Dear Friends,
Happy Birthdays to Anna, Jen, and Erin!
The past two weeks with my family in Japan have flown by and I am sad our vacation has ended, but I am looking forward to getting back to my regular exercise and eating routine! Our regular class schedule will resume this week, including two special birthday classes!
Tuesday, June 30th 9:30am 75 Minute Stop Drop and Dance @UUMarin
Happy Birthdays Anna Carr and Jennifer Gonzalez!
THEME: Anna and Jen chose NEON as their class theme this Tuesday to match their costumes from this year's San Francisco Carnaval Parade! Pull out those fluorescent clothes and accessories, or wear our hot pink "Never Gonna Not Dance Again" tank!
Wednesday, July 1st 9:30am 75 Minute Strength & Stretch
ZOOM Class Only!
Join us every Wednesday on Zoom from the comfort of your own home for a 45 minute pure strength class using a medium and heavy set of dumbbells, followed by a 30 minute pure stretch class using a yoga mat! All levels welcome and move at your own pace.
Thursday, July 2nd 9:30am 75 Minute Stop Drop and Dance @UUMarin
Happy Birthday Erin Meyers!
THEME: Erin chose a very relevant theme for this year, WORLD CUP! Represent your favorite team and wear that country's colors, or wear a soccer jersey of your favorite soccer star!
Saturday, July 4th 9:30am 60 Minute Stop Drop and Dance @UUMarin
Happy 250th Birthday America!
Yes, we have class on the Fourth of July! Come start off your weekend dancing with us and wear anything red, white, and/or blue!
Hope to see you this week!
Thank You For Praying For Laura!
Last month, our dear Laura Briggs was diagnosed with Breast Cancer. With Laura’s permission, we led a very special “Pink-themed” Stop Drop and Dance class to give all of our love and support to Laura as she navigated the next steps of treating her cancer.
Last week, Laura had her lumpectomy surgery, and we are happy to share that everything went great and she is recovering well at home before her radiation sessions begin in another week.
As you can imagine, Laura is and has been dealing with all sorts of emotions and Laura appreciates all of your continued healing prayers and positive thoughts. We need to have Laura back dancing in our classes as soon as possible!
Despite everything Laura has been facing, this past month Laura also launched her new website for her wardrobe consultant and personal stylist business! Please check out her services at https://dreamclosetdarling.com.
Laura, we love you, we stand by you, and we believe in you!
Arigato Gozaimasu Japan!
My husband's favorite place in the world is Japan, and this year, we were fortunate to visit two bigger cities, Osaka and Fukuoka, and then two secluded towns in the mountains, Minamioguni and Takachiho.
We love Japan because of the rich culture and traditions, the delicious and healthy food, the meticulous attention to details, the thoughtfulness and care of surroundings, and the commitment to treating everyone with respect.
If you would like to see a glimpse of some of our travel highlights, please click on the images below!
A Lesson On Accepting Human Mistakes
During our trip, we checked out of our Ryokan and the valet driver pulled up our rental car and loaded our luggage. The car was running, so we left and drove 1.5 hours away to our next destination. We did not know until we arrived, that we could not find the actual car key anywhere!
We called the Ryokan, and the valet driver had accidentally left our car key in his pocket!
When the hotel realized their mistake, they were deeply apologetic, and the driver had to drive 1.5 hours to drop off the car key to us! Thankfully, we were not in a major rush anywhere and it really was not a big deal to us. However, the driver was extremely ashamed and continued bowing deeply and apologizing. In that moment, I was really grateful that my husband and I were both in general very easy-going people, and we were on the same page about not making the driver feel worse than he already did.
So we told him to please not worry, and thanked him for his trouble driving back and forth to return our car key.
Fast forward to earlier this morning, we arrived around 6:45am at SFO and decided to stop by a delicious bakery called Arsicault in San Francisco on the way home. We waited in the already long line for the store to open at 8am, and then once we got our croissants and pastries, we sat down to enjoy our breakfast and played Monopoly Deal cards on this really beautiful SF Pride Parade morning.
An hour later, my husband got a phone call from our airline, informing us that I had left my precious LAPTOP in the seat pocket, but they had it at the SFO International Terminal.
OH MY GOODNESS.
Really?!? Me?!? My stomach dropped as I tried to process how I could have forgotten such a large and important item as my laptop in the de-boarding hustle. I could not believe what a major mistake I had made, and imagined what if the flight had left and my laptop was really gone forever??? I felt awful that my exhausted family would now have to turn around and go BACK to the airport because of me. Ugh.
Instead of scolding me, sighing, or making any "you should have..." comments, my husband and my girls gave me...
GRACE.
They just continued eating our pastries, finishing our card game, and then we got back into the car for the extra one hour detour, singing Hamilton songs, all the way to and from the airport.
Today really humbled me.
I made a mistake that could have gone much worse if the airline never contacted me.
I made a mistake and was shown love and forgiveness instead, when I deserved the opposite.
I made a mistake, and I want to make sure I respond with that same grace to others if they make mistakes in the future.
We are imperfect humans, but we don't have to point out each other's imperfections.
Let's love and support one another when we inevitably make mistakes, and let's all be kinder.
Love,
Grace
