BIRTHDAY!!!

I'm up early on the morning of my birthday despite going to bed late the night before. A sleeping Jeff is next to me but he's soon awake as I'm moving around. We talk a bit and I'm trying to decide whether or not to go write at Swim. In theory I always want to do my favorite things on my birthday. This includes writing, running, a massage, getting my nails/toes done, eating cake,and sushi (not at the same time) and being with someone, or a few someones that I love. Usually I get too excited and ansty to sit still and write. I can for a little bit but nothing much really happens, and running...eh, again in theory it's nice but, I usually get distracted.
Today is Saturday and my least favorite day of the week. I very much dislike the chaos of the salon when I'm at work. When I'm off though, I dislike the same chaos out in the world. It seems everyone is rushing from one thing to the next as if this is the only day they have to accomplish everything on their massive "to-do" lists. It would be nice to go to brunch but waiting an hour for a table just to scream at Jeff over pancakes and noise is unappealing. Even going to a spa right now or shopping sounds unpleasant. I decide to save these things for later, and do something I never do on my actual birthday. Relax.
I kiss Jeff goodbye and head out to Swim. I'm practically giggling on my walk to the cafe because the weather is perfection. After a long hot, humid summer, we've arrived to a beautiful sparkling fall complete with sunshine, clear blue skies, richly colored leaves and mild temperatures in the 70's.
At Swim I do more staring off into space and internet browsing than writing. It's difficult to pin point how I feel, besides simply happy, relaxed and excited. I'm freakin' thirty! This has always been, in my mind, a far off age...something that would happen someday but was hard to see. Even at 28 I had a hard time seeing 30. It seemed like it was another lifetime ahead of me and in a way it is a another life. It feels like I've found a glove that fits me perfectly and I'm slowly inching my fingers into it, staring at it like I can't believe I found it and it's mine. Not only that, but it's been with me, in a pocket, this whole time. I was just too busy trying on other gloves in hopes I would find something better or more interesting, but am now finding that my own little glove is perfect in it's own way. It's colorful. It's good enough and a helluva lot easier to wear than anyone else's.
I leave Swim to go get Jeff. I'm cat-sitting for my co-workers who are getting married in Florida today. Staying at their place has cut my commute to work down a little and has been an all around lovely experience.
Jeff and I go to the grocery store and get ingredients for breakfast and the cake I'm going to make later. I became obsessed with this chocolate pumpkin cake with pumpkin and nutella icing a while back when I found it on my favorite blog www.neverhomemaker.com. The author, Ashley says that this cake is a project and isn't something you just throw together. I decided to wait until my birthday to try it. Breakfast was also a recipe of hers. It's the "lazy oatmeal bake". We ate it with apples and Nutella.





To go along with the oatmeal action, I asked Jeff to bring over his coffee makin' goodies to brew up something delicious.




Hehe.




We ate outside on my co-worker's deck, finished our coffee and then... it was cake-bakin' time! Jeff brewed a little more coffee for me and I got to work.






This recipe requires making two different batters. I usually get turned off by a lot of steps or a lot of ingredients but not today. I enjoyed the entire process. I have to admit I was a little bit shocked when the cakes came out ok. It sometimes takes a couple of tries before I get it down when I'm cooking or baking. Once everything cooled, I whipped up the icing and took 8,000 pictures of my accomplishment. Jeff has 8,000 pictures of me taking these pictures I later discovered. :)

After the cake was cooled off and iced we had to get ready to go to dinner. We were meeting my friends Lydia and Kamal and Jeff's roommate and co-worker whom I adore, Spring, at Adobo Grill in Old Town. Jeff and I were then heading off to Second City after dinner for some comedy action.








Dinner and margaritas were delicious! It felt good to be out. Jeff and I laughed for two hours straight at Second City. We somehow got really good seats up front despite getting there a little later than expected. I almost had just as much fun watching Jeff laugh than I did watching the folks on stage.
We caught a cab back to my co-worker's apartment and passed out late. Both of us had to be up early at and work the next morning. It didn't matter to me though. I wouldn't have traded this day for anything. It was the best birthday I've ever had.