Five Star Day

I am not known for my good mood during the holiday season. All the happy people tend to bum me out and then in recent years I've worked for a client that shuts down between Christmas and New Years, which means that I end up with a lot of time on my hands, which is also never a good thing for me.

Wah wah, my life is so hard, I am on vacation, blah blah blah.

I know.

But for reals, the holiday season is not a good one for me.

THIS holiday season, I'm pleased to report, has been really good though!

HURRAH!

Take my Monday, for example:

I spent the morning going to my Dailey Method class with Morven, our Australian exchange student's wife (they're in town for Christmas). Quality sweating time with one of my favorite people, with bonus baby squeezing (her baby and my miracle niece) when I went to pick her up.

Then I went to San Francisco to brunch and museum with my friend Christopher. He has a membership to the Cal Academy of Sciences and I don't know how we got to discussing that we'd go, but we did, so we went. It's a really cool museum that opened up while I still lived in SF, but I never got around to going despite it being RIGHT THERE in my backyard AND on my life list.

We got the last two passes for the 3:30 planetarium show (and were very proud of ourselves for our good fortune) and wandered around looking at stuff for like 15 minutes before the fire alarm went off and the whole place was evacuated. Okay, fine, we'll evacuate, but let's go to the bathroom first! OOH! GOOD IDEA!! NO LINES, HOLLER!

So we took our sweet time evacuating, but when we finally did, we found a park bench and Christopher produced two Tootsie Pops from his murse and HOT DOG, I LOVE TOOTSIE POPS! So while everyone else was crowded around waiting for the "emergency" to be resolved, we relaxed, enjoyed our suckers and did some people watching.

We were let back in at the EXACT RIGHT TIME for us to make the 3:30 planetarium show (again, very proud of ourselves for our good fortune) and after a quick trip around the universe, we saw the rest of the museum.

When I dropped Christopher off back at his apartment I had the thought that OOH! Maybe I'll see if Cousin Kristina is available for a drink! It was an idea suggested in a Facebook thread the week before so I sent her a "What are the chances you're sitting around right now wishing you were drinking champagne, because I'm in the city and could either go home or have champagne with you" text.

And magically, not only was she available for champagne, but she was with Cousin Eleanor and they were about to go to dinner and would I like to join them?

HECK YES.

So I met them at the proposed restaurant and I'm not sure why there was a last minute change of heart re: Papalote, but that's fine because plan B was a restaurant that has been on my To Try list for a while. YAY!

So my totally serendipitous day suddenly not only included champagne with Cousin Kristina and Cousin Eleanor, but we were able to try TWO items on the list of 100 Things to Try in San Francisco Before You Die (the eggplant from the 2009 list and a cocktail from the 2010 list), which all translated into a lovely, lovely evening with my people.

I would like more days like that please, Universe.