Frank Gehry Wedding Cake

My most memorable birthday was my 20th. I don't know what it is about me an odd numbered ages, but I tend to enjoy them more. To me, they have a nicer, sassier ring to them. On top of that, 20 just seemed like a really huge number and had so many meanings. I was no longer a teenager. In a year, I'd be considered a "legal" adult. My "youth" is over. Needless to say, I was bummed. Couple with that, I was alone. I was living on campus at the time, but my good friend had went home. My parents weren't coming that year, and so I had no one to celebrate with. I didn't have a car, and so I had decided to kind of skip this birthday. However, I had a friend named Aaron. He swears up and down that we originally met at a party, but I honestly did not remember him. We "reconnected" on whatever the hot social networking site was at the time. He was a totally awesome guy who had morals, operated on spiritual principles, and was great to talk to. We talked ALL the time for hours on end about EVERYTHING. What was great about it was that neither one of us were trying to "get" with the other. Anyway, a week before my birthday, we were talking one night and I just happened to mention that my birthday was coming up, but I was not excited about it. He could not understand how someone would not be excited to celebrate another year of life! He gave me a friendly lecture, but I was still not feeling it. I guess he recognized that I was truly bummed, and so he told me not to make any plans for Saturday (my birthday) and keep the whole day open. I was not going to make plans anyway, but I was forewarned in case anyone else wanted to take me out.

My only instructions were meet me at the mall at x time. True, my mall isn't huge, but "the mall" is a tad bit vague to be meeting someone you've never met! Like I said before, I didn't remember what this dude looked like. Now, he did tell me what he would be wearing--a sweater, jeans, and Timberlands--but that description was very vague too. Anyway, I hopped on the bus and headed to the mall to find Aaron. I waited and watched in the food court for a little while, but did not find him. I decided that I needed to search for him. I had only known him for about two months, but we had learned a lot about each other in a short time. I thought, "if I were Aaron where would I be?" I thought about it for a while and came up with the bookstore. I went to B. Dalton, and there he was. He said he was waiting to see if I would find him there.

Before that day, I didn't know he didn't have a car. We spent the whole day traveling via bus and train to various places around town. First he took me bowling because in one of our conversations I mentioned that I like to bowl. So, we did that for a while and then headed somewhere else. While waiting for the bus to come, he hands me a box wrapped in red paper. At the time red was my favorite color. I unwrapped the box, and inside was a bottle of my favorite perfume! At the time it was Tommy Girl. I was so shocked that he remembered because that was a very random detail of another conversation we had. I don't remember where we went next, but he took me to the West End and showed me a little bit of Morehouse (his school). We also went to Atlanta's best Chinese restaurant! He had never eaten there, but he found that it was voted the best. I don't remember the name, but it's in Buckhead. And for the record, I thought it was just ok LOL. I didn't tell him that though. So, during one of these train rides (the longest one--probably from the West End to Buckhead), he takes out a blue box and hands it to me. Now, gentleman, if you want to make a woman REALLY nervous for any reason, then give her a blue box! It doesn't matter what's inside; all blue boxes will make a woman nervous LOL. Anyway, it was a long blue box, and I didn't quite know what to do. "He's buying me jewelry?? Why is he buying me jewelry??? Does this dude like me????" I hadn't opened the box yet as I'm trying to figure out what the meaning was when he said, "Aren't you going to open it?" So I opened the box, and there were two big 15-stick packs of my favorite gum, Extra's Spearmint flavor!! I thought it was so cute. Then he handed me another box! I was less nervous, but still a little confused. I opened it and there four little 5-stick packs of gum. Now I'm thinking it's funny and cute. He handed me another box, and before I could get it fully open he hands me and another box, and another, and another.....I think I must have gotten like eight boxes! I just started laughing. By the time I was done opening all these boxes, I had 20 packs of my all time favorite gum! That was THE best gift ever!

The night ended with a visit to a newspaper store in Buckhead. I suppose we had to do something he liked too lol. Anyway, the day was over, and it was dark. He "took" me back to the mall so I could go back to school. He gave me a birthday card that he told me to read when I got back. It was a very nice card, and I still have it. I was totally overwhelmed at the entire event. I thought that I was a great listener, but I don't think I could have come up with something like this for anyone. He listened to EVERYTHING I said and remembered it. As you can tell, I'm not huge on gifts although I like to get them. I'm really easy, and love the simple things in life. For someone that I hardly knew to take his time to make sure I had a good birthday and show me that he's been paying attention to me is just totally awesome. This was truly the best birthday ever!

I failed to mention that I wasn't exactly dressed appropriately for this rendevous lol. This was January, and I had on a short sleeve shirt and a wind breaker. I had only been in the ATL for one winter and had not figured out the weather patterns yet. In Augusta, where I grew up, my attire would have been perfect. And actually, the weather was quite good for most of the day and I was fine. However, as the sun went down I got colder. It didn't get terribly cold that night, but it was cool enough to notice. The next morning I woke up at 5:00, and I was wide awake. For those who do not know, I am completely nocturnal lol. I started watching TV hoping to get sleepy, but it was of no use. I felt weird. I couldn't explain how I felt. I didn't feel bad, but I didn't feel good either. And to be up at 5:00?? WITW?! So, I got up and went to the nurse's office. She knew me pretty well because I came once a week to give myself allergy injections in the afternoon. Needless to say she was very shocked to see me at 7:00 a.m.! I told her I felt weird, and she said I didn't look good. She took my temperature, and I don't remember what the number was, but it alarmed her and she told me to see a doctor. I told her I didn't have a doctor here or have a car, so she called the campus police to take me to the urgent care facility. Long story short, I had bronchitis, and I missed an entire week of school! Best birthday ever LOL.

What is YOUR most memorable birthday?

Good surprises
I haven't quite figured out why I LOVE surprises, but I just do! I suppose that's why I always enjoy a good mystery/suspense film. If I could get a GOOD surprise everyday of my life, I think I'd be the happiest person in the world.

Good friends
I LOVE my friends! There's almost nothing that I wouldn't do for them. I've always known what kind of people I want to have around me, and I spent the majority of my life waiting for them to enter my life. I'm very proud to say that NOW (at almost 30 years old!) I am surrounded by those people :-)

Good food
Yall KNOW I love to eat! Flavorful food with the just right everything makes me so happy. I consider myself to be somewhat of a food critic, so I believe I have a good idea of what good food is. I also love to COOK good food!

Good weather
I haven't lived in too many other parts of the country, but from my experience, I believe that there is no better place to be in the fall and in the spring than Atlanta, GA!! It is beautiful. If I wake up late, and things aren't going so well getting ready for work, if the weather is nice out, once I step foot outside the biggest smile comes across my face and I forget all about the previous shenanigans. And now that I have a car with a sunroof, I get an extra dose of the weather all the way to my destination!

Nice outfit
I used to say it's hard for me to find clothes I can rock, but the truth of the matter is it's hard for me to PAY for clothes I can rock! It's out there, but I just have to shell out the money for it. Either way, I LOVE buying an outfit that I look absolutely awesome in. It doesn't look too big, too small, de-accentuates places I don't want highlighted, and overall is just plain trendy. It gives me a confidence boost, and feeling confident makes me very happy.

Uncontrollable laughter
I LOVE to laugh! When I was a teenager, I swore I spent the better half of my life laughing. Good times. Since I live alone and spend most of the day in places where laughter seems to be taboo, I don't laugh too much anymore. Not that I watch much tv, but there's almost nothing hilariously funny on anymore. So, in the rare instances when something funny does happen, I milk it for all that it's worth and am a very happy person at that moment.

Seeing "him"
Don't act like you don't know what I'm talking about ladies!! Yall know what it feels like when you see that dude--whether he knows you exist or not. And if you actually talk to him...HOOOOOOOO!!! That's extra happiness right there.

Nice drive
I love to drive through midtown slowly with the windows down (that implies excellent weather) listening to jazz at night. I feel so grown-up and classy. It doesn't have to be midtown though. I love driving slowly down any pretty street with a nice view--especially the ones with the multi-million dollar homes on it. Don't act like yall don't still play "that's my house!"

Fruitful labor
I love seeing the fruits of my own labor. Whether it's something I taught someone and they're teaching it to someone else, or something I created that turned out to be successful, I am overjoyed and happy to see that people appreciate my work.

God's will
I am a very happy person when I know I'm doing something that God told me to do. That's why, although I have that one dumb, boring class, I'm very happy to be in school right now because it soooooo was not my idea! I'm happy when God is happy with me.

Shhh

My business mentor said that when you hear someone swearing, that's the sound of a fool drawing attention to himself...or something like that. When he heard that for the first time, that was the last day he ever uttered that kind of word. There may be some truth to that statement because you can tell that some people are swearing on purpose for the attention. You ever notice how when you're in a public place, there's always some loud mouth person on the phone or maybe talking to the person that they're with, and every time they say a curse word they get loud? What does everyone else do? Turn and look at them. They want everyone around them to feel their frustration, rage, excitement, or whatever. Personally, I feel that cursing shows a lack of creativity--although some people use those words in very creative ways! But for real, there are soo many different ways to express yourself without offending everyone else in the process. Some people sound completely ignorant to me when they swear. However, those same people would sound completely intelligent if they were to choose other words to get their point across! Intelligence draws way more attention than ignorance does. Just think...that same loud mouth person in the store...what if they used a large, "$50 word" instead? Everyone's eyebrows would be raised in shock, but in a good way. Wouldn't you rather be noticed for saying something smart? So, I'd like to issue a challenge this week--too bad this wasn't Plinky's topic yesterday. Anyway, here's what I want you to do. Today, I want you to think about all the ways that you use swear words and find other adjectives that can be used in the same way. Write them down! Then, tomorrow through Sunday, I challenge you to USE THEM in lieu of whatever you would normally say. Finally, if you remember, reply to this post with what you said so we can all add some new words to our vocabulary. Let's start a new trend! Let's make ENGLISH cool!!