birthday recap, part dos

Tuesday, TLS and I finally booked my tickets for my trip to England, which instantly put me in a good mood. 50 days to go! I was already smiling when I got home, and my smile only got bigger when I got home and saw a big FedEx box from ProFlowers waiting for me. KMH decided to surprise me with birthday flowers. Sadly, I am still not able to upload pictures, but I have to say that these were some of the most beautiful flowers that I have ever seen. It was a mixture of greenish-yellow antique looking roses and blue hydrangeas. Hydrangeas are some of my most favorite flowers, and she didn't even know that! Here is the picture from the website, which I must say, does not do them justice at all. She also put in an absolutely hysterical card with the flowers which will hang on my refrigerator for all eternity.

Wednesday morning, I woke up bright and early to head over to Connecticut for Vineyard Vines's Blogger Day. I will post a recap of that in a separate entry, but I have to say that Vineyard Vines has been one of my favorite companies for years, and it was an absolutely perfect day and I am still on a high from that.

After I arrived back in the city, I went to what I consider to be the Happiest Place on Earth, Crumbs Bake Shop, for my birthday cupcake. The cupcake of the birthday girl's choice was one of my all-time favorites, the Artie Lange. It is a vanilla cake filled with chocolate buttercream, frosted with vanilla buttercream, covered in chocolate fondant, and sprinkled with black and white sprinkles around the edges. You could go into diabetic shock just bylooking at one. After my cupcake pitstop, I took the train to my mother's house to drop off my stuff and relax for a bit before heading out to meet my best friend GNB for drinks. I had received a lovely birthday card from my sorority's National Council which put a big smile on my face. My mother surprised me by leaving a pink rose in a bud vase near my bed with my present right next to it. She gave me some money for all of my upcoming trips, and surprised me with the Kate Spade ladybug bangle that I have been lusting over. She does not read my blog and did not even know how much I wanted it which made it an even better surprise. She even said so herself that this was probably the one year that she got me a present that I really liked. Sadly, I have really tiny wrists and the bangle is just too big for me to wear, so we may have to return it.

My mother agreed to go see the Harry Potter movie with GNB and I and this is where I begin typing an ode to her to say how great she is and will bookmark this entry to remind myself of this when shopping for a Mothers' Day gift for her next year. Both GNB and I are huge Harry Potter fans and my birthday plans with the two of us always seem to involve a Harry Potter book or movie. My mother used to be a fan as well, but when people started getting killed left and right in the books, she could not take it and lost interest. Nevertheless, she dutifully agreed to go to see the movie with us. She went to the theater two days beforehand (on her own birthday!) to buy us tickets, agreed to a 10:20pm showing because everything else was too early for GNB to make it to, and got to the theater an hour early last night so that she could stand on line for us so that we could go get drinks. The movie ended a little after 1am and she had to be up at 6:30am for work. She not once complained throughout all this, which, in my mind, nominates her for some kind of Mother of the Year award/mug, if I was into those kinds of mugs. Like I said, I will keep this entry in mind when shopping for her Mothers' Day Gift.

While she was waiting on that line, GNB and I went to La Cocina for margaritas. La Cocina has some of the worst Mexican food I have ever had, Mexican food is not supposed to be so bland, but it is always packed. On Monday-Thursday they always have 2 for 1 frozen margaritas, and while their food is some of the worst that I have tasted, their margaritas are some of the best. We had a few drinks and caught up before rejoining my mother for the Harry Potter movie. I have to say that this movie was one of their best. The cinematography was excellent and I really loved Professor Slughorn. Snape has been one of my favorites since day one (maybe that's why I got sorted in Slytherin?), and it was great seeing Draco take on a much bigger role. If you have not seen it yet, I highly recommend it. Even my mother who has lost interest in the series, said that the movie was amazing and regained her interest. I am not one for rewatching movies in the theater, but I am seriously considering going to see this one again.

As a final note, on facebook, I made a "Birthday Wish" through the Causes application to raise money for the Alpha Sigma Alpha Foundation. While I did not raise as much as I had wanted it to (one rule of fundraising, set expectations/minimum donations high, to encourage people to give, because you only receive a small percentage of that), it was wonderful being able to raise money for our great Foundation and I am very grateful to the sisters who donated in my name. If you have a birthday coming up, I highly recommend that you make a similar wish on facebook, it is a great way to promote an organization that means a lot to you.