Birthday Awesome!

Wednesday was my birthday! Birthdays are pretty awesome, a concept we (i.e., Ten East Read, the small t-shirt company I help run) celebrate with the BIRTHDAY AWESOME! shirt. I flatter myself to say that my birthday tends to be especially awesome because I get to share it with my awesome twin sister, Christian. We like to celebrate at least twice.

Since our birthday was on Wednesday this year, and since we had a big Halloween party just a week and a half before it, we decided to forgo having a party this weekend. Instead, we invited a bunch of friends to have dinner and drinks with us at our local Mexican/Central American restaurant. It’s not a fancy place — just a nice, home-cooking-type place where the margaritas come in regular or huge. On my birthday, my friends always amaze me with their awesomeness — even on a random Wednesday night, pretty much everyone we invited showed up, with exceptions on account of a cold and a two-month-old. Even though it was a school-night, we managed to after-party at my place till the wee hours. I’m so lucky to have friends who are bent on making my birthday special!

(I should give a shout-out here to the friends who are out of town or who I don’t get to see as often — they also made my birthday totally special with nice messages in all forms of media. Big smiles.)

We also celebrated yesterday with our family with a trip to Medieval Times. Christian and I had been wanting to go there for a while and figured our birthday was as good a time as any. So, our parents, grandmother, husbands and one of our sisters (we have one more who couldn’t make it) joined us for an evening of jousting, dancing horses, fake British accents and eating with our hands. It was really fun! For those who haven’t been there before, each section roots for one knight. We happened to be in the section with an entire high school band (sans instruments). Our section was so lively our knight was blushing from all the attention. It didn’t hurt that he was probably the cutest knight of the bunch, too. We even got our picture taken with him (that’s me on the left. No, your left).

The less awesome side of my birthday is that I’ve been coming down with a cold all week. On Wednesday I doubted it, on Thursday I suspected it, and today I’m coughing. Evidently, us pregnant ladies have slightly compromised immune systems (to keep our bodies from rejecting the baby, who is, to our immune systems, a mass of foreign tissue). So, we get sick easier. Once we get sick, we’re not allowed to take any cold medicine. The closest we can get is Tylenol and hot water with lemon. I’m about ready for a nap.

Being pregnant on my birthday wasn’t all bad, though. My baby wished me happy birthday with the biggest kick I’ve felt so far. That’s more notice than I got from the cats, and they’re adults. Abominably rude ones, but still!

Seriously, it was a wonderful birthday. Thanks to everyone who made it that way!