Joining Club 29

On Wednesday, I turned 29 years old and had the best birthday of my entire life. Throughout the day, I got little birthday greetings from people like Sarah, a bunch of my fellow Cornstalkers, and Vivian, of course. For lunch, I had pizza with my brother and opened a couple presents (Sliders Season 3 and Brazil on DVD! Woot!) He actually bought two pizzas, but we could barely finish one, so I took the second back to work and let the girls at the office enjoy it. They deserved some pizza this week.

After work, I drove to Omaha to have a party at Vivian's place. She went all out, serving up salad with all my favorite ingredients, cornbread muffins, and barbecued meatballs for dinner. I also got a special Cortland cake from Viv's mom, which was absolutely amazing! She did such an amazing job turning Cortland into a cake, I couldn't believe it!

After the cake, it was time to open presents. I have some darn generous friends, and I made out like a bandit: I got an iPod car adapter, a case for a cell-phone, a t-shirt and a cute little wooden sculpture from Viv. I got a $20 gift card to the Apple store from Ben (How did he know?) and an amazing caricature of myself from the ever-talented Dan Wondra. Viv's mom also brought by a bag full of all kinds of food items, from asparagus to plums to some licorice candies. In addition to the cards I got, I could barely haul it all out to my car when I was done.

After presents, we all went off to Dave and Busters to finish the day off right my playing games and collecting a couple hundred tickets. I left them on my card to redeem some other time when we drop by. They didn't have karaoke tonight, so I know I'll be back.

Today, I got the rest of my presents in the mail from Mom and Dad. I got audio book versions of Getting Things Done by David Allen and It's All Too Much by Peter Walsh. I've been getting on a serious organization kick recently, and these things will make for wonderful listening for my iPod. I also got a hardback copy of the 4-Hour Workweek by Timothy Ferriss, a book that was highly-recommended to me as a partially self-employed graphic designer. I can't wait to read it and see how far down I can whittle this work week of mine.

This was the best birthday ever! Thank you guys SO much for making me feel so special, especially you, Vivian. You make me feel special 365 days a year. All I need now is a sticker.