Surprise! You're 32!

Hey everybody. I've been on a bit of a role recently with talking about my personal life on Diary of a Dorkette. Really the whole kit and caboodle is personal, even those silly toy stories. Either way, in the near four years that I have been writing here, I have never once mentioned my birthday. Well... that is about to change.

Spoiler alert: it gets real dorky! (In the best way possible)




My birthday is April 5th. And I usually do not like mentioning nor do I like celebrating my birthday. I know what it must look like; I must hate my birthday because I'm a single barren woman fearful of age. Right? Well, I only make jokes about aging, I am actually very comfortable with growing old. I look forward to being a senior citizen one day. The discounts at restaurants and ability to say whatever is on my mind about rude people seems like a dream come true.

I actually envision myself being one of those grand classy southern old ladies with big fried blond hair and fancy fluffy night gowns on with cha-cha heels with a She-Ra in my hand. I'm ready for my days as an older more mature Miss M.

Alas, I'm only 32 so I still have a ways to go.

Anyways, I don't really like celebrating my birthday. My grandfather (my dad's dad) died a couple days before my 8th birthday. It was a shocking and sad death because he could have survived had he been taken to a hospital with adequate help. We all took my grandfather's passing very hard, especially my dad and grandmother. It took my dad a few years to even remember the date of my birthday, which was understandable. He lost his father.

It's just that growing up there was always a tinge of sadness mixed with the celebration of my birthday. So I simply grew up not wanting to make a big deal out of it. It just felt weird to get excited about it. Of course I got even older and through the years there would be some fun birthdays and some not so fun birthdays. My Sweet 16 was epic. It was my first real boy/girl party and more drama unfolded at that party than an entire season of 90210. I just sat back and enjoyed a juice box alone in my room. I was certainly boy crazy at that time, but not enough to have boy drama.

I was a little nervous about this current birthday for sure. My husband and I are no longer together. I'm still trying to get settled with moving back home and I have like multiple jobs so I never know if I am arriving or leaving. While some people were asking me if I'd be going out and celebrating like a single gal on the town, I wanted to keep it very simple and low key.

So the night before my birthday I got home from the late shift at the department store super tired. I had a bag of french fries from McDonald's for my dinner and my plan was to watch some scandalous TV (Dallas is so damn good right now) before washing my makeup off and crawling into bed to play some Candy Crush or read some comics. (I'm so behind on my comic and magazine reading! I still haven't cracked open the Vogue September issue... from 2013.)

Of course upon my arrival I found a box waiting for me from none other than Laura of the fantastic blog Boo Bobby. I was completely surprised by this gesture and after opening the box I could do nothing but smile. This is what I found,

A Ninja Turtle balloon head among other things! Laura is so talented. If you haven't already, please check out her blog. She is a sweet person and someone I am so happy to call a friend. Her story is stunning and awe inspiring. I adore her.

Laura wrote me a nice letter full of kind words and well wishes. Here is a portion of the letter, I didn't want to include everything she wrote though. All of this was just such a surprise and it made me feel so good about the world. I am so fortunate to be surrounded by so many wonderful people both in my personal life and in the life I have here. Here are some of the other items that were in this birthday box of surprises!

The Ninja Turtle balloon head is pure perfection! The attention to detail is just so great. I love Laura's talent. (This is all just the tip of the iceberg of what she can do.)

These little guys are so cute. I liken them to Whispering Wood wisps. Don't they just belong in the Whispering Woods helping the Great Rebellion?

Pound Puppies and a Pound Purrie? Totally awesome! And it is so funny with the timing of this because my family just adopted a miniature poodle from a poodle rescue a week ago. (More on that in a little while.)

A pin the tail on the donkey game! I wanted to play this with my family on my birthday, but I decided to save it for the ultimate party that will hopefully happen one day. (I have this dream where every single one of us comes together and just hangs out in the ultimate dorky party filled with talk of toys and lots of snacks.)

Every dorkette needs a diary, and this is a great diary! I love writing in a journal and have been since I was in high school. So this was just beyond cool to see. Unicorns are everything and I know we will find out about their existence at some point in time. Trust me on this.

The pen is totally mightier than the sword. (I can't wait to start writing in it!)

A really big and special thanks to Laura. I was very touched by this gesture. It was the perfect start to celebrating what was a really great birthday.

I want to also thank you all. I received so many kind birthday wishes and I just was not expecting all of that. It was so nice. I am so appreciative of the kindness of my friends from all over the web. Your comments, emails, and tweets were so kind and put so many smiles to my face. Thank you guys and gals. I hope that you are all doing well. I also can't believe I've been posting as much as I have lately. Things have been so hectic in my life, but I am trying to make everything work. I like to think that this time in my life is merely sharpening my mind so that I can be super present for that discount at IHOP when I'm 79. Love you guys.