When I was a kid, my dad called me his “late firecracker” because I was born on the 5th of July, one day too late to share our country’s birthday. But I’m okay with that because every year it’s like two days worth of partying all for me.
This year it was quite an extended celebration, starting last Wednesday when my aunt and cousin brought over a cake and presents for me when we all gathered over at Jason’s for our weekly dinner! And then they crammed 31 candles on top (+1 to grow on, I am *only* 30) which, because I am full of hot air, I managed to blow out in one single breath.
Then on Friday, I baked myself a cake that fell apart. This was for my friend-gathering on Saturday. It was still tasty, though. I think that it was a combination of errors on my part (cake not cooled enough, forgot to grease the non-stick pan) along with a Pillsbury cake mix. I tend to prefer the Duncan Hines brand. But I did make homemade frosting that turned out really delicious.
So on Saturday, Sarah (all the way up from LA) and Malvina (all the way down from Sacramento) came over and we headed off to lunch at Pasta Pomodoro in Pleasant Hill. Then, we celebrated being adults by going to see Twilight: Eclipse. Oh man, that movie was fraught with giggles (from us) and tortured significant glances (from the cast). Teenage girls just eat this stuff up, but I found myself relating more to the dad in the movie, who was like, holy crap, these people are dumb, also why am I in this movie. Team Charlie! From a “Let’s Go Laugh At Twilight” vantage point, Eclipse (dare I say it) eclipsed the first two movies in its constant barrage of unintentional giggle moments. From a “Is This Movie Actually Any Good” standpoint, the answer is: not really. I still rate it an LOL+, however.
Then everybody (Sam, Amy, and Ben) came over and I made Thai food and we ate the cake and took silly pictures with my rancor toy. Have I ever mentioned my collection of 100+ Star Wars collectible figurines? And how most of them are still in mint condition in their boxes? But how the rancor is not? Anyway.
On Sunday I made a red velvet cake that did not fail with cream cheese frosting and took it over to Rossmoor where we had lunch over at my grandparents’ condo. Technically speaking I suppose the cake was another birthday cake (my grandma put candles on it and everybody sang the birthday song) but really I just made it as a contribution for the dinner. Still, it was nice to be with family and eat delicious meat and whatnot.
Later we went to the fireworks over at the Benicia waterfront and that was pretty great – we were right under them and it was really windy so there was an element of danger as the sparks kept raining right down over where people were sitting. Luckily the wind shifted all that over about forty feet away from us so we could enjoy the danger without worry. Haha.
Then yesterday was my actual birthday and my sister had been wanting to see the Swedish movie version of The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo. They weren’t playing it at the dome anymore, but it was still playing at the Rheem in Moraga, and Abby bribed me by paying for my ticket so off we went. And it was excellent! Now I’m so worried about the Hollywood adaptation. It will be okay if they use character actors or unknowns, but Brad Pitt as Blomkvist? Kill me.
After that we stopped at Jason’s for a bit. He looked good. Then on to the parentals’ and out to dinner at the Outback. Not super original but I wanted steak and an Awesome Blossom, and they brought me free ice cream.
All in all, a great way to ring in my fourth decade. I think my thirties will be pretty awesome, all in all.
