melair

Wow!  I was/am a spoiled little princess this year for my birthday.  And I guess the timing is good since Jim has reminded me that this is the last year I can claim “being in my early 30’s.”

I had lots of friends and family back home remember, sending me gifts and happy birthday wishes.  That, of course made me a little homesick, but my friends here really stepped up and for this first time since we’ve lived here, this felt like home too.  The West coast celebration started when Tonya took me for drinks and dinner on Tuesday in Laguna.  We met at K’ya in Laguna Beach.  The idea being that we would sit on their rooftop patio and have a drink before dinner.  Unfortunately the weather was crapola…cold and rainy.  Still, we had a drink inside, and relaxed a little before going across the street to dinner at Sapphire.  Which was delicious and a fun girls’ night.

Then on Thursday, Jim surprised me with some beautiful flowers and also took me out to dinner at Tabu Grill in Laguna Beach.  Afterward, we had a nightcap at Bacchus and then went home to relax and prepare for my actual birthday on Friday.  Jim thought it would be a good idea to go out Thursday night so that it wouldn’t be too crowded and so that we could get ready for my Birthday Karaoke Party on Saturday night.  And he was right.

Friday morning Jim had to go into work for a bit and I jumped on line to tie up any loose ends before taking the rest of the day to relax.  Jim went to yoga with me and actually liked it!  We ran a few errands, took a nap, then went to Fashion Island for a snack and a margarita.  Afterward we came home and started getting ready for Saturday night.

We invited most everyone we know to come over, dressed as rock stars and sing karaoke with us.  And to our delight, over 20 people showed up.  Many of which actually dressed up!  And though the first few songs were timid, it was in no time that we had the queue full and duos and trios and whole group performances were lining up.

While we asked that no one bring gifts, many guests still did, and besides getting some really great bottles of wine, movie tickets and a Pictionary game, Rani got me some very nice sunglasses from Oakley.  If these aren’t rock n’ roll I don’t know what is…

We have a lot of video footage, but I don’t know if people would appreciate me posting those.  Plus, some videos include me and I’ll be frank, that shirt I’m wearing is all bunched and flattering in the front, but from the back I’ve got two plump muffin tops popping out I’d rather not share with the web at large.  In normal fashion, I ducked out early.  But this time I had good cause.  The next morning I was to be up early and join Kelly on a road trip to San Luis Obispo.

I’ll tell you all about that next post.  All you need to know for now is that I’m sitting in our room, having fond memories about my birthday, listening to the ocean crashing out our balcony door.