I had such a lucky weekend with girlfriends. Dennis Fiorvanti from Essential Wholesale planned an amazing birthday weekend for his beautiful wife (and business partner), Kayla. He flew in Kayla’s friends from all across the country to wow Kayla and in a feat of surprise-genius-ness, really truly surprised her. We all hid in the kitchen and waited for her to arrive home. And boy was she happily shocked!

My husband and I did something entirely and totally new this weekend – we took an Improv class! As some of my tweeple mentioned, taking an improve ‘class‘ is sort of an oxymoron but as we learned, being spontaneously funny takes work! Improv is the art of acting, singing, talking or reacting in the moment in response to some stimuli in the environment around you. You may have seen it in practice on the show ‘Whose Line is it Anyways?‘

Our teachers (the fabulous Oona and Morgan from Upfront) do improv classes for corporate and team training. After a simple one hour intro class, I can see why. We all came away from the class with a definite bond (after that much laughter, it’s hard not to!) and an appreciation of how to act and react ‘in the present.’ We also worked on the ability to access creativity in the moment, think clearly under pressure and the art of proactive listening.

The class was hilarious and creative (no, I have no idea what I’m doing in the photo above). I will definitely look for another opportunity to take one again.

Last weekend, my fabulous sister-in-law Cheriss, myself and a good friend, attended the twenty-Sixth Annual Tulip Festival in Mt. Vernon, Washington on bikes. It’s not an event to miss! The pictures turned out great but they just don’t give the magnitude of the event any justice. I guess it’s hard to capture 1,500 acres of colorful tulips in bloom.

Along with the beautiful weather, we enjoyed local food, music, art, shops and produce and we were joined by hundreds tourists from all over the country.

Here’s a field map if you live in the area and are interested in a jaw dropping experience. Better hurry, though! They’ve been in bloom for a couple of weeks and mother nature determines their schedule!

Order your own tulip bulbs from Skagit Valley here.

Me and the Birthday Girl

We had a big surprise today that turned into a blessing. It sort of makes up for the United flight that wasn’t. Guess I must have been banking my flight karma because when we checked in for our return flight (bless you internet), we found that our return flight was delayed due to snow and rain in the Seattle/Bellingham area. Upon closer inspection, we realized that our newly delayed flight would arrive too late to make the final connection back to Bellingham. Alaska Air, bless their hearts, thoughtfully let us spend an extra night in Hawaii rather than making us spend a miserable 6 hours in the Seattle airport waiting for the first Bellingham flight on Monday. Thus, we got an unexpected day in Hawaii.

We made the most of our bonus day. We found a fabulous little cove and snorkled the morning and afternoon away. The fish in this little cove rivaled any fish I had seen scuba diving and better yet, there were snacks and a warm sun to dry off to (no freezing boat to climb back into and wait for the next dunking). We finished the day at the Four Seasons on the point, with Kauai visible in the distance, and watched whales off the point while sipping lovely chilled drinks with umbrellas.

The whole day was an unexpected surprise; an extra free day on the island. We felt especially lucky to be rebooked on the same flight … only tomorrow. And we are thankful for our bonus day on the island along with our extra special time together with friends laughing all day. Joy joy.

Have a question about this blog post? Come join us at Bramble Berry’s Facebook page and we can help you out with any of your soapy questions!

My new vacation rule #1 is: When the sunscreen stops burning your eyes, it’s time to reapply.

Two members of our merry 9 person birthday band have been taken out of commission with a heat rash and a nasty burn. Thus, my new rule. It seems to be working thus far. I have only a mild… nothing since I’m a redhead and don’t tan (notice the pasty whiteness in the photo above? After 12 straight hours in the sun, I still look like that. I blame my parents for this genetic tanning-deficient oversight).

Today was positively magical. Last night, we fed everyone on $17 of fresh fish, yummy salad and homemade garlic stuff (warning, if you see me on the street, I would refrain from air kissing me or for that matter, standing within 10 feet of me. My breath should be considered a deadly weapon after that fresh garlic dip). The delightful thing about being on an island (besides the incessant tsunami warnings) is the plentiful, fresh and economical fish. If I wasn’t eating so many chips, this would be a great weight loss camp.

This morning, I made it up and out of bed before everyone except the Ironman triathlete trainer (seriously, the man ran 12 miles yesterday and swam 1.5 miles in the ocean today. We are all underachieving blobs next to him) and headed off on a big scuba diving adventure. Normally, I’m not a fan of scuba diving alone. Mostly because when you don’t have a “buddy” who loves you watching out for you (preferably one without a life insurance policy on you), it’s less likely that you’ll make it back in one piece. But, scuba diving is the only place where my brain turns off and turns to a jello mush (that is, the only time my brain does that without heavy narcotics) so off I went into the deep blue with a group of merry, non-English speaking Japanese tourists and one anxiety-prone man. Oh, and a dive captain and a first mate named “John”. They were both supposedly named “John” though I remain suspicious they just tell everyone this so they don’t have to bear the ignominy of divers never remembering their real names.

One big hint that you should not be scuba diving is if you are a 70 year old Japanese man, speak not a lick of English, are on your first dive (ever!!) and are so severely hung over that you pee on yourself before boarding the boat. Thankfully, the Johns did not let said disaster-waiting-to-happen dive.

The dives were lovely and I would have more photos from the boat of the gorgeous blue water had I not been shivering so severely that I couldn’t hold my camera. Notice even this photos is lopsided.

Diving for me goes something like this:

1. Put on wetsuit so thick that I look like a giant Michelin man. It generally takes two men to pry me into them because I refuse to get a size that fits. If I got a size that fit, I would have to admit that perhaps, just maybe I should maybe diet just a wee bit.

2. Dive for 60 minutes. Start to shiver uncontrollably in about 20 minutes because small female humans named “Anne-Marie” aren’t meant to dive in 74 degree water at 80 feet down . Foray on and insist on being the last out of the water.

3. Get on the boat and realize I can’t get out of the sopping wet wetsuit without help. Realize that my pride is the size of my a** and don’t ask for help. Stay sopping wet for the hour between dives, generally with gale-force winds driving through my cold, salted-dread-locked hair.

4. Put on 75 pounds worth of gear and start the entire process again, only this time, start shivering at minute 5 and wonder why there are no under-water-warmer swimsuits on the market. Decide to start a new business and call it “Magic Water Warm!” ™ to sell to skinny, prideful women divers all over.

Thus, no photos. Shaking, shivering wet and with a Body Mass Index in the normal range, I couldn’t hold a camera still. You’ll have to content yourself with the random posted vacation photos instead.

On the plus side, there were whales that breached in front of the boat (no, I did not see it. I was looking the wrong way. But I did turn around in time for the largest splash ever. Of all time. So, I sort of saw it). One whale did perform for us and flapped and slapped his tale 15 times (yes, really, 15 times) on the water with a giant splash each time. I was beginning to worry that some sea-going kayakers must have enraged the whale and he was beating them into a bloody pulp or at least, submission. But, I was told he was just happy and calling his peeps to him. Alrightly then … either way, it was an awesome display of brute raw nature. (And, it happened right in front of the boat and glory be, I actually saw this through the shivering and overcame my natural instinct to always be turned around when anything cool happens. I, however, did not happen to overcome my natural instinct to never photograph said-nature-coolness. Thus I can’t share it with you. My bad.).

The best part of the entire day however was definitely the first dive where we could hear the whales calling to eachother, talking and singing. The deep sonorous song of the whale was so resonant that we could feel the vibrations in our chest throughout the dive. I’ve been diving since I was a wee lass of 16 and have never had that experience. It was once-in-a-lifetime.

And now, I’m going to work on a fun soap project and give the Happiness blogs a rest for one day. Plus, the project is St. Patrick’s Day related and if I don’t use it now, I’ll have to save it for next year. And, despite daily yoga and meditation, my patience levels are not that zen yoda like … yet.

Hello from Hilo, Hawaii. I’m on a birthday trip with some girlfriends to celebrate a milestone birthday. So far, it’s been lovely weather with a comfortable breeze. We went to a lu’au last night (a definite experience not to be missed) and today, did a whale watching snorkeling trip. We even saw whales (a real treat) and got up close and personal with some turtles. We were even able to touch them! Tomorrow, I’m going scuba diving early in the morning and am thrilled to find some quiet time tonight to work on tomorrow’s Happiness blog on the importance of quiet time. For now though, I’m going to go have some quiet down time.

Aloha 'oe!

Have a question about this blog post? Come join us at Bramble Berry’s Facebook page and we can help you out with any of your soapy questions!

One of my dear friends is turning … well, it would be indiscreet to say but it is a momentous birthday. Her thoughtful husband has arranged for a few of her girlfriends to celebrate with her over a long five day weekend on an island, no less! What a great guy, huh?

I am flying on and off all today (leaving at 5:40 this morning from Bellingham with another friend) but will post the 3rd in the Happiness Series blogs later today during my layover. Today’s post is on creating a vision for your life. I’ll still be posting photos on TwitPic, blogging, tweeting and answering emails but, I’ll be on an island for the next few days while keeping in touch. Technology is great! But, good friends are even better.

Have a question about this blog post? Come join us at Bramble Berry’s Facebook page and we can help you out with any of your soapy questions!

I’m so lucky to have a fun and wonderful family. We spent today in Seattle, celebrating my Mom’s birthday. First, we walked around Greenlake, where we met the lovely duck photographed above (that duck, plus about ten thousand more and probably 250 cute dogs and 35 perfectly behaved, adorable babies).

Then, we headed to Costas in the Fremont District of Seattle. That’s where this fun photo of my dear husband and I was taken. The “Fremont Troll” is a a well known landmark. It’s holding a real car, as if it had just snatched it from the overpass above.

We finished up with a wonderful 3-D Imax show, Under the Sea, at the Pacific Science Center. If you have an Imax near you, this was a great film. It made me feel like I was scuba diving with exotic sea life and was informative at the same time. All in all, today was a very laughter-filled day with lots of joy. Thank goodness the weather held for most of it!