Tu B'Shvat in the snow and other stories
Tomorrow is a snow day! (As a sometimes substitute teacher, I have a legitimate reason for watching the school closings. Unlike when I was in QDRO-land and would cheer when I saw my high school wobble across the bottom of the screen...and then remembered I had to go to work anyway.) It started snowing around midday today...by 3 pm when I returned from jazzercise, grocery store and gas station, it was coming down pretty determinedly and driving was starting to get exciting. Luckily, I was able to come home and curl up with the kitteh in my nice warm house. With some irony, amidst all the snow, tonight is also Tu B'Shevat, the 15th of the Hebrew month of Shevat, also called "The birthday of the trees". But more on that later.
It puts me in mind of last monday's snowstorm, in which the daddy-llama drove me and the mommy-llama to the airport so we could take our spa trip to the Oaks in Ojai (o-HAI!, like a lolcat) California. Alas, last monday our plane was delayed because of a broken part (which was compounded by snow, because they had to bring it in from another city.) By the time they had the plane fixed, we would have missed our connection in Denver to Santa Barbara. (Unlike the Elvis tribute artist I was chatting with in line at the gate counter, who missed his show in Vegas because of the delay - we were on vacation so we didn't miss anything.) Calling discretion the better part of valor, we called a cab and went home. (The airline gave us food vouchers and $200 credits for our next trip).
Tuesday, we made it to the airport and all flights in good form. The vouchers came in handy for lunch in Denver. The airport shuttle picked us up in the Santa Barbara airport (which is kind of like a mission-style toy airport) and drove us up the winding highway into the Ojai Valley. It was my first trip to southern CA (M. and I visited northern CA in the summer of 2005), and I was fascinated by the geography (mountains! ocean!) and the ecology. The driver was happy to play tour guide (the fabulous mansions of Montecito! The biggest fig tree in Santa Barbara! Avocado and lemon groves!) and mommy-llama and I appreciatively oooh-ed and ahh-ed. (We decided that the drive from the airport was half the fun and were glad that we didn't push our trip the previous day to arrive in the middle of the night.
Ojai is this artsy little tourist town which is famous for boarding schools and resorts and art galleries. It is not a place where normal people live. However, it is very beautiful and charming and we were willing to leave reality behind for a few days. It is also the place where they filmed Easy-A with Emma Stone which is principally notable only for that I watched it with the ever-awesome flolow.
So Mommy-llama and I checked into the Oaks for the their mother-daughter week special, where we were oriented to all the fitness classes and had dinner. The meal seating encourages people to mix and mingle with people you don't know, sort of like Shabbat at summer camp, except it is all very beautifully prepared and served in courses. They serve deliciously evil vegetables (Well, M. thinks they're evil vegetables) like bok choy and chard and napa cabbage. And I'm pretty sure they sneak tofu into all of their desserts. And your daily caloric alottment is something like 1200 calories. When I think of spas, I think of places where you get covered in seaweed and have cucumber slices plastered on your eyes. I think you could theoretically do that at the Oaks, but Mommy-llama and I opted for the fitness aspect (it was one of the original "fat farms" of the '60's). For evening programs they varied from lectures to a harp performance. The first night, we had an art project with etching templates(kind of like when you were little and colored on solid blocks of crayon on paper, then covered it with black tempera, that when dry, you could scratch away with toothpicks), except the paper was already prepared and the teacher (who is a local artist and art teacher) had provided specialized tools. I made a dragonfly and my mom made a sunflower. We got a kick out of telling people we were from KS and had left behind 6 inches of snow and freezing temperatures to come to 70 deg so. cal. We also played bingo, which was surprisingly fun. I won a dozen dietetic muffins (which they served every morning for breakfast in many different flavors).
The fitness programs went something like this. First you get up and pick your poison: Brisk Walk around Ojai, hike in the mtns or leisurely stroll. Mommy-llama and I did the brisk walk, where were trailed at the end of the line and talked to people and oohed and ahhed at the scenery (mountains! cypress! pomegranate tree! coastal live oaks!) Then you eat breakfast. Then you take a stretching class. Then some cardio - on different days, we did Zumba and step aerobics and something stretchy with balls and bands, then you get a "potassium broth break" which was sort of watered down vegetable soup. (I liked it, Mommy-llama was ambivalent.) Then you do some more strength stuff. Then you eat lunch. Then you do something else - I did jazz dance one day, and we did "aqua tone" with these neat water hand bells and more Zumba. Then you get a fruit smoothie. Then there was Yoga. And then sitting in the hot tub because everything hurts. And then you get to eat dinner and have evening program. We slept very, very well.
After 3 days of the Oaks, it was enough. We had a wonderful time, but were happy to come home. I had shabbat morning services with my littles at synagogue. Sunday morning was religious school, where the kids were putting together a fabulous Tu B'Shvat Seder, with a dramatic adaptation of Howard Schwartz's retelling of the Jewish folktale, An Apple from the Tree of Life. Monday was the MLK Jr. holiday, and I had appointments and then was able to hang out with librarian extraordinaire Anna Francesca, where we exchanged lists of YA novels to read. Tuesday, I ran errands, acquired a new pair of lightweight waterproof snowboots (which will come in handy for driveway shovelling tomorrow). I renewed my YMCA membership and paid my first visit to the pool. A nice man allowed me to share his lap lane (but I think I must have been annoying because he quickly exited the pool after I started swimming). I was able to swim laps -mostly breast stroke - for about 15 - 20 minutes and then I decided to that was enough for a start. I practiced the crawl, but I think I may be doing it wrong because it leaves me much more tired after a single lap than that breast stroke does.
I also gave a Tu'Bshvat worm talk with the worm friends at KI Synagogue religious school. The kids were also planting bean sprouts, so the worms making dirt segued nicely into putting dirt into cups with the bean sprouts. The kids asked me how big the bean sprouts would get, and honestly, I had to tell them I didn't know, my mom threw out all my bean sprout projects before they ever got that tall. (In all fairness to the mommy-llama, the bean sprouts of my nursery school days were probably DOA, anyway.)
It puts me in mind of last monday's snowstorm, in which the daddy-llama drove me and the mommy-llama to the airport so we could take our spa trip to the Oaks in Ojai (o-HAI!, like a lolcat) California. Alas, last monday our plane was delayed because of a broken part (which was compounded by snow, because they had to bring it in from another city.) By the time they had the plane fixed, we would have missed our connection in Denver to Santa Barbara. (Unlike the Elvis tribute artist I was chatting with in line at the gate counter, who missed his show in Vegas because of the delay - we were on vacation so we didn't miss anything.) Calling discretion the better part of valor, we called a cab and went home. (The airline gave us food vouchers and $200 credits for our next trip).
Tuesday, we made it to the airport and all flights in good form. The vouchers came in handy for lunch in Denver. The airport shuttle picked us up in the Santa Barbara airport (which is kind of like a mission-style toy airport) and drove us up the winding highway into the Ojai Valley. It was my first trip to southern CA (M. and I visited northern CA in the summer of 2005), and I was fascinated by the geography (mountains! ocean!) and the ecology. The driver was happy to play tour guide (the fabulous mansions of Montecito! The biggest fig tree in Santa Barbara! Avocado and lemon groves!) and mommy-llama and I appreciatively oooh-ed and ahh-ed. (We decided that the drive from the airport was half the fun and were glad that we didn't push our trip the previous day to arrive in the middle of the night.
Ojai is this artsy little tourist town which is famous for boarding schools and resorts and art galleries. It is not a place where normal people live. However, it is very beautiful and charming and we were willing to leave reality behind for a few days. It is also the place where they filmed Easy-A with Emma Stone which is principally notable only for that I watched it with the ever-awesome flolow.
So Mommy-llama and I checked into the Oaks for the their mother-daughter week special, where we were oriented to all the fitness classes and had dinner. The meal seating encourages people to mix and mingle with people you don't know, sort of like Shabbat at summer camp, except it is all very beautifully prepared and served in courses. They serve deliciously evil vegetables (Well, M. thinks they're evil vegetables) like bok choy and chard and napa cabbage. And I'm pretty sure they sneak tofu into all of their desserts. And your daily caloric alottment is something like 1200 calories. When I think of spas, I think of places where you get covered in seaweed and have cucumber slices plastered on your eyes. I think you could theoretically do that at the Oaks, but Mommy-llama and I opted for the fitness aspect (it was one of the original "fat farms" of the '60's). For evening programs they varied from lectures to a harp performance. The first night, we had an art project with etching templates(kind of like when you were little and colored on solid blocks of crayon on paper, then covered it with black tempera, that when dry, you could scratch away with toothpicks), except the paper was already prepared and the teacher (who is a local artist and art teacher) had provided specialized tools. I made a dragonfly and my mom made a sunflower. We got a kick out of telling people we were from KS and had left behind 6 inches of snow and freezing temperatures to come to 70 deg so. cal. We also played bingo, which was surprisingly fun. I won a dozen dietetic muffins (which they served every morning for breakfast in many different flavors).
The fitness programs went something like this. First you get up and pick your poison: Brisk Walk around Ojai, hike in the mtns or leisurely stroll. Mommy-llama and I did the brisk walk, where were trailed at the end of the line and talked to people and oohed and ahhed at the scenery (mountains! cypress! pomegranate tree! coastal live oaks!) Then you eat breakfast. Then you take a stretching class. Then some cardio - on different days, we did Zumba and step aerobics and something stretchy with balls and bands, then you get a "potassium broth break" which was sort of watered down vegetable soup. (I liked it, Mommy-llama was ambivalent.) Then you do some more strength stuff. Then you eat lunch. Then you do something else - I did jazz dance one day, and we did "aqua tone" with these neat water hand bells and more Zumba. Then you get a fruit smoothie. Then there was Yoga. And then sitting in the hot tub because everything hurts. And then you get to eat dinner and have evening program. We slept very, very well.
After 3 days of the Oaks, it was enough. We had a wonderful time, but were happy to come home. I had shabbat morning services with my littles at synagogue. Sunday morning was religious school, where the kids were putting together a fabulous Tu B'Shvat Seder, with a dramatic adaptation of Howard Schwartz's retelling of the Jewish folktale, An Apple from the Tree of Life. Monday was the MLK Jr. holiday, and I had appointments and then was able to hang out with librarian extraordinaire Anna Francesca, where we exchanged lists of YA novels to read. Tuesday, I ran errands, acquired a new pair of lightweight waterproof snowboots (which will come in handy for driveway shovelling tomorrow). I renewed my YMCA membership and paid my first visit to the pool. A nice man allowed me to share his lap lane (but I think I must have been annoying because he quickly exited the pool after I started swimming). I was able to swim laps -mostly breast stroke - for about 15 - 20 minutes and then I decided to that was enough for a start. I practiced the crawl, but I think I may be doing it wrong because it leaves me much more tired after a single lap than that breast stroke does.
I also gave a Tu'Bshvat worm talk with the worm friends at KI Synagogue religious school. The kids were also planting bean sprouts, so the worms making dirt segued nicely into putting dirt into cups with the bean sprouts. The kids asked me how big the bean sprouts would get, and honestly, I had to tell them I didn't know, my mom threw out all my bean sprout projects before they ever got that tall. (In all fairness to the mommy-llama, the bean sprouts of my nursery school days were probably DOA, anyway.)