I started work earlier than usual on my birthday, which required waking at 6:15 am. On my birthday. But hey! It was my birthday. Everything was sprinkled with a glowy, sparkly haze. When I checked my phone, there was already a text and more than the usual amount of emails, Facebook notifications, and tweets. I smiled in spite of my fog-covered brain and then went about getting ready.
For the rest of the day, friends (and in one cute case, toddlers) serenaded me, wrote birthday poems, and generally wished me well. Birthdays are the one time of year I want All The Attention and my friends and family did an excellent job of making sure I felt loved.
Even the weather cooperated. For the second year in a row, we had weather in the 60s. There was some rain during the day but I'll take that over snow.
I ended up getting to leave work early so I headed home to freshen up for the evening. I enjoyed a glass of red wine and talked to my parents on the phone. Before I knew it, my best friend came to pick me up and off we went to the restaurant.
Fried avocado makes me happy.
Mexican food is one of my love languages. We ate at Rosepepper Cantina, my first time there though I've been wanting to go for ages. (It's worth noting my favorite Mexican place closed a year ago and I hadn't yet found a proper replacement. Rosepepper is a contender for the green salsa alone. Mercy.)
A couple of friends bowed out due to illness but otherwise I was surrounded by some of my very favorite people. To look around the table and see my friends talking to each other, some of whom hadn't met prior to that night, filled my heart to bursting. My community has further to go but the table evidenced how blessed I already am. I would be lost without the women there. And while I could have invited any number of other friends, I wanted my birthday celebration to be about the ones who have most encouraged, carried, challenged, and inspired me.
We drank, ate, and were generally merry. There was discussion of Africa and blogging boundaries and Christmas vacations and work and birthday goals and any number of other topics.
After dinner, we headed across the street to Jeni's Ice Cream where, I kid you not, the server gave me free ice cream upon learning it was my birthday. Heck yes, 33!
I glowed all day. I basked in the attention and the words of affirmation. I soaked up prophetic words friends spoke over me. But to go beyond all that, good things are ahead this year. There is something about this year and what God has in store for me. A sense of freedom and possibility guides my days. What might it be? Where will the year take me? I don't know for sure but I'm excited nonetheless.
Here's to change, both big and small. Here's to red birthday shirts with cherry blossoms, often a symbol of good fortune and love and affection. Here's to buying red in the first place, a rarely worn color that now calls to me. Here's to lessons learned and friends cherished. Here's to 33.
red shirt, Lithe (purchased at The Swap Shop, a high-end consignment shop in Glen Ellyn, IL)
t-shirt, Gap
cardigan, LOFT
jeans, Gap
leaf necklace, gift
earrings, Etsy
flats, Target
Linking up with Dear Abby Leigh for Dress for the Day
