Here's a story about a whiny little brat who doesn't like birthdays!

Birthdays are really controversial for me. I love them, I hate them, I sometimes wish we could just pretend they don't happen.....

I wish I could pinpoint what it is that gets me so bugged around my birthday.

 It could stem from that one birthday party when my parents took me and all my tomboyish friends to a hair salon to get makeup and curly updos. After which, one of those friends told me that she didn't want to be friends anymore because I was too girly (I remember wanting to go horseback riding or to the fun center but for some reason neither of those happened, either it was a money thing or Mom had a girly agenda....hm....).

Or it could be that I don't like the attention. Or making other people feel obligated to celebrate me. Or just getting older and not feeling like I've accomplished much in general. I don't know, really.

Either way, I get all moody around bday time every year. It starts with getting slightly excited a month before and thinking maybe I'll actually plan something fun. Then the closer I get, the less zeal I have for even acknowledging it. Then I eventually get to the day and just decide to buy myself a congratulatory smoothie and go about my day as normal.

Anyway, this year was no different. I called my sister a month before and told her she should come down and we could go out and have fun on my bday. A week later I took it back but she was already set on coming (I didn't realize at the time but she had already contacted some of my friends to surprise me at dinner).

I thought about going to the Mummy exhibit that's in town but it was too expensive and people were busy so it kind of fell through. I finally settled on just hanging out with Hay and going out to dinner with whoever was available that day.

My day actually started really well. I woke up to this incredibly crappy weather and a barrage of text messages (I didn't even check my facebook until way later that night because it's too overwhelming, but the wall posts were appreciated nonetheless!):

 (First day of Spring gloriousness!)

Ate a cliff bar and broke in these bad boys (thanks Mom and Dad!) with a nice run around my neighborhood:

I even got to race my good buddy, the mastiff across the street. He even stood at the ready until I ran past. I may have ran a few laps past his fence since he was so excited to race with me. And my Iphone is magical and always knows what songs to play. It was perfect.

I skipped Spanish class (Ay, no bueno!!) and lounged around the house watching some depressing biographical dramas from the punk-rock era with my roomies. I even gathered up the energy to try curling my hair while my roomies were out:

(Oh-em-gee, shameless selfie!)

At some point during this frustration, my roomies came in and yelled my name. They got a really crouchy response and then I threw open the door only to see them holding a box of my favorite vegan cupcakes. They sang Happy Birthday to me and I felt like a jerk. I may have devoured those cupcakes four times over. My roomies are awesome and they know me too well.

Then I pounded out some of my screenplay before Haley arrived. We went to Gateway and strolled through the Urban Art Gallery there and Haley bought me some prints for my wall (despite my objections to her spending money on me >:( ) < angry Jabba the Hutt face!

and we discovered a new Blickenstaff's had opened there and probably spent an absurd amount of time playing with all the toys:

(I'm the birfday princess and Harey is my gallant knight!)

We even found Bueno bars, which I haven't seen since Spain:

Then we got Rose Lemonade at Tony Caputo's and met up with Megs, Nick, Brady Kummer, and Cho at my house and drove to the Himalayan Kitchen for dinner. Devynne met us there as well. It was delicious and I was in heaven. The server was pretty funny too and nice enough to take an awkward photo of us with the aftermath:

(Cell-phone tower. So embarrassing....)

All in all it was a surprisingly great birthday and I actually felt pretty special. Gotta thank Hays for making it happen! I kind of blew the surprise by inviting everyone to dinner but they all conveniently had work off.... sneaky, sneaky. So that was surprise enough ;) Maybe I can get over this annual birthday crisis I seem to have.

(And to conclude...here is Cho's depiction of Kummer as a zombie. She claims the app was glitchy...I claim operator error. We had some fun goofing around after dinner and annihilated what was left of my cupcakes.)