Woo hoo for long birthdays!

I've decided that Sunday is the best day to have a birthday because there are so many days to celebrate before, on and after it. This year served as a perfect example. Here in the Emma Willard community, birthdays, and just personal interaction and care in general, are very important. So, the week before my birthday i was getting birthday wishes, hugs, and hellos. My house mates planned a Friday night birthday outing with the young faculty members (and for a boarding school there are a good number of us!) We went to El Mariachi, a popular Mexican restaurant in downtown Albany. Saturday I spent the day with preparing myself for my birthday - sleeping in until 11am, making myself a yummy scrambled eggs and toast breakfast, reading, running 3 miles, talking on the phone with friends and putting myself to bed watching the movie Garden State.

From an outsider's perspective my actual birthday on Sunday could have been pretty uneventful but for me it was absolutely perfect. You see, I typically am working my booty off on Sundays to get ready for the week. But by the grace of God I was already pretty well prepared and found myself enjoying another day of relaxation and quality personal time (which I adore). As the evening rolled around, Kristi (one of my house mates)and I decided to order Chinese food and watch a movie on t.v. That worked for me! I was craving a birthday cake that Kristi had promised to buy but rainy/icy/yucky weather forbid any one from tackling the slippery streets. As I'm scarfing down mu-shu vegetable (I know Ally, my Chinese expert....that's probably not how it's spelled!) down i get a call from three of my students who proceed to sing a loud and enthusiastic happy birthday over the fun. It was so great to hear from them! Later on Jessie (house mate 2) made a batch of brownies and wrote 'Happy Birthday'in frosting on it. Yum!

So then you'd think that by day after my birthday I'd be all birthdayed out but thankfully (well actually not so thankfully because of the dangerous streets) the bouquet of roses from my parents that were to be delivered on Sunday, arrived during classes Monday. And thus the celebration lives on, keeping the top left corner of my work desk brightly decorated and smelling sweet!

Alright, so that was Monday and today my friends, yes today, three days after my birthday the residential hall where I am on duty 2 nights a week gave me a surprise birthday party. I had no idea it was coming and must have been very tired because I was completely oblivious to some actions of the students that almost gave it away. In the last 10 mintues of study hall, I noticed that an unusual number of students needed to head to the bathroom or to get more water and then head back to their rooms. I found it odd, but I'm not one to do much policing on this hall because I trust them. Then Melissa (houseparent on next hall over) comes to the hall saying she is going to talk to Gemma (the houseparent of the hall. She had her night off - hence why I was on duty) about something. By the way, I had spelled something very yummy baking and so when Gemma came out of her apartment I asked her what was baking, hoping it to be something for the hall. "Oh it's my advisee's birthday tomorrow.". Then she asks me to come into her apartment because she wants to discuss the upcoming community dorm program that I didn't hear about because I wasn't at the ResFac meeting on my birthday.

Anyways, I completely fall for it, enter Gemma's apartment and hear all about the program. Then Melissa says she must head back to her hall. I stay there because Gemma says I need to select 5 questions from a list that will be used for the program. I comply but midway through completing the task Gemma says, "well don't worry about doing it now. you can just get it to me tomorrow". It being her night off, I wanted to protect her free time and so agreed and decided to leave. Gemma opens the door to the hall to let me out and I see and hear all girls on my hall scream: HAPPY BIRTHDAY MARGIE!!!!!!! and then they proceeded to sing to me. Streamers were everywhere and I was presented with a huge happy birthday poster. That yummy baking turned out to be for my surprise birthday party!!!!! Lucky me! It was so great, especially because I didn't see it coming. Apparently when Melissa left before me the girls thought it was I who was leaving and so they started to shout and then had to hold it in. I, of course didn't hear a thing! I'm so gullible.

So yes, this was a wonderful long drawn out birthday and I am so blessed to be living with/working with such great, generous and fun people!