Happy Birthday To Me!

 

I am 29. Wahoo!

Yesterday was a pretty great birthday, mainly for its simplicity. I have always been kind of weird about birthdays - I am really uncomfortable being the center of attention and find birthdays very overwhelming. In my last office, we typically went out for lunch on someone's birthday, in addition to a full office monthly birthday celebration with treats. I appreciated the effort that all of my coworkers put forth in order to make me feel special, but also that they could anticipate my discomfort and tried to keep it low key.

This year, I walked in, without everyone necessarily knowing it was my birthday. I had debated taking the day off, which was an awesome way to celebrate last year, but I had just been out of the office for a full week, and really needed the day to get stuff done. So instead I came in, and happily worked on putting together a student retreat, got Noodles for lunch, and then headed home. 

My mom is really good about birthdays. She likes to make it your day. A few weeks ago, she had asked me what gifts I might like, and so I sent her a list of things I had tagged on Pinterest or found on Etsy. I came home from work to find this bad boy waiting at the kitchen table:



I had been talking about wanting a sewing machine for over a year now, and finally have one of my own. I was so excited that I immediately wanted to take it out of the box and begin sewing some curtains or something. She talked me into waiting until after we move. A few sewing lessons may also be required...

I also opened some smaller packages to find the ceramic egg rack I'd been eyeing (as a jewelry holder, of course).


And these tiny pinwheel earrings that I found on Etsy. When I say tiny, I mean it. They are itty bitty!

 

She also taped a little note in my birthday card to let me know a few other gifts were still on their way. Let's talk about how excited that I am about a cutting board shaped like the state of Wisconsin. Yes, I'm a dork.

 

And I may have squealed a bit, when I saw that she got me this....

 

Perhaps the cutest cake stand that I have ever seen from West Elm. I've seen pretty ones, but c'mon, it's a beehive!  

Chris is also really good at birthdays. He is definitely a boyfriend who listens, because he had already been planning to get me tickets to the Florence and the Machine concert, before I had even brought up that I wanted to go. Awhile back, we talked about focusing gifts on experiences we could do together - I can't wait until April! Florence is such a badass.




We also went out for burgers last night, for a low-key VDay/BDay celebration, before coming home for some red velvet cake and American Idol with my mom.

Perhaps the best part of the day, was getting to see my mom on my birthday. You see, I hadn't celebrated a birthday with my family since college. Typically she would either mail me my gifts, or send them back with me during my Christmas visit (yeah, like I'm patient enough to wait...). I would of course get some great phone calls from my mom and sister too. But the not seeing them part always made me really homesick around my birthday, which usually meant that I would end up crying at some point, no matter how hard I tried to avoid the tears. Being home again was really something special.

I spent the rest of the evening responding to all of the wonderful Facebook messages that I received. I know that most people probably don't put too much thought into wishing their FB friends a Happy Birthday. I so appreciated every single message, and wanted to make sure my friends know it.

I have one final celebration on the calendar. My mom, Rachel, Chris, and I are headed to the hibachi grill this Friday. Nothing like catching shrimp in your mouth for a good Happy Birthday...

I have officially entered the last year of my twenties. It is time to make it the best one yet. This also means that I have 365 days left to complete my 30B430 list. Here we go!

Cheers all!