The Big 3-0

When it comes to my own birthday, I'm not very keen of it.  Ask me why and you'll get a lengthy, detailed recap of the cursed birthdays of my past but let's just say I haven't always had the best birthdays. The worst was definitely seventh grade when my girl friend got jumped by my mom's real estate partner's daughter and friend (also supposedly my friends) as I watched, bewildered, frightened, and wishing it was not still my birthday celebration.  The black eye that was on her face Monday as she repeatedly questioned me about why I didn't "jump" in (welcome to my past hoochie momma wannabe gangster days of teenager miserableness) didn't help the matter either.

Suffice to say, I've never made a big deal out of my birthday.  In fact, I hide it from Facebook and anywhere else public, and only my family and mostly close friends from childhood and college (because back in my days, we used our birthdays for pager codes or screen names) even know when it is.

But the big thirty is somehow different.  Like the milestones of 13, 16, 18 and 21... 30 is something big.  If you had asked me at 20 what my 30 birthday celebration would have been like, I never would have imagined it being sober or with a child... but dreams (or miracles) do come true.

I thought a long time about what type of birthday gifts I wanted.  Having a husband is great like that.  But try as I might, fathom a perfect gift I could not.  I wore green as I heard about other people's surprise birthday parties (awesome ones like my sister-in-law's surprise cooking party!), glorious loads of gifts, and big outings.  And then I thought really hard.  What did I really want?!

And I finally told Andy.

Gifts.  Time to shop sans baby.  And a fruit tart

It transformed a bit but here's how the best birthday ever spanned out (many thanks to my husband who had a huge part in most of it).

First, during Andy's graduation, I got early birthday gifts of clothes, shoes, a Kindle with a custom made Hello Kitty case (made by Tammy), and money for books on the Kindle.  I have been on my Kindle everyday since receiving it, and am depreciating the heck out of its useful life (for my accountant friends).

Then, starting last Thursday, my birthday festivities began.  I got four uninterrupted hours for lunch and shopping with my mom.  We hit up Rubio's and Marshall's and I left with four shirts, a skirt, an outfit for Jordan, and my Valentine's gift (which I never found anything suitable for) courtesy of Andy via me - a MacBook case for times when I don't want to use my backpack.  Amazing.

On Friday, I met up with my BFF for a free first time class at the new Pure Barre studio in Pasadena, followed by lunch at Pita Jungle, some shopping, and 21 Choices for some yogurt and catching up (she's planning a wedding, just bought a condo, and launched her own business... we are both busy girls!)  For dinner, we went to Silverlake to eat at The Fix Burger (mas o menos) because Yelp said it was good and it was close by.  Awesome.

On Saturday, I woke up and got.... not one, but thirty gifts!

Notice the dual-purpose re-use of Jordan's birthday banner. HAHAHA.  We don't spend time re-inventing the wheel in the Phillips' household.

Each gift was tagged with a note which was a hint about why Andy got me the gift linked to why he loved me.  Precious.  I tried taking a photo of a few of the gifts, but some were intangible (coupons for concert, lunch, etc.) or in the fridge (ice cream and a Porto's fruit tart!).  Wow.  The gifts kept coming.  I was amused for hours unwrapping and shouting with joy (like my five year old niece did at her birthday party).  It was fantastic!  The best part was some of those gifts were items that I had been eye-ing and wanting, but not needing - items that I could live without but would have loved having (like a purple Nalgene with straw bottle instead of the cheaper orange one I bought).

 

 This one is funny because I pulled out a wrapped iPad... he got me a magazine subscription on the iPad! hahaha

Then, the festivities continued with sushi for lunch with our good friends, the Oldroyds (who come to our house almost every Sunday for Once Upon a Time) and frisbee golf in La Canada (I wanted to hike but Andy was recovering from his sprained ankle, but part of the frisbee golf course was a mini-hike).  The great thing about it being your birthday is you can pull the b-day card anytime!  Diane and I were on the same page in that swimming trumped hiking through the dirt, so when the course got too dirty and hot, I promptly pulled the card and declared it was time to go swimming instead.  Done.

 

Back at our apartment, we enjoyed the heated pool (nicely around 75 degrees) and then the birthday bad luck struck.  Dun dun dunnnn!!!  We sadly locked ourselves out and after an hour of trying to jimmy it with the mass of friends we accumulated in front of our door, we gave up and called the locksmith.  Problem solved and we were off to my mom's for my birthday and our farewell dinner with extended family.

Lots of tofu, BBQ, Korean red bean pancakes, two Chinese cakes and one fruit tart later, we said our good-byes and made our way to the PeyCat wedding (friends from the Singles' Ward).  Two more slices of cake later, lots of catching up with old friends and photo taking, we finally got into the car, made our way home, and called it one super duper birthday.

And then, on Sunday, I asked if Andy could do something for me since it was the day after my birthday.  He politely declined and advised me I had 364 days left before I could pull the card again.
Dang it.  Oh well, at least the big 3-0 was fantabulous.

p.s. for those of you who blog with photos - kudos, this is hard.  Lots of work!