Thirty-Too

If you follow me on Instagram, I extend the sincerest of apologies because your timeline was FLOODED with pictures of my friends and I celebrating my birthday this past weekend!

I can truly say that I had an AMAZING time celebrating with my friends and family... Everyone knows me as the individual who always goes all out with birthday planning. In 2008, I had a party that everyone to this day still talks about...then life caught up and I didn't have another big party until I turned thirty, two years ago... and of course last year I was still in depression mode, so I threw something together at the last minute and ended up having a terrible time. This year I decided that I had to make up for how I felt last year.

On Friday, my best friend from undergrad flew into town, and we headed straight to the mall once I picked her up from the airport. She lives in Alabama, and had not been to Texas in almost 5 years so she was extra excited to return to civilization. While shopping we happened upon a store having a buy one get one free sale. I found a dress that fit my body perfectly, so I decided to buy it and wear it that night instead of what I had originally planned.

In lieu of having one event, mixing friends and personalities...I planned separate events for friends so I would not have any conflicts similar to what happened in the past. I also decided that I only wanted to celebrate with people who had actually been there for me this past year....quality over quantity. A lot of times I would just invite people out of obligation, this year nah. But back to Friday....

Friday was deemed "bourgeois night" which is hilarious to me. We booked a reservation at Eddie V's, which is a seafood/steak house in City Centre. Upon arrival we were seated at a table covered in fresh rose petals- truthfully, the waiter admitted to placing the petals on the wrong table, and I feel sorry for the couple celebrating their anniversary at the rose less table, but I digress. We dined on crab fried rice, crab cakes (everyone ordered the same thing) and sipped on cocktails while we laughed hysterically all evening.

After dinner, we went to a club which was slightly dead, so we drove across town to a lounge that was ridiculously packed. Well since I have been on this natural hair journey, the way my life is set up I can't really deal with hot crowded/sweaty venues so we had to leave expeditiously... Half of my friends went to another spot, but the bestie and I met a handsome stranger in the parking lot & parted ways with the remainder of the group. (I promise they did not mind!!!!!!)

And now we fast forward until that Saturday morning around 10 am........

We slept in late, then woke up to go to the Galleria mall so the bestie could visit the stores she likes that are not in Alabama. We walked the entire mall, then had to admit that our bodies were not as young as they used to be... we were beat. We left the mall, grabbed lunch at Chuy's then headed home for a nap.

Fortunately my mom called and woke me up, or else I probably would have slept the remainder of the day away. We got ourselves together and headed over to my parents house for cake & my birthday song. Yum!

I love that my family loves celebrating birthdays. We always have cake, ice cream and sing together as a family. I definitely intend to keep that tradition alive.

We were stuffed by the time we left my folks house, and had just enough time to slip in a nap before the celebrating started back up.
Although it was our intention to sleep, we were too excited about planning our outfits & getting ready to see the rest of our friends. The theme for Saturday night was "college night" because I had planned the event with all of my closest friends from undergrad and law school to get together.

My friend loves photos as much as I do. I haven't had a photographer since she moved away from Houston & she doesn't have anyone to take her photos in Birmingham, so yes we had a photo shoot before we went out!

Once our shoot wrapped... this happened:

We went to Ambrosia, which is a hidden jewel in the city that has an Asian/indian inspired theme. The restaurant mixed up our reservations, so management went above and beyond to accommodate the party. They set us up privately on the patio of the restaurant, gave us a round of drinks and provided champagne on the restaurant for the inconvenience. We dined on curry chicken, rack of lamb, various tapas and other exotic delicacies and had a freaking blast on the patio of the restaurant. In retrospect it was probably great that we didn't get the room I reserved. Being outside gave us the opportunity to be as rowdy as we wanted without disturbing the other patrons.

We literally took hundreds of pictures, I've just been creeped out about posting too many pictures of myself on the internet ever since I saw a post about people stealing pictures without giving credit. (Anyone who knows how to watermark, please let me know....)

I had so much fun with my friends. It felt so good being with people who I know genuinely care about me. The amount of love I felt was overwhelming to the point that I had to ugly cry after the champagne toast.

Dinner was followed up by dancing the night away at a local lounge, and the deepest of sleeps once we made it back home.

We woke up early Sunday morning, and listened to my friends mom give her sermon on her radio program then went to brunch before heading back to the airport. This was the last official hoorah for the birthday.

I was so full & tired that one of my girlfriends ended up eating this for me.

The spot we went to for brunch got wind that it was my birthday weekend and in addition to the cake gave us free shots & a free pitcher of mimosas.

After all of that, I had to tap out.

My friend was smart enough to book a late flight, and after dropping her off my birthday weekend was officially over.

God definitely blessed me tremendously this year. I had such an awesome weekend that I know I owe it to myself to make the continuation of my 32nd year of life just as amazing as it was ushering it in.

I'm thankful, I'm grateful.... I'm just feeling overwhelmingly blessed. I needed this weekend.

This moment will be cherished.