The Big 2-6 Birthday Recap.
8:00AM – Wake up. I had work to do. Open a package from my dear, dear family.
I took that in front of the Texas liscense plate for y’all. Missing you. Loving all the love you sent to me for my birthday! I especially love this next gem because it is SO my family… my daddy… with obvious help from my momma.
My folks are newly obsessed with Band of Horses. They recently won tickets to a private concert and must have received this poster. On it, they have colored it to make it look, well, rad… and all the band members have quotes.
Up in the corner it reads, “At the DJ Window”…
[from left to right.]
“I heard that she might be NATIVE AMERICAN & her real name might be RACHEL MORNING SCRAMBLE.”
“I wonder if she thinks I look like Ray LaMontagne?”
“My name is Evan Smith. If you let me blow some harp with the band, I’ll introduce you to her.”
“She’s shorter than she sounds on the radio.”
“I’m hungry and I have a headache. Does she take requests?”
Kind of amazing. Thank you, lovely family.
And then I worked on some graphic design stuff like a big kid does on their birthday. Evan made me brunch and brought me flowers and was just wonderful.
12:30PM – After I was done working, Evan sent me on a scavenger hunt around the apartment. It was so lovely… with homemade cards and all.
What did the treasure of the hunt hold, you ask?
• Some kickass film for my Polaroid camera. [so exciting!]
• A fixed and functioning typewriter! [i’ve been using it to display cards for years… now i can write cards on it!]
• My favorite favorite lipgloss of all time. [lipsmacker’s red carpet ready… stop judging.] I’ve been wearing it since 8th grade but it’s been discontinued for years. [my mom had a secret source for a while but even that dried up a couple years ago.] Evan found some of it on Ebay… kind of amazing. I was SO excited.
• Ginger beer! [non-alcoholic.] Evan BREWED ginger beer for me and made labels for it and everything…
He pretty much nailed it. Oh, sweetness.
3:00PM – Errands. THANK YOU, RYLAND! I went to the post office and picked up the book Jimmy Fallon’s Thank You Notes that my bro sent me. Pretty hilarious. One of my faves…
4:00PM – Tennis with Allison. Way fun. Especially because we wore patriotic/awesome outfits. I wore this number…
I bought this tennis dress at a second hand shop as a joke… but now I’m kind of obsessed with it. I mean, it came with bloomers… how could you not love it? Allison and I had an absolute blast running around in hilarious outfits, playing some good tennis.
6:30PM – Go to a BBQ at Dan Long’s in honor of me.
6:32PM – Start feeling party anxiety.
6:33PM – Start drinking the biggest Heineken I’ve ever seen. [because it’s a new tradition from last year.]
7:02PM – Stop feeling anxious.
I had such an amazing time at the party. So many loved ones, a trampoline, good food, ginger beer for the masses [with your choosing of dark rum or whiskey as an additive].
And then Evan told me it was time for birthday cake and I had to go outside. I did. And everyone started singing “Happy Birthday.” [i started singing before realizing you don’t sing that song to yourself.]
Evan rolls around the corner of the house with a road bike that he’s holding my wish-a-saurus on. [wish-a-saurus is my dinosaur candle holder… obviously.] I find the whole scene kind of weird, but whatever. I’m thinking, I mean if Evan wants to use one of his bikes to show off the wish-a-saurus, that’s okay. And, where’s my cake? I mean it’s weird and awkward, but be nice, Rachel… he’s done so much fo… wait a second. IS THAT BIKE FOR ME?!
– IS THAT FOR ME?!
– Yep! Happy Birthday!
Then Evan said…
– All of your friends chipped in to buy you a road bike.
He started listing all the names of people who helped and I just couldn’t take it. I started crying… couldn’t help it. And I’m not a crier! I mean, I’ll bawl at any Kate Winslet movie, but not in real life. I couldn’t/can’t believe it.
The bike is BEAUTIFUL. AMAZING. HIP. FAST. EXACTLY WHAT I’VE WANTED FOR YEARS NOW.
And the fact that all these amazing people in my life came together to do that for me… oh god, crying again.
Too much.
Thank you to all of my beautiful friends. I feel insanely lucky to have you all in my life in the first place… getting a kickass bike from y’all makes me feel beyond unworthy. Thank you one hundred times over!
8:30PM and on – In awe of everything, everyone… Celebrate.
wull hay. 
[…] though he brewed ginger beer for me in the years before, I really didn’t expect it this […]