Birthday Extravaganza 12/18-19/07

Wow did I ever have a great birthday! Definitely in my top three of all time. Although it didn't start out very promising:
We got back from our honeymoon cruise on the 18th. Unfortunately we came home to a bit of a disaster. Facility Services was in our apartment replacing the kitchen sink and doing some work in the bathroom while we were gone. They weren't terribly considerate of the mess they made as there was an impressive layer of industrial strength dust on EVERYTHING we have--even in the cupboards. We had to leave for a while and regroup before returning to begin the massive clean-up effort. We even had some neighbors stop by to clean our rather large book shelves while Brandon and I scrubbed out the kitchen. It was an extremely disheartening day, but it was also an excellent distraction for me.

As it turns out Brandon had been conspiring with our neighbors to throw a surprise party for me. At the last minute the party was moved to our upstairs neighbors' place instead of the original off-site plan. So they were scrambling around trying get things ready without me seeing. We had our door and windows all open, so they were so worried that I would see them sneaking around. However, I was so engrossed with the in-depth cleaning that I had absolutely no clue. So I thought nothing of it when our upstairs neighbors stopped by and asked us to come over and tell them about our trip. When it was time to go I was wearing my dirty t-shirt and track pants from cleaning and had every intention of going that way. Brandon talked me into jeans and a sweater saying that it would make me feel better. I'm glad he did. Imagine my surprise when after we started visiting with the couple upstairs all of these people jumped out and yelled, "SURPRISE!!" and it was a surprise. They had me. It was fun to hear them tell stories about all of their sneaky business in arranging this party and working hard to keep me clueless. We had pizza and played Pit. Good times! I felt blessed and loved.

The next day was my actual birthday. There was lots of talking on the phone as friends and family called to wish me a happy birthday and to hear about our cruise. I got to go shopping with my neighbor Melissa to spend my birthday money while Brandon was at work. Brandon's present to me was tickets to see Wicked at the Pantages Theatre that night. I love getting dressed up and going out to enjoy performing arts of many kinds, but this was an especially enjoyable evening. Check out the link to find out more about this musical production. http://wickedthemusical.com/#AboutWicked