buon compleanno. or "...and I'm a big fan of bartering!"

I now write to you as a thirty-one year old. :)

this birthday weekend was pretty wonderful, I must say. despite the universe seeing fit to give me a sinus infection for my birthday, and although I am not super happy with my hair color--my birthday was still a success. YAY!

thursday: food truck k!ng in raleigh. DISASTER-ish. The premise was amazing (food truck sales benefitting meals on wheels? awesome!) but the execution was sorely lasting. We bought the special get-a-taste-from-all-trucks-and-two-beers tickets, but their crowd control was terrible and we only got to taste food from 5 trucks. Bummer. Plus, my fave place only got second!

friday: I stayed home. I planned on sleeping in. Instead I went to my ENT and ended up with two prescriptions. Stupid sinus infection. BUT I am feeling much better, so I can only complain a little. Then I went to get my hair cut and colored and then took birthday nap #1. We had dinner at the fabulous N@ntucket Grill, I enjoyed some carrot cake, we ran a few errands and came home to hang out. Loved it!

saturday: farmer's market followed by Bruegger's and a trip to 0x and R@bbit to get a malt, because it made me happy. I also got a cool Durham mug (I will add in pictures later!) and some post cards. We came home and Matt gave me my birthday present early so I could enjoy them--I got some gold T0ms! Then Matt went to soccer while I went to the mall. I got some birthday goodies (and local folks, if you like scarves L!festyles in S0uthp0int has some cute inexpensive ones!), came home and got ready for Courtney and Derek's party.

I went there for about an hour, then we had sushi with Christy and her son Jack (who has been at all of my bdays since he was a baby in the belly!) and then went to Fullste@m. The fabulous Kl@usie's Pizza was there, and I got free birthday pizza. :) I also gave them some of my cupcakes, and I think I might be taking their baby pictures once their little girl arrives (they just found out the gender last week!). I gave them my card and they said they'll be calling me, but I don't like to count my chickens before they hatch! Matt teased me because when I gave my card I said "...and I'm a big fan of bartering!" Ha.

I also LOVED giving out the cupcakes. There was the singing and the blowing out of candles, and then when my friends had gotten their cupcakes I went to the food truck, the bartenders and then to some of the people in the bar sharing my cupcakes. I enjoyed it, for sure. And some people were SUPER happy to have gotten cupcakes. :)

It was WONDERFUL to have so many friends with me, phone calls, text messages and facebook posts on my wall on Saturday and Sunday. I felt very loved!!

sunday: church, brunch at Tyler's, a birthday nap and then I went to do a photoshoot. I normally wouldn't do a session on my birthday, BUT these folks are from Denver, their two-year-old son and I share the same birthday, and they were in town for a wedding on Saturday, so it was truly the only chance. I am SO glad I did it though. And I brought the little boy a birthday present--a small green plush dinosaur--and he LOVED it. It was super cute, and the parents were thrilled, too. Yay for birthday-sharing!

for dinner we went to PF Ch@ngs. Well, back up--we were going to go to one of the R0cky T0p restaurants because they give free dinners for birthday-folk on their actual bday. But, the closest one is 25 minutes away, so I nixed that idea. We were going to get PF Ch@ngs to go--but when we called at 7:25 they told us our food would be ready at 9:10. SERIOUSLY. It turns out they were doing some amazing to-go special, but whoa. Crazy.

so...after not finding a suitable substitute we decide to call and see what the wait was--and it was zero minutes. We ended up eating there, got an upgraded dessert for my birthday and were back home before 9pm. It worked out wonderfully, and now we know how to find out about the to-go specials (and call in our order early enough that we won't eat at 930!)

I do have some pictures--and I'm hoping to add them later. Just wanted to chronicle my birthday festivities! And I am excited because they aren't even over yet--I have more friends with whom to celebrate! I think my Aunt Candi hit the nail on the head--it's like the older I get the longer my birthday lasts, because I have more friends and family to celebrate with every year. Which makes me super lucky indeed. :)