"If You Don't Squeeze Your Butt, Nobody Else Will"

That was Skipper's sage prediction in gym class this morning. She can be pretty funny. This was probably the first Saturday gym class I'd been to in three years. For some unknown reason, I awoke full of energy this morning though it was before 6:00 a.m. and just got it into my head to go. I arrived a little early but made the mistake of sitting in the Monster Mobile in the parking lot for a couple of minutes to listen to a few more moments of a wonderful NPR interview with Van Cliburn. The room was so packed I almost didn't get a space for my step! Another girl came in a little late, and Skipper teased her: "Look who woke up this morning!" then explained that it was her roommate. I'd always wondered about what her roommate looked like, since Skipper had mentioned her a few times--would she be non-descript? A childhood friend, some dumpy brunette to set off Skipper's toned, tanned, tomboy allure, someone who drove a brown 1986 Tercel to Skipper's silver convertible Mustang? But no, dear Reader, it was as you'd expect, the 15-year-old neighbor boy's dream. Her roommate was a new millennium Barbie, pretty, slender with a nearly doll-proportioned rack (I couldn't tell if they were fake), flawless skin, straight white teeth, long ash-blond tresses, and the only one in the room using two risers under her step. Was that a pink Corvette I caught out of the corner of my eye as I pulled out of the parking lot?

I stopped both on the way to the gym and the way back to try to capture the fields of mustard in full bloom. It's an absolutely spectacular sight and my photo doesn't do it justice. So many things are blooming now--yellow acacias, quince in light and dark pink, white apple blossoms, pale pink cherry trees. I do love living in Sonoma county.



It was a busy but fairly pleasant week. Mom came down one night, which was very nice, though I consumed a bit too much Zinfandel and had a bad night's sleep following an odd choking episode by the dog at 2:00 a.m. so I wasn't my best at work the next day. I had given a friend some job recommendations a few weeks ago, so he took me out to lunch at a very hip spot yesterday. M had enough energy to mow today and the cut grass smells so spring-like--and when it's all cut off, you can't tell what's weeds and what's grass so the house looks a little better. I'm off to San Diego tomorrow, so have to pack, and to plant the pansies I bought earlier in the week.