Birthday Weekend Roundup

So last Saturday I turned 25. Perhaps the last enjoyably significant birthday, the quarter century. After that its 29, and often it stays 29 for a while. Then thirty, then forty, then you die. Or so I've been lead to believe. I will admit I had been dreading 25 just a bit, it seemed when I was a kid like by 25 you would have it all figured out, you'd be a real grownup with a real life all your own. The reality is anything but, and I can't help but feel I let me younger self down somehow, even though I'm getting the suspicion now that nothing looks like you expect it to when you're a kid. So I got over it and returned to my 'age is just a number attitude', because lets be honest, that's true. My grandmother is going to be 82 and she acts (and possibly) looks much younger than I do. She probably will to the day she dies (somewhere around 100 I expect). I've always been a bit of an old soul, acting much older than I was. I think tis an only child thing, you spend most of your time with adults and you start to act like them. Being an old soul doesn't mean you can't embrace or enjoy being young. So despite the picture not looking the way I thought it would, been a little ragged and frayed around the edges I will never admit to having anything but a pretty charmed life. I've had 25 great years, not perfect, but pretty great nonetheless and hope to have 25, or even 50 more. So at the quarter century mark that's how far I've come, hoping to be an old soul with a young heart and embracing the life I have, not dwelling on its timespan.

1.) I went to change the sheets on my bed and one of the shoes on the frame (yes I have so many I can't store them all in racks) fell off right into the mouth of Booby (short for bubonic ie the plague) the stuffed dungeon rat I brought back from England. Really nothing to do with the weekend but I found it amusing because if you look quick it looks like a rat is actually gnawing on my shoe.

2.) My family threw me a surprise party on Friday night and I only had 20 minutes to get ready, but I was happy with what I put together even if my hair was a greasy mess. The only change I had to photograph it was this mirror shot in my aunt and uncle's bathroom, and you can't see my shoes.
Dress( worn as a top): Anthropologie
Belt( off another dress): J.C. Penny
Skirt: Jones of New York via Macy's
Shoes (not pictured): Chinese Lanundry via DSW
I also had the best birthday cake ever (it was a pile of donuts) however I sadly did not get a picture of it or me blowing out my 1 candle because I was holding my nephew Mason who helped me handle the big job of blowing it out.

 The flowers my grandmother got me, its a giant glass of sangria. Is she trying to send me a message? Ironically that's her as a young woman in the silhouette in the background. She presumably was not a wino like me.

 On Saturday, despite being my birthday I helped out Team Fashonda, in the regional semi-finals for New England Team Trivia at the Baha Brother's Sandbar Bar and Grill in Taunton. We took first place in the tournament, only getting one question wrong the whole game and at 64 point were untouchable, number 2 team being seven points behind us. We're defending out title in the regional finals next week. A few of my clutch questions were:
1.) Palma is the capital of what Spanish controlled island?  Majorca
2.) What NFL player holds the record for number of points scored overall in Superbowl performances with the equivalent of 8 touchdowns? Jerry Rice
3.) This man living supposedly under the alias David George is rumored to have died as late as 1903, 38 years after his reported death date? John Wilkes Booth
4.) In J. R. R. tolkien's novels The Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings Trilogy what character was Arwen's father?  Elrond

Triva is one of those fairly useless things I am wildly good at, probably because I read a lot and have a varied number of interests. This is the third team I've been associated with, and my most successful tournament. The team I played with at Ladder 133 in Providence went to the WRIK tournament last year but failed miserably. Its fun and wasn't a bad way to spend my birthday afternoon.

Billy, one of my cousin Madeline's classmates is also a team member. He came back from the bathroom all excited over the drink he had sen on a poster hanging over the urinal, then took my camera into the bathroom so I could see the poster of the cool blue drink with a Corona shoved in the middle of it. When I flat out refused to drink one, birthday or not Billy got very sad so I caved in and tackled the blue beast. Its am miracle we did as well as we did.

 I treated myself to a trip to the Salvation Army Family Store in Swansea (who but me would see that as a treat?) its a good 40 mile round trip but definitely worth it as that store has the best stuff around. YOu can somewhat gauge my ardor by the state of the shopping cart and the size of the bag on the passenger seat of my car, which was definitely big enough to fit a body in. I've been out with friends both before and after my birthday, but this was something I did for just me. A good way to round out the weekend on Sunday.