Happy Birthday!

So, yesterday was pretty much one of my best birthdays ever. It started after the show saturday night when a bunch of us went to a restaurant called Cheeseburger in Paradise (yes, it's Jimmy Buffet). At midnight our server (we have the same guy pretty much every time we go) bought me a shot called a pineapple upside down cake and an embarrassing display of singing ensued (which I thoroughly enjoyed, naturally).
Sunday morning I got to the theater early because I was a host for the dinner portion of the show and when I went back into the dressing room there was a huge vase with a bouquet of daffodils sitting on my station. The card gave me no indication of who gave them to me (it said "to michelle") but I knew they must be from Curren (which they were). Wendy gave me a birthday girl pin to wear on the floor while I hosted, which was fun :o)
During the opening number of the show, one of my fellow actors, Brent, handed me a little leather pouch and instructed me to open it. Inside I found a lipgloss that I'd mentioned to Curren only in passing a couple weeks ago. I didn't buy it because I don't "need" anymore lipgloss, but it was clearly made for me. The name of the color is "tiara" and it has glitter in it :o)
When I got back to my station after the number was over, I found it covered in disney princess decorations, balloons and ribbon. Wendy and Rachel were the culprits this time, though. They gave me 5 little pots of glitter and a travel jewelry bag with a funky ring inside.
After the show, there was a cast party at a bowling alley until a bunch of us left for dinner at a Japanese steak house. Too bad I forgot it was Sunday and restaurants close way earlier than usual, so we headed to another Japanese steak house that was still seating huge parties and serving sushi. We had such a blast! There was 10 of us for dinner and the chef made a huge display of cooking everything, which is always my favorite part. He made a flaming onion volcano, a flaming heart in the rice and cut up shrimp and threw them in the air so we could catch them with our mouths. It was wicked fun. During dinner, Curren handed me another birthday present, which turned out to be a computer game I love called Zoo Tycoon. I have the original, so he bought me the expansion pack wth 3 new zoos and endangered animals and dinosaurs. He's going to let me load it on his laptop so I can cart it around the theater and play it when I'm not doing any of Millie's costume changes backstage. That and I'll have something to do while he plays his World of Warcraft computer game :o)
After dinner, we headed to my house for some games and snacks (even though we'd just eaten a huge dinner and complained of certain impending death from everything we ate). Before he left, Curren went out to his truck and came pack with yet another gift. This time it was a DVD set of Season 5 of Will and Grace (my favorite TV show that went off the air 2 years ago). As if dinner, lipgloss, daffodils (which are ridiculously out of season right now) and a computer game weren't enough, he paid enough attention to know that I love W&G and that I only owned Seasons 1-4... I distinctly remember saying he's unnervingly observant, and I was right as usual! :o) My friend Emily got me some great gifts, too. Since I'll be teching backstage, she got me a pair of black satin pj's to wear, since the only rule is that we must wear black, pj's are allowed. I laughed my head off at that one. She also got me tights, a little tub of Vaseline (she knows I'm addicted and have one by my bed, so now I have one for my purse too), a cute little maroon shirt and a bottle of hairspray, since she always steals mine. My friend Julie gave me a magnet with a guy farting and a red circle with the bar across it (I'm a little gassy sometimes :o) )
All in all, it was a fantabulous birthday. I got great cards from my family and friends, Grandad and Grandma Barb were overly generous as usual, Danusia sent me a hilarious card about putting lemons in your bra (when life hands you lemons, put them in your bra... it couldn't hurt!) and Marynia and I had a wonderful chat on my way to work.
It's so wonderful to have such wonder family and friends who are so willing to spoil me beyond words on my birthday, which I really had nothing to do with! All of the praise and my gratitude goes to my mom. Dad helped, but when push came to shove (pun intended), mom deserves most of the credit. So, thanks mom. And thanks dad. Thanks for having me, loving me, encouraging me, yelling at me, supporting me, fighting with me and helping me become the woman I am today. I am so proud of who I am because you both worked so hard to get me this far, and I know you'll always be ready with a hug or a kick in the ass... or both.
Update (3:27 am): I never meant to make it sound like dad didn't do his fair share of the work, he did and always does :o)