Birthdays of the past...

I was reminiscing this weekend about some of my favorite and least favorite birthdays in my life, and thought I would share. Many of you may remember them too. I remember some McDonald's birthdays and a few at a park. There wasn't much to choose from back then. I remember having one at my grandmother's house. All my friends dressed up nice, and we had a fancy lunch and played Shanghai. Middle school was all about slumber parties. I remember one where the girls got to playing "Truth or Dare" and somehow someone ended up outside in their underwear. I was so mad I went to bed. It wasn't me, I was just embarrassed to have my friends acting like that. My neighbors across the street did call my parents the next day.

My least favorite birthday was freshman year in high school. Another friend's birthday was the same time, its actually today, and she had her party the same time as mine. We weren't really friends then, just acquaintances really. So, out of 15 or so people I invited, 2 showed up. Nobody was brave enough to RSVP. Really humiliating as a 15 year old teenage girl. She and I became better friends later, and I would like to think that wouldn't have happened again. We would probably love to share a party now that we are 36. :)

My favorite party was my Senior year. My best friend Jeanette threw me a surprise party at the Teddy Bear restaurant. For those of you not from Shreveport in the early 90's, we had the best restaurant, literally covered in Teddy Bears. Don't remember the food, but it was one of our favorite hang outs. Jeanette's daddy had a heart attack the Sunday before, and so she had to pass on the party to some other friends, so it started to seem a little fishy to me. I kind of had the idea there would be more girls there, but when I arrived, there was a huge table of my friends, guys and girls. I felt sooo good! Would you believe, not one picture that I know of. No one thought to bring a camera I guess. I also remember Adam and Gabe gave me a rose. Looking back, I know how cheap that was for them, but it meant so much to me! And my boyfriend at the time had made me mad that he wouldn't skip swim practice for my birthday, but there he was at the party. I felt really bad for being mad at him.

The next year's birthday at college was really good too! A bunch of my new friends took me to eat in Longview at Papasitos. My dear sweet mates gave me like 10 pounds of M&M's, one of my favorite things. And while at the restaurant, instead of singing to me in the privacy of the party room we were in, some guy picked me up, dragged me out to the main restaurant, and made me stand at the top of the balcony, while the whole restaurant below sang to me. That's one of those things that on the outside, is SOOO embarrassing, but secretly, its kind of fun.

I love when I worked at New Life Ministries, because when you came in on your birthday, someone had decorated your desk with balloons and streamers and cards!

My 30th wasn't great. It started out great, with my sweet friend Kim making me a sign that all the parents at church who were dropping kids off for PNO saw. I got the night off of work at PNO, and we went out to eat with 3 couples. I was having a really good time when my mom called and said one of the boys was throwing up and I had to come home. So, it didn't end great. I was telling my friend Tracy about that night a year or so later, and the next time we had dinner at their house, she made me a birthday cake to make up for that awful night. I don't even think it was my birthday. And last year, Christina made me a cactus cake. I love cake!

Those are the ones that stick out to me. Looking back, it obviously wasn't about the presents, because I don't remember any, except chocolate and cake. Its about the friends who took time to make me feel special. Thank you to all the friends in my life who did something to make one of my birthdays so memerable!