Fifty-Four
With my birthday on a Thursday, it meant we could extend my celebrations into the weekend. 🎉🎉
On the actual day, Yessa made me a beautiful breakfast.
Then she and I did CrossFit at noon since she had to work that evening. A CrossFit birthday gift was that the workout contained plenty of burpees so I didn't have to do my birthday burpees alone.
Monkey invited me to go rock climbing with her as my next celebration. I didn't climb, but it was great to see the space where she'd been going and to watch her spider her way up the wall.
Once Yessa was home from work we had time to hang out before we drove to Roc Cinema to watch Deadpool and Wolverine.
Buddie has Fridays off, so he asked what I'd like to do for my day, and we decided a lovely morning bike ride was the way to go. We have a "Village Bakery" within walking distance, but instead we biked to one an hour away.
Four of us went to CrossFit that afternoon; among my very favorite things.
On Saturday of my extended birthday, the real fun happened. We tried out a new-to-us restaurant, Maru Izakaya, which had my favorite type of sushi. We were the only customers, so Emmie, our server was attentive, but not intrusive. We sat outside where it was the perfect temperature, even after it sprinkled on us a little bit.
I love the times the five of us are comfortably sitting around chatting, storytelling, and laughing. Monkey's friend had suggested trying saki, so it we gave it a shot, and it was much more delicious than I remember it being in high school.
After the meal was nearly over, Buster gestured to the mound of green wasabi on his plate and said, "What's the proper use of this devil's playdough?" After we stopped laughing at his perfect description, he and Monkey both tried a tiny bit of it.
They are not huge fans.
After our leisurely meal, we headed to a bookstore we had passed on the walk in, The Unreliable Narrator. It was like walking into a magical potions shop with surprises and delights wrapped around each corner.
We could have wandered in here for hours, and probably would have if some other people hadn't taken up residence on that couch like the cast of Friends.
Yessa did get the giggles over her first exposure to the water snake, which drops out of your hands with alarming speed. She had to purchase one for Betty and Kate's upcoming visit.
The perfect final touch was the "castle doors" with a portal as we walked out. Every touch in this shop was perfection.
The final piece of my birthday days was the arrival of my gift to myself; a door frame pull-up bar. With only a few modifications, we made it work without too much damage to our 120 year old door trim. 😳
It was a glorious birthday, and the cards showing up from loved ones near and far made me happy, too. And the spectrum of cards shows the spectrum of my friends.
From this:
To this:
I love my people. 😆😆😁😁
Onward to another year.
