Wow, looking back at those two photos in the post immediately before, I am in need of some color. Good thing I have a sunny vacation coming up soon. On Friday, I swimsuit-shopped online, didn’t really find much I liked, so I decided to go upstairs and try on all my existing swimsuits. I dug out a bunch I’d totally forgotten about, and decided to forego a new suit. Really, I just wanted something that’s watersports-friendly. I think this Ralph Lauren would do:

(I’m posting the above photo with Dwaine’s approval. He says the photos of the ones in string bikinis are too racy. Haha!)

I think Saturday was spent mainly laying around the house, but the recovering heart patient and I did take a mile-long walk down to the Lake and have sushi on the lake. Turns out our sushi lakeside restaurant’s sushi chefs will do an omakase sitting for us if we’re there when they’re not busy. I was thrilled. We had fresh scallops and hamachi imported from Japan, and other stuff served traditional Japan-style, all of which weren’t the menu. It cost me close to $100, but it was so worth it.

Sunday was so much fun, it made me realize how much I miss group interactions with my friends. (MOH) Vicky and her sister Karen had plans for a yoga session near Vicky’s house, and invited me along. Karen does yoga regularly, I used to for years but hadn’t in about a year, and this is Vicky’s first time. The class went well, although I got a bit nauseated. I made sure to eat very little before yoga, as food in my stomach always leads to nausea mid-yoga-sesh. Of course visiting Asian parents (mine) beforehand would guarantee that I had at least SOME food in my system, so I ended up modifying a couple of moves down when I felt sick. I have a tendency to push myself so I did most things in the advanced modifications. For Vicky’s first, she did pretty well following the class. AND, didn’t fall over once. =) I realized I’m more flexible than I thought, although my balance has suffered just a little bit since I’d last tested it in a class like that.

After class we went back to Vicky’s house, changed, grabbed Vicky’s boyfriend Glenn, and went to nearby carnivorous restaurant Wood Fire BBQ & Grill. Vicky says she normally orders a rack of BBQ pork ribs there. Haha, that’s so anti-yoga. I tried to be good and had a house salad with dressing on the side (croutons removed), and a platter of seared ahi tuna, maybe about 8 slices, with a ginger-ponzu sauce for dipping. I was unaffected by Glenn’s steak and potato, Karen’s 11-oz prime rib, and Vicky’s BBQ chicken, ribs, and something-or-other combo. THEN Karen ordered TWO desserts. I’m normally pretty immune to vanilla ice cream, even coated in Oreo cookie crumbles and dunked in fudge, and sitting atop a hot brownie underneath whipped cream. What I’m NOT immune to, is food going to waste. Dwaine had popped in to join us by this time (I was SO excited to see him that I surprised myself!), and three of “us” were so busy gabbing about hiking and planning future Mt. Baldy treks that Karen and I ate the two desserts alone, lest they go to waste. When Karen stopped, I kept going, resenting everyone else for not pulling their weight, resenting my Asian can’t-waste-food gene. I still feel guilty about those desserts and I’m pretty sure I’m bloated from it, too. Ugh. On the brighter side of things, though, after 20 years of friendship Dwaine and I finally have our first Dwaine-and-Cindy photo, taken on my cameraphone!

I know, it’s a crappy photo of both of us. It’s probably the worst one of myself I’d seen in a long time. Oh, well.

Dwaine and I chatted all the drive home (an hour for me), and made plans to hook up for a workout Friday, and maybe another one next Tuesday, which is a holiday for me. Cesar Chavez Day! Woohoo!

***ADDENDUM, 3-24-09****
Mike (“Wilco”) emailed me that “it’s almost embarrassing to see that bad of a picture posted,” and doctored up the image a bit and attached his new improved version to his email. So I’ve substituted my dark “bad” image for Mike’s. I still think I look pretty crappy, but Dwaine looks significantly better. My excuse: I was just at yoga! I didn’t wear much makeup and didn’t “freshen” afterwards. Thanks, Mike!