M is for May

It's May! I love May, specifically the end of May. Most likely because it's my birthday, which also means the beginning of summer and then the holiday season - Halloween, Thanksgiving and CHRISTMAS!

For my birthday, we went to a little "viet-thai" hole in the wall in CDM. I ordered the Pad Thai and it was delicious. For dessert we trekked to the other side of the back bay to get my favorite cupcakes - Susiecakes. I got two - red velvet and vanilla. I really wanted coconut, but they were all out. I would have taken pictures, but they didn't stay around long enough... so here's one from the internet.

Since we moved to California and live right off the back bay, we've been talking about getting me a road bike. Brad loves cycling and wants me to love it to - and I want to love it! So for my birthday I got this sweet baby and I couldn't be more excited!

She's a beauty. I got fitted last night and we have our first ride scheduled for 3 pm today. Still haven't figured out her name yet and definitely open to suggestions. Speaking of inanimate objects that I seem to name, I realized yesterday that I have reached an all time low and really need to make some friends out here. This occurred to me while in route to another birthday present (my mom bought me a sewing machine which came with lessons on how to use it). I was thinking about how I was going to blog about it, and this thought crossed my mind: "I'll blog about me and Camry driving to Irvine for sewing lessons." Crazy, yes. Crazy 1 because I'm taking sewing lessons. I know - weird. Crazy 2 because Camry is my car. Apparently I feel this need to talk about Camry as a special friend. We do have a lot of bonding time though.

This leads into my next special request. **If you live in or near Orange County, please, be my friend! I'm also open to hook-ups, blind friendships, etc. - friend suggestions if you do not live here but have friends that do.**

Here is my new sewing machine. Simple, but it gets the job done. I finally learned how to use it thanks to the class yesterday. Now the only problem is I forgot the reasons why I wanted it in the first place... Anyone have something cool, but easy because I'm still a beginner, to do? Brad's mom also sent me a cute basket with a WHOLE bunch of tools and pins that will be helpful once I get this whole sewing thing figured out!

Well, that's my birthday update!

***SIDE NOTE*** I started writing this post this morning. It is now 7PM - the 3 PM ride went according to plan. We rode about 15 miles and my behind and neck and back hurt worse than they have in a long time. We have another ride planned for 9 AM.

Oh, and we live on top of a very steep hill that I now loathe. A lot. The only thing that got me home was at the bottom I decided if I could make it to the top without stopping that it qualified me to go to Cafe Rio for dinner. Pathetic, but alas the motivation I needed. And Cafe Rio was delicious.

AND I know Mere is wondering, "Lauren, did you fall?" Well, Mere, this is a tricky question. You see, our complex is very large, and as I was turning in, so were other cars. So I made it the whole 15 miles with no problems (my shoes are clip-ins, but no worries I'm a natural) until some idiot %&$* decides its OK to cut me off to turn left. Luckily I noticed he would be a jerk like that and got my foot out of my clip-on so I didn't completely wipe out, but didn't grab a hold of my bike well enough and the edge of my seat got a rip from the side of the guard shack that the jerk cornered me against. My poor baby not-yet-named-bike.

Sorry this post is so long.

Love Lauren