And another birthday has come and gone.

Twenty-six was a pretty fun birthday between friend fun, family dinner, and a day with the bf.  I’m excited for a new year.  Twenty-five did not start out so hot for me, although it did see much improvement by the end.  Determined to keep that going.  I’ve come a long way in a year, mentally, and I’m proud of myself for it.

BIRTHDAY ACTIVITY #1:

The first awesome part about my birthday itself was that I didn’t have to go to work.  I also gave myself the day off from working out. Instead, I went to the beach.  It was a beautiful day!

We packed a lot of drinks and healthy food options to munch on during the day.

Those Nature’s Promise Cheddar Puffs are dangerous.  I think I could eat the whole bag!  Next time, I think I’ll pack a specific amount in a ziplock baggie or tupperware instead.

I was excited to make it to the Gloucester Beaches for at least one beach trip this summer.  I went to Long Beach with my family on Father’s Day, but I just love Good Harbor so much.

I loved it even more when we bought Richie’s Slush!

We spent five hours total in this:

Perfect relaxation.

BIRTHDAY ACTIVITY #2:

I treated myself to a massage.  Well, actually Uncle Chris treated me to a massage.  I found an old gift card to Daryl Christopher that he gave me when I graduated from college that I never used.  So I booked myself a Sports Massage to try and work out some of the pain I mentioned in Tuesday’s post that I’ve been feeling in my shoulder/back/neck lately.  My massage therapist told me I have one of the biggest knots she’s ever seen in my neck/back area and that is probably one of the reasons I am having so much pain in my arm/shoulder.  She literally spent half of the massage on that spot alone trying to work out the kinks.  My body feels ten times better today – such relief!  I am still going to my doctor’s appointment tomorrow at Lahey Clinic to make sure the pain isn’t attributed to something else (please no rotator cuff injury, please no rotator cuff injury).  But this makes me more hopeful that my need to teach with invisible weights this week is only temporary and just a sign for me to slow down.  Working out all the time ends up backfiring if you overwork your body.  But anyways – awesome awesome awesome massage.  I’m going to go back in a few weeks for another session.

BIRTHDAY ACTIVITY #3

Dinner!  Tim surprised me with dinner in Charlestown, which now makes sense with his clue of “It’s in an area we never go to.”

He chose a place called Navy Yard Bistro & Wine Bar.

As you can see, we ordered sangria.  It was tasty!

For an appetizer we ordered a grilled flatbread that had Pecorino Toscano, Marinated Grilled Pears, and Italian Speck Ham on it.

This is what they brought out:

We were so confused as to how this could possibly be the $10 flatbread we ordered.  But we ate it anyways.  The hummus was good.

Then the waitress came back with this:

We quickly realized that we were both actually dumb enough to forget that sometimes restaurants bring out bread first.  We laughed a lot about that!  Even though I ate the “fake flatbread” (regular bread/hummus), I still dove into the “real flatbread.”

For our entrees, Tim ordered the Lobster Risotto and I ordered the Swordfish Special.  I was pumped to order the swordfish because of my Restaurant Week FAIL last week.  It was DELICIOUS.  Hands down one of the best meals I’ve ever eaten.  Good job Tim!

It was cooked with corn, yukon potatoes, java beans, and some type of lemon sauce.  I gobbled it right up!  The swordfish was SO tender.  Tim’s Lobster Risotto was so good too.  It was made with roasted Tomatoes, Basil, Asparagus, and Saffron Butter.

And because it was my birthday, we ordered dessert.

Creme Brulee!

After dinner, we walked around by the water a little bit before sitting back down in the car.

The city looked really pretty at night:

And I was happy to have an occasion to wear my new dress (Target!):

MORE BIRTHDAY PRESENTS

For my present, Tim is going to pay for me to get the upgrades for Fitness & Feta!  How thoughtful is that??  He also bought me a Swiss Ball Chair so I can use it at work, and one of those Power Balance wristbands that are all the rage lately.  He knows me too well.

My roommates also gave me my present last night, which I’m super psyched to start using.  Session 3 of bootcamp is starting up, so my new portable iPOD/CD player will be PERFECT.  So will my new whistle/stopwatch.  And my Panera gift card for eating after my workouts. 🙂

Thanks to everyone who made my birthday awesome!  Here’s to the next chapter.