The Birthday Rundown

Hey guys! Thanks for all the birthday wishes. A special shout-out to Cassie and her special birthday pic for me and to Krista for her birthday shout-out to me. Too cool!

Anyway, since my birthday was on a Saturday all of the office celebrations took place on Friday. Last week I was in hella long budget meetings so I spent very little time at my desk. The last of these meetings was Friday morning with our UK affiliate. They all wished me a Happy Birthday in their fantastic accents (I just love the British!) and the excitement of the weekend was about the only thing that could keep me awake during the 4.5 hour meeting. During the meeting I saw Brent walk by outside, so my interest was peaked. I never saw him come back, so I had no idea what he was up to. I guessed he must have come back while I slipped out to go to the bathroom (and splash my face with cold water!) Anyway, as soon as I walked out of the conference room I could see what he had been up to. From the conference room I saw my newly festive cubicle. It was all decorated in balloons and streamers and once I got closer there was not one, but TWO cakes waiting on my desk. Yumm!! My coworkers had bought one and Brent had brought another one. For the rest of the day my birthday was very well known. =) Both my boss and I were not really in the mood to do much work after the long weeks we've had lately, so we left a little early (which is about the best gift ever!!). When we had lunch Brent said he had a special surprise for dinner. I was DYING for Mexican food, so I was hoping that might be it. Remember a few weeks ago when I mentioned they were building a Blue Coast Burrito near our house? Ever since they posted the sign back in February I was hoping it would be finished by my birthday - and it was! Brent noticed it open the night before when he ran out to get gas, so it must have opened within the past couple of days. It was fabulous!! We saw some people we knew from a few years ago (who all have tons of kids now and let me tell you they are homely!! Yikes!). The other two BCB locations are very hip, and full of tons of other young yuppies. Friday night ours was full of families with tons of toddlers. Not my ideal Friday night hang-out. Hopefully within a few weeks they'll all be gone and it will be a nice yuppie hangout as it should be.

When we got home Brent let me in on my first surprise - a sunrise hot air balloon ride! I've always, always wanted to take a balloon ride! We were to meet the balloon guy at 6:15 in the morning, so that meant I needed to get up at 4:45 am. Ugh! I'm not a morning person, but for a balloon ride.... So, we got up (and I hardly slept at all from the excitement). When we got there he released a helium balloon to gauge the wind temperature and promptly decided that the winds were too strong and fast to fly. Hmmm. As disappointed as I was Brent was even more disappointed. He had wanted the day to go perfectly. The balloon guy had told us we could reschedule for later in the day or Sunday, depending on the weather. Slightly defeated, we headed back home and tried to go back to sleep. After having been up for a while we just couldn't get back to sleep so Brent went ahead and gave me my gifts. He made me a digital picture he had altered, an Ipod nano & running armband, and a little digital camera small enough to carry with me running! Perfect!! I had asked for an ipod mini (my running mp3 player only holds 40 songs and that just isn't enough on long training runs. Lucky for me they discontinued the mini for the new nano. It is SO tiny! It's almost unbelievable how small it is. We played with my new toys for a while and then grabbed some breakfast. My next surprise was at noon. We headed towards Brentwood/Cool Springs and as we got closer Brent told me it was massage time! Hell yeah! Every few months we treat ourselves to massages at A Moment's Peace. I love that place! It was great, if I ever win Powerball I'm having a massage every stinkin' day. After getting up so early I nearly fell asleep and I swear it only lasted about ten minutes. My lady is great - she doesn't talk much so you can just rest and relax. Afterwards we picked up a quick bite to eat and then got Pippin to head over to dog day. We had dinner reservations for 7 pm, so we had calculated that we had enough time, if we hurried, to make it to Dog Day and come home to change. We hopped on the interstate and once we were near the interchange for I-440 traffic stopped. Completely. We saw a huge puff of smoke about a mile up. Nothing was moving. Several emergency vehicles rushed past on the shoulders, and we still didn't move an inch. People started leaving their cars and wandering around on the interstate. Eventually, after nearly an hour, they had us all turn around on the interstate, and drive back the other way. How often do you get the chance to drive the wrong way on the interstate? By this time there was no way we'd make Dog Day. I was seriously bummed, and after an hour of sitting in traffic and getting up at 4:45 in the morning to not take a balloon ride I was a little out of my head and quite grouchy. Since we were already out we stopped at Smyrna Rec Park to go for a short walk. We noticed a sign by the ball field I'd never seen before "Watch for softballs coming over the fence". Hmmm. There were two overweight, middle-aged guys hitting balls in the field and we noticed a ton of them over the fence. Just at that moment here came one, flying towards our head. And right after it another one. Seriously, when they see people walking would it be so much for them to hold off for thirty seconds??? This was my breaking point. I started screaming at them that "It's my birthday and could they please not hit me in the head with softballs!!" I know it all seems so silly now, but it was so tired and really wanted my day to be perfect. We cut our walk short and then came home for a half hour nap (very good idea!). We had dinner reservations for 7, and Brent told me to dress-up. Very exciting! We headed downtown, and had to take a major detour because the interstate was STILL shutdown. He had made reservations for The Palm, one of the nicest restaurants in Nashville. I've always wanted to eat there!! It was a lot louder than I expected. Not really a large group, but more the type of noise that comes from a ton of people in a small place. We had steaks with a baked potato and this awesome asparagus dish. I'm not a huge asparagus person, but this stuff was to die for! They even had my favorite for dessert - tiramasu. Afterwards we walked around downtown for a little while soaking up all the tourists in their Wrangler jeans and cowboy hats (GROSS!). We headed back home and got stuck in the same traffic mess - again! It had been 7 hours and the interstate was STILL shut down from the big wreck. (A moving truck had cut-off a truck carrying corn starch and caused several cars to wreck and they crossed the median shutting down both sides of the interstate.) It was a great day, but the highlight was to have been the balloon ride, and we were both a little upset that it didn't happen. Brent had talked to the balloon man later in the day Sat and rescheduled for Sun night. Even though the day itself wasn't very perfect I know Brent spent a lot of time organizing everything and it was certainly my best birthday ever!

Well, it's gotten very late so I guess tomorrow I'll have to post "Birthday part 2". The weekend was SO busy and there's just SO much to talk about! Tomorrow will be all about our 14-miler on Sunday afternoon and the balloon ride. One of them ended with me having a black, swollen knee, being chased by dogs and accused of being a terrorist and I guess you'll just have to contemplate that until tomorrow!

See ya!

Rachel

Exercise-
Friday - 1 mile am walk with Pippin
Sat - short walk at Smyrna Rec Park
Sun-14 mile run
Mon - 1 mile am walk with Pippin, 30 minutes racquetball with Brent