Birthday in Easy World

Today was my 53rd birthday. My inner child is appalled--she never gave her consent to that! And I must say--I never imagined that my 53rd would be my very BEST birthday ever! I'm going to tell you all about it, so let me start at the beginning.

The first wonderful thing--after discovering that Rick had remembered to put up the traditional birthday decorations in honor of the occasion--is that no contractors were scheduled to come today. We're all done for now until the pool arrives, Hooray! Heidi, our intrepid housecleaning angel, came today and scrubbed the garage in preparation, which was no small feat considering the mud that had been tracked in over the last few weeks as snowmelt met contractor boots! She also purged the house of all the dirt that had made its way into the house on shoes and puppy paws, and changed the sheets and cleaned the bathrooms. She is some kind of amazing--this was all done in 4 hours.

I received a bunch of cards today, some of which contained money (big smile), and I got an Easy World affirmation mug from Rick, who got it from the Easy World Boutique. (Designed by you-know-who)Of course, my main present is the swimming pool! Now THAT is some kinda present!!!

While Heidi did her magic, Rick and I took off to Indian Hills, the little foothills town where we got married, to have lunch at Base Camp, a really cute little cafe, where Gary, the co-owner with his wife, Tammy, makes the world's best Reuben sandwiches and she, yummy lattes. And that's what I had. YUM.

Everytime we go there, it puts me in touch with my longing to live in a small, close-knit community. We love sitting there as the locals drop by--quite an interesting lot! We love talking to Tammy, too.

Today, the word "easy" came up in reference to the amount of syrups in the latte she made me, and Rick and I looked at each other as "easy" had once again asserted itself. So I mentioned Easy World, and her face lit up like a 60-watt bulb! She got it in an instant!

What is it about the term Easy World? I swear--it's almost like a code phrase that trips people's wake-up triggers! Darndest phenomenon I've witnessed in my 53 years!

They have really great desserts at Base Camp, and I found myself eyeing the cookies. I really craved one--or more--but our dinner reservation was for 6:30, and I knew we'd be eating by 7:00-ish, and it was already 2:45, so I thought the better of it. Besides--I figured I might want dessert after dinner at the restaurant, so I did not buy one to take home for later as I had thought about. But MAN, I wanted a cookie! I could just taste the chocolate chips in the buttery cookie...(Me telling you this will make more sense in a bit!)

So we headed home after lunch, and Rick took a nap (very Easy World) and I decided to go to Hobby Lobby to see if they had lampshades that would work on our new chandelier. I checked their weekly ad online to see if perchance they had their lamps and accessories on sale this week, but alas, not. I dowsed to see if I ought to just forget it, but got an emphatic "no" and so I decided to go.(It's only about a mile from our house.) When I got there, I got a parking place right at the door, and when I got to the lamp aisle, there was a flyer saying that all lamps and accessories were 50% off!

The only shades I found that there were 5 of were the right color and size, and I was able to find the couple of other small items I wanted to get without making extra steps--all very easy. When checkout time came, both of the open checkstands had long lines, so I said, "I live in Easy World, where everything is easy," and not 15 seconds later, a new line opened, and all but one person in front of me moved to the new line. And the lady in front of me only had one item. Nice.

When I got to the register, I said to the clerk, "These shades are on sale, right?" and she said, "I don't think so." Then she said, "I'll go see." When she came back, she said, "Lucky for you, the weekend crew was lazy and never took last week's signs down, so I have to give them to you at 50% off." Charmed shopping trip!

We went to dinner at a restaurant we'd never been to called Black Pearl, in a charming little neighborhood shopping district that we love. It is "Restaurant Week" in Denver, which means that the best restaurants in town are doing meal specials that include appetizers, entrees, and desserts at only $52.80 for 2 people (Denver is the Mile High City, so therefore the 5280 correlation)--quite a bargain as most of these, like the one we went to, are upscale restaurants.

We chose this restaurant a month ago when the menus for Restaurant Week were first published, and I had forgotten what the special menu was. I was delighted to discover that the entree I had forgotten about was escolar, this really amazing fish that I love, and it was fabulous--in fact, everything was.

But here's the magic: one of the 2 desserts offered on the special menu was called..."Milk and Cookies"! I had three cookies--2 choclate chip and 1 white chocolate macadamia--with "milk" which was actually a special martini made with vanilla vodka and Lady Godiva White Chocolate Liqueur! So I got my cookies after all! And they were warm and gooey! Exactly what I had been craving. And the martini was perfect with them. Now--how many high-end restaurants serve cookies for dessert?! A total Easy World creation. (Sweet Julie, my inner child, feels better about turning 53 now.)

There are so many more magical things that occurred today, but I have already written enough. Suffice to say that it was a very special and wonderful day, which would have been the case regardless, as long as I could spend it with my best friend and super hubby, Rick! And to top it all off, I have clean sheets to look forward to.

I love Easy World.