09 March 2010

Life is Good

Lately it seems like I've been leading a life that is not mine because I've been having too much fun. Seriously. I was actually away for 2 weekends in a row!

2 weeks ago Rob and I spent the weekend in NYC. The weekend away including babysitting was a gift from my Mom for our 10th anniversary and my brother and sister-in-law put the icing on the cake with a gift certificate to our favorite steak place. Rob and I had a weekend like we haven't had since Zoe was born. We meandered around the city. We spent hours in the Barnes and Noble at Union Square. We lingered over dinner. We slept late. We window-shopped. We held hands a lot. It was just all romantic and perfect. We could use about 10 more weekends just like that.

I didn't think weekends away could get better until this past weekend with Emily and Becky in Philadelphia. Why Philadelphia, you ask? Well, thanks again to my Mom who gave me this trip as a birthday present. (Mom is on a roll with the excellent presents!) The idea was for me and a "guest of my choice" to go to the Barnes Foundation museum which is just outside Philly. I had never heard of the place, but it sounded like my cup of tea so I called my favorite tea-drinker (aka Becky) and asked her if she wanted to go. Then I immediately realized that we'd be in Emily's neck of the woods so we'd have to have her along too to make another girls' weekend out of it. Luckily it didn't take too much calendar examining to come up with a weekend that suited all three of us.

The Barnes Foundation is a pretty amazing place. It is filled with French Impressionist, Post-Impressionist, and early Modern paintings among other works of art including furniture, sculpture and pottery. Despite the rather stringent security measures (The White House should take notes from them!) the galleries are really wonderful to walk through and there were quite a few surprises including a beautiful Matisse I had never seen. And they even had a poster of that Matisse.

The museum was followed by lunch and then very excellent shopping in Rittenhouse Square area of Philadelphia. Then there was dinner at Parc, a French bistro. Lots of good girl talk, book shopping, new jeans, and some good food -- a recipe for perfection. I really didn't want the weekend to end. Thanks to both Emily and Becky for their excellent company.

And to top off all this goodness, like a cherry on my sundae when we were shopping on Saturday afternoon we made a stop in the Lucky Brand store. In the store there was a moment I will never forget. As some of you know I have been working quite hard to lose weight and get in shape over the last year. I've lost about 25 pounds and I am pretty fit, if I do say so myself. I don't think I was quite this thin on my wedding day and it feels really great, but I still think of myself as being, well, fat. While we were waiting our turn to try on jeans I was looking at a top and I asked the sales person if it came in black and she said to me, "Yes, what size do you need?" and she turned and looked at me, "a small, right?"

It might not sound like a big deal, but in my entire adult life I can't remember anyone ever asking me if I wore a size small. It felt soooooo good. (Especially because the small was the right size.)

Life is good even if it isn't all weekends away and shopping, but wouldn't it be nice if it were?

2 comments:

Emily Barton said...

Life would be WONDERFUL if it were all weekends away and shopping (well, the latter with qualifications like being with you and Becky and having the time to do it in a fun city and in a leisurely fashion). Thank you (and your mom) for so much fun!

Courtney said...

Yay for the size small - that's fabulous! I've been working on losing weight and toning too and I try and mark all the small victories. This sounds like a wonderful weekend - I love impressionist paintings.