Wednesday, May 21, 2014

Happy Birthday Joe!

Yesterday, Joe turned 30-years-old. I took it a lot harder than he did. After all, Joe is the level-headed one in our marriage and I am the slightly dramatic one.

As a Christmas Eve baby, I tend to go a bit Birthday crazy. My parents always took painstaking measures to make my Birthday as special as possible so I wouldn't feel gypped, and I think that led to me thinking that Birthday boys and girls must be treated like kings and queen.

***Side Note*** One symptom of this craziness is capitalizing the word 'Birthday' because I think it is deserving of the honor. ***End of Side Note***

When you combine my case of Christmas Eve Baby Syndrome and the huge milestone Joe was celebrating, it should come as no surprise that I went a little overboard this year.

We started off the festivities on Sunday night by going out to dinner at a fancy steakhouse. I chose the place because they have steak au poivre (which Joe and I LOVE) and a swanky atmosphere with art deco decor, mahogany walls and lots of maritime art (thanks to our upcoming cruise, I'm into anything sea-related right now).

Dinner was DELICIOUS.

I also used it as an opportunity to give him his first present: tickets to Book of Mormon, which is coming to Philadelphia later this summer. Joe is a big South Park fan (as am I), and has been talking for a long time about wanting to see this play. The tickets were stupid expensive, especially since I decided to spring for Orchestra seats, so I did extra work to pay them off (I am so grateful to have that ability with my freelance job!).

***Side Note*** Joe and I always get nosebleed seats, but when we saw Phantom of the Opera Joe had a hard time following the story because he couldn't tell the Phantom and Raoul apart. Yes, I understand this should be impossible because the Phantom wears a mask, but that's how far away we were sitting. It was honestly hard to see he had a mask on, made more difficult by the fact that the actor playing the Phantom was kind of pasty. ***End of Side Note***

It was an excellent night, and a perfect start to Joe's Birthday festivities.

Yesterday, Joe awoke to a decorated living room and a wife willing to drive to McDonald's to get him a breakfast sandwich (I got a diet coke out of the deal, so I was happy). Joe decided the night before that he wanted to do presents in the morning before class, so we started with gifts that family and friends mailed to us and then I brought him a bag of gifts from me.

He got spoiled with some awesome gifts, like Phillies vs. Cardinals tickets from Stacey. Buster thought all the gifts were for him, so he stuck close to Joe.

Joe didn't want a party for his Birthday, so I wanted to try to figure out something special to do in honor of him turning the big 3-0. Thanks to some internet inspiration, I decided to buy him 30 presents. Though a pricey endeavor, I figured I was saving a lot of money by not throwing a party and I could do most of the shopping at Dollar Tree, Ross and other discount stores.


 Here's what he wound-up with:

  1. Play tickets (not pictured)
  2. $10 Kindle gift card for a book he's been wanting
  3. Used PS3 game from GameStop
  4. See Above
  5. See Above
  6. See Above
  7. Tie
  8. Cards Against Humanity
  9. Joystick 
  10. Flight simulator game
  11. Men in Black 3 (got this on Black Friday for like $3)
  12. Heisenberg magnet
  13. Earbuds
  14. Portable ping pong set
  15. Walking Dead puzzle
  16. Book with stats about 30-year-olds
  17. Pack of his favorite pens (that I always steal)
  18. Card game
  19. Reeses Pieces
  20. Gummy Worms
  21. Gummy Bears
  22. Big League Chew gum
  23. Eclipse gum pack
  24. Dan Brown book
  25. Fun dress socks
  26. Checkers
  27. Board game 
  28. Gadget to amplify his iPhone speaker
  29. Seinfeld-related t-shirt
  30. Philadelphia-related t-shirt

I was a little worried he would think 30 presents was overkill (he's very frugal), but he actually loved the idea and had a ton of fun opening his presents. If you can swing it, it's a great idea for a milestone birthday like this.

After presents, he had to get ready for class at 10. I met him on his lunch break and we went to Chipotle for lunch. That man loves him some Chipotle.


He had to go back to class for an hour (yay for not having too much class on his Birthday!), so I stayed on campus and did some work while I waited for him to be done. On our way home, we stopped by an arcade that he's been wanting to go to ever since we moved here almost a year ago.

We had SO MUCH FUN and Joe got a couple of big-ticket wins. We'll definitely have to go back more often, especially since it's across the street from the dental school.


After the arcade, we ate cake and ice cream (because 30-year-olds don't have to wait until after dinner). Joe then installed his flight simulator game and I did some more work. For dinner, we had pizza from Papa John's and WAAAYYYY too much wine.

It was a great end to a great day :)



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