It Wasn't ALL Bad!

My birthday loot!  We're using the poinsettia since we don't have a tree.  The gift that's still wrapped is what my parents sent Kevin for Christmas.  I don't know what it is!

The other thing I did on Sunday was turn 25!  Quarter of a century!  I’m almost like a grown up now, isn’t that weird?  It’s crazy times.

My family had mailed me a box filled with goodies and some Christmas decorations a couple of days earlier, but it came with strict instructions that the wrapped packages inside weren’t to be opened until the 9^th (or the 25th  in Kevin's case).  I got home from the marathon at about 3 in the afternoon, and pretty much the first thing I did was call my parents and unwrap my presents.  Here’s what I got:

My mom gave me these super-cute earrings she had found at a craft fair over the summer.

The first pair is little monkey faces, and the second one is bees.  I love them!

My dad got me this awesome t-shirt.  I had actually seen this shirt on a different website but hadn’t mentioned to anyone that I wanted it, so it’s totally cool that my dad knew to get it for me! 

Get it?!  I love bone jokes in such a way :p.

Finally, my brother got me a DVD of Friends with Benefits.  I saw this in theaters when it came out and LOVED it.  I’m always impressed with JT’s acting skills.

Even after my less-than-stellar marathon performance I still got to have my birthday dinner of choice, AKA the Mexican Pizza from Taco Bell.  I probably should have taken a picture, but I just shoved it in my face instead.  And before anyone says anything, I know that this food item is neither Mexican nor pizza.  No one goes to Taco Bell because they want some Mexican food; we go because we want some delicious.  My birthday Taco Bell trip is also pretty much the one time that I’ll break my no-soda rule (I feel like I haven’t mentioned this before, so I’ll do it now: I don’t drink soda.) so that I can have their Baja Blast Mountain Dew, which is the best.  I also got the caramel apple empanada, which is so incredibly delicious and I wish I could eat one every day.

The one small snag came at the “birthday cake” portion of the evening.  Since I was so sore I could barely move I asked Kevin to go out and get our Taco Bell, and on his way home I asked him to stop at Whole Foods and get me a birthday dessert from their bakery section.  He called me from the store to let me know what my options were, and I decided on the chocolate mousse tart.  This would have been lovely and perfect, except that Kevin didn’t realize until he got home that the tart was vegan and made out of tofu.

While I have certainly heard many wonderful things about the benefits of eating a vegan diet, I have to say I have zero interest in it.  I have even less of an interest in eating so-called “junk food” made out of tofu and non-dairy cream cheese on my birthday.  I had a small bite, and honestly it tasted fine, but I had pretty much decided that I wasn’t going to like it before we even opened the package.  Kevin ended up eating it, which was fine because I had my empanada and a pint of Hagen Daaz strawberry ice cream in the freezer.   

On Wednesday, my pal Nikki from work brought me in a red velvet cake with cream cheese frosting.   Normally we could stop right there and it would be all good in the hood, but this particular cake was kicked up a notch by the fact that it was shaped like a skull:

And also because of Nikki's artistic knife placement.  Pretty awesome, right?!

So, all in all, my marathon-induced weep fest aside, it was a pretty good birthday :).