swagalicious

27 looks a lot like 26 so far; it's just sleepier :p this year was WAY better than last year. seems like i've gone a million years without a drama filled birthday. i set my expectations super low for these people, and, for once, they lived up to things

i kicked off the weekend with a day off work. i raced around thurs evening because i didn't want to have to leave the apartment at all on fri. picked up packages, groceries and cupcakes on my way home. then i piddled around til the wee hours just because i could. naturally, i slept in on fri. then i ordered in thai food (sooo yummy) and started cooking. just cause it was my birfday doesn't mean i was going totally off my usual routine. jesse took the day off, too, and was gonna come down in the afternoon. unfortunately, he got stuck in traffic nearly the entire way here. at least we were able to have dinner together at dinner time :)

sat, i had to pop over to weis for some forgotten items. then i made the first round of baked macs. erin came over early before we rolled off to the bowling alley. so excited to see her, and really itching to see jess and heather now. miss my girls so much! for my friends celebration, i decided bowling was the thing to do. the awesome: alley is right around the corner from us. the unawesome: it decided to hail the second we went out the door. it was insane! and only lasted that five minutes we were in the car. super weird. i got to see more of my favorite people, had a beer + two cupcakes and got my ass handed to me lol. i am awesome at wii bowling so i kinda forgot how much i sucked at real bowling. neal won; jesse and cait were neck and neck most of the game. it was an amusing afternoon. i invited peeps over to the apartment afterward for more catching up and being silly. i didn't realize how much bowling had taken out of me though. i hate to say it, but i kinda wish i had told people to just go home :p i went from 100 to -10 on the energy scale super fast. it was fabulous spending time with everyone though. i can't wait to throw a summer shindig! i'll make sure to nap before the fun begins ;) we headed to bed shortly after the last guest left. my sister and her best friend (who's birthday was sat) called at exactly midnight to wish me a happy birthday. drunk fools :p it was sweet though, even if i was super exhausted

sun (dun dun dunnnnn) was the family birthday outing. i opted for brunch at a place stace recommended and invited neal, too. can't go anywheres without my entourage ;) it was a good brunch, even though stace kept trying to eat off my plate. any other day, i would've conceded (baby sister's are the worst :p), but i wanted my whole muffin dammit. no bites for her! that girl seriously needs to travel with snacks; she's ALWAYS hungry. it was nice to have my two favorite boys along, but part of me is still sad my brother couldn't be there. it's still weird that he can't come to things because his schedule is dictated by someone else. after eating, i quickly opened my gifts...

you know all this build up was just to talk about my new swag, right? what? i like stuff :)

erin is hilarious; she gave me my xmas gift for my birthday since she never mailed it. super cute ornament from hallmark. love it! briah also got me something... cupcakes! they were delicious and went fast on sat. i tortured poor jesse by not opening his gift until sun. neal's thing is blowing out a candle; mine is opening gifts. these things must occur on the day of actual birth. otherwise, they don't count. or something... so i brought the box with me to brunch. mom also brought the gift from her and the old man. i had sent mom, jesse and neal a link to my gamestop wishlist last month since all i really wanted were games. unfortunately, there was some weird error that gamestop still hasn't fixed. so mom got me a giftcard, which she put in a large bag. i totally thought there was more, but it was just a lot of tissue paper. i also got two hallmark cards (one mushy, one funny). then i opened jesse's gift. a kindle with books already loaded :) he even drew me a silly picture to illustrate how he kinda lost a fight with some tape while trying to wrap the box. so cute. i'm still not 100% sold on ereaders, but will happily use this gift. i think i was most excited that he actually checked my goodreads list for books i wanted to read. he put so much thought into it, which was super sweet. someone knows how to make a girl feel loved *swoon*

we headed home shortly thereafter, where my little 3DS was waiting. toys r us was giving me heart palpitations all week, but UPS/USPS managed to get my new toy in early and in one piece. i think jesse was just as excited as i was to open the box hahah. he didn't believe i could wait three extra days to open it, but i did. i take gifts very seriously :p i immediately created miis for both of us. then i played face raiders. then i whipped out the AR cards. i took random pictures of nintendo characters in 3d, and i played two AR games. unfortunately, i killed the battery (i was too excited to full charge ooops). so i plugged it in and immediately went back to the kindle. i spent the next couple hours looking through the user guide and trying to figure out how to read blogs. i can't wait til their web app is fully functional. i would love to be able to read and comment on my fave blogs on my commutes to class, but right now, that's cumbersome

then neal rolled out his gifts. from my amazon wishlist: the training day soundtrack and sailor moon sailor stars, from my gamestop wishlist (which i totally forgot i'd added, but my bestie knows me so damn well and just got it): alice in wonderland and, lastly, strong bad's cool game for attractive people (super awesome find!). seriously impressed by both my boys :) at that point, it was most certainly naptime. jesse and i crawled into bed, while neal started dinner. cause one of his other gifts was dinner and dessert (holy crap, i'm spoiled!). unfortunately for him, he underestimated the difficulty. fortunately for me, i got a birthday quickie. there was even time to spare so we stayed in bed with our handhelds. hahah 3DS for me; PSP for jesse. it was worth the wait, too. i think dinner turned out quite nicely, and the cupcakes neal picked were super good. after dinner, we watched legion

overall, it was a great day to end a fantastic weekend. not just because of my new nerdy stuff. i'm genuinely happy i could spend time with some of the important people in my life :)