Two Days Left

It is nearing that time of the year again - a birthday. More specifically... mine! I am not a big fan of birthdays. There are plenty of reasons why, but I do not want to make this depressing. Let me just say that receiving gifts and having people walk around me trying to make my day makes me uncomfortable. I do not like being in the spotlight unless I choose to be in it. Yet ever since I met John he has managed to make my birthdays into days I truly enjoy.

My birthday is on Monday. Mondays are the worst day of the week to have a birthday, because people have work and nobody likes Mondays generally. Instead, as many do, we celebrate during the weekend. Last year was amazing and I enjoyed it so much! This year we are giving ourselves a collective present - a trip to Japan. There we will buy more things as well, all included in our birthday present. Therefore we decided not to buy anything on the actual birthday.

This did not apply to our friends. So yesterday Ash and Steve came over late afternoon for dinner and board games. My choice. The plan was to go out and have dinner at a restaurant but 1. restaurants are expensive 2. John's cooking is almost better and 3. I really wanted to play board games since it been a long time since last. When our friends arrived I was handed a bag with two wrapped gifts. As per rule I felt uneasy receiving them. Ash would not have any of it. I opened the card which said TIME TO ADULT (AIN'T NOBODY GOT TIME FOR THAT). It was kind of perfect for me. I am conflicted with my age and my achievements in life.

After trying to carefully open the beautiful wrapping paper (tried to save it, but John would not let me), a square plastic bag holding two pillow cases with space theme fell into my hands. So pretty! Reminded me of the glow-in-the-dark stickers I had in my ceiling as a kid. I hoped the pillow cases glowed as well, but John said that would be impractical. Second present was obviously a book, but I had no idea which one. Opening it carefully (not to save the paper, but to save the book from being torn), I found The Martian in my possession. I "recently" put it in my TBR-list and Ash had been to my Goodreads page to stalk what books I wanted. Good of her, good for me! It will be my next read.

Then we started playing Ticket To Ride. When the two new players got the hang of it John moved out to the kitchen and started cooking dinner. We continued playing while he did that, so points to John for great multi-tasking. Half way through the game the dinner was ready and we moved to the smaller table to eat. Pasta with spinach mixed into it, pork-loin pieces and Parmesan cheese on top. Really good! Like I said, it was restaurant food. Though the meat was of less-than-best-quality, but that can not be held against John. We continued playing and Ash ended up winning by a lot! Well played. I lost against John, no surprise, because I have yet to win against him. The game took some hours to complete, so when it ended we were sort of tired in our heads to do something that required thinking.

Our friends stayed for an hour or so longer before it was time to leave. It was close to midnight and we were all getting tired. Strangely enough, John and I went to sit by our computers and I stayed up to almost two o'clock! That is very unlike me and I slept until eleven, also very unusual. Good pre-birthday-day though, I'm happy! Now, let's get Monday over with.