Birfday 2009: Goodies and Friends

On Tuesday, though it's bad luck to wish happy birthday early, Sister Dixon convinced everyone to sing to me before she presented a yummy apple cake she'd bought for the purpose. They were still scared about wishing me happy birthday, which made me laugh.

I started my birthday off right by hearing a singing birthday message from my family. Man those guys can sing.

Then I decided there was no better thing to eat on my birthday than Jiffy--those amazingly cheap muffin mixes that taste so good--though I had to make it a cake without a cupcake pan.

Then I showered and got ready for the class I had to move to my birthday because of the trip to Frankfurt. I almost missed a phone call since my phone was in the other room, but I answered at the last second and ended up taking another teacher's classes in the afternoon because his son was sick.

I regretted taking the classes, wishing I had time for a nap instead. But at least the lady at the language school felt bad for me and bought me an Indian lunch with my one-Euro contribution. And at least I had a lovely time with my one regular student, who later showed up at my apartment with flowers. Oh, and money is nice.

I had the opportunity of video chatting with Amy, which was enjoyable since it's been a while and since I needed someone to be there for me when I opened the present from my mom (a.k.a. "the family"). I couldn't believe all the stuff she'd put in there. Thanks, Mom!

Around 7, Mike came. Then Jenny and Seppl showed up with the lamp I asked them to bring to light up the empty room, followed by the Dixons. Then more came. And more. And more. Mike and I put every available chair in the empty room, and even shoved in the hall couch for more sitting options. (Revealing possibly ten years' worth of dust and garbage underneath.)












Victoria came. Dajana came. Lisa with her darling new hair cut came (and made me very happy to see her for the first time since July). Sophie, Holger, Stefanie, Daniel, and Judith showed up with Aaron. Renny showed up, sat down, and then left again because of a phone call. The sisters stayed long enough for one of them to have a piece of Sister Dixon's crispy banana bread.

It was easier to make a movie of everyone, though embarrassing:



Everyone brought a little something to eat--I contributed only the chicken chunks sprinkled drowned in lemon pepper, which went perfectly with Jenny's noodle salad. I told people not to bring any gifts unless they absolutely would die without a gift, and then to bring a Euro to donate to the cause of a new laptop case. Am I evil?























Then, out of nowhere, a group gift was presented to me! I couldn't believe some of the people who had signed the card--Mike and Jenny made a good alliance in getting me the perfect gift, which I will write about later.

As the evening wore down, we tried to play Perudo, which was interrupted by people leaving and a phone call. As Jenny and Seppl were leaving, they reminded me that I had forgotten to bring out the Stollen. Whoops! (A good excuse to get together Sunday evening.)

We finally played a round of Perudo (which I won) before the party ended, and before I (tragically sad for me) missed another phone call from my family which left me sadly cleaning up the apartment.

All in all, the day was fabulous and left me realizing two things: one, that birthdays can be more fun than I have been making them in the last few years, and two, that I am loved, despite how lonely I feel sometimes. Facebook friends graced me with 69 birthday wishes. Jaes.ch gave me another 11 messages, and my blog and studivz.net a few more. That's a lot of people who took at least anywhere from a few seconds to several hours to show appreciation for me. (Thanks!)

The next day, I baked a pie and delicately brought it to Frankfurt with me, where my birthday twin there provided pizza as we hid out in the ward kitchen before the fireside with Elder Oaks, who was nice enough to come to Germany to celebrate our birthdays.















After the fireside, we ate some of my Stollen with the Wiborny family. I got the pleasure of receiving Aaron's roundabout comment: "I never thought an American could make Dresdener Stollen, but it tastes just like the real thing."

Today, I got several handshakes and belated well wishes, as well as a small book about a goose who didn't follow the crowd but was confident in what she did (the giver said it reminded her of me), a bookmark, and an invitation to lunch, which I followed up with a nice nap and a visit to Jenny and Seppl to enjoy some Stollen and return the lamp.

I think I'm now ready to end birthday week and start March (which should probably be limited in its amount of goodies).