Lindsay's Random Thoughts: 29 on the 29th

Sunday, January 29, 2012

29 on the 29th

After a weekend of shenanigans, little sleep and more birthday fun than you can possibly imagine, I've made it to Sunday night. I'm extremely grateful for every nice thing done to make my 29th birthday an extra special one -- from the phone calls and cards to the balloons and cake and presents, but mostly I'm grateful for the time I was able to spend with so many great people.

Friday night was a night like no other for me. Besides my Bro, Mom, Michael and my "lake girls," nearly all of my friends from my previous job came out to happy hour. I knew I was liked when I was there and I was hoping that I would see many of them, but to have just about everyone who was invited show up and help me celebrate was very, very cool. After a few hours (why do they call it happy hour when we know it will go on for longer than that?!?), a group of us hit the next spot for karaoke. I channeled my inner rock star and sang my rendition of When I'm Gone by 3 Doors Down (I got rave reviews by the bar for my performance too) and kept up tradition by singing Wanted Dead or Alive by Bon Jovi with Coco. My Bro, who drove an hour after working all day and dealing with some not-so-nice weather, entertained the crowd with a little Poison and he and I finished the night singing Don't Stop Believin' in memory of my good friend Sherri (January 27th would have been her birthday). We closed the karaoke bar down at 1:30 and headed home. I needed to try to get some sleep even though I was still so pumped up because Saturday was going to be a big day as well.

Saturday I was super woman and I went 10 different directions throughout the entire day. I had to take care of nearly everything on my weekend to-do list so that Saturday night, I could sit back and enjoy some poker time. MO and I were invited to play in a fundraiser Texas Hold 'em tournament and we both jumped at the chance to play cards again so soon (and so reasonably priced as well). The tournament was fun and I played probably one of my best nights of poker. I made it to the final table and ended up finishing 10th out of 120-130 people. Not too shabby if I say so myself!

As for today, I made a mean slow-cooked pork verde, spanish rice and stuffed mushrooms and had an early afternoon dinner with my family. My Dad, Aunt and Nicole do not really come over to my side of the river and visit all that often and I was happy to just have a few hours to spend with them at my apartment. Nicole was also highly impressed that I had a mini donut maker so we ended up whipping up a batch of glazed donuts for dessert too.

Overall, I can say, I've had a fantastic birthday weekend and for your viewing pleasure, I'll leave you with a few highlights from Friday.