Sunday, February 28, 2010

Hiking, Dirty Trails, & Falafel for My Birthday

While it is not officially my birthday today, I have been treating it as such. My 30th birthday is tomorrow (Monday) and I will be at work. A Monday is no day to have a birthday, but I can't control the calendar. Luckily, I work with awesome friends who are taking me to lunch. A coworker is even making me vegan cupcakes. I feel very special! I work with great people.

Since I was treating today as my official birthday, I wanted a casual celebration doing what I love- spending time in nature and eating vegetarian food. Therefore, we attended the Sunday Walk in the Park at the Eno River run by Stephanie, our friend and organizer of the Triangle Vegetarian & Vegan Meetup Group. I have been looking forward to this event all week. Several friends and acquaintances were attending and I could tell we would have a good group. I was right!


We arrived early to the park because I had the time wrong by a half hour. Fortunately, it was a sunny and we had time to relax in the warmth. During that time I saw several dogs and got to pet a Beagle. My day was already off to the right start! Shortly thereafter, the whole group arrived and we chatted a bit before heading out. I could already confirm that we had a great group!

We agreed upon taking the Fanny to Cox trail to make our hike a little less than three miles. The names of the trails had us laughing and the jokes abounded. Along the trail we also discussed vegetarianism, berries, organic farms, Psychology, iPhones, etc. and somehow we managed to laugh the whole time. Walking up a hill while laughing is quite challenging. My ab muscles got double the workout (or at least that is what I am telling myself).

After the hike, we decided to meet up at International Delights on Ninth Street in Durham for a late lunch. I got the international platter which consisted of several vegetarian sides (falafel, tabbouleh, hummus, dolmas, and pita). The food, company, humor, and conversation rocked!

From lunch, we headed to Whole Foods where we would separate and shop. We could not get enough of each other because we spent a while chatting in the produce section. We continued to laugh about FANDI's (Dr. Fuhrman's nutrient scale with our own twist), thievery, dirty names for trails, and more.

While this all might not seem like much to the average person, this was all very special to me. I have had a hard time accepting turning 30 and this was just what I needed. Laughter, after all, is the best medicine.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

I am so honored to have had a part in making your birthday enjoyable! It really was a great day - I am glad we could come together to make your big day lots of laughs!!!

VeggieAmanda said...

Thank you for organizing such a great event. I could not have asked for a better group! It really was fun. Thanks for being part of my day! :)

Anonymous said...

"I have had a hard time accepting turning 30 and this was just what I needed."

I was teaching at Enloe High School when I turned 30. Bro called and left me a message to call another number. My box was ready, he said. So I called and asked about my box.

It was a funeral home.

affectioknit said...

Happy Birthday!