Birthdaayyy!!

My birthday was super-fantastic-amazing! Honestly, leading up to it I really wasn't so excited about it. I'm not sure why, I'm usually (always) one of those people who gets so pumped up about it like an entire month before, but this year I just wasn't feeling it. I've thought about it a little, and I think maybe it was because this year I knew I wasn't going to be with my family and best friends, and of course, that other super-special somebody i'm missing so much. But it turned out to be a really happy day for me, I smiled a LOT.

It all started at midnight. I'd gone to bed already but woke up when I heard a knock at my door. I just rolled over and decided to ignore it, but then I heard my door open... weird. And THEN as I'm rolling over to see who it is I hear SINGING!! Julian, Friederike (roomies) and Matthias (neighbour) came in with this cute cake and candles and little hearts on the plate and sang me happy birthday in english! It was the sweetest thing ever, and the biggest surprise, and the perfect start to my day!

So I got up, we ate some cake and I went back to sleep for a little while. A short while later, on the train on the way to work in the morning Cora pulls a little cake out of her bag! They stuck a candle in it and lit it and all sang me happy birthday on the train! Another huge and incredibly sweet surprise for me! Some random german guy I was sharing a seat with laughed at us and wished me happy birthday, it was cute.

So there, it wasn't even 10 a.m. yet, I'd already eaten 2 cakes, had two super sweet surprises...you can imagine i was feeling pretty good :)

NEXT! I'm sitting at my desk at work..probably pretty absorbed in whatever I was doing so it took me awhile to notice the next surprise. Weird things were happening...Cora walked by my desk and asked if i'd liked my cake on the train and i told her of course! I loved it, it was super sweet! She said even though it was small? Of course!! Everybody knows size doesn't matter right? So I thought this question was a little odd, but just figured she was trying to make sure that I liked what they'd done...whatever. Then I noticed a few people looking at me a little more often than was normal..whatever. Ok then it was too much. Everybody at my table was looking at me, some people were standing up....so i couldn't help but break my focus and ask what was going on? Now that I was actually paying attention, I noticed this huge gorgeous white and orange cake sitting on the table not too far away from me! HELLO! Now i understood all the weirdness! They'd gotten me ANOTHER cake!!! These people are ridiculous, and I told them so... I couldn't believe how sweet everybody was to me! They also gave me a warm scarf and mitts, since my scarf is one of those pretty, but not very functional ones and I needed a warmer one for snowboarding. So thoughtful!!! And soooo much cake! Felt very very fat at the end of the day lol. Here are the three cakes!

After work we went "grocery shopping" for party supplies...food and drinks! But when we tried to get on the train to go home somebody had jumped in front of it further down the line, so the train wouldn't leave. We were stuck at the station in the cold for almost two hours! But like i'd let a small thing that get me down ;) If we couldn't go home and start the party, then we'd start the party right where we were! It was cold...so we turned to liquid warmth and ate and drank right in the train station... Which also lead to me laughing so hard I cried. Almost no beers here have a twist off cap, so you need an opener. This proves no problem at all for all the German folk, they can open a beer with anything. When Julian had his birthday party he passed me a beer, then when I asked for an opener he handed me an enormous meat cleaver with a totally serious look on his face! I think my eyes just about popped out of my head, but then somebody took it from me and used the handle to pop the cap off no problem.. It's a trick I must learn before I leave. Here's Cora, Jarrett and I getting our party on at the station, and me, determined to get into my beer later that night. Annyyyways, why did I laugh so hard I cried? We've seen people here do this trick where you use one bottle to open another one, so Jarrett decided to try. If i'd only had a video camera..! It was the most ridiculous thing ever, he was stradling the groceries putting sooo much effort into trying to pop this cap off, like 70 people also stuck at the station were staring at him/us but he had nooo idea and just thought me and Cora were laughing at him! Two different people came over and helped us out...I guess it was probably painful to watch :P

Overall, it was a good night! A couple other Canadians I've met decided to duct tape my front door shut on their way out...that was fun :P Friederike had a great time trying to get out in the morning since she was the first one up haha.

I got a ton of messages and some really sweet e-cards. Thank you daddy, I love you :) Thanks for the kind words everyone, and thanks for making my day a special one :)

(P.S...thanks for making the day after my birthday special too babe, you're a sweetheart)

you can find more pics if you want...just follow the link over there on your right to "My Pictures" ;)

much love,