I have such a backlog of blogworthy happenings in my life (how fortunate that I alone judge what is blogworthy or not) but instead of starting with the overdue entries, I’m going to share snippets of my 30th birthday, which was four short days ago.

I’m 30 and I feel great! 30 is just a number…a very big number, but it’s a milestone that I feel blessed to have reached. So I celebrated.

On my actual birthday I went to Red Lobster for dinner with my family. How I love seafood! So yummy. Then we went back to my place for dessert…not that we had dessert…or so I thought! My mom had actually bought our traditional icecream cake and dropped it off at the house earlier (they have a key). It was funny because as I went to open the door to the house, I said that I wouldn’t be surprised if she had been in my house earlier in the day and put the cake in the freezer, but I didn’t think she would have thought of that, especially when she claimed to not have her key. I’m not even sure why I mentioned it. I went upstairs to get something and when I entered my room I noticed the window was open! When I had been trying to get my air conditioning to work earlier (to no avail) I had closed all windows in the house so at first my heart skipped a beat but then I instantly knew my innocent comment at the door was spot on and my mom had been there earlier. As I rounded the corner in the kitchen to tell my mom I was on to her, I surprised her as she was putting candles on my cake. It was almost a true surprise but it was lovely (and delicious) nevertheless.

My family can be exasperating but they know how to make a birthday girl feel special. I felt the love, ate and was merry.

I took the next day off from work, since it was a Friday. After my 8am appointment for my 30 Day inspection, I was treated to brunch by Allison and her husband. Yum! I had a great time with them as usual…I love their rapport; it’s always great to get to observe a couple that I believe has a good relationship.

The evening was my birthday party with friends. A year or so ago, I had visions of having a huge bash, the sort that I’d have to rent out a hall for, but by the time my birthday approached I didn’t feel like having a birthday party full of people that I wasn’t so close to; I wanted a smaller event with friends that I care about and want to continue to be friends with as we get older. That actually came up during brunch, the idea of wanting to focus on the quality of friendships rather than quantity. It actually felt good to not invite people I wasn’t that close to.

Although after that evening, I may have to go looking for new friends because I kept them waiting for 45 minutes before I finally showed up! Somehow time ran away from me. The plan was to have dinner at a restaurant and then come home for dessert. After brunch, I had a hair appointment with a new hairdresser. Unlike most African salons I’ve been to, this woman works by appointment only, so when we set my appointment for 1:30pm, I wanted to make a good impression and arrived five minutes early. She didn’t get started on my hair until 2:20pm. I was furious but I kept it in. I found it rude that she didn’t apologize for keeping me waiting either…some people simply have no idea how much a sincere apology does to soothe ruffled feathers.

Anyway, that set me behind a bit, though my hair looked great, probably the best it’s ever looked (but I was too busy running around like a chicken with its head cut off to capture it). I was officially running late and the things I still needed to do (create a music mix, cut up the fruit, clean the living room/dining room, mix up icing and ice the cupcakes, clean the powder room) were clearly not going to get done in time so I focused on the last three and by the time I finished them I was officially late, and still had to pick up my sister and before heading to the restaurant.

I actually thought I’d be lucky and only my most punctual friends would be there by the time I showed up but when you’re 45 minutes late, even the not-so-punctual people manage to make it there. I felt awful and on the drive over I was freaking out, especially when we got a call saying that everyone was there. Anyway, we arrived, I apologized but was teased mercilessly about it, to the point where I thought I’d have to excuse myself because I was about to cry (thankfully it was my birthday so I would have been allowed to cry if I wanted to). I held it together though and dinner was fine (actually it was really delicious).

Things chez moi went off without a hitch. The desserts were enjoyed, I had volunteers to help me with the fruit and music-wise we ended up downloading finding what we needed as we went along. It was awesome too to play Nigerian music and get most people dancing. I was spoiled quite disgustingly too by everyone. One of the gifts (purpler in person):

(Courtesy of Rich, Ves and Eli)

I had a great time and I guess you know you’re old when a party that ends around midnight seems late enough.

Filed under: Celebrations, Family, Friends by jummy