I am officially 27. I will promptly be forgetting that fact, because I feel like birthdays after 22 or so stop mattering so much. I suppose 30 will matter some, and 40, and 50. The nice round numbers. But I usually have to stop and think how old I am chronologically, because it's not a fact I assign much importance to.
So, technically my birthday isn't over until the last present arrives. As I age, I find that my birthday is like a bell curve in statistics.
It's not really your birthday about a week before your birthday's date, but if you have a party that day, it's kinda your birthday. That's one end of the bell curve. As you get closer to the actual day, it becomes more your birthday as cards and presents arrive. On the actual date, it's mostly your birthday (middle of the hump in the chart), because it's the correct date and maybe you saved your presents so you could open them, like I did. And maybe, if you're very fortunate, you have a nice significant other who'll take you out for special things. After the day passes, it becomes less and less your birthday until the last present or card arrives and is opened. After that, your birthday is past.
There's still two presents in the mail, but I'll give a rundown of most of my birthday.
First there was the party on Sunday the 25th. This was a joint party, and I've mentioned it in the last post. It had cake, there was Mario Party, Chris and I made bison burgers, and good times were had. Chris and I had to leave a little early because I got worn out by the noise and gaming, but it was a good party. My friends snagged me copies of Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate and Super Smash Bros.
Between that day and the 31st, a box, an envelope, and a card arrived in the mail. Chris acquired a very fancily decorated cake, which we tucked into a little before the actual day because it'd be a shame to let the poor cake go stale. I was also given money towards the fondue excursion by two lovely ladies I call friends. It came in very handy, because the fondue place was very expensive, all told.
On the 31st, I opened the card, envelope, and box. The card was a fancy popup birthday card with firework-cutouts. Very enjoyable to see. The box, as Chris guessed but didn't tell me, was the fancy wireless keyboard I'd been wanting. It types very quietly, is backlit for ease of use in a dim room, and has a number of excellently useful function keys. For instance, four of them will control your music. There's a "open your music program" key, a "play/pause" key, and forward and backward keys for if you're using a playlist or want to skip ahead in an album. There's also a calculator key, so if you press that it opens the Windows calculator program. In addition, I can reprogram those keys if I so desire. It takes some finagling, but I probably won't use the mail key, since I don't use Outlook or any mail software. Technology is pretty neat though, right?
The envelope was part of Chris' present to me. It contained two lab-created sapphires (it's extremely inexpensive to make gemstones, versus mining them). I love blue, and favor deep blue sapphires most, so he found me a couple budget ones. I might see if I can find a little treasure chest for them, or I might set them into jewelry. Not sure yet.
After opening presents we went to get lunch. I had received a gift card to Noodles and Co. from my very thoughtful boss, so we got our meals there and Chris picked up a copy of Monster Hunter at the Gamestop next door. He wants to play the game with me, and the game does have that capability.
Chris basically went all out for this birthday, so after we'd gotten lunch, we went to his mysterious outing. It turned out to be ziplining. You put on a harness and are attached to a long line strung between two platforms. You hop off the first platform and zoooooooooom down the line towards the second one. These lines had brakes built into them for extra safety. Looks like this:
The area was located at a ski lodge type place, and was new this year. Chris and I went with a family group. Three kids and three adults. It was, unfortunately, raining the entire time, but we'd been warned to dress in layers and wear boots and gloves. Just as well that we did. Also excellent, my winter coat is highly water resistant. It's well over 7 years old and still going strong. So my torso stayed plenty warm and dry. My legs didn't fare so well, but only because I don't have snow pants or anything waterproof for them. I opted for pajama pants under jeans. Still pretty warm, but sadly not dry after 2 hours.
It was a good time, and we amused ourselves by kicking the wet leaves off the platforms while we waited our turn to zipline.
After we got through the 10 ziplines, we thanked our guides (one of whom was dressed like a rainbow clown for Halloween), and headed home to dry off. Shortly after that, it was time to go for fondue. Our reservation was for 6:30, but the experience actually took 2.5 hours. They make the fondues at the table, and bring you dippables. We opted for the 4 course meals, since we're not likely to do this again anytime soon. There was cheddar cheese fondue (with bread, apple bits, and vegetables), followed by salads, followed by the entree (lobster, chicken, steak, and shrimp for him, various vegetables, tofu, and edamame for me), followed by creme brulee white chocolate fondue (with fruit, brownie bits, poundcake bits, and fancy marshmallows). The portions were not huge, but there was a lot of variety and it added up. I left the restaurant feeling very uncomfortably full.
Our waitress, like many of the waitstaff, was dressed up for Halloween (Nintendo characters theme, she was Link). She was a pleasant person, and apparently took a liking to us because she did sing happy birthday to me despite not really doing that for people. We tipped well, despite the expensive cost of the food. Pleasant people should succeed in life and not have to worry about paying their bills.
After we got home, it was basically "wind down before bedtime" time, so we broke out our copies of Monster Hunter and I got to walk Chris through some of the oddities of the game. It's not precisely intuitive, unfortunately. I found a good guide written for beginners online, though, so I was able to get started and be a reasonably good resource for Chris getting started.
The next day was Sunday, and I had to do sound for church. After that, though, I got to see Grandma. We went to Pietro's, which is a semi-fancy Italian place. Good food, with some to take home. But Grandma surprised me after that, and instead of handing me a bag of things, she had us come to her apartment, where she promptly presented me with two packages. Among other things, fancy patterned paper towels, glove-mittens, and fancy chocolate. We sat for awhile and chatted, but had to leave before too long because I had friends coming over and we needed to clean up a bit.
We mostly finished tidying up before they arrived, since they got lost trying to find my apartment. Another reason to get out of this place and find a nice condo or house. I'd really anticipated just having them over for an hour or two, but we started watching Gremlins, and then they wanted to get food and didn't want to go candy-shopping at Meijer (post-Halloween candy sales! Sniff.). So we didn't end up parting ways until 5 hours later. I was very worn out, suffice it to say.
Which almost brings us to today, except that I checked my email and found that my brother and sister-in-law had sent me a gift card and I'd somehow missed the notification. So there was plotting, and planning, and I finally decided to spend it on a pair of noise canceling headphones and a new wireless mouse. I'd been wanting the former for years since my last pair broke, and I seem to go through computer mice far faster than everybody else, so it's needed. Those will arrive tomorrow, so they're still counting as "not yet received."
Yesterday I buckled down to write thank you notes to the people I couldn't thank in person, and found to my great pleasure that I only needed to write two. I always find writing thank you notes awkward. I was taught that you can't just say, "oh hey, thanks for the thing." You have to include small talk. You have to make darned sure that you demonstrate caring about the person who sent you the thing. If it's a gift card, you have to tell them what you spent it on, and why you appreciate what you bought. This is fine for people I can keep up with online, but difficult for family members I see maybe once a year. Thankfully, those are done. I was also taught that I was supposed to physically write thank you notes, but I eschewed that in favor of email. I can't imagine anyone would really want to try to read my handwriting, anyway.
The other thing in transit is a present from my first friend, Simon. Very mysterious, since he's never let me send him presents. He says it's because I was having such a miserable week the last few weeks up to my birthday, and that's just not allowed. I have absolutely no idea what it could be, but he says the shipping is super-slow, so it might keep being my birthday (ever-so-slightly) for another few days.
All in all, it's been a very nice birthday. Probably one of the very best ever.
Edit: Simon's mysterious present came! A mouthwatering selection of Godiva truffles, which I am going to have to try very hard not to devour. I just started counting calories again with an exercise/nutrition app, and these are likely to be both delicious and calorie intensive. Lots of awesome flavors, like creme brulee, cheesecake, chocolate lava cake, and red velvet. Yeeeee! (<- happy sound)
So, technically my birthday isn't over until the last present arrives. As I age, I find that my birthday is like a bell curve in statistics.
There's still two presents in the mail, but I'll give a rundown of most of my birthday.
First there was the party on Sunday the 25th. This was a joint party, and I've mentioned it in the last post. It had cake, there was Mario Party, Chris and I made bison burgers, and good times were had. Chris and I had to leave a little early because I got worn out by the noise and gaming, but it was a good party. My friends snagged me copies of Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate and Super Smash Bros.
Between that day and the 31st, a box, an envelope, and a card arrived in the mail. Chris acquired a very fancily decorated cake, which we tucked into a little before the actual day because it'd be a shame to let the poor cake go stale. I was also given money towards the fondue excursion by two lovely ladies I call friends. It came in very handy, because the fondue place was very expensive, all told.
On the 31st, I opened the card, envelope, and box. The card was a fancy popup birthday card with firework-cutouts. Very enjoyable to see. The box, as Chris guessed but didn't tell me, was the fancy wireless keyboard I'd been wanting. It types very quietly, is backlit for ease of use in a dim room, and has a number of excellently useful function keys. For instance, four of them will control your music. There's a "open your music program" key, a "play/pause" key, and forward and backward keys for if you're using a playlist or want to skip ahead in an album. There's also a calculator key, so if you press that it opens the Windows calculator program. In addition, I can reprogram those keys if I so desire. It takes some finagling, but I probably won't use the mail key, since I don't use Outlook or any mail software. Technology is pretty neat though, right?
The envelope was part of Chris' present to me. It contained two lab-created sapphires (it's extremely inexpensive to make gemstones, versus mining them). I love blue, and favor deep blue sapphires most, so he found me a couple budget ones. I might see if I can find a little treasure chest for them, or I might set them into jewelry. Not sure yet.
After opening presents we went to get lunch. I had received a gift card to Noodles and Co. from my very thoughtful boss, so we got our meals there and Chris picked up a copy of Monster Hunter at the Gamestop next door. He wants to play the game with me, and the game does have that capability.
Chris basically went all out for this birthday, so after we'd gotten lunch, we went to his mysterious outing. It turned out to be ziplining. You put on a harness and are attached to a long line strung between two platforms. You hop off the first platform and zoooooooooom down the line towards the second one. These lines had brakes built into them for extra safety. Looks like this:
The area was located at a ski lodge type place, and was new this year. Chris and I went with a family group. Three kids and three adults. It was, unfortunately, raining the entire time, but we'd been warned to dress in layers and wear boots and gloves. Just as well that we did. Also excellent, my winter coat is highly water resistant. It's well over 7 years old and still going strong. So my torso stayed plenty warm and dry. My legs didn't fare so well, but only because I don't have snow pants or anything waterproof for them. I opted for pajama pants under jeans. Still pretty warm, but sadly not dry after 2 hours.
It was a good time, and we amused ourselves by kicking the wet leaves off the platforms while we waited our turn to zipline.
After we got through the 10 ziplines, we thanked our guides (one of whom was dressed like a rainbow clown for Halloween), and headed home to dry off. Shortly after that, it was time to go for fondue. Our reservation was for 6:30, but the experience actually took 2.5 hours. They make the fondues at the table, and bring you dippables. We opted for the 4 course meals, since we're not likely to do this again anytime soon. There was cheddar cheese fondue (with bread, apple bits, and vegetables), followed by salads, followed by the entree (lobster, chicken, steak, and shrimp for him, various vegetables, tofu, and edamame for me), followed by creme brulee white chocolate fondue (with fruit, brownie bits, poundcake bits, and fancy marshmallows). The portions were not huge, but there was a lot of variety and it added up. I left the restaurant feeling very uncomfortably full.
Our waitress, like many of the waitstaff, was dressed up for Halloween (Nintendo characters theme, she was Link). She was a pleasant person, and apparently took a liking to us because she did sing happy birthday to me despite not really doing that for people. We tipped well, despite the expensive cost of the food. Pleasant people should succeed in life and not have to worry about paying their bills.
After we got home, it was basically "wind down before bedtime" time, so we broke out our copies of Monster Hunter and I got to walk Chris through some of the oddities of the game. It's not precisely intuitive, unfortunately. I found a good guide written for beginners online, though, so I was able to get started and be a reasonably good resource for Chris getting started.
The next day was Sunday, and I had to do sound for church. After that, though, I got to see Grandma. We went to Pietro's, which is a semi-fancy Italian place. Good food, with some to take home. But Grandma surprised me after that, and instead of handing me a bag of things, she had us come to her apartment, where she promptly presented me with two packages. Among other things, fancy patterned paper towels, glove-mittens, and fancy chocolate. We sat for awhile and chatted, but had to leave before too long because I had friends coming over and we needed to clean up a bit.
We mostly finished tidying up before they arrived, since they got lost trying to find my apartment. Another reason to get out of this place and find a nice condo or house. I'd really anticipated just having them over for an hour or two, but we started watching Gremlins, and then they wanted to get food and didn't want to go candy-shopping at Meijer (post-Halloween candy sales! Sniff.). So we didn't end up parting ways until 5 hours later. I was very worn out, suffice it to say.
Which almost brings us to today, except that I checked my email and found that my brother and sister-in-law had sent me a gift card and I'd somehow missed the notification. So there was plotting, and planning, and I finally decided to spend it on a pair of noise canceling headphones and a new wireless mouse. I'd been wanting the former for years since my last pair broke, and I seem to go through computer mice far faster than everybody else, so it's needed. Those will arrive tomorrow, so they're still counting as "not yet received."
Yesterday I buckled down to write thank you notes to the people I couldn't thank in person, and found to my great pleasure that I only needed to write two. I always find writing thank you notes awkward. I was taught that you can't just say, "oh hey, thanks for the thing." You have to include small talk. You have to make darned sure that you demonstrate caring about the person who sent you the thing. If it's a gift card, you have to tell them what you spent it on, and why you appreciate what you bought. This is fine for people I can keep up with online, but difficult for family members I see maybe once a year. Thankfully, those are done. I was also taught that I was supposed to physically write thank you notes, but I eschewed that in favor of email. I can't imagine anyone would really want to try to read my handwriting, anyway.
The other thing in transit is a present from my first friend, Simon. Very mysterious, since he's never let me send him presents. He says it's because I was having such a miserable week the last few weeks up to my birthday, and that's just not allowed. I have absolutely no idea what it could be, but he says the shipping is super-slow, so it might keep being my birthday (ever-so-slightly) for another few days.
All in all, it's been a very nice birthday. Probably one of the very best ever.
Edit: Simon's mysterious present came! A mouthwatering selection of Godiva truffles, which I am going to have to try very hard not to devour. I just started counting calories again with an exercise/nutrition app, and these are likely to be both delicious and calorie intensive. Lots of awesome flavors, like creme brulee, cheesecake, chocolate lava cake, and red velvet. Yeeeee! (<- happy sound)
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