Birthday Extravaganza





I love my birthday. No, no—I LOVE it. It’s my second favorite holiday of the year—second only to Christmas. Strangely, in the seven years we’ve been together, Nick and I have only been in the same city twice on my birthday. This year will be the third. When we were first together (but not officially together) we were in the same city, but Nick was in the hospital with mono. The second and third years, I was in Kansas City, he was in San Diego. The fourth year, he was in Pensacola, I was in San Diego. The fifth year, we’d just been married and though he was working, we were in the same city. This year, 2005 marked the very first Robin Olson Birthday Extravaganza. WOW! It was AMAZING. I got standard gifts—flowers, chocolate, a lunch date. But then, we took two days off in the middle of the week, packed a back pack with nothing but a change of clothes, went to the airport and said “where’s the next plane going”. It was Oakland. We hopped aboard. This was the first of many random vacations we’d take but so far, it has been the only “Birthday Extravaganza” trip. In Oakland, we took the B.A.R.T. into San Francisco. We walked around downtown for a while, had lunch in a local diner, then tried to find a hotel. We stopped first at a Hilton. The price for just walking in the door was high. The receptionist recommended finding a computer and booking something online—we’d get a better rate. We found a copy shop that sold Internet by the minute, found a Travelocity hotel and booked it. We hopped on the cable car and took it down to Fisherman’s Wharf. Our hotel was right near the water. We checked in and then checked out the city. We had dinner, watched a few street performers, bought our token cheesy picture frame and went to Alcatraz the next day. It was a quick trip, but completely full of adventure—all for my birthday.

This year, I expect no less. My husband has his work cut out for him. In addition, I really hype up my birthday to most people I know. My colleagues at work jumped right in. I got to work this morning to find my cube covered in streamers, balloons and glitter.

They took me to lunch after sending me on a treasure hunt. Based on clues, I had to find various people in the office that eventually lead to my present—a can of coffee. Knowing my preference for quality coffee, I knew this had to be a joke. Inside the can was a bag of Chocolate Raspberry Gloria Jeans whole bean decaf coffee! I can’t wait to try some tomorrow morning.

My birthday’s not until Sunday, so I have at least two more days of fun. Who said turning 30 was traumatic? I’m having a blast!

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