My 30th Birthday is complete!

I made my way back to WV again this past weekend since I had three lovely days to spend there instead of my usual two. The traffic on the trip was horrendous, and reinforced my opinion that Maryland drivers get their licenses out of gumball machines. But anyways, that is another post.

Once I finally made it home, I had a big surprise waiting for me...my family had planned a surprise party for my 30th birthday. I stepped into the house and heard everyone scream "SURPRISE" and I was truly shocked! But I have to admit, all I could think was, "Man, I have seriously got to pee!" lol Give me a break--I had just driven 400 miles!!! :) The family had invited a bunch of people over including friends and old neighbors (who are also friends) and we had cake and ice cream and I got lots more presents. Not that the presents are the important part, but they are a pretty nice perk!

I then spent a wonderful weekend with family and friends, doing lots of cuddling with the kiddies. I got to see Tricia's baby who is now five months old and so cute! I delayed leaving on Monday by a couple of hours so that I could meet Tamara's new baby who is two months old and just gorgeous! And of course I hugged on my nieces and nephews as much as I could! Izzy about broke my heart though. He is getting to that age now where he understands that I when I leave, he won't see me for a long time, and he hates that thought. He gets so upset when he thinks about it, and begs me to not go. It is so difficult to leave him when he acts that way. So, I have a little while before he gets to the age of understanding why I have to go, but by then I will have Noah and Sophie getting to the age of crying when I leave. So, for at least the next, oh, three or four years, I will have my heart wrenched out every time I have to say goodbye. :( Luckily Maddie is already to the age where she understands why I have to go, and though she gets sad, she doesn't normally cry or throw a fit. Gotta count my blessings where I can find 'em! :)

That is about it for now, just a quick update. BTW, you guys suck--not one person commented on my Ents post! Are you not the geeks that I thought you were?!?!?!? And yes, not being a geek is a bad thing. :)

The Ents Attack!

Forgot to mention one thing about my day at Wine in the Woods on Sunday...I was attacked by Ents! I learned a very important lesson: Never compare Maryland Ents to West Virginia Ents, because they will seek revenge. Guess they don't much like their hillbilly cousins. :)

Seriously though, the strangest thing kept happening to me on Sunday. It didn't matter where I decided to sit, the trees kept dropping leaves and such on me. Nobody else in our group was having the same trouble I was--an occasional leaf would hit someone else here or there, but nothing like they were getting me. Within minutes I had a little circle of leaves around me EVERY time I sat down. Once a big seed pod of some sort bonked me in the head, and that actually hurt a bit. But the worst was when something hit my arm and actually cut me--I was left bleeding!!! Granted, just a tiny little dot of blood, but still--the trees were attacking me and they weren't happy until they drew blood! I'm just lucky there were lots of witnesses, so they couldn't take me out! :)

What a wonderful day!

Yesterday was one of the best days I have had since moving to MD. I went to Wine in the Woods with a few friends, and met a bunch of new people once I was there. The event is a big outdoor wine festival, held at one of the outdoor concert venues here in Baltimore. Twenty bucks bought you admission, a souvenir wine glass, and as many samples of wine as you could want/handle. If you found a wine that you really liked, you had the option of buying a bottle to drink while at the festival...and we found many a wine that we enjoyed and shared in. :) The weather was gorgeous, the wine was tasty, and the fellowship among friends was priceless.

I am left with one small query after yesterday though. I was invited to attend a themed cookout in a couple of weeks with some of the new people I met. Anyone know what I should wear to represent 80's wrestling? I am thinking ring girl attire.... :)

Maybe they don't suck so bad after all

Today my coworkers came through for me. I was surprised with cake and card this morning and lots of singing all day today. So far I have had people sing "Happy Birthday" to me seven different times!!! It is starting to get a bit embarrassing. :) But I am loving every minute of it! The one in charge asked me if I thought they had forgot about me, to which I truthfully replied that yes, I thought they had. She then told me that she had planned on doing something yesterday, but that there weren't many people her (which is true) so she figured she would hold off until today so there would be more people to celebrate with me. I can't really be too upset by that, now can I?
Just a note, I got a couple of phones calls last night with people worried that my coworkers don't like me. I NEVER thought that. I just figured they were thoughtless idiots. But they proved me wrong today, so have to take that back as well. :) Oh, and I want to note, I don't think this was a "pity-party" either--as far as I know, none of them even know about this website, so they wouldn't know that I had said they all sucked.


I can now say that my thirtieth birthday has been a wonderful occasion, in every way so far. Now to wait and see what my family does for me over Memorial Day weekend..... :)

Being 30 isn't so bad after all

So far, so good; I can't complain about being 30. I had a wonderful day on Saturday with my sister, Cindy, and her family visiting. My day started with me becoming an "official" MD resident, in that I finally switched my driver's license over. It was about time I got around to doing that. :) Then I went out car hunting with my family, taking out a Scion xB and Toyota Matrix for drives. I really liked the feel of the Scion, but unfortunately the 2006 model doesn't come with cruise control. They redesigned the 2008 (there wasn't a 2007 model made), and although I could get cruise on a new one, I hate the new styling. So, it looks like the xB is not going to be the car for me. I liked everything about the Matrix except for the driving position. With me being so tall, I have to have the seat back as far as it will go for my legs to be in a comfortable position. By doing this though, I had to have my arms completely straight, elbows locked, to reach the steering wheel. So, it isn't looking too positive either. Hopefully I will make it out one evening this week or next weekend to look at some more and have better luck. Next up, the Honda Fit.

Once we finished with the car hunting for the day, we took a trip to the zoo with the kids. It was so much fun!!! I spent the day reclaiming my childhood, eating snow cones and cotton candy, petting animals at the petting zoo, I even went for a ride on a carousel. It was a gorgeous day also, so it was perfect to be out and about. Once we got home, my brother in law went out and picked up a Cheesecake Factory cheesecake and my family threw a little party for me out on my balcony. They gave me a ton of new stuff to go with my new patio set, so I will have the best balcony in the neighborhood! We went out to dinner after that at Five Guys, which of course was delicious, and then ended the evening with Chris and the kids in bed while Cindy and I killed a bottle of wine and a couple pieces of cheesecake. MMMM, MMMM! :)

Now the sucky part about my birthday. My coworkers have done nothing, not even a card. We normally have a birthday cake and card for everyone, but nada for me. I would have thought they completely forgot about it, except for a few have wished me a happy birthday or asked how my birthday went. So it just looks like they just don't care enough to actually celebrate mine, and that REALLY sucks to think about. Oh well, I will live. But they can forget about me joining in and putting up money to host parties for everyone else now. Petty, yes, but I don't care. They could have at least pretended to want to do something for me to keep from hurting my feelings.

Other than my coworkers sucking, my birthday was nice though. I even had a couple of surprise calls from people I wasn't expecting to hear from. And being 30 isn't so bad after all. In fact, I don't feel any different than I did this time last week. :)

The BIG 30!!!

I just realized that I only have a little over a day left in my twenties. Yep, that's right...on Saturday I will be turning 30! And how am I spending the last days of my youthful twenties, you might ask? So far today I have worked my regular job, come home, finished four loads of laundry, deep cleaned the kitchen (including scrubbing the drip pans on the stove), and mowed the lawn. And now I am on my computer, typing away. Exciting day, eh? Big plans for tomorrow also--work, of course, and then finish straightening this place up, woo-hoo! Tomorrow evening will be nice though, because Cindy, Chris, Izzy and Sophie will be getting here (late) to spend the weekend with me. :) My house will be a little crazy for the next few days, but it will be so much fun, it won't matter.

Am I where I always thought I would be at this stage of my life? Not in a million years. Had you asked me ten, even five years ago if I thought I would be living in Baltimore by the time I was thirty, I would have laughed at you. But here I am closing in on being here two years. I had always imagined that I would be married with kids by this age, but I can honestly say that I am thankful that I am not. Had I married when I was younger, I almost certainly would have married a guy from WV, and never had the chance to live the life I have now. I really think that living alone in a big city has helped me grow as a person, and I am very thankful to have had that opportunity. It has forced me to become independent, whether I ever wanted to or not. :) Career wise, I am pretty much where I thought I would be. Well, there was a time when I thought I would be a pharmacist, but that changed during college. I guess I am meaning more the kind of success I have had with my career. I have a great job that pays me well, with great opportunities ahead for me, and that is more what I mean when I say that I am pretty much where I thought I would be. All in all, I am pretty happy with how my life has turned out in the first 30 years.

Here's to hoping that the next 30 are just as happy (or happier!) for me! :)