brunch
Originally uploaded by twittering bird.

Look at this adorable piece done by Twittering Bird. :) It just slays me how cute and funny it is!

This weekend, M and I had breakfast at YJ's. YUM! Gotta love the American Breakfast. Much laughter and chatting was done. We need to have an art night soon!! I need some inspiration.

In other news... Went to a girlfriend's salon (Satorum) grand opening event Tuesday, an astrology presentation by Quan. He was quite good, P and I thought. He pegged us both and seemed to peg other people in the audience as well! Ha! He told her she really liked thunderstorms and she YES! I love them. WEIRD. He said to me, you probably think you're the smartest person in the room or at least on the short list. I hadn't really!!! But then I was blushing like a maniac hoping no one in the room thought I was THAT conceited. haha!

He got it out of me that I was dating a guy a lot like my older brother (although he's even more like my dad) and told me that I am in the right place. I thought I was on the right track, good to have the Quan stamp of approval. :D

Last night we had a happy hour for L's b-day. Had lots of laughs over work and whatnot and some mojitos (YUM!) at the up-north Tomfooleries. Good times... Good times...

Spring has sprung

Happy spring all! Isn't this a cute picture of little Pooch? He's such a honey and quite a goofball.

Last night I went out to dinner at Lulu's with my FFFFFF co-member BL. We had a blast as usual. We established that I'm going to Belize in May and he's going to the Philippines, world travelers we two. :) I'm quite excited about going to the beach and perhaps scuba diving. My cousin told me you can go cave tubing there, NICE!!

We reminisced about our trip to Korma Sutra. I didn't blog about this before, but there was this pretty older lady at the table next to ours and as we were getting ready to leave a waiter came up to refill her water and she says, oh hello, how are your English lessons? He says, HUH? she says, how are your English lessons coming, i know you from the English as a Second Language classes? He says HUH? This continues on as we gather our things and leave the restaurant before we burst. My guess is that they are not going well. :) I shouldn't joke, I think HUH is a big part of my vocab too, but the context cracked me up.

We had big laughs over our new idea, the BRAG keyboard... This is a keyboard for the people who tend to brag ALOT. There will be keys with whole phrases, such as: I'm awesome!, I'm sexy! , You're never going to believe this!, Don't you wish you were me? ByE!. haha! This came about because I was imitating someone typing a bragging email and then BL says, your keyboard must be different than mine cuz your's seems to have a byE! key on it and I have to type with ten fingers while you use two (apparently i pretend type with two fingers and at the end sign off with a punch to the byE! key.) haha!

But alas, life is not all cherries. I've got the winter blahs...  But this too shall pass because spring has SPRUNG!

Being a good friend, to yourself

Clouds
Originally uploaded by Cryptia.

Taken from here (kind of a 12 step site, but still pertains!!)

Get motivated! It simply means taking the initiative and getting into rigorous action of working on one's self improvement - daily.

Try and turn those bad habits into good habits! Pick one habit at a time and work on that for as long as it takes before moving on to the next one. Remember, take it one day at a time (have you heard that before?) and acknowledge your progress. Mark your growth in a personal journal or share your experiences with other people.

Love yourself! Regardless of every other relationship in your life you spend 100% of your time with... you! If you can't create that a functional, stable relationship then you will undoubtable have trouble living the quality of life you desire to. Become your #1 fan and enjoy spending time with yourself. Take time out to be a good friend to yourself.

Take the time! Take time out of your busy life to observe. There's a lot to miss when you don't use the entire spectrum of your sight around you.

Gratitude! It's difficult sometimes during the bad days or the sad moments to remember why we are happy to have the lives we do.

Start your day over! It doesn't matter if it's 8:00 in the morning or 9:00 at night. We have the power to turn our days and wills over at any point during the day. Waking up on the proverbial wrong side of the bed used to affect our entire days because we let it. Stop, take a deep breath and rework your thoughts, turn your anxiety, anger or sadness over to your higher power and start the day over.

These are some ways of the many I have learned in helping myself be a better friend to myself. It's no secret that we are our worst critics and the more we slow down and learn to love ourselves with the care and compassion that we show other people the better off our quality of life will be. There is nothing selfish or self-serving in taking care of our minds and bodies, of realizing the time when we need to be alone or be with others. The more we work on ourselves the more the rest of the people, places and things in our lives will fall into place around us with ease.

Good friends...

Snuggle Buddies
Originally uploaded by Magpie Skinny.

The years since college have zoomed past. I find myself chilling out more, partying like a rock star less... And equipped with a better sense of who I am, what I want out of life and what I want out of relationships in my life.

Because of this I've started questioning a couple friendships. Are they worth the time and effort, if I'm feeling blah about the relationships. So I went online and found this little gem of info (here- directed at college students, but I think it holds true with relationships in general):

What is a healthy relationship? Generally, a healthy relationship is one that is respectful and caring. Jean Miller Baker, author of "A New Women's Psychology," says that healthy relationships empower all people involved in them. She defines "Five Good Things" that identify a healthy relationship. Simply put, they are:

1. A sense of zest or well-being that comes from connecting with another person. For instance, you may leave time spent with this person feeling energized at times and quietly content at other times.

2. The desire and energy to take action within the relationship as well as in other situations. For example, you may want to clear up a problem in the relationship. When involved in healthy relationships you also enjoy being involved and active in your life.

3. An increased sense of knowing yourself and the other person. In a healthy relationship you will, with time, find yourself more confident of who you are, and also know the other person better.

4. An increased sense of worth or feeling good about who you are. Again, as you are around people who are caring and respectful, you develop a gentleness about yourself and know that you are valuable and good. The more that you’re around healthy relationships, the more this feeling will grow.

5. A desire for more connections beyond the present ones.

I'm not sure that these relationships I'm questioning fit these 5 things. Unfortunately they leave me feeling:

1. A sense of being unheard and boring.
2. An increased desire to take a break from the person.
3. The knowledge that if something is going really well for me I should keep it to myself or the other person will get jealous and shut down on me for a while.
4. Feeling I know every last bit about the other person and they know nothing about me.
5. Feeling emotionally drained, like I've been swimming, towing a deadweight for hours.

I know I can be a bit sensitive. But despite trying to stick it out and not be so sensitive, I'm still left feeling blech about the relationships. Sure, occassionally we have a great time, but not as often as I'd like. Are these people toxic friends?

I found this article about Toxic Friendships and it says: “You want the right amount of reciprocity of affection and assistance in a friendship,” says Isaacs. “So if you’ve got a friend who is always in need, always in trouble, always wants to talk about her problems, then there isn’t any reciprocity if there isn’t any room for you in the friendship. It doesn’t have to be 50-50 every minute, but overall there should be some kind of balance in which you feel you are getting your needs met, and so is she.”

hmm... Any advice out there? Lay it on me. :)

@--/------- Magpie

Colorado - ahhhhhhhhh....

Vail Pass, CO 1/15-1/17
Originally uploaded by jafarrell77.
C, J and I went to Colorado for some outdoor sports. Good times!!

We left our house Wednesday at midnight and arrived in Colo. at about 9. Stopped for breakfast at a cute little cafe in Georgetown with friendly owners and good food. Headed to Loveland and commenced snowboarding. The conditions were rough - cold, snowing and really windy. But you just gotta love snowboarding. My gator kept freezing up so I would stop and warm up now and then.

Then we went to the Wildernest office to get keys to our condo (Timber Ridge-clear at the top of the hill!!). Cute place, but fireplace didn't work and had a BAD DRAFT. It was 60 degrees in there the whole time. Maintenance never came. Yeesh.

But the hot tub was loooooooooooooooovely (and the clubhouse was right across from our condo).

Bright and early Friday morning we headed to Breck for more snowboarding. It was a great day, we spent a lot of it on Peak 7. Love those rollers, but getting over there is a pain. I always end up walking. :)

C arranged snowmobiles for us to rent Sat. from quite a character. A guy from Louisiana. First he told C he had nothing to rent him, but he kept calling him back into his shop to look at snowmobiles and then rented him two 700cc and on 550cc__________2007. Crazy powerful, the 700cc has 147 horsepower!! That's more than my car probably. haha!

We had dinner at Murphy's there in Dillon. Crashed.

Saturday we went to Loveland Pass for some backcountry action. It was really cold on the side where everyone else was going, so we went back to the other side and hit it. Good times. I need to learn how to board better in deep pow.

Then off to Vail Pass for some snowmobiling. It was a beautiful sunny day and we took off and just tore all around. I went up a big hill and then cresting it, saw no ground under me. I kept going, kept going, no ground, no ground. "AH AH AHHHHHHHHHH!" J and C said I yelled so loud they heard me over their engines. Fortunately the sled handled the drop (virtually straight down) and on we went. :D

We went up and down some crazy stuff. I enjoyed it, but didn't go nearly as fast as the guys did....
Saturday night we met M and S at Wild Bill's Pizza for some food, beer and tunes. Good times as always. :) The band started playing with the lead singer wearing shoes, then suddenly he was just wearing socks and then he had no socks on! I don't know how he managed all this so discreetly. The shoes, sure, but the socks?? We decided we should go before he took his pants off without getting up from his chair. haha! I'm JOKING!! I'm pretty sure that's impossible. ha!

GOOD TIMES..... @--/------------------

Wildernest on Dwellable

Best Buds

Best Buds
Originally uploaded by Magpie Skinny.

Seen on MSN: This dog emerged from the jungles of Mozambique after floods with a monkey on his back. The pair has been inseparable ever since. They've lived with the same family for some time now. Aren't they sweet?? The news video said that some dogs in the area tried to bother the monkey and the dog fought them off, now they leave them alone. You gotta wonder what happened to these two for them to bond so tightly. I think they're adorable...

*muah*
Megz