A long to-do list sits before me, but I set it all down to plan my birthday dinner with friends even though it’s more than a month away. 

Remembering Pleasure

I’m looking at the menu of a local vegan restaurant about which I've heard rave reviews, but have never been to. Listen to this first dish: whole wheat tortilla with spicy butternut and black bean chili, ground walnut chorizo, zucchini tahini nacho cheese, scallion, avocado and roasted red pepper sour cream served with blue corn chips. Just reading the description of this first item makes me want to go shopping at the local market and fill my basket with fresh ingredients to whip up an amazing feast. The restaurant has just opened a cocktail lounge too, with “fresh juice cocktails” like The Lemon Bomb with lemongrass and cardamom infused vodka, fresh lemon juice, agave and soda.

The Power of Play

I forgot how much I liked to sing until my son was born. I sang as a teenager, and although I never had soloist potential, I held my own in the audition-only chorus and had the lead in the school musical. But when I started college and stopped singing, something happened that was akin to a former athlete losing her muscle tone: I completely lost my sense of pitch, and with it my confidence and my willingness to sing, even in the shower.