Happy Birthday to Me!

*Extremely long and journal like so if you don't care then don't read but some of you will probably hear about it from me so you might as well read to save you and I a lot of time.


I know how selfish does that title sound but really that is what birthdays are all about. Giving people the opportunity to show their love for you with gifts or attention. This has actually been one of my favorite birthdays. Mainly because I made it last almost a whole week.

Last Friday was my actual birthday and my roommate L (you remember, the voice of reason) had already spoken for that day because what she wanted to give me was on that day but it was a surprise. I had wanted to have a party. I haven't had a party for my birthday in a long time. So that was planned for the next weekend. But as the time got closer, it seemed like too much of a hassle so I decided I just wanted to have a dinner with lots of people.

Anyway Friday the day of my birthday, I had a small work party. At my work the birthday person brings treats for everyone. Its unconventional I know that you bring your own birthday treat but that way your sure to get one and then you eat everyone else's when its their birthday. (that's how it was explained to me, not sure I agree with that philosophy) Well, we have donuts and stuff at work a lot and I was sick of treats so I did pizza. I threw myself a pizza party. I invited a couple girls over from the other office too. They even brought me gifts which is extremely uncommon to get gifts here for your birthday. I mean you have to bring your own treat you think you're gonna get a gift. Anyway I think everyone really loved it and they sang to me.

Then that night was my date with L who told me to dress up because its more fun that way. So that made me think we are going to some kind of theatre thing because L believes it should be like in the old days where going to the theatre was a fancy dress occasion. So I closed my eyes as she drove so as not to know where we were going. It was kind of relaxing actually since there are times when L scares me when she drives....she waits a little to long for my comfort to put on the brake (my mom will call me a hypocrite for that). Well, we ended up at Olive Garden downtown and she said we needed to hurry because the thing we were going to was at 8:00 and it was already 7:00 with a 20 minute wait before we got seated. We were a little worried. But we bided our time with running into a member of our old bishopric and his wife and chatting it up. When we were seated we told our waiter we were in a hurry and ordered as quickly as possible. It was around this time that L passed me an envelope which held tickets to the musical Movin Out (you know the one with all the Billy Joel songs). I was really excited.

Funny story behind that too. Everyone kept asking us if we were going to the show while we were at Olive Garden and since it was still supposed to be a surprise L kept saying no. Finally after our waiter asked, she couldn't take lying anymore and that's why she gave me the tickets. Well, we stuffed our food in our mouths and found out that the meal was free because the member of the bishopric that we had run into had paid for our meal. So L got out of that one. The show was good. It was really a ballet instead of musical and they were dancing to a live band playing Billy Joel songs. It was still so good. The lead male dancer was amazing. I love Billy Joel's songs so that was so much fun. The guy singing his songs sounded a lot like him. After that L took me to Iceberg for a shake. When we got home there were a few people there hanging out and they sang to me. It was a really fun night and I was glad to spend it with L. And we had really good seats so it makes me wonder how much L shelled out for this night.

The next day we all (L, me, L's semi-boyfriend D, M and C) had tickets for Crazy For You at the Hale theatre. Everyone but C and I had never heard or knew anything about it except that it was full of Gershwin songs. C's and my highschool had performed it way back when. M and C gave me a birthday present (a small oriental looking rock fountain, very nice) and sang to me. Anyway that was a lot of fun and afterwards we went to Village Inn for some food. This seemed to be the Village Inn where all the punk rock kids work because almost everyone had punk rock hairdos.

And the air of my birthday remained throughout the next few days by me inviting everyone to my dinner which was yesterday. I knew that at least 15 people were coming and 10 maybes so I reserved a table for 25 at Loco Lizard. It was a really good turn out. 21 people in all. I felt so loved. Most of which aren't even my close friends but people I really like and have fun with. They sang to me too. A few were really late so I didn't get to spend as much time with them. Then it was back to my house for cake and ice cream, which I was worried that no one would come for that except the close friends that have to or else I would kill them. But again I was wrong lots of people came and they sang to me. People I hadn't even invited but had been told by those I had. Which was great. So in a sense I did have a party. A very simple and easy going one. Perfect.

To recap how many times I had been sung the Happy Birthday song or some version of it in the past week. The relief society sang to me, my mom over the phone, L over the phone and all the ones mentioned above bringing the total to 8 times. Wow.