6.17.16 - My birthday!

I "slept in" until 6:30am, then I started watching the first episodes of Season 6 of GoT while I pumped. Clara stayed asleep until it was nearly time to go, making it very easy for me to get everything ready. I also had time to ask people for suggestions on what to bake to get rid of the smoke smell in my apartment, and to ask people to tell me 3 things they're grateful for as a mini-FB gift to me on my birthday.

I dropped Clara off with Beth and then I went to Safeway to pick up some vanilla extract, because my favorite scent-related suggestion was baking a few capfuls of vanilla extract in a coffee mug in the oven for an hour. As soon as I walked into Safeway I could smell fried chicken. So, even though it was only 8:15am, I bought myself a fried chicken breast. I then went to Starbucks to get my free birthday frappuccino: a double double fudge frap. I do really love that Starbucks offers gold members a free drink every year on our birthdays. I look forward to it every time.

Chocolate whipped cream!

While I sat and waited for my drink I pulled up FB on my phone and read the responses so far to the 3-things-you're-grateful-for status. They make me so happy! It's soothing and pleasant to see how many things are going well in people's lives. I went home, set up the vanilla extract to bake, and enjoyed my extremely delicious and unhealthy breakfast while I listened to Spotify, cleaned up a bit, rearranged some music on my iPod, and uploaded the latest videos off my camera--all things I want to do but usually don't get around to.

I also opened a gift Dad had mailed me like two months ago that he said was for my birthday. It was the Firefly version of Clue! Looking forward to playing that soon. I've always liked Clue and I've long liked Firefly.

Then I drove to Davis and met up with Erin and Shannon for lunch. We went to Blaze Pizzeria, which is very similar to Pieology except it also includes calorie information, which is awesome. We sat outside in beautiful weather and talked about master's and PhD programs and apartments and travel and whatever else. Erin gave me my very Harry Potter themed birthday gift: a copy of Tales of Beetle the Bard and also a chocolate frog complete with the wizard card for Snape. It was awesome.

After lunch Shannon had to go back to lab, but Erin and I walked a few blocks to the movie theater and saw Captain America: Civil War. I won't pretend the plot made any sense but I still really enjoyed it partly because it was fun whispering comments to Erin and partly because there were several parts that made me laugh out loud (mostly Ant Man) and partly because I still love Iron Man.

This guy should beat Captain America every time.

I got caught in traffic driving back to pick up traffic, so I talked to Neil and that helped pass the time a lot. We pretty much discussed the best and worst parts of Civil War and why Iron Man is better than Captain America. After I picked up Clara, Erin met us at the apartment and she brought gourmet cupcakes!

LtoR: Maple bacon, red velvet,
mint chocolate, caramel chocolate,
brownie chocolate, white cream-filled chocolate.

Not too long after Rachel joined us, and she brought me a card with a very sweet note inside, plus some Ghiradelli chocolates and  a Starbucks gift card. So that was awesome. While we were all hanging out I got calls from (1) Don & Merlene, (2) Jack, (3) Dad and apparently everyone at The Robin Hood, and (4) Aaron and Katie, all singing me "Happy Birthday." 

Me with the maple bacon.

Erin, Rachel, (and Clara), and I hung out for several hours, eating cupcakes and drinking apple cider and talking about relationships and children and what it was like when we were kids. It was relaxing and enjoyable. Clara got very comfortable around them and was really cuddly, which they seemed to like too.

After they let I got Clara ready for bed and she went down peacefully, which was her birthday gift to me, I guess. Then I ran and checked the mail and found I had a lovely card from Julie with a Groupon for painting and wine for two from her and Everett, so that's something to look forward to too.

The card Julie made me.

And throughout all of this, the entire day, I got to keep checking my FB wall and my 3-things status to see everyones' well wishes, which I always enjoy. Overall it was a really fun day, and I still have my actual celebration to look forward to next weekend!