Kristen Doctrine

Kristen responded to my post “Swan Song”. It was and you can read for yourself, priceless.

You can be getting burnt out. If you are, you need to limit the number of times you cycle a week, to something more like 2-3 times a week and make sure you take some other kinds of workouts 2-3 times a week. Also remember, we want to do things in our "workout life" that has longevity in it. Something that we can do throughout the next few decades, not the next few months. The beauty about cycling (and I've been teaching it since 1995) is every level of participant can find success in it. I've done it thru two pregnancies, family deaths, one divorce, hand surgery (rode with my hand wrapped and in a sling), with the flu, with a bad heal spur, etc. Its like an old friend that never leaves me no matter how dismal my day is or how drained my life feels. I find solitude in it, even with all of the riders around me. I meditate on the bike and I celebrate every fiber of my being that has good health and life in it. Don't beat yourself up on the bike, rather let it guide you and allow it to become a "partner" in your quest for oh - so - much - more than just fitness.

Swan Song

Today I was worried that my spinning days had come to a conclusion.  Without much fanfare I might add.  For the first time in a hundred odd days my intuition held me from taking the trek into Equinox and waiting on line for the “ten most wanted” seats in Kristen’s Spin Class. 

I know that after so many years of exercise in one form or the other I was reaching the first phase of burn out.  I was determined however to manage my expectations a bit better and back off on the pedal stroke just a touch because I realized I had added too much road for my body in its present form to endure. 

This is no easy tale to tell because my ego will never let me give up. Fortunately this awakening came before I chose to give in. And so I take a couple of days to re-charge or rejuvenate my desire that had me come into KSC in the first place. 

For one I would miss writing about my adventures and two because it’s more much more than just a spin class. It’s as I have said part Zen part 12 step and part fitness all rolled up into a little red knob below the black handlebars. It goes without saying of course that the third reason is that I would miss Kristen the main ingredient to why we all cram in here when we can have front row seats in any other class Equinox offers. 

And so because I thought this might be my swan song in writing KSC I’ll give it a day or two before I take my place alongside you all again my intimate strangers.  (I hope)

Yours truly,

Jack Briant A.K.A. John McQueen

Foreign Correspondent

Today was another foray deep into foreign territory and Kristen bless her heart let the cat out of the bag when she exposed my real intentions as the author of our blog. I might now be indicted for not having a full access pass and the attorneys are hard at work covering my tracks with a forged version.  Fortunately I have fairly close ties with the general manager at the home office.   Woodbury has been my home since its inception in 2003 and Roslyn has never been more than a fly over with illegitimate passes from my upper echelon friends.  However, now that my spy cover has been blown I have to just come clean with both clubs and beg for your indulgence. 

Today was indeed a great class because the energy in the room felt great even though most of you in Roslyn are strangers to me.  But somehow Kristen is adroit at bringing us together as if by some mysterious incantation.  Not very mysterious in reality, she is just very talented.  The acoustics are different and the lighting without windows makes for a meditative ride. 

  I am starting to notice a definable improvement in a smoother pedal stroke and although I am out of breath for a good portion of the spin I am starting to become more efficient in terms of the power I feel in my legs and I am witnessing a faster RPM.  A hundred days in and I have shed 10 pounds and I can feel my heart rate moving to a higher zone before I go anaerobic. 

Foreign Correspondent was the idea that flashed across my inspiration window on my way to Roslyn today and I am glad I made it because it was truly a convivial one. I invite your thoughts as always.

P.S.

The rider next to me named Tina inspired the next entry I will call it Tri-Focal.

Castles in the Sky

Castles in the sky came plummeting to earth because the clouds weren’t dry.  And when they hit one of them landed right on my left foot and as I hopped about I thought to myself that castles had no business being built without skyhooks to make sure they were held in place.  Although they looked just as beautiful on the ground as they did in the sky.  And I didn’t have to climb up Jack’s Beanstalk to get in the front door. 

What’s this have to do with spinning?  I will figure it out just give me a chance. This line of inspiration just didn’t arrive in my brain for no reason. I don’t think so anyway.  Oh yeah it was one of the songs that Michelle Laskin was playing on her ride today at 1015.  It set me off into a dream like state and kept my aching frame from remembering how come I was kicking my ass so hard this week.  4 Spin classes, 2 sessions of that 30=MC2 thing with Richard Bianco and another workout of my own that I cooked up and it was no wonder I was dreaming about castles in the sky. See there you go there’s the tie in. I knew if I stuck with it long enough it would show up and just in time too.

Castles in the Sky is a beautiful metaphor and since I am writing this blog you will have to live with my non-sequiturs once in awhile. 

Texas Hold'em

The Lone Star State gets a sampling of “Breathless the Ride” this weekend. Are they in for a rodeo surprise.  Those Cowboys and Cowgirls might be good on horseback but they are in for the ride of their lives when Kristen lands first in Preston Hollow and then Highland Park Texas this weekend.

New York meets Dallas and when the spinning wheel comes to a gentle stop the riders will shake their heads and be rubbing the very sore musculature in their legs at least for a day or two.  Is this what spinning is like back in New York?  Without so much as to knowing what hit them she will be gone leaving them wondering: Who was that woman?  We all know who she is here and the Equinox Dallas CS will never be the same.  

The Tony Award

Do they give Tony’s for Spin instructors?  Just a passing thought on my way in to my usual place on line to sign up for the remaining 10 seats this cloudy cool Thursday.  I keep coming back to the thought that in order for there to be this continuous full house each time Kristen leads the charge has to be on account of that it’s just great theater.  Most of us all have favorite actors; mine are Cary Grant, William Powell, Sidney Poitier and Meryl Streep.  You fill in your own blanks whether they are modern day thespians or those that graced what they called back in the 1930’s and 40’s, the silver screen. What they all possessed for me is that they believed in the characters they were portraying.  It is never wooden because it all seems so natural as if they were born into the role.    We all love good acting and we hate bad acting. And remember when I talk about acting here I am not talking about a fictitious portrayal, I am talking about an individual performance that is passionately pure and mirrors what’s on the inside as to what we see on the outside.  My wife is like this but she can’t spin so I cast my Academy vote for Kristen Gagne.  Whether you agree or not is not important because the supporting cast at Equinox Woodbury are all capable of winning supporting cast awards. And Kristen has had a hand in their success because she takes diamonds and polishes them. 

Someone just asked if Kristen was teaching today and I felt  this rock hit the bottom of my stomach, as I am still 3^rd and its 5 minutes to sign up time.  It’s okay I tell myself because I am writing about one of my favorite subjects, KSC.  And even if she is not here, what am I saying?  Breathe in through your nose and let the nostrils flare.  It seems to work most of the time.  Oh well I will find out soon enough.  This will be a postscript to today’s entry. 

P.S.

Okay much to my relief Kristen’s shining physiology appeared as if by magic and my fears were allayed.  And I have to tell you she was in a stern mood today.  She was admonishing us quite a few times. At one point she said: “Who’s Talking?” Kristen takes what she does very seriously and she just proved it yet again.  And I said to myself that her staff might be getting a dose of fire and brimstone so they had better watch their collective P’s and Q’s. 

The Spy From Woodbury

It was a simple mission for Secret Agent Man, Jack Briant. Get into the Equinox Roslyn and go unnoticed by any of the local inhabitants.  I had some assistance from Number 10 Downing Street in Woodbury. His code name: Jared. However I was sworn to secrecy by MI-6 to which I have pledged my allegiance.  #2 as he is known at the office of the  home secretary had  surreptitiously arranged for my false identity papers and I slipped by Roslyn security with nary a raised eyebrow.    I was happy because I finally was able to circumvent   this blackberry/I phone handicap that had me vexed and locked out online and waiting in lines 60+ minutes at Equinox Woodbury. There was no angst of being the first 10 in line because I was able to book this class online. Shhh Jack this is spy stuff and top secret.     It was good to see a few familiar faces and they faked any recognition of me knowing the risk I was taking.  Of course our leader was there doing her best impression of Kindergarten Cop with the lightweights in Roslyn.

Secret Agent Man, giving you a number and taking away your name. Odds are you won't live to see tomorrow.  Mission accomplished as I was able to file this report exclusively for Kristen's Spin Class.

Yours truly,
Jack Briant 

My Imaginarium

Funny how this 90-day idiom that AA espoused works because it seems like it is the basis for every clock that measures how long we should give something in order for it to reveal itself as to what applicability it has in our lives.  It worked for the first time when I stopped drinking, because once I stopped imbibing for 90 days I had a foothold on my recovery. Fortunately for me it stuck the first time and is still running into my 21^st year. 

Take this spin class for instance, as I near 90 days several things have been revealed to me along the way.  First off I have cemented my dedication to my writing in terms of regularity, content and if you would believe my readers; pithiness.  Second my level of fitness has taken a noticeable leap forward in terms of lowering my weight and raising my heart rate in terms of what is tolerable at the upper limits.  Emotionally there is something self-satisfying about when my eyes open I am energetically seeking alignment instead of playing cat and mouse with it.  Dare I mention spirituality?  It might seem too ethereal for there to be a connection between my spirituality and spinning but when we take our imaginarium like rides in each class we take off into an invisible world within our own psyches. And for me this journey is a recipe that I cook up and it is in the simmering that my felt sense is awakened to a world that is outside myself. A journey that relieves me of the burden of the egocentric life that can consume and prevent me from seeing what is really relevant and what is just garnish. 

Sore By Four

This was Kristen’s refrain this morning as she came in on her day off to substitute for the sculpt class.  I frankly don’t need to reflect on a specific hour to experience soreness.  These past 3 months I have either been crippled or done impersonations of Lot’s wife

I was aided by an unknown female to assert myself, as there seemed to be virtually no real estate to be had as this class was at full capacity yet again. She said take that spot up there in front, I thought that my would be neighbors to the left and right might give me a sardonic look as I tried to split the difference between them. My unknown advocate said if it was them they would nestle themselves without hesitation.  So I proceeded with some caution and it brought me ease that both women were generally amiable with my appearance.

What did cause me some consternation was the fact that I was in such close proximity to the wall mirror in front. I can usually hide in one of the outposts near the doors and not have to be confronted with my physiology so up close and personal.  As I have aged gone are those glory days of wanting to see my image.  After running a 100-mile week my ego longed to show off my eight-pack abs and bulging calves that even body builders admired.  But this is 2010 not 1980 and any reasonable facsimile to that body is stuck in some picture of me crossing the finish line at Boston. Lately I feel like I am standing in front of a funhouse mirror. 

All in all another great workout but I am not sure about this Main Studio group exercise thing because its quite frankly just too crowded.  At least in the spin class there is no impingement on anyone’s space. As I passed through the glass doors it was Carolyn Mellace’s turn to take the 9:00 AM segment and she said to me are you going to take the 10:15 spin class with me?  And friends I actually gave it a thought but my creaking physiology said in a chorus: “Are you nuts Jack?”

Sore by four?  I am just a little ahead of schedule.

Tabula Rasa

Spring calls for tabula rasa, a blank slate.  I think of not just erasing the blackboard but taking a sponge to it to remove all the chalk to start anew with fresh etchings for the week ahead.

I have a side bar that Kristen can add to called: Kristen Doctrine.  I have thought of adding one more and that is Kristen Zen. At a recent class she said:  That we have to take care of ourselves first before anyone else. If we don’t, we will be useless to anyone else.  She used the oxygen mask dropping down on a plane metaphor to drive home the point. It was well taken by yours truly. This thought nails it to the wall for me in that the time here in our CS   is invaluable, because there is nothing more important than the care of our mind and bodies. That is why I put exercise and in particular the sessions in KSC high on my agenda to enhance everything else I hold dear in my life.

Okay enough Jack my cerebral cortex has a headache.

Spinning My Wheels

About midway through our stationary trek I start to notice the accumulating puddle on the floor and the colorless stains around the skeleton of my bike. Kristen asks: “Are you sweating yet?” My silent answer is; are you kidding me, quite some time ago. I don’t mind the sweat in fact I kind of like it and I am not anxious to wipe it from my face and brow because it tells me I am working hard and it goes rather well with my soaking wet T. 

This class is a lot about passion but it is also about commitment. Passion can be lost in a day but commitment cannot be gained in one. 

What drives me to come here?  I have thought about that these past 3 months. I know that initially it was about Kristen’s talent, passion and theatrical brilliance. But now I think it has evolved into her providing me with the training wheels that have rekindled my deep desire to remain active and remain active in a meaningful and purposeful way.

Creative Visualization

How is that when we spin in KSC that we are able to act as if we are on the open road with other riders?  Well for one thing even though we are not we do have each other all in close proximity.  The presence of each and every one of you gives me the sense that we are a team. Is that too much of a stretch?  That is how I feel when Kristen starts her narrative about how we have cyclists in front of us and how we will pass each and every one of them.  So it is in some way a very singular experience but with the full complement in studio, I feel as if   the ground is moving under our spinning wheels.

Take off starts with the warm-up song, which usually turns on my active imagination to the tune of inspiration on high alert.  I have never had a connection so vivid and so strong between extreme physicality and my dancing pen.  Usually when scripting, I am the solitary cyclist hoping for afflatus to strike me like lightning in a bottle on a blue moon night.  But here in the studio my thoughts are like time-lapse photography of taillights streaming past me in a solid redline.   I almost need a stenographer to capture all the images that light on me, but the anaerobic state consumes them like high-octane fuel.  My only solace is that my creative writing is that of a comets tail that stretches for miles.    

And so you see the combination is as dramatic to me as it probably is for you, when mind and body are fully clipped in.  I am just privileged to write about it. 

Back from Florida as I watched a life close to me slipping away and I am determined to accelerate my fitness even further to stave off Father Time. 

Minor League Report

 This report from the remote outpost of Sebastian Florida.  It was not likely that I could reenact a reasonable facsimile of KSC from here even from my vivid imagination. However, I did my best.  I tried to concoct some auditory hallucinations from all the classes with Kristen that I have taken thus far and I had a modicum of success while I spun in one of the classes given down here with a spin instructor named Judy.  Suffice it to say that she did the best she could with the resources she had. Wasn’t that a nice way to say the experience was mediocre?

What I was able to accomplish was work on my pedal stroke as I try to make it smoother and secondly to create just enough drag on my resistance to be able to find a working RPM that was challenging yet didn’t have me in the anaerobic state the entire class.  That has been part of my problem as I slowly learn this craft of spinning. I have never doubted my passion or if you will the athlete inside me.  There would have been no 17 marathons had I not had this internal resolve within the core of my being.  Unearthing the ability however, after so many years of exercise that hardly qualified as intensive training has been my biggest challenge.

My cardiologist tells me that my marathon running had enlarged my left ventricle at the expense of the weaker sister the right. The right as Carolyn Mellace educated me is where all the electrical activity occurs. Which at times goes haywire to the tune of 180 BPM standing still.   This is why my A-fibrillation has me out of breath by 130 BPM.  Why am I telling you this? (TMI) Maybe because you or someone you know has this somewhat vexing problem of going up a flight of stairs and being out of breath.  With so much time logged in at our club I would have thought I was past this but no, I have to live with this benign malady.

Back to my off site report and I have to tell you and of course I knew that no one could come close to KG but Judy did her best in her repertoire of exhortations and it seemed to satisfy the suburban population that made up this class of about 25 spinners.  There were too many Woo’s to my liking but I have to resist being smug when I am with a world-class trainer back at Woodbury along with the rest of us.

P.S. My wife (bless her angel heart) asked me if I told Kristen I would be in Florida. I laughed and told her I am merely the reporter for Kristen’s Spin Class not her confidant.  However she seems to have gotten the flavor of the passion I share with you all, as she has been my sounding board for each and every entry.

P.P.S. At the baggage counter this weekend the skycap asked me how much change I wanted from my 20-dollar bill?  (God do I hate that) So I replied nicely: Why don’t you give it to me and I will tell you. I put him in a trance with that retort and before he could come out of it he had a 5 spot in his hand and I felt pretty cool as I have always wanted to thwart some of these new age bad manners that have overtaken the country. That along with after one says thank you the recipient replies “No problem” What happened to “Your welcome”.  I will get down from my soapbox now my friends.

Navel Intelligence

Today I needed every ounce of guile left in me to make it to Tabata.  I had put my creaking form through the wringer this week with 4 spin classes and 2 thirty minute segments of that Einstein program 30=MC2. Yeah I know I had a case of the poor me’s. This rigorous exercise schedule is a double-edged sword because as much as I find myself desperate to breathe during these physical forays I am starting to really enjoy the results in body and spirit. I am moving toward a fitness that I have not felt in 30 years. 

As I entered the 9 o’clock edition of Kristen I was witness to what looked like Pennsylvania Station at rush hour.  Mostly female forms moving seemingly chaotically about grabbing equipment and floor space that was disappearing faster than ice on a summer day.  I felt powerless to exercise my masculinity in trying to stake my claim to some hardwood space in this sea of femininity.  In a sense I am an outsider to these distaff soldiers of fitness. 

The young woman to the left of me kept creeping over to the right with determined fervor   leaving me virtually no real estate as I found myself closer and closer   up against immovable objects.  Maybe this group exercise thing wasn’t for me I thought but no I had just as much right to be there as she did but somehow my own politeness had me acquiescing like an old chauvinist of the previous generation.  It gave me an idea that I had to act as if there were no gender difference and behave just as she was. It was odd but I could be aggressive and it wouldn’t be misinterpreted after all we are in the 21^st Century where the battle of the sexes is over.  Or is it?

Navel intelligence everyone has one.  It was time to cut the umbilical cord.  

Caveat Emptor: Let the Buyer Beware

Today someone walked out less than half way through the class and if looks could kill the young man would have been dead from the photon torpedo to the back of his head.  Kristen was visibly animated today when that transpired and when I looked to the back of the studio I found a few knowing smiles. I did that just to ease my own tension.  “Don’t do that,” she said and how could you blame her because it upset the whole rhythm of the room and it affects Kristen’s concentration.  I felt like we all hit a pothole that we were not expecting it was quite jarring. I certainly felt the shift in my focus as well. When I am spinning and I won’t answer for you I am totally present in that CS and interruptions like that are well uncalled for.  There are always exceptions don’t get me wrong everyone has their own timetable but that one was inexcusable because the excuse was and I won’t repeat it, a wimpy one.

Caveat emptor! Let the buyer be ware if you spin here you have to take the risk to be ready and give it your level best effort because there are so many looking to take our seats. 

I am not an elitist nor am I in any way anything but a beginner to spinning but simple etiquette before the class makes for exits that are shall we say less embarrassing.  All we have to do is tell our coach we have to leave early before we start and it becomes a non-event. Okay am I through with my didactic speech?  Yes!

KG slipped in 2 Tabata’s today how dare she?  They are challenging aren’t they?  And I never knew how time could be so compressed when it comes to the 10-second pullbacks and how expansive the 20-second maximum efforts are. Time stands still and then speeds by at warp 6. Reminds me of The Rocky Horror Picture Show, doing the time warp.  Speaking of time I have to say that the hour does rush by and I do feel like my metabolic rate is amped up for the rest of the day.  Oh and yes even my pinky was sweating. How did that digit get into the act? 

P.S. This is the 51st post in KSC, will I ever not have something to say? Not likely!

Remote Viewing

Tuesday found me at a club that I have visited in the past for convenience sake. However, I have never found myself spinning in this dark cycling studio before however. It was here however that I found my favorite spin instructor.  The rider next to me, Nancy,  cautioned that I not reveal the secret of where she could be found today but simple deductive reasoning even if you are not Sherlock Holmes will reveal the geography. 

Much to my chagrin these bikes had the sophisticated computer on board that had me understanding a number of things that I wish I were not made aware of, not just yet anyway.  It was not bad  enough to know that I had no idea what RPM’s I spin at, but it was also disheartening to find out that my pedal stroke is not smooth either.  However by the end of the ride my RPM’s were not as erratic as when I first started. Must have been good coaching. 

The energy was different as well.  Kristen can carry a room but even she needs feedback and I must tell you children that a morgue was louder than this place.   And at one point with her onboard computer she said there are about a dozen of you that do not have enough road on.  We never hear that in Woodbury. Well to be fair we don’t have the computers yet dummy. 

In any case I am glad I came.  Just a side note and I had to smile to myself when the instructor said: Ride with all your passion.  I thought to myself passion? I left that for dead on the spinning room floor about a ½ hour ago, because if I pushed any harder I would have lost the lunch I had yesterday. 

And to top the day off I tried the complimentary ½ hour of 30=MCS that Equinox is featuring (a little play on Einstein’s theory of E=MC2). With a young man named Richard Bianco and I described to him my weight workout routines on my alternate days and he said I had a limited tool box and by the time I got done with this rigorous workout  I realized he was right, I have a hammer and a screw driver not very effective tools for building my infrastructure of fitness.  I signed up for the 8 ½ hour sessions. I will let you know my progress. 

Sports Car Physiology

Inspiration arrives on different conveyances each day.  Sometimes it’s in the car moving at the speed limit (or breaking it), or in a wooden chair as I look out my backyard window or in a dream when it is in its most pure form.  The latter being in its most tenuous shape as it often disappears on the cloud it came in on. 

Today it came in the form of a strapping young man named Myles.  I thought I would be on word today typing some profound thoughts as I waited for my turn in KSC, but what came out of the mouth of this 26 year old was true profundity.  He was mature way beyond his years because he has experienced much in his short lifetime.  But unlike other young people that have experiences this man has integrated them into his psyche, truly unusual for a man only in his mid twenties. These life experiences have also left an indelible mark of excellence all over his determined countenance and his head is screwed on not only tight but also forward thinking as well.  I will not share the details because I just don’t have his permission to do so but rest assured he had me thinking about old precepts that I had forgotten years ago. 

Today’s class had me feeling just a tad trepidatious (OED says it is a word). After all this would be my 5^th Spin class in as many as 8 days and it seemed just a few moments ago that two a week was a daunting task.  Nevertheless KG looking as fresh as ever had me on track virtually in an instant. and what gets hold of me every time here is that it is never the same. Some of the jargon is familiar but the mental voyage is unique each time.  It is the risk that she takes that intrigues me as well because here is a young woman who has it all going on and she chooses not to rely on her past excellence but challenges herself to new levels every time she walks through those glass doors and jumps aboard #41.  As I have written earlier it’s a gift. There are other precious stone instructors here but we have the flawless diamond in Kristen Gagne. 

Do you know that Kristen teaches someplace else during the week?  And did you know that when I went on the computer this morning 26 hours before to book online that I got a bike?  Ask me I dare you?  

Sports Car Physiology?  I just like the title. 

The Blue Sapphire

As I dressed while the rest of my household remained in somnolent repose, this Easter Sunday, I ventured out the door albeit half-heartedly over to our club, Equinox.  I planned on spinning in the CS by myself for about a half hour. This past week had me quite proud of myself having completed 3 classes with Kristen.   Little did I realize that there were two classes left when I arrived, one in progress and one at 1015. I stopped and talked to Peter about what I was witnessing in front of me, as he was pounding out 45 minutes on the stationary bike, it was a frenetic diminutive figure, Carolyn Mellace. She was in progress in the Main Studio with Cardio Intervals. Instantly I saw a fiery magnificence complete with flashing eyes and neon like smile. Peter shook his head and said she was very talented and lamented the fact that she was only here two days a week.

I wasn’t even sure I could make a 4^th class in one week as I am no pro like most of the constituents of KSC can boast.  However only because a new acquaintance of mine, Teresa had asked me if I was spinning today did I find myself once again perched atop a  seat this time it was  #8.   So I thank you Teresa.  To my left was another familiar face Cindy and she suggested the title today be: Sundays with Carolyn.  Way too tame I had decided  after this 60-minute session had concluded. Mellace had me touching anaerobic and her mesmerizing smile had me taking it to the limit one more time. 

Her style quite different than Kristen but nonetheless engaging enough for me to play this B side again maybe many more times.  Kristen handpicks these instructors and she picked out a blue sapphire in Carolyn.   Carolyn filleted me but she did it with a smile and staring blue eyes.

The Athlete in My Pajamas

Is it just a coincidence that my athletic reawakening has coincided with my writing as something I wanted to do to something that I am?   In other words the discipline to write has been replaced with afflatus as well as commitment. No longer do I have to detect the invisible wave of inspiration, I just tune the dial and the music plays.  And it’s the music of my favorite song charged with adrenaline.

I have been exercising most of my adult life and not in a thousand thoughts would I have guessed that by taking this class, and in particular Kristen’s Spin Class that I would be afforded the precious stones of metaphorical thought, writing and most importantly being. 

Pretty heady stuff but I have always known that the athlete in my pajamas was a man that was designed to change people’s lives for the better if only I stayed on the course of congruency and with the mindset of what’s in it for the other instead of myself. 

I feel so rich now because I awake at dawn each day and although I don’t get out of my pajamas instantly I am at the ready to begin something original, something exciting and something good, really good. Spinning with KG has opened the shade on my panoramic view outside my window.  And I must tell you the light shines bright.

Saturday is Kristen’s birthday and as she continues to light up the sky I am privileged to take in some of her sunlight. 

P.S.

Someone commented on our blog asking:  Just who is this Kristen? Well he is about to find out next month I imagine.