I protested the birthday thing for a bit, too. Not telling anyone when it was or when it was coming. I would feign irritation when asked about it. I was once in complete shock overhearing someone declare their birthday month be amazing and awesome all days of said month. Ridiculous! But I shrugged and figured to each their own, eh? Bah! Who was I kidding! When you have the right people in your life it all just comes together. Or at least it did for me!

Friday my lovely co-worker was on vacation but called me twice from Alabama anyway to wish me a happy day and to make sure I could leave early. She’s a doll! So I left early and while my plan was to take a disco nap, I was too excited to even sit down! I ended up helping my roommate clean, arrange and decorate our kick ass house for my friends to come hang out at later that night after dinner. When my boyfriend arrived we drove to our first destination: The Rengstorff house! It’s a historically haunted house and I was expecting something along the lines of the Winchester house, but a small scale. I had no idea how fantastic it would be!

The tours they gave that night included their staff/actors dressed in 19th century period clothing and it included some history, but lots of fun and a few small frights! Not only that, I’d emailed them ahead of time to make sure my entire group would fit in one tour and those smarties chose to use this information against me? No…more to make me feel special, I’d say. They chose to use my name and the little factoid that it was my birthday and incorporate that into their dialogue and story lines. So cool!

After the bad ass house we hung out and took a few pics and then headed to my favorite Chinese food restaurant Tao Tao. YUM! They have the best won ton soup ever! I can’t even eat won ton soup anywhere else, they’ve ruined me! Ha! I can’t fully describe the joy and pleasure I had watching as each of my nearest and dearest gathered around a large and long table as we all ate and drank and talked and laughed…loudly! To see my friends getting along so well with each other warmed my heart!

After dinner I invited everyone back to mine for drinks and merriment! My friend L brought his newly acquired DJ gear along with some custom mash ups and a playlist made just for me. At one point in the evening his transition and choice of song order moved me to tears. “Just now, I felt, like, you don’t even know…you’re speaking directly to my heart right now with this! You’re telling me, ‘Sarah, I love you.’ and I’m feeling it! Thank you!” *Sobs* My soul speaks in songs, what can I say? 😉

There were two friends I really wanted to get to know each other, but I also didn’t want them to know that. They mean so much to me. They are to whom I always turn for good advice and real talk. I trust them so completely to tell me the truth even when it hurts, and they always do. To see the two of them, these incredible and powerful women, in my kitchen deep in conversation with occasional peels of laughter, made me so fucking happy! You don’t even know!

On top of all of this, my gifts were fantastic and B even surprised me by bringing my puggyman over, too! Oh that little mug of his always brightens my spirits, but on my best birthday ever it just made me feel high on life! I was floating on air, shaking my butt and pretty much in love with the world! No, I didn’t get super drunk. In fact I didn’t drink too much. I had a great time, didn’t get sick or make a fool of myself or anything. Yay me! Well, really, Yay Raven! For making her amazing Rum Punch (featuring 7 kinds of rum and several fruit juices). She and her guy also, kindly, brought Cards Against Humanity, which we played in a small group at the end of the night, briefly. It was still mega fun and was so happy that my awesome roommate had such a great time with my weird friends all night. Actually, she had a friggin’ blast…and a lot of tequila! 😛

Surrounded by my favorite folks I felt so loved and taken care of. I hadn’t a worry in my ridiculously crowded head! Ha-ha! But that’s not even the most amazing part! If it was only that, it would still have been perfect! On the way to the restaurant my boyfriend shared a brilliant idea he had, “I think, tomorrow, we should go to the mall of America.” I think I squealed or gasped or something. “Are you serious? Tomorrow?!” I said. “Yes. I thought of it last night and nearly booked it but I wanted to be sure that you would be okay with it.” he explained. “Yes! Ohmygosh! Yes! Let’s do this! This is nuts! I love it! Ohmygosh!!!” (Although officially, his birthday gift to me was a Soda Stream…which I love! Even if he didn’t think it was grown up or personal enough, it was perfect!)

And so, my lovely readers, the very next morning we headed to SFO and barely made our flight. As a result we didn’t get to sit next to each other, which was so hard! But I’d brought one of my birthday gifts with me, the book “Handbook for Geeks” (I think that’s the title) and it was a hilariously fun read! When we got to Minneapolis I was still in disbelief. On 3 hours sleep, we grabbed the rental car and found the hotel. It was gorgeous! The Raddison Blue! Modern, sleek, luxurious and full of cool arty things and furniture! And that was all before we made it to our room! Ha-ha! The best part was finding out that the hotel was actually connected to the mall so we could come and go as we pleased! And we did! So much!

I won’t share the more personal details now, but I will say that I had the most amazing time with this incredible and sweet man and all of my previous concerns and worries about this relationship are now gone completely. I feel like the luckiest girl alive and am beginning to think that I actually am! I have the most wonderful boyfriend in the known universe! To find out that he feels the same about me was just the best cherry on top of the best birthday ever! We were like silly kids the whole weekend! We watched cartoons and the top 20 countdown of the cutest kittens in the world in bed and laughed our asses off! The next morning my heart was stolen completely by both the seahorses at the aquarium in the mall and my lovely, special geek.

I am on such little sleep going on four nights in a row you’d think I’d be a wreck. But no, I’m good. I’m tired as hell, but I feel amazing! I feel as though someone took a defibrillator to my life somehow and made me see the beauty in the world again. On our flight back home we got to sit beside each other and that was the best of all. We were exhausted but unable to sleep. When that boy rested his head on my shoulder and I grasped his hand? All was right in the world and I could have died happy at that moment.

I cried a few times this morning from just being so overwhelmed with the love and gratitude I’m filled to the brim with…I’m bursting! When “Boys Don’t Cry” by The Cure played on my iTunes radio (80’s mix) at work this morning, this girl cried the happiest tears of her life! That was the song my friend L played at my party when I got all emotional about his speaking to my very soul! Ha-ha! I’m such a sap! It’s like it’s all come full circle. I couldn’t ask for anything more. 🙂

Thank you all so much for your birthday wishes, kindness, support and love. You mean more to me than you’ll ever possibly know.

*Hugs*

<3

S