thirty

I've been waiting to post, ostensibly until I had pictures to prove that I did indeed celebrate my birthday, instead of hiding in a corner and waiting until it had passed. You see, I have gone and turned 30. As the baby boomer generation has proven, it is possible to survive such a thing, but I wasn't positive of that until I had done it myself.

After mentioning to The Hub a few weeks ago that I would really love to have a birthday party, I left it alone. He told me to. So in celebration, the Sunday before my birthday, we had dinner at Papa and Grandma's house. I volunteered to bring a cake in celebration of my coming of age (30 makes you a real grownup, you know). Grandma made us take home the leftovers, so for three days we enjoyed devil's food cake (made with applesauce, pudding, and miniature chocolate chips--so decadent!) and frosted with an orange cream cheese frosting. Voila! A chocolate orange cake! I love chocolate oranges.

The day itself was quite relaxed. I took the girls on a playdate, then spent the rest of the day reading and pretending to discipline the children. On our family calendar, it said Friday was reserved for birthday celebrations, which worked out better, since The Hub had a class he couldn't miss on Wednesday. So Friday comes, and The Hub refuses to tell me anything beyond letting the Pirates of the Caribbean hat he gave me for my birthday be my inspiration for my garb. In my parlance, "garb" is a very specific word meaning costume, so I took it to heart. I wrapped some of my hair, a la Captain Jack Sparrow, and wore my Halloween dress, accessorized with a crimson silk sash and a crimson silk headscarf. I was tempted to wear the hat itself, but it clashed with the headscarf.

Some of The Scurvy Crew: KB and JB, TA and AA with son E, QS and AF

My mom arrived, we inhaled some dinner, and then The Hub spirited me off in his truck. We discovered a new exit off of the freeway, which he immediately took, and he drove me to the hospital where he's serving his internship. I was really confused, but he kept driving through the parking lot and turned left, and then I got it. My friend A is renting a house near the hospital, and a house holds people more comfortably than an apartment does. So we walk in the door and everyone The Hub had invited yelled "Surprise!" First surprise party of my life! It was cooooool.


I wasn't the only one dressed to the nines, but I was one of the few and the proud, so I ditched the head scarf early. The Hub wore it for a while, which is progress for him in the costume department. They made me open presents--lots of pirate-themed stuff!--and we ate a delicious chocolate frosted chocolate cake (cake is important to me) that said "Got Booty?" on top, as well as pigs in a blanket (roasted pigs were essential to the pirate diet, I'm told) and had tropical smoothies and "rum" (also known as cream soda, root beer, and strawberry Crush, but in rum-looking bottles!).

Pirates of the Caribbean purse! Also note the bottle of "rum" tucked between my leg and the couch.

And then we played the Pirates of the Caribbean version of Life. I love that game--The Hub got it for me as an early Christmas gift last year. It took nearly two hours to get through, with the number of people we had playing, but even though The Hub and I were dead last getting into Shipwreck Cove, we still came in first because we had the most money. Booty. Treasure. Happy birthday to me!

The English Major as the Banker. I can't count!!

After the marathon Life game broke up, half the party went home (small children to take care of, etc.) and half of us sat around for another hour, trading Terry Pratchett quotes and talking about life in general. It was a fabulous party. The Hub really outdid himself, though he insists on giving credit to my friends AG, AF, and MH. Apparently he approached them for help and they promptly took over the reins. All I have to say is "Wow." And "Thank You." And "We Should Do That Again."