corn, and the seared scallops with green curry sauce. Both were rapturous and caused our eyes to roll back in our heads. But the big surprise of the night? The chocolate bread pudding. Scratching your head, thinking "well, of course that was good"? Here's the rub: I've never liked bread pudding, and despite being a girly-girl, am not all that great a chocolate fan. I enjoy a nice, dark chocolate from time to time, but a box of chocolates will last 6 months in my refrigerator - and no, I'm not exaggerating. But this was bread pudding made with a croissant (one of my favorite guilty pleasures) and Mexican dark chocolate. This dish should be on the list of mortal sins; right alongside lust and gluttony in the lexicon should be a photo of this dish. Deeevine!

And the party continues! More details later... YAY!!!