Sunday, June 22, 2014

Birthday Week! Part 2

Wednesday - I share a birthday with several friends, and it's become an annual tradition to go out to lunch with one that I met while living out here in California. This year we managed to get together BEFORE our birthday; last year we were a couple months late when we finally coordinated schedules! We ate at a tasty Brazilian restaurant and enjoyed catching up with each other.

Thursday - I got to sleep in, I fed the missionaries from my church one of my favorite home cooked meals, and met up with my friend Sarah for dessert. We went to The Ice Cream Lab in Beverly Hills and I got my favorite - peachy cobbler ice cream. We talked for hours, and Sarah ended up sleeping on an air mattress in my room. It was another nice evening of catching up!

Friday - I had the house mostly to myself in the afternoon so busted out 3 or 4 loads of laundry (sounds like a lot, but our washer is REALLY tiny!), and watched more TV shows I had saved on the DVR. My friend Veronica picked me up in her convertible and took me to a birthday dinner for me and another gal (Angelica) at the Cheesecake factory in Marina del Rey. We had a rather large party of about 16 people, so we were seated outside overlooking a little beach area and part of the marina. Everyone was really sweet and bought dinner for Angelica and I, and my friend Holly had already told me she was buying my cheesecake. Definitely a great place to be treated to! Since it was my last night as a 30 year old I chose their 30th anniversary cheesecake - it was delicious. After returning home my friend Chris came over and watched half a movie with me - we were both so tired we had to turn it off so he could go home.

Saturday - THE BIG DAY. I got up early and drove to Long Beach to teach my first aerial class at my new job. Since I was a little early I drove up signal hill for the view before heading to the studio. The class went well; it was small with only 3 students, but they were wonderful to work with. I'm excited to go back next week! After returning home and grabbing some lunch I headed out to Santa Monica beach and spent hours sunbathing, swimming, body surfing, and chatting with my friends who were able to join me. One of my former aerial students came out with her parents as well to celebrate. The day ended at a cast party for This End Up (yes, we're a little late getting together), where I was spoiled with some gifts, balloons, and a cake that had a circus tent drawn on it. By the end of the night I could barely keep my eyes open!

Overall I had a FANTASTIC birthday week. I felt like a lot of people went out of their way to make me feel special, and it really meant a lot! It was a very great way to turn thirty-1-derful!

Tuesday, June 17, 2014

Birthday Week! Part 1

My birthday falls on a Saturday this year. THIS Saturday, in fact. I LOOOVE when my birthday is on a Saturday, but I have no real reason why Saturday would be my favorite day for my birthday- my birthday is obviously in the summer, so it's not like I ever had to go to school on my birthday.

Anyhow, I wasn't planning anything super huge for my birthday, but wanted to take time to notice something positive about each day this week leading up to my big day, since lately I seem to only been noticing the obvious negatives/challenges I'm facing.

Sunday - Father's Day, and my dad's actual birthday. Nice start to the week - remembering and honoring my father for all he has done for me in my life. He is super supportive of my crazy dreams in recent years, and definitely couldn't be doing what I'm doing without his help. In the morning I trekked out to our favorite Baptist church in South Central LA with members of my church congregation to strengthen our interfaith relations, as well as eat good barbecue (we visit them every Father's day, and they in turn visit us sometime in the fall). It's always fun to worship with the Baptists! I also attended a dessert party that evening and had free cookies.

Monday - Hung out with some church friends at FHE, watched some films from last year's film festival, ate more free cookies, and got in some piano playing time before they locked up the church building.

Tuesday - Spent some time with one of the performers in my show, then sat on my couch watching episodes of TV shows I only watch when no one's home so no one will judge how cheesy I am. Later I showed up to my friend's "girls night" a little late and walked in to a surprise party! For me! Seriously spoiled with cake, good company, and homemade sushi.