But That's Me Stumbling Away. Slowly Learning That Life is Okay

Here I am opening some gifts at my birthday party on Friday night.

So, my four days just flew by. I tried to do everything I was supposed to, but didn't quite get it all done. Of course, I had a great extended weekend anyway.

After running around so much on my actual birthday, I gave myself some time to rest on Friday. It was only like, 68 degrees out and cloudy most of the day. So, Stinky and I took it as a good day to lie around and do a whole lot of nothing. It was heavenly, until it got really late and I was left scrambling around trying to get ready for my party.

I got to the Dublin around 9. My daughters told me it would be poor form to arrive late to my own party. Point taken. My friend Mr. Meister made everyone sing "Happy Birthday" to me when he saw me walking downstairs. Then my girlfriends sat me down and had me open gifts. I had asked people not to give me gifts, but my friends never listen. So, I got an hour and a half Swedish massage, some make up and many beer tokens (you can give them to the bartenders at the Dublin for free beers). Then my friend K. and her boyfriend Adam got me some graphic novels. All perfect gifts for me.

Here I am with two of my best girlfriends and Brando from Circle Jerk at the Square Dance blog.

I got a nice surprise when Brando stopped down. He and his wife used to be my neighbors, and are still currently blogging buddies. They were in town for his wife to teach at the Summer Writing Festival here. I was lame and missed seeing TLB and their lovely baby, but I was promised that they would be back this Fall when hopefully things won't be so crazy.

John in town from Boston and kissing his brother-in-law (for the most part) and my favorite bartender S.

It also happened to be the night before RAGBRAI. If you're not from Iowa, RAGBRAI is basically a week long bike race across Iowa in the middle of Summer. As you can imagine, most of the training for this event isn't cycling, but practicing eating TONS of meat on a stick and drinking all night. There were some fun people in town for that too.

Here is the po po, who just happens to be a friend of D.'s. And there is the owner of the Dublin dorking-out behind them.

My party was a lot of fun. I drank a little, talked some, but mostly dorked-out like a fiend. My favorite bartender played the two songs he likes to call my theme songs. First he plays "Oh Tara" and then he plays "Good Girls Don't" both by The Knack. Everyone else made sure to play fun dance songs too...Just to give me plenty of music to dork-out to. I appreciated all of it.