My Very Happy Birthday

Birthdays, depending on who you are, can be a cause for great celebration or a cause for great depression. I have through my years had many of both. I have to say the last three years have been pretty amazing, however, this birthday tops all others!

I was turning 27- not a "party-it-up" kind of year, but I thought, "let's make the most of this, Elaine; next thing you know you'll be wishing you celebrated 27 when you're turning 50!"

So I sent out Text inviations (free and showing my technological advancement) asking everyone to my "Blue Party!" Basically the thought process behind this is that people all the time have black and white parties and my favorite color is blue so I'll take the concept and have an entire party where everything is blue- not considering that people tend to use blue for boy baby-showers until I went to pick up my balloons.

People invited and myself were to be dressed in blue, my decorations were to be blue and even the cake was blue!

I was so happy I invited more people than my little apartment could hold and truth be told a majority of the people invited showed, which in itself was a great gift! I was ecstatic.

I have, for as long as I can remember, raved about my mother's lasagna. I love it, it's a fan favorite. We joke around that any day Bobby Flay will show up at our door for an Ultimate ThrowDown we like it so much.

Therefore including in the invitation that besides wearing blue, people should also bring their appetites. Success!

I had all sorts of friends there, college friends, friends I'd made after, Disney friends, some of my brother's friends, etc. It was truly a great evening.

Things that were fantastic:
The amount of laughter that was both contageous and free-flowing
The fact that though no-one was getting drunk and that no music played, people still had a great time!
The games!

But one thing that really blew me away was  the two most honored attendants, my parents. Usually, and most commonly, when either my brother or I invite anyone over to the house they like to make themselves the MOST inconspicuous people alive! They may RARELY say a passing hello t osomeone before they bolt to their bedroom (which I no dubbed "the Cabin"- thanks to Elaine's husband Mike) and are never to be heard or seen from again until the last guest has gone. HOWEVER, I don't know if it was because of my birthday or because of my amazing friends not only did my mother linger around a little longer than usual but my father. So ellusive people sometimes wonder if he lives with us!

He found someone at my party who he thoroughly enjoyed and although he bogarted them the rest of the night, I was grateful he stayed out. I'm only certain he spoke of photography with my great photog friend,  but he is awesome to speak to and I'm glad that they got to see a side of him only my mother, brother, and I are privileged to see day-to-day.

My mother. The mediator. Thanks to her some bumps in my party were smoothed out and thankfully I was none the wiser until later that night or the next day. Apparently, I invited some cliquey friends and they were leaving out one of my more bubbly friends and making her feel terrible. Thankfully my mom sat in the middle of it all and talked up a storm as she loves and got everyone to be one groups not lots of little groups.

Lastly, my brother. Although he has been to my last three birthdays I'm always amazed he makes it out. Granted, this is our home, so odds were good he'd be there, but I wanted to make sure he wouldn't have ulterior plans. He stayed the entire night. He joked, he played, he was awesome.

It was that night that I was super grateful to have them in my life and to be able to show them off. I mean that in the best of ways.

I am certain the evening was a success,  although since then I've only heard negative, petty commentary from people who were rubbed the wrong way so to speak by events that allegedly transpired through the night, that were brought to my attention a day or two later.

Nonetheless, I will enjoy the memories I have of that night and savor them and ignore all the other stuff, because what mattered most to me was fulfilled.

GREATEST BIRTHDAY EVER! Thank you all!