Happy 28th to Me!

Yesterday I rung in my 28th year, so I wanted to share my festivities...

Happy 28th to Me! When this cake was brought out to me, it actually had a sparkler on top. Unfortunately, my reflexes were a bit dulled by champagne and wine by this point in the night, so I couldn't get out my camera fast enough to catch it.

My birthday dinner with friends Polly, Beth, Bruno and Kevin at the Royal Buddha Thai Restaurant to celebrate. You will notice Jared is absent. Sadly, he missed my birthday to come home for a job interview. Polly (my very dear friend in pink) ensured that I still had an amazing day!

Since Jared was gone, I decided to schedule a massage to relax and enjoy the gift certificate that my class gave me last year as an end of the year gift. It seemed the perfect time to use it, and then after a fabulous morning at the spa, I went shopping and then rock climbing with my friend Polly. I may have been a bit over-scheduled, but that tends to be my M.O....

I probably haven't been rock-climbing since high school, but I figured why not give it a try... My arms could certainly use a good workout. Polly had found a place on Sheikh Zayed and she had a 2-for-1 voucher, so we decided to check it out. We thought it was going to be an indoor rock-climbing wall (because you know, it's like 105 degrees with 60% humidity, so who in their right mind would rock climb outside right now?), but much to our surprise it was an outdoor wall. Well, we figured we'd get an even better workout then by sweating off a couple pounds of water weight...

Getting Started.

Heading up the wall...

Getting higher. Maybe rock-climbing is like riding a bike. It just comes back to you...

Pauline's artistic shot of me almost up the wall.

Success!

What a fantastic way to begin my 28th year. With a little adrenaline rush, and some super sore arms. Rock climbing requires a lot more upper body strength than I realized. Perhaps I am failing to remember that the last time I went rock climbing was when I was a senior in high school. At that time, I was also working out heavily in my amateur attempt to become a pole vaulter. What fun though! After our successful climbs, Polly invited me to her apartment for some champagne before dinner. I love my Dubai friends!