Another Year

Its crazy to think that I have aged yet another year and to put it into even crazier perspective, I am going to my 10 year high school reunion this weekend. The official day was yesterday and I just felt so overwhelmed with LOVE from so many dear friends. I received an amazing number of phone calls, cards, emails, and facebook messages from so many that I admire- thank-you not just for the birthday wishes, but for your continuing love, support, and friendship throughout the years. That means more to me than you will ever know. That being said, I always have to express gratitude to the woman who brought me into the world and with whom I share the celebration with. I am truly honored to have the same birthday as this incredible woman. That and it ensures that I never miss her birthday :-) This year, William took me out this past weekend up to SF to see "The Drowsy Chaperone," a broadway musical that is on tour in our area. It wasn't playing on Monday night so we went on Thursday- it was HILARIOUS. My family are HUGE musical fans and so I had a great appreciation for their parody and ability to poke fun at the genre, yet put on a professional show. William thought it was funny as well- we actually want to go again to catch/remember all of the items that are going on. Afterwards, we went to In and Out burger to get something to eat since it was fairly late and to our surprise EVERYONE was there. We had a 15 minute wait for our food since there were so many people, even at 11 pm. I guess it is like the Dee's/Denny's of California. On Saturday, we went to the Oakland temple and then, being such creatures of habit, went to our favorite Texas Roadhouse. We LOVE this restaurant and order the same thing every time- we share a full rack of ribs, have 4 rolls each, William eats a caesar salad, and I the loaded sweet potatoe. This Saturday, the food was spot on and everything was just super tasty. I highly recommend it and so its probably a good thing that it is about 40 minutes away so that we don't head there too often. Then, on Monday my actual birthday, I went to our nearby Cold Stone for my FREE birthday ice cream! I recommend that everyone sign up for this program because who can deny FREE ice cream! Of course, I got my all time favorite cake batter and cookie dough and look at what a generous amount I got. Then, William came home at 6:30 (which is quite early for him) so that we could celebrate together. He took me to Maggiano's Italian restaurant down at Santana Row, this gorgeous high end outdoor shopping area that it so charming. I am also part of their birthday club so I got a FREE dessert of CREME BRULEE. It was the largest creme brulee I've seen filling a little skillet with a lot of carmelized goodness going on. I usually like a deeper amount of creme but it was super delicious and the perfect light way to end the meal. We split their yummy Maggiano's salad that I love with proscuttio, red onion, blue cheese and their house dressing. But, this put us so full that we weren't able to finish our entrees. I ADORE their gnocci and William got a chicken rigatoni, carmelized onion, mushroom, and marsala sauce. I warned him that their portions are HUGE but he wanted to get the large for his dish and it was definitely more than he was expecting. I think there is enough left for 2 more meals, which is good since I am leaving. All in all, it was a fabulous birthday but mainly due to all of the wonderful thoughts and well-wishes I received from so many. THANK-YOU!!!!