It's mah birthday! It's mah birthday!

So today I'm 36. I gave myself a couple of really nice new scrapes on my right forearm and right shin, after taking a bad line on my bike ride this morning. I took the middle line in a gully full of sand, slid off to the side and caught my pedal, which threw me far and long into the rocks. Good Times! (the worst part of it all, truthfully, was when I got home and Russell demanded that he clean me up...the hydrogen peroxide stung a bazillion times worse than the original scrapes!)

I rode for about 3 hours this morning, with some complete strangers I hooked up with via a yahoo email list. I've just spent a fair amount of time trying to find some online photos of the trails we rode, to no avail. Suffice it to say that there was a lot of loose gravel, a boatload of nasty cholla, and more mini-whoop-de-dos (aka MOGULS!) than I ever care to ride again in my entire life. However, there was also miles of amazing scenery, a huge rock outcropping shaped exactly (from a distance) like a Gorilla, a teensy little horny toad (so cute!), and an amazing sense of "I DID IT" at the end of the ride. More, please!

This afternoon, Russell and I went out for lunch and then to a little specialty chocolate shop I had heard about. We then came home and took a nap on the couch. I think that was my favourite part of the day so far! I played some Tomb Raider and ate some Ice Cream Cake, and tomorrow we're going up to Sedona. What a fine birthday weekend!

(As far as the previous dreaming post goes, I wish I could say that the day following the dreams was filled with a sense of resolution and contentment, but alas, after marathon snoozes like that, I'm always more groggy than usual from having slept too much, and full of brain fog. I guess I have a lot to work out!)