Ramblings....: It's my birthday and I'll act like I want to...

I'm 40.
Fucking 40!!!
It's weird. It just doesn't roll off the tongue as well as say....29.

Anywhoo - my 40th was, is and will be rad.

So I'm already off to a good start because since it didn't really seem like anyone planned anything huge, and I was wishy washy whether I wanted to celebrate big time or ignore it all together, and I was battling the pressure of "Celebrate your 40th it's a biggie!" or not or vacay or I DON'T KNOW. The answer came:

BottleRock Napa Valley Festival Um a music festival....in WINE COUNTRY?! Yes. Not only is the line up amaze balls, but the wineries that will be there are awesome and the food....oh the glorious food! Anywhoo - I decided this was it. I'm going to splurge and buy VIP Skydeck tickets and live it up for my present to myself for my 40th birthday year. I've never spent that much money on anything other than my car or a massive Vet bill. But fuck it. I'm only doing this once, I'll do it in payments and I have 2 friends who slapped down the cash to come with me! Taylor and Terri! So come Memorial Day Weekend I will have an epic birthday celebration!!

In the meantime....here comes the actual day. Again...hemming and hawing whether I should do something still...blah blah blah. My birthday is on a Tuesday so that's unfortunate. Bottlerock is my big thing. Do I do anything? Do I hope someone will do something for me? Surprise me? I don't know. We'll get to how I feel about this whole 40 thing later. So the weekend came...nothing. I didn't do anything. Sunday night came and I decided - Screw it! I'm going to go buy myself a bottle of champagne and celebrate! I was taking the next day off since we get a bday off sort of at my work and I didn't want to do the Tuesday cuz it's a weird day so Monday it was. Sunday night I found myself sitting on my couch alone drinking a nice bottle of bubbly, eating popcorn and watching The Walking Dead. It was perfect.

Monday arrived and I was up early to do a Peter's Canyon Hike with Brenda! Beautiful day. Beautiful companion. Got some exercise!

This was then followed up by a lovely lunch with my mom. I wanted oysters (Cuz I do what I want! It's my birthday!) so we went to Market Broiler at The Block in Orange. I had a couple of glasses of a great Savignon Blanc and oysters before a wonderful yummy rich lunch. Then mom got me a couple of Ann Taylor work clothes!

After this my bestie Lib came over and took me out for a Thai Dinner. She also bought me a 2012 Stags Leap Artemis Cab. Um Yeah.

Perfect day off.

The big actual day arrived. I showed up at work already smiling from my Facebook and phone blowing up with sweet birthday messages and greetings. My lovely co-hort Melissa brought in a Happy Birthday Banner that hung above my desk all day. She also got me a Justin Cab! YUM! Taylor popped in with a beautiful yellow tulip plant. Hugs followed throughout the day and everytime I read or received a new message I glowed. Dad called and sang his annual birthday song in Pig Latin.

Then I received a strange message from Keri (my friend and landlady). This raised my eyebrows. As I drove home from an actual busy workday I started wondering if there was a party or something waiting at home for me. We had made family dinner plans but that was it. No. It's a Tuesday. Maybe? No. That'd be awkward. This was my thought process.

I pulled up. All quiet. Headed up to my little caboose and there were streamers running down my door. Oh my gosh! I opened the door to 2 freaked out kitties and my caboose decked out in all kinds of 40 decor! I was thrilled! Oh my gosh!! I giggled and looked around and whipped out my phone taking pictures.

I then called Keri. "Did you do this?" "ARE YOU HOME?!" she shrieks. "How did you sneak past me?!" Well - apparently it wasn't Keri. It was my besties Robin and Libby and mom had a hand in it as well, but the 2 besties were the decorators. Robin comes bounding out of Keri's house laughing. I guess they were supposed to be watching for me and didn't see me. Ha ha! Libby had had to leave but Robin popped in and told me all about how her, Lib and my mom had been planning to do this little surprise for a few weeks. The 2 girls were also coming to dinner with us because they're family. And I mean really...they are. I was thrilled! Robin and I tried to balance on a stool and get this shot. Quite comical had you seen the process.

Then Keri brings me a big box that came in the mail. Apparently Roger and Holly mailed me a fantastic presie! I love getting presie mail!!! Thanks you guys!

A bottle of wine, chocolates and a new dish towel!

So Robin and I dicked around until dinnertime. Lib showed up with my little bug a boo smacking Robin for not texting her back. I seriously love these two. Then we piled in the car with a giant 40 balloon and onto Shiki! I chose Shiki because the staff there is super cool and sweet. It's easy to do a big party and it was close and easily accessible for gramma. The sushi is just ok but the ambiance makes it worth it. Plus they have other foods for the non sushi eaters which is pretty much everyone except me and Shane. The crew was gramma, her caregiver Rosie, mom, dad, Lori, Shane, D and then of course my carload - Lib, Hailey, Robin and myself. A perfect family dinner! The girls bought funny 40 favors. Mom had the table all decked out with confetti and little party favors for us that each had "Advice for 40 year olds" on them.

Damn blur

Then we took a bunch of rad pictures while we ate, drank and laughed (alot) over dinner!

Dad telling Hailey about his Tai Kwon Do days

Danelle is ridiculously talented at making creative gifts. Every item in this basket has a tie to "40". Suckers for "when 40 sucks" tape for an "Instant facelift" and on and on. So rad and so creative!!!

Shane actually got dad to try sushi. I couldn't believe it.

Holy Shit we're all 40

Cheers!

Might be my new favorite picture of us

3 Generations

The closest I have to a daughter

40. Bring it.

The manager brought us little gifts and a free appetizer then a piece of cake for me later!

It the perfect way to celebrate the evening of my 40th! Gramma headed home early and the rest of us piled back to my house to have cake that Libby/Robin had picked up for me.

So delicious!

We all squeezed in my caboose eating cake, laughing and enjoying the 40's decor. After everyone left my OCD kicked in and I had to get everything back into order. I took a picture of my pretty organized presie stack that will find homes this weekend.

I'm so lucky!

I couldn't keep all the balloons since they traumatized the cats so I wrote a bunch of little happy notes - "You're awesome!" "You're beautiful", etc, rolled them up, tied them to the balloons and released them into the night. Hopefully someone who needs a smile will find them! As I stood on the dark lawn watching the balloons sail up in the moonlight I started to cry. A perfect moment. A perfect end to a wonderful birthday. I really am a lucky lucky girl!

*After Post*

So I wanted to throw in here -

There's a group of us girls that get together every couple of months for girls dinners to catch up. It's a group of us that have all known each other since elementary/middle school. We're starting to acknowledge whom ever has a close bday especially since we're all turning 40 this year! So last Sat we did a brunch at the Filling Station that turned into a half day adventure. Walking over there and back then playing apples to apples in my front yard for a few hours. It was a really fun Saturday for sure!!! These girls are pretty friggin awesome! Aimee brought me a yummy bottle of Spanish wine too! Yay!