Birthday Weekend

Today is my 23rd birthday, and I've had a fun weekend celebrating it.

Thursday I went with the girls to Cheesecake Factory at Fashion Valley. We had to wait quite a while to be seated, but the service was fine after that. My roommates Ana and Anja came, as well as my co-clinician this semester Liz, whose birthday was on the 12th. Also attending were Angel, Erin, Carolyn, Dorothy, and Nicole. Most of the girsl got dinner, I however went straight for dessert. Anjaand I split a slice of Godiva chocolate cheesecake, and a slice of raspberry chocolate truffle cheesecake. Both are extremely delicious.

Friday morning, Raelene picked me up from the condo. We got bagels from Golden Bagel and went to enjoy our brunch at the beach. We didn't stay too long, but it was wonderful to see the ocean! I can't imagine living somewhere not on the coast. After Raelene dropped me off, I had to go to a dentist appointment, and then had a few hours free to do some homework. I got my haircut in the evening, and on our way home, my mom and I picked up burritos from Cotijas for dinner.

After dinner, my parents and I went up to my grandparents for a short visit. My great Aunt Dorothy is in town and staying with them, so we got a chance to catch up with her, and eat zucchini bread.

Saturday morning, Mom and I ran some errands, and picked up things to make my birthday gift for Becky. We worked on that at home after lunchtime. Tad somewhat surprised me with a visit (I knew he was coming, but he didn't tell me when). We played with Valencia int he backyard until he had to go to work. Fairly shortly after he left, we left to go meet the families from my mom's ladie's Bible study for dinner. They had selected Hodad's in Ocean Beach.

This was an interesting cultural experience. OB was the center of drug culture in the 70's, and is still a very hippie place. There were guys up and down the street with petitions to save the whales and such. Hodad's had an interesting surf shop atmosphere. It's decorated with license plates all over the walls. It was a bit dirty, and once the music changed from Van Halen and Journey to screaming heavy gutiar music, it wasn't so enjoyable. But the food wasn't bad. I took a nap when we got home, and then did a bit more homework.

Today we had church in the morning. I relaxed for a couple hours at home until Tad picked me up to go to lunch. My mom was sweet and gave me the lei that my dad had given her for their anniversary to wear. We went to Claim Jumper because I had a coupon for a free entree. We shared chicken fried steak, yum! For dessert, they brought me out a red velvet cupcake with buttercream frosting and sprinkles, and a candle, it was cute :D

Sadly, Tad had to work today, so he came in to say hi to my fam when he dropped me off, and then had o leave. My grandparents and Aunt Dorothy came as did my second cousins Jennifer and Matthew and their little boy Jason. My dad bbqed chicken and we had a lot of fresh yummy summer fruit. The birthday/father's day cake my mom made was my great grandmother's applesauce cake, which is a favorite of mine. We opened cards and presents, and then it was time to go back to the condo.

A very different birthday from last year, but enjoyable. I look forward to year 23 of my life :)