Victory Lap

It took me a second to realize what I was looking at.  I saw Charlie and Kate first, and for a second, I thought they were there to celebrate her law school graduation.  Then my brain registered that the rest of the table was filled with our friends too, there was an empty chair, a lot of sneaky grins and even the waitress was looking at me expectantly now.

Tears pricked my eyes and my voice got squeaky, with one of those obnoxious “Oh my gossshhhhhh, you guuyyyyyssss” that we always pick on my mom for doing when she’s really excited.  (Sorry, Momma – guess the apple doesn’t fall far, huh?) 

I was so amazed and touched to see all my friends waiting to celebrate my day and it was the icing on the pink lemonade cake of a wonderful birthday.

(Picture from Jamie before I showed up.  Hi, friends!)

I had been asked by a few people how I felt about turning the big 2-9, the "victory lap" as my friend Zac called it.  Considering that every year of my 20s has been better than the one before... bring it, 29.  I can't wait to see what you have in store.

Birthdays do amazing things for the ego.  I'm pretty sure that most people would swear off celebrating their birthdays after turning 21 if it wasn't for Facebook.  I'm pretty addicted to my phone as it is during the day, but I'm not gonna lie, I had a hard time resisting hitting refresh on my FB feed every 4.5 seconds.

I was spoiled rotten at work - my coworkers showed up with a double chocolate espresso brownie (uh huh) and a grande skinny vanilla latte from the 'bux and a huge bouquet of balloons.  I had already cashed in my free-birthday-drink postcard at Starbucks that morning for a venti dirty chai so that made for two, count ‘em two, tasty beverages (that actually lasted me all week.)

Oh and the balloons?  No sooner had Susan tied them to my chair but then we were then immediately scolded because unbeknownst to use there is a latex ban on our floor due to an allergy.

A sign would be nice?

(We also learned, after inquiring that there is a cologne/perfume ban on our floor.  I can tell you right now this memo has not circulated all the way around.)

And then I got home and found my darling, darling, darling hubby had picked me out the Cowboy boots I have been coveting for who-knows-how-long.  Listen friends, just go ahead and prepare yourself of getting sick of seeing me wear them.  I. Love. Them.
I think it’s probably a little uncouth to tell the interwebz what kind of presents you got for your birthday, so I’ll stop there and just say that my family knows how to make me feel oh so lucky.

I feel so blessed today. All I can say is that I hope I pay it forward and when each one of my friend's or family's birthday rolls around, that I dole out the same dose of love that came my way.

Or at least, that I send them a Facebook message and some illegal balloons.

(Thank you, thank you, every one of you who made my day so very special.)