What a crazy and amazing birthday week** I've been having! I don't even know where to begin. I guess the best place to start is the beginning.
The week began with a networking fair an expoSItion, a student showcase of their various projects. Claire and I presented the A2 Datadive in the hopes of convincing incoming prospective student to sign up. I'm happy to report that I think I was able to convince at least 2 students to sign up just to help out at the datadive.
Partners in crime
The expoSItion was also great opportunity for us to show off to employers as well. I got two interview for summer internships because of my presentation on the A2 Datadive; fingers crossed, I should know in the next week or so what I'll be up to this summer.
So, needless to say this week go started off to a bang, so I was really looking forward to my plans for Friday (my actual birthday). I was going to hang out with friends in the afternoon, go to a student-org sponsored happy hour, and then top the night off by going to see "The Hunger Games" with Allen and a few friends....
Boy, was I wrong.
In what will probably be family-lore for a long time Allen was able to *again* keep a multi-month secret planning a spectacular surprise party for my birthday. I love Allen, but he's terrible at keeping secrets, mostly because he's so darn excited about how sneaky he's being. But he pulled it off again and it was awes-amazing***
Instead of going to a theater we drove to (seemingly) the middle of nowhere and came to this random looking office park with a building that said "Whirlyball" on it ... which before Friday had absolutely no meaning to me.
Neville and I rocking Iron Man mask, for reasons
Whirlyball, which seems to be a truly mid-Western experience, is a cross between bumper cars, lacrosse, and basketball (use your imagination folks)
Putting my game face on
Driving your bumper car, you use that little net I'm holding to toss a whiffle ball into the net, which is built into a basketball goal. Yeah - it was just as awesome as you are imagining right now. Mind you, these bumper cars had no brakes or steering wheel; you basically had no idea what direction you were about to head at any given time. We were laughing hysterically, shouting curses and encouragement, and generally just having a great time. Probably the funniest part though was how serious people got driving their little bumper cars like mini tanks.
Then we got home for dinner and I found that the apartment had been decorated in an Avengers/memes/internet theme (Allen, Neville, and Gina couldn't really decide).
The picture on my cake was really the icing on the ... erm ... cake
We must have ALL OF THE MEMES at this party!
But honestly, the most amazing (and touching) part about this birthday was how many friends came out for my party. Allen said that he had to comb through Facebook to find everyone in a stealthy way -- but I was still really blown away by how many people were in on the planning (my friends who hung out with me that afternoon, the officers of the student org who planned the happy hour to keep me out, and my crazy friends who pretended to be spies on a secret operation to decorate the apartment).
I feel so blessed to have so many amazing people in my life. Thank you guys for helping me cap off a birthday I will never ever forget!
Oh! And I finally got to see the Hunger Games last night - and totally loved it!
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* I leave this as an open question because it's pretty tough to beat my 25th birthday back in 2008 when Allen surprised me by whisking me down to the Dominican Republic for an vacation where he proposed to me. He got me good then just as he got me good this year.
** I don't believe that the awesomeness of a birthday should be limited to one day
*** Awes-amazing, is totally a (SI) thing
