Birthday Month

I have officially entered my birthday month, which no, I do not celebrate, but yes, I do think about. I'm turning 29, which sounds close to 30, which sounds close to REAL ADULT LIFE. Being an adult is still questionable in your 20's (especially for some of our Memphis friends). I don't feel like an adult. When Ryan and I were frustrated because we missed a train, we each got ourselves candy and felt better. That puts us around 4 years old.

Last year around this time, Ryan said we could do anything I wanted. I'm sure he thought I'd suggest a party at our house or maybe a fancy dinner. But what I wanted to do was drive to New Orleans with a pit stop at Anthropologie in Jackson. Because it was my birthday, Ryan couldn't rush the shopping experience, and because I wanted to take advantage of this special time, I picked up just about everything in the store. He called after 45 minutes and I had just made it to the dressing room. What I love about Anthropologie is that it's colorful, and different, and a little hippie chic. For my 28th, I bought a black sweater. It was awesome.

This year will probably be different. Things I will miss... a friend sushi dinner, a Happy Birthday banner on my office door, the cats (they were always great on special occasions), cake batter ice cream, and of course, the option of going home. However, this time I'll have all new things to look forward to. My friend in the building, it's her birthday too, so we're doing something together. I'm not sure what that will be, but a sweet baby and a good dog will be involved. Ryan won't have time to pick out a present. Since Christmas, he's been working late and on Saturdays. He's asked if I could maybe pick something out myself. I haven't decided yet, but there's a French store called Sandro that's REALLY great. The clothes are expensive and oozing with European style. I tried on A LOT, and have my eye on - wait for it - a black top. Friends at school will probably want to go for aperitivo. It's sort of like happy hour... you buy drinks, and small dinner food is served for free. It's really popular here. One of the bars is actually called New Orleans. Funny, right? I might actually spend my birthday in New Orleans. With a new black top. Maybe it won't be different after all...

Big news for us - my family came for a visit! Here are some highlights... trains, skiing in Davos, and Zurich.















Ryan and I stayed in Zurich after my family left, and had the best weekend. I got a plant from a REALLY cute, little flower shop. When they wrapped it, it looked even prettier! At this point, I was beyond excited... I had just seen family, we were in my favorite city, and someone just handed me flowers wrapped in pretty paper. Does it get better than that? I don't think so. I was SO happy, I got Ryan to take a picture of me in front of the store. A few hours (and a few more flowers) later, I had Ryan pose with our treasures. I'm not sure it will have the same affect on you, but these two pictures crack me up. Look at my face, and then look at his. I'm kind of like... look at this in my hand right now, is it not the cutest, and is this not the best day, can you even stand it?!? And he's going... um, I guess these flowers are awesome, and of course I want to pose for a picture with them???














Ryan will have to share the other highlight... it's a restaurant in Zurich, where people try and jump over two beams in the ceiling, hang upside down, drink a glass of wine, then get to carve their name in the wall. You can't understand without the video, and he's got a new trick for posting them, so I'll leave it to him.

This is been a time consuming post, and I'm putting off cooking a whole fish that's been in my refrigerator since Saturday. I not only have to cook it in a way that makes it taste good (my Italian friends say just to rub olive oil on it, but that's been their answer for everything... sort of like Windex in My Big Fat Greek Wedding, so I'm skeptical), then I have to remove the bones. This could get interesting... ciao!