Happy Birthday Champ!

This is my better half. My best friend.

And he's a year older today.

We love the Champ. Everyone who meets him does, most of who you just read about him or hear stories about him love him, but me especially. Though I'm lucky enough to hang out with him almost every day.

He's a good sport, the kind that agrees to go on wild goose chases with me and wanders around Michael's while I look at crafty things or goes to shows with teenaged girls screaming because I asked sweetly. He makes dinner and does dishes (I do sometimes too) and he's completely understanding of whatever crazy idea I have going on that week.

He's kept me from going full 'hipster' which is for the best, but understands that I do like to dabble. He lets total strangers come stay at our place because he felt bad that the band didn't have somewhere to crash. He's Mr. Positive, the best gamer I know and really just a ton of fun to be around.

Hooray for another year of hanging out with him, him being my favorite and here's looking to so much more. I can't wait.

Happy Birthday Champ!

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Happy Engagement Anniversary!

Champ messaged me at work saying he felt terrible that he'd forgotten what day last Sunday was and I have to admit I was more than a little confused. I had to sit there, stare at the computer and try to sort out what day it could be. Not the anniversary, that's next week. Then it dawned on me.

Champ remembers what day of the year he proposed on.

And I don't.

I'm not sure which is more shocking. Probably neither. There's some massive standard role reversal going on there.

To celebrate, he brought home a treat from Cami Cakes. A delicious treat.

We got strawberry shortcake, cinnamon swirl, red velvet and cotton candy (seriously this man loves me). Absolutely delicious. So here's to 3 years!! And cupcakes!! (I think all things should be celebrated with cupcakes now. It's official.)

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Birthday Just Kept Getting Better

I'm a pretty big fan of continuing to celebrate my birthday long after the actual day and this year it proved to be an entire week of celebrating.

My birthday was on Monday the 22nd, like in my post and of course it was a really great day. Tuesday was a standard day, nothing too eventful going on other than enjoying some down time with Champ and avoiding the gym like the plague.

Wednesday right before lunch my friend at work Amy messages me on our work instant messenger and asks if I had plans for that night and if I liked Guster (the band) at all. I jumped out of my seat because, yes sure who went to college in the early 2000s and didn't like Guster, but I knew what she was asking about. Guster is touring with Jack's Mannequin and they were playing in Atlanta. Amy had gotten tickets through work and had thought they were for Saturday. Finding out they were for Wednesday messed things up, plus she didn't really know either band. I of course jumped on the tickets and drug Champ and David James with me. (More on the concert in a later post.)



Thursday Champ and I hurried from work, fought traffic and the Atlanta Marta transit system to get downtown for Cirque du Soleil. (I am, again, infinitely jealous of people who live in cities with public transit system that work properly and don't have 18 minutes between trains during rush hour) We were late which was upsetting and didn't get to our seats until after the first act, but it turns out our seats were front row center. I almost died a little. I've never been close enough to really see costumes or make up or anything. Dralion is an amazing to show to go with that and probably now one of my favorites. Champ gets mad props for that one, mad props. I'm going to have to start planning his birthday celebration months in advance to live up to it.

Friday we headed back to Kentucky to visit my parents for the weekend. We had a few others things going on (like a baby shower for family friends), but squeezed some birthday celebrating in there. Home isn't the best place in the world, but it's always interesting to go back. I'm still on the fence about my parents selling the house they live in now (where I had my wedding reception), but it's a good move for them. I love the house, but it's too big for two people.

Last but not least, my birthday gift from Heather finally showed up over the weekend for me to get on Sunday when we got home from Kentucky. She got me an official Venture Guitars t-shirt. They make custom guitars (and is co-owned by Bryan Donahue, personal hero). I've wanted this shirt for forever but hadn't gotten it for myself. So I was very stoked.

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Ringing in 28

For all my complaining it actually turned out to be a pretty decent birthday.

Champ, being the doll that he is, planned a gathering for friends for Saturday night prior to my birthday (since Monday night outings never really work). I was stoked to get to see my friends, and the big surprise being Jesse and Chris who made the trek up from Savannah. Jesse pointed out that she hadn't missed a birthday in five years so she wasn't about to start now.

We gathered at one place, but didn't want to wait two hours for a big table so wound up walking a few blocks (which is unheard of in Atlanta) to my favorite restaurant anyway, Taqueria Del Sol. I hadn't been to that location yet (but all the others at this rate) and as always it was excellent (even if the Howell Mill location is the best). We had a big crew there for food, lots of laughs and more. It's always great to be at a big table full of fun people and eat good food. Or maybe that's the Italian in me.

After dinner it was back to the original plan, Brick Store for drinks. We stayed there the rest of the night, chatting, telling stories and me watching all my friend groups converse. It was nice, really nice.

Monday was the big day and I drug work friends out to lunch with me which was also nice. It was fun to see them all in the same place since we're starting to scatter (either new buildings / different jobs / etc).

Since it was the big day, Champ and I made a plan to grab dinner on the way home from work, trying out another new sushi place (they closed our favorite!). This one might have moved to the top because, when I say A+ I mean A+. Excellent food, great service and by 7 we were walking into the house again. Of course that's where it got interesting.

As I'm letting myself into the house holding the mail in one hand and fighting with the door in the other, Champ comes up to me holding out his phone saying it's for me. "Who is it?" I ask, but he just says it's for me and goes to take the mail away. I don't want that because the new CD I ordered is in the stack to I'm half distracted with him taking the mail when I pick up the phone.

"Hello?"
"Happy birthday!"
"Well thanks, who's this?"
"It's Bryan."
"Who?"
"Bryan."

About then, the accent comes through and I realized I've got Bryan Donahue (lead singer of my favorite band and personal hero) on the line. I asked how he got the number and he explained that Champ emailed him and asked him to call on my birthday and for some reason Bryan actually agreed to that. I was a little flabbergasted but we managed to chat about his tattoo sketch, the last EMB show (which he swears wasn't that good but he's too hard on himself) and the big BLG anniversary. It was so weird and so chill and I need to talk on the phone more because I think I'm really awkward.

Champ followed that up with tickets to see Dralion, the Cirque Du Soliel show in town for a just a few days and a fun card. Not that he had to get me anything after the call, but yeah he did anyway.

I am a very, very lucky girl, with great friends, so many who wished me a happy day either in person or online via twitter and facebook. Sometimes I forget, but it was a good way to remember.

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A birthday for them all

I blame Meag for not posting much. In her haste to move even farther away from me (is it farther? we should figure that out) she's not been online in days and I'm suffering from withdrawl. Plus she's not posting to remind me to post.

My birthday was Sunday (the 22nd) and what a lovely birthday it was!! I had friends over Saturday night to celebrate, which is always fun. It's fun to see friends from work interact with other friends as well. Sometimes I worry that people from two different parts of my life won't get along, but it did seem to go smoothly.

As for gifts, Gina got me Twilight SceneIt. I deserved it since she got New Moon the trivia board game for her birthday in June. My parents bought me a new IPod Nano that I desperately needed as mine is on it's last breath. It's fun and bright yellow. I love it.

Champ though, he always manages to pull out all the stops. He got me the one things I knew I wanted but would never admit to wanting.





Yes! I am now a proud Slice Owner. I do love this little thing and already used it with my new Commit2Paper kit (September is a lovely kit, not even kidding).

Now if I didn't have to go to work during the day and I could just stay home and play.

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