What Have I Done for Me Lately?

I know and love the song, “What have you done for me lately” and who has that song in their head by THE Janet Jackson now? But something interesting happened last week I wanted to share and it made me think of the song but then reversing it for what had I done for me lately? I had a dear friend of mine Aimee last week ask me “What do you do for yourself during the week?” I was like, well LOTS. Duh, I mean, right? Yeah, not right. It really made me stop. I pulled out my little yellow legal pad and started writing. Then I stopped. Wait, I had something to write, right? Okay, yes, yes, I wrote down Boating. But then I looked at and it and thought about it. I love boating, love having my friends out on the water on a hot Sunday, dropping anchor in the play pen or up north by Wilmette. But then I realized that even while it felt like it was for me, it still involved making up a nice lunch, having snacks for everyone and stocking the cooler. So it that really something I do for myself? My gut said NO.

Hmmmmm, this got me thinking. Like thinking really hard. I wrote down “coffee in the morning on my porch with the paper”. Okay see I do something for myself every day, that counts? Then I realized maybe this little cup of coffee and me time in the morning was not enough and really rather pathetic on the scale of 1 to 10 of “doing things for yourself scale”. I gave myself a 2 out of 10. But like that was it. Coffee in the morning on my porch with the paper? This is my only me time? Insert hyperventilating now….

See I hit the bottom of the barrel last week in stress and feeling overwhelmed. Something had to give last week. I was about to snap. Well, maybe I did snap. Without being all dramatic, okay,  I snapped. But not like in a crazy way, but in a lightbulb Snap kind of way. In a “Somethings Gotta Give” Way.  (OMG did I just quote a movie title in correlation to me having a total freak out last week)? YES. MOVING on….I kept coming back to this question Aimee had asked me.

You see, I do a lot for my clients, my husband, friends, my volunteer work. We all do a lot for people. I know so many caring and giving people and big deal, we all do a lot for everyone.  And I am not writing this to make myself feel good about all I do for others. This is more about ME. If you really and truly ask yourself “What Have I Done for ME Lately” it may stop you. It sure as heck stopped me and made me think.

I realized this little cup of coffee and situation I had myself gotten in had to change. I mean, really had to change. I had to do something for me, that I owned, that no one else benefitted from (other that the dang coffee time in the morning). And my friend Aimee has been teaching me about yoga and encouraged me to go back to it. I have tried yoga. Yup, but if you have tried yoga, the first ten, scratch 50, wait 75 times you do it, it is not easy. It is HARD. I mean, sweat your ass off hard. But I loved it and I missed it and Aimee helped me realize this is something I can do totally for myself. And I love it again. I love the the inner struggle it creates as you breath, balance, stretch and focus your mind and heart on your own body. So I have found something I can do for JUST ME. This is for Ali I tell myself when I get into the car and drive there. And I love it. I cried rivers and rivers of tears in Shivasana today sending Aimee all of my love and gratitude I can for taking me back there, ‘getting me back to the matt’ if you want to be very cool about it.

I thank Yoga and Aimee for helping me out of my little rut of not doing anything for myself. I thank yoga for what it does to my brain and what it does for my sanity. I am still going to fall over, everyone does, even the master yogis fall over from time to time. But correlating to life, you just get back up, keep on going and get stronger and more balanced each and every time at the matt, each and every day. And I am doing it for ME. ONLY ME.

Thank you Aimee for your amazingness and helping me realize what what missing in my life! I love you to the sunsets, sunrises and back.

Namaste, peace out, have a good one. Ask yourself this question as having a full life is so important. What have you done for YOU lately?

Me and Aimee on the beach in Costa Rica at sunset in December. Ninja caught on camera by Allen Zepeda

Cooking in 2014

I have written some goals for myself this year and one was to cook more at home and try new recipes. With how busy my life as a wedding and event planner can be, sometimes I do not have time to make a nice meal and find myself ordering or throwing a frozen pizza in the oven. This year I am going to change that. Sure, there will be nights that I am calling Hot Woks Cool Sushi for a delivery but I am going to try and really hone my cooking skills as an at home chef!

So, if one your goals this 2014 is to learn some more great recipes, please join my Facebook group I created the other day!

Life and your Camera

I am not a photographer but I love pictures. LOVE them! Love taking them (hate being in them). Love that we can capture moments and laughter and anything in between. I recently lost my camera. Well, I did not lose it. I took it out on an airplane and forgot to put it back in my bag and no one was in my row on the plane to tell me that it was sitting there. So I just got home from a recent amazing trip and a recent amazing wedding in Costa Rica with my friend Aimee, “cameraless”. I was the “unofficial photographer” for capturing funny moments (think blackmail here from the final night of vendor dinner partying, AKA Dance Party Costa Rica) to the amazing pictures of the wedding that Aimee designed. Yeah, yeah, there was a professional photographer there, one of the best in the business in fact (Jose Villa, check him out, BIG PLUG FOR HIM COMING: I want to get married again just so he can take the pictures) and his pictures will be amazing. But I was sad to lose those funny moments that I took pictures of during this trip.

What I realized this week and what I meditated to the last couple of mornings, (Yes, Meditated, you heard that right, don’t be knocking it and laughing at me), was that life is about the experience, not the pictures. OKAY, pipe down all my photographer friends, I am not talking about weddings, weddings MUST have photographers (and really good ones) but for a vacation or a trip the memories in your head are the experiences, not the pictures that are in an album or on your ipad or computer that make up the history of your life. Those moments are forever in the camera of your brain.

PS: having your own ROW on a 4 hour flight is awesome. But in this case maybe a row friend would have told me, stupid, your camera is sitting here.

PPS: assuming with how Karma works, now that I have let those pictures go, that Continental will be calling shortly to tell them that my lost and found report came thru and my camera is on it’s way back to me!!!!

OH and if you want to see some of Jose’s amazing pictures that he took at the wedding hit this link!

2011 A Look Back

It is Jan 4th, 2012. The start of a new year, which is always very exciting to me! This week I am not looking ahead and setting goals (sometimes known as resolutions but I have decided best to call them goals) but more looking back at the amazing year and thanking 2011 for a great year. Please enjoy a photomontage look back that I created this week. Indeed it was a great year.

Traveled in 2012 to:

• Costa Rica
• St John
• Anguilla
• Las Vegas
• Los Angeles
• San Diego
• South Africa
• San Francisco, Napa, Sonoma and Russian River Valley
• Grand Cayman

I picked up my new and renewed passport today and I am ready to see what adventures 2012 brings and beyond. Can’t wait to get lots of stamps in this new passport of mine. The world is my Oyster!!!!!

Vacation Alone

In January I attended an “envision your year” workshop. In that workshop you made goals for the year and things you want to do for the year. One of the things I had written down was to take a vacation by myself.

Fast forward eleven months and I found myself on a beach in Grand Cayman doing just that, being on my own. It was not planned and kind of just happened but I loved every minute of that 24 hours that I was alone there. It was quiet. I was lost in my own thoughts. I floated in and out of the ocean, read magazines from cover to cover. I even at one point found myself floating in a water trampoline looking up at the clouds and making shapes like I used to do in the summertime with my Mom.

It was wonderful. Not that I did not miss my husband, the dog, my family and my friends but it was just nice. And different. I have people around me all the time. I love that and I love people. But this was………… I don’t know, special. I felt so grown up. I felt so comfortable with myself. It was beautiful. So next year, I am going to do it again. And I may even make it a bit longer and have it be two days :)!!!!

Foodie Experience at The French Laundry

For those of you that know me, I love food. I love wine too but this post is about food. I am a self described “foodie” and adore how it is presented, served, the aromas of food, the taste, the texture, well you get my drift.  Pretty much the whole dining experience excites me!

Last week Jon and I got to experience The French Laundry in Yountville, CA in the heart of Napa Valley wine country. To say I was excited is an understatement. A good friend of mine got us the reservation and I jumped up and down and screamed when we were emailed the confirmation. This is NOT a place you just call and get a reservation. This a place that entire blogs are dedicated to how to get in and how to get a table. See they only open up reservations two months to the day before the day you want to eat. And with only a small amount of people a night, getting a front row ticket at a U2 concert looks like childsplay when it comes to getting a reservation at The French Laundry.

Chef Thomas Keller opened the doors of The French Laundry in 2004. Since then he has won more accolades of best restaurant in North America and the world that is it hard to keep track. Going to The French Laundry for me was the equivelent of a die hard Cubs fan actually getting to see their team win The World Series (which if you did not know has not been since 1908). This was a once in a lifetime experience for me! (No, it is not cheap). I will be paying this dinner off for a couple of months.

We got there a bit early for our 5:45pm reservation and were able to walk the gardens of The French Laundry.

Walking thru the gardens is quite peaceful as you know that what is currently on the vine or in the ground this morning could easily end up on your plate that evening. There is even a resident cat or two to keep the rodents out of the garden. This little guy came up and laid down for a tummy rub.

The whole experience was divine. It was impeccable service, but not obnoxious “over service”. The house the restaurant is in is quaint, not fancy by any means, but well appointed like a nice home with wonderful linens, starched perfectly. The wine list is 38 pages and is presented on an ipad to you. Or if you have found a favorite wine in the valley that day while out wine tasting you can bring that in for a corkage of $50 per bottle. It just can’t be a wine currently on their own wine list.

The whole experience took about 3 hours and it is quiet and realxed. You don’t feel rushed but you don’t feel like it drags on. Jon and I had a wonderful evening and thank you Clint and Keith for scoring us the reservation! As Chef Keller says on his website, “In the end, a great meal is not about the food and the wine. A great meal is an emotional experience”.

We even got to experience “The Egg”. Not always on the menu, I mentioned it to our food hostess (hardly a place you can call someone a waiter or waitresses so I am going to use the word food hostess), as being something I think of when I think of The French Laundry and 15 minutes later it appeared. I did not ask, I just mentioned it and then two were brought to us. This is the level of service that just really makes it stand out.

Want to see what we ate? Here is a link to the menu that we ate! 

This was truly an incredible dining experience I will never forget and will forever have the cool wood clothespin that is on your napkin when you arrive with their logo on it in my desk. It will remind me of a wonderful night and remind me that one should always strive for excellence and impeccable service.

 

 

For a long time now I have tried simply to write the best I can. Sometimes I have good luck and write better than I can. -Ernest Hemingway

Photograph by Sarah Alair

I am here. A new blog, a new friend to write on and share my life with those around me. This is less for any readers and more for me. I love sharing my wedding life on the Engaging Events by Ali blog but there is a person behind that suit and the white binder on the wedding day. I have written a personal blog but have not written much for the last three years.  I looked up what my past “labels” or “tags” were on my blogs and it was Family, Friends, Pretty Things and Vacation. Isn’t that so interesting. It struck me as interesting because that is what I am behind all the wedding planner talk. I am my Family, my friends, I love my vacations and MAN do I love pretty things. My work is awesome but it does not define who I am.  While our careers help define who we are it is does not make us who we are. Does that make sense? Oh well, it makes sense to me.

Anyway. I am here I am back. If no one reads me that is okay but I am still going to write. Oh and if you forgot what I included a picture. It was taken by my dear friend Sarah Alair Bible. It was not retouched. I am naturally that gorgeous!

So sit, back relax, grab a glass of whatever you love and celebrate life with me.