Happy 27th Birthday To Me!!

CRAP. I am old. I am officially in my upper-mid-20s.

Not my upper 20s.

There is a difference, darn it.

Here are photos from past birthdays. Some are cute, and some are just plain awkward. Enjoy!

1 year old: Heck yeah I had my own cake. Not sure why they felt it was safe to put me on a table, but okay. 

Oh, probably because my mom had me at the tender age of 20. Yes, 20. Please note her 21st birthday earrings that clearly state her age and maturity level on my 1st bday. And her hair? That’s real.

2 years old: Is my mom Lady Gaga from the 80s?

3 years old: This actually isn't a birthday picture. We briefly lived in Hawaii that year.

4 years old:

I really realllly loved those bears.

5 years old: With my (middle) younger brother, Justin:

With my cousin, Matthew, and my brother Justin being neglected.

6 years old: Birthday with the fam:

Birthday party at Papa Gino's. This was cool -- trust me. I got to make my own pizza for my party.

Way too excited over that Maxie doll. The girl in the background was sooo jealous.

Not gonna lie - this was the year I puked from being so excited...or too many cupcakes. My friend was in the bathroom with me when it happened and she told everyone.

7 years old: Couldn't find a birthday pic, so I threw in one with really awkward bangs.

8 years old: Cake or a garden? Not quite sure. My (older) younger brother Sean seemed to like it.

9 years old: Birthday party at the roller skating rink.

And such an awkward photo from the family party. What IS that shirt?  And what kid likes walnuts on their cake?

10 years old: The Lion King came out that year so we all went to see it. One girl cried. I thought that was totally weird. My mom put Lion King figurines on my cake. Hmm.

11 years old: A Tasmanian Devil cake. Seriously. What. The. Crap.

12 years old: Auntie Tina was singing in the background...I think. Idk, maybe not. She's kinda odd too. Funny, because I'm named after her.

13-20 years old: I don't think it was cool to have birthday parties in this stage of life and I'm pretty sure I was going through a phase where I didn't want my photo taken. Awkward teen years, definitely.

21 years old: Celebrating with my family in Massachusetts.

23 years old:

25 years old:

26 years old:

27 (part I!):

Notice that my mouth is wide open in most ages.

Tonight is my birthday dinner with Amanda, Jess, Margaret, Lucy, Mariah, Nikki, Kaye, Lauren, Mary, Courtney, Rachel, and Mary Grace! SO EXCITED!!!!

What I’m Loving Wednesday Version 3.0

Shoot, this type of blog post is addicting!

1. This new nail polish my roommate showed me: Smooth Sailing by Essie.

2. These cards I saw at Barnes & Noble. I wish I could remember who made them. Anyone know? They crack me up.

3. This pink net I found at Target. Butterfly net or...man catcher?

4. The fact that within 24 hours of changing my profile picture to this…

Five people asked if I had a boyfriend. Say what! People love jumping to Facebook conclusions. Matt is just my bestie.

5. Lauren sent me pickle chips from her hometown!

6. This tweet that Sean just sent me. I hope this means snacks tomorrow!

7. Tomorrow is my birthday!! I’m having dinner with a bunch of close girlfriends and I’m so excited!

Another Reason to Love My Job: The Intern.

Since June 1st, the Communications team at work (my group!) has an intern. Sean is a sophomore at George Washington University and is interning at Blackbaud for the Summer. Since his arrival, I am no longer the newbie, and have taken him under my wing. Scratch that – we have become best friends. Yes, he is 8 years younger than me (omg, I am oooooooooold), but I have adopted him as my little brother at work.

We immediately bonded over a mutual love for food. Two weeks ago, Sean tweeted me:

“tomorrow…we feast.”

The next morning I was eating his mom’s homemade chocolate chip biscotti with my morning coffee. Win, win!

To be fair, I brought him some green beans from my CSA box. Pretty much daily, we leave stuff to eat on the cubicle partition like this:

See the carrots? This is the view from Sean’s side.

We’ve also started a collection of Blackbaud squishy animals. This is my side of the wall.

The other day for lunch, neither of us knew what we wanted and nothing at the cafeteria appealed to us. I told him I was a very random eater and we should just go attack Publix. And attack we did. This is what we came back with:

Sliced apples, fake crab meat, soy crisp chips, baby carrots, a pint of tomatoes, Greek yogurt, lima beans, and a pack of gum.

For the record, we ate all the crab, the whole can of lima beans, most of the apples, some of the chips and half of the carrots. Sean finished the entire pint of tomatoes by himself. After all of that, the gum was very necessary. By the way, those soy crisps are goooooood. Get some.

Our newest way to work is, well, not at our desk. One day we were both complaining about our bums hurting in our chairs and I reminded him that each floor has couches. I have no idea why they are there, but I have seen other people working on them, so I suggested we give it a try.

With our headphones in, our coffee, and a pack of gum to share, we got so much work done. It’s funny how a change of scenery can improve your performance! I can work just fine at my desk but I like to mix it up! We sat there for a few hours, and one lady asked us, “Aww, do y’all not have your own desks?” I thought that was pretty funny.

I’m lucky to work in an environment where I can move around! I know better than to work from the cafeteria – I’d be quite large if I did that every day. The cool thing about working near the atrium is the sound from the water fountain. It’s so soothing. And see the view? You can creep on lots of offices across the building. Just kidding.

I am so lucky to work with such wonderful coworkers. My cube mate, Elizabeth brings me pickles and we ate pickle popsicles together! My friend Matt in the IT Department draws me pictures and gives me candy! And Amanda, who was/is a blog reader and I met for the first time because we ended up picking up our glasses together! The newest member in our area promised to bring me leftover birthday cake tomorrow…let’s hope that happens!

Are you close with any of your coworkers?

Do you prefer to keep your social life separate from work? Shooooot, I’ll be friends with anyone!

What are your favorite and least favorite things about your job? Favorite – the people and environment. Least favorite – the coffee gets me WIRED.

Bestie Birthday Party Weekend!

Saturday evening, Margaret and I rented out the upstairs of Midtown to celebrate our birthdays! Margaret’s birthday was on Friday and mine is this Thursday, the 30th, but we wanted to celebrate together. The upstairs room was a perfect spot for our friends to get together – no bar crowds or silly restaurant reservations.

Thanks to Rick, our birthday was catered by Chick-fil-A! We had a nugget tray…

a fruit tray…

and a brownie tray.

The best part? Diet lemonade. I can’t believe I didn’t drink an entire gallon myself.

On top of that, the owners of Midtown made sure we had lots of frickles!!! People tore them up!

Because we love being over the top, Marg and I wore special birthday tiaras. These suckers were a great investment. For $2 a pop, these got us a lot of free drinks downstairs. I might wear mine every weekend.

I also hung up poster boards for everybody to sign. We got some interesting messages.

I was so happy to have our friends together.

Lastly, it was time for cake.

We raced to get all the candles out because they were melting into the cake!

It was like we got married – we cut it together… and fed each other. Totally normal for best friends. :)

Our poor future husbands will have so much competition.