one year wiser

It's birthday season in our household! Within 2 weeks we have had both Brian & I, both of his parents, and my grandmother. Phone calls abound!

I'm happy to say I had an absolutely lovely birthday. This was a welcome juxtaposition to last year's, which went a little something like this: bad weather, lots of people out of town, no pre-planning, friends bailing at the last minute, a few tears, cancelling the plans, then finding out 2 people didn't get the memo so I had to pull it together and go out anyway. It was a perfect storm of bad timing. As someone who really loves birthdays, this was one for the books...the Can We Pretend This Never Happened books.

This year, I was determined to make up for it! It fell on a Sunday so naturally I converted the one-day affair into a whole weekend of whatever I wanted to do. Brian was working most of the time unfortunately, but I still got to see him after his shows and Sunday morning.

Highlights included -

*Friday: killing a few bottles of wine at Kim's. Yes please!

*Saturday: working out, followed by 2 Lifetime movies...haven't done that since about 2006

*Saturday night: BYOB sushi dinner, which was so freaking delicious! Then off to a hole in the wall (code: my new favorite place) called Danny's, which had an awesome dance floor and the cheapest drinks I've seen in Chicago! A lot of people came out - apparently timing was right, this year. After waiting in line in the freezing cold for half an hour to get in the bar, Brian got in JUST in time for me to demand going to a new bar and then immediately demanding to leave for some late-night Chicago's Pizza...for the third weekend in a row. He's so lucky!

Kim, me, Jess, and Shay

best late night addition to the party!

*Sunday: sleeping late and presents in bed are the BEST!!!!!! I opened a couple of cards from friends, which I loved, and opened some presents from Brian's parents. Sidestory - if you recall, Brian's mom is a notoriously erratic gift giver. Sometimes she nails it (silver necklace!) and sometimes she doesn't (giant poster of my face). This year I got two hits and one miss. I'm sure you can figure out which categories these fall into:

That's right. Stallion rain boots.

I got a Clarisonic from Brian, which is the greatest invention since the iPhone (surely will get its own post), and a SW gift card from my Austin girls, which I want to use ASAP! A very special present also came at 7:30 am in the form of Jackie's new baby!!!!! What a happy text to wake up to! I was so hoping he would arrive on time so we could share our birthdays :) As a sidenote, she had her baby sans drugs, which is just shy of a miracle in this day and age where the drugs are the norm, not the exception. So proud of her!

presents are fun for everyone

Brian and I went to brunch at our local favorite, Marmalade, and then he headed to the theater while I went to Paper Source and got myself a calendar. Being 29 is crazzzzzy!

*Monday: this was possibly my favorite part of the weekend. Jessica & Ryan had a $350 gift certificate to Fleming's and were sweet enough to share it with us. We had a wonderful, loooong dinner filled with delicious food, some nice treats (champagne and wine glasses to take home!), and great conversation. For a little background, Ryan was an usher in our wedding but I didn't get to know Jess until I moved here. This past fall, they moved a block away from us and it's been fantastic having them so close! Jess is now one of my closest friends - having a good couple friend is awesome!

All in all, it was a great weekend and thank you for your birthday wishes! I plan to live up the last year of my 20s....eeeek!