thank goodness for monday

I don't think I would survive an additional weekend day, I am worn out!

It began Friday evening with one of my friends calling and screaming my name into the phone with pure joy and following up with "i'm at 'the office' and we are having adult beverages, all our friends are here, you gotta come down!!" That is a hard invitation to pass up.

What he failed to mention was the tourist to local ratio (with this crazy heatwave we have been totally inundated with visitors trying to get cool - it is like we tripled our population -at least- overnight and it has been quite a challenge to get anywhere, to park, or even to be most places - we are a really small town and we just aren't set up for long term, large quantities of vistors) and our little bar just doesn't hold that many people well, so we didn't stay long.

Instead, we gathered a bunch of folks and created a pretty delicious impromptu BBQ - which included rice, salad, chicken and sausages. Yuuuuummmmmmmeeee! In fact, the only downside was that at some point my cellphone became a casualty, we still don't really know what happened, only that it worked fine up until around 9pm, and then later when I went to use it, none of the keys on the keypad would work except for the off and on switch. I can answer incoming calls, turn it off and on, but thats it - so it is being replaced with a working one ASAP.

Saturday morning, I met up with several friends and took my new surfboard out into the water for the first time - she is such a beautiful board, seafoam metallic underside and rails - 9 foot walden wahinie longboard with a beautiful hawaiian floral design on deck and I freakin' loved it. I got lots of pointers from the pro's which helped a lot. I can already catch my own waves and was already easily surfing on my knees, but I can't stand up just yet. Pretty epic! There were two other newbies in our group and they did awesome - one of them was standing by Sunday - it was such a beautiful 'family' surf day, followed by much merriment on the beach until we were all just too sunned and surfed out.

Oh and I cannot forgot our beach bonfire Saturday night, we regrouped after a late afternoon respite and it was truly lovely. It was a warm evening for us, perfectly clear - the stargazing was delightful, there were lots of locals out that stopped for a while to say hello every now and again, and our little core group was out there for a good 4 hours. We really could have stayed there all night. We roasted marshmellows, melted glass in the bonfire, walked the starlit beach, made wishes on falling stars, laughed out loud a bizzilion times and talked about how much we cherish this place and each other.

However, despite all the 'cumbaya' lets be clear about one thing - every muscle in my body hurts right now and until I get back into true longboard surf shape and can comfortably carry my board from parking to beach and back - golf before surfing is going to be key, because golf after surfing: pretty damn painful. Yeah, a friend called for a spur of the moment golf game yesterday afternoon and of course I said yes, it was golf! But that first stroke - wow, all those muscles I worked surfing the day before are the same ones screaming while back swinging...It was not my best game, thats for sure, but still a blast.

Then after golf yesterday, we went to get some Thai food and grabbed a bottle of wine and headed to the beach for sunset. That too was just lovely, beautiful colors melting into the sky, delicious noodles, fabulous wine, and great company (in fact that pretty much sums up the whole weekend - fun, beauty, nature, and community) When the 20 scary cultlike people showed up, we decided to bail and take a motorcycle ride up the coast, hiked the bluffs and then stopped off at 'the office' to say hello to some friends. The ride was so much fun but when I went to dismount I hit my bare leg on the tailpipe (because apparently I am not capable of going a whole week without bruising or burning myself right now for some unknown reason - aack!!) that part was not so much fun, but it at least looks like it is going to heal nicely. Lesson learned : if you are going to go on a motorcycle wear freakin pants, not shorts - no matter how hot it is!

After all that, I managed to get home and asleep by midnight, but this morning it felt more like I had been up for 3 days straight! :O)

See why I am glad it's monday - a day of work but also a respite from the many weekend adventures! Seriously, I feel so blessed, I am so living the best dream!! :O) Happy Monday!!