The Weekend Edition, Unabridged....
The original plan for the past weekend was the following:
Friday evening: Work out at March Wellness, make big fish dinner afterwards.
Saturday: Make an iPhoto picture book (and submit it online), go on a bike/hike adventure to Forest Park trails, enjoy yummy food and beer at a nearby brewpub afterwards, practice piano, go watch a Railer show.
Sunday: Have breakfast and then go to the Tulip festival with katiekatiepants, run errands, practice piano, work out at March Wellness, make a yummy dinner.
What actually happened over the weekend:
Friday evening: After the workout, I received a text message from misprid, inviting me to a drinkie gathering at Castle Sadmore. I bicycled home, quickly reserved a Flexcar starting at 11 p.m. (which did not cost me a cent), and made a quick salad and hummus dinner instead of the fish dinner. It was great seeing Mistina and rest of the Sadmore posse (including Joey from Seattle), and it was nice getting caught up with peeps. I got to hear new music by subharmonix, which made me smile. It looks like I got invited to Castle Sadmore for a vegan dinner on Wednesday evening. Yay!
Saturday: After completing the iPhoto book, the sunny and warm afternoon tempted me to pursue the bike/hike adventure plans. But I wanted to fiddle with my computer for a quick bit before heading out. What I thought was going to be a simple hardware upgrade turned out to be an all-day exercise in hardware troubleshooting, software upgrading, and an opportunity lost to hike in the sunny outdoors. But instead of freaking out about the sudden change of plans, I remained calm throughout and relaxed throughout the day. The futzing around with the Power Mac is still ongoing (I just need to reinstall important programs and run some updates), but in the process of troubleshooting, I decided to yank out the unused hard drives and peripherals that were attached inside the computer. Not am I reducing wear and tear on unused components, but I am probably lowering electricity consumption on my computer system. This is a good thing. If I had experienced a trying day like this several years ago, I would have probably let the drastic change in plans affect my mood adversely, and I probably would not have enjoyed the evening's activities (the Railer show) as much. After the show, I stopped by a local pizza joint for a possible late-evening sustenance, but they were closing early that evening. No worries--I made a quick, tasty hummus and cheese plate once I arrived home, and saved myself about $6 by eating at home.
Sunday: It turned out that Katie was really tired from working a hellish shift at her job the previous night. She wasn't feeling energetic enough to making the 45-minute drive to the tulip festival and back. No worries though. We wound up perusing the stores in the nearby Pearl district instead and had a great time. Spending a leisurely late morning consuming pastry-and-coffee breakfast at the spacious and warm Pearl Bakery was awesome. We wound up perusing the cookbook and food literature section at Powell's Books (the Hungry Planet: What the World Eats book was so stunningly thought-provoking and visually fascinating!), looked at the table settings and other goodies at Sur La Table (I scored a festive, spring-y placemats and cloth napkins), enjoyed consuming luscious and delectable gourmet truffles and spicy drinking chocolate at Cacao (I wanted to score gifts for G's upcoming birthday at the boutique), and leisurely scored groceries at Whole Foods. It was lots of fun just hanging out with Katie and enjoying the day at a relaxing pace. With changes in plans, I also found time later in the day to mail a gift package at the post office, and discovered a potentially interesting coffee house in the NW industrial area while driving around. I didn't get a chance to work out at March Wellness, but I did manage to ride my bicycle around the waterfront for about an hour later in the evening.
Even though the weekend turned out very differently than I had anticipated, I had a great time. There were many serendipitous moments during the weekend which made the changes in plans very enjoyable. While at Whole Foods, we discovered that the product representative from Larabar was there--and I wound up taking home bars of the newly-released Key Lime Pie and Pistachio flavors for free! It was fun taking Katie to couple of places that she haven't been to before--the Pearl Bakery and Cacao. And I would have forgotten all about scoring new place settings and napkins at Sur La Table had we rushed to the tulips instead. Several years ago, I think I would have reacted negatively to wholesale change of plans, and would not have enjoyed the spontaneous changes and welcome surprises that serendipity presented. I would have freaked out with the bullshit reaction along the lines of, "All of the plans have fallen apart! Why is this happening to me? Fate must be against me!" Thank goodness that those days are long gone, and that I don't hang out with people who play that victim card bullshit. I am also grateful that I have wonderful people in my life who have encouraged me to embrace flexibility, spontaniety, serendipity, and joys of found adventures. Life is too short to be wasting time incessantly complaining about plans which take an unexpected detour path.
Friday evening: Work out at March Wellness, make big fish dinner afterwards.
Saturday: Make an iPhoto picture book (and submit it online), go on a bike/hike adventure to Forest Park trails, enjoy yummy food and beer at a nearby brewpub afterwards, practice piano, go watch a Railer show.
Sunday: Have breakfast and then go to the Tulip festival with katiekatiepants, run errands, practice piano, work out at March Wellness, make a yummy dinner.
What actually happened over the weekend:
Friday evening: After the workout, I received a text message from misprid, inviting me to a drinkie gathering at Castle Sadmore. I bicycled home, quickly reserved a Flexcar starting at 11 p.m. (which did not cost me a cent), and made a quick salad and hummus dinner instead of the fish dinner. It was great seeing Mistina and rest of the Sadmore posse (including Joey from Seattle), and it was nice getting caught up with peeps. I got to hear new music by subharmonix, which made me smile. It looks like I got invited to Castle Sadmore for a vegan dinner on Wednesday evening. Yay!
Saturday: After completing the iPhoto book, the sunny and warm afternoon tempted me to pursue the bike/hike adventure plans. But I wanted to fiddle with my computer for a quick bit before heading out. What I thought was going to be a simple hardware upgrade turned out to be an all-day exercise in hardware troubleshooting, software upgrading, and an opportunity lost to hike in the sunny outdoors. But instead of freaking out about the sudden change of plans, I remained calm throughout and relaxed throughout the day. The futzing around with the Power Mac is still ongoing (I just need to reinstall important programs and run some updates), but in the process of troubleshooting, I decided to yank out the unused hard drives and peripherals that were attached inside the computer. Not am I reducing wear and tear on unused components, but I am probably lowering electricity consumption on my computer system. This is a good thing. If I had experienced a trying day like this several years ago, I would have probably let the drastic change in plans affect my mood adversely, and I probably would not have enjoyed the evening's activities (the Railer show) as much. After the show, I stopped by a local pizza joint for a possible late-evening sustenance, but they were closing early that evening. No worries--I made a quick, tasty hummus and cheese plate once I arrived home, and saved myself about $6 by eating at home.
Sunday: It turned out that Katie was really tired from working a hellish shift at her job the previous night. She wasn't feeling energetic enough to making the 45-minute drive to the tulip festival and back. No worries though. We wound up perusing the stores in the nearby Pearl district instead and had a great time. Spending a leisurely late morning consuming pastry-and-coffee breakfast at the spacious and warm Pearl Bakery was awesome. We wound up perusing the cookbook and food literature section at Powell's Books (the Hungry Planet: What the World Eats book was so stunningly thought-provoking and visually fascinating!), looked at the table settings and other goodies at Sur La Table (I scored a festive, spring-y placemats and cloth napkins), enjoyed consuming luscious and delectable gourmet truffles and spicy drinking chocolate at Cacao (I wanted to score gifts for G's upcoming birthday at the boutique), and leisurely scored groceries at Whole Foods. It was lots of fun just hanging out with Katie and enjoying the day at a relaxing pace. With changes in plans, I also found time later in the day to mail a gift package at the post office, and discovered a potentially interesting coffee house in the NW industrial area while driving around. I didn't get a chance to work out at March Wellness, but I did manage to ride my bicycle around the waterfront for about an hour later in the evening.
Even though the weekend turned out very differently than I had anticipated, I had a great time. There were many serendipitous moments during the weekend which made the changes in plans very enjoyable. While at Whole Foods, we discovered that the product representative from Larabar was there--and I wound up taking home bars of the newly-released Key Lime Pie and Pistachio flavors for free! It was fun taking Katie to couple of places that she haven't been to before--the Pearl Bakery and Cacao. And I would have forgotten all about scoring new place settings and napkins at Sur La Table had we rushed to the tulips instead. Several years ago, I think I would have reacted negatively to wholesale change of plans, and would not have enjoyed the spontaneous changes and welcome surprises that serendipity presented. I would have freaked out with the bullshit reaction along the lines of, "All of the plans have fallen apart! Why is this happening to me? Fate must be against me!" Thank goodness that those days are long gone, and that I don't hang out with people who play that victim card bullshit. I am also grateful that I have wonderful people in my life who have encouraged me to embrace flexibility, spontaniety, serendipity, and joys of found adventures. Life is too short to be wasting time incessantly complaining about plans which take an unexpected detour path.