Fabulous Friday

I am so behind in emails to people and I have so many things I want to blog about.

Like a spinoff of Greg's post on healthcare in the U.S. And Loren's post on music to roll to in addition to that wonderful topic of what motivates us.

Not to mention finally posting pictures and recipes of the fabulous things I made (we won't talk about the things that didn't work so swell...though I can tell a bit about that recipe I posted last week on the Shrimp Via Augusta and Spinach Catalan Style - the Shrimp gets maybe half a thumb up...not so hot. But the Spinach - we liked that. That was good!) and sharing them with people so they can go use them themselves (like Courtenay! Then she can know what to make and won't starve!)

But maybe this weekend I will catch up, because the only things I am doing are a) seeing an old co-worker this evening in Berkeley; b) riding a long ride; c) running a long run; d) hopefully some yoga; and E) GOING TO A PASSOVER SEDER (no, I'm not Jewish...I just participate in the fun holidays)! This Passover seder is an annual event held by the family of my college boyfriend, Ben (clearly, we're all still friends :)). Back in the day it was a semi-huge event...but over the past 8 years, it's grown into this huge affair and lots of people journey to their home in San Rafael for the big dinner. Should be good times. Good people.

SO what I AM going to blog about are 3 4 things:

1) Apologizing to Courtenay for giving Greg ammunition to stop your snooze fests. I'm so sorry!!

2) On that subject, I thought I would report how the "Kick Sarah Out of Bed to Break the Snooze Habit" is going. I got up this morning. My second alarm went off, and I began to be pushed toward the edge of the bed. I knew it was inevitable so I just got up. BUT OH MY GOD IT HURT!! It was literally excruciating. I was tempted to just lie on the floor and curl up in a ball and go back to sleep. The thought of sneaking into the guest room and getting into the guest bed occurred to me. These thoughts flashed through my mind and at 5:30 a.m. (an UNGODLY HOUR), they all seemed like good ones. But then I thought "oh, who am I kidding? I'm only cheating myself."

So I stretched for a minute, and trudged into the bathroom to put my contacts in. OHHHH, THE LIGHT! THE BRIGHT LIGHT!

God. The first 10 minutes of waking this morning were so AWFUL. Then I trudged into the kitchen for a pre-swim snack and to make coffee.

Finally, after smelling some beans and eating a little food, I began to realize that I could finally be waking up.

3) Then I threw on my bathing suit and went out the door to swim practice. Which was AWESOME. AWESOMEAWESOMEAWESOME. I LOVE Santa Rosa Masters. Why didn't I join sooner? Why? The coach is amazing and so full of energy, it's incredible. On Wednesday evening I went to their practice, which is more of a stroke clinic; she had us do a lot of drills and gave us a good lecture on how to use our ball joints. It's given me a lot to think about in the water, but I know it will only help.

After practice there was a woman who looked familiar...then it clicked. I said "Do you belong to the Y?" She said "yes, I do!" I said "I think you take my Monday morning spinning classes." She said "oh yes, I recognize you! I LOVE your classes! I used to swim here on Mondays but I like your class so much I decided to go to the Y instead!" That was a nice way to start my day!

4) I was thinking a lot about Loren's post on music. I didn't really care much for the things he listed. But, just like with wine, we all have different tastes. There's not a 'right' kind of music (though IMHO, there IS just 'wrong' music for things like spinning classes...)...just what we like. Like wine, people can be as snobby as they want, but it is truly what YOUR ears tell you they like that matters. (I work for a winery on occasional weekends so I spend a lot of time telling people their questions aren't stupid...just encourage them to seek out and try new things, always.)

When I was doing my hard spin yesterday morning, a couple songs came on that REALLY got me going. I LOVE that! I grew up with music, I played piano for 8 years, I listen to music all day at work...my world is surrounded with music. I like different music for a lot of different activities. When I cook, I often enjoy either listening to NPR or world music. When I run or spin, it's all about the dance music and remixes of 80s tunes. When I work, it's always classical. When I'm in the car, it's usually whatever's on the radio (Quasimoto only has a radio...). When I'm stretching or just kind of hanging around the house, it can range from U2 to Van Morrison to Norah Jones to Paul Simon to Pink Martini (LOVE Pink Martini) to...well, I like to listen to those a lot.

So I thought I'd end my post with my current iPod top 15 songs of the moment (it's always changing):

(I linked to YouTube videos only because that's the only way I know how to put sound clips on...I think music videos are dumb, personally...)

1) Stronger - Kanye West
2) Harder Better Faster Stronger (Alive 2007 Tour)- Daft Punk (the song that Kanye sampled for Stronger) - LOVE THS!
3) What Is Love (Reloaded) - Haddaway (thank you, GREG!)
4) September - Earth, Wind and Fire
5) Take Me To the Clouds Above - LMC vs. U2
6) Now You're Gone (DJ Alex Extended Mix) - Basshunter
7) Reach up for the Sunrise (Jason Nevins Mix) - Duran Duran
8) Spin me Round (DJ Ajax remix) - Dead or Alive
9) Sweet Escape - Gwen Stefani
10) Acoustic Motorbike - Luka Bloom (love this song, ESPECIALLY FOR CYCLING! Pedal on...)
11) What a Feeling - Peter Luts & Dominico
12) Girl - Beck
13) The Distance - Cake (I couldn't believe how many people made their own videos to this song...this one was a tribute to Speed Racer...ha!)
14) Tom's Diner - Suzanne Vega
15) It's Raining Men - Weather Girls (this song literally cracks me up every time...Hallelujah!)

Have a fantastic weekend, everybody. Go listen to some tunes. Do something fun. Train hard.