29th Birthday!

So, my birthday celebrations started on Friday, October 17th. On Friday night, Josh and I made a 9:00 reservation for the Melting Pot (fondue restaurant) in Scottsdale. Scottsdale is 45 minutes from Glendale. We arrived to the restaurant at 8:15 or so...so, we had to wait.

Around 9, we began the whole fondue experience. We started with cheese fondue with bread and veggies to dip (just okay). Then, we had a very ordinary tasting Ceaser salad. Then, the meats came out (salmon, filet mignon, tenderloin, chicken, and shrimp). Each meat had a different dipping sauce to try. At this point, I felt like I was going to puke. I don't think the human body is designed to eat/digest various types of meat products at the same time. Not to mention the fact that you're paying top dollar for the experience of cooking your own food, and, in our case it was about 11:00 at night and we were the only people left in the restaurant.

That said, we had to get dessert (because we had a free coupon and who doesn't want to eat chocolate fondue?). Dessert was by far the best part of our dining experience. We won't be going back to the Melting Pot ever again (too far away and pricey), however, if you go, I recommend only getting dessert there.

On Saturday, Josh and I mainly stayed at home and watched videos. Miss Pettigrew Lives For A Day is the best movie we've watched in awhile. We've seen some real stupid videos lately like Speed Racer, Choking Man, Forgetting Sarah Marshall, and Wristcutters (well, Wristcutters was okay...somewhat interesting and I really liked the ending).

On Sunday, we went to church although we were running behind schedule. Josh had been dealing with a small water leak on the outdoor pipes on the front of the house (the ones that give water to all our plants in the front yard). At church, we had to sit at the very front row and our view was looking straight up at the screens (just like you want to avoid when you go to the movies). CCV is doing a series on money and finances. It's really good and interesting.

Josh and I ate some lunch out from Pick Up Stix (oh my goodness, the Pad Thai was horrible!). We did some grocery shopping at Walmart after that. It was at Walmart, standing in line at the bakery, where I had an interesting conversation with a stranger.

I was trying to decide between cupcakes or a small birthday cake for myself. This slightly overweight, middle age lady looks at me and says, "You shouldn't eat that if you want to keep your nice figure." I'm thinking, "Hello! It's my birthday!" The lady proceeded to tell me that she used to weigh 108 pounds before having 3 kids and gaining 60 pounds. Now, she's on Weight Watchers and counting her points.

She then told Josh that he, and other guys, can pull off the extra weight that they carry around. By the end of the conversation, I was really wondering whether or not I wanted to buy myself any dessert. However, I came to my senses, and noted that I would just eat cupcakes rather than having kids, and I'll be able to keep my figure that way :)

That evening, Josh and I went to watch W. at the movie theater. I thought the acting was good and it was an interesting story. When the movie ended, however, the older couple sitting behind us were pretty vocal about how they thought the movie was a bunch of crap. I don't know the reasons why they thought it was crap, but apparently, they didn't like it. I couldn't believe it cost almost $20 for two movie tickets...now that, is crap!

We did get free popcorn, however, since Josh told the girl that tomorrow was my birthday. I swear I felt like a teenage girl about to die from embarrassment when he said that...but, the popcorn with cheddar cheese flakes that you can dump on it from a canister, was delicious.

On Monday, my actual birthday, Josh had a crazy work day so we didn't see each other but in passing throughout the day. My day start off by getting lots of facebook messages and e-cards from friends which was super nice. Then, later in the day at work, my coworkers completely surprised me with a card, balloon, and brownies. The birthday card was PERFECT, too. Something about me being a strawberry in a bowl full of peas. The notes written inside were really nice and thoughtful, too. Later in the day, just before work ended, two of my tutors brought me cookies they'd bought from the cafeteria downstairs. That was just too sweet of them!

I ended up staying at work until 9:45 because Josh was still running his event i.e. taking people out to eat dinner at an Italian restaurant. I was able to get work done at least, however, even working an extra three hours that night left 11 things on my to do list.

Speaking of to do list, you know that you're either stressed, crazy, or both when you start waking up from your dreams in the middle of the night (almost every night) thinking that there was something SO IMPORTANT that you forgot to do. In my case, I keep waking up thinking that there is someone I was supposed to interview or hire for the tutoring job that I forgot about.

In reality, I don't think I've forgotten to do anything major for my job...except to pay a tutor one week but that got worked out and I learned from the experience :), and yet, it feels SO REAL that there is a situation that I am missing the boat on. Like, I'm seriously racking my brain in the daytime hours about what is keeping me up at night. I almost wonder if there will be an event that happens in the future and all this stuff I've been thinking about will have been a foreshadowing of it...okay, I'm crazy.

That's my life in a nutshell. I'm still working on the teaching idea...there may be a way to teach middle school Social Studies that I'm looking into. This weekend, I think Josh and I are just going to relax and continue to try to put the house in order. We made some progress with the office earlier this week. Whoa, I just had a thought that it's practically Thursday already. I've NEVER worked somewhere that time went by so fast!!! We have plans to go camping with a high school friend who is living in San Diego pretty soon, my mom's coming to visit, and then we get to go to Mexico.

I'll post pictures later...our computer/camera is having issues.