Halloween

Halloween was a very fun celebration yesterday. I always really love Halloween, but when you mix Halloween with babies in costumes, that's just bliss. Our older kids were with their mom (actually, they were each at Halloween parties), so we had a party here for the babies and adults who wanted a mellower Halloween. I figured that since Ali was too young to trick-or-treat, we would hang out here, pass out candy to our many, many trick-or-treaters (that institution is still very much alive and well in this neighborhood), have dinner, and enjoy the spirit of the holiday together. We had about 18 people (including kids) and it was lots of fun. P. and I bought about 6 bags of candy and others brought 4-5 bags too. I was stupidly afraid that we would have too much candy left over, but with the exception of three little pieces everything was handed out!

After a good dinner and some great conversation, we played a rousing game of Cranium. Peter and Henry were a dream team, but it was a tight game. They beat us by only one question. It was a great night.

Coaching

For my birthday present, I gave myself a life coaching certification course. It's a 6-month course and I'm thrilled to be doing this. I love the idea of helping people come to their own solutions for issues in their lives.

When I was around 18, I remember reading a book about Super Thinking. Most people only use about 10-15% of their brain capacity. This book focused on harnessing more than this 10-15% of your brain to learn more and become a genius. (Supposedly Einstein used 20% of his brain). I don't remember much about the super thinking, but I remember one seemingly unrelated chapter about living a wonderful life. The book's author wrote that approximately 10% of people are what he called insane. They have a chemical imbalance in their brains that prevent them from living a totally fulfilled life as society traditionally thinks of it. He then goes on to say that 10% of people live lives that he considers "sane." According to this author, a sane life is one in which all the parts are working. Sane people have jobs they love, healthy relationships, security, abundance, play a part in their communities, etc. In other words, they are happy with everything in their lives and are truly living the lives they want to live. What about the other 80% of society? They are what he called "unsane." There is no chemical reason why they are not living the lives they way, but for whatever reason they are in unhealthy relationships or jobs that make them miserable, etc. In one way or another they are living lives that are out of alignment. They have the power to change that and become sane, but they don't. When I was 18, I remember reading this and thinking 1) I want to have a truly sane life and 2) I want to help others to do the same. And so I'm becoming a life coach.

Life coaching is a very sane career for me, but it's also the perfect tool to help the "unsane" become sane. Life coaching is a co-creative relationship between the client and the coach where the life coach supports the client to come to their own solutions to create positive change in their lives.

My ideal for my coaching practice is to combine reiki with coaching. I'm a reiki master and have seen reiki's miraculous effects on every area of people's lives. It works for physical healing, but also helps people emotionally and mentally. It aids in bringing spiritual clarity and evolvement. It is also relaxing and stress-relieving. I believe it's a perfect complement to coaching and will help supercharge any coaching efforts.

The perfect thing about all of this is that both the reiki and the coaching can be done remotely. Reiki is traditionally a "hands-on" practice, but works equally well with distance treatments. (At Reiki Level II, practioners can practice this form of treatment).

So anyway, I'm embarking on this new path and I'm really thrilled. I'll let you know what happens next. You can let me know if you're interested in having a life that's more sane.

Birthday Celebration

"And in the end, it's not the years in your life that count. It's the life in your years."
~Abraham Lincoln

Last Thursday, I celebrated my 35th birthday. I had a really great birthday. P. and I started off the day (after dropping off the kids at their respective schools) by going to an auction. A few weeks ago we were at the very cool house of some friends for a party. P. complimented our hosts on the great furniture they had. They smiled smugly and said "we get everything at this amazing estate auction. Do you see this couch? We got it for $25. See that table... $15." And on it went. They said that they go every Thursday morning and there are definite deals to be found. I've been eyeing my increasingly shabby living room furniture and dreaming of a room makeover for quite a while now, so the lure of this amazing auction was just too great. I asked Peter if we could go on my birthday. And we went.

It was quite an experience. The auction starts at 9 a.m. with box lots. We arrived about 20 minutes earlier so that we could inspect the items and figure out what we wanted. I immediately saw a gorgeous arm chair that I loved and a really cool side table. We also had our eye on a Louis XVI-style love seat and a kitchen table. We registered with the auction, received a paddle, and then found our friends. The auction started promptly at 9 and the auctioneer flew through the items. If you were distracted in the slightest, you could easily miss an item. At one point I looked down at my phone to respond to an e-mail and I missed three items. Anyway, my favorite chair sold for far more than I was willing to pay ($175), but we got the cool mid-century modern side table for only $10. We stayed until 11:30, but had to leave before they got to our kitchen table and other interesting items. We're DEFINITELY going back though. That was fun!

Later, my buddy Steve took me out for a lovely lunch at Gulf Stream. I had a delicious seared scallop salad and then we shared an ice cream sunday. The server brought it out with a candle on the top. I blew out the candle and wished for more yummy meals like that one. Delish!

That night I had a low-key dinner with the family. I was suffering from a pretty bad cold and decided that I would try to rest up for my fabulous M Party.

I told P. that I wanted a party to celebrate my special birthday. I thought that a Martini party would be fun. I also had seen packs of moustaches at a party store in the "Fiesta" section, and thought it would be really fun to have a Mexican Fiesta party. P. combined the ideas and threw me an M Party- replete with Moustaches, Martinis, Mojitos, Mediterranean food, Mexican Music, M&Ms, Merlot, etc. Anyway, we threw the party and it was a blast. It's rather impossible to not have fun when you're wearing a fake moustache... and when you're drinking a mojito... and when you're eating my husband's amazing Moroccan Tagine. So all in all the party was a rousing success. If these birthday celebrations are any indication of the year to come, there's going to be a lot of "life" in this year. :)

Laughter

"The most wasted of all days is one without laughter." ~e.e. cummings

I've been laughing a lot these days. A friend of mine turned me onto Laughter Yoga on the Phone. You call a phone number at certain times of the day for a live 20-minute laughter yoga session. Sometimes the moderators leads you in specific laughter exercises and sometimes they just laugh. They also have prerecorded sessions that you can listen to whenever. I like to call in when I'm driving to work. Traffic is just not a problem when you're in your car cracking up. I told my sister that I was doing laughter yoga a couple weeks ago and she just rolled her eyes.

Yesterday I was driving with my sister to run an errand. When I looked at the time and saw that it was 5 pm and a laughter yoga session was about to begin, I decided to call the number. "Hand me my phone." I told her. She grabbed my cell phone out of my purse and handed it to me. When we were stopped at a red light I dialed the number and entered in the code. She eyed me suspiciously. When the light turned green the laughter started on the car's blue tooth. "Oh you did not just call the laughter yoga people." I just smiled at her and started laughing. She rolled her eyes and started laughing at me. And her laughing made me laugh harder. Then she started listening to the silly exercises and that made her laugh harder. Of course that made me laugh harder. And we started doing the exercises and laughing, tears streaming down our faces. I was laughing so hard it was almost dangerous for me to be driving. But I needed that laugh. It felt so good.

The same friend who introduced me to laughter yoga sent me this little video: Bodhissatva in Metro. It's a great one if you need a laugh.

So in addition to laughing, I've been having fun in other ways. On Friday I had a girl's night with Katie. We went to Urth Cafe in Beverly Hills for a delicious dinner and then headed a couple doors down to Color Me Mine for some painting fun. I did a Dr. Seuss-themed mug and she did a little serving dish with an eye theme. It was a perfect little evening.

On Saturday I did my second Road Runner's long run -- we ended up running about 5 1/2 miles. I went into a faster group this week and I felt good. Today I was supposed to do some cross training, but I caught the cold that had already caught every other member of my family. All I could do was lie in bed. I've decided to take a break from my bed for some blogging and laughter yoga. They do say that laughter is the best medicine.

Discipline

"Discipline is the bridge between goals and accomplishment."  Jim Rohn I've been thinking a lot about discipline lately.  First, the marathon training is imposing some much-needed discipline on my life.  The fact that I've already signed up and paid for the race definitely helps with the motivation to get up and run.  I love how I feel after I've already started running, but I need the external pressure of the race to get me off my couch and finally rid myself of these last few pounds of baby weight.    Ali is also reminding me of discipline.  She's trying to stand unsupported.  She keeps trying and trying.  She'll stand for a second and then fell on her diapered bum.  We're delighted by her efforts and so is she.  Every time she falls, she cracks up and then gets right back up and tries again.  I guess what impresses me so much is not the discipline she's applying, as much as the fun she's having in the process -- even the falling down causes her giggles.  I'm trying to take a lesson from my little girl -- not only should I get back up after falling and try again, but I should laugh.

Pink Martini

Pink Martini was magnifique! I really only knew one song of theirs before going to the concert: Je Ne Veux Pas Travailler. They're such fantastic show men and women though, that it was still super enjoyable. They had a bunch of random guest singers, including Ari Shapiro (news correspondent on NPR), Emilio Delgado (plays Luis on Sesame Street), and some Malaysian super star who's name I've forgotten, and that made it just that much more charming. I think it was one of my favorite concerts that I've ever attended. I've attended many, so that's saying something. So, if you ever have the chance to see Pink Martini you really should! They've got the official Hip Girlz seal of approval. :)

Listening to their sassy, swinging world music also gave me the idea for a party. I do so love parties! I have all these martini glasses (gifts from the wedding, house warmings, etc) and we NEVER use them. I do like martinis (at least the sweet, girly ones like appletinis), but it's not something we drink at home very often... or ever, if I'm being honest. Anyway, I think it would be fun to have a martini party. We could dress very swanky, drink all sorts of yummy martinis, make use of my lovely glasses, and listen to Pink Martini. My birthday is coming up...

Marathons and Martinis

I've done it! At midnight last night, I signed up for the LA Marathon and for the LA Road Runners training group. My good friends Lars, Janet, and Kelli had already signed up and they talked me into it. I've been wanting to run a marathon forever. It's way up top on my "what to do before I die" list. I'd tried to train a couple years ago, but a little pregnancy got in my way. So this is the time ... March 21, 2010. Los Angeles Marathon, here I come.

This morning I had my first training run. I ran side-by-side with Kelli and we ran a nice and easy 4 miles. After that we dashed off to La Grand Orange for brunch. La Grand Orange is a relatively new brunch place (opened about 4 months ago) on Bicknell and Main Street. It's really cute. It has a fantastic patio and yummy, healthy food. Kelli had a divine looking breakfast burrito. I had oatmeal with raisins and almonds. My oatmeal could have been better, but everything else looked great. Anyway, I'm a little bummed that this place wasn't there when I lived two blocks away, but I'm psyched it's there now. I'm sure it will be a staple of our post-workout brunch circuit.

My sister called and said that her friend Denise has 2 extra tickets for us to see Pink Martini at the Hollywood Bowl tonight. I'm so excited. I love Pink Martini and I love the Hollywood Bowl. I was recently lamenting the fact that I'd gone through an entire summer and hadn't made it to a concert. Yeah for manifesting freebies!