Seeing Utah Friends

I had the chance to travel to Utah to have a family reunion and I took Claire for her first plane ride. I thought I'd picked a flight that would sinc up with her nap, but she ended up fussing almost the entire way. I was doing everything I could to get her to sleep, even standing up and swaying with one knee on my seat, hunched over because I was near the window and couldn't stand upright under the overhead bins. I finally strapped her into a front carrier, bounced her from the edge of my seat, and lulled her to sleep, only to see out the window the Great Salt Lake and feel the plane starting its descent. Oh well, at least the time passed quickly because I was very occupied.

My first few days in Utah were spent meeting up with 4 different girlfriends that I've really missed since moving away. I carefully orchestrated how I would bounce from one house to another and it worked out really well. Thank goodness for friends who arrange their day around you when you come to town, right? Anissa picked me up at the airport and took me to a restaurant where Holly joined us. It was so nice to be in the same room with them to catch up on all of our lives. The three of us shopped the 9th & 9th district and were sure to stop by Hip & Humble, my favorite SLC store, and Anissa practically forced me to buy a cute shirt and a baby headband. Anissa very generously drove me to Park City so I could spend the night at Jennifer's house. We first let the kids run around at a park. Jennifer made a yummy salad meal and made up a dessert for me to try: frozen banana, peanut butter, honey, and walnuts. Darryl was totally embarrassed that that was the only gluten-free dessert option they had for me, but I really liked it and I've made it a number of times since then. Darryl wanted to watch the movie Knowing, but after a few minutes Jennifer and I were too chicken to watch it, so we retreated to the master bedroom to hang out on the bed where we laughed until the wee hours of the night.

The next morning Jennifer and I headed out on a walk up in the mountains. Did I say the mountains were right out their front door? Amazing views and the air smelled so fresh. It was nice to return to our walking routine from when we walked together in the mornings from our downtown SLC flats to Memory Grove Park. Darryl gave me a ride back to SLC where he dropped me (and all my luggage) off at Liberty Park so I could meet Anissa at her son's tennis lesson. From there we went back to Anissa's house to play in her daughter's room. Always a book collector, Anissa had a cute children's book, The Polite Elephant by Richard Scarry, that I read to Claire.

The next friend to arrive was my dance friend Kristine, who picked me up from Anissa's house. We killed some time before going to a bodywork/therapy appointment I had set up with Jan Cendese, who did amazing work with me when I lived there to heal some old injuries. I was looking forward to seeing Jan to sort through some big events in my life the last few years. We did a bit of that, and as I was revealing the last few years I let her know how much I truly learned from her. I've been able to incorporate her wisdom into my life and being aware of and working with my body to connect what's going on in my physical body and emotional life. It's all connected! Of course, it all takes practice and it's easy to slip into old habits and not even be conscious of how your body feels. But, I really had some amazing proactive healing on my part in the last few years. So, visiting with her was really reassuring in how well I am doing and how much power I have to create the life I want. Even just writing this is a big reminder to me to keep this body work alive. Wow.

I watched Kristine teach a jazz class that night. I should have stepped in to take class because Claire was asleep in her car seat, but who knew she would stay asleep so long? When baby woke up I walked her around the Rose Wagner and nursed her in the green room. Strange to be back in an old performance venue, now with a baby. After that we made our way back to Kristine's house where she cooked up some yummy chicken curry. By the time I got Claire into bed it was time to crash myself. I'm glad Kristine & I had spent a lot of time driving in the car so we could do our talking there. The next day was slow and relaxed. I tried to fit all of my stuff back into my luggage and Kristine made me do a test run to see if I could actually carry all of my stuff by myself, to be sure I could ride the Trax and do a bus transfer to get to my brother's house. I had a stuffed backpack, a large duffel bag, Claire in a front carrier, her car seat hanging on my elbow, and a purse. I made it.

The only things I would change? I would've loved to see the faculty at the U of U Modern Dance Dept., but they are scarce during the summer break, even better would have been to drop in on some dance classes. I'm also disappointed I didn't get any pictures with Holly or Anissa. How could I let that happen? Well, I'm grateful to my wonderful friends for spending time with me - I truly felt special by their loving attention.