Birthday Recap

I'm going to try hard not to make this a brag-about-my-awesome-husband post, but I don't really see that there's any way around that.

Simply put: he is amazing and made my birthday perfect.

Friday afternoon we went out for lunch at my very favorite sandwich spot in Denver. Fantastic. Their hot ham and swiss is so melty and delicious that juice runs down my chin every time. Then, we packed up and headed to the mountains. He'd found us the cutest little cabin tucked beside a pond up in the beautiful Rocky Mountains above Idaho Springs. We fished, caught big beautiful rainbow trout and grilled them up for dinner. We watched the sun go down and he brought out a little, adorable lemon curd cake and sang me happy birthday.

Saturday morning we slept in. The first thing I did when I woke up was run over to my phone to see if anyone had already called and left a message on my phone. It was then that I realized my phone was totally dead and I'd forgotten the charger! TRAGEDY! My birthday is the one day a year I keep that phone with me all day and answer all the incoming well-wishing calls.Bummer.

We packed up our stuff and headed farther up the mountain to Echo Lake. This place was beautiful. Stunning. If you haven't been to Colorado before and want the full experience, go here. It is breathtaking. We drove up the highest paved road in North America to the top of Mt. Evans which stands at 14,240 feet. It was at the top of this mountain that he handed me a letter he'd written. A letter expressing his heart.

Then, he handed me a letter written by my mom.

Then one from my dad.

Then he explained that he'd hacked into my email account and send out emails to most of my close friends and family asking them to write me a letter telling me what they thought about me. All day long he kept handing me letter after letter from people I love most in this entire world. Each one brought laughter and tears. Seriously, I don't think I've ever felt more love.

I slid each one into a plastic protector in a beautiful green album.

It is something I will CHERISH for the rest of my life. One of the 4 things I will grab if my house is ever on fire.

After the mountain climb we drove home and he took me to dinner at Fruition. If you ever plan a trip to Denver, this place should be on your list of places to eat. It is fantastic. And I know you have to get a reservation 2 months in advance so the ear doctor has probably been planning this forever.

After the best meal in recent memory, we came home and I opened my last letters and his gift. His gift was a new Vera Bradley trip kit. Inside was a travel book for New York! He got us tickets to be in New York for almost a week over Labor Day! I have never been to the city before and can't wait to go!

All in all, a FANTASTIC way to celebrate my first 30 years of living on this planet.

Unexpected mortality check

Today for lunch I sat in the middle of a crowded fast-casual restaurant at a small table all alone.

I was surrounded by moms with strollers and elderly retired couples. There were teenagers on dates and groups of girls shopping for cheap clothes.

And I sat alone enjoying my spinach salad quite contentedly. Well, the salad was bit overdressed and for $7.50 I had hoped for a few more blue cheese crumbles.

I was really pretty perfectly happy until I decided to aspirate the balsamic fig dressing. Vinegar trying to make it's way into your lungs? Not a great feeling.

As I started coughing and hacking I looked around to make sure I wasn't bothering someone.

And guess what? No one even glanced my way!

I wonder if those happy lunch goers would have let me DIE sitting right there in the middle of the crowded dining room?

The thought was really creepy...and it made me remember why I don't really like eating at Noodles & Co.

Busted

I have a deep, dark, guilty secret.

I freakin love Kraft singles.

I love their slightly rubbery texture, their over salted flavor and I take great joy in peeling off that clingy plastic.  Now, don't get me wrong, I love a good fancy cheese too...but the kraft singles will always hold a place in my heart.

When we were little my parents bought my sister and I the cheese. We would sneak slices all day long and thought my mom never knew about our pilfered prize...because we stuffed the plastic wrappers between the cushions of the couch.

When she sat in that chair and heard the tell-tale crinkle of plastic wrappers her brains exploded. She ripped the couch apart and picked out every single piece of greasy plastic.

Kraft singles were banned in our house from that moment forward.

This morning I woke up and found this note, lovingly left for me by my husband on the kitchen counter:

I hope he doesn't decide to ban Nature's Valley granola bars from the house, because I really REALLY like them...

Just a little jealous

Last week we found out that a good friend of ours got laid off from his job.

He and his wife went away for a long weekend to celebrate their anniversary and the morning he got back to work they told him not to come in anymore.

I would totally freak out if this happened to me. I know it's always a possibility, but it just seems crazy to have your security just uprooted so dramatically. To his credit, he's totally taking it like a champ. For the last week he has been a stay at home dad, taking care of their 10 month old baby 24 hours a day.

On Wednesday his wife told me that he was totally going crazy. She asked the ear doctor if he could take her husband golfing this morning. And, since the ear doctor is really great at service and sacrifice he rearranged his schedule and was up bright and early this morning organizing his golf bag and cleaning out his soft spiked shoes.

Instead of getting to go out to the links, I had to haul my sorry buns to work.

To make it worse, my commute takes me right by a huge reservoir where people were out water skiing on glassy water.

And then, to really emphasize the fact that I'm working and not having fun I had to drive under people launch hot air balloons!

I know I should be grateful to have a job, and not feel any jealousy at all for someone who unexpectedly lost his.  I know that to the depths of my soul. I get it that I am SO lucky to have such a great job that I really do like 90% of the time.

But wouldn't it be fun to golf, or water ski, or ride in a balloon today?

Time rolls on

I hate it when I find myself being a total cliche.

Up until last week I was totally fine with the idea of turning 30 next week. Excited even.

But this week, as I calm my mind and lay in my big fluffy bed attempting to fall asleep a little bit of dread washes over me.

30?

How did that happen.

And why do I still feel like I'm 22? Will I always feel that old?


Maybe it's because I haven't had a baby yet?


How old do you feel?