Birthdays

Last Tuesday was my birthday. All in all, it was a good one though not nearly as dramatic as last year, but that’s another story. This year, I was greeted first by my brother and one of my nephews (Daniel). Zachary (the other nephew) was mad at my brother for taking his toy away so he refused to talk to me. Ah kids. Still, it melted my heart when Daniel wished me happy birthday. I know he was coaxed, but there’s something really cool about the voice of a little one telling you happy birthday. It was definitely better than hearing my brother tell me that I was closer to being closer to 40. What’s that about? This combined with my Dad telling me over breakfast that it takes longer to get over pulled muscles as you get over made me think there was a conspiracy. Thankfully, it was only my family that focused on my being older. I guess that’s what family is for. (Note that both nephews sang happy birthday to me later that day after being threatened with not being able to go ride their bikes.)

Moving on…my dad took me to breakfast and while there, I got a phone call from my best friend. Lunch was out with a co-worker and dinner was with my uncle and my dad. Meanwhile, all day long, I received wishes on Facebook. The festivities continued on Friday night with dinner and a movie with friends. This is always good, especially when it involves queso-yum.

For some reason, this year I have reminisced more about previous birthdays. I’ve had some really great ones. One year, in high school, I was “kidnapped” by two single adults in our mission. They came in with bandanas and squirt guns and blindfolded me and took me to dinner. My Senior year, one of those same two singles “hired” this wonderful older couple to tp my room while I was out to dinner with them (this is a long story). This couple supposedly had never done that before. If not, they were naturals for it was a job most excellently done.

My 21st birthday was memorable because my best friend at the time posted posters all around our college campus on my various routes wishing me happy birthday. For my 30th birthday, two of my friends threw me a party and unbeknownst to me had people bring things from the 80’s that I might have might have missed out on growing up in Nigeria. I don’t know who had more fun, me or the guests. Every time I opened something, someone had a story. It was a blast. Last year was memorable because two of my best friends went to my apartment while I was working and cleaned, unpacked and decorated (See the story here). This was one of the most awesome gifts ever.

I have been blessed over the years with some really great celebrations and some really great friends. I’m looking forward to many more to come.