It’s been another busy week for Vivian and me, with Valentine’s Day, a Wedding, and a blizzard adding to our usual fun of hanging out with friends from our variety of social circles. On Wednesday last week, Eric called the Order of the Shovel together at Famous Dave’s for a fun night of eating barbecue. I’m glad we had the chance to get together, because the blizzard that hit Omaha on Friday wound up cancel ling the long-anticipated Pink Party. I’m always amused when the “Shovelers” get together, because it seems several of us have digital cameras and spend much of our time snapping photos of each other for no apparent reason. Lisa felt obligated to explain to the other patron in the restaurant that “we’re always like this.” I usually just hope they think this is some kind of a class/family reunion and we don’t get to see each other several other week as it is.
On Friday, I decided to have Valentine’s Day a little bit early so I could surprise Vivian at work. A passing snowstorm dumped several inches of the white stuff on Omaha, so I suppose Vivian was even more surprised when I showed up with roses, soup, and hot cocoa. Hy-Vee was selling blue roses this year, so I was able to get one of those for Vivian as well, since blue is her favorite color. On Saturday, Vivian treated me to a Valentine’s Day breakfast with heart-shaped pancakes and bacon arranged like an arrow, which was very sweet. That evening, we cuddled up on the couch and watched Sixteen Candles, courtesy of my laptop and iTunes.
It was a relatively quiet Valentine’s Day this year, because we made the mistake of being involved in some other couple’s wedding instead of celebrating ourselves. We still had a lovely little Valentine’s breakfast together, but I would never consider wasting our first Valentine’s Day like this again. Let this be a lesson to all of you reading this as well.
On Sunday, Vivian and I had every intention of spending the day resting up, but a bunch of our friends decided to take advantage of the recent snowfall and go sledding out in Northwest Omaha. I hadn’t been sledding since I was a kid, and Vivian had been wanting to go sledding all year, so we couldn’t say no. We had a great time, and I was able to relive a bit of my childhood in Michigan sliding down the steep hill by Standing Bear Lake and trying not to wipe out on an slippery, inflatable sled. Venche had the bright idea of starting a snowball fight as a few of our friends tried to get back up the hill after one run. I stayed far enough back to take photos before joining in.
In all, it’s been a great week, and I’m glad we’d been able to see many different groups of friends who for one reason or another don’t always hang out together. I’m also glad I was able to put the camera down long enough to have some fun with everyone this time around.