two. nine.

I have a love/hate relationship with my birthday.

I don't particularly enjoy being the center of attention or that strange expectation (whatever it is) that inevitably comes along with the day, but I do love feeling loved.

There wasn't a lot of hoopla associated with my birthday this year, but I have to say, I still felt the love.

I have new roommates. And one of these new roommates is a firm believer in celebrating a "Birthday Week". A period of seven days, sometime before/after your actual birthday, in which to celebrate. So, my Birthday Week commenced with a Sunday afternoon backyard picnic.

It was adorable. And (!) they made homemade mozzarella for the caprese salad. HOME MADE. I've never once had the thought that I wanted to make my own cheese, but these ladies thought it and did it.

It was the last day of sunny, warm weather we've had and everything was delightful. The food, the company, the laughter. I even told the story of how I was banned from having birthday parties for a few years.

(Look if you had been there when I was 11, you would have thrown that 2 liter of cream soda too.)

A few of my favorite moments:
1. My dear friend, LH, struggles with depth perception. She somehow got asked to light the candles and wound up either burning the center of the candle or not even coming close. Bless her.

2. I was told that there were three candles so I would get three wishes. As a result, when blowing out the candles, I wished on/blew out the candles individually. When my roommate said, "Maybe no one told her you're supposed to blow them out all at once" I got defensive. This is what I look like when I get defensive.

3. We tried to take a simple photo with a few of my favorite people in life. And it got out of hand.

 It all started when Stacey turned to Susan and said, "What were you doing with your face?" after the first photo.

And then we got the giggles.

That started out slowly.

And progressed until I threw my head back so far in laughter that I was practically lying down.

And then Susan got elbowed in the face and also laughed until she cried.

And Stacey looked like this.

And in the end, the first picture we took ended up being the best one.

On my actual birthday some of my favorites got super classy with me and ate at my favorite Mexican restaurant. Who wouldn't be on board with Diet Coke and chips & salsa?

Don't let these smiles fool you. This crowd is also responsible for a point during dinner where I was wearing a sombrero and they were each holding an instrument. If you're lucky, there will be video to come.

After, there was more cake (banana split cake!) to be eaten and more wishes to be made.

 Unfortunately, I underestimated those candles and left one standing. It's a good thing I made those three wishes earlier in the week...

I received the gift of Bieber in the form of Justin Bieber: Never Say Never and the night ended with a viewing. As it turns out, only the gift giver (AB) and gift receiver (me) were hardcore enough to see it through to the end.

So, here I am in the final year of my twenties.  I have plans to make the most of it.