Birthdays just aren't as exciting when you're older

First, thanks to everyone who wished me a happy birthday yesterday. Though not that different from usual, it was a pretty nice day.

I spent my entire day at work designing (which I think is totally fun) a booklet about L&C's Green Initiatives (which is a subject I actually am very interested in), then came home to roses (yellow, not for friendship but because they're my favorite color of roses), two kitties and a boyfriend that I love. We watched an episode of The Office we DVR'd from last week before meeting my family at Tony's in Downtown Alton for a steak dinner, which was delicious. After Tony's I convinced them to walk over to Bossanova (which has remodeled in the front and is gorgeous), where I asked Steve the bartender to make me a surprise that turned out to be a kind of tea with vodka (but not a Long Island) and was quite tasty. To David's surprise, since he was going to pick up the bill, that drink wasn't even on it - so score one for us (and yay for Steve the bartender). Afterward we headed to my parents' for cake that my dad forgot to use water in (bless his heart) and presents. I got some new storage for the bathroom, yay! David got me a video game that's pretty much an extension for my love of Farmville, which I need to play tonight, and is getting me some iPod accessories later this week, which will be nice. So it was pretty low key.

Most of my birthdays over the years have either been really bad or really good, so last year I decided to stop making a big deal about them.

Trying to squeeze something super special out of my birthdays before the big 25 had only really gone well twice - the time I turned 17 and Diane threw me a surprise party where several of my best guy friends danced around in her black bras, and my 22nd birthday bingo bash in Charleston for which my favorite roommate Erin whipped together all of my EIU people and plenty of Jello shots, and even got my favorite professor out to the Moose lodge for some O66 Clickety-click, Bottoms Up, will-never-forget fun.

My 21st birthday could have gone better - EIU was new and fresh and the only person I really knew all that well that was 21 drank too much and got sick by the time I even made it to Marty's, and my 24th (Rick Ankiel) left a permanent scar and numbness in my right knee from an unpadded ball pit at the City Museum in St. Louis.

So there was no pica pole this year, and no abundance of wine like there was last year, and much of my day was a pretty regular day at work. The good news is I'm in a much better place at 26 than I have been in the past.

I own a home that we fixed up nice, I have a live-in boyfriend and two cats who are my precious babies, I have a job that I actually love and that isn't bankrupting me, and things are otherwise going well. I only wish I'd have been able to make it to darts this week and I'm sad I'm going to have to miss volleyball this week. (At least I still get to play volleyball, as the LCCC faculty and staff take on student teams Thursday night).