Birthday-ness!!

My birthday was the 17th (St. Patrick’s Day – yes, I wore green). To commemorate this happy event, we invited a boatload of friends over, including:

Jeremy: Married to our friend Katie. He’s relatively awesome, always has an absolutely pathetic joke or pun ready, and amuses everyone present. I guess you could call him somewhat mature, but he still appreciates the “kid things” of life. He really likes Dilbert comics.

Katie: Married to Jeremy. She’s fun, and laughs at the fact that we laugh at Jeremy’s stupid jokes. :)

Matt: Married to Wendy. He’s hilarious, and always wears “artsy” things like argyle sweaters, Converse All Stars, etc. His favorite store is Express (men’s), and he is always talking about some musician named Derek Webb.

Wendy: Married to Matt. She is hilarious and fun, and tries to make Matt act sensibly. Sometimes she succeeds at that, but at other times he’s fairly hopeless. :)

Aleah: She is awesome and entertaining and completely herself. We had met her only once before, but I don’t think she’s ever met a stranger.

Denise: She’s in Heidelberg’s orchestra with us. She is quiet, but also outgoing, and a fun conversationalist.

Emily: She is a Heidelberg student. She’s very outgoing, nice to everyone, and a lot of fun. She sings and plays the flute.

Elizabeth: Emily’s sister – also a Heidelberg student. She’s really awesome and fun to hang out with. She sings and plays marimba (and other awesome percussion instruments).

Jon: Another Heidelberg student. He’s in piano studio class and orchestra with us. He is absolutely hilarious. He’s good at piano, although violin is his main instrument. He crochets his own colorful scarves, and he always makes me laugh.

Sarah: Yes, another Heidelberg student. She is totally hilarious and fun. We are kind of in her (music) theory/composition class, and she gets to practice teaching on us. :)

Emily, Elizabeth, Jon, and Sarah gave me this really sweet lookin’ card that plays a fascinating piano arrangement of “happy birthday” when opened. (pictured at top) Needless to say, it has been a source of vast entertainment for me. =)

They also gave me some candy, which I am enjoying:

Instead of my birthday cake, I actually had birthday pie (apple). It is very delicious. I don’t usually get birthday presents; in fact, nobody in our family has usually exchanged birthday gifts. My brother Phillip spontaneously bought an ipod for me last year, and sometimes friends give me something. Phillip told me (on my birthday) that a package from Amazon was on the way. He told me only that it is a book, and I will like it. I asked him about a million questions, but met with only the answer, “Maybe, and maybe not.” Grrr. I doubt it’s fiction unless it’s a satire, or of philosophical nature. It’s probably not a classic unless it’s an exceptional one, because he knows my distaste for pointless reading material. My guess is that it’s a non-fiction, somewhat obscure work of literature, possibly of economic, philosophical, or political content, and perhaps of an entertaining, satirical, or amusing nature. I am eagerly awaiting its arrival. I’m not a good suspense person.

My awesome pen pal Emma sent an awesome card, stationery, post-its, and tea, which arrived the day before.

Coming Soon: My latest culinary experiment, with pictures.