My Wonderful Birthday Weekend

I had a fantastic birthday weekend!

On Friday, my co-workers Teresa and Ben, welcomed me with streamers, banners, balloons and confetti throughout my office. I didn't think they'd actually get me this year because they've had some overwhelmingly busy days lately. At about 10am, I heard an alarm clock and I panicked because we can't have electronics in the office. I thought I forgot to turn off my phone, then I thought maybe there was something in one of the projects I'm working on that I didn't know about, so I searched my office for a few minutes before I heard the giggles from next door. I searched everywhere before Ben finally let on that it was in ceiling...ha-ha. Guess I should watch Office Space more often! But it was fun!

Ryan sent me tulips to work and I received them in the midst of all the commotion, which was very sweet and they arrived at a perfect time! He's never done that before, so I was surprised!

On Friday evening when I got home from work, I found a cake that Ryan had baked me (from scratch...mmm) and we headed over to Sandi and Shawn's for a pasta buffet dinner with Connie and Jelani. Everything was delicious, and we ate too much and played Taboo and Apples to Apples. Thanks for having us over, Sandi and Shawn...it was a scrumptious meal and a great time hanging out as usual!

For those of you who don't know why my cake says "Lu"...Ryan never actually calls me by my first name. He always uses a nickname and usually calls me Lu, not many people know that though. We're not exactly sure why Lu, but I like it because I never had a nickname.

On Saturday, Ryan and I headed to the Shamrock Festival in DC and hopped off the metro for a breakfast detour at the Eastern Market. It was so good, and the area was very cool. I can't wait to go back.
I knew the Shamrock Festival would be too much for me to handle from noon to 10pm, but I really wanted to go, so I planned to pace myself and sit a lot. I was expecting something similar to the Pittsburgh Irish Festival, which is very authentically Irish, none of the "green plastic crap" as Rob calls it. What we found instead was a ridiculous beer fest, with no place to sit, no authentic Irish anything, extremely rude drunk (you-know-whats) and some good bands mixed in. There is a reason I was never involved in Greek-life in college and Saturday reminded me of what a bad-fit that environment really is for my personality. I just felt totally uncomfortable most of the day. But, it was fun, all-in-all, because Rob met us there (see his post on gox-tapes.com for a more graphic description of the drunk fest), and the music we chose to listen to was fun, but I wouldn't do it again.
The highlight of my day was the opportunity to see Great Big Sea once again. This is the forth time I've seen them and each time is better than the last. Unfortunately they only played for about an hour and twenty minutes, but it was still worth it! Russel Crowe was spotted on the adjacent stage about 20 minutes before the show ended. Ryan, Rob and I didn't believe it. We thought it was just another band. He had long hair, wore a jacket with a big "S" on it, and was dressed like others standing around him. But as Great Big Sea came back on stage for an encore, they introduced him. I have it all on video...so I'll try to post some of it here. He was awesome!

On Sunday, Ryan made me a great breakfast of eggs, sausage, toast and strawberries with homemade whipped cream (yummy!). Then we headed to church for our extended mass for Palm Sunday, relaxed for a while at Starbucks, and went shopping to buy me a super-cute purse.
In the afternoon, I got to open my presents (How the Irish Invented Slang...can't wait to read that one, a gift certificate for a pregnancy massage (yay!) and a box of gourmet chocolates - does he know how to touch my heart or what). We lounged around watching a movie (310 to Yuma), went to Pulchinella for dinner (a wonderful home-style Italian place), and ended the evening with another movie (Feast of Love - chick flick, but good).

It was a fantastic birthday! Thanks to all for my cards and emails. I love my birthday, and appreciate those little sentiments so much!