Happy Birthday to Me!

So today was my birthday...I love my birthday.



My best birthday ever was when I turned 17. The Wednesday before, I had just moved to Maine for a semester. My birthday was the first Sunday while we were there, and it was just a perfect day--the first of so many while I lived there. My mom had sent a bunch of presents with me when I left, and I opened them one at a time throughout the day--which is the greatest way to open presents. I remember really loving them, too. I got a birthday s'more from one of my teachers, who had a bonfire going almost right out my front door. I got an amazing colorful HUGE card (more like a banner really) from my cabinmates. It was a gorgeous sunny but chilly winter day (my favorite type of day).

That birthday always stands out to me.

None of them before then I really remember, though my mom always made birthdays fun in our house. I turned 21 and 22 in Spain (I wasn't there a year, I went there two Januarys in a row) which had their fun moments.

I'm not really into having a "party", I just like to do fun things and have the day be memorable. I just saw my friends last weekend because they came to one of my hockey games and we had dinner, so I was okay with not seeing most of them.

My cat cuddled with me twice this morning, which is unusual. It was like she knew. :)

I went grocery shopping in the morning....yay. Bought myself a cake and some flowers though. One of my friends met me around 11 for brunch at one of my favorite restaurants (Twisted Fork), which was excellent.

I had to work 1-8:30 so that was not so great. It wasn't terrible, though--could've been worse. Every time I looked at my phone, I had a text or a tweet or a Facebook message and it was so great to hear from everyone. I also had my mom and brother call me within like the same five minutes--called my mom back on my break and my brother after work.

I got off at like 7:50--we were slow and my boss wanted to send someone home, so he let it be me since it was my birthday!

I had two packages from my mom waiting for me.



And I opened the package my brother sent home with me at Christmas.

The stuff that was in both of them, plus two cards from an aunt/uncle and one of my grandmas:


My brother gave me a pig whisk, a chef brush, this ridiculous Brian Trottier coin he found in his closet from a 1998 Penguins game, some awesome Tupperware measuring cups, and the best shirt ever--it's a cat kneading bread. LOVE IT!

My mom gave me everything else: kitchen container (I asked for it), the book Hugo was based on, Swiss Army knife, St Paul Almanac, Bananagrams, sports scrapbook paper (I don't even scrapbook but this paper makes me want to), a necklace, and the picture of a cat who looks like Puck.

I tried showing it to her, but she was much more interested in the tinsel that it was packaged in....she's a cat, what can I say.

Interested to see what 24 brings!