A Beautiful Day

Just got home from a lovely Ladies Night dinner - the second one in as many weeks. Last week, we made sushi; today, it was chili. For next week - hot pot! My friends in the dietetics program have realized that with summer almost upon us (and most of them spending their summers somewhere other than Vancouver), we have to make the most of these last few weeks before their spring course ends. And to us, "making the most" = good food.

I ended up having to walk home, on my still hurting foot, as the bus I was hoping to take drove by just as I was approaching 16th Ave. I was too far away from the bus stop to run and catch it, even if I hadn't been nursing an injured foot. Knowing that the next bus wouldn't come for 30 minutes, and that I was less than a 30 minute walk from home, I decided to walk... well, limp really, home. It was a nice night - the sky was clear, the air was crisp but not too cold, there was a bit of a breeze, but not crazy windy like it had been earlier in the day. As I walked past a school, I noticed a white plastic bag being blown around in the wind. It was, I swear to you, *exactly* like the bag that's blowing around in the wind in American Beauty - the one that Ricky tapes and shows to Jane and tells her about how it was the most beautiful thing he'd ever seen. I even stopped and watched it for a while and I tell you, it was beautiful. And then, I kid you not, the next song on my iPod was U2's "Beautiful Day". That song always makes me stop and take in the beauty around me (I'm like Pavlov's dog with that song, I swear!). The lights of the city twinkling in the distance, the fragrance of the flowers in bloom, my knee starting to kill as I limp along, trying to will my foot to stop hurting. OK, maybe that last one wasn't so great, but overall it was a nice walk home after a super delicious dinner with good friends. I'm a lucky girl!

(In completely unrelated news, if anyone wants to see extremely small photos of me and Kelly from the half marathon, you can go to http://www.marathonfoto.com/ - you need to know my last name (do you know my last name?) and that my bib number was 8405).