Birthdays with November Project and blueberry muffins…

Birthday’s at November Project are kind of awesome. I’m not a huge fan of having tons of attention drawn to me, but when there are 700+ people, chances are you won’t be the only one celebrating a birthday.  Sometimes there is body surfing involved, sometimes a group song and sometimes it’s just a simple BOOM! So when I showed up Wednesday morning at the stadium I was excited to celebrate with the tribe. Little did I know that 300+ faces would all be looking at me, singing Happy Birthday!! I was NOT prepared for this.  I just wanted a simple birthday BOOM, but when Brogan (the co-father of NP) says a 37th birthday wasn’t important, I had to make a snarky comment (because that’s what I do). I should have known that poking a wise-ass (sort of like poking a bear) is not smart idea. And while this lead to me being midly embarrassed by all the attention, it was also the funniest most epic Birthday morning EVER!

After the workout we made our way over to Swiss Bakers for our first post November Project breakfast. It was certainly a nice leisurley way to start the morning with some great people.  Later, after a few hours at work, I met the hubs for a Birthday dinner at the Grotto and then for drinks after with some friends at 21st Amendment. This might be my new favorite bar as the first drink on the menu was a Angry Arnold Palmer, and after lemonade-gate this weekend it seemed quite fitting! I started the day feeling trepidatious about turning 37, but the people I was surrounded with made it so much better.  I don’t think I’ve laughed that hard in a long time.

This year, July 4th came a little bit early.  With the East Coast bracing for Hurricane Arthur, the city of Boston decided to move the fire works extravaganza to July 3rd. For the first time in years we headed over to the Esplanade to check it out. Since the Boston Marathon bombing, I’m not a huge fan of loud noises.  I thought I was ready for fireworks, but apparently I was wrong.  The combo of the sound and the feel of the blasts just brought me right back to that day.  It seems so stupid because rationally I know they are just fireworks, but sometimes your body feels otherwise.  I was able to plug my ears and get through it, but it made me wonder if I’ll ever be able to watch fireworks again without feeling a sense of panic. It certainly gives me a new appreciation for all the soldiers who deal with this!

Our real July 4th started off bright and early at the top of Summit Ave with November Project. We did 4 full hills, took an awesome group photo complete with sparklers (courtesy of the hubs) and Lady liberty crowns and then had the most awesome potluck breakfast ever. The tribe usually goes out to breakfast after the workout, but because most places were closed on the 4th we decided to bring the breakfast to us. Someone even brought cupcakes and candles so we could celebrate birthdays, one of which was the hubs! Nothing better than celebrating your 40th birthday at the stop of Summit Ave with a few hundred of your closest friends.

I’ll be honest, I didn’t do much cooking this week, but I did manage to whip up some blueberry mini muffins for the potluck! When baking I always try to subsititute some whole wheat flour for all-purpose flour, just to make it a little healthier.  The problem with whole wheat flour, is that add too much and you’ll be eating hockey pucks instead of muffins.  This was the first time making these, so I only subsituted 1 cup of whole wheat.  They were still pretty fluffy, so I’ll probably add an additional cup next time.

Next week…Marathon training (again) and more CSA recipes.