It’s Christmastime in the city!

Filenes?

Christmas decorations are going up everywhere, Salvos are out ringing bells, holiday music is playing in the stores…

If it weren’t for all the 60+ degree days we’ve been having recently, it would be starting to feel like Christmas around here!

Rare Day

11.20.2011-Ps-coffee-web

Today was the day of rare things.

I woke up before Pete: extremely rare. Unrelated: I took advantage of the situation to continue my Musical Movie Marathon and I put Oliver! on Netflix Instant. I think of all the musicals I watched this weekend, Gigi was my favorite and Oliver! was my second favorite – even if it did make me think of Newsies and I ended up with King of New York stuck in my head all afternoon. Imma wait here while you click through and watch that video……all done? Awesome, right!?! I love it.

Back to the matter at hand! I was up before Pete, which started the day on a rare note. Then after a few hours of lounging around, Pete came to me with an idea to get out of the house and he had a suggestion for something we both wanted to do! This is huge. HUGE. Doubly rare. It’s usually me that’s itching to get out of the house on the weekend (especially during football season. For the record, I had already set the Tivo to record the Green Bay game), and Pete rarely has any suggestions/opinions on what we should do on excursions.

So off we went, where it was a REE-diculously gorgeous 60 degree day out. Yet another rarity for late November! We got lunch, split up to check out a few stores (Guitar Center for him, West Elm for me) and then got some warm beverages (Dunkies for him, Starbucks for me) and went for a leisurely, scenic walk through Back Bay before hopping on the T and heading home.

We got home just before four and Pete settled in to watch the Green Bay game. I was trying to decide what to do with the rest of my afternoon and ended up making a last minute decision to go to a yoga class with one of my favorite instructors. When I say last minute, what I mean is that 15 minutes before the class was starting, I was jumping off the couch to change and get to the studio. Lucky for me, it’s two short blocks away and I made it with plenty of time.

Side note…hilarious things from the mouth of said yoga instructor, that when taken out of context are totally inappropriate (I know. I’m like a 13 year old boy. But come on!):

  • Did everyone grab their balls?
  • Okay, I’m right behind you. Ready? This is something you can only do with good friends, right?!
  • Oh my goodness, you’re so tight! This is the tightest I’ve ever felt you!

I should reiterate that this is one of my favorite instructors, and that she’s absolutely not inappropriate in context. She’s awesome and you should go to her classes (her name is Jill and she teaches here, here, and here) – I just couldn’t get my mind out of the gutter, apparently.

Back to the point (again – I’m easily distracted today), my doing yoga these days is also rare and it’s especially rare that I do it when I haven’t planned it out in advance. I’m enjoying the climb back onto that wagon.

Nothing extraordinary today, but a lot of rare. And a lot of awesome, too.

Number 5: Musical Movie Marathon

Best Picture Winners - Musicals

I’ve been (slowly) working on watching all of the Oscar Best Pictures winners, and decided that as the weather gets colder it would be the perfect time to curl up on the couch and have a movie marathon. I thought it would be fun to try and get in as many of the musicals that have won (only ten!) as possible, so a few weeks ago I got busy adding a few to my Netflix instant queue and then hit up the library website to track down more of them. After a quick bike ride down to Quincy Center this morning to pick up the last DVD I had on hold, I’m all snuggled up on the couch ready to go!

Cold Weather Camping

11.13.2011 Camping 5

We spent Saturday night camping at Ponkapoag Pond with friends. I was a little nervous about camping when it was pretty chilly out (lows in the 30s overnight), but we had a great time and I can’t wait to do it again. I can’t recomend these cabins enough – close to home that you avoid spending half your weekend in the car, but it feels like it’s a milion miles away. The cabins are great, and with the wood stove you stay so warm that you barely need a sleeping bag.

11.13.2011 Camping 4I still can’t get over having grown up only a few miles away (I played soccer a zillion Saturday mornings on a field that is barely half a mile down the road from the gate to the access road), but never knowing what is there! I didn’t even know the cabins existed until a friend told me last year, and I’d never actually been on the trails around the pond until earlier this summer. Our running club runs the trails around the pond (4 miles, minimal elevation but a enough small inclines to make you work for it) every few weeks and joinging them a few months ago was the first time I’d ever been in that part of the Blue Hills Reservation – I wish I had known about it before.

(Summer) Number 1: Buy a bike and ride it

11.12.2011 Bike at beach

I’m finally checking this one off my Summer To Do List! You already knew I bought a bike, but I ran into some trouble putting it together. I eventually gave up and brought it to an awesome local bike shop (seriously, I can’t recomend those guys enough) to finish up the job. They called while I was out running errands yesterday to let me know it was ready and I picked it up and bought a helmet from them on my way home. This morning I rode down to Quincy center to pick up a few things I had on hold at the library, and then rode down to the beach and then home. I am TERRIFIED of making left-hand turns across traffic and being doored – especially in Quincy where there aren’t a lot of bikers so drivers aren’t used to sharing the road. Despite that, I actually made three easy and safe left turns using a left turn lane (and once just hopped off my bike and used the crosswalk to get through the intersection).

It was beautiful out, pretty perfect biking weather – cool enough to keep you from getting sweaty but not so cold that you can’t keep warm. I mapped out my trip and it turns out it was 6.3 miles…no wonder my butt was so sore!! Guess I need to ease into riding while my butt gets used to a bike seat. :)