It was good though.

Aside from the ranting and hating of my birthday, I ended up enjoying it. It was my first birthday as a Raffensperger actually. Cody had school so when he got home he picked me up all dressed fancy and stuff (this does not happen often) because we were going to a surprise dinner. It wasn't as much as a surprise as he had wanted because the restaurant was downtown and a ton of the exits were closed (road work - the second season in the north - we have winter and road construction) so I had to tell him how to get there with all the closures. We went to The Top of the Met - this cool circular building with a rotating restaurant on the top floor - very cool. We really had a great time watching the baseball game, checking out the skyline and watching the Arch pass by - we got to really relax and talk and stuff so that was really nice. Then he really did good in the present category - at this point in the game it's the thought that counts way more then money - if I really want something I can really go buy it but it's those thoughtful things that really matter. For instance, Cody's parents -my bonus parents - got me the set of Harry Potter!!! How cool is that?!?!?!?!? That was thoughtful - and that means so much more then any money. I love them!!!
Short Harry Potter rant: I'm in LOVE with him! I'm in the middle of book 5, which is like 400 pages in. Harry is going through some major adolescent angst because he is super crappy at times, but it's such a good story. I can't put it down. I have a new, instituted specially for Mr. Potter (as Snape calls him), rule: no reading past 1 am. This is because on Book 3 I sat up until 3 am one night to finish it and was DEAD tired at work the next day - and I cannot do my job at all dead tired. Anyway, I love him, he's my new hero and I wish he were real. My goal is to finish Book 6 by July 20th (the day before Book 7 comes out) so I can go right into #7. If I'm not done with #6 by the 20th, I won't be at work that day - I'm not kidding.
Okay, so I love Harry Potter but I ended up enjoying my birthday day - I still hate the whole "birthday" thing. It's really all about getting older and realizing that I have to give up some of my hopes, dreams, goals, aspirations, etc. - you're always told to dream big, have goals, etc. but they don't ever tell you that one day you're going to be really upset when you run out of time because it's just not feasible to do it all. But I guess in the grand scheme of things, at least I had goals, unlike much of the world today - even if I never did get around to them. For instance, I can never "backpack" around Europe like I always wanted - I've done it some but not to the extent I would like - and now I'm too old for "youth hostels." Some things just have to be said farewell to but I suppose there will always be other dreams and goals to take their place.