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Wednesday, June 25, 2014

post-birthday musings


My beautiful flowers from BF.  :-)  Even better on day two, gorgeous on day three!

I had a wonderful birthday.  I took the day off, slept in, got Dunkin Donuts for breakfast.  I spent some Rewards and birthday money from Ulta on new perfume (Philosophy Pure Grace, which just smells clean and lovely and light), and I got a couple of pairs of shorts (black linen and just a cute pair of plain white shorts) elsewhere.  I spent some time at home just relaxing before BF got over to my place, and we spent the evening at a Potomac Nationals baseball game, with birthday dinner consisting of a Nathan's hot dog (YUM) and ballpark nachos for me.  :-)  What can I say, I'm easy to please!  We got Cold Stone Creamery (birthday cake remix!) afterwards.  Once back at my apartment I got to open my gift from him.  He got me a lovely, sweet card, and a beautiful little necklace.  It's delicate and small and perfect, and I LOVE IT.  

My ex-H used to get me jewelry, but it always seemed to be more about where it was from, or how much it cost.  He meant well, but he didn't understand that I'd love something smaller and cheaper if it was more my style.  I loved getting this gift from BF because it's a tangible reminder that I can wear every day to remind me of how lucky I am to have him in my life.  

Between my friends, my family and BF, in addition to the awesome day I spent solo, I had a wonderful birthday!  Next up..planning what to do to celebrate BF's birthday, which is July 11.  :-)

Monday, June 23, 2014

monday surprises

So I took tomorrow off for my birthday like I talked about.  Today has been dragging as a result, but I'm muddling through.  Just after lunch one of the office services folks stopped by my office with a surprise....flowers from BF.  Tulips, no less, which are my absolute favorite.  They are red and purple and vibrant and gorgeous and happy-making!

It was completely unexpected and has had me smiling all afternoon.  :-)  I'm leaving them here so I can enjoy them the rest of the work week, but I'll definitely miss them tomorrow!  They came with the nicest, sweetest note, and it was really just a lovely Monday surprise!

Tomorrow's plans are still up in the air, I mostly plan to just do what sounds good.  I do know there will be a birthday dinner in there, but that's the only certainty!  I'm just happy to be celebrating another birthday with a ton of wonderful friends, family, cats and boyfriend in my life.  My big old happy hour with friends and coworkers and BF on Friday went really well and I had such a fantastic time.  They sang me happy birthday while I blew out the candles on a tiny, decadent dessert...different groups of friends got to meet for the first time, BF got to meet almost everyone for the first time.  I laughed so hard my stomach hurt, I got pleasantly tipsy on birthday drinks, but not enough where I felt sick later, and I spent an evening with most of my favorite people in the local DC area.  It was a wonderful birthday celebration, and I'm looking forward to round 2 tomorrow!  :-)

Thursday, June 12, 2014

Birthday Inspiration

I haven't posted in ages! I guess without the trials and tribulations of online dating I have less to say on a daily/weekly basis?

State of the Relationship
Things continue to go well with BF.  June 3rd marked five months since we started dating, which is a pretty huge thing!  I hadn't dated anyone for any real period of time in three years, so it's really nice to finally have found someone worth sticking around for.

I love him.  He's sweet, funny, sarcastic, honest, genuine and seems to be all in with me.  I've never dated someone who is as actively invested in making good choices for the relationship as I am, and we can talk about anything.  He seems to be almost constantly cognizant of my feelings and how things affect us as a couple, and acts accordingly.  He tells me everything, and we are reaching levels of trust that I only imagined I could get to again.  The difference?  This time it's with someone I trust 100%.  We've had moments where we've had to have a couple of important, long talks, but they have done nothing but benefit us greatly and bring us closer together.

Beyond that, I am ridiculously attracted to him.  I don't remember the last time I was this physically drawn to someone AND emotionally and intellectually drawn to them as well.  It's so often been one or the other, or one compensating for the lacking of another.  I was nervous in the beginning of things on this front because it took awhile for us to truly get comfortable, but it was well worth the patience!

We have so many plans.  My birthday.  His birthday a couple weeks later.  His daughter's birthday later in July.  Our beach trip for Labor Day week (hoping to finally book the house tomorrow!).  I want to take him back to Omaha to meet my family in the late summer/fall.  As he noted during one of our recent talks, it's so nice to make all of these plans and actually be following through on them.  :-)  I think we are both continually pleasantly surprised by how well things are going, and how nice it is to be with someone who cares as much as we do.

State of Everything Else
I'm good.  I'm happy.  :-)  Work has been insanely busy, but I'm getting a lot done.  We recently had a firmwide meeting with the Executive Committee wherein they gave us insight into how the firm is doing so far this year, and the news was good.  It was so good that they announced we would all be getting a mid-year bonus at the end of June.  I am incredibly grateful for their generosity, and for their recognition of all of our hard work in support of the firm.

My birthday is June 24th.  Last year I was lucky enough to spend my birthday in Fort Lauderdale at the beach with my good friend of many years, Tracy.  We had such a fantastic time relaxing on the beach, exploring Fort Lauderdale, and even checking out the life-sized Barbie Dream House.  It was the best birthday I'd had in awhile!

I'll be sticking around town this year, though I think I'll still be okay with it.  :-)  I'm doing a birthday happy hour on the 20th, the Friday before my b-day, with old work friends, new work friends, and other friends I've met through other means.  It's always so interesting to combine different groups of friends and see what happens!  I'm excited to celebrate with everyone, and BF is coming into DC to join since his daughter is busy that night.  I'm overdue for a haircut and highlights, so I've scheduled them for that day so that I can feel extra wonderful for the occasion!  I think I may also go out and hunt for a fun, cute b-day outfit for the evening.  :-)

After that, a girlfriend of mine that I've known since before high school will be in town for work, so we're doing dinner the night before my b-day.  I'm still torn on what to do for my actual birthday.  BF can't take off work, nor can anyone else really.  I'm still considering taking the whole day off.

I've been considering how I would fill my time.  My thoughts?  Sleep in.  Gym (maybe!).  Solo movie? Track down the pool my apt. complex has access to and chill in the sun?  Go shopping with the giftcards I will probably get upon opening birthday gifts from my family that morning?  Try to wrangle a friend into meeting me for lunch?

Evening plans are easier.  Dinner, maybe miniature golf, maybe an inaugural visit to the Capital Wheel over at the National Harbor, and possibly Cold Stone Creamery for a birthday cake remix capper!  I'm not fully decided yet.

If you had your birthday day off and no one could spend it with you, would you still take the day off?  If so, what would you do with your time?  I'm not one who hates being alone, I actually really enjoy doing things solo when the opportunity arises.  I can easily entertain myself!  It just sounds more appealing than sitting at work.  ;-)  BF should be to my place by 4pm, so we'll have a long evening together for official b-day celebrations.

Anyway, that's my update.  Happy June!