Catchin' Up

Oh my gosh so much to write about, but where to start? One huge and fabulous thing is that I am typing this on my shiny new Mac Book in my home, not at work, and listening to the soundtrack to Juno. SO GOOD. Who is this Kimya Dawson person? "Loose Lips" is amazing.

The holidays were so much fun. And Christmas with the Leibowhites was awesome. We drank great wine, ate lots and lots of food (Misty made knishes!!) and laughed our butts off watching Elf and Charlie Brown Christmas.

New Years Eve was spent with Joe and Jill at Bimbo's. I just had this goofy smile on my face all night. I mean, people dressed in fancy 30's/40's clothes, Big Sandy & his Flyrite Boys playin' rockabilly swing, people swing dancing... I was in heaven! Joe got me on the dance floor a few times, which was a blast. And at midnight...a balloon drop!
A few photos here.

My 39th birthday was spent at home with me, a glass of wine and a movie. Just what I wanted after weeks of house/animal sits. I was CRAVING home. That was my gift to myself... Btw... rent Waitress. It's one of the best movies I've seen in quite awhile.

Then that night the mighty storm hit. I didn't sleep all night between the loud drumming of the rain on my skylight to the shaking of my room by the what felt like 80 mph gusts of wind. My power ended up being out for 24 hours. I didn't go into work because the power was out there as well...that and the fact that 101 was shut down. Thank god for my fireplace and gas stove. I ended up having to cook up all the meat in my freezer. It was fun but I have to say if you live alone and don't have power, it can get mighty boring. I was so happy when I remembered I had an old Walkman. It had a radio on it! Yes! haha. I read, played with the fire, cooked, walked around town, went to the video store to charge my phone... fun right? notsomuch. The next day I awoke with power, yeah! So I bundled up, ran across the street for yogurt, milk, eggs, etc and got back home and guess what? No power!! No kidding. But it came on a few hours later.

That was my big New Year craziness....or so I thought... A few weeks before, Jill called me up and said she wanted to throw a small dinner party for my birthday, invite Misty, Ted, Ethan and Joe. Yay! I wanted to do something to get my friends together like last year's bowling party which was so much darn fun, but I couldn't think of something, so I dropped it. This dinner party thing sounded like a nice alternative.

Long story short... Jill and Misty and Joe were in cahoots! When Joe got me to Jill's, there were not 5 people but 20~! All my buddies were there, yelling happy birthday, with big smiles and warm hugs. Misty made the most incredibly moist TWO-layered birthday cake and brought funny tractor and animal balloons & Italian wine and Jill brought out the champagne and Chinese food. Joe made his yummy gourmet pizzas! Ted made a Kate birthday playlist!

Everyone was so wonderful and the gifts.. I'm humbled just thinking about them. Spa treatments, a whole wine package, an old and beautiful Kodak range finder camera, a tear-inducing photo collage, Harry Potter, a cool ecocalendar, a gift certificate for a psychic reading, essential oils, a secret, thrilling gift from B & P and Jill made Limoncello! So much more but I'm tired and need sleep. For you all to make it out to Marin a day after the big storm, well I was and still am speechless. Thank you thank you thank you. I will never forget it. I am one lucky woman. Hope I didn't just bore the crap out of you. Till next time.
Jenai's photos here.