February 29, 2020: A Bonus Day, Indeed

It’s a Leap Year this year.   Today is my “bonus day” down here.   Instead of packing up and driving away, I am relishing my Peet’s latte by the pool, having just finished the books and enjoying the most incredible fragrance that has filled the air here in the last couple of days.   Some kind of flower is clearly in bloom now and it’s intoxicating.    I am seeing Himanshu at 11 am and meeting Susie and Cheryl in Solana Beach tonight for supper and the Steve Poltz 11th Annual 50th Birthday Party concert at Belly Up.  

While at the concert, Steve Wozniak’s wife offered to watch my drink at the bar while I delivered Susie and Cheryl’s drinks to them.   Then they sat 4 rows behind us.   Wow!!

I spent the afternoon cleaning the car to get it ready for the big road trip and sealing this adventure with the ever-present/ever-cool “OB” car rear window sticker to commemorate this awesome adventure!! What a great penultimate day!!!!

This month has been terrific.   I continued with my regular yoga and walking and coffee and puzzles and reading routine.  I loved the fused glass classes, both up in Fallbrook again and at Patty Gray’s studio.  I had several acupuncture treatments and cupping to help my SI joint.    I took a Breath and Sound Healing class with John again.  I got a B-12 shot, went for a shave and a haircut, had the hood of my car repainted to remove rust and chips and saw “Fly” at La Jolla Playhouse.   I spent a week at the ocean condo (wifi free 🥴😳) and spent a day on Coronado.  I enjoyed seeing Jean and Grant while they were here on holidays.   We went for supper at C-Level on evening, hiked and picnicked up at Torrey Pines one morning and then celebrated by 55th birthday with a barbecue here with Pete and Solveig.   

So am I “ready” to go home tomorrow?   Oh hell, no.   But am I “resolved” to go home tomorrow.   Yes.   That’s the best I can phrase it to myself.   I am full of such gratitude and thanks for the best winter I can remember having in a long, long time.    I am totally becoming a “snowbird”.   Winter may now become my favorite season!   Who saw that coming?  Not me, that’s for sure!  😂😜😉

My New Hobby

Fusing.  Slumping.  Murini.  Vitrograph.  Kiln wash.  Frit.  Rounds.  Combing. Raking.  Dichro.  

These terms were foreign to me until about a month ago.   Now, thanks to Fallbrook Art School, Suzanne Balestri, Patty Gray and Susan Hirsch, I am familiar, dare I say comfortable, with them.

Add them to scoring, cutting, copper-foil and soldering and a whole new world of artistic creativity has opened up to me thanks to trying some lessons in both the stained and fused glass world.  

And, I am hooked!   I loved the three classes I took in Fallbrook on Combing  and Raking Glass (4 pieces),  Coral Bowls/Open Woven Glass (2 pieces)and Pattern Bars and Reactive Glass Possibilities (3 pieces and a reactive bar) as well as the private lesson with Suzanne Balestri at her awesome home studio in Cardiff-By-The-Sea to make a Kaleidoscope Plate that I love!!   The stained glass class in Spanish Village was ok, but much less enjoyable as the instructor was a bit grouchy!  But still, as I always say, “even when it’s bad, it’s good here!”

The most fortunate thing was being able to have a 3-day session with Patty Gray at her incredible studio in San Marcos.   I stumbled upon the world renowned artist and her expertise experience and generosity was incredible.   I made 8 pieces!  She put together the class of 6 people just to accommodate me while I was here.  Ever grateful to her.  Met some very interesting people there as well...a man whose daughter-in-law was killed in the Vegas mass shooting who was making sunflowers for her memorial in Vegas, a retired teacher and her husband, a vet and another artist from Fallbrook with her own studio there that I will surely be checking out upon my next visit here.   Fun, full days of learning and creating.  So enjoyable.  Today I picked up all my finished pieces.   Quite a sight, indeed!

They spoke of a huge Glass Art Trade Show/lesson weekend in Vegas every year the first week in April.   Who knows?   Maybe I’ll add it to by “Bucket List” to attend (along with London and South By Southwest-the list continues to grow).

I’m very pleased with all my results.   Now, what to do with it all??!!  😂

Now THAT was a birthday!

What a great day.   It was 23 degrees and clear and sunny.   Morning latte at Peet’s was free cause it was my birthday, so that made the almond croissant and puzzle time by the pool all the better!  😂. Got new wooly socks and a homemade toque from Pete and Solveig!

Then I went for my birthday massage, and Himanshu took me to Mikes for 4 fish tacos and a beer instead!   What a surprise!

Got my 19,092 steps in between a walk along the cliffs and the OB market at night, a beautiful sunset and endless reminders of what a lucky S.O.B. I am.   More celebrating tomorrow night with a barbecue with the Curries and Pete and Solveig.   Lucky, lucky me.

I truly have no idea how I am going to drive AWAY from all of this come Sunday.  

I Can’t Even.....

There are times, when I am here, that I get totally and completely overwhelmed with the beauty of this place and how frigging lucky I am to be here.

Today is one of those days!

For example, right now I am sitting on the deck of the ocean condo at just after 9 am, looking out at the beautiful blue hues of the Pacific, watching the surfers ride the waves.   I just watched and listened to the OB parrots squawk and frolic overhead as I walked down to Azucar for the most delicious Cuban coffee and cheese and guava pastry (my Keto diet has seen better days!).  The sun is shining and warm, the sky is clear and blue, the walk there and back was so relaxing.   I am heading to yoga in 20 minutes.   I just finished an amazing 3-day glass making class with Patty Gray up in San Marco.  I am in the midst of my week long stay here at the condo, which I find to be a whole different but equally enjoyable experience from the pool house.  

I never get tired of the view, the pace, the vibe, the “feel” of it here.   It’s so hard to put into words.   “Content” and “complete” are as close as I can come.   At yoga, Nikki talked about the word I think that sums it up well....”gratitude”.

I mean....come on!!!  😲😀

Today Was Perfect

Remember when I said I couldn’t be happier or more content?
Case in point:

                                    

The Best January I’ve Ever Had

As I sit here in the morning sun; two cups of morning Cafe Domingo Peet’s coffee starting to kick in; having read the morning paper and pulled out the crossword puzzles; after finishing the crossword from The Reader that I started yesterday; after waking up in the brilliant, morning sun just after 7 am; after having a biscotti with my first cup of coffee; after waking to whatever Top 40 daily 7 am - 8 am playlist Alexa selected for me and as I begin to think that I should get ready for my daily 10 am yoga class, I am struck, yet again, with what a fortunate bastard I am, that this has become my daily, morning routine this month!!!!

What a month this has been.   Every day has seemed better that’s the day before.   The luxury of being able to spend your own time as you choose to is never lost on me.   And the “trouble” with being here is that if you stay home, or venture forth...everythingyou do is great.  

Most of my days, I have ventured forth to some degree or other, but a few “down” days have also proven to have their own rewards.   

I’ve Been Active

Oh Fitbit!   I enjoy how you make me accountable for my wellness goals.

I’ve walked nearly every day, had a couple of massages with Himanshu, an acupuncture/cupping session with Yael, had a few runs, but stopped cause my knees hurt (but I needed and bought new shoes!), and am LOVING the new yoga studio I found.   Nikki Rae Bose’s “ReUnify”.   I’m so glad I serendipitously ran into her at Sunset Cliffs during a run shortly after I got here.  John Beck teaches there too!  Went to 20 classes this month.   It’s a great little studio!

I even went to a Running Club in Balboa Park called The November Project.  I went with Himanshu, but soon became aware that these things are not yet for me:

-running early in the morning....like beforesunrise(...it STARTED at 6:29 am!)

-running with people is not for me

-being part of an organized group, despite their encouragement and support

I did, however, enjoy the group coffee session at Swami’s in North Park afterward.  Very friendly, open people... but don’t know that I’ll return.  😏

Afternoons of walking/running at Sunset Cliffs, collecting sea glass, a day at Coronado and Torrey Pines, read “11/22/63” (all 1,000+ pages of it) and started ”Educated” by Tara Westover.  I saw “Dear Evan Hansen”, “Bombshell”, “67Up”, “StarWars: The Rise Of Skywalker”...again...in 4D with Pete (and it was amazing), “Parasite”, “Morning Show”, “Servant”, “Truth Be Told” and “Jack Ryan”, went to one of John Beck’s Weekend beach yoga classes, went to a cool Korean market and had lunch, went to the Farmers Markets in Ocean Beach, Little Italy and Hillcrest.   Really, what’s  not to enjoy?

I Saw People From Home

A Rush game with Karla and Kirby Drury and a morning hike at Torrey Pines with Terry and Patty Kikcio.   Awesome.

My Newfound Hobby

Man, have I ever enjoyed learning about working with glass!!   I made a stained glass piece with a lady at Spanish Village, which was ok but then I found the Fallbrook School Of Art!   What a place.   It’s a beautiful hour drive north of here and I took a “Combing And Raking Glass” with Patty Gray and a “Coral/Open Woven Glass” class with Susan Herschel that I just loved.   Then, I found Suzanne Balestri who taught me how to make a kaleidoscope plate at her beautiful home studio.   That was also fantastic.   I am loving learning how to fuse glass.   It’s so cool and unlike anything I’ve ever seen or done before.  I love it. 

 From The “How Cool Is That!!” Family Files

Wayne guarding Prince Harry and Meghan Markle at Canada House

Mic drop!!!  😂

So, despite both my housesitter leaving and the infestation of mice that she had to deal with at the house while she was there 😖😖, all is well.  Lisa is watching the place, exterminators have laid out poison.   Payday has come, the books have been “balanced” (well, calculated 😏😉), the Santa Ana winds have blown in and it feels like summer.  All is well.

Every day there has been something great to see and/or do.   I could not be happier and more content.  It’s good to feel like you are where you were meant to be!!!  😁