Like candles on your cake

 

 

Shirt: Kohl's, birthday gift.

Jeans: Ann Taylor Loft;

Silver bangle: gift;

Minnetonka moccasins: gift;

Bag: NYC street vendor.

It was a little weird to start out the week at a funeral and oscillate from the extremes of being sad to being excited about my birthday two days later. But as much as it could have been easy to linger on sad thoughts, it was refreshing to change course. I'm alive, you're alive! It seems worthy of an exclamation mark, and worthy of celebrating.

Thank you all for the sweet birthday wishes, they really made my day.

About the outfit. Mother Nature must have read my thoughts because it's been insanely nice weather for January -- the high was 60 degrees. Since I'm not a big fan of snow and don't really like getting it on my birthday, I was so happy to discard my coat for the day. I knew I would spend part of the day with my mom to go shopping so I wanted to be as comfortable as possible. The shirt is a birthday gift from Jeremiah's family and I like the paint-splattered look to it. I don't normally wear empire-waist shirts because I don't think it's the best silhouette on me, but I love this one so much. Actually, most of this outfit is gifted -- moccasins from my grandmother, a bangle from my mother for my birthday two years ago. Please excuse my messy hair -- I didn't feel like styling my hair this morning.

One of my mom's traditions is to celebrate my birthday both on the 18th and 19th. I was born in the Philippines on the 19th at 3:00 am, but because of the 13-hour time difference, it was still the 18th in the U.S., where we now live. So if you want to get technical (and I mean, technical by the hour), my birthday would be sometime in the mid-afternoon on the 18th, because the Philippines is already experiencing the new day. So my mom likes to tell me happy birthday a whole day early. I'm not complaining, because it gives an excuse for two days of celebration!

It was a great couple of days: panang curry at a new Thai restaurant; steak dinner and presents at my in- laws' house; makeup shopping with my mom (I'm so excited to experiment with my new products); treating myself to a new dress (though it was with a gift card); seeing my brother and sister, and getting surprised by a classic movie dvd set and Burt's Bees lip balm; spending time with Jeremiah; getting free drinks at trivia from our awesome waiter; seeing my friends and winning trivia; and my friend Vargas winning me a watch from the prize machine at Taco Mac.

One cheerful thing that happened included Jeremiah rounding up my stuffed animals and having them "sing" Happy Birthday to me. Sprinkle, my blue bear, apparently arranged it and taught all of the others how to sing in tune.

Okay, so it's a little silly, but it was quite funny and a great way to start my birthday.

Hope you have a great week!

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