The day after - my birthday that is

It's Friday the 13th, and I should be freaked out and hiding behind a chair, but I'm not. I slept late (8:15) and looking forward to heading out of town, this time with M down to Joshua Tree. We are driving down to bring stuff down and bring stuff up. Organize our life a little more.

I actually had a very nice day yesterday. The flowers M gave me the night before greeted me in the bedroom by the window. (I went out to dinner with others and when I got home they were there, but I did not see them until 5-10 minutes later. Actually I should note that technically Billy bought them but used M's credit card. Billy even wrote a nice card.)

The morning slipped away as it is wont to do when you aren't working. I did receive sometime during the day some flowers from my sister, which was very sweet. We now have two bouquets to bring with us down to J-tree. I'm not leaving them here to wither while I'm gone.

Then out of the blue I get a call from the interim president of the organization I worked for in DC (hell, you knew where I lived, right?). There's a possibility of me increasing my time there. So, I'll have more (some!) money coming in. Which makes it easier to do the next item mentioned below...

Then I had a meeting at the company that I met with 2 weeks ago? 1 week ago? I had mentioned volunteering and rather than doing some menial task they want me to do more, which is great with me. I met with the development person, the international person, and the volunteer coordinator. Great people and I'll be doing some interesting things. Turns out I know the volunteer coordinator by name through a listserv and he knows a lot of the people I know from my international days. Which is nice.

Then I walked back to my car and found a thrift store (they always call out to me!). I got an Ann Taylor beautiful silk top for $9 - expensive by thrift store standards but it's in great shape and looks great on me. And I don't think will show my sweat (always an issue for me - I do the spit test on anything I go to buy - wet my finger and touch the fabric).

And I happened to drop my scarf on the way down the sidewalk. The people sitting in the outdoor cafe or the outside seating of the restaurant did not flag me down (OK, maybe they didn't see as they were deep in conversation) but a guy in a car pulled over, put his window down, and told me. How nice!!! It's a pet peeve of mine when people don't look out for each other.

Later in the day M and I went climbing at the local gym. They were having a 'singles' night - an organized event designed to promote meeting new climbers at the gym and thus creating a community and perhaps even bringing more people in. It was perfect timing for us given we just moved here. You wear a wrist band and can approach anyone with a wrist band to climb with, and when you climb with someone new you get a raffle ticket. And there was free pizza.

So both M and I climbed with new people. Three people we spent a lot of time with - Elsyee, John, and Ian. John just moved from Vermont - younger so likely we won't spend a lot of time with him - but a nice guy and great climber. Elsyee was the first person we met and has a great personality. Ian is a great climber and married with three kids, so we'll hopefully see him more. I offered to climb with him and switch off kid watching, so of course he loved us.

The pizza came and I was starving, so was first in line, as I am wont to be. :-) And then the raffle! Three prizes - small ones, but nice to have. One guy won the first two: a flying disc and a shirt; and bubbles and a $10 itunes gift card. The grand prize was a set of 4 beatles glasses, and I had said from the very beginning that that was something M and I don't need at all. And of course I won them! Funny. Since I really really wanted the bubbles and gift card, I ran over to him and offered to trade. And he did. Woo hoo! The bubbles went to Ian for his kids, and the gift card goes to my goddaughter.

Since I was wishing and my wishes were coming true (I had wished on FB for a job that morning), I wanted to ride the magic, so I bought 3 lottery tickets. All I want is $1million so M and I can buy a house in this ridiculously expensive area. That's all... :-)

I'll try and get a photo of M's bouquet up here...