Best. Birthday. Ever.

Wednesday was my birthday. It was PERFECT. Tuesday night at approximately 11:04pm, Matt called me and said "It's 56 minutes until your birthday!" He told me he was coming over, and I thought he was kidding. He wasn't. So this boy that loves me drove 35 minutes to be there EXACTLY when it turned March 31. And to give me a present. He arrived shortly before midnight (I mean, let's not pretend that I ever actually go to sleep before midnight, so it is perfectly acceptable to show up at my house even unannounced at midnight. Might as well be 7:30.) So Matt makes me wait something like 7 minutes (until it turned 12:00) to open my present. He counted down. It was cruel. So eventually it became March 31, and he let me open my "little present," as opposed to my "real present" which he withheld from me for another 18 hours or so. I've been complaining about my shower head for quite some time. Well, no more whinin' is coming out of my mouth. My "little present" was pretty much the rainforest inside my shower. He got me this amazing shower head that is A) HUGE, B) has multiple settings, and C) can be taken off and hand-held (ie, for bathing Oscar Bob. Let's be serious, here.) He always tells me he listens to me, even when he's pretending not to. I guess he really does :)

You know you're getting old when you get REALLY excited about a shower head for your birthday.


So I had to go to class Wednesday, March 31, my birthday. Beyond that, we had a VENIPUNCTURE LAB on my birthday. Allow me to explain what that means: we had to learn how to draw blood and access veins, so the way we do that is to PRACTICE ON EACH OTHER. How mortifying is that? I don't like my own veins being stuck by professionals, let alone my classmates who have never touched a vacutainer  before. Good grief. I pulled the birthday card. It did not fly. So thank the Lawd, my awesome friend Meagan has done this before and volunteered to be my partner. She was AMAZING. I barely felt it, and her start-to-stop time must have been 4 seconds, I swear. Unfortunately for her, I am not so much a phlebotomy prodigy. It went a little something like this:

I attempt to stick her TINY, barely visible veins. I thought maybe I had it. I was wrong. I turned my head to get the vacutainer, she says "ummm.... Laura...." I turn my head back to see blood gushing from her inner elbow. FAIL. So Meagan FORCES ME against my will to try her other arm. On her LESS visible, SMALLER veins. No dice, but I swear to the moon that needle was in her vein, and I had a bad vacutainer. [Vacutainers are the little tubes they pop on the needle to pull your blood out... They're a vacuum, so if they've been popped before, they won't pull blood out bc there's no pressure gradient.] So at this point, I am traumatized, really disappointed that I sucked so bad at this, and feel guilty making Meg a pin cushion. My friend Sam, God bless him, forces me to stick his huge-already-popping-out-without-a-tourniquet vein. He would NOT let me leave without getting it right. Sam's the best. So I stick him. Vacutainer. BLOOD. Woo hoo!!! I'm not a failure! I blame Meagan's veins. But don't I have wonderful friends?

Today, Meagan looks like a domestic violence case. Or a first-time heroin user. She's such a good sport. She insists that it's going to make a funny story one day, and that's enough to make it worth it. LOVE HER. She even bought me coffee after I butchered her arms. What a friend, huh?

So then I go home and get ready for dinner with my Matthew. He took me to Ruth's Chris, which was amazing! I'd never been before. I had wine, steak, mashed potatoes, chocolate cake (understatement of the year), and berries and cream.

After dinner, he wanted to go to Mint (a really nice restaurant/bar next to Ruth's Chris) and "have a couple of drinks." I was exhausted from being at school all day, and I was soo miserably full. I whined about wanting to go snuggle on the couch and have another glass of wine there. He pretty much ignored me and started to walk into Mint. I was so mad! As I walked in the door, I was saying "You know, it's MY birthday. Shouldn't my opinion matter a little more tonight?" I pouted. Then Matt waved to someone. There was Sam. I waved, thinking "Oh, hey, Sam's here." I barely finished this thought as I realized that ALL of my friends were there. They all waved and yelled "happy birthday" to me. I almost cried. I was so excited to see them! School is horrendous right now, everyone is so stressed, and it meant so much to me that everyone took the night off to come hang out for my birthday. I mean we have 5 final exams and 4 board exams in the next 3 weeks. It meant A LOT that they were there. Matt and Meagan (my pin cushion) had planned it all.

I am SO LUCKY to have such AMAZING friends! I couldn't ask for more.

A few of the girls that were still there by the time I realized I had my camera.

My sister got me this apron from Anthropologie... SO CUTE. Leave it to Katie to get the most random, yet amazing presents ever. Very 50s-housewife. (Although if you've known me for more than 5 minutes, you know I was destined to be anything but a housewife... haha.) But I DO love to cook, and I plan on wearing it all the time!

Thanks, everyone, for making my birthday special. Even those of you who called me. It made my day.