The Birthday Celebrations

I'm kind of weird about my birthdays. Not in the freak out over aging run to the mirror to check for wrinkles and claim that this is just my 3rd 21st birthday kind of way. Sure, it feels odd to be 23, it always feels a little weird to change the number. But all things considered, I'm ready and happy to keep moving forward. So ready and happy that I overly expect a day momentous enough and perfect enough to fully celebrate the event. My birthdays are a potent combination of excitement and glee, with a strong undercurrent of stress and high expectations, all ready to combust if anything strays from perfection. It makes it hard to really enjoy the day, when I'm constantly peeking over my shoulder looking for things that can make everything ignite.

So when I say this was a lovely birthday, knowing that happened despite my craziness really means something.

This year my Birthday was on a Sunday, so we sort of did a pretend birthday thing on Saturday. It was a wise move, and I'm not just saying that because this way I got twice the birthday action all for the same low yearly price.

Day 1 began waiting for the bus to whisk us away. I took advantage of my birthday hotness to mug around for the camera; blogging has made me a little compulsive about that.

And away we went to Cleveland park, my favorite neighborhood in DC. It just has this perfect feel. Big trees, quaint little shops, skipping distance from the zoo. It also feels like an actual neighborhood, like a small town that somehow ended up in the middle of a city. It's my someday home, at least if we stay in DC.

Whenever we find an excise to go over there, I also always gaze wistfully at All Fired Up, a paint your own pottery place whenever we go there. I've been trying to get Zach to spend an afternoon painting for over a year, and my birthday finally provided the perfect opportunity.

It was such a fantastic little place. Comfy and cozy, bright and colorful. Bins and books full of textures and images for inspiration. I loved picking out my little dish (I grabbed a little wavy thing I'll use to corral my keys) and ever so carefully coating in color. Although, for all I've seen recommending it as a great date activity, I'm somewhat sceptical. We each got so into getting every detail just so, that we were too deep in concentration to even think about conversing. Maybe that's just us though.

We ended up spending close to two hours indulging our creative sides as much as our inherent type-a neuroses would allow. Our original plan was to go out to eat after wards, and then swing by Georgetown cupcake for some scrumptious treats. It was a lovely plan, but after the pottery painting (and the Greek deli lunch we grabbed beforehand) I just wasn't feeling it. Remember the aforementioned birthday perfectionism? I had started off planning (or pushing Zach to plan) for this whole big day, capped off with a great meal. Why? Because it just felt like something we should do, that I would miss or feel deprived if we didn't. But as the day went on all lovely like, I felt like I didn't really need that, I'd be happy with some pasta at home, so lets just save our money. The cupcakes were not up for compromise. And this is where car less city living can get complicated. We had a public transit plan in place for getting us from home to pottery to dinner to cupcakes. Not a clue how to get from pottery to cupcakes. One minor freakout latter, we had a plan, and an hour latter we had cupcakes (we even just managed to miss the big line) and were back home.

And that was day 1. Day 2 was a little simpler, but still quite delicious. After some obligatory camera mugging, we went off to the Dupont circle farmers market for a Sunday morning stroll and visions of bright and shiny produce.

Growing up in Portland, I frequently went to Saturday's market down by the waterfront. It's still one of my favorite places, chock full of hippy goodness. I think I secretly expect all outdoor markets to be that awesome. I liked the market well enough, but a bunch of preppy east coasters and produce can only be so exciting. I was done in about 15 minutes. We did walk away with a lovely loaf of sourdough, so it wasn't a complete wash.

The rest of the day was nice and calm, plenty of good food and relaxation. And then it was present time! I'm very pleased to report that I quelled my natural urges and was able to be happily surprised by everything.

 I was especially thrilled by my new le creuset utensil crock. I not only love it for what it is, with all its bright shiny color and functionality, but there is also something wonderful about getting a little something from a brand whose dutch ovens I continue to covet. Like a little piece of my optimistic future.

Zach also got me a pancake pen, all the better for my love of creative pancake shapes. Way easier than trying to pour straight from the batter bowl. In this past year of netflixing, there is only one movie that I actually watched twice in a row before returning it, a big deal from a girl who usually refuses to rewatch movies until she's mostly forgotten them. Zach remembered, and now I can indulge in some animated superheroine and Nathan Fillion action whenever I so desire. The wallet wasn't an original gift, but when we were wandering around Cleveland park we popped into an adorable eclectic store, and there it was. I've been obsessively searching for the perfect wallet for years, and being my birthday was the perfect excuse to bring it home.

A cupcake (or two) latter and that was that. Despite my best crazy perfectionist urges, it had been a lovely two days that left me feeling loved and ready for another great year.

(Also, each and every well wish on my original birthday post kept me smiling and glowing and generally added to the wonderfulness. I love you all.)