riding the ponies on my special day

I feel almost guilty about blogging my birthday. It was so amazingly perfect that I feel like a braggart sharing it. So let me preface this entry by noting that the weeks preceding my special day were filled with me brattily insisting that I wanted to be surprised. When pushed for more specifics, I would declare that I wanted to ride horses on my birthday. Or maybe take a spin in a hot air balloon. So if you read this entry and think, “man! How can I make my friends completely spoil me on my birthday?” The answer is: aim high. And be a brat.
My awesome day began at work. In the past I have taken my birthday off, but there was no way I was going to miss celebrating my 26th year with first graders. If anyone takes birthdays seriously, it’s little kids. I got more hugs and magic marker smudged cards than should be allowed by law. Those kids effing LOVE me! And then at the end of the day I did a birthday jump. See, there is a tradition at my school that all first graders must welcome their special day by jumping off a desk while everyone watches. As far as I know, I am the first adult in the history of this tradition to take a jump. But see, I am a very childish adult, so it makes sense! The kids asked me questions about what I was like when I was in first grade. I told them that I liked to draw horses and pretend that I was a horse. There followed a shrieking chorus of “ME TOO!!!!” from the little ladies. Then they sang me the special song:
It makes me think of the good old days,
Happy birthday to you.
You sure grew out of your baby ways,
Happy birthday to you.
26 years old, we wish you many more!
Health and wealth and friends by the score!
Cut the cake and let’s eat some more,
Happy birthday to you.
Then they counted by fives to 25, added one, and I jumped.

But the fun didn’t end there. That evening Mike blindfolded me and drove me to Linnton for a pre-festivities beer. Let me tell you, the Lamplighter Inn is my new favorite bar. I don’t care if it takes 20 minutes to get there! Then we picked up Rebecca and Steve, and I was blindfolded for another long drive. (I was the tiniest bit car-sick by this point.) We ended up in what felt like a cavernous room filled with creepy organ music. The blindfold was removed and:

That’s right. I wanted to ride horses, and horses I rode. We got there just in time for the last run of the evening. I picked a white horse with a flowery saddle. It was very pretty. The carousel moved faster than we remembered from our childhoods.
The evening cumulated in a wonderful meal at the very fancy restaurant, Clark Lewis. We did the thing where the chef picks your food and it was goo-ood. Ordinary food is sort of ruined for us now. In between courses the friends gave me presents. I got books, a tee shirt, a Albina Press gift card, and a beautiful necklace. The funny joke was that all of the gifts were presented in ipod boxes. So I kept thinking I was getting an ipod. Like, four times they did this. They thought it was very, very funny to trick me into thinking I was going to get an ipod, and then dashing my hopes. But I didn’t feel too dashed because all of the gifts they gave me were so nice, and they had planned such a nice birthday for me, so I sort of felt like the joke was on them. But then when we dropped Steve off at his house he asked us to come in for a minute, and then he “found” one more gift. And it was an ipod. Nano.
OMG.
Right?
Such nice friends I have. Such nice, tricky, surprising friends. And the fun didn’t end there. There was an excellent “surprise” karaoke party at the Alibi a few nights later (which a couple of big mouth friends spoiled for me. It’s okay though!). Then on Sunday Steve and Mike had planned on taking me on an actual horse ride, but after much searching, they couldn’t find a place that was open in the off-season. So there will be more birthday celebrations for me in a few months when the trails dry off. Whew! I also got lots of nice cards and emails and phone calls, most of which I forgot to return. Sorry. It was a really busy weekend! Thank you, thank you dear friends and boyfriend. It’s good to be 26.