Top 100 Days – My 40th Birthday

As I just wrote in my last post, one of the big things that I want to do in the next 40 years of my life is to remember to capture the great times in my Top 100 Days blog.

Yesterday, my 40th birthday, is without a doubt one of these days.  I have been looking forward to my birthday for months.  I like birthdays.  I don’t worry about growing old because growing old means you are alive.  Being alive rocks!  I believe that growing old is a privilege that many miss out on in their lives.

I think that every birthday should be used as a reason for people to get together.  Too often in life, a funeral is the last time that you saw that dear old friend.

I awoke on my 40th birthday, to a beatiful sunny morning.  I was well rested for the first time in weeks, and I thought about the night before.  KK, My Megz, the Portuguese Guy and an old boss (EducatedGuess) and his wife (Spirit) and I celebrated the last day of my life as a 39 year-old together.

EducatedGuess and Spirit talked with My Megz and The Portuguese Guy about their trips to Portugal.  I enjoyed hearing about their travels.  Spirit talked about her photography business.  I love an entrepreneur’s story.  The cool night air was relaxing and intoxicating. We talked about KK’s pets, and how excited Little Chirp was about all the pets at KK’s house the other day.  The weather, the food and most importantly the company were the perfect way to spend the last day that I will ever be 39, and I awoke happy on my 40th birthday.

My best friend was coming for the first time ever to my house in Houston, so I cleaned up a bit.  Little Chirp had spent the night with his dad, and he came bouncing in the front door for me to take him to school.  He greeted me with a big hug and my first happy birthday wish of the day.  My industrious little offspring wanted to help, so he cleaned up Brainy Bird’s reading area and he made the beds and unloaded the dishwasher.

We then headed out to wait for the bus.  One of my favorite neighbors was out at the bus stop with her beautiful little girls.  She was the second person to wish me a happy birthday.  I embarrassed Little Chirp by giving him a huge hug and good bye kiss when the bus arrived.  I feel this is a mother’s right on her 40th birthday.

I then finished cleaning up the house, and I went to one of my favorite places of for breakfast.   Breakfast was exceptionally good that morning.  Honestly, I go their for the service, great people work there.  I took a couple of work calls, and replied to a couple of emails over breakfast, but then I logged off my computer to enjoy my day off.

My Facebook page, email and text messages lit up with happy birthday wishes.  Every one of them made me happy.  One of my many great co-workers called needing help with something urgent and important, and he was so apologetic about bothering me.  Little did he know that he helped make my day.  Old me would have spent the day stressed out and working.  New me, had another great co-worker trained and ready to help him.

On my drive back home, Banana, my oldest friend, called to wish me a happy birthday.  I love the sound of happiness in her voice.  We reflected on the fact that we are both turning 40.  Her birthday is next week, and I am excited about going home to celebrate with her.  We talked of how thankful we are for our friendship and blessed lives.

Once I got home, I was not in a rush for the first time in “I can’t remember when”.  I picked Sunshine up at her house around 1, and we went to the wax place and then to the Woodlands.  The weather was a amazing, so we got a table overlooking the waterway at one of my favorite Mexican restaurants.  Sunshine had never been to the restaurant, and it was fun to introduce her to a new place.

We were enjoying a light lunch and a beer when I got some good news from work.  Sunshine was just as happy about it as I was.  We went from lunch to float ducks down the waterfall at the waterway.  I have always wanted to do this.  The ducks got stuck on the rock tier of the waterfall!  A ranger had to come and fish them out for us.  He was matter of fact about it, and while he didn’t seem excited to fish out our ducks, he did so without reprimand.

We then had a glass of champagne at Morton’s to toast the good news from work,  I thought of all of our years together and watching each other grow in our careers.  In my two biggest professional dissapointements and downfalls, it was Sunshine that I turned to.  How perfect is it that she was there to toast with me on a happy day 🙂 ?

We sipped our champagne, and Sunshine reminded me of my list of things to do before I turned 40.  The list includes getting my ears pierced.  I tried to flake, but she convinced me to go to the mall and have it done.

I am so glad I did!!!!!   It sounds really silly, but I feel pretty with earrings on.  Every time that I put earrings on, I will think of my Sunshine.

From there, we headed to Mo’s, my favorite happy hour venue for my birthday happy hour.  I was surprised that more people weren’t there, but I was not down by any stretch of the imagination.  Quite the opposite, the day was just perfect.  I know my friends will be there for me when they can.

My dear friend from high school arrived, and it was fun to introduce her to everyone.  I have decided that her blog name will be Reva.  It was really, really good to see her.  We picked up right where we left off, as if we talked everyday, just as we did back in the day.  At one point, she, JayHawk and Sunshine were on my left and one of my favorite married couples in the world were on my right.  The married couple’s blog names will be Ken and Barbie.  That is too perfect :).

I looked at everyone, and I thought to myself, “Wow, my entire life I have been blessed with amazing friends.”  Tree Climber and JJ joined us, and Tree Climber shared a couple of his great stories with Reva.  As the two of them laughed together, I saw the qualities in them that all of my friends share.

The Red headed Yankee showed up grinning ear to ear as he always is, and I loved that he had brought me one of my all time favorite bottles of red wine.  I always like it when people take the time to notice the likes of others.

Sunshine had a heck of a time rounding us up to go to my house.  “The plan” was to meet up with everyone else at my house to take as few cars bar hopping as possible with designated drivers for everyone.  A lot of my friends live in my neighborhood, so my house was an obvious rendezvous spot.  Right as we were leaving one of my newer friends joined us and he followed us back to my house.

When we got to my house, it seemed quiet.  Quiet is something that our crowd never is. I thought that maybe everyone had wandered over to the cul de sac where a lot of my neighborhood family lives.  Or maybe they got tired of waiting and went on to the first bar on our itinerary. I walked into my seemingly quite house, and it took a moment to comprehend.  Everyone shouted, “Surprise!” and wow!  I was surprised.

Someone had told me earlier in the week that there was a surprise party. I thought that I would get to Baker Street or Sportin’ Woodies (our neighborhood bars), and that people would be there, and that would be the surprise.  No, there was quite literally a surprise party.  An incredible party.  At my own freakin’ house!  That is crazy! And so many of my amazing friends were there to celebrate with me!!!

There is not a sentence to describe how perfect this moment was.

KidWithReallyGoodParent’s Mother was there at the door and everyone else was on the staircase or upstairs looking into the foyer.  I am sitting here thinking about it right now, and I can’t stop smiling.  Maybe the Red Headed Yankee once had a surprise party, and he thinks about it and that is why he is always smiling.

One of my first bosses and his amazing wife were there.  One of the best counselees that I will ever have in my Big 4 consulting career was there.    My Neighborhood family was well represented, and they were all ready for some fun.  Right Brained and her husband, who were part of my last great birthday celebration years back, where there.  Heart of Gold was radiant with her charming  fiancé by her side.  KK, Portuguese guy and My Megz were all there, and they brought Portuguese wine!  Mr. and Mrs. Country, two of my newer friends were there, and I found out that I am invited to the wedding.  Woohoo!  I love weddings.

The night was soooo much fun!!!!!!!!!  Never has a girl felt more special. Some fun random quotes and thoughts from the night:

– Me in reference to the round of shots that the general manager at Mo’s bought us, “I do not want to drink this.  I want to remember tonight!”  Barbie, “Drink up girl.  I will video everything.  You can watch it on Facebook tomorrow!”

– Beware of Uber drivers with name tags (Reva – I loved that story.)

– After all of these year’s Reva’s mother remembered that my ears are not pierced.  Awe, I feel special.  Reva had told her mom about the earrings she got me, and she returned them when her mom told her that my ears were not pierced.  Well my ears are finally pierced.  I love the necklace that Reva gave me. I have it on right now :).

–  The Blonde Yankee’s pork sliders and potatoe salad were so good that I am not sure that he is really a Yankee.  Sh**!  The North is winning the barbecue war.

– Of all things that I teach my boys, teaching them to cook is the most important.  Look at Jose Cuervo Girl, the smart, beautiful woman that Blonde Yankee landed. I am so grateful to have them as friends.

– My Megz looks down and twitches when she lies.  She must have never told me a lie before because she never did that until last week when we had lunch, and I asked her if she had received an invite for something for my birthday happy hour.

– Never will I ever tire of My Megz’s smile.

– My tall red headed friend looks stunning without effort.  Us single girls need to hang out more often 🙂

– Note to self – “I have to stop buying clothes from Stitch Fix.  Both ‘KidWithReallyGoodParent’s’ Mom and Heart of Gold have tops on that I have bought from Stitch Fix….Wait!  Those are my tops!!.”

– My friend’s decorate WAY better than I do.

– Have a giant cake at every party.  When you wake up exhausted the next morning your house will be filled with the wonderful smell of cake instead of stale beer.

– My neighbor, in reference to a box of matches, “Do you have a safe place to put these?”  Me – “My kids know better than to play with matches, we have a teach and trust approach, rather than an isolate and shelter approach to raising children in this house.”  My neighbor, looking around the party, “It is not your children that I am worried about.”

– There is A LOT that can go wrong with having a surprise party at someone’s own house.  Seriously, this is an insane idea. This has to be the first time in months that my bed was made and dirty clothes weren’t everywhere.  This would have been a disaster if Reva had not come.  I cleaned up because I didn’t want her to think that I am still the slob I was as a kid.  Instead, it was a fantastic idea.

– “What?  He is not Asian.  He said he is from India.”  – My favorite geographically challenged friend.

– I liked it when KidWithReallyGoodParent’s Dad was all smiles as he talked about getting on the ladder to help decorate.  This made me feel very special, and it makes me happy that our generation does stuff like this together.  There was a time in my bloodline that men would not have partaken in a party daecorating activity.

– Does Portugal not share?  I can’t understand how France got the notoriety for good wine.

– My single, male friends need to stop missing the parties at my house.  The Red Headed Yankee has more attention from single females than one man can handle.

– Reva – “This is your go to bar?  This is a trailer!”  Me, (in my reassuring voice), “Actually, it is a double wide“

– Tall chicks look really sexy with blue hair.

– One is never too old for a piñata.

– Yellow and grey are my favorite colors.

– You can never have too many red heads at a party.

– JayHawk looks better in my boots than I do.

– KK fits in with my other friends to the point that I forget that they do not see each other all the time.

– Put Mr. and Mrs. Country in charge of lighting.

– Friends that paint banners together, stay together.

– Every party needs a hat box.

– One of the best moments of my roller coaster week was when Amber’s blue eyes sparkled as she told me how excited she was about my birthday on Friday.  It made me very happy that Amber, her husband and brother all came to celebrate my birthday.

– I picked the right neighborhood.

– Never, ever in my life has a glass of champagne tasted so good.

I love my life.  I love my friends.  Thank you all for an absolutely amazing day!!!!!!!!!!!!