Yes, You May

Tra-la! It's May!
The lusty month of May!
That lovely month when ev'ryone goes
Blissfully astray!

Allergies aside, May is my favorite month of the year and today it begins. Besides my natal anniversary, I'm one of those oddballs who actually loves summer, yes, heat and humidity and all.

Add in long days, beach time and the ability to wear cuter clothes and I'm I'm all aflutter that May is here and the season of sun and wicked thoughts is just ahead.

I began my May Day celebration with my walk, haphazardly getting a peek at some of the collegiate  bikers in town for this weekend's race when I strolled by the Doubletree and saw a clutch of them in Spandex and bike shoes milling about a Les-McRae College van, looking eager to mount and start.

The street closures are already causing congestion in my neighborhood given how close to both Broad and Belvidere I live, but I refuse to get my panties in a wad because of vehicular inconvenience when we've got all these cyclists in town for the weekend not only to entertain us, but to further the cause of Richmond becoming more of a true cycling city.

After my walk, I was off to begin my birthday month with my annual gift to myself: a massage.

Although it's been a year since my last massage, the girl remembered me, saying she recognized my name at once when she saw it in her schedule book. Given my innocuous name, that's quite a memory.

There's nothing like taking off your clothes so a stranger can rub all the knots out of you and that hour passed in a wet noodle flash. I could have a massage every week of my life and never tire of being pummeled.

Now May could officially begin.

Back home, I walked over to Black Sheep for lunch, enjoying the fragrance of all the trees and bushes in bloom, looking for an appropriately light lunch on the menu, eventually choosing a wedge salad with Granny Smith apple slices, celery, grapes, croutons and goat cheese under honey mustard dressing.

But, inspired by the menu's humor - vegetarian's soup: because you care, omnivore's soup: because you don't - I also ordered a side of bacon with my salad. Because I don't care.

"Now you're just making me hungry," the server said when she brought my two plates. "That looks like a great combination!"

And it was. My only complaint was that the stellar housemade honey mustard dressing, full of flavorful mustard seeds, was ladled on with a heavy hand and all but drowned out the ingredients of the salad, which struck me as a cross between a wedge and a waldorf salad.

But I made do, wiping off the thickest parts, adding in all that bacon and feeling like I'd hit on a lovely May Day lunch.

Feeling lusty and looking for more ways to go blissfully astray before it's all over.