Happy Birthday to ME!

I love birthdays and I shamelessly plug mine every year. Personally I think there is no such thing as a "day" celebration; they are called birthweeks around here :) The celebrating of the big 3-1 kicked off this past weekend with dinner at a contemporary pizzeria downtown with my friend Jami and her husband. I love trying new restaurants and even more so when they turn out to be fantastic. It was a delicious dinner with friends I don't get to see often enough. Afterwards, we headed out for some drinks and met up with some more friends. Overall a good night that left me hurting Sunday. I can't recover like a champ anymore :(

Today I woke up to several birthday texts and messages and instantly wishing I had called the day off from work :) Then I opened my presents sent from my family and found two of these little blue boxes from my sister and dad!!!

My sister also sent this super cute card...

It's me at 4th birthday party at mickey D's! She made it on Shutterfly and put another pic of us from New Years on the inside. Too cute!

Tonight the hubs and I have reservations at Table 52. Oprah's chef, Art Smith, started a restaurant for everyone to enjoy his southern cooking. I've heard amazing things and am so excited. I love to eat!

So despite this head cold and having to work I'd say it's another successful birthday. And it's not even over yet!

Look Who's 30!

It is a momentous occasion - today I turn 30 - gah! I guess this means I need to start acting like an adult or something...

To change things up around here today I'll be treating you 30 random facts about me since I'm 30 list! I know you're excited. So here it goes in no particular order.

1. I'm on the hunt for the perfect pair of jeans for my oddly shaped lower half. No matter what the cost...


2. I love a cute pair of shoes (and have many) but would be much more comfortable in flip-flops or bare feet everyday.


3. I have a potty mouth . I love to swear. This little nuance of mine drives my husband and father crazy as it is not "very lady-like". I never claimed to be and there is nothing like a good f-bomb to get the point across.


4. I'm incredibly over-emotional and cry at the drop of a hat. It's only worse when I'm embarrassed, stressed, or tired.


5. I've woken up during both my outpatient surgeries I had to undergo. Neither was a good experience I ever care to relive.


6. I love the movies and going to the theatre. My dad used to take me nearly every weekend growing up that was how we bonded in addition to bonding over ...


7. books and bookstores. I love to read but I love wandering around bookstores even more. I secretly wish I had my own bookstore and a house big enough for my own library.


8. I love my Jeep Liberty - Libby. The first and last car I'll ever buy brand spanking new. She sucks on the gas mileage but makes up for it in her amazing turning radius. The latter a definite plus when parallel parking all over the city.


9. I'm a huge klutz. I run into walls and furniture that have been in the same place for years, am constantly dropping things, knocking thing over, or hitting myself with random objects. Example - When I was 8 or 9 in a span of minutes I opened the passenger side door of my mom's Ford Tempo car door and hit the edge of the door right between my eyes then turned around and walked into the half open garage door (nearly knocking out my front teeth) and finished it off by tripping up the 4 stairs into the house. Luckily it takes a lot for me to bruise.


10. In all my klutziness, other than the minor scrapes and bruises, the worst damage I have done is broken my right sesmoid (had to have surgery) and sprained my middle finger. Good thing I seem to be relatively durable.


11. Candy, cakes, cupcakes, cookies, etc are my achilles heel. Nearly all sweets, except plain chocolate. Not a fan.


12. I have a very unhealthy obsession with all things Twilight. I may love Edward Cullen/R. Pattinson more than my 13 year old stepsister which really is wrong but I don't care.


13. I wish I had time to take photography courses.


14. I love working from home in my pj's but do get lonely. It's hard to meet new people and possible friends when the only time you leave your house in 2 days is to go for a run. Although I don't miss all the office politics crap that I left 5 years ago.


15. I act like and think I look like my dad but everyone growing up said I look like my mom. I really don't see it.


16. I lost my mom on July 3rd, 2003 in a very sudden, random way. We weren't close before it happened due to things I'm not going to go into here. Though I wish she would have sought the help she needed and I miss her constantly.


17. I make one of the best tuna salad sandwiches you could ever find. Because of this I am always hesitant to order one in restaurants because it may come out all wrong.


18. Huge, enormous procrastinator. As Mark Twain said "Never put off until tomorrow what you can do the day after tomorrow."


19. I bite my nails. It is an absolutely disgusting habit I have tried to break countless times and have never lasted more than a couple of months.


20. I'm very forgetful. I remember faces, not names, make lists then leave them somewhere I can't remember, never remember where I put my keys, so on and so forth.


21. I'm very indecisive because I'm worried I'll make a decision someone else doesn't like. Old habits die hard.


22. I believe in ghosts and love true scary stories though both scare the crap out of me.


23. I started running because the boy I liked was running a summer 5K with a girl I didn't really know from work. They both got me excited about it and it was a way to spend time with the boy as we lived close and could run together. The girl is now one of my very good friends who has had a huge influence on me and where I have taken my running. I ran my first 1/2 marathon with her (well she finished well ahead of me!) and she gave me the confidence and encouragement I needed to sign up and train for my first marathon. And the boy I liked...I married him...but he's not running so much anymore :)


24. I didn't have road rage until I moved to Chicago.


25. I have only lived in 2 places - Medina, Ohio and Chicago, Illinois. They really couldn't be more different. Although I am ready to move again and would if I could convince my hubby.


26. I have worn glasses since the 3rd grade and contacts since high school. Every month I say I'm going to go have Lasix but I chicken out. I would probably be one of those people that had complications.


27. I love eating out and will try new things but at my favorite restaurants I will order the same exact thing every single time. My favorite is table side guacamole and margaritas...yum!!!


28. I absolutely hate talking on the phone and avoid it all costs. This includes ordering food and booking appointments. I get all tongue tied and nervous when I even think about calling people I don't know. Whenever possible I pass off the phone calls to other people.


29. I love to sleep in late. Most weekends it is a struggle for me to rise before 10am. That's even pushing it.


30. I love to travel especially when it involves traveling to a beach. (Business travel not so fun) Few things in life get much better than sitting on the beach relaxing, reading a book, and sipping on a cocktail.

On a side note, I feel slighted that I get 1 less hour to celebrate my birthday and to sleep this year.

Not Quite 30

With yesterday being the big 2-9 I didn't do much in the way of running. For my birthday I treated myself to junk food and doing nothing. Normally I celebrate a birthday week but I decided to scale back a bit this year ;) For breakfast I treated myself to an Einstein bagel with not peanut butter but yes...cream cheese. Delish! I have been craving one for weeks. And I normally don't eat bagels so that was a weird craving for me to have. At Einsteins' there were a group of runners meeting after their morning freezing snow covered run. I have to say I was a bit envious of their gusto on getting out there and running in the nasty stuff. Later last night Jacob took me to Buca de Bepo, family style Italian at its best. I know this is a chain restaurant and I have many delicious and different restaurants to choose from in our huge city but buca is so yummy! He surprised me and had 4 of my friends meet us there and of course there was too much wine and food. But if you can't do that on your day then when can you?!? So needless to say I didn't get much of anything done today either. So lazy. And so not happy this weekend also brought the spring forward junk. I hate losing an hour and I think this whole changing our clocks twice a year is whack.

Oh and after weeks of calling around Jacob's dad was able to find a Wii this morning! I was all sad yesterday when Jacob told me he had been trying to find one with no luck in the city of Chicago, central IL, AND northern Ohio. But then today Best Buy was advertising them, Jerry went to ask, they got a shipment of 50 instead of 30 and there were 8 left. Wahoo!!! It is going to be in my hot little hands before the end of this week. I am soooooo excited. Can not wait to bowl and play tennis to my hearts content.