Birthday Wrap-up

AKA: My Friends Are Better Than Yours

Start to finish, my 31st birthday was fantastic! Before I even got out of bed in the morning I was serenaded by my friend Jim, his two girls, Alyssa (11) and Dakota (5) and his mom, Marie (aka: Ma). Not only did they sing the traditional birthday song, but they added their usual 3 other verses. Gonna be honest, I have no idea where they came from and they’re the only family that I know that sings them. I couldn’t even tell you what they are. Something about wishes coming true and things dropping…I don’t know haha. I haven’t been to enough Hackley birthday parties yet to be able to sing along, but I DO know that it ends with a high note, and that Dakota rocks it. Seriously, this started my day out perfectly, with lots of smiles and laughter. And how can you have a bad day if that’s where you start?

Work was pretty normal, well, normal for Xplore. My boss got the producers and project managers a whip. Like a legit whip, made in Mexico and “from good quality hide”. So a portion of the day was spent cracking a whip in our storage area 🙂 Like I said, a normal day at Xplore. My work wife, Kathy also made gluten free chocolate chip muffins which were delicious!

Now, last year I threw myself a HUGE party so this year I decided I was done. Trying to organize people and do something is just too exhausting sometimes, so I decided this year I was going to go to open mic night at Donahue’s in Madison and if people wanted to join me they could. No expectations, no feelings hurt if they didn’t come. This is what I’m doing, if you want to join me – GREAT! If not, GREAT! I mean, c’mon, I was asking people to stay out late on a Wednesday. I really didn’t expect anyone to come short of Julie DeNeen and a couple of her friends since this is a fairly normal Wednesday night activity for them, but I was wrong, because I have the best friends, coworkers and work wife ever! All these people showed up (including a few that came after the pictures were taken):

It took 31 years, but I was finally officially surprised!

The funny thing is, I almost didn’t make it! I got a call from a friend in need and since my friends are my family I will drop anything for them if I need to, it’s just how I’m wired. Julie wasn’t having it though

At that point I knew something was up, but I didn’t know what. I started to try and figure it out (maybe she made you gluten free cake and doesn’t want it sitting in her house) but then I was like No Jess, just leave it be. Don’t take the fun out of it for her or you. Roll with the punches and see what happens. And I’m so glad I did. (Disclaimer: my friend is ok, it was just a BAD day and he had every right to feel everything that he was feeling.)

Come to find out, my work wife, in cahoots with my bestie (pictured below) were the ones behind the surprise.

            (sorry for the poor quality, it was dark in there!)

Kathy took care of getting people from my work circle while Christine took care of the rest. I seriously love them. Every time I turned around there was someone else there who I wasn’t expecting to see! Even my BOSS came! Apparently everyone was instructed to say they were busy or make an excuse of why they couldn’t come. They lied to me! But with good reason, so I’m over it.

Yesterday was easily one of my favorite birthdays. I’ve never felt more loved and blessed by the people I’m surrounded by from the moment I woke up to the second my  head hit the pillow. My heart is full 🙂